Guide to Farming

­A Farmer’s guide to the Wild Wasteland
Written by Daniel Robertsson

Introduction
“You should write a book (…), call it ‘Wild Wasteland’.”

-         Forgotten Namesake.

You’ve found yourself glaring through the contents of this book, and for that- I thank you. This is one of the oddest tasks I’ve found myself working upon, to write down my own thoughts and tips that I’ve given others in the past, so I thank you for what I hope will be your patience and your curiosity. It’s placed in shaky hands, but as I’ve tended crops, I’ll treat your time as best as I can.

All of us have a reason for practicing farming, be it feeding oneself and their loved ones, to serve a purpose in the market and fill in a niche, or to develop the very act of farming into a fruitful endeavour. For these, and only these, I will write onto you what I know. For those that seek power in the plants, I will not share such power within this book, so you will find yourself wasting your time.

Basics of Farming
There are many parts of farming to go over, and before I share with you those, there are some basic premises that I must explain to you. First and foremost:

Percentages – You most likely didn’t expect this when you started farming, and I was shook when I found out myself that there was a specific pattern of mathematics within farming. To explain to those that don’t know, percentages are effectively how much of something you’ll receive. If I were to write ‘1’, in this context, I’d say you will receive 100% of something. If I were to write ‘0,5’; you’ll receive 50% of something, 0,05 means 5%, and this is key to understanding potency.

Statistics – This term is used somewhat loosely, but it’s meaning is narrow and straight to the point. Stats in a plant means number of things, but to go over the ones that you’ll see when you’re out farming:

Plant Age – This is a measurement for how long a plant has been alive. I am ill-certain in how it’s actually done for our world and theirs, as plants seems to age quicker than us, a boon certainly for those who just want to do farming for a few days a week as oppose to forever be bound by it. The rough estimate that I have is that one plant age is equivalent to thirty seconds.

Soil’s starting stats – Every soil in the world starts off all the same: 100/100 Water, 10/10 Nutrients, and fertilized with EZ-Nutriments, discussed later.

Lighting – It might seem obvious, but some don’t entirely know this, so I will try and help clarify this part as best as I can. Depending on how well the area you’re working within is lit, your plants will either suffer or prosper. Depending on if you’re doing a mushroom or a regular plant, it needs some form of a light, either by the sun or by torches. An obvious solution can also be to plant a decent potency glowshroom next to other soils to illuminate them, setting up tribal torches is another effective solution, or if you have access to a workshop: flashlights.

1.     Potency
This determines the size and amount of contents you will find in a fruit.


 * It’s used to figure out how much you’ll receive of a plant- 100 is the highest value you can have, and 0 is the lowest value you can have. 100 means that based on the percentage content within a plant, you’ll receive a certain amount of that chemical or nutrients, or vitamins based on the product of potency and percentage of that specific plant. 100 potency on a 50% plant will mean your plant will contain 50% of whatever it produces within that plant and will be much larger than its normal counterparts. The value can range from 0-100, with 100 being the best.
 * Example: Pluck a fresh Xander root from the Wastes and compare it with most of your harvests of xander. Its size will most likely be larger, due to it having a higher potency value.

2.     Yield
This determines the amount of something you receive when you harvest.


 * It’s straight forward, with 0 being the worst value you can have (meaning no harvest), and 10 being the best value you can have. If it says 5, you’ll receive 5 fruits from your plant. The value can range from 0-10, with 10 being the best.
 * Example: Some plants may produce 3 fruits, while others produce 10 naturally. Tobacco is a great example, as it naturally has 10 yield.

3.     Production Rate
This determines the amount of time in plant age you will have to wait before you can harvest a plant.


 * After you’ve harvested, the production rate will determine how much you have to wait, but on your first harvest, it’s the sum of maturation rate and production rate that will determine when you can harvest for the first time.
 * Example: Wheat has the fastest production rate, in comparison to apples and oranges, which are leaning more on the slower side.

4.     Maturation Rate
This determines the amount of time in plant age you will have to wait before you can harvest a plant for the first time if it possesses the plant trait perennial growth. Otherwise, you can just add this onto the production time for any plant if it’s only single time harvesting.


