by Thinus Ferreira
Remember the teen who played Tetris until it broke? I've played Temu's Farmland - its in-app game promising free items and money-off coupons - and have 29 tips to get you more droplets to water your wheat like a wizard.
If you haven't been sucked in as a South African consumer by the Chinese online shopping platform Temu yet, good for you.
And if you haven't yet been sucked in by its insidious, addictive game to get free items of your choice as well as some discount coupons, even better good for you.
But what is Farmland? Can you even win this gamification of Temu (which, is of course designed to get you to spend time within the app and to buy products), and what tips and tricks exist to maximise your water droplets as you water, water, water your way drip-drip ever closer to those promised free items you chose?
That orange block called Temu launched in South Africa in January, complete with free shipping and a promise to have your order with unbelievably cheap items delivered to your door by Buffalo couriers within two weeks.
Just like how Amazon made it possible for South African consumers to suddenly get stuff like books, DVD box sets, night creams and a paraphernalia of other consumer goods from brands we never could buy locally, the arrival of Temu is like Amazon on steroids - a colourful shopping app as addictive as crack-cocaine with items and clothing so cheap that you never knew you needed but want to have.
For everyone thinking Temu's is going to be a massive threat to online retailers like Takealot, Amazon South Africa and Bash, the big truth is that every single clothing retailer - from Edgars and Pep to Markham and Miladys - should be on alert.
Why would consumers buy something in a store if they can get exactly what they want - from fast fashion to a wine decanter - and maybe even cheaper - and have it delivered for free at their door?
Part of what makes Temu so sticky is how it gamified the shopping experience, through flashy counters, lurid discount alerts and a game like Farmland (it has another one, Fishland, but that's another story).
Once you've downloaded the Temu app to your mobile device and registered an account for free, or went to the website, you can type in the word "Farmland" which will take you to the game.
If ever you can't find the Farmland game screen within Temu, or you have logged out, or want to get back to it, you can just type in "farmland" in the search bar with Temu and the game will pop back up and you can continue from where you've left off.
Once you start playing a new round of Temu's farmland it allows you to choose two free items from a preselected (but big) list of products that Temu sells. It will also give you at least two money-off discount vouchers to use for future orders.
You need to reach 100% of the points needed (basically fake in-game cash you earn for "harvesting" bundles of wheat on the farm) to get your free items and coupons. The green line of how far you are to completion, and the days left to achieve it, always remain visible in the scoreboard at the top of your Farmland game screen.
Temu wants you to buy and be on the app, and you're rewarded for spending real money, with water droplets that get you to completion of the game faster.
You can resist the urge to spend money (like you resisted paying to buy a new skin in Fortnite) but Temu and Farmland will try their absolute utmost to get you to pay to not have to wait to get water.
2. Every day (every 24 hours) Farmland will give you new water droplets for free, and several chances to earn further water, usually given in standard 10g droplets (although you're also rewarded in 2g, 3gand 5g drops for various actions.
A water wheel in the top left corner keeps spinning constantly (although very slowly) where you can claim water as soon as it reaches a threshold of 1g (up to 10g). More about this water wheel later.
3. You have to pour water or water droplets from your watering can onto one of six brown patches of land with green wheat.
A patch needs a lot of water for the wheat to turn yellow and be harvested for money which will slowly increase your score until you reach 100%. Clicking on a patch of wheat will show how far that green wheat is from turning yellow.
At the beginning, it goes quickly. But the further you progress in the game, the longer and harder it gets since getting drops become more difficult and takes longer, and the increment by which the percentage of a patch of green wheat is growing, rises slower.
In other words, you need more water later in the game to grow by a smaller percentage. But don't be discouraged.
4. The water you have available to pour is shown in your watering can in the bottom right corner. You can pour out any water over 10g. You can gain water in any amount of grams for your watering can - 1g, 2g, 3g, 5g, 10g or 15g - but you will only be able to pour it out in individual 10g turns.
5. There is a doggie you can feed. Click on the dog when you see water drops above its head. It happens randomly and will yield something like 2g or 3g. The big thing with the dog is that you can also feed it three times a day - once between 08:00 - 10:00, 12:00 - 14:00, and again 17:00 - 19:00.
Miss the feeding times to feed the dog once and it goes hungry and no water reward for you.
Every time time you feed it, you will get 10g. If you feed it once a day, all three times, you get more water. If you miss one of these times - you will miss out on the day's water reward. Like a Tamagotchi, perhaps set an alarm and quickly go click on feeding the dog and you can exit the app again.
6. As you progress the dog's bowl will disappear, so be prepared. The game isn't broken. Yes, Temu will make it harder to score points as you progress, as some point-generating options disappear like feeding the dog goes missing. The drops above the dog's head will remain and appear from time to time, meaning you can get 2g or 3g of water.
