A question we get quite often is how can I use resources, gold, items, to purchase buffs, resources, truces (bubbles) and other items in the game without spending money. This post is going to break down some of the ways you can trade your items, clan points, gold, or flower points for other items to help you grow.
Item Store
The first store we are going to take a look at is the Item Store which some of you may be familiar with while others may not have ever seen the Item Store. The Item Store can be visited at any time and allows you to use gold to pay for most items available in the game. There are certain items you cannot purchase at the Item Store but their available items is rather extensive.
To visit the Item Store you will want to go to your Items icon on the bottom of the screen. You will see there are two tabs available. The first is Items (these are all items you currently have) and the second is Store. When you click on Store you will see there are currently five (5) different categories to choose from:
- Hot Sale
- Resources
- War
- Buff
- Other
These items are always available to you and have no limits on the amount you can purchase every day. It is only governed by the amount of gold you would like to spend.
Plantation Store
When the developers first introduced the Plantation Store it was similar to a limited event where it would be available for a week or so at a time then would disappear. They have changed the Plantation to a permanent location next to the casino on your turf. Here is another great place to get many of the items you need to be successful. Depending on the level you have upgraded your Plantation to you will have more items you can purchase.
All items in the Plantation are purchased using Plantation Currency that you can only get by selling your flowers or from stealing flowers from other members in the city. You have the ability to steal from 10 flower beds each day which will give you various points depending on the flower type.
There are two types of stores available in the Plantation Store. The regular Items which has daily limits on how many of each item you can purchase and the Exclusive Boost which are permanent boosts to your Leader. The Items will include Advanced Teleport, Gathering Boosts, rss, speed ups, energy and more. The Exclusive Boosts include production boosts, attack bonuses, increased invest/building boosts, etc. All these items are free of cost and just take time to build your store.
VIP Store
Once a month the GM will open up a VIP Store that lasts about 1 week. You are able to use gold (at slight discounted rates) to purchase items such as speed ups, energy, emblems, teleports, and much more. The items will refresh at midnight on Monday morning game time so you can purchase more if you have exhausted your resources. When you are early on the VIP Store can really come in handy as you can purchase daily contractor (8-hour builder) buffs for reduced rates. Now that you can purchase these for free in the Plantation they are not as necessary but still nice to have when doing major upgrades.
Clan Store
The Clan Store can be found under the Clan icon on the bottom of the screen. This is where you are able to use your Clan Honor points to make purchases of various items. This includes speed ups, teleports, chips and advanced chips, production boosts, and much more. You earn Clan Honor from making Clan donations and from doing various challenges. These Honor points can be used for whatever you may need including 8 hour truce (bubbles). There is also Clan Points which is used by the Clan to refill the Clan Store. R4’s and R5 are able to allocate the Clan Points to purchase or restock the items in the Clan Store. I have to admit my OCD has me checking this quite often as I like to see round numbers; however, if your clan runs out of something that you want you don’t have to worry. You can request it and an R4 or R5 can restock the item for you.
Black Market
The black market is a great way to get rss and checks for making equipment. You are able to exchange Red Wine or gold for these items. It is on a sliding scale when you are using gold so the first piece of rss you purchase is 2 gold then it goes to 4 gold etc. until it reaches 50 gold per trade.
Smuggler
The Smuggler is the last place we are going to talk about for getting items. You are able to make as many trades as you want at the smuggler and all trades will cost you either rss or gold. There are some great deals and some daily deals available here. I use the smuggler for rss (I love the 5 million cargo for 5,000 gold) and for gems (I am a big fan of 5 purple gem boxes for 2,250 gold). Even the blue box at 150 gold is a pretty good deal. You can also sometimes get a 3 day truce (bubble) for 2,400 gold which is 100 gold less than from the Items Store.
Conclusion
Here is a brief look at all the places you are able to purchase items from for free. They will cost you gold, rss, plant points, or honor; however, each can be earned in the game for free and not make you spend your own money.
