How to Get Gift Cards on Hay Day FAST (2023)

Gift cards are a special currency that can be earned in Hay Day, the popular farming game for mobile devices. They allow you to purchase a variety of unique items and are considered very valuable by players. But where do gift cards come from and why are they so useful in Hay Day?

In Hay Day, you grow crops and raise animals on your own farm. You also help fulfill orders for crops, animal products, and other goods to earn coins. However, some special items like decorations, mystery boxes, and booster items can only be bought with gift cards. That’s why gift cards are so prized.

Gift cards cannot be purchased directly. You can only get them as rewards by helping out your Hay Day friends and fulfilling boat orders. When you revive dead trees or bushes on your friends’ farms, they reward you with a gift card. You can also get gift cards in the mail when you fill boat orders that come into the dock.

The amount of gift cards given as rewards is random. Sometimes you may get 5 or 10 gift cards from a boat order or dead tree. Other times you’ll get materials like screws and wood planks instead. But over time, collecting gift cards from friends and boat orders adds up. It allows you to buy exclusive items you couldn’t get otherwise.

Having a large network of Hay Day friends increases your chances of getting gift cards. More friends means more farms with dead trees and bushes to revive. Fulfilling boat orders whenever you can also helps. The more orders you fill, the more potential thank-you letters with gift cards you receive.

Gift cards are capped at 500 in Hay Day. Once you reach the limit, any additional gift cards earned go into your mailbox overflow. You need to spend some gift cards from your main balance first before the overflow cards transfer over.

Managing your gift card income and expenditures takes some strategy. You want to minimize gift card overflow while saving up enough to buy the rare items you want. It may take weeks or months to accumulate the 370 gift cards needed for a Sanctuary animal like a donkey.

In summary, gift cards are the unique currency of Hay Day that allow you to purchase special items. You can’t buy them outright, only earn them through helping friends and fulfilling boat orders. Having a large friend network and filling orders regularly helps increase your gift card income. With some patience and management, you’ll eventually save up for that prized decor or animal. Gift cards require effort to accumulate but make it possible to get cool new stuff for your farm.

Methods of getting gift cards in Hay Day

There are two main methods of collecting the coveted gift cards in Hay Day: reviving dead trees/bushes on your friends’ farms and helping with boat orders at the dock. Let’s explore these in more detail:

A. Reviving dry Gift Cards on Hay Day

Over time, trees and bushes on your friends’ Hay Day farms may turn dry and dead looking when they haven’t been revived in a while. Bringing them back to life provides a chance to earn gift cards. Here’s how it works:

Find dry trees and bushes on your friends’ farms

Tap the Friends icon at the bottom of the Hay Day screen to go to your Friends Barns list.
Visit each friend’s farm by tapping their portrait picture.
Scan their farm for any dead-looking trees or bushes. These will be darkened in color instead of the lush green of healthy plants.
Dead trees are easiest to spot when fully zoomed out. Look for dark blob shapes among the orchards and forests.
Bushes sometimes blend in more, but you can identify them by their shape – dead bushes will be black raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.
The Revival signpost also indicates a dead tree/bush nearby. It’s a tall white sign with an exclamation point.

Tap the signpost with an exclamation point

When you find a dead tree or bush, look for the nearby white Revival signpost.
Tap directly on this signpost to bring up the Revival button.
If there’s no signpost, try tapping in the general area of the dead plant. The Revival button should pop up.
The Revival button will be gold and say “Revive.” Tap it to restore the tree or bush.

Wait for your friend to collect the gift card

After tapping Revive, the tree or bush will be instantly restored to full green health.
A Vision Bubble will appear and float back to the farm’s house. This indicates you sent a gift card to your friend.
For you to earn coins and XP, the friend must collect the gift card from their house.
The amount of coins and XP is random per revive. You’ll get 5-15 coins and 100-500 XP.
Keep reviving additional dead plants on the farm to send more gift cards.
You can check your Friendship level screen later to see if your revives were collected. The blue Friendship meter will have filled up a bit more when they were.

So in summary, tapping dead plants brings them back to life and gifts your friend some gift cards. To benefit yourself, you need the friend to actively collect the gift cards from their house. Having a large network of friends gives you more chances to find dead plants and earn rewards.

B. Helping with boat orders

The boat dock brings in a steady stream of orders from customers needing crops, products, and materials. Fulfilling these orders gives thanks in the form of gift cards.

Go to the boat dock and tap on a boat order

The boat dock is located on the lower right corner of your main Hay Day farm.
When a boat arrives, a red notification pops up. Tap it to go to the dock.
Tap directly on the order form on the boat’s bow to open it. Don’t tap the boat itself.
You’ll see crates showing the items needed to fulfill that order.

