The Pioneer Trail Walkthrough

Come visit The Pioneer Trail, the newest addition to FrontierVille developed by Zynga and played on Facebook! Travel outside of your homestead and explore territories of the untamed west with your new trail crew members. Your crew will help you collect items, clear land, and complete hidden missions. This will help you travel to Fort Courage for your final objective, which is to save Ezekiel who has been kidnapped by the horrible Gratchett gang. Gamezebo’s The Pioneer Trail quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images and hints on how to play your best game.

The Pioneer Trail – Game Introduction

Quick Start Guide

Getting Started

The Pioneer Trail is the newest addition to Zynga’s FrontierVille game, which is found on Facebook. FrontierVille has you developing your own homestead and maintaining it as you raise a family and build your town. The Pioneer Trail is an extension of the game played by clicking on your FrontierVille map and travelling off of the homestead to explore new lands with the help of your neighbors. Here we will explain in detail how to play The Pioneer Trail portion of the game.
If you have never played FrontierVille you will need to start playing it first to establish your homestead. Be sure to check out our review and walkthrough here at Gamezebo to get you started.
You will need a current Facebook account to play FrontierVille and The Pioneer Trail. If you need to register for a free account click here – http://www.facebook.com

Once you have a Facebook account and an established homestead in your FrontierVille game you are ready to proceed to The Pioneer Trail by clicking on the “Travel” map shown in the image above.
Note – It doesn’t matter if you click on the “FrontierVille” or “The Pioneer Trail” links to play the game you will always be taken to FrontierVille first and will have to click on the map to access The Pioneer Trail.
It is recommended that you play the game in full screen mode whenever possible to help you find the hidden mission symbols easier. Whenever you post a message or bring up a menu the game will kick you out of full screen mode. You can find the full screen mode button at the bottom right of the game screen in the settings menu.
All game controls and settings are located at the lower right corner of the game screen. Click on arrows to extend the menus for more choices.
Be sure to read through the collections menu and all quests before you begin so you can prioritize your actions.

Trail Map Destinations

The Pioneer Trail is an extension of FrontierVille that can be accessed by clicking on the “Travel” map at the lower left side of the screen near the neighbor menu.
You will be taken to the trail map shown in the image above.
There are four destinations you will be able to travel to with your goal being to travel through all destinations completing eight hidden missions in each and finally reaching and completing the final task of Fort Courage, which is to rescue the kidnapped Ezekiel for a large reward.
You will start out at Beaver Valley then proceed to High Plains, Avalanche Pass, and Fort Courage.
At each of these destinations you will have tasks to perform on different types of items, which will be carried out by your FrontierVille character avatar and three other characters.
Once you open the map, click on Beaver Valley then on “Continue” and it will take you to your first destination.

Pioneer Trail Crew

When you start the game the first time you will be introduced to your crew. This is a temporary crew in place until you replace them with your friends.
You can leave the characters that are there in place, but it is much wiser to ask your friends to help as you will increase the number of rations you can hold overall by five for each profession.
Each crew member has a specific task that only they will be responsible for.
Be sure to assign a task to the correct type of crew member or you may waste your rations.

How to change your active crew member – Just as in FrontierVille, the character that is active to do tasks is the character that has the silver star over his or her head.
You will need to simply click on a character to choose them as the active avatar. When you see the star over their head you are ready to proceed with your next task.
Crew member actions – Each crew member is responsible for different actions on the trail. This includes gathering medicine, hunting, and gathering parts as well as completing hidden missions, quests, and collections.

Doctor – The doctor is responsible for gathering herbs and searching for medicine. “Doc Auburn” will be your doctor until you replace him with one of your friends. He carries the large medical bag. While in the Beaver Valley location you can click on shrubs, wild lupine, blackberry bushes, and nettles to gather medicine. When a medical bag or St. Bernard dog appears click on it to collect the medicine inside.
Note – St. Bernard dogs are very rare and will usually yield double the amount of medicine compared to the doctor bag.

Hunter – The hunter hunts for meat and Bess, the red headed female holding the large gun, will be your hunter until you replace her with one of your friends. While in the Beaver Valley location whenever you see a turkey or other animal you will be able to place your cursor on the animal and a sight will appear. Take aim and click once to shoot the animal. You will then see a turkey leg, which represents meat in the game. This is important as you will be using the meat to trade and help you complete missions.

