Farming

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The Farming System is a pseudo Artisan skill that uses the FARM verb.

There are three types of farms and gardens available to players: rental crofts, community farms and gardens, and privately owned farms and gardens, which are attached to private properties.

Rental crofts can be leased by visiting a local farming freehold, such as the Merrymead Stead in Icemule Trace. There, you can lease your own farm space from the freehold for a term of 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months. Only you and members of your group can access this land while the lease stands. Once the lease ends, your farmland will be forfeit, but you can renew it early for a fractional cost. Rental crofts come with 3 plots, but you can unlock up to 6 total plots, which will remain in place until the termination of your lease. When speaking to the NPC, you'll want to ASK {npc} ABOUT RENTAL for information.

Community farms and gardens are available in or near some towns. You can plant up to one crop in a given room of a community farm or garden, when available, and cannot remove plants placed there by other players. You can, however, harvest them. Community farms and gardens are limited to 4 plots per room.

One-room privately owned farms or gardens are an upgrade to private properties. These come with 2 plots of land, but can be expanded up to 6 plots for a fee.

Seeds

Your crops begin as a variety of seeds, sections, or cuttings depending on what you are trying to grow. Common crops can be purchased from your local farming freehold, while rarer ones will be available from specialized merchants, quests, and the treasure system.

You can use the FARM HARVEST command on yields (fruits, vegetables, etc.) to try and render a seed from them, but doing so runs the risk of destroying your yield with no gain.

Tools

Farming and gardening requires a variety of different tools. The most common ones are listed below:

Tool !Definition !Purpose
dibble	Small, pointed handheld tool for making holes in soil.	Making holes for planting seeds.
trowel	Small handheld shovel.	Planting small cuttings; digging up root vegetables.
spade	Larger shovel.	Planting larger cuttings.
shears	Gardening scissors.	Harvesting fruits and vegetables by cutting them free.
scythe	Bladed hand tool.	Harvesting crops with strong stalks.
rake	Tool for preparing soil.	Prepares soil for planting.
watering can	A refillable can meant to sprinkle water.	Keeping soil moist.
fertilizer	Consumable for enriching an empty plot.	Restores nutrient-poor soil.
totem of plenty	Statue, usually of Kuon, Aeia, Imaera, or Oleani.	Boosts yield count.
totem of vigor	Statue, usually of Kuon, Aeia, Imaera, or Oleani.	Makes plants grow faster.
totem of life	Statue, usually of Kuon, Aeia, Imaera, or Oleani.	Prevents plant aging and death for a time.
goldberry potion	Potion made from goldberries, honey, and more.	Boosts farming skill.

Different plants require different tools to plant and harvest. For example, a grape cutting will require a spade to dig a hole big enough for it, while a spade would be ill-suited to plant some small zucchini seeds. Those would instead need a dibble.

Tools can help you farm better. Similar to weapons and armor, tools have quality levels ranging from +0 to +50. These tools are available for purchase at freeholds.

Use will cause tools to degrade in durability until they break. You can visit a blacksmith at a freehold and ASK {npc} ABOUT REPAIR while holding a tool to assess how much it will be to repair it. The cost of tool repairs is based on how much durability has been lost.

Totems are a special type of tool. These are more expensive than the average farming implements due to their magical nature. Once placed in a farm or garden, they remain there until they run out of magical energy, at which point they crumble. Totems occasionally pulse with magic to boost various facets of the farming experience.

Ranks and Perks

If you keep farming, you'll become more and more experienced at it over time. You can earn farming perks upon reaching level 10, 25, 50, and 100 in artisan farming. Perks can be viewed and managed using FARM PERKS.

Perks include:

1 Heedful Harvester

Heedful Harvester: Your caution while harvesting crops rewards you with additional yields.

2 Seed Collector

Seed Collector: You have an increased chance at success when harvesting seeds from yields.

3 Farmer's Almanac

Farmer's Almanac: You will see additional information when using FARM SENSE.

4 Swords to Plowshares

Swords to Plowshares: Your farming tools last longer between repairs.

5 Verdant Touch

Verdant Touch: You have an increased chance to plant healthy crops.

HOW TO FARM AND GARDEN

When you enter an appropriate farm or garden, you'll see at a glance how many plots of land are present. They'll be in one of several states: a plant will be growing above or below the ground, the plot will be rough dirt, or it will be tilled soil ready for planting.

Tilling soil requires a rake. Once you've tilled soil, you'll select a seed or cutting and the right planting tool, and then you'll use FARM PLANT {object} to begin planting. Planting requires an artisan skill check that takes into account factors like your artisan farming rank, the Verdant Touch perk, whether or not you are under the effects of a goldberry potion, and a random roll. Don't worry about failing: you'll still plant your seed or cutting, but it will start off less healthy than it would if you succeeded. You're expected to fail at first.

Once you've finished planting, you should check to ensure that you've planted a healthy crop by LOOKing at it. Unhealthy crops will lose health points over time and won't progress to their next stage of growth. A crop that is in dry soil will need to be watered using a watering can, while blight or infestations of insects might require special potions to counteract.

Plants will start as freshly planted, then nascent plants, then full-grown plants. Once full-grown, you can harvest the plant using FARM HARVEST {plant}. Harvesting a plant produces a yield, typically a fruit, vegetable, or flower.

A plant can only be harvested a certain number of times before it will need to regenerate. Over time, the plant will age, losing health, but it can be kept alive indefinitely by placing a totem of life in your garden.

See Also

• [Discussion: Farming System]