New Release -- December 22nd, 2012

[Gregh]

Just a few observations that may help people understand how to get the most out of the Chest!

It only works when you hire strangers, not when you hire neighbours or buddies.

It only works when you hire from the Marketplace. If you hire someone on the farm, the Chest will not appear!

The Chest pops after you start each task you are hired for. Thus it appears after you do some fish, then again after you do some trees, and so on.

Collect your bonus when your avatar finishes working and before changing tools. If you select another tool before taking the bonus, it vanishes and you won't be able to get it back for that task. It will reappear and start accumulating again from zero when you start the next task. [Correction: it sometimes remembers the previous total, usually forgets it. I haven't figured out the rule yet. Best to play safe and claim your bonus before moving to the next farm.]

[Added: Sometimes after the avatar finishes the reward looks complete, but if you click on the chest, wait a second, then click on it again, it may add a bit more to the total.]

If you leave the farm before claiming the bonus, it vanishes - it is not cumulative between farms. [Correction: it may sometimes accumulate if you're doing the same task on each farm. However this is not reliable and it's best to assume that if you don't collect it before leaving the farm, you lose it.]

Even if you claim a bonus for one task you can still claim another bonus for the next task. Thus if you claim a fish bonus you can still also claim a tree bonus.

It works farm by farm for each individual farm. If you are hired to fish six farms you can claim up to six fish bonuses - one on each farm with fish.

If you use a multi-task tool (i.e. a Combine h/p) you get both the money and crop share for harvesting and the XPs for plowing, in the same Chest. Nice!

Disclaimer - these are just my observations, which I am updating as I go. I'm posting them now so they may help others, but as they are notes made "in the heat of battle" I may get some details wrong.