Cactus Island (A Settlement Experiment)

[GameAddict]

The Pawnbroker will pay 2500 coins for one stack of cactus. I want to see if a small and simple settlement dedicated to farming cactus could be transformed into a COIN EMPIRE!

Cactus Island has 4 settlers in a minimal settlement with storage for cactus, food, and other items they may loot.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3348416144
The island is small and I believe the settlers can reach all areas of the cactus forest. If they struggle, I will relocate their homes.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3348417136
I planted about 3 stacks of cactus over the entire island. The settlers are set for maximum forestry and minimal hauling. They may struggle to survive against the raiders, but it will be a small group and they are cheap to replace.

Mainly I want to see if a cactus farm can produce a worthwhile amount of coins without much work by me, so I can keep my focus on my primary settlement and settlers. I will report the results from Cactus Island here for anybody who is interested in my weird and wacky experiment!

[GameAddict]

Results of the Cactus Island Experiment

- On game day 1 = settler happiness is 100 (actually 135) so productivity is high and settlers take the fewest breaks. Brought gourmet food from main settlement.
- After 3 game days = no raiders yet, 20 stacks of cactus harvested & replanted by settlers. Their homes were badly located so I moved them to a more central location. Settlers can reach the outer areas of the island now ... woohoo!
- After 5 game days = no raiders yet, 50 stacks of cactus harvested & replanted by settlers.
- After 7 game days = no raiders yet, 60 stacks of cactus worth 150,000 coins so far. Aside from initial setup, planting cactus, and relocating settlers' homes (which was my own fault duh), I have needed to do nothing.
- As of game day 10 = Cactus Island generated over 2 storage boxes of cactus plus a few map fragments and arrows. The 200K+ earnings were slightly reduced because I had to rebuild/relocate the housing.

- FINAL RESULTS - I had to do the initial setup but now the 4 settlers handle it all. They have constant 100 happiness (actually 135) because of room size, quantity of furniture, gourmet food, and no overcrowding, so they don't take many breaks. At the beginning, I borrowed 6 stacks of gourmet food from my primary settlement. Those stacks are a little smaller, but this food will last a long time. I still don't have all the data on Raiders but the number of raiders will be low, based on having only 4 settlers. If settlers die, I can easily afford to hire new villagers with the cactus profits.

- SUMMARY - It would be easy for a newish player to setup their own Cactus Island settlement early in Necesse, with 1 settler and a small cactus forest that could be expanded later. They would only need a pick, an axe, and a wooden boat to travel to a desert island to start harvesting and planting cactus. This is one of the simplest coin farms I've done in any of the many games I have played. It is fast, cheap, and easy to build.

I had a lot of fun conducting this experiment for a break from incursions. I hope somebody enjoyed reading about it. If I get super lucky, somebody will try it. If you do, let me know how it goes! :)

[roy2x]

wouldnt farming normally be good as well? the farmer buys wheat at 9-10 gold and the alchemist buys flowers around the same price as well. so a stack of any of those can go for 2250 to 2500 coins. you can utilize more space farming stuff that grows on farmland instead of trees/cacti.

you could plant wheat in between the cacti :D

[GameAddict]

roy2x - Thanks for your comments.

As I said, I already have a primary settlement. I just wanted to try Cactus Island as a potentially super-easy coin farm. On a desert island, cactus is the easiest crop to grow. No terrain change is necessary, no farmland is necessary, no seedlings are necessary, no fertilizer is necessary, no farmer is necessary. I like learning how other players play and things they try. I thought my geeky experiment might be interesting or at least amusing for somebody else. :D

[GameAddict]

My experiment is finished. Check out the final results above. Thanks for reading!

[avie]

thanks, it was fun for me, and inspired me to fill up a lake and make a sort of oasis there, with cactus, on my main island. Small house beside and voila, my cactusfarm :)

[GameAddict]

avie - That sounds fantastic! I hope you make a nice profit and the coins help your game. :D

[ucurius]

I never tried a cash making isle.
In my case it is always trees and farming for cash.

^^ But, it is never enough! How fast just 2 full coin chests can get empty. ^^

Thanks for the idea.

[GameAddict]

ucurius - Thanks for your reply. I do farming and trees for coin, too. Cactus Island was an experiment but I will keep it going because it is amazingly easy. :D

[GameAddict]

I kept my Cactus Farm going after the experiment ended because it was so easy. I got lucky and a Pawnbroker moved in, so it was also really easy to sell the crops. I guess it was fun the first few times I made 50,000 coins selling a load of cactus, but this may be the most boring coin farm of all time! Even the raiders who come here offer no challenge whatsoever. Zzzzzzzzzz!