The Farmer in the Dell: Getting Started in Cornucopia

New to Cornucopia? Well have I got a deal for you! Check out this guide for tips and some direction to start you off on your adventure.

This guide is also on the wiki[cornucopia-game.fandom.com]. Current build EA 7.6.

Welcome to the Farm

Play the game how you want to play it!

There is no wrong way to play Cornucopia. This guide is subjective (MY OPINIONS) and is meant to give you tips and direction when and where you want it.

Farming Need-to-Knows

1. Eating Cornucopia pieces and used fruit gemstones PERMANENTLY increases your energy or health. The numbered Cornucopia pieces are just for eating. There's no bonus for collecting them all.
   
   
2. You can grow any crop on any tilled plot. If the crops' preferences and NPK soil system overwhelms you, don't worry about it! Plant crops like any other farming game. Matching crop preferences and NPK levels POTENTIALLY increases the size and quantity of the yield, but there will always be a crop to harvest.
   
   
3. You do NOT pass out at night. The day resets at 3:00am. If you sleep at home, you’ll start the next day at 6:00am with full energy and health. Otherwise, at 3:00am the screen will go black for a few seconds (don’t freak out) and then gameplay will continue. You do not get energy or health refills, but a full pet will.
   
   
4. You can send items to storage from anywhere. You can send items from your backpack to your storage shed at any time and overflow items are automatically sent to your storage shed.

First Days on the Farm

• Choose spring as your birthday. On your birthday, you get a birthday wish/perk that lasts until your next birthday.
  
  
• Visit new locations for Card Packs (e.g. barn, coop, buildings in town) and the Storage Shed for 3 quest card packs.
  
  
• Use your chick as a pet companion to help chop wood and break rocks.
  
  
• Break small rocks/logs first. Larger rocks/logs do not give more stone/Logs (item). (Trees, however, do give more Logs (item).)
  
  
• Loot mailboxes for goodies.
  
  
• Save 1 cucumber of any size to enter the Kappa's Home[cornucopia-game.fandom.com].
  
  
• Feed Munger by hand. It increases your friendship and also fills his bowl, counting toward the 5-day streaks.

Early-Game Basics

• Daily: Check the Bulletin Board in Seedling Square for quests and loot the mailboxes in the Bell Tower Residences. The Bulletin Board will fill up to 3 quests each day. Don't be afraid to trash quests that will take forever to complete.
  
  
• Key shops:
  
  • Fuji's Seaside Supplies (Beach): fishing rod
    
  • Sprouts & Sprigs (Junction): seeds and bags of silt/sand/clay
    
  • Harold's Store (Junction): backpack upgrades
    
  • Granary (Junction): hats
    
  • Cliffside Mansion (Cliffside Vineyard): weapons
    
  • Solitude Lodge (Wilderness): chick and horse vending machines
    
  • Wizard's Windmill (Wizard's Wash): cow vending machine
  
  
• Good energy/health edibles: fruit & berries, slime (Old Mines level 3 + 7)
  
  
• Sell: gems & minerals, crops, composts, sea creatures
  
  
• Talk to NPCs twice a day.
  
  
• Best use of:
  
  • Crops: save a few of each size for quests (larger crops can be used in place of smaller), gift crops worth $151 to $160, sell or eat the rest
    
  • Plant Fibre: craft Wild Root Seeds and generic seeds (i.e. Rooted/Leafy/Fibrous/Plump) in spring or compost
    
  • Common Mushroom: compost
    
  • Spongy Material: compost
    
  • Plant Material: Sewing Wheel (when needed) or compost
    
  • Fruit and Berries: save a couple of each type for quests, eat
    
  • Herbs/Flowers/Non-Common Mushrooms: save a couple of each type for quests, sell or eat the rest
    
  • Composts: sell all
    
  • Gems/Minerals/Fossils: sell all (except Magic Dust)
    
  • Stones (all kinds): refine in Furnace for Blocks, ammo for Sling Shot, or sell
    
  • Blocks: make ~20 for story-related quests/upgrades, sell rest
    
  • Logs: make ~20 Lumber and 5 Hardwood Lumber (2 HW Logs + 2 Logs) for story-related quests/upgrades; craft + sell Spruce Tree Sapling (while Logging 1), then Pine Tree Sapling (once Logging 2) with surplus Logs
    
  • See the wiki[cornucopia-game.fandom.com] for an extended list.

