Guide:Farming

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Basic Guide to Farming

Food is a requirement for all characters on Survival or Hardcore difficulty; without it, characters will eventually starve and die. A safe and sustainable way to obtain food (alongside some other farmable products) is to farm it, both from crops and animals.

For full detail about the different crops and animals available, see the Crops page.

Crop Farming

Crop farming relies on the planting of seeds in soil in order to grow various products. Most of these are foodstuffs, while some are used in crafting, such as Cotton Fibre.

  1. The minimum requirements for farming crops are a Hoe and Wooden Watering Can, as well as some seeds. Farming tools are crafted at the Foraging Table.
  2. Having obtained these tools, the next step is to till an area of any valid soil by left-clicking on each block with your hoe.
  3. Plant the seeds, taking note that some larger plants, like corn or tomatoes, will require a wider space between seeds than small plants like rice and carrots.
  4. Use a watering can to water the area of the farm, taking care that all soil blocks underneath a plant have been wet. Watered soil is notably darker than dry soil.
    • It is advisable to make a farm on a planet with frequent rain, as this will alleviate some of the required watering of the farm.
    • The planet types on which one of the three weather conditions which water crops (Drizzle, Rain or Storm) are:
      1. Garden
      2. Forest
      3. Ocean
      4. Savannah
      5. Jungle
    • Of these, Ocean is not practical for farming as it does not offer large land areas. Garden and Forest planets can be considered ideal, as they are the biomes on which all 3 rain conditions can occur, Jungle has 2 out of 3 chances for rain, and Savannah has only one.
  5. As your plants grow, take care to keep watering them; each stage of growth consumes the water under the plant, drying the soil and requiring more water to continue growth. For plants that do not break when harvested (eg. corn and tomatoes), growing a harvestable product also counts as such a stage of growth.

In order to expand a crop farm, more seeds will be required. Seeds are primarily acquired by exploring planets and harvesting the native plants.

After gaining access to Tungsten Bars, a player can create a Watering Can, which is faster and has a greater range compared to its wooden counterpart.

Once the player has upgraded their Foraging Table to an Agricultural Station, Sprinklers can be constructed, allowing for the automation of the watering process. Sprinklers water an area 15 blocks from either side of the 2 blocks which they occupy, and require 8 blocks of height clearance (from the ground they are placed on) in order for the water droplets to reach the full area.

Animal Farming

Animal farming provides a safe means of obtaining crafting materials normally dropped by elemental enemies (Cryonic Extracts, Static Cells, Scorched Cores, and Venom Samples), as well as some miscellaneous crafting ingredients and food crafting ingredients primarily obtained via animal farming. All animal eggs are purchased from Terramart.

  1. Having obtained at least one egg, place it in the area chosen for animal farming. An enclosure to prevent animals escaping is advisable, but otherwise no requirements exist, and the only means to kill farm animals is with lava, so one does not need to worry about enemies killing them.
  2. After about 5 minutes, the egg will begin to shake, and when interacted with, it will hatch a baby creature. This will grow into an adult animal after another delay.
  3. Once farm animals have matured, they will begin producing their related product. Every farm animal has a distinct visual change to inform that it can be harvested, and can be interacted with to harvest its product.