Scythe and the Farming Update

[Scharkov]

Hey guys, I'm partially happy with the update. It was high time that farming got some improvements.
However, I noticed that the scythe cannot be used on plants in the Mistlands. Why? It doesn't make sense to me. Additionally, you have improved harvesting but left planting as it was.
I hope you improve the whole thing a bit. The MassFarming mod makes the whole thing a bit better than the new update.

[Mowglia]

Originally posted by Eightball:

How much do you really need or are you farming for an entire server?

A ridiculous amount. Food just goes so fast. Depending on what I'm doing I can eat somewhere between 100 and 200 meals a session. If it's a very long session then possibly 300 to 400 meals (albeit unlikely).

Remember that food buffs tail off significantly over time. With 25 minute food, for example, you'd probably want to be eating again after 20 mins. I often eat again when I don't necessarily need to, just to be safe, and that's saved my ass on a huge number of occasions.

I used to be really tight with food. Sometimes I'd run around on honey alone. Not any more. Eating so much means I die a lot less - pretty much never - which is good for my skills. Skimping on food is a false economy :)

Typically I keep a small chest of carrots, another small chest of turnips, and another for onions, etc. And then perhaps the same space again for seeds (i.e., twice as many). Flax, not so much... but barley... my God...

I probably run between 2 and 3 small chests of barley, and a black metal chest full of flour. And yeah, I get through it surprisingly fast. Flour especially, drains quickly.

When any chest gets about half full then I go farm to replace it. Probably spend about 20% to 25% of my time farming, setting up farms, or cooking.

Not sure about farming in the Mistlands yet, as I only recently got there. But the farm itself is taking significantly longer to set up. So much rock.

Hot Tip: Always play Valheim solo. Never let your friends on your server. Never make your server password "password". Make it something like "gofeedyourself". And if, God forbid, one of them does make it to your server, then DEFINITELY DON'T SHOW THEM WHERE YOU STASH THE FOOD.

Believe me, if your friends come to visit then you'll be spending 95% of your time farming, while they find ever more creative/ingenious ways to get themselves killed. And if/when they leave then your food supplies will be suspiciously and outrageously depleted. I speak from experience.

[SoCalMike91]

Started a new playthrough (hard, no map, no portals) and will wait to see what my farming skill is like by the time I even reach the scythe recipe unlock.
It might be that I prefer the time saver vs the farming skill increase by that point in time. Extra stuff is a bonus, not a crucial sort of leverage imo.
To each their own.

I definitely agree that the scythe should level per plant and not per swing, though, if that truly is the case.

[Sotanaht]

Originally posted by Mowglia:

Originally posted by Eightball:

How much do you really need or are you farming for an entire server?

A ridiculous amount. Food just goes so fast. Depending on what I'm doing I can eat somewhere between 100 and 200 meals a session. If it's a very long session then possibly 300 to 400 meals (albeit unlikely).

Remember that food buffs tail off significantly over time. With 25 minute food, for example, you'd probably want to be eating again after 20 mins. I often eat again when I don't necessarily need to, just to be safe, and that's saved my ass on a huge number of occasions.

I used to be really tight with food. Sometimes I'd run around on honey alone. Not any more. Eating so much means I die a lot less - pretty much never - which is good for my skills. Skimping on food is a false economy :)

Typically I keep a small chest of carrots, another small chest of turnips, and another for onions, etc. And then perhaps the same space again for seeds (i.e., twice as many). Flax, not so much... but barley... my God...

I probably run between 2 and 3 small chests of barley, and a black metal chest full of flour. And yeah, I get through it surprisingly fast. Flour especially, drains quickly.

When any chest gets about half full then I go farm to replace it. Probably spend about 20% to 25% of my time farming, setting up farms, or cooking.

Not sure about farming in the Mistlands yet, as I only recently got there. But the farm itself is taking significantly longer to set up. So much rock.

Hot Tip: Always play Valheim solo. Never let your friends on your server. Never make your server password "password". Make it something like "gofeedyourself". And if, God forbid, one of them does make it to your server, then DEFINITELY DON'T SHOW THEM WHERE YOU STASH THE FOOD.

Believe me, if your friends come to visit then you'll be spending 95% of your time farming, while they find ever more creative/ingenious ways to get themselves killed. And if/when they leave then your food supplies will be suspiciously and outrageously depleted. I speak from experience.

Switch to feasts. 50 minute duration, you can't eat again until half the duration (25 remaining). While you can get more HP OR stamina from other foods, Feasts will generally get you the most HP AND stamina, plus they are about 3-5x more resource efficient.