Early-Game Goals

Lost? Need directions? Here are some things to do early game.

• Raise a pet companion. You can have 1 animal as a pet companion at a time. Use it to help you fell trees and mine rocks. Bond with it by brushing it daily and having it assist you. When it reaches bond level 3, you can ride it. You'll want to invest in 1 animal for the long haul, so pick an animal that has the Heal ability (unlocked when an adult) to help with combat. (See my Fowl Language guide for more info about pet companions.)
  
  
• Get a hat with a movement speed bonus and luck bonus. A movement speed bonus (ideally +3 or +4) is a game changer. It makes moving on foot reasonable so you can work independently of your pet when foraging or mining. The luck bonus is more of a luxury upgrade to your hat. When you perform an action, a bonus item can drop. But it breaks up the monotony of foraging and who doesn't want free stuff? (Equip a hat in the bottom-left square on the backpack screen.) Pro-tip: Buy hats from the Granary. They always cost $500 and sell for $500.
  
  
• Unlock distant fast travel spots. Once you have a mount or hat with a movement speed bonus, unlock Cliffside Mansion in Cliffside Vineyard for weapons, Solitude Lodge in the Wilderness for the horse and chick vending machines, and Wizard's Windmill in Wizard's Wash for the cow vending machine.
  
  
• Complete the Bananas Gemstone quest line. Trigger this quest line by entering Sprouts & Sprigs. You earn the magnifying glass that will show you a plot's stats.
  
  
• Create an organized field for crops. Crops are a HUGE money maker. It's well worth the time to set up a section of pure silty/sandy/clay plots and to plant matching soil types. (See the Crops section for more info.)
  
  
• Get a decent melee weapon. I suggest starting with a polearm, sickle, or mace, something with at least +7 attack damage. (Katanas are the most powerful, but very expensive.) If you can find a sling shot, use that, but it is still good to have a back-up melee weapon in case you run out of ammo. Eventually your pet will do more damage than you (maybe ~power level 12), after which a ranged weapon is better.
  
  
• Beat the first boss on level 10 in the Old Mines. Complete the story quest line through beating the first boss in the Old Mines. You can't race your pets until you've squashed the spider for the starting gun key item. After that, there's no particular rush.

Animals

• You do not need to feed animals if they are kept indoors, and there is no benefit to letting them out.
  
• Animal product size is based on the age of the animal.
  
• There is no limit to the number of animals you can have. The coop and barn upgrades are purely cosmetic.

Racing Your Pet

You can eventually race and train your pet in The Game Hall & Racetrack.
Steps to complete:

1. Beat the first boss on floor 10 of the Old Mines to receive the starting gun key item.
   
2. Go to The Game Hall & Racetrack and enter the racetrack room through the door on the first floor marked TRAIN. It is to the right of Phillip's RACE booth and the left of the PRIZE CRANE.
   
3. Click on the Standard Race poster on the wall to the right of the door.

Skills

• Each skill has 10+ levels. When you level up, you receive a star level-up reward shown above the hotbar as well as some combination of unlocked recipes, tool upgrades (level 5 + 10), and card packs.
  
• Good star skill level-up rewards: Random Cornucopia Piece, Rare Card Discovery, Mechanical Part, "Pet's Name" Skill Up
  
• For the early game, here are the level unlocks I think of note.

Pickaxe Skill

• Level 2: Tumbler - Takes 1 iron ingot to make. Used to tumble clusters and raw gemstones into more useful and/or valuable items.
  
• Level 3: Miner's Treat Recipe (x5 rock candy) - Compared to eating 5 rock candies, it gives net +3 energy and takes 1 bite. Pro-tip: Emergency rations. You can craft the Miner's Treat anywhere, and it'll use the rock candy from storage but put the Miner's Treat in your backpack.

Scythe Skill

• Level 1: Compost Bin - Make compost to sell.
  
• Level 3: Seed Extractor - Don't bother with it. Takes 1 crop and nets you 1 seed, occasionally 2.
  