 * What does it mean? – If I have a production rate of 5, and a maturation rate of 4, it’s just 5+4, equals 9. Meaning when the plant has reached the plant age of 9, or you’ve waited 4,5 minutes: it’ll be ready for harvest.

5.     Endurance
This determines the maximum health your plant can have.


 * While this stat isn’t exactly ‘necessary’, it can actually have some great implications in what your plant will be capable of performing for duties, and what you can expect to do with it. It’ll impact how long it can stay alive and how much toxins the plant is going to be able to take. The value can range from 0-100, with 100 being the best.
 * Example: Tower Caps have a naturally high endurance, pour weed killer on it and compare the amount you can pour on that in regards to other plants.

6.     Life span
This determines how old your plant can be before suffering.


 * This is key for plants that require longer waiting periods before you get your fruits. Much like us, when plants reach a certain age, they will start to deteriorate and lose their ‘strength’ that they once possessed, until at last, they themselves pass away. The values can range from 0-100, with 100 being the best.
 * Example: Not entirely certain. I’d gander tree-based plants like apples would have a high value, while wheat would have a lower value. Plant something and apply nutrients and water: and then just wait for a long time. Watching the grass grow…

7.     Weed Growth
This determines the amount of weed your soil will have a chance of being subjugated to every 30 seconds.


 * This is a concept that I have battled with a lot, as knowing the exact time when you must clear out plants of weed is crucial, as waiting too long and your plant may be overwhelmed. It appears that every time your plant ages, it has a chance of being subjugated by weeds proportional to your plant’s weed vulnerability. The values can range from 0-10, with 0 being the best.
 * Example: Gaia for instance is a plant that is notorious for it's incredibly high weed growth and being overtaken by weeds in a matter of seconds, while other plants you can live be for minutes and be completely fine with. This means that Gaia has a high weed growth and high weed vulnerability, which will be described below.

8.     Weed Vulnerability
This determines the chance for weeds to amass in your soil and the chance for your plant to be overwhelmed and replaced by the weeds.


 * Weed vulnerability is worked in percentages once more. If your plant has a vulnerability value of 50, it means that every 30 seconds, there’s a 50% chance that X amount of weed will spawn in your soil, and if it reaches 9-10 weed value in the soil, it will calculate again 50% whether or not your soil gets overwhelmed by weeds and replace the plant on it.
 * Example: You may notice how sometimes, even though you have a seed with high weed growth, the weed growth itself doesn't happen regularly like other plants, but instead happens on a semi-rare occurence, this means that your seed has a low weed vulnerability score.

Part 0: The Right Preparation
To start off farming, you’ll want to retrieve the right tools and equipment you’ll be using for your farm, these will be relatively simple to start off with, but can become advanced based on which are you’re working for. This will assume you belong to the Wasteland, and the limitations of technology that exist there:

Soils – Without a soil, your seed packet can’t become a plant. To tilt soils, you’ll need sand, and using sand to make into sandbricks, you can then at a cost of 3 sandbricks per soil tilt the land to become suitable for planting. Pick a good spot with sufficient access to nutrients and water, or you will find yourself in dire need for bottled supplies.

·        Important Note on Soils:

Soils have a few more important statistics to just let you know about.

1.     Water (0 > 100)


 * The hydration of the soil, this stat is important for regular plants and those classified as weeds. If this value goes down to 0, those plants will start taking damage, while fungi can continue existing without concerns.

2.     Nutriments (0 > 10)


 * The nutrients that the plant can use in the soil. This is important for regular plants and fungus. If this value goes down to 0, those plants will start taking damage, while weeds can continue existing without concerns.

3.     Pest Growth (0 > 10)


 * This is a hard one in particular to talk about. Pest Growth is a measurement on the amount of worms or parasitic insects that’s inside your soil and draining your plants. They will constantly deal a set amount of damage to your plants, starting miniscule and ending horrendously if you allow it to persist. My personal guess would say that pest growth happens around once every six-seven minutes, but can be countered with the use of compost, diethylamine or pest killer. The Cultivator will not work.

4.     Weed Growth (0 > 10)


 * Weed Growth, most farmers that have actively worked will know the suffering this value can cause you. When the value is either 5 or higher, your eyes will be able to spot their roots and devilish thorns come up and try to establish themselves in your soil. Unless you know that your plant has weed growth 0, you'd best remove it.