Anyway, on the server I play with friends, I don't mind being the one stuck at home. One, I've already beaten the game (fader) on my solo server/character, and two, it means while they are out there getting their asses beat and losing all their skills, I am growing stronger.

[Mowglia]

Originally posted by Sotanaht:

Switch to feasts. 50 minute duration, you can't eat again until half the duration (25 remaining). While you can get more HP OR stamina from other foods, Feasts will generally get you the most HP AND stamina, plus they are about 3-5x more resource efficient.

Anyway, on the server I play with friends, I don't mind being the one stuck at home. One, I've already beaten the game (fader) on my solo server/character, and two, it means while they are out there getting their asses beat and losing all their skills, I am growing stronger.

Yeah, I'll look at feasts, for runaround food at least. They seemed somewhat unimpressive when I briefly checked them out before, but I didn't go in-depth, and I didn't actually try them.

You made a pretty good case though, so I'll definitely check again.

And no, you're not the only one who argues not to use the scythe: I've been wondering this myself - does it nerf farming skill? If so, then no scythe before farming hits 100, then ok, fine to use scythe :)

[Sanctioner]

I killed Moder and I still don't see the handle. The trophies are all hanging up in the henge. Bog Witch does not sell it for me. Is there a way to trigger this item to show up after the requirements are supposedly already met?

[Gal Kraft]

The scythe works great. Someone else feel free to confirm/deny, but I swear I've gotten multiple bonus yields in a single swipe. As for skill gain, I don't think it's worth the wait. You're done so much faster, that getting 215 xp instead of 230 xp is not a concern.

Scythes work better on barley/flax. Smaller radius but uses less stam than the atgeir and the atgeir cannot get bonus yields.

Scythes don't seem to work on mistlands crops.

[autumndragonfalling]

The fact they don't work in the Mistlands is a known bug and should be addressed at some point.

[Quintium]

Originally posted by Lordofd:

The fact that scythe is not unlocked ealier is stupid choice.
It should have been a normal unlock on 3 tier of forge or something.

Disagree. A scythe is more useful for barley/flax, why it makes more sense after Moder, since you really won't get full benefit from those farm materials until you have killed her.

But to each their own.

[Lorska]

Originally posted by Quintium:

Disagree. A scythe is more useful for barley/flax, why it makes more sense after Moder, since you really won't get full benefit from those farm materials until you have killed her.

But to each their own.

No actually it is the least useful for those two because you could already use any AOE weapon for them.
If there's any point of progression where scythe is useless, it's during plains.

But to each their own.

Edit:
Yes you could argue that it's amazing because of the extra yield but that also applies to literally any other plant so it's kind of a moot point. It's just as valuable before as after mountains.
There really isn't a good reason for it to not be available earlier.

[Gal Kraft]

Originally posted by Lorska:

Originally posted by Quintium:

Disagree. A scythe is more useful for barley/flax, why it makes more sense after Moder, since you really won't get full benefit from those farm materials until you have killed her.

But to each their own.

No actually it is the least useful for those two because you could already use any AOE weapon for them.
If there's any point of progression where scythe is useless, it's during plains.

But to each their own.

Edit:
Yes you could argue that it's amazing because of the extra yield but that also applies to literally any other plant so it's kind of a moot point. It's just as valuable before as after mountains.
There really isn't a good reason for it to not be available earlier.

The atgeir takes more stamina. Thus the scythe is a lot smoother to AoE farm.

[Lorska]

Originally posted by Gal Kraft:

The atgeir takes more stamina. Thus the scythe is a lot smoother to AoE farm.

I'm not saying the item designed for farming is doing worse than weapons that aren't designed to do that.
Just that out of all places you could need the scythe, plains is the one you'd need it the least because there was already a way to do what the scythe does before...

Edit: and fact that there's farmable crops it doesn't work on and that it gives you less XP is just dumb.
I'd hope it's just a bug, because if that's intentional that's just sad...

[English]

Originally posted by JimmyEatSquirrel:

For QOL sake the repetitive clicking when it comes to farming is one of my main gripes in the game. I have a good sized barley field, meadows farm and ML farm and its a real carpal tunnel pain and very tedious to plant them all.
I dont see any benefit at all to the scythe and I use an ategir to harvest the barley.
Haven't tired the scythe on anything else.
I do appreciate the shift click x5 craft and the larger stacks of flour.

I agree, I don't use the scythe. it seems slower. But you know you don't have to repeatedly click when gathering right? Just keep you finger on the "E" key and run around.