• Level 5: Iron Scythe Upgrade (GAME-CHANGER) - There are 2 ways to use this special ability. One, you can cut everything in the area around you. Two, you can GROW your crops. Unleash it on an area of plots (7 wide x 5-6 deep) and the crops will age, while any fully-grown crops will be harvested. (Counter-intuitive, I know.) WARNING: It MUST be an IRON scythe or better to grow the crops with the special ability; otherwise, the scythe will just cut all your planted crops. =(
  
• Levels 7-9: Seed recipes for each crop category's lowest-level seed (i.e. carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, and beans) and all cereal crops
  
• Pro-tip: The circle of scythe. Use the scythe's special ability to age your crops. Harvest FULLY-GROWN crops individually with the scythe, which will recharge the scythe's special ability. Plant in empty plots, then unleash the scythe's special again to age crops, and repeat the cycle! Works best with an area of crops with varying growth lengths so that each time you unleash the scythe's special there are some fully-grown crops to manually harvest.

Tilling Skill

• Level 1: Wild Root Seeds Recipe (x10 plant fibre)
  
• Level 2: Rooted and Leafy Seeds Recipes (x3 wild root seeds)
  
• Level 3: Plump and Fibrous Seeds Recipes (x3 wild root seeds)
  
• To un-till a plot with the hoe, right-click or use the D-pad.
  
• To raise your tilling skill, set aside a section of your field to till and un-till repeatedly. Each plot can be tilled 3 times before needing to be un-tilled. Every till reduces the bioactivity level.
  
• Pro-tip: Raise your tilling and watering skills by interleaving tilling and watering (i.e. till, water, re-till, water, re-till, water, un-till).

Logging Skill

• Level 1: Spruce Tree Sapling Recipe
  
• Level 2: Pine Tree Sapling Recipe
  
• Make money from extra logs by crafting tree saplings to sell. Best ROI: Pine (level 2) $80 > Spruce (level 1) $75.

Watering Can Skill

• Level 3: Mythril Sprinkler - They cover a 5x5 area (24 plots), but take 2 mythril ingots and 1 mechanical part to make. (There will be 1 for sale ($1000) at the Spring Planting Festival on Spring 5.)
  
• Level 5: Iron Watering Can Upgrade - Special ability adds a chance to boost crop growth or increase soil bioactivity of the plots watered. Sounds better than it is. Iron scythe's special is a guaranteed crop growth, and in my findings, bioactivity's not very important. Use sprinklers.
  
• Pro-tip: Raise your tilling and watering skills by interleaving tilling and watering (i.e. till, water, re-till, water, re-till, water, un-till).

Gardening Skill

• Level 1: Female + Male Scarecrows - Scarecrows can be used on fields to keep weeds from growing. Range = 5 rows on each side = 11 x 11.

Animal Husbandry Skill

• Level 1: Mayonizer - Turns chicken eggs into mayo. Sell the mayo (profit small = $91, regular = $72).
  
• Level 4: Butter Churn - Turns milk into butter. Butter is really not that useful. Based on the size of the milk, it makes little to even a loss of profit ($36 to -$60). It is used for some cooking recipes but can be purchased at Sierra's or Harold's if needed.
  
• Pro-tip: You can brush NPCs to raise your animal husbandry skill.

Fishing Skill

• Level 1: Compactor - Best used for horseshoes from stallions.
  
• Level 4: Fish Trap - Not too helpful. It always requires bait and yields mainly bait-less fishing junk (e.g. sea veggies, old boot), sea creatures (always worth $1), and occasionally a card pack.

Combat Skill

• Level 3: Underground Ladder - Used in any mine to go down a level.
  
• Otherwise, it's mainly arrow and bolt recipes, all of which require feathers from roosters and a bow or a crossbow respectively.

Bomb Skill

• Nothing important, a variety of bomb recipes.

Crafting (WIP)

• The crafting page in the journal has multiple tabs on the left.

NPCs

• NPC favorite items are randomized per save.
  
• Friendship increases:
  
  • Non-festival day = x2 talk and x1 gift
    
  • Festival day = x1 talk and x1 gift with extra increase.
• Gifts:
  
  • More expensive = bigger friendship boost ($60-150 = 3 hearts, $151+ = 4 hearts)
    
  • Good gifts $60-150: teal flourite (from mines), decorative tree saplings, bombs
    
  • Good gifts $151+: crops

Crops

• Match preferred soil type for crops in PURE sandy/silty/clay plots.
  
