Soulmask: Farming Guide (What You Should Do Before Bronze Age)

Welcome to the guide on optimizing your farming experience in SoulMask, tailored especially for newcomers. While farming may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I’ve found it captivating, particularly in SoulMask. This guide aims to ease the frustrations new players may encounter, especially when grappling with plot placements and mechanics upon unlocking Crop Planting. Fear not, as mastering farming is crucial for late-game recipes and overall progression.

First and foremost, before delving into the intricacies of the farming skill tree, it’s essential to gather seeds and items necessary for preparing your first farm through regular gameplay. Engage in activities such as battling outcasts, exploring ruins, and looting chests to amass the resources needed for this endeavor. However, before you embark on laying down your first farm, here are some quick tips to consider.

Visit the Barbarian Barracks in Western Rainforest

• The Flint Tribe Barracks is a prime spot, boasting multiple farms yielding various crops like corn, pumpkins, cotton, and tomatoes.
• Equip your scythe and gather early for a head start. NPCs are also a reliable source of compost, an initial fertilizer.
• These Plots refresh daily and are great to visit if your needing certain crops early game

Utilize Grinders

• Crafting a Grinder for your camp ensures a steady seed supply, provided you have the requisite ingredients.

Rush “Medium Building” Tech Tree “Outhouse” or Build Animal Pens

• While exciting to acquire wood building materials, prioritize unlocking furniture under Medium Build tech for the Outhouse.
• Poop is crucial for fertilizer; tribe size affects its accumulation rate.
• NPCs passively use the outhouse, contributing to feces supply.
• Capybara Pen and Turkey Coop offer additional feces sources, but care and animal traps are required.
• The outhouse provides a convenient, effort-free method for obtaining poop.
• Collect poop early to streamline fertilizer production.

MORE POOP = MORE CROPS

Wait! I got my first farm but it says I need a Granary?
Okay you just laid down the first farmland now it says you need a granary. “WTF, I’m not in the Bronze age yet” I thought the same thing. Worry not you can manually plant seeds on this plot, just put the intended seed on your hot bar and start planting. You will need to manually water and fertilize as well.

Here’s Some Tips About Manual Farming

• Watering with only a water skin is a madness just let the rain come and fill the farmland naturally. I recommend you get water tanks from Potting Technique to run water till water buckets are unlocked in Bronze Age-Advanced Carpentry.
• Plants wont grow without fertilizers. Depending on which plant your growing you need the correct fertilizer. (See Fertilizer Below.)
• Focus on one farmland and just plant what you need till granary is obtained.

As you transition from manual farming to automation and multiple plots, it’s imperative to have prioritized fertilizer production. By this stage, most players also consider upgrading from their thatch hut to establish their first early mid-game main base, signaling the imminent entry into the Bronze Age.

You should have the following items Unlocked:

• Farmland
• Fertilizer Bucket
• Well / Rain Collector (if not near water)
• The Granary.

Access to flat land and water is undeniably crucial for optimal farming conditions, but it’s not always readily available. However, fret not, as you can still establish farmland even in less favorable terrain by utilizing foundations. Aligning farmland with the edges of foundations ensures uniformity, with plots neatly fitting into a 2×2 foundation square. The snapping feature on farmland simplifies this process, making it effortless to line everything up precisely. Personally, I’ve found that placing farmland on regular ground can often lead to unevenness and difficulty, highlighting the convenience and efficiency of utilizing foundations for farming setups.

Rain Water Collectors (Premium Potting) can be used but Wells are also unlocked under (Crop Planting). I’d stick with wells and save the tech points.

When establishing farm plots, it’s crucial to note that they can only be placed within the radius of a bonfire. If necessary, consider constructing additional bonfires to expand your farming area. Additionally, the level of your bonfire directly impacts the maximum number of plots you can have, so upgrading it becomes essential for scaling up your farming operations.

Plant [120+] Specialized Tribesmen

A tribesman with proficiency exceeding 120 offers invaluable benefits, unlocking four effects within their respective skill. However this is super rare and requires a lot of taming barbarians 90 is more likely, but you never know. I found taking “crop fertilizer cost” or “crop collection” to be the most effective. Crop Collection increases harvest amounts but fertilizer cost reduces your bottleneck on poop.

One remarkable aspect is that specialized tribesmen can efficiently manage both planting and fertilizer tasks, providing full automation for your farming buildings. Ensure that you load all your seeds and fertilizer materials as required, then set up automated tasks accordingly. This streamlined process maximizes efficiency and minimizes manual intervention in your farming operations.

• Compost: Potatoes, Cotton, Aloe, Agave
• Ash: Pumpkin, Tobacco, Cocoa
• Bone Powder: Corn, Cashew, Peanut, Tomato, Papaya, Quinoa
• Stone Powder: Chili, Guava, Papaya
• Compound: All crops benefit. Boosts Crop Speed 10%

Mastering these fundamentals sets the stage for a prosperous farming venture, ensuring a bountiful harvest and smooth progression in SoulMask.