Quest Prediction : Jack is Back

The upside of a quest that uses regular items is it is always really fast to complete.  Anyone can grow in advance and even cook in advance. Just store your dishes in your fridge til Quest time and then serve them up once Thursday comes. 

I do want to give a small warning this quest is a HIGH dish count quest. IE You have to cook 149 of EACH dish.  

So lets look at our dishes. 

First dish

 

Lingonberries are in the fruit section, down toward the bottom, Pine nuts are in the grain section down almost to the bottom and Puffin are in exotic animals at the VERY bottom.

Second Dish

 

Mantis Shrimp are in Crustaceans, at the bottom of course. Mushrooms can be found in salad and beans, in the middle of the first column. Tomatillos are nice and easy. They are at the top of the exotic vegetables. And if you were around during St pats or Rock the Ranch you might have a few of these lying around.

Third Dish. This is gonna be the one that gives everyone a headache. Two ingredients over 12 hour grow times and the cook time is 18 hours as well.  UGH. 

  

There is no spreadsheet of course for this quest since there are no seasonals. I just want to reiterate that you need to have 149 of each dish.  SO for the 3rd dish ALONE you want to figure on at least 50 or so hours of cooking assuming you have the maximum 53 stoves.  IF you have more stoves or red stoves this will obviously go quicker for you.  I know I see in groups and in chat a lot people waiting til the very last minute on quest dishes some times.    You can't do that here. (You shouldn't do that at all actually but I digress).  Unlike seasonal dishes there is no added bonus to cooking extra.  So most people will not have extra dishes on hand. Although I do believe ingredients will be plentiful even early on in the quest.  

Good luck and Happy Ranching!

Carnival MiniQuest

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I hope everyone is enjoying this quest. No doubt making lots of coins and gaining a TON of xp. 

The little mini quest is on the right hand side of your screen. You will know it cause it probably flashes NEW QUEST all the time. 

This miniquest isn't too bad, I thought it was fairly straightforward. Grow a few things, unlock a few things, cook a few things, Here have 10 GR cash.  Easy Peasy.

First Step

Second Step

Third Step

Fourth Step

Fifth Step

Six Step

Seventh Step

So just a quick breakdown of what you need on hand for the cooking. And I do not know why they play the name change game on this quest but I did include BOTH names for reference.  

20 Queijo Coalho (Carnival Cow)

20 Jalapenos

40 Bell Pepper

20 Cachaca (Rio Sugarcane)

20 Limes

20 Sugar

60 Maniac Flour (Cassava)

20 Chocolate

20 Cardamon

20 Hearts of Palm

40 Carnival Shrimp

20 Mozzarella Cheese

20 Carnival Chicken

20 Onions

40 Carnival Coconut

20 Eggs

20 Vanilla

20 Mahi Mahi Filet

20 Braham Beef

20 Kidney Beans

20 Rice

20 Carnival Jambu

Coming Soon to GR! Quest Calendar Updated

It has been a while since I last updated our Quest Calendar. I had a feeling many of you would like to have an idea of what to grow or maybe what would be best to unlock. 

And also I wanted to answer a frequently asked question.

Will we see the Gourmet Ranch Olympics?

The answer is PROBABLY not. If you have not noticed GR is repeating quests. Not only that but they are repeating the quest dishes, amounts, order etc. Even the mini quests are repeats from last year.   The most likely answer to this is they don't have a programmer at their disposal at the moment to redo all these quests so they are just plugging in last year's stuff.  This was NOT a quest last year though I do believe we will see it in August just not as a quest,  I believe we will see it either with Jack the Giant or on the back of Masters of Fruit.  The olympics dates overlap those two quests. 

Don't get upset though this was a very very low paying quest from the early years of GR. 2012 to be exact. 

So lets look at what we have to look forward to this year. 

Carnival! Which is next is at the list, is very much a quest you should unlock. 

Jack and The Giant is ALL regular items. There is no unlocking needed on this quest.

Masters of Fruit is after that and this is another must unlock quest if you can. 

Peggy's Bake off is the last quest of the summer and its a bummer. Top dish is 234 coins. And you need both seasonal sides to cook it. It is CHEAP on the keys though. So that is nice. 

Mad Hatter's Tea Party. This is funny enough, an Easter quest.  But GR decided Tea parties are okay all year round. Its in my opinion an OK quest. Top dish is 344 coins. It is a ENTIRELY seasonal quest. So you need BOTH sides to be able to cook that dish. 

Hunting Season comes next. This one is again decent. The Top dish is 401 coins and you only need the animal side for that. The next dish is 373 and takes items from both sides and Asparagus. Ugh Have I mentioned how I hate long growing items?

Spirit of Halloween is next. Nightshade. I love nightshade. Its my favorite. 

Day of the Dead - Has those bugs. They pay well so we will disregard that they are creepy.

