Powerlevel Farming Skill (not Technology) Early Ideas? (Updated)

[Onikage]

I start and restart villages a lot, once the village is up and automated I don't have fun so I'm usually playing just the first year. The one part of it that is really monotonous and slow is the Farming part. I use Fast Crafting and Fast Building just to save time but getting Farmer Trance asap is super helpful and I usually don't have that until Summer so I've been reading the Wiki and trying to think of a good way, especially on the first day, to get the Farming Skill up quickly. I usually let the Villagers do the Seeding for the 8x8 fields and my next goal is 256 Flax Plots, 64 Wheat and 64 Poppy (6 fields total)

Grubbing up plots goes pretty fast and lets you get the Barn and Farm Shed easily, but its not getting enough Skill points. I saw that stuff you do in the Barn also counts towards farming skill. My next plan is to try either Rye, Oat or Wheat and Thresh it to get the Grain and then Mill it into Flour, then sell the Flour to get the other grains and repeat the process, most likely at a low enough coin loss that its affordable.

Any other ideas or tricks that have worked for you guys?


UPDATE: Threshing gives very few points, Grinding/Quern actually does give a decent amount. For a Cost Benefit, since now Wheat, Rye and Oats are all the same price (at least in Oxbow) Wheat is the best. 7 Wheat cost me 7.5 Each for 52 Total, which turned into 10 Wheat Grain. 10 Wheat Grain turns into 20 Flour and 20 Flour sells for 40 Silver, so you're taking a 25% loss on your Coin.
Threshing gives 0.2 Skill Points per cycle, Quern gives 1.0 Skill Point per Cycle

Since I'd need to get Level 3 Farming to be able to spend any points in Farmer Trance, thats roughly 2,000 Wheat I'd need to buy and that's not possible from Vendors in the first season

UPDATE-2: Buying Oats, Rye and Wheat. Threshing all 3 into Grain, turning the Oat+Rye+Straw into Animal Feed is breaking even plus more points from Wheat to Flour. Currently Level 3 Farming with over half of Spring left. Will update at end of Season

[AfLIcTeD]

Grubbing fields is by far the fastest since all you need is a hoe. It's just boring.

[Onikage]

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

Grubbing fields is by far the fastest since all you need is a hoe. It's just boring.

Yeah not to mention all the stopping to let stamina come back. That's part of why I'm hoping the Thresh+Grind method will be not only faster but less boring.

[AfLIcTeD]

Originally posted by Onikage:

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

Grubbing fields is by far the fastest since all you need is a hoe. It's just boring.

Yeah not to mention all the stopping to let stamina come back. That's part of why I'm hoping the Thresh+Grind method will be not only faster but less boring.

I play with stamina off so I didn't think about that. Only thing with the other methods is you need resources to do it. Which can take time to get and ultimately being slower.

[Onikage]

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

Originally posted by Onikage:

Yeah not to mention all the stopping to let stamina come back. That's part of why I'm hoping the Thresh+Grind method will be not only faster but less boring.

I play with stamina off so I didn't think about that. Only thing with the other methods is you need resources to do it. Which can take time to get and ultimately being slower.

Not really? They're sold in the starting town and Ostoya (which someone has pointed out has a free large backpack and pouch nearby in an abandoned camp) which I travel to anyway to sell the stuff I steal from Mira. I'm debating what to do with some of the grain tho, since its Spring and can be planted.

The cost to buy it tho might be a problem. Getting a Iron Axe early saves a ton of time and not being able to buy it is potentially gonna be a bad trade but we'll see. I'm trying it on a new save

[Schalimah]

Animal feed gives 3 faming skill XP per craft if I am not mistaken.
For one rye grain, one oat grain and 5 straw.
I think it is the fastest way to level yourself.
NPCs seem to not level well with it though.

[Barmy Nimrod]

Early game, one of the first things I do is set up a 16X16 flax field. I sell roasted meet to buy everything I need to get to the field to seeded. I do everything myself, even before building a barn. Then I build a barn, farm shed and two compost bins. My second villager is always a farmer. (my first is a lumberjack, I hate cutting down trees). I will stick with those two villagers all the way to having the extraction shed. Every other production building I build, I do all the work. My wife is always the first villager, working the woodshed. My fifth villager will be my wife's replacement when my child is born. Only then do I start building a serious village somewhere else on the map.

In Oxbow I started by the mine on the lake near Klonica. The main village will be around the big waterfall near Ostoya.

[Onikage]

Originally posted by Schalimah:

Animal feed gives 3 faming skill XP per craft if I am not mistaken.
For one rye grain, one oat grain and 5 straw.
I think it is the fastest way to level yourself.
NPCs seem to not level well with it though.

The animal feed idea seems to be the best so far, getting the technology level to unlock it isn't difficult and I can probably get it skilled so Night 2 can do the work needed so the villagers can just seed the fields on Day 3

[Onikage]

Originally posted by Barmy Nimrod:

Early game, one of the first things I do is set up a 16X16 flax field. I sell roasted meet to buy everything I need to get to the field to seeded. I do everything myself, even before building a barn. Then I build a barn, farm shed and two compost bins. My second villager is always a farmer. (my first is a lumberjack, I hate cutting down trees). I will stick with those two villagers all the way to having the extraction shed. Every other production building I build, I do all the work. My wife is always the first villager, working the woodshed. My fifth villager will be my wife's replacement when my child is born. Only then do I start building a serious village somewhere else on the map.

In Oxbow I started by the mine on the lake near Klonica. The main village will be around the big waterfall near Ostoya.

You know this isn't a bad idea. There's a lot of open land directly north of Piastovia and not needing to clear anything, just build the farm plots and then farm shed, plus 2 houses for the workers for the farm and then build the rest of the village where I normally do (the cave just outside of eastern Piastovia) would work out really well.
Getting the resource shed near the cave like normally, all the farm stuff can be supplied from there...

[Oga]

Up the exp gain setting for the player if you just want fast levels on it.
Still allows you to build and automate your new village but without having the bother of all the slow skill leveling.

Easiest way 'round

[Onikage]

Originally posted by Oga:

Up the exp gain setting for the player if you just want fast levels on it.
Still allows you to build and automate your new village but without having the bother of all the slow skill leveling.

Easiest way 'round

I'm already using Fast Craft and Fast Build, I'm not gonna add another Boost but I appreciate the feedback

[Oga]

Understandable, I'm afraid plowing and fertilizing is the way to go then

[Onikage]

Originally posted by Schalimah:

Animal feed gives 3 faming skill XP per craft if I am not mistaken.
For one rye grain, one oat grain and 5 straw.
I think it is the fastest way to level yourself.
NPCs seem to not level well with it though.

Ok the Animal Feed is really working out, because I'm almost making a profit buying the Oat/Rye and turning them into Grain then Feed. I'm using Wheat to supplement the Straw also since it will become flour at a minor loss. Day 2 of the Early Afternoon and lvl 3 Farming already. Thanks again for that suggestion!