Carpenter – The carpenter is the only one that can gather parts for the wagon. This is very important as you need your wagon to make it to all of your destinations. Hank will be your carpenter until you replace him with one of your friends. While in the Beaver Valley trail location, carpenters will cut down hickory trees, remove stumps, and gather parts when they appear.
If tool boxes or pack mules appear be sure to click on them to collect parts inside.

Trail boss – Your character is known as the “Trail Boss,” and is responsible for locating hidden missions when the blue exclamation point symbol appears in addition to collecting trade scrolls and story scrolls when they appear.
Be sure you have the correct crew member activated for the task in front of you.

Performing Clearing, Hunting, or Collection Tasks

Each member of your crew is responsible for certain tasks.
As stated in section above, the doctor gathers medicine, the carpenter gathers parts, and the hunter gathers meat. Your character is responsible for finding items for the hidden missions.

How to send a crew member to perform a task – When you are ready to perform a task you should know which crew member you need to perform it. Click on the crew member while on the land or use the menu at the bottom center of the screen and click on him there. The silver star should appear over his or her head to activate them.
Next you will click on the item the crew member will effect.
If you choose the Hunter while in Beaver Valley you will need to clear away plains grass and rocks until you flush out a wild turkey. Then you will shoot the turkey for meat and other rewards as shown in image above.
If you choose the doctor while in the Beaver Valley location you may want to clear out or collect from items such as the wild lupine, pecan trees, or blackberry bushes. As the task is completed you will see trail points, coins, stars, (XP) and on occasion a collectible item or a doctors’ bag. If the doctor’s bag or St. Bernard dog appear you will need to click on it to open it. You may or may not find medicine inside. If you do find medicine it will be added to your inventory.
You can either click on the items you collect or wait a few moments and they will automatically add to your running totals.
Trail crew tasks – The following items can be affected by crew members to gain meat, medicine or parts.
Note – These actions only apply to Beaver Valley. Once you reach a new location there will be new items affected by each crew member as well as eight new missions to complete.
Doctor – Click on wild lupine, pecan trees, nettles, cattails, and plains grass for doctor’s bag, St. Bernard dogs, medicine, and collectibles.
Hunter – Click on plains grass, hickory trees, and rocks to bring out the wild turkeys and hunt them for meat and collectibles.
Carpenter – Click on hickory trees, hollow logs, pile of twigs, and rocks to bring out the collectibles, as well as toolboxes and pack mules, which allow you to find wagon parts.
Trail boss – Your avatar will be able to locate the hidden missions, trade, story, and clock scrolls, which will give you huge advantages and rewards.

Rations

Rations are needed to perform actions on the trail. They are similar to energy used on your homestead.
Each action on the trail requires one ration.
You start out with a maximum of 10 rations in your ration meter shown at the top of the game screen.
If you hire a friend to work on your trail crew this number will increase by five for each person, so if you hire a full crew this will increase to a maximum of 25 rations.
Visiting the people you work for will reward you with free rations and you can also request that friends send them to you daily as free gifts, leave them to you during neighbor visits, complete collections, or purchase them from trader Bart.

Purchasing rations from trader Bart – You can purchase rations by clicking on trader Bart’s wagon then choosing from the menu. Rations can only be purchased with horseshoes at a rate of one ration for two horseshoes, which is very expensive considering it takes one ration to perform a single action on the trail.

Prize Tickets, Horseshoes, and Trail Points

In addition to rewards and rations there are other kinds of currency in the game. Here you will find them listed and their functions.
Prize tickets – Prize tickets are used as currency to purchase items from trader Bart’s wagon. You earn prize tickets when you complete missions or collections and visit your trail bosses.
At the top left of the screen circled in yellow you will see your prize ticket indicator.

Horseshoes – Horseshoes are the game’s premium currency used to purchase special high end items and special privileges in the game. The only way to get horseshoes is to purchase them using real currency or to have them awarded to you when you level up in the game.
Horseshoes are sold in bundles and the more you purchase the better the value.
Your horseshoe indicator is shown circled in pink in the image above.
Trail points – Trail points are awarded when doing tasks on the trail. You must collect trail points to unlock various items in “Bart’s Bargains”. Once they are unlocked you can purchase them and place them on the trail or on your homestead.
You can see your trail point indicator at the top right of the game screen shown circled in light blue in the image above.
Experience points – These are collected each time you have a crew member perform a task. They are seen as gold stars and as you collect them they will determine when you reach the next level of the game. You can see your experience points (XP) indicator at the top right of the game screen along with your current level in the star circled in white in the image above.

