Pioneer Trail Haunted Homestead: Everything you need to know

I never thought I'd say this, but Pioneer Trail just might be going a bit overboard with the Halloween content this year. After releasing a behemoth Ghost Town - the massive map with three boss battles and an evil mayor to defeat - along with the Vampires / Werewolves Family Secret event between Fanny and Hank, I honestly thought we had seen the end of frights and screams around the Homestead. It turns out, that couldn't have been farther from the truth. Not content with stopping at these "smaller" features, Zynga has now haunted our entire Homestead in an event with a fitting name: The Haunted Homestead.

This event sees you completing12 goals to help some friendly ghosts with favors, with one goal being unlocked every day. We've seen this sort of setup before, where you'll be able to unlock goals early for Horseshoes or simply come back once per day to move on, and here it's no different. There are two sets of six goals available, and in the middle comes a prize to keep you going. That prize is the Black Cat, which will apparently follow us around our Homesteads once we've unlocked him/her. For finishing all twelve of these goals, you'll receive the Phantasm Horse - a black and ice blue horse that looks like it's on fire!

Here's a complete look at the 12 goals that will be released. Keep in mind this feature has yet to roll around to all users, and that you - again - will only be able to access one of these goals per day, if you choose to stick with the free option.

Good Eats

    Harvest 25 Garlic
    Tend 25 Adult Cows
    Craft or Have 15 Batter


Garlic takes just 30 minutes to grow, while Batter is crafted inside the Inn using 20 Food and 900 coins each. Finishing this first goal gives you 250 XP, a Spirit Essence and one Tarot Card. These Tarot Cards are like contest entries for this Haunted Homestead event, giving you a chance to win a variety of prizes, ranging from bundles of 50 Horseshoes to Mystery Crates and even a grand prize of $5,000 in real US money!

'Til Death Do Us Part

    Harvest 25 Red Roses
    Collect the Cabin's Daily Bonus
    Collect 15 Ghostly Photographs


Red Roses take 36 hours to grow, so feel free to use Boosts or ask your friends to come water your roses in order to either grow them faster, or simply make the game think you've already harvested them (in the case of friend visitation). Ghostly Photographs, meanwhile, are earned through individual requests sent to friends. For finishing this second goal, you'll receive 250 XP, another Spirit Essence and three Tarot Cards.

Rider on the Storm

    Collect Pony Express Daily Bonus
    Clear 30 Debris on Neighbors' Homesteads
    Harvest 20 Apricot Trees


Finish this goal to earn 250 XP, a Spirit Essence and one Tarot Card. If you haven't noticed by now, a lot of the prizes for these goals will be identical or at least incredibly similar. That's completely normal.

Ghost

    Tend 40 Adult Goats
    Collect Barn Daily Bonus Twice
    Collect 10 Pottery Clay


Again, you'll need to ask for the Pottery Clay from friends. Meanwhile, keep track of the wording here. You don't have to sell 40 Adult Goats, just feed them. For completing this goal, you'll receive 500 XP, a Spirit Essence and four Tarot Cards.

The Ghost of Shining Cloud

    Harvest 30 Corn
    Tend 30 Adult Oxen
    Collect 15 Sweet Alfalfa


Corn takes 12 hours to grow. Finishing this goal gives you 500 XP, a Spirit Essence and two Tarot Cards.

Ghost Bear

    Clobbers 4 Bears
    Sell 20 Adult Sheep
    Collect 10 Honey Pots


Since you still have a few days before this goal will unlock for you, you might consider purchasing all new Sheep and then growing them up to sell later, and that way you don't have to break out any of your current reserves. Meanwhile, the Bears can be found by chopping down fully grown trees, or by chopping other trees at a much lower frequency. For completing this sixth goal, you'll have reached the halfway point in the event, and will receive 500 XP, a Spirit Essence and four Tarot Cards. You'll also unlock the Black Cat for your Homestead.

The Wandering General

    Clear 35 Debris on your Homestead
    Chop Pine Trees 35 Times on your Homestead
    Harvest 45 Potatoes


Potatoes take four hours to grow. A Pine Tree, meanwhile, can be purchased from the store for around 332 coins, so feel free to purchase 35 of those and chop them each down to reach that particular requirement (if you don't have plenty of trees that need to be chopped down on your Homestead already). Finish this goal and you'll earn 750 XP a Spirit Essence and three Tarot Cards.

Double Trouble

    Collect the Schoolhouse Daily Bonus Twice
    Harvest 45 Sunflowers
    Collect 15 Doll Clothes


It doesn't seem to matter here if you've already upgraded your School House, as you aren't specific told that it must be the Upgraded School House you're collecting from. Still, the opposite might also be true if a familiar bug comes with this goal - where the progress might not count if you've already upgraded. We'll be cautiously optimistic with this one - hopefully the developers learned from past mistakes and fixed that glitch before it can happen here. Either way, finishing this goal gives you 750 XP, a Spirit Essence and three more Tarot Cards.

Shear Terror

    Collect the Barber Shop Daily Bonus Twice
    Tend 55 Adult Sheep
    Harvest 50 Flax


Flax takes eight hours to grow. When completing this goal, you'll earn 750 XP, a Spirit Essence and four Tarot Cards.

Shiver Me Timbers

    Purchase Three Dinners from the Market
    Craft or Have eight Granny's Gut Punch in the Saloon
    Collect 10 Map Fragments


Dinners cost 320 Food each, while Granny's Gut Punches are crafted using five Iced Tea and five Granny's No. 5 each. For finishing this goal, you'll receive 1,000 XP, a Spirit Essence and six Tarot Cards.

