Are (Improved) Farms really useless?

[Blondella_]

Almost every post about farms I see is the same, "farms suck", "farms are bad", "waste of resource", etc. Am I missing something or do they genuinely suck?

EDIT: I know they are useless for Wigfrid, but I'm talking about as a whole.

[SonicDen220]

I have a big farm of dragonfruits, and well, I don't get to use them much. It's because food just directly comes to you. I'm talking about hound waves and bosses.
I get enough meat by feeding pigs monster meat to get pig skin, or if I kill volt goats when I need sanity. I then either use drying racks or make bacon and eggs.

[SonicDen220]

Originally posted by Kyoukyun_:

Originally posted by ♦SonicDen220♦:

I have a big farm of dragonfruits, and well, I don't get to use them much. It's because food just directly comes to you. I'm talking about hound waves and bosses.
I get enough meat by feeding pigs monster meat to get pig skin, or if I kill volt goats when I need sanity. I then either use drying racks or make bacon and eggs.

That...didn't really answer my question at all.

It's because you get meat from hounds that you can later turn into eggs to make bacon and eggs. I rarely get to use the farms because I get enough food without them.

[Sex bomb]

seeds>smallbirds>meat, farms aren't really useless for wighfrid

[SonicDen220]

Originally posted by Kyoukyun_:

So, as a semi-noob (I know quite a few things, but actually surviving is usually the trouble for me), I can avoid farms? Could use that 6 manure for each farm to fertilize some berry bushes and whatnot.

Yes, why not?

[Doc_McStabbins]

Personally, I disagree about Improved Farms being worthless, but a lot of it depends on your start time and location. If you start in spring, then IFs are a great way to let you survive via meals from those plants and save your meat in jerky thingies for later consumption. If you start in Summer, then farms are less useful, but still a good source of stable food by your base.

[FUHN33]

Well for me, when ever I go into a new world, Don't Starve or Don't Starve Together, I look for materials, food, then start searching for the Marsh/Swamp Biome, collect Reeds, search for an area with Pigs and Spiders, and then I can survive forever with the Birdcage I made with the Reeds. I never rely on farms because it's too slow, you need an absurd amount of manure to actually sustain yourself for a long time, besides, it becomes useless in the Winter and Summer (unless you have a Ice Flingomatic).

[Doc_McStabbins]

Originally posted by wirelesscord7:

... I look for materials, food, then start searching for the Marsh/Swamp Biome, collect Reeds, search for an area with Pigs and Spiders, and then I can survive forever with the Birdcage I made with the Reeds.

Okay, you've piqued my interest. Could you describe how that works? I'd like to try it.

[FUHN33]

Well just gather twigs, grass, flint, 11 Gold (Science Machine, Alchemy Engine, and Birdcage), and 8 Cut Reeds. After collecting all that I searched for a Pig House and a Spider Den. I then kill the Spiders for Silk to make the Bird Trap and Monster Meat to transform the Pig into a Werepig for more Meat and Pig Skins. Seriously once you have this setup, you are set forever. Only thing that could make this better is if you setup at the Pig King Biome and move a Spider Egg closer to it.

[Doc_McStabbins]

Wow... that's... That's really quite brilliant. I haven't messed with bird cages in forever, because the last time I used them, they were all derpy. But apparently they made a lot of changes in the last few months. Thanks for the tip.

[Violeta]

Yes, go for farms, make your base near beefaloo. Then when they go into heat, get killed or randomly lose access to area's of your base until they chill out. Or make lots of walls that will burn down in summer.

Still think its funny that in this game walls are useless wastes of time, Winter is the most abundant food time thanks to 1 MM + 3 ice. This game turns logic on its head.

Given the choice I like to start brand new near lots of frog pounds with some jerk racks and crock pots. Then explore for something better to make that second base location.

[Aethe]

I'm still pretty new but have been surviving based on the improved farms and dragonfruit (8x farms + flingomatic for summer) and its pretty easy once setup. Go out and explore, come home, collect crops, cook, rinse repeat. Buuuuuut now that I'm reading this post I looked up eggs and bacon + birdcage strategy and it sounds way easier and less labor intense than what I've been doing. And I'm usually drowning in monster meat anyway, so birdcage sounds way superior.

[FUHN33]

Yeah, the Birdcage is the only reason why I find Beefalo and Farms useless.

[asmoore]

Yeah I've been doing the Birdcage/Ham and Eggs strategy since forever and I rarely build farms now (and never in the early game). If you really want to do the work to set up a Dragonfruit farm, it can be useful for healing. But I do a lot of spider farming for Ham and Eggs so I've got that covered with Spider Glands/Healing Salve. Also I think that Bee Boxes and Honey are a better time investment early game for both food and healing.

[That Guy]

farms are usefull up to ROG . in shipwrecked its pointless. you can forage seaweed and jelly fish with bug nets if you farm spider silk by not killing the nest but setting rabit traps and never run out of food

shipwrecked is easier than ROG so farms mean nothing

[Cheese n' Beans]

Farms aren't useless. If anything, they supply so much dragonpie that it can be overwhelming.

The issue is that you often don't need to actively collect food, whereas farms require just that. Just by wandering you'll find your fridges filled with jerky pretty quick, and anything you grow goes to waste.

So no, farms are far from useless. They're very good at their job, in fact. But as soon as food isn't a problem anymore - which happens pretty quickly - you don't need them. Farms can provide 5 days worth of food in 1 day, but you'll never NEED that much.

I'd say make improved farms either way. Having dragonfruit sitting there is good insurance should anything cut into your food supply.