Purchasing Items From Trader Bart

You can access the store in The Pioneer Trail by clicking on the “Market” button at the lower right corner of the game screen or clicking on trader Bart or his wagon, which is located a few inches to the left of your crew members in the Beaver Valley trail.
The shop is different from the FrontierVille store as you do not have categories of items that allow you to just purchase decorative items. Instead it is broken down into categories based on the four locations of the trail map and items for that location, a section to purchase rations, and a special section for special purchases. The other detail that is different is that you must earn a certain number of trail points or complete a specific mission to unlock certain items before they can be purchased.
Once the menu opens click on one of the tabs along the top. You can purchase rations using horseshoes. (See “Rations” above for more information about this.)

Special items – The special area of the market allows you to purchase items using prize tickets or horseshoes once unlocked. These items include special advantages such as double XP for a day or a debris cleaner that will clear seven items with one ration. These are very helpful items which are expensive and hard to get.
Be sure to read through the items to see what is needed to unlock them to guide your gameplay plans.

Location items – The items listed under your location include decorative items you can place in one of the four locations of the map. Click on “Beaver” for “Beaver Valley” in the image above you will see the various items you can purchase.
Note that there is an arrow on each side that takes you to additional pages of items you can purchase.

Upgrading Your Wagon Inventory

Your wagon is where you store your meat, parts, and medicine and you are allowed a maximum storage of 10 each when you begin playing The Pioneer Trail.
In order to increase your storage capacity you will need to upgrade your wagon.
Click on the wagon itself or on the inventory button in the settings menu to see how much of each item you have in your wagon and then click on the upgrade button at the bottom of the screen.

Now you will see a requirement list of all the supplies you will need to gather in order to upgrade the wagon.
You can purchase these supplies using horseshoes or you can request your friends to send them to you.
If you decide to ask friends for the supplies a post will be placed on your live feed and on your profile wall. Any friend that responds will send you one item and they will also receive that item in exchange for helping you.
You are only allowed to send out two requests every three hours so be sure to choose the item you have the least of first and be sure to put a message in the text box to increase the odds friends will respond.
Once you have all the item requirements met, click on “Finish” at the bottom and your wagon will now hold a higher number of supplies. The physical appearance of the wagon does not change.

Hidden Missions and Quests

Hidden missions are found only by your avatar character and are marked by a blue exclamation point symbol. (Also known as a “Shouty Mark.”) Each location on the map has eight hidden missions you must find and complete. You will have to find them in the correct order as some will not appear until others are completed.
Once you find one of the hidden missions click on the item and a list of tasks will appear.

As you complete tasks a green check mark will be placed to show progress. You can access your hidden mission and see your progress at any time by clicking on the icon along the left side of the game screen.
The last icon at the left side of the screen opens up a larger menu that holds all of your quests. You can change their order in this menu to control which ones show up on the left side of your screen.
As a mission or quest is completed it will disappear from the list and another one will appear.
Your character avatar will also be the only one to uncover trade scrolls and story scrolls.
As you make your way down the trail with your wagon you will be able to locate other hidden missions.
Be sure while using your avatar character in Beaver Valley that you search owl trees, wild lupine, blackberry bushes, and around the water for beavers and crayfish traps until you find all eight hidden missions.
Once you complete the final mission you will be able to move to the next location on the map where there will be new items to clear and eight new missions to complete (for each location) as you make your way to the final two locations on the trial map.

There are also normal quests in the game which also have icons located along the left side of the screen minus the blue exclamation point.
When these quests are completed you will see decorative items appear as the trail crew’s camp is built. You will see tents, campfires, and other things appear in the area as a reward for completing a quest in addition to other rewards of XP, coins, and trail points.
Completion of quests also unlocks items for purchase in trader Bart’s store, so be sure to check there after you complete a quest.

Scrolls

Trade scrolls – Trade scrolls are released only when your character avatar is clearing or collecting. Trade scrolls have a picture of a balance scale on them.
Click on the scroll and a trader menu will appear offering you a deal that you can accept or decline.
You may get a really great deal where you can get items you really need right away instead of having to use your crew members to get them. The image above shows a typical trade offer. You will have to take into consideration how many items you have in inventory and if it is wise to do the trade or skip it.
Trading is a great way to increase your quantity of prize tickets and hard to obtain supplies.

Story scrolls – When you see a story scroll it will have a question mark on it. Click on the scroll and read the brief story then answer the multiple choice question and submit your answer.