The Merry Prankster

    Collect the Jackalope Lodge Daily Bonus Twice
    Clobber 6 Snakes
    Collect 15 Rotten Apples


Finish this goal and you'll receive 1,000 XP, a Spirit Essence and five Tarot Cards.

Chain of Fools

    Harvest 60 Neighbor Crops
    Collect 11 Spirit Essences
    Collect ten Ghostly Chain Keys


And here is where the Spirit Essences finally come into play. If you've already completed all eleven goals that come before this, you'll have this task completed just as soon as you activate the goal on your land. If one is slowing you down, however, you'll be happy to know that these goals are repeatable, so you'll be able to stock up on Spirit Essences that way if you'd like. For finishing this final goal, you'll receive 1,000 XP, 1,000 coins and 15 Tarot Cards. You'll also receive the Phantasm Horse, which can be ridden by your avatars. Note: Even if you repeat all of the goals again, you won't receive additional Black Cats or Phantasm Horses.

While all of this work was likely plenty to keep you busy, a final trio of goals is also available to complete, dealing mostly with the Tarot Cards that you'll collect by repeating the above 12 goals (quite a few times, I'd imagine). Here are those goals for your reference.

The Frontier Psychic

    Collect 20 Tarot Cards
    Complete the Haunted Homestead Goal "Ghosts" Twice


Finish this goal to receive 300 XP, five Tarot Cards and a Spooky Cat Tree for your Homestead.

The Frontier Diviner

    Collect 70 Tarot Cards
    Complete the Haunted Homestead Goal "The Ghost of Shining Cloud" Twice


Finish this goal and you'll earn 600 XP, 10 Tarot Cards and a White Cat

The Frontier Prophet

    Collect 125 Tarot Cards
    Complete the Haunted Homestead Goal "Double Trouble" Three Times


Finish this final goal and you'll earn 1,000 XP, 25 Tarot Cards and a Siamese Cat.

Keep in mind, the contest for collecting Tarot Cards will only take place across the next 13 days, so you'll want to complete (and repeat) as many of these goals as often as you can in that time frame. Good luck!

Check out the rest of out Halloween 2011 coverage right here.

What do you think of these Haunted Homestead goals or the event itself? Did Pioneer Trail need a third Halloween event this year?

Pioneer Trail: Play Mafia Wars 2 for two White Lions

And, here we go again. With Zynga's newest Facebook game Mafia Wars 2, it's clear that the company wants to embrace its current user base as well as go after new players. Proving that point is yet another cross-promotion with an established game in its catalog: Pioneer Trail. This promotion, however, works a bit differently than those already seen in CityVille and FarmVille.

Here, the basic requirements are the same: You'll simply need to play Mafia Wars 2 long enough to get to Level 5 to be eligible for a prize back in Pioneer Trail. You'll likely need to head into Mafia Wars 2 from the in-game link within Pioneer Trail to force your progress to "sync" back over, and you'll receive a free White Lion the next time you log back into Pioneer Trail after reaching Level 5. However, here's where things become different. Not only will you receive the White Lion in Pioneer Trail, but you'll also receive one within Mafia Wars 2.

The White Mountain Lion item will appear in your Pioneer Trail inventory automatically when you next login to the game, although the promotional pop-up will still likely appear. Don't fret - you have received your prize. It just appears that whatever trigger exists to "delete" this pop-up from your Homestead hasn't been turned on. As for the White Lion in Mafia Wars 2, this itself seems to be bugged (funny, that), as I've yet to receive mine anywhere in my game. It could be that it either hasn't been coded into the game yet, or that it simply takes time to "unlock," but we'll keep an eye on things and let you know exactly where it ends up.

Either way, if you have no interest in playing Mafia Wars 2, rest assured that you'll receive your prize in Pioneer Trail, which is then all that will really matter. Just remember to try out this cross-promotion fast, as apparently these White Lions won't be around forever.

Have you played Mafia Wars 2 long enough to unlock the White Mountain Lion in Pioneer Trail? Did you receive the Lion in Mafia Wars 2 as well, or are you still waiting?

Zynga partners with Pizza Hut across CityVille, FarmVille and more

Zynga isn't a stranger to charitable donations, so it comes as no surprise that the major developer has launched another charity project across four of its Facebook games this weekend. This promotion comes by way of a partnership with Pizza Hut, in an effort to "share a slice of hope" with the World Hunger Relief campaign.

Specifically, this promotion is available through the company's RewardVille rewards program, and offers a single prize in FarmVille, CityVille, Pioneer Trail and Empires & Allies. For each donation of $5 US or more, you'll receive your choice of one of the four items. Here's a rundown of what's available:

FarmVille: Food Wagon
CityVille: Nutrition Center
Empires & Allies: Farm
Pioneer Trail: Merino Sheep


To be especially clear, you must contribute at least $5 to the cause to be eligible for a prize, and you'll only receive a single prize (of your choosing) for each donation. If you play all four of these games and want all four prizes, you'll need to make five separate donations (for a minimum of $20 in total).

This promotion is set to run from September 25 (now) and October 31, giving you plenty of time to make a few donations if you choose. Here's the link to the donation site if you'd like to help out.

Will you donate to the Pizza Hut and Zynga World Hunger Relief event? Which of the four items are you going after, or will you donate enough to earn multiple items? Sound off in the comments.