Those of you who read me regularly (and thank you) know that I’m a big fan of Clash of Clans. Of course, given its massive popularity, this is hardly worth saying. Pretty much everyone is a Clash of Clans fan, or about to become one. But, popular as it is, I think it’s a little sad that this popularity has stunted a lot of the conversation about one of Supercell’s other big games, Hay Day. Like CoC, Hay Day has complex strategies, time-based challenges, and copious amounts of resource management, all of which must be competently navigated in order for you to progress.
But since it’s a completely different game (with completely different goals and design aesthetics), this means there’s a whole new set of strategies and techniques that a player has to master in order to do well. Some would just say play until you master it. In problem solving terms, this is what is referred to as “brute force”: trying every possible combination of solutions until you get the set up that meets your needs. Yes, this can be just as annoying, boring, and time-consuming as it sounds. It’s much better to have a system in place, and a few tried but true tips to get you started. I would say take all the Hay Day tips you can get and leap frog the competition in a matter of days. Sounds good to you?
Below I present some of the best tips and tricks that will be sure to give you the competitive advantage, no matter your experience level. Keep in mind some of these secrets are more beginner and some more advanced.
There is no silver bullet to becoming a Hay Day master, the best advice I can give you is to practice daily for hours and make sure you follow this guide.
“The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer… form the great body of the people of the United States, they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws.” – Andrew Jackson
Best Hay Day Tips
Without keeping you waiting any longer, let’s dig into some of these tips you’ve all been waiting for. If you don’t already have the app installed, simply head over to the App Store on your iPhone or Android and download the app. It’s completely free but there are some in app purchases that will make the game go by a bit quicker. Usually these are in the form of currency packs which you can use to speed things along. Some people will sink a lot of cash into these games and “buy power” (in game design terms, these players are called “whales”), and some have set up elaborate workarounds to keep from ever having to pay a cent. Personally, I like to strike a middle-ground: since I enjoy these games so much, I like to make sure the developers get a little something from me, so I might put a couple bucks into it if I can afford it. But you don’t need to pay anything in order to have a good time.
1. Make Money Fast
Let’s be honest, many of us playing Hay Day just want to make money and a lot of it, fast. (By this, I mean the in-game money. Although, I would like to make real world money fast, too. But there are better ways to do that than by playing Hay Day.) There are some ways that will get you there a bit quicker than others and planting wheat is one of them. I recommend planting wheat as often as you can and in any nook and cranny that you can afford.
Once you get the wheat crops up and growing you can harvest them and sell off what you don’t need. This is probably the easiest way to make money in Hay Day but it’s equally as boring so often times people want to do a bit more to make their money.
If you’re invested in the long hall of farming wheat, you can always use the extra money to buy more land that will then give you more places to grow and harvest your wheat.
2. Grab Some Diamonds
We all know coins are a useful currency in Hay Day but ultimately they pale in comparison to the diamond. If you can, make sure you get your hands on as many diamonds as you can. Of course, you can always buy packs of diamonds as an in-app purchase, but there are plenty of ways you can also earn them in-game. To help you in that quest, here are a few ways you can score diamonds.
- You likely know that you get 1 or 2 diamonds every time you level up.
- If you want an extra diamond, just follow Hay Day on Facebook. Easiest diamond you’ll ever get. Once you’re a fan, you can enter contests that Hay Day promotes on their Facebook page.
- On top of that, to continue to encourage you to link Hay Day and Facebook, if you login to Facebook with Hay Day you will get another 5 diamonds.
- As you progress through the game you can get more diamonds by completing an achievement.
- You’ll find diamonds in mystery boxes sometimes so keep an eye out for them.
- If you find a movie ticket this is a way for Hay Day to make extra money. Basically, they’re selling a 30 second trailer of another app for a free diamond. Ingenious advertising if you ask me.
- Lastly, if you get to level 24 then you can get tons of diamonds just by mining, but you will have to make it to that level first.
3. Hay Day Newspaper Tip
You may have seen newspapers around when playing Hay Day and didn’t think anything about them. It can be easy to miss, but newspapers can be a super quick and easy way to make extra money. Don’t limit yourself to just using your own newspaper, you can steal someone else’s newspaper and use that as well. That’s right, although this is a much more peaceful game than Clash of Clans, there is the same opportunity for you to screw over your fellow players that you have in those games. Be warned, though: they can just as easily screw with you.
