Farming Guide - How to Start Your Own Farm
Farming is a major aspect of Valheim as it produces many of the food items that are used to increase both your health and stamina. In this Valheim Wiki, you will learn everything you need to know about farming, including how to set up a farm, key items and things you'll need, as well as basic strategies that will help you yield better crops.
Farming in Valheim is something that you'd want to get into to be able to maximize the potential of food in the game using the cauldron. These foods might be the difference between you dying on your next boss fight or surviving one last hit and being able to deliver the final blow.
Things You Need to Start Farming
In order to get started, you'll need the following essential items:
- Cultivator
- Fences
- Seeds
- Beehives (Optional)
The Cultivator will be available after killing the first boss, Eikthyr. You need 5 Core Wood and 5 Bronze to be able to craft it. Next, you'll want some fences, which are designed to protect your crops from the monsters and animals that will eat them.
Before you can begin though, you'll need some seeds in order to grow your crops. Seeds can be obtained in a variety of different ways, including:
- Onion Seeds:
- Found when exploring abandoned huts and chests in the Mountains biome.
- Carrot Seeds:
- Found when exploring the Black Forest biome.
- Turnip Seeds:
- Found when harvesting Turnip flowers in the Swamp biome.
Lastly, you'll want to look into placing some Beehives. A great addition to any farm, Beehives protect your farm when placed correctly near the corners of your farm, just before the fences. It's important to make sure that the beehives have enough space though, otherwise, they will be unable to produce honey.
How to Set Up Your Farm and Basic Tips and Strategies for Getting Started
After you get all the required materials, it's time to start your farm. You can start it anytime you want but starting it sooner, rather than later, will mean you'll unlock food earlier if you already have a cauldron made. During the fight with the second boss, The Elder, these dishes might be the difference-maker.
For now, to get your farm started, you'd want to use your cultivator to cultivate the soil where you're going to plant your crops. After that, you'll want to put fences to protect the cultivated soil as monsters and animals will eat your crops if they're not protected.
After putting fences around your intended farm, it's time to plant the seeds. If you're making the farm right after killing the first boss, the most beneficial crop you should plant is the carrot. To be able to plant a carrot, you'd first need to have seeds.
Carrot Seeds are located in the Black Forest biome and you can just pick them up for your farm. However, you wouldn't want to just rely on picking up carrot seeds whenever you venture to the Black Forest. Instead, after harvesting a carrot you planted, you can opt to replant them as a seed-carrot -- which are the same as the Seed-Carrots found in the Black Forest.
To make your harvests a little more consistent, you'll want to make another small farm where you'd just plant seed plants on. If you don't want to do that, you can set aside a small segment in your farm for seed plants.
The focus of your first few harvests should be obtaining seed plants, as this will help ensure you don't run out of seeds in the future. Each seed plant produces 3 seeds, which means that you can plant 1-2 out of those as actual crops, and reserve the rest as a seed plant.
Do note that this seed plant strategy only works for crops, as when it comes to trees, you simply have to plant them and hope a seed is dropped after chopping them down.
As mentioned earlier in the guide, adding a beehive to your farm can be quite beneficial. Not only do they have the ability to protect your farm, but they also produce honey, a key food item needed for some dishes at the cauldron.
Looking for even more? Why not check out some of our other handy Valheim guides: