Hay day is a farm simulation strategy game designed by Supercell and is one of the best iOS games out there. It builds on the success of traditional farming games like Farmville but is much more advanced with its engaging gameplay and impressive presentation.

Hay Day iOS Game

Downloading the game

It is free to download and has in-app purchases. It can be played on any of the three ios devices ipod-touch, iphone or ipad with ios 4.3 or later but is best enjoyed on the ipad due to the larger display. Just search for it in the app store or you can find it in the top grossing apps section in the app store.

It has a download size of 65.5Mb and requires an active internet connection at the time of play. Due to the high graphic intensity of the game it is recommended that you either use a Wifi network or have a 3G connection.

Gameplay Experience

The storyline of the game is that your uncle is retiring and is leaving his rundown farm in your hands. The game has two currencies: coins and diamonds. You can obtain coins by selling your produce in the market, completing orders, serving customers etc. Then use these coins to buy items and repair buildings.

Diamonds on the other hand are hard to obtain so it is advised you be stingy when spending them. You can buy diamonds with real money with offers starting from as little as INR120. Certain periodical discounted offers also come up. But you don’t need to spend money if you are patient enough as the game is still fully playable.

As you progress you collect XP by completing orders, achievements, serving customers etc. which helps you level up. A blue tube on the top shows your XP and current level. Leveling up also unlocks new stuff.

The game is divided into three sections: the farm area, fishing area and the town.

The Farm Area

The farm area contains your house, a barn, a silo, fields, animals, all the production buildings etc. You start the game with a scarecrow giving you tutorial involving instructions on how to go about rebuilding the farm. A tip here would be when you follow the tutorial don’t use diamonds to speed up process even if the scarecrow asks you to do so.

You sow your crops on fields which you have a fixed number of, but this number increases as you level up. You store all the produced crops in the silo. Different crops have different time they take to sprout so you have to plan strategically what to sow when.

You also have animals which you rear to obtain milk, eggs, wool and bacon. You have to separately produce animal food using different crops in the feed mill to feed these animals. Animals then provide you with their respective products after certain periods.

With these animal products and crops you produce more complex stuff in the production buildings to complete various orders and gain XP and coins. As you level up new crops unlock, you can have more animals and new production buildings open up. You need diamonds to increase the size of production queues so that you can line up more products. When a production building has been used for a certain number of hours it gets upgraded on its own and the production times of products from that building get reduced.

There is also a mine which unlocks at level 24 where you can extract different minerals and sometimes also obtains diamonds if you are lucky. You can also buy pets using vouchers which can be obtained by completing certain orders or through periodic special events that take place. You also can buy certain bushes and trees which provide you with fruits and berries after certain growing periods.

Fishing area

The fishing area is accessed through a small boat in the river and is unlocked when you reach level 27. You have to repair the fishing boat before you can fish and it costs 35000 coins to do so, so save up beforehand. You can catch fishes, lobsters and ducks in the fishing area. Though you have to level up first and unlock lobster pool and duck salon. All three provide you with different proceeds and are essential inputs to certain products. Also as you level up you can expand the fishing area expanding the quantity of fishes you can fish at one go.

Town

The town opens up as you reach level 34 and is one of the latest additions to the game. The town can be accessed through a railroad at the south of the map which also requires repairs costing 39000 coins. The town has a town hall, various other town buildings, a train station and your personal train. You gain XP and coins when you serve visitors that come to the town on the train after a certain period. You can also upgrade everything here using building materials. Also a fully satisfied customer also provides you with items apart from XP and coins. You also gain reputation points from visitors which upgrades your town level.

Social Component

You can join a neighborhood in the game and chat with others players playing the game. Also there is an option to connect it to Facebook and invite your friends to join. Connecting to Facebook also allows you to play on multiple iOS devices so that you can take care of your farm from anywhere you go. The option to connect to only a single social networking website may seem limiting to some.

Conclusion

The game is very addictive with its splendid graphics, engaging gameplay experience and smooth gesture controls. This game would attract people from all ages. Constant updates to the game with new features coming in every now and then do make it a little complex but keeps it from getting repetitive over time.

This article is written by : Yuvraj Sharma