  • Planting a crop in a plot with its preferred type of soil potentially increases both the size and quantity of the yield. Perfect soil matches in pure plots greatly increase the chance of a larger size and quantity of the yield.
    
  • Use bags of sand/silt/clay, sold at Sprouts & Sprigs, to max out a specific soil type, making pure sandy/silty/clay plots. (Pure loam is bugged.)
  
  
• NPKB levels don't matter too much. Meeting NPK levels potentially increases the size of the crop, but it rarely overcomes the regular or small size from a non-matching soil type. On the other hand, matching only soil type and not NPK levels, especially in pure plots, yields a majority of large crops. I found bioactivity levels didn't have much of an impact on the size or quantity of the yield.
  
  
• Sell compost. Since NPKB levels don't really matter, sell your compost.
  
  
• Grow only in-season crops. In-season crops have +1 to the quantity of the yield.
  
  
• Prioritize wild roots and generic seeds (i.e. rooted/leafy/fibrous/plump) over specific crops in spring. They are all spring-season, forageable, craftable (tilling skill 2 & 3), and can potentially yield an expensive crop for "free."
  
  
• Buy the mythril sprinkler blueprint ($1000) in the booth at the Spring Planting Festival on Spring 5. Don't bother with regular sprinklers.

My Crop System

I'm not huge into gardening, but it makes a lot of money, so I optimized a crop system that easily makes $13,000 a day.

Initial Setup

1. Start by buying 50-100 bags each of sand/silt/clay from Sprouts & Sprigs.
   
2. Make a ~7 wide x 6 deep group of plots. This is the size of the IRON scythe's special ability which ages crops (counter intuitive, I know).
   
3. Create dedicated columns of pure plots for all the soil types (except pure loam, which is bugged).
   
4. Recommended setup for spring, from right to left, 6 plots deep: at least 2 untilled columns, 1 loam column, 3 pure sandy, 3 pure silty, 1 pure clay.
   
5. In summer, add 2-3 pure clay columns on the left end and potentially 1-2 loam on the right.

• Rationale: Pure plots have a better ROI on crops than a non-pure plot. Since loam can't be pure, I only grow a few loamy crops for quests. The majority of spring crops are sandy and silty, so 3 columns for each. There are few spring-season clay crops, so 1 column for quests. Come summer, there are tons of clay crops, and you'll have sprinklers to help, so add pure clay columns.

Upkeep

• Visit Sprouts & Sprigs daily to buy in-season seeds. Prioritize more expensive seeds with shorter growth periods.
  
• Plant matching soil type and don't worry about NPK levels.
  
• Use mythril sprinklers. (Don't miss the one in the booth at the Spring Planting Festival.)
  
• Take advantage of the IRON scythe's ability to age crops.
  
  • Try to use the scythe's ability on mainly growing crops to age them, rather than on fully-grown crops to harvest them.
    
  • Harvest crops individually and replant between scythe specials. Harvesting individually with the scythe will even charge it up to keep the circle of scythe going.
    
  • When you come home from foraging or the caves, have the scythe fully charged.

Compost

• Sell your compost! NPKB levels don't really matter if you match the soil type, so save the headache of fertilizing plots and just sell your composts.
  
• Compost Bin - Compost materials in this priority: common mushrooms > spongy material > plant fibre.
  
• Worm Composter - Compost materials in this priority: spongy material > plant fibre.

Compost Bin Recipes

The following recipes are based on my experimentation.

• Green: plant fibre, plant material
  
• Quality Green: mushrooms
  
• Brown: spongy material
  
• Quality Brown: manures, horns
  
• Compost/Quality Compost: sea vegetation
  
• Mane hairs yield all types to composts, including poor compost

Compost & Soil Matches

I have matched which composts go with which soil types for the best results. I still recommend selling it over using it.