7. Bottom left is a "Get Water+" icon. If you click on it, several options will open to get more water.
Several tasks can be completed without having to spend money. You can "Browse for 60s" which will give you 15g water. Simply click on the blue arrow at the top left of the game, to go to the actual Temu store (because Temu wants you to buy stuff).
Just scroll down once and the 60 seconds ticker will start. Once you've waited or scrolled for 60 seconds, you can click back or type "farmland" and you will get your 15g water automatically. You can do this several times a day until the challenge shows "done".
8. You can also type in and search "farmland" daily. It will also yield between 5g to 10g water once per day automatically.
9. Several times a day - quite nauseatingly so - the game will want you to invite friends to Temu or to get a "sharing Bonus" - something that will yield you more water.
Maybe you really want to invite friends (and you can do so through Facebook Messenger, Facebook, Whatsapp, X that was previously Twitter, or Instagram DM) but you don't have to.
Here's the trick: You will Still get some water, several times, for clicking on "invite" when it pops up, and then the app or way you want to invite someone, without having really invited someone. You don't really have to send the invite. Let's take Whatsapp for instance.
You can click to "invite" and then click "Whatsapp", but after Whatsapp has opened, you can just click back. Temu and Farmland will log it as if you have invited someone, although you didn't. And you get your additional water.
10. Go through "Get water+" daily and complete all of the free things you can possibly do.
11. If you did actually order and buy something from Temu, you will be rewarded in loyalty points with a water reward.
This water reward will show up under "Get water+" as well, as a separate "My order Reward" line item. The sneaky Temu however won't give you all your earned water reward immediately. The allotment you get from having bought stuff is broken up over three days.
You will have to go and click once per day, for three days in a row, to get your day's water, until by day three you get your total reward.
12. On the bottom left is also a "Referral water" icon. Clicking this and inviting friends will gain you more water. I've ignored this one since it really only works if you really invited friends or family and they've actually registered on Temu using your invitation.
13. A "Treasure Hunt" icon is also in the bottom left corner. It will offer you a water amount like 300g, but you need, for instance, 100g water to access it. Definitely do it since this is worthwhile!
Save up (basically 10 waters) and then click on the Treasure Hunt icon. It will take 100g away from your watering can.
You will now be able to open one chest per day, which will give you different amounts of water, for instance over 8 days, until you get to 300g. It will take a week, but you've upsized 100g to 300g water. Also remember to go do this once a day or you will lose the day's water allotment.
14. In the bottom left there is also a "6 Days Reward". Make sure you click on it once every day to claim your water here, since the amount of water grows daily. And if you miss it, you miss out.
15. Some day you might get a "Water vs" competition. It will pop up suddenly and then it's you against the machine. The "other player" (read AI) and you can now compete to see who can water the most in a set amount of time - usually half an hour. Don't rush to beat it. The trick here is to trick the computer.
The more you water, the faster the other player or computer will water (I guess). Wait for it to rush up its own tally of how much it watered while you do nothing. Wait for the last 10 minutes.
You can see how much time is left by clicking on the icon. The game will also warn you when the time is close to running out.
Now you can water fast in the remaining time because it doesn't look as if the game is able to then suddenly respond to your gamification of the gamification. After the time is up, the game will show who won, and if you won, you can score something like an extra 30g water.
The other tip: Keep an eye on your own water. Don't waste water playing this if the computer is already at 29 or 60. If you waste 10 water (100g) trying to catch the game's 29 or 40 water it's a losing battle from the get-go. But definitely try to win if the number to beat is lower and a realistic challenge.
Also: Don't leave too little time in a Water VS duel to start. Once I could have won but I couldn't water enough in the five minutes left simply due to the number of times you have to push on the watering can and wait per turn.
16. Ignore the blue butterfly fluttering around, it's decorative and does and yields nothing.
17. Ignore the wooden "Farmland" sign above the dog, it's decorative and yields nothing.
18. There is also an "Active Bonus" icon on the bottom left row. Similar to "Get Water+" go through everything and do everything you can for free and without having to spend money to gain more water. You get the same set of challenges daily, like visiting Temu once, three times, or opening chests from once to multiple times, and watering multiple times.
Every time you've completed a daily task it will show "done".
As long as a green "go" remains, you can continue to do that same task, or levelling up. On the top two rows you will see a "week" and a "day". As you score points here, you will see the orange lines grow. Tick on the water droplets above these strips to get them, as your tally reaches those droplets on both bars.
19. A water wheel spins (slowly) on the top left corner. As the grams tick up (slowly), you can click on it once it reaches 1g (or above, to a maximum of 10g) and claim that water. If the water wheel reaches 10g it won't continue to give more water until you click it. Claim the 10g and the counter will reset and run again.
Sometimes the water wheel spins faster. Some days it will have a pop-up saying "water more to make the wheel spin faster". If you do then water, you will see the counter speed up. It will quickly spin for 1g of water and then slow down again.
Water wheel tip 1: Don't continue to water when the wheel suddenly spins faster after watering. It won't spin even faster and you're just wasting water. Wait for the wheel to slow down, and then water so you get the full effect and duration of the faster spinning to generate water.
Water wheel tip 2: When the water wheel is spinning at medium speed, refrain from watering if you can. The "medium" speed is already fast enough to generate some water or a full 10g of water. Just rather wait for it to slow down. Why waste a "go faster" when you're already at medium? Wait for the wheel to slow to "slow" to water again for it to switch to fast again.
20. You can click on the brown block of land currently being watered. The percentage from being done until the wheat on it turns yellow will pop up, for instance 49.4%. It will also show progress markers like "Reach 50% to get 15g water".
21. Whenever you earn more water from having watered, a "claim water" button will pop up on the bottom left corner. Click on it to get the bonus water.
22. Another "Roll the Dice" icon will sometimes pop up and become available, making a whole other game-within-a-game available - one where you get a throw of a dice after watering a certain number of times. This is also free.
Throwing the dice makes a marker move across a track of squares. Keep playing this game as well, until you score something like 700g or 800g of water on completion.
Keep in mind that this additional game will take a few days to complete but it is worth it and you can just as well make your watering work double as hard to earn those valuable dice throws.
23. What might also pop up is "Water Competition". If you click and accept (this is also free) you're placed into a group of randomly selected other players, all watering for additional water.
It works according to a ladder system, where after a certain number of hours - for instance 24 or 72 - the top three "waterers" get additional water. The person on the number one spot gets 100g, second place yields 70g and the player in third place gets 50g. The rest get ... nothing.
Tip: I would suggest not using up all your water immediately, since everyone in the group can immediately and constantly see everyone else's score. At the bottom of the screen in "Water Competition" it shows how much time is left with a counter.
Return an hour or so before the competition ends and then water, if you can, since it's a bit like playing poker. You don't want to use up all of your water, have your "final" score visible and end up being unable to level up as the others see what your number and rank are to chase and beat.
If you clicked to partake in this competition that runs over a day or two, or three, a blue square icon will pop up and remain underneath the water wheel. It will constantly say something like "water 20 times" - meaning you need to water a further 20 times to move past the next competitor above you to level up one place on the rung.
24. If you have water left in your watering can on a day but you can't get more "Claim water" for watering a patch of land, can't get more "Get Water+" bonuses or can't get more "Active bonus" challenges - in other words you've completed it all - stop!
While your percentage of watering and getting to completion of a patch (i.e. turning it into yellow wheat) will grow and increase, you will basically be wasting water since you're not letting it work double or triple for you. Stop until tomorrow when you can get some additional things and complete tasks while watering, instead of just watering and not getting a throw of the dice, or bonuses.
25. When the water wheel resorts back to its slow level of almost immeasurable water gathering, keep in mind that this counter is still running.
At the end of a day, or late at night (long after feeding the dog or having left Farmland, go check in and click and claim whatever 3g or 4g or 10g might have been collected during the rest of the day in the water wheel. Every bit helps.
26. Regarding your two free items - you can click on them in the scoreboard at the top. You will see an orange "change" below each of them. You can peruse again and choose another item in each block and lock in a new item. You can change your selection for each of the two items three times (if you want).
I would rather spend more time right at the beginning making 100% sure of my choices and leave them locked in that going back and wasting time to change them.
Also: By the time you've finished the game, a free item might no longer be available or sold out. Don't worry. Temu will give you the option to choose another item, or will give you "store credit" in the form of a discount coupon equal to the value of the item.
27. When you see a white glove finger-pointing to something it means it's clickable, like for instance on the watering can, or over droplets in one of the bonus sections.
28. Regarding the "Bonus Mission" icon in the bottom left corner - it's another shameless Temu attempt to get you to share and invite others to Temu. You get to collect coins for sharing.
Here, clicking on "share for more coins, and then clicking another app like Whatsapp without really sending or sharing, won't yield results. So you can ignore this "Bonus Mission" icon completely since you're not going to get anything here for free.
29. Every time you've managed to turn green wheat yellow and it is automatically harvested at 100% and turned into cash or points, your overall score bar at the top will grow. It will show how much you still need to collect to get your free items.
Keep in mind that as you progress, you will need more water for a patch to reach completion, and that you will also earn less and less for each patch of yellow wheat. You will have to put in a lot more work and watering to close the gap of the last R20, becoming a gap of R10 and so on to get to the end.
The road to success is to be consistent and return to Temu like an athlete training and practising for the Olympics in order to complete the game and get your free items. You're not going to win Farmland by visiting once a week and doing just one or two things.
You need to maximise the opportunities within Farmland every day - not the time, not the "referrals" of friends and family and not spending money. Literally, squeeze every piece of worth out of every drop.