Fill the crates with the required items

Each crate will request a certain amount of crops, products, fish, or materials.
Tap on a crate to open your barn inventory and select items to add.
Crops can be harvested right from your fields. Tap the crate again to switch back to your farm.
Keep filling all the crates until the order form shows the Boat icon.
Try to fill every crate to complete the order fully.

Wait for the boat to leave

After filling the last crate, tap the check mark button to close the order form.
This signals the boat to prepare its shipment and depart.
You’ll earn coins right away based on how many crates you filled.
Wait for the boat to sail off the dock with crates stacked on board.
A green check mark will appear when the boat has left. Your boat order is complete!

Receive a thank-you letter with a chance of getting a gift card

A few minutes after the boat departs, you’ll get a thank-you letter in your mailbox.
Tap the mailbox notification to open and read the letter.
You may find gift cards attached as a reward for helping with the order!
The number of gift cards rewarded is completely random per boat order.
Sometimes you get construction materials instead of gift cards from the letter.
Thank-you letters often give useful items like bolts, duct tape, axes, etc. So it’s still worthwhile.
Helping with many boat orders over time increases your chances of earning gift cards from the mail.

Fulfilling boat orders is fun and earns good rewards. Focusing on orders requesting common crops you have planted gives the best return. With some luck, those thank-you letters will steadily fill your gift card balance!

Tips for getting more gift cards

Let’s go over some tips to maximize your gift card earnings in Hay Day:

A. Have a lot of friends

The more in-game friends you have, the more farms you can visit looking for dead trees and bushes to revive.
With 200 friends versus 20 friends, you have 10x more farms full of potential dead plants and gift cards!
Aim to fill up your entire Friends Barns list with 200 active players. Remove inactive friends over time.
Post your friend code on social media sites like Facebook to recruit new friends.
Join the Hay Day Discord server and share your code in the friend finder channels.
Check the Newspaper daily and add new players who posted looking for friends.
Participate in events to earn friend vouchers you can use to instantly add new friends.

B. Check your friends’ farms regularly

Make visiting friends’ farms part of your daily Hay Day routine.
Scan all their orchards, fields, and decoration areas thoroughly for dead trees and bushes.
When you find dead plants to revive, keep tapping to revive all of them on that farm. This maximizes your gift card rewards.
Prioritize friends who play actively and constantly have new content on their farms to check. They will likely have more dead plants in need of reviving.
Remove friends who seem to have abandoned their farms because they will rarely have anything to revive.

C. Help with boat orders as often as possible

Check the dock as soon as you see the red boat notification. Don’t let orders wait long.
Fulfill every crate of every order you can. Never leave empty crates if you have the items requested.
Plant a high volume of fast-growing crops like wheat to have a steady supply for boat orders.
Produce lots of products like fruit juices, flours, cakes, and ice creams to fill boat crates faster.
Invest in production buildings to multiply your output. More items on hand means more crates you can fill.
Check the dock throughout the day. Set a timer if needed to remind you to check back often.
Ignore boat orders you lack critical items for, and quickly move on to ones you can complete.

Following these tips diligently over time will noticeably increase your daily gift card income. You’ll be saving up for expensive items in no time!

Gift cards are the unique and valuable currency in Hay Day that let you buy special decorations, animals, and mystery items for your farm. Unlike coins earned from harvesting and selling, gift cards can only be obtained as rewards from helping friends or fulfilling boat orders. This guide covered the main methods for collecting gift cards, along with tips to earn them faster.

We discussed how reviving dead trees and bushes on your friends’ farms gifts them with a random number of gift cards, which in turn rewards you with coins and XP. That’s why visiting friends regularly to check for dead plants is worthwhile. The more friends you actively cultivate relationships with through chatting and helping, the more gift card opportunities.

Helping with boat orders was the other productive source of potential gift cards. Fulfilling every crate of orders with crops, products, materials, and fish sends those goods off to grateful customers. Soon after, you receive a thankful letter in the mail that may randomly contain gift cards. Doing boat orders daily and quickly is key to maximizing your chances of earning gift cards this way.

Growing your friend network, diligently checking their farms, and speedily assisting boat orders were some tips shared. Following this advice leads to more frequent gift cards, which helps you save up over time for exciting farm upgrades. Avoid wasting gift cards so the amounts you earn go towards the game items you truly want.

Patience and persistence are required to accumulate the full 500 gift card balance available in Hay Day. But the rewards are worth it, with rare animals like zebras and giraffes only purchasable with gift cards. It may take time to save up the 270 cards required for that prized Sanctuary expansion, but you’ll get there.

Gift cards represent the social, cooperative side of Hay Day. They specifically come from helping friends and community visitors. Keep that spirit of assistance and friendly collaboration going, while employing this guide’s advice, and your gift card income will grow steadily. Soon you’ll show off your expanded Sanctuary full of rescued animals, epic decorations, and other rewards that only gift cards can unlock in this fun, fulfilling farming journey.