Want a fun and entertaining way to chart your progress in Farmville? Of course, watching your coins and XP/level progress is one way to mark your accomplishments, but the ribbons in Farmville are a exciting way to earn recognition for specific objectives in the game. Ribbons are available in a host of different categories. Everything from the “Flower Power” ribbon, where you earn money from growing flowers, to the “Lord of the Plow” ribbon where you get recognition for using a tractor to plow your fields. The ribbons range from the serious to the downright weird, but they’re all fun. And ribbons provide benefits beyond mere recognition. As you earn them, you’ll get additional experience points, coins and even special gifts.

There are more than twenty-five ribbon categories in all and each ribbon comes in four different colors, or levels. The ribbon colors progress from yellow to white to red to blue and they get progressively harder to earn at each color. For example, the yellow version of the “Pretty Penny” ribbon is yours once you spend 2,500 coins at the Market. But to get the blue ribbon, you’ll need to spend 1.5 million coins! Of course, the rewards get better too. You’ll get 750 coins back and a rest tent for earning the yellow Pretty Penny ribbon. The blue ribbon nets you 1,000 XP and a fruit stand to call your own.

Although many of the ribbons in Farmville are principally designed to provide you with interesting diversions while playing the game, you can be pretty strategic about earning them to speed up your level advancement. This works especially well early in the game with each XP you earn can mean a lot. In fact, earning the right ribbons early on can move you up very quickly through the levels in the game.

You can choose from a lot of different ribbon earning strategies in the game. Two of the best ribbons to aim for early on in Farmville are the Local Celebrity and Good Samaritan ribbons. These ribbons give you rewards for adding neighbors and helping them out. You can earn quite a few coins and XP early on by adding friends and neighbors in Farmville. For example, if you add eight neighbors and help on their farms three times each, you’ll earn both the white Local Celebrity ribbon and the yellow Good Samaritan ribbon. The rewards from the combined ribbons are 55 XP and 3,500 coins. That’s a very large number of coins so early in the game. And don’t forget that the act of adding lots of neighbors helps out with more than just ribbons. It’s an important part of the entire game.

There’s a great technique (some call it a cheat) that you can use with the Architect ribbons. The different colors of the Architect ribbon reward you for placing different buildings and structures on your farm. These are all purchased at the Farmville Market and are generally pretty expensive. But there’s one building that doesn’t cost very much at all. It’s the rest tent, and you’ll only need to spend 1,000 coins to buy each one. Once you’ve accumulated 30,000 coins in the game, you can purchase 30 rest tents and place them on your farm to earn all four colors of the Architect ribbon very quickly. The ribbons give you back most of the coins you had to spend and you’ll get 2,150 XP. It’s one of the most effective ways to convert excess coins into XP in the game and a great strategy to pursue for anyone looking to power-level their way through the early part of the game. For example, you can move from level 10 to 14 in just a few minutes using this technique! Sadly, it only works once, but it’s a great strategy to employ as early as you can.

Using these tips to accumulate ribbons can add a lot of fun and diversity to your Farmville game. And when used right, ribbons will be a big part of helping you to level up faster.

When he’s not tending to his real farm in rural Indiana, Bob likes to write about Farmville|Farmville cheats on his gaming blog.