Look around for sales as they’re always worth it. You may find 5 for 400 sale for construction equipment, goods, dynamite, etc. Go ahead and spend the money to buy it and you can then sell them individually for a mark up. Usually, I find you can sell them for about 200 coins a piece. Super easy money.
4. Don’t Rush A Sale
You may find yourself in a situation where someone wants to buy your goods but won’t pay as much as you’d like for them. Given that you are within a realistic range, it will always be helpful to hold out and wait until you get a better offer.
Make sure you maintain your game so that you’re never desperately in need for money because you will be forced to sell things at lower than ideal prices. I find that selling your goods is best done along the roadside shops, where you can get better prices.
The creators of Hay Day want the game to be as realistic as possible so they will build in a natural flux of supply and demand where you have to balance both throughout the game. Of course, economics 101 says to sell when there is high demand and low supply and buy when there is low demand and high supply. This will be a quick way to get ahead.
5. Utilize Time Of Day / Night
Many users won’t think too much about optimizing their game to work for them while they’re sleeping, but for an extra leg up, you can do just that. Even if you’re not playing Hay Day that doesn’t mean the game has stopped and you will notice there is a gap of time while you sleep or are at school or work that you can make the best use out of.
I would recommend planting crops, specifically ones that take a long time to yield, during the evenings or right before a long stretch where you can’t check on your game. Don’t plant the easy crops like wheat or corn, but stick with indigo, pumpkin, etc. These crops take hours to yield so they will be growing while you’re sleeping.
Then, when you wake up all you have to do is harvest them and you’re ready to go. You can also use the same technique if you want to with many other things. If you find a process or production takes a long time then just start it right before you go to bed and it will be ready to go when you wake up.
6. Get New Deals
If you check out the newspaper and don’t like any of the deals, you don’t have to worry. These deals can be swapped out for new deals just like that. When you get a newspaper deal it won’t automatically load a new deal if you recheck the newspaper.
However, a little secret is that if you close completely out of the Hay Day app and reopen it then it will show up with new Hay Day newspaper deals. If you’re on an iPhone you will want to double click the home button and swipe up on the Hay Day app to get it to completely close the app. To close an app on Android, go to settings, then Application Manager. From there, search for Hay Day, tap on it and tap the force stop button. This will completely close out of the app.
If this is getting a bit too technical for you, you can simply turn your iPhone or Android off then restart it to in turn close the app.
7. Maintain Crops
You may want to just pull the trigger and sell all of your harvest and not maintain your crops, but this will limit your growth in the long term if you don’t manage all of your crops. Make sure you always have seeds left over in your silo, don’t ever sell them all as you will eventually just have to buy them again from another farmer at a higher price.
Also, keep in mind that every crop you plant will double the crop’s yield after harvest. No one wants to waste diamonds buying seeds that you used to have and sold for a few coins. It’s also good to have a steady supply of wheat, corn, and feed for your animals to maintain on.
8. Keep Playing
One of the best advice I’ve ever gotten is to continue to play often and whenever I get a free moment. I’ve found if you stagger short and long play times throughout the day that is the best way to continue to stay in the groove of playing and continue to maintain your crops, animals, etc.
Hay Day creators, Supercell, cleverly made Hay Day the same way as they made Clash of Clans. The game is run on a server and thus it never really stops. This continues to drive it’s players to constantly check it and play throughout the day. Therefore, respecting how the game was built, it’s important to continue to play it regularly.
9. Get The Treasure
The last tip I’ll give you is to help you get treasure from treasure chests. To find treasure search around for a tool box on someone’s farm. If you find that the box is closed, try tapping anywhere except the x button. Next, you’ll want to go to another farm and find the same tool box.
If it’s unlocked, take whatever treasure is inside. Now go back to your tool box and you should have all of the tools available. If it doesn’t work, continue to try several times until you get it.
That wraps up this guide and hopefully gave you a good sense of the Hay Day tips you’ll need to succeed at the game. It’s incredibly fun and takes a bit of hard work, but with time and effort you’ll get the hang of it quickly.
Feel free to share this post with your friends and comment below if you have any other tips that you’d like to share with our readers.