There are always three choices. If you choose the best answer you will earn the best reward which will consist of meat, medicine, parts, prize tickets, and trail points.
Story scrolls and trade scrolls seem to appear right after a new mission is revealed so make sure you keep your avatar character working on the trail until you have found all of them.
Clock scrolls – If you ever see a clock scroll click on it and it will show you a letter from Ezekiel, the young man that has been kidnapped by the Gratchett gang. These keep the storyline moving and give you clues that will help you rescue him and collect the reward once you reach your final trail location.

Your Trail Crew Jobs/Visiting Trail Boss

In addition to having friends work for you as one of your trail crew you can also work for your friends on their crew as either a doctor, hunter, or carpenter.
While in the The Pioneer Trail screen click on the “My Jobs” button at the lower left side near the neighbor menu.

You will now see a manage menu where all jobs you are assigned to will be listed.
Click on “Visit” and you will be taken to your first trail boss. You will be able to move directly to your next trail boss from their campsite if you prefer.
You will be able to visit each trail boss three times per 24 hour period and do five tasks for them each time you visit.
You must wait 45 minutes before you can visit your trail bosses for the second time and then eight hours before you can visit them the third time in a 24 hour period. There is a countdown clock at the top of the menu that will keep track of this for you.
Visiting is very important as rewards such as rations, prize tickets, meat, medicine, and wagon parts are given to you and your trail boss each time you visit.
The rewards you are given are highly influenced by the job you have. For example, if you are a doctor you will most likely receive medicine when you visit your trail boss along with the rations and prize tickets. When you are a hunter you will earn meat, and so on. In addition to either meat, medicine, or a part, you will also receive varying amounts of rations and prize tickets after you complete the five tasks for your trail bosses.
Tip – It is a good idea to try and take as many jobs as possible in each role so that you can maximize the number of free items you will earn per day from visiting your various trail bosses.

Performing five tasks for your trail boss – Now you will be taken to the trail of your trail boss. In the upper left side of the screen you will see tools with the number five next to it. You can perform five tasks for your trail bosses three times each in a 24 hour period. You can feed or groom animals, chop trees, and any of the other tasks you can do in your own trail location.
As you perform the tasks you will see trail points, coins, collectibles, and reputation points fly to the ground. Click or pass your cursor over these to add them to your totals.
Note – Coins and reputation points (hearts) collected will be added to your FrontierVille scores.
You will earn full rewards each of the three times you visit your trail bosses so be sure to do this daily and try to encourage as many friends as possible to hire you for their trail crew positions.

Once you complete your visit you will be asked if there is any specific items you want your trail boss to send to you. Check the items as shown in image above and send. This will post a message on your neighbor’s wall requesting that they send you this item. (Be sure to watch your wall for requests sent to you by your trail crew members so you can return the favor.)

Next you will be rewarded with either one medicine, meat, or wagon part in addition to varying amounts of rations and prize tickets for helping your trail boss with the five tasks. Be sure to click on “Accept.”
At the bottom of the screen there is a link to return to either your homestead in FrontierVille, to your next trail boss, or back to your current trail location.

Collections

You can access the collections menu at the bottom right of the game screen by clicking on the satchel icon and when the menu expands upward click on “Collections.”
There are several collections under this menu and some belong to your homestead and some belong to the other three locations on the trail map.

Gathering collectibles – You will only be able to gather collectibles for collections pertaining to the trail you are in.
When you send a character out to clear or collect an item on the trail you will see collectibles thrown out. These will add to the inventory and when you have collected one each of the items in a collection you will earn the reward associated with it. The item will appear in a brief menu at the upper right side of the game screen as shown in image above.
Be sure to look through the menu and be aware of what you need. You can also place items in your wishlist just like you can with FrontierVille. Note that you have a different wish list for each location.

Collecting rewards for completed collections – Click on the “Collect” button when it highlights and add your rewards to your running totals.
After you finish a collection you can start over and collect it over again as many times as you want. (The word “Completed” will always be next to a collection after it is collected the first time.)
Many of the collections are associated with badges so be sure to read through them so you know where to focus your character when clearing or collecting items on the trail.
Collections are a great way to earn large amounts of prize tickets fast so be sure to familiarize yourself with the collections of the location you are working in. You should be able to tell based on the items in the collection. (For example, wild lupine is only found in Beaver Valley so you will know that the “Wild Lupine Collection”is a collection you can complete while you are in Beaver Valley.)

Congratulations!

You have completed the quick start guide for The Pioneer Trail, the newest addition to FrontierVille, developed by Zynga. Be sure to check back often for game updates, staff and user reviews, user tips, forum comments, and much more here at Gamezebo.