• Green (Nitrogen) on Loam
  
• Compost (Phosphorus) on Sand
  
• Brown (Potassium) on Silt
  
• All types (equal NPK levels) on Clay

Sprinklers

Sprinklers have the following ranges:

• Basic: 1 row each side -> 3x3 = 8 plots
  
• Mythril: 2 rows each side -> 5x5 = 24 plots
  
• Rainbow: 3 rows each side -> 7x7 = 48 plots

Managing Health & Energy

• Dishes received from NPCs or dropped by monsters are the best (money-wise) at restoring health and energy. Eat the ones that don't majorly overflow your health/energy maxes and sell the rest.
  
  
• For all other edibles, save the items you want for quests and favorite gifts and eat whatever you want. No one type of edible is better (money-wise) at restoring health/energy than another. EXCEPTIONS: sea creatures and dishes YOU cook.
  
  
• Best options: fruit & berries, gifted/monster-dropped dishes, slime (Old Mines levels 3 and 7), Miner's Treats (crafting recipe = x5 Rock Candy; unlocked at mining level 3), large + gold eggs
  
  
• Good options: regular eggs, crops
  
  
• Bad options: sea creatures (sell or cook) and dishes YOU cook (sell)
  
  
• See Edibles Nerd Out[cornucopia-game.fandom.com] for more details.

Bad Early-Game Investments

• Breeding: Buy your chicks and calves from the vending machines of the sex you want. Hold your horses on getting horses. (The chick vending machine is in Solitude Lodge in the Wilderness and the calf vending machine is in the Wizard's Windmill in the Wizard's Wash.)
  
  
• Cooking: Wait to start cooking. Right now the cooking element of the game is under-developed, so the process is confusing to figure out, takes a long time, and is cumbersome. Besides that, cooking is a big money and time sink with long-term payouts.
  
  
  • It takes a lot of time in game to discover recipes and to grow/fish/buy the required ingredients. Recipes are mainly obtained from befriending NPCs and Cooking Recipe Scratch Cards.
    
    
  • The main reason to cook is to make money selling the dishes. But the effort to make a dish is not worth the net profit compared to just selling the ingredients raw. There is NO reason to eat your dishes. Most of them give you way more health and energy than you have capacity for and there are easy-to-come-by items (e.g. fruit, berries, flowers) to replenish your health and energy in smaller doses.
    
    
  • Cooking requires a big monetary investment up front. Using the preferred cooking utensil makes a BIG difference in sell price, and cooking utensils are expensive. Additionally, all the recipes require at least 1 store-bought ingredient, which cost, duh, money and have rotating availability. (Unfortunately, you can't make several staple ingredients: flour, sugars, salts, etc.)
  
  
• Greenhouse: It is out of the way and doesn't have any notable benefits to make growing crops in there worth it. Grow your crops in front of your house.

FAQ: How do I...

• Increase my max energy and health?
  
  • Eat the numbered Cornucopia pieces and used fruit gemstones and your max health or energy will be increased. You can get Cornucopia pieces from attending festivals, some scratch cards, skill level-up rewards, pet racing rewards, and more. The fruit gemstone key items will be used as you progress in the storyline and become edible.
  
  
• Get around faster?
  
  • Fast travel: Unlock and interact with the fast travel signs located around Cornucopia.
    
  • Pet: Ride one of your animals. Must be bond level 3+ to mount your pet.
    
  • Hat: Equip a hat with the movement speed bonus in the lower-left box from your backpack screen. Hats are sold daily at the Granary and sometimes at Harold's Store.
    
  • Weapon: Hold a weapon with the movement speed bonus. The weapon must be the active item in your hotbar. Weapons are sold daily at Cliffside Mansion and occasionally at Harold's Store.
    
  • Warp crystals: Use a warp crystal from your inventory. Different colored crystals warp to different locations.
  
  
• Wear a hat?
  
  • Equip a hat from the backpack screen into the slot in the bottom-left corner.
  
  
• Get mechanical parts?
  
  • Monsters: Regular skeletons and the worms (muckers and rock tenders) can drop mechanical parts.
    
  • Star skill level-up rewards
    
  • Occasionally Harold's Store
  
  
• Un-till a plot?
  
  • With the hoe, use the RMB or any direction on the D-pad.
  
  
• Race my pet?
  
  1. Beat the first boss on floor 10 of the Old Mines to receive the starting gun key item.
     
  2. Go to The Game Hall & Racetrack and enter the racetrack room through the door on the first floor marked TRAIN. It is to the right of Phillip's RACE booth and the left of the PRIZE CRANE.
     
  3. Click on the Standard Race poster on the wall to the right of the door.
  
  
• Find flour, sugar, meat, and other cooking ingredients?
  
  • Harold's Store: wide variety of cooking ingredients. 1 cooking utensil per day.
    
  • Simon's Saveur: all types of meats, eggs, milk, cheese, honey.
    
  • Sierra's Bakery:
    
    • Front: herbs, cooking ingredients.
      
    • Back: limited selection of baking supplies (e.g. flour, salt, sugar, butter). Quantity: x1-15+.
  
  
• Find The Pint & Pillow?
  
  • The Pint & Pillow is located inside the Hotel building to the right of The Game Hall & Racetrack The Game Hall & Racetrack. Enter the unmarked door on the left side of the lobby.

QoL Tips

Keyboard & Mouse

• To keep using the tool's action, hold down the mouse button.
  With the scythe, hold down the mouse button as you run around and drag your cursor over the weeds/flowers/mushrooms and their drops. You'll cut and collect them in one fell swoop.
  
  
• To transfer multiple types of items between storages, hold down the hotkey Q or Z and drag your mouse over the target slots. You don't need to click each item separately!
  
  
• To transfer items to a different storage shed tab, use Ctrl+click the target tab.
  
  
• When shopping, hold down Ctrl+click on the stack to buy items in batches of 10.

Controller

• When shopping, hold down a D-pad direction and click on the stack to buy items in batches of 10.

Notes

To: You

• I welcome feedback! Please post comments if you'd like more information about a specific part of the game or feedback on the way I present the information (the good, the bad, the ugly?) or something else.
  
• Some nerd outs are on the wiki's version[cornucopia-game.fandom.com] in collapsed tables for those interested. If you want to super nerd out, make a note on my Fandom wall[cornucopia-game.fandom.com], and I'll happily oblige!
  
• I don't really play any of the relationship part of the game, so you'll need to look elsewhere for advice on your love life.

- Fluffbutter

Updates

• 10/8/24: Added Skills section.
  
• 10/7/24: Updates to First Days on the Farm, Early-Game Basics, Early-Game Goals, and Bad Early-Game Investments in response to EA 7.4 and 7.6. EA 7.6 majorly increased fruit and berry prices!
  
• 8/15/24: Significant content updates to First Days on the Farm, Early-Game Goals, Crops, Managing Health and Energy. Created Early-Game Basics, My Crop System.
  
• 7/15/24: Added First Days on the Farm, FAQ: How do I..., and Managing Energy & Health sections.
  
• 7/9/24: Added Bad Early-Game Investments and Crops sections.
  
• 7/8/24: Added NPC section

[fluffbutter]

@WizKid: The fruit gemstones are first used as key items to unlock boss rooms on level 10 of the caves and then become edible. Eating one permanently increases your energy or HP.

[fluffbutter]

@adikuschelhase: Open the backpack screen. There is a box for ammo in the bottom right corner.

[WizKid]

not sure how to use fruit gemstone? do we just need to collect it or how to use?

[adikuschelhase]

Very helpful, thank you! Can anyone tell me how I equip ammo to weapons using keyboard and mouse?

[Gummy Bread]

Small energy/resource tip, bottled water. Theres a Number of places with water coolers in town that refresh every day. Sprouts and sprigs, the 2nd floor of the bell tower apartments, and with a bit of friendship at least 3 peoples bedrooms have them, possibly more.
Water doesnt do much, but you're gifted a coffee maker very early on. When you're just starting out 2-6 coffees a day, a 75 energy or 100 gold food, with the only cost walking around and making friends is a lot. Especially when the next most useful early food is berries and slime

[Sapphires]

Thank you so much!! Never would have thought it would be the bunny plushie.
And thanks as well for the continued updates!!

[fluffbutter]

Glad you found it helpful! I'm still updating it as the game changes.

Making the baby: You have to date and marry someone. Then there's a soft plush bunny you can gift to your spouse to call the stork. If you want a more in-depth answer, check out the Discord server [discord.com]. The #query-quadrant is the perfect place to ask away!

[Sapphires]

Thank you for this amazingly detailed guide!! I do wanna ask though, how can one have a baby in this game?