5.     Toxins Levels (0 > 100)


 * Depending on what you pour into the soil, ranging from weed killer, pest killer, radium/uranium, etc… You’ll cause the toxicity of the soil to rise depending on what you poured in. This will also deal damage increasing depending on the amount of toxins levels you currently have against the plant that's within, some plants being able to endure without problems, while those that have an endurance score less than the toxins levels will rapidly decay.

Part 1. The Right Tools
I’ll go over the tools of the trade, ranging from spades and cultivators, the three types of fertilizers you can use upon your plant, your own set of eyes, and the most crucial tool of all: the plant analyser.


 * 1) Spades, unlike the shovel, is a tool that’s designed for removing weeds and plants you no longer want from your soils, allowing you to plant new seeds. It’ll take a few seconds to get the roots of the offending plant out, but it’s a lot better than using a shovel. Shovels will cause you to dig up the entire soil, rendering it unable to be worked upon and needing replacement. Spades can also be used to dig up the ground to retrieve more sand to convert into sandstone, which will allow you to produce more soils to work upon.
 * 2) Cultivators are key for managing the weed growth. Weed growth will be what you curse the gods for allowing to exist, as they can hit vulnerable plants faster than you’ll have a chance to rescue them, so try to your best degree to maintain the weed levels within your soil by cleaning up with a cultivator- it’s your best bet for a healthy plant and a healthy life, and it doesn’t cost you much aside from calories.
 * 3) Plant Analyzer is the most important tool that you have for high end farming. It will allow you to investigate the stats of a plant and get a view of what you will receive upon harvesting a plant. It’ll also give you sight into different traits a plant will have.

Three Fertilizers exist, that all have a special, unique property to them, and purpose for existing:


 * 1) EZ-Nutriments – Most basic of all the plant-giving substance, what it’ll do is cause the plant to mutate lightly when it’s ready for harvest. This means that if you apply EZ-Nutriments after a plant has become ready for harvest, you won’t see any stats-difference, but if you had Robust Harvest applied, you’ll notice a decrease in the yield. For this reason, my suggestion is to apply EZ-Nutriments before it's ready for harvest, not after.
 * 2) Left-4-Zed – For advanced plants, Left-4-Zed causes a plant to mutate heavily when it’s ready for harvest. This means that it can alter the plant heavily enough to cause a species jump! However, it also limits the harvest you can achieve from a plant down to one, so be vary of using it.
 * 3) Robust Harvest – The money-making fertilizer. Unlike the other two, when you harvest a plant with Robust Harvest, you’ll receive a 30% increase in yield, meaning that if you would have received ten plants from a fruit, you’ll actually receive 13 (10x1.3=13), and will unique to itself, also not cause mutations to happen. If you have a perfected seed you don’t want ruined, you should use Robust Harvest.

Part 2. Different types of agents that can be poured on a soil, and their effects.
There’s a lot of different types of agents that can be used while farming that’ll produce benefits to it. From healing to removing toxins, all the way to something as simple as hydration. I’m intending on going through some examples here, but not all:


