Standard Farm
| Standard Farm | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Farm Type |
| Location | The Farm |
| Skill | Farming |
| Tillable Tiles | 3427 |
| Buildable Tiles | 235 |
The Standard Farm is the layout a new save falls back on when no other is chosen, and it is the one most farmers meet first. It hands over every special feature on offer and takes open ground in exchange, and the ground is the point: one broad field with an unbroken rectangle of soil sixty three tiles wide and thirty one deep sitting in the middle of it. That rectangle is why the map is the easiest place to learn the game, because a sprinkler grid drops onto it without a wasted corner. Mining, foraging and fishing all happen out in the valley rather than at home, so a run here is built on crops, animals and the money the two of them make together. The map is picked at character creation and stays picked for the life of the save, which is why it is the usual advice for a first farm and the usual pick for anyone chasing crop volume.
Layout
The field arrives as one piece. Trees, weeds and stones are scattered across it, and shifting them is the work of the first few weeks rather than a permanent obstacle. The farmhouse stands towards the northeast with the shipping bin beside the door, the abandoned building that later becomes the Greenhouse sits west of it, the Cave opens near the northern edge, and Grandpa's Shrine waits in the northwestern corner. A single pond lies in the south.
Nearly all of the usable land on this map takes a hoe, and only a thin margin refuses soil while still accepting a building. That has a consequence worth planning around. Every Barn, Coop, Shed and cask house raised here stands on ground that could have grown crops, while the busier layouts hand over cliffs and grass patches as free foundations.
Heavier debris is the one thing the starting tools will not move. Large Stumps and Large Logs hold out until the Axe is upgraded to copper, and they are worth waiting for, because each one pays in Hardwood rather than ordinary Wood. A Boulder sitting across a route needs the Pickaxe taken up to steel before it breaks.
Farming
The long rectangle is what careful planners choose this map for. A Quality Sprinkler wets the full ring of eight tiles around itself, and an Iridium Sprinkler reaches a five by five square, so a field divided into matching blocks loses nothing to overlap or to dry gaps. Marking those blocks out in the first year, with narrow walking lanes between them, saves tearing the whole field up later when the better sprinklers finally arrive.
Crows are the other thing the open ground invites, since they only trouble a farm with crops standing in it. A Scarecrow guards a wide circle of land, and on a field this size a handful of them set at the block corners covers everything worth covering.
Room also means both halves of the farm can run at once. A full season of crops and a large herd fit side by side here, which is awkward on the tighter layouts, and the leftover edges take the Kegs, Preserves Jars and Casks that turn a harvest into artisan goods. The Greenhouse carries less weight on this map than elsewhere, because the outdoor field already does the bulk planting. It is better spent on fruit trees and on the crops that would die outdoors once the season turns.
Fishing
The pond in the south is proper water in every way but one. A Watering Can fills from it, a Crab Pot dropped into it behaves exactly as it would in any fresh water, and tilled tiles along its bank will take Rice Shoots and Taro Tubers, both of which need soil beside water. A rod cast into it brings up rubbish, so farmers on this map fish the town river, the mountain lake or the beach instead.
Crab Pots are what make the pond pay its way. Baited in the evening, they hold a catch by morning, and the walk from the bank to the shipping bin takes seconds instead of a hike back from the coast.
Strategy
The first year on this map is a question of how fast the field can be opened. Mayor Lewis leaves fifteen Parsnip Seeds in the box on the first morning, so the opening move is to clear a patch near the farmhouse, plant them, and push the cleared edge outwards day by day as energy allows. Clearing everything at once is a trap. Debris on an empty farm is the cheapest Wood, Stone and Fibre available, and the grass that grows back becomes Hay for the Winter once a Silo stands.
The layout sets its own traps as well. A field planted wider than the Watering Can can reach in one day leaves crops thirsty and the farmer worn out, so the planting should grow behind the sprinkler supply rather than ahead of it. Buildings dropped into the middle of the long rectangle break the grid that made the map worth choosing, which is why the edges and the unplantable margin are the right places for them. Stone, ore and Hardwood all come from the valley here, so a stretch of mining in the first Spring belongs in the plan alongside the planting.
Notes
The farmhouse looks the same from outside whichever layout the save began on, while the inside arrives furnished, papered and floored to match the map, so a Standard Farm kitchen does not resemble a Riverland one.
The ruin west of the house becomes the Greenhouse once the Pantry bundles are complete or Joja has been paid. A repaired Greenhouse is no longer rooted to the spot, and either Robin or the Wizard will relocate it.
This is the layout the game settles on when the selection screen is left alone, and it is the one most guides put in front of a first-time farmer for exactly that reason.
All Farm Types
The table lists every layout with the skill it favours and how much of it can be farmed or built on.
| Name | Skill | Tillable | Buildable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Farm | Farming | 3427 | 235 |
| Riverland Farm | Fishing | 1578 | 516 |
| Forest Farm | Foraging | 1413 | 1490 |
| Hill-top Farm | Mining | 1648 | 930 |
| Wilderness Farm | Combat | 2131 | 444 |
| Four Corners Farm | Multiplayer | 2952 | 562 |
| Beach Farm | Foraging and Fishing | 2700 | 1928 |
| Meadowlands Farm | Farming | 2066 | 2141 |