Farming

Farming is Tideward's long-cycle gathering skill — plant seeds at a farm patch, then wait minutes or hours for them to grow before harvesting. Where every other gathering skill rewards continuous attention, Farming rewards the player who set the timer and forgot. Offline progression makes this skill's mechanics literal: real-world hours pass, your crops mature regardless of whether the app is open.

How Farming works

There are several farm patches across the world map (Hearth's settlement patches, herb patches, allotment patches, tree patches, fruit-tree patches, hops patches). Each takes a different seed type and grows over a different real-world time window — herbs are 80 minutes, oak trees are 6 hours, magic trees are 24 hours.

Timer ticks happen on a 5-minute global cycle. Crops at the start of a tick are advanced one growth stage. Importantly: crops grow whether the app is open or not, whether you're training another skill or sleeping. Tideward's Farming patches use real wall-clock time, not session time.

High-Farming-level crops produce more product per harvest, plus a chance for "magic" or "supercompost" yield rolls that double up. Farmers often rotate patches: plant herbs in the morning, plant trees before bed, harvest both when convenient. Farming has the lowest XP-per-hour rate of any skill but the lowest attention requirement of any skill.

Tips for training Farming

1. Plant before bed. Tree patches grow for 6+ hours; setting them at 11pm means a free harvest at breakfast.
2. Compost every patch every time. The yield bump is significant; the cost is trivial after a few hours of Farming.
3. Herb patches feed Apothecary directly — coordinate planting with the herbs your Apothecary recipes need.
4. Magic-tree patches are the longest-cycle, highest-XP option. Plant when you'll be away for 24+ hours.
5. Bird nests from Woodcutting drop random seeds. Save them; they're the cheapest seed source for high-tier crops.

Skills that pair with Farming

The 23 trades aren't isolated. Farming works best alongside these:

Frequently asked about Farming

Do crops grow while the app is closed?

Yes — Farming uses real wall-clock time, not session time. Plant at midnight, harvest at breakfast. This is the skill that benefits most from Tideward's offline-first design.

What's the best crop to plant for XP?

It depends on your level and time horizon. Magic trees at Farming 75 are the long-cycle XP champions. Herbs are the best short-cycle option for grinding through the mid-levels.

Can my crops die?

Yes — some crop types have a disease chance per growth stage. Compost and supercompost reduce that chance. A dead crop wastes the seed but not the patch slot.