Arctic Chill is ALL regulars and some crappy ones at that. Quinoa, Banana Peppers and Nutmeg. Ugh

Thanksgiving is pretty lackluster. The top dish is 232 coins and the main ingredients are 18 hours and 1 day to grow.  

Then we end the year with two christmas quests.  Both are very high value and worth unlocking.

Click on the Quest Calendar above to find out what you have to grow for any upcoming quests. 

Have a great day !

Independence Day Mini Quest

So I am fortunate to have some awesome neighbors who are helping out with the mini quest steps. I am NOT personally doing this so there are NO screenshots. Just the steps. A Big Thank you to Patti for her help!

Step 1 - For 10k Coins 

Plant 20 Buckwheat

Grow 20 NYC Pigs 

Unlock the NYC Cow

Step 2 - For 500 XP.  

Unlock Soya

 Place 20 NYC Cow

Plant 20 Soya

Step 3 - For 600 XP

Cook 20 China Town Won Ton Noodle Soup

Cook 20 Central Park Yankee Donuts

Co 20 Hells Kitchen - Ham Champ

Step 4 - 800 XP

Cook 20 East Village Chocolate Egg
Unlock NYC Chicken
Cook 20 Harlem - Mofango

Step 5 - 1000 XP

Unlock Tarragon
Unlock NYC Lobster
Cook 20 Midtown Pastrami Chicken Bagel

Step 6 - 50 Speedups

Unlock NYC Octopus
Unlock Bay Leaf
Cook 20 West Village Lobster Roll

Step 7 - 10 GR Cash

Place 20 NYC Octopus
Cook 20 Little Italy - Fusilli Octopus
Cook 20 Greenwich Village - Sardinian Stew


So your shopping list for cooking is as follows:

40 Buckwheat
20 Shrimp
20 Soya
20 Sugar
60 NYC Pig
40 Garlic Cloves
20 Plaintain
20 Bunching Onions
20 Sweet Potatoes
20 Soda Water
20 Chocolate
20 NYC Cow
20 NYC Chicken
20 Rye
40 Tarragon
40 NYC Lobster
20 Goose Egg
40 NYC Octopus
20 Bay Leaf

And that is all I have. Big shout out to Patti Brown who gave me the steps so I could put them here.

Have a good weekend all!

Quest Prediction: Party Like its Carnivale!

I loved carnivals as a kid and GR's version does not disappoint. Its very bright and colorful and best of all PAYS WELL. 

This quest also brings with it an ADDED bonus I will discuss at the bottom. 

I hope you saved your keys this summer. If not you have just a bit less than a week to gain a few. IF you need help leveling I have a whole POST on ways to get those awesome keys.  Just check out the tips and tricks section. 

So I am doing the Quest prediction a bit early for two reasons. One I skipped the fourth of july quests. So I can't help you with the mini quest steps on this particular quest. 

And two because we have a couple of long growing ingredients you MIGHT want to plop down in advance. 

So our THREE dishes are 

Dish 1 Feijoada  PRICE 481.84, You will need as regulars, Kidney beans (6 Hr) and Rice (1 Day)

Dish 2 Quindim PRICE 213.78. You will need Eggs (Buy in big mart with Coins) and Vanilla (2 days)

Dish 3 Tacaca PRICE 604.32. There are NO regulars for this dish. 

A couple other points I will make. The Carnival Shrimp is a FREE ingredient. And don't forget you can buy your eggs in Big Mart. So there is no reason to have 

Besides the free shrimp, the Braham Cow is the ONLY animal used in this quest. And its a super.  Everything else is on the CROP side. So if you have limited keys.  The side that is in your best interest is CROPS. 

As always we have a spreadsheet of what dishes this quest entails. As you can LOTS of higher value stuff.  This one also has an abundance in my opinion of EASY regulars. That is ones most of your smaller / newer players are likely to have unlocked. Such as Kidney beans, rice, eggs, onions, hops, barley, coconuts, peanuts, beef and tomatoes.  

SO this quest LAST year brought with it an added bonus. 

That bonus was MASTERS of FRUIT. 

Why do we love Masters of Fruit? Well because anything that pays well and is quick to cook is AMAZING. 

The ONLY downside is some of the ingredients that accompany these supers are likely to be troublesome for smaller / newer players. By the way this will be 28 keys to unlock the Fruits. AND this will be its OWN quest roughly 5-6 weeks from now.  

The first dish isn't too terrible. Cranberries are easy enough and ginger is only at about the half way mark in the row. 

But then we look at the Lychee dish and we see Vanilla again which is a 2 day ingredient and Elderberries. Which are almost to the bottom of the Fruit category.  However I will say Lychees are just FOUR hours to grow, so you can grow a massive amount in a 2 week stretch. 

Tamarinds are a quick dish to cook at just 4 hours and Chickpeas aren't bad at 4 hours to grow. But Tumeric is 18 hours and is near the bottom of the herbs. 

Then we have the last dish which is the pigeon and juniper berry.  These take pigeons which is near the bottom of your animal category. Rosemary is an easy ingredient at 30 minutes but again its about half way down the herb section so newer players may not have access to it. 

I didn't do these in order but the order of unlock should be Tamarind, juniper berries, Lychees and then persimmons.  The first two items will be six keys each and the second two will be 8 keys each. 

Since this bonus will pop up again later in its own right, it certainly would not hurt to unlock if you have the keys. But if you don't, DON'T Fret. This will come back in just a few short weeks.

Well there ya go. Have a great weekend and Happy Ranching to all!  

Maximum Ranch Space : More Ways to Expand Your Ranch

A few months ago I showed many of you a step by step instruction on doubling up your ranch. Since then I have learned a few things.

First off you are NOT limited to just double plots. I personally have quadruple plots on my ranch and I love it. I have triple plots for animals.

And beyond that I have learned a few better methods for enhancing your ranch. Ones that are quicker and allow for less mistakes. Even people who struggle with carpal tunnel like my self will appreciate it.

So take a quick look at what a ranch that has 1000+ plots looks like. It is so awesome. Honestly.

And while it took me awhile to figure out what works and what doesn't I have got to say you are gonna probably love these methods more than the method I presented. 

This is what quads looks like CLOSE up. 

So how did I get it so neat and pretty?

Well go back into your shop tab and under the Christmas tree  / Hay block in the GARDEN section, go to the tiles.

This was the tile I told you to use at first. But turns out you can use ANY of the tiles. 

You also have ALL these options. I am actually only gonna point out the benefits of TWO. 

So we will start with the straight road above. WHY? 

Well remember what I said to those who were having issues since lining up four itty bitty tiny plots can get tedious and cause you serious pains in your wrists. Well this takes the plot count from 4 to 1. 

Here is your visual. Its the size of ONE crop plot. 

For those of you like me who need a bit more help with lining it up, flip that sucker around! 

So the basics of this one is pretty much you want to put those double yellow lines in the middle of a plot.  So literally DIRECTLY ON TOP OF THE FIRST SET OF PLOTS NOT STAGGERED!!!!.   Now when you put down a 2nd piece of road, you just go down the line and put the NEW plots in between the yellow lines. Kindergarten easy folks.  It is THAT easy to now get doubles. 

I read that and it sounded confusing lol so I thought VISUAL!!!. 

Now you can go back and do more plots but its a bit trickier with these roads to get your lines right. Or at least I think so.  But you have two options. 

Long option: Pick up those roads, store them and put them down again in a way so that you can do the plots between the lines deal. 

Faster Option : Hit refresh. Now just put new plots down. As long as the roads are down already just hit refresh and GR will let you place more tiles over the top. You do NOT want them to be directly on top of the first or 2nd set of plots. You want them to be 1/4 way over the yellow line. Otherwise you bury a plot and you have to delete the one on top of it to get access to it. 

'

Remember I said I second option you will love. 

These mowed grass tiles are my absolute favorite for quad planting. 

Okay let me say first off this is 4 itty bitty plots so this might not be friendly to some of you. 

When you put 4 of them down together they look like this:

STRIPED!!!

And how awesome is this? Now you can do quadruple plots and you only have to stay in the lines. 

Plant them directly on top of the first row.

Option 1

You can do the 1st yellow to the third green (Note : This is 8 itty bitty tiles. )

Option 2

2nd green to 3rd Yellow

Option 3

2nd Yellow to 4th green.

Remember you can do a row of one option above, hit refresh and go thru and do another option then hit refresh again and go back and do the last option.  

When you are done with the crops go back and STORE all your little plots. Sell them all at once. Its so much easier and a whole lot less clicking. 

Animals are for the MOST part exactly the same. The only thing is the last step. You don't do it. Its a pain to remove those tiles so don't. Your animals can sleep on the road or the sand or mowed grass. Doesn't matter. 

There is an added benefit to NOT removing them from the animal pens. 

TREES!!!!

As you can see I did NOT remove the tiles below my animals. They are triple plots and the animals harvest and plant just fine. I do trees along my back row and I can see my animals just fine. 

 I also do the refresh trick but just ONCE for trees. 3 / 4 times it tends to bury your trees. Its not fun to be staring at a tree you can't harvest or do anything with. It messes with my OCD something awful. 

Here you can see the walnut trees and the turkeys getting along fine in a nice tight space. 

I would make a small suggestion that if you do intend to put trees in your animals' space put it out of the way. IE along the Top of the ranch or along the left most side.  Otherwise on the bottom or right side it will obscure other items.  That is not fun either. 

If you didn't already see them I also have TWO videos, one for animals and one for crops that show how to get this started. Remember you can use ANY of the tiles above. 

Video Walk Thru for Animals

Video Walk Thru for Crops

And of course I have the ORIGINAL walk thru linked here if this post above was confusing or still not much help.

I am very much a visual person so I prefer to show others as I would want to be shown. 

Maximizing Your Ranch Space

I hope this helps.

Have a great day ranchers!