 * 1) Water – The most basic of liquids, this will hydrate your soil in a 1:1 ratio. 10 units of water poured on, means 10u of water added to the water levels. However, it also has a unique ability of diluting out toxins in your soil. For every unit of water, you apply to a soil, you’ll remove 0,2 toxins levels: meaning, if you dunk 100u of water on a soil, you’ll remove 20u of toxins.
 * 2) Compost – Most places that I have seen that’re genuinely organized will have one compost bin available to them. You can put your seeds in to generate 3u of compost, or 10u of compost if you put in fruits or vegetables. The compost heals a plant powerfully, removes parasites and worms, while also working as nutrients. This will be important for fighting off worms and for active mutagens.
 * 3) Sugar – Sugar doesn’t really do much for plants, and instead causes worms to move in. Do not pour sugar on your plants unless you’re intending on getting rid of the soil or create a breeding nest.
 * 4) Milk – It provides a decent amount of hydration, not as good as water, but also provides a minimal amount of nutrients as well. Overall, it’s better for your bones than the stalk of wheat.
 * 5) Ash – This will heal up plants excellent, while removing toxins from the soil. Overall, burn some paper, get the ash, and you’ll be set for treating heavy damages.
 * 6) Charcoal – Works like Ash, except the healing portion.
 * 7) Diphenhydramine – This is a special agent. If you pour this on a plant, you’ll kill pests and weed, heal the plant, and in the right dosage amount of 50u applied INSTANTLY to a plant: you will make it produce faster and more! Overall, you’ll want this stuff!
 * 8) Saltpetre – Another special agent. If you pour this on a plant, you’ll increase the potency of that plant quite considerably if you apply enough.
 * 9) Ammonia – Think of it as a weaker version of Diphenhydramine. If you pour 100u of it instantly on a plant, you’ll make it produce faster.
 * 10) Radium/Uranium – Radium and Uranium are interesting beasts. They will harm your plant and increase the toxins levels in your soil, so you have to be varied of pouring too much on a plant without healing it once it looks wounded. But, if you want to actively mutate your plants, this is a necessity.
 * 11) Holy Water – Believe it or, the plants seems to be believers, and they will be healed by the water blessed by a priest.

There’s plenty more things you can use, that won’t really improve the statistics of your plants, but you can explore and check it out!

Part 3: Mutations and different strategies to improving your plants.
The key to my success, has been the willingness to use mutagens to force progress on an otherwise slow job. It works like this:

When you pour 2u of Radium/Uranium, you will force a mutation equal to EZ-Nutriments upon your plant. Nothing major, you might see some improvements or downgrades, it all depends. When you pour 5u of Radium/Uranium on a plant, you’ll notice instead mutations equal to Left-4-Zed, but not strong enough to force a mutation of species potentially. But it comes with an added chance of mutating in a new trait, at about 1,5% chance per application.

(Authors Note: It would appear that EZ-Nutriments can also grant traits, so if you’re trying to farm out traits- use EZ-Nutriments.)

Now, to change species with Radium/Uranium, you’ll want to pour 10u of one of them onto the soil to actively attempt to mutate it. You have a 10% chance of causing it to jump species, with the rest filled in by things such as nothing happening, the weeds/pests reacting weirdly, and major stat mutations.

Keynote: Using Uranium is a lot less harsh on the plant toxin wise and damage wise than using Radium.

But where can I get access to these? Well, believe it or not, you have multiple options, which I will detail below, with their own positives and negatives depending on what you seek:

1.     Important note!

To separate out the radium that’s stored within, grind them up using either a Grind-Master or a Mortar and Pestle. Grind-master allows you to bulk-grind but are rarer to find than Mortar and Pestle, which can be hand-crafted using bones. After you’ve ground up the contents, you can then throw/splash the contents onto the floor to separate out the non-thick liquids from the thick radium, which will remain behind for you to scoop up. Congratulation, you’ve retrieved pure radium! This same principle works for uranium as well.


 * Mutfruits – The fastest way that I know of to receive a decent dosage of radium early on., and while mutfruits have a faster maturation time than the next pick, it also contains half of the other one in proportion.
 * Glowshrooms – This is the way that I’ve practiced it for a long time. These plants contain around 10% Radium within them, meaning that if you get 100 potency, 10 units of radium will be available to you: you can compost them directly into plants you want to mutate and they’ll have that very effect. The only downside is the long maturation period of 15 plant ages, meaning you must wait in 7,5 minutes before you can reap. Plant in bulk with high yield and potency to minimize the amount of time you must harvest.
 * Ghoul Meat – Believe it or not, what most people consider junk or immoral is a decent way to grind up and retrieve early radium. With the sheer amount of it on the surface and the incredulous amount in the Sewers, odds are, you could just gather up ghoul meat in boxes and use that as your mutagen very early on.
 * Shadowshrooms – I’d personally recommend against growing these, as it requires you to mutate and will vilify you should someone somehow grab one and plant it somewhere with stable roads and houses, it contains 10% more radium than glowshrooms. So, in general, should be considered if you can keep it well-lit and contained, as it generates darkness.

