Guide to Farming

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A Small Farm

Overview

Farming is a renewable source of raw resources.

One of the best ways to provide food to feed your villagers, is to farm. Using Small Farm, Plantation, Herb Garden, Brineworks or Forester's Hut, Viceroys can farm the following resources on Farm Fields:

How to Place a Farm

In order to farm, Viceroys need two things:

The availability of Fertile Soil is random, just like the availability of Gathering Nodes, and is dependent on various factors:

  • The Marshlands and Rocky Ravine biomes have a low Fertile Soil availability compared to other biomes.
  • The Bamboo Flats start with no Fertile Soil at all, but taking care of the biome's unique Fluffbeak will allow you to manually construct plots of Fertile Soil.
  • The Fertile Grounds and Barren Soil modifiers boost and prevent Fertile Soil availability, respectively.
  • The Soil Reclamation positive Forest Mystery creates multiple tiles of Fertile Soil for each depleted Gathering Node.
  • The Humans Humans Starting Ability reveals the location of the nearest undiscovered plot of Fertile Soil. This ability has no benefit on maps that start with no Fertile Soil to begin with.

Once these two things are acquired, Viceroys should first build the farming building and then navigate to the icon, click on it, and select "Farm Field" option.

Creating Farm Fields
Adding a Farming Building

On the left we can the "Farm Fields" option selected. Navigate to the patch of Fertile Soil, and click and drag to convert it to Farm Fields. Your builders will then construct a Farm Field on top of every selected tile of Fertile Soil.

On the right, we navigate back to the icon and select the farm building, in this example, a Small Farm is used. Place the farming building next to the Farm Fields, making sure that the bounds of the farming building encompass as many of the Farm Fields as possible. Sometimes, a single farming building is not going to be able to cover all of the Farm Fields near it. This is especially common before you acquire the First Dawn Headquarters 12 upgrade.

Seasons and Farming

When the seasons change, so does the tasks your farmers perform on the farms.

  • During Drizzle: Farmers plant crops.
  • During Clearance: Farmers harvest crops.
  • During the Storm: Farmers plow the fields, adding a 10% chance of double yields.

Each plowed field has a sparkling effect that lasts till end of Drizzle. If something was planted in a plowed field, the effect will last till end of Clearance instead.

Maximizing Production

Depending on Hearth and Warehouse placement, farmer carrying capacity, and internal storage capacity, one farmer can only plant 5-6 Farm Field tiles and harvest 4-5, it is thus advisable to add a second farm building to any field with more than 10 workable tiles and employ a 3rd farmer to work the land during Drizzle and Clearance season.

Farming tasks do not benefit from production speed increases (e.g. the Neighborhood Hearth bonus). Instead, specific Cornerstones, Perks and Effects exist that can boost the speed of planting or harvesting crops. Since harvesting crops is less efficient than planting crops due to the hauling involved, harvest speed boosting perks like Obsidian Sickles are more useful than planting speed boosts. Similarly, the Clearance Totem perk, which increases the length of the Clearance season, is more helpful than the Drizzle Totem perk since more time to finish harvesting is more valuable.

Humans Humans have the Farming Farming specialization, meaning when they plant crops while working in farms other than the Forester's Hut, they add an additional 10% chance of double yields. Beavers Beavers gain a 10% chance of double yields when planting in the Forester's Hut due to their Woodworking Woodworking specialization. Farming yields are calculated during planting, so Viceroys can use Humans Humans or Beavers Beavers for planting and any other species for the rest of the seasons.

For best possible yields on your farms, assign the appropriate species, have the Farming Fields plowed by the start of Drizzle, have a Hearth and a Small Warehouse in the immediate vicinity of the farm, a carrying capacity bonus like Harpies Harpies Firekeeper's Light as a Feather, and provide each farmer with their own farming building to maximize internal storage available. Planting and especially harvesting speed bonuses, for example Humans Humans' level 2 Housing Upgrade, will also have a major effect.

Other Uses for Fertile Soil

Once the Greenhouse and Clay Pit are unlocked, Viceroys can place them on Fertile Soil to start producing goods such as Mushrooms Mushrooms, Herbs Herbs, Clay Clay and Reed Reed. Growing Vegetables Vegetables is possible in the Greenhouse when the "Moss Broccoli Seeds" Cornerstone is acquired. The Clay Pit can also produce Stone Stone with the "Steel Mattocks" Cornerstone.

Cornerstones and Perks affecting Farming

19 Perks with selected IDs
Name Rarity Description Sources Price
Alt Cor Ord Rel Tra Dec Por Fir Ser Bio
Advanced Herbalism Advanced Herbalism Rare +25% to amount of goods produced in the Herb Garden. x x Ord x x x x x x x 0
Advanced Herbalism Advanced Herbalism Epic +50% to amount of goods produced in the Herb Garden. x Cor x x x x x x x x 0
Back to Nature Back to Nature Legendary An old, forbidden ritual. Increases yields by 100% in all buildings that use fertile soil. You will lose all stored food (cooked and raw) upon choosing this cornerstone. x Cor x x x x x x x x 0
Back to Nature (Stormforged) Back to Nature (Stormforged) Mythic An old, forbidden ritual. Gain +150% more yield in all buildings that use fertile soil. Alt x x x x x x x x x 0
Biscuit Diet Biscuit Diet Epic A farmer's favorite food. Farmers have a +100% chance of producing double yields when under the effect of Biscuits biscuits. x Cor x x x x Por x x x 0
Farmer's Pack Farmer's Pack Uncommon Any Farmer can carry 5 additional items. x x Ord x Tra x Por x x x 16
Farmer's Pack Farmer's Pack Rare Any Farmer can carry 10 additional items. x x Ord Rel x x Por x x x 0
Farming Tools Farming Tools Epic +50% to amount of goods produced in the Small Farm. x Cor x x x x x x x x 0
Fertilizer Fertilizer Uncommon Planting crops is 30% faster. x x Ord Rel x x Por x x x 0
Hunter-Gatherers Hunter-Gatherers Legendary All gathering camp production is increased by 100%, but all buildings that use fertile soil have their yields decreased by 50%. Bonus does not affect the Woodcutters' Camp. x Cor x x x x x x x x 0
Industrialized Agriculture Industrialized Agriculture Epic +50% to amount of goods produced in the Forester's Hut. x Cor x x x x x x x x 0
Large Baskets Large Baskets Rare +25% to amount of goods produced in the Plantation. x x Ord x x x x x x x 0
Large Baskets Large Baskets Epic +50% to amount of goods produced in the Plantation. x Cor x x x x x x x x 0
Mushroom Seedlings Mushroom Seedlings Legendary All farms can plant Mushrooms mushrooms (★★) on farm fields during drizzle season. x Cor x x x x Por x x x 0
Mushroom Seedlings (Stormforged) Mushroom Seedlings (Stormforged) Mythic All farms can plant Mushrooms Mushrooms (★★) on farm fields during drizzle season. Planting and harvesting crops is 50% faster. Alt x x x x x x x x x 0
Obsidian Sickles Obsidian Sickles Uncommon Harvesting crops is 25% faster. x x Ord Rel Tra x Por x x x 12
Old Ghran's Technique Old Ghran's Technique Rare +25% to amount of goods produced in the Small Farm. x x Ord x x x x x x x 0
Rooty Ground Rooty Ground Legendary Strange roots spread across the land. Wood Wood production is increased by +1, but harvesting and planting are 25% slower. x Cor x x x x x x x x 0
Seed Pouch Seed Pouch Uncommon Planting crops is 25% faster. x x Ord x Tra x Por x x x 12