Skills
| Skills | |
|---|---|
| Type | Mechanic |
Five skills sit behind everything a farmer does: Farming, Mining, Foraging, Fishing and Combat. Each one climbs to ten levels, each level makes the matching tool cheaper to swing, and nearly every level hands over a crafting or cooking recipe worth having. Two of the levels ask a question instead of giving a gift, because the fifth and the tenth each force a choice between two professions, and those choices shape how a farm makes its money for the rest of the save. Once all five skills are maxed, a door in Cindersap Forest opens onto the Mastery Cave, where leftover experience buys a second tier of rewards. The whole system is quietly generous: there is no way to waste experience, and a bad profession choice can be bought back later at a statue in the sewers.
Overview
Experience is earned by doing the work rather than by owning the tool. Levels come at fixed totals, and the steps get steeper as they go: the first level needs a hundred points, the fifth needs a couple of thousand in total, and the tenth needs fifteen thousand. Reading the right book hands over a lump of experience at once, and there is a book for every skill, with one that feeds all five at the same time.
The timing of a level-up has a quirk worth knowing. The level itself lands the instant the experience is earned, and the skills tab shows it straight away, along with a line about having some new ideas to sleep on the first time it happens in a day. The rewards wait until morning. The popup after bed is where recipes and profession bonuses actually arrive, which means anything shipped on the day of a level-up is sold at the old price. Levelling up also guarantees a full energy bar the next morning whatever state the farmer went to bed in.
Proficiency is the invisible half of a level. Every point of skill shaves a tenth off the energy cost of the matching tool, so a pickaxe that costs two energy a swing at the start costs one at the top of Mining. The pattern repeats for the hoe and watering can under Farming, the axe under Foraging and the rod under Fishing. The fishing rod is the expensive one at eight energy a cast, and it costs that whether the line lands in water or on the sand. Upgrading a tool does not change its energy cost at all, which means an iridium pickaxe uses the same energy per swing as a copper one while breaking far more rock, and that is where the real saving comes from. Scythes, pans, weapons and slingshots cost nothing to use, while the Milk Pail and Shears always cost four.
Farming climbs by harvesting crops and by looking after animals, and its ladder is the richest in the game, running from the Scarecrow up through the Preserves Jar and the Keg to the Iridium Sprinkler. Mining climbs by breaking rocks, however they break, so bombs and even a monster smashing a stone both count. Its unlocks are the bombs themselves, the Staircase, the Glowstone Ring and the Crystalarium. Foraging climbs by picking things off the ground and by felling trees, and its unlocks cover the Charcoal Kiln, the Tapper, the Mushroom Log, the Lightning Rod, the four sets of Wild Seeds and the warp totems. Fishing climbs by landing anything on a line, including trash and seaweed, and by emptying crab pots, and its levels open up better rods, bait, bobbers and tackle in Willy's shop while also raising the minimum size of a catch, widening the bobber bar and shortening the wait for a bite. Combat climbs by killing monsters, hands over the Sturdy Ring, the Ring of Yoba, the Thorns Ring and the Iridium Band, and adds to the health bar on some of its levels.
The professions are the decisions. At the fifth level each skill offers two paths, and at the tenth each of those paths splits again. Mining chooses between more ore per vein and paired gems, then between bars worth half again, doubled coal, doubled geodes or gems worth a third more. Foraging chooses between more wood and a chance of double forage, then between hardwood from any tree, better syrup prices, forage always arriving at the highest quality, or every forageable item on the map revealed. Fishing chooses between fish worth a quarter more and cheaper crab pots, then between fish worth half again, doubled treasure chances, crab pots that stop catching junk or crab pots that stop needing bait. Combat chooses between more damage and a much higher critical chance, then between more damage still, extra health, halved cooldowns on special moves or critical hits that land twice as hard.
Nothing about those choices is permanent. The Statue Of Uncertainty in The Sewers takes ten thousand gold and one named skill, and the next morning offers the level five and level ten screens again for that skill. The old bonuses switch off the moment the choice is made, so anything in the shipping bin that day sells without them.
Mastery is the endgame of the system. Reaching the tenth level in all five skills opens a door in Cindersap Forest, and from then on every scrap of experience earned goes into one shared pool of mastery points instead of being thrown away. Farming experience adds half its value to the pool, and every other skill adds its full value. The pool buys five pillars, costing more at each step and totalling a hundred thousand points, and each pillar can be spent on whichever skill is wanted, in any order. Farming Mastery gives the Iridium Scythe, the Statue Of Blessings and Golden Animal Crackers that permanently double an animal's output. Mining Mastery gives the Statue Of The Dwarf King, the Heavy Furnace and doubled gems from gem nodes. Foraging Mastery gives the Mystic Tree Seed, the Treasure Totem and Golden Mystery Boxes. Fishing Mastery gives the Advanced Iridium Rod, which takes two bobbers at once, along with Challenge Bait and golden treasure chests. Combat Mastery gives the Anvil, the Mini-Forge and a new equipment slot for trinkets.
Notes
Food and a few clothing items raise skills temporarily, and the buff shows as an icon beside the clock. A temporary level behaves like a real one, so a dish that pushes Mining past ten keeps shaving energy off each swing, and a buff is the cheapest way to make a long day underground survivable.
The game gives a title under the farmer's name based on the total of all skill levels, running up through Greenhorn, Bumpkin, Cowpoke and Tiller towards Cropmaster and Farm King. The top two cannot be reached, because the sum includes a sixth skill called Luck that was planned and never finished, so Farmer is the best title a save can actually show.
Levelling order matters less than it looks. Any experience earned after a skill is maxed still counts towards Mastery, so pushing one skill far ahead of the others early on is safe. The only real cost of an unbalanced farm is that the Mastery Cave door stays shut until the slowest of the five catches up.
All Mechanics
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