I’ve discussed thus far only the basics of farming, the fertilizers, and the tools you’ll require. Now, I’m going to actively discuss how you can actively use the items and the plants around you to enact the best type of farming, and here’s multiple strategies I’ve attempted in the past, and still use:

1. Active Mutations
For this strategy, you’re going to need a steady source of Radium or Uranium. These mutagens with a plant analyser will allow you to in real time change the stats of a plant until you have reached perfection. Simply vary between pouring 2u or 5u of Radium/Uranium on it, and you’ll change the stats of the plant in good haste.

Positives (+):


 * Allows for real-time, active farming.
 * More control farming; lets you use Robust Harvest without penalties because of lack of mutations.
 * Allows you to perfect your seed in less time than it’d take just letting it grow on its own.

Negatives (-):


 * Requires an enormous amount of mutagens potentially.
 * Could potentially lead over to you suffering bad fates due to radiation poisoning (trust me, I’ve had a few really bad incidents).
 * Will poison the soil, requiring you to intermix with poison-absorbing liquids and healing-liquids for your soils.
 * Extremely time consuming, can lead to you degrading the other plants around you.

2. Passive Mutations
This is going to be the more typical one you’ll see all around daily. You just grow the plants and let them themselves improve over time or enter a state of alcoholism. The key to success using this strategy is quantity over quality. You want to make as many soils as you can and plant as many of the same plants as you can on those soils, so you’ll see improvements as oppose to over half an hour as you must wait for each harvest, you instead rely on the sheer amount of plants that you have planted that – in the end, the odds are in your favour that '''you will see improvements. You also only need to pour 2u of whatever fertilizer to mark a soil with that fertilizer and receive it's benefits, you don't need more than that.'''

Positives (+):


 * Calmer; can do other things beyond farming.
 * Doesn’t require endless farming/acquiring mutagens, everything you need is provided by biogenerators or vending machines.

Negatives (-):


 * Land-intensive, requires a lot of land and soils instead.
 * Requires constant management of weed growth, nutrients and water in your soils.

3. Stat-Boosting
This is a more unusual one, as it makes the assumption you have access to the contents of a chemicals dispenser. If you do, you could make chemicals such as saltpetre, diethylamine and ammonia to boost your plants to glory as oppose to the natural method or active mutating. This has a few clear positives, and a few negatives even here.

Positives (+):


 * + Guarantees only positive growth for plants.
 * + Keeps the plant well-fed throughout the process.
 * + If you’re in a well-equipped bunker, you can get this method done a lot faster than mutations ever could.

Negatives (-):


 * Hope you brought a good battery, because this is going to drain a lot of your chemicals dispenser's battery.
 * May result in lynching if you ask/bother a Chemist.

Truth be told, the best method above all, it’s a combination of all three of these. If you can manage all three and get the necessary tools, you can get an incredible time farming done, fixing potency and yield after removing as much of weed growth as you can, while maintaining good stats otherwise.

Part 4. The Grind.
Grinding down reagents from plants is a key feature in farming that I would consider to be underused. Most plants contain great chemicals for both recreational use and for saving lives. For instance, the Rainbow Weed produces mindbreaker toxin; which can be used to treat those with reality dissociation disorder or be taken recreationally if you’re a masochist.

Other plants that are more common amongst us, such as the Broc Flower, will produce Saline Glucose and Bicaridine, Saline Glucose and Bicaridine being great for treating brute damage. Xander root, on its side, contains antitoxins and saline glucose as well, meaning it can treat some of your brute, but it’s best used for getting rid of toxins in your system. Of course, most people would convert Broc Flower and Xander root into Healing Powder, good on them if they intend to fight nasties with lasers and bullets, but those who fight natures toxins will be left stumped by it as Healing Powder doesn’t work against toxins. For this reason, you should attempt to grind up a few xander root and keep them in bottles for anti-toxin purposes.

We have more common ideas, such as grinding razorgrain into flour, but there’s another plant that can be used for that exact purpose, and if you let it mature, can even produce more flour than razorgrain: it’s called Pine Nuts.

Part 5. Making things out of what blooms.
“Anything if in the correct dosage, can be deadly, even incorrect dosage!” – Yes Ma’am.

In this part, I intend to go over a few recipes that I have personally used in regard to self-treatment and treating others that are in severe pain. Most of it is relatively basic, and you can go deeper into it depending on what you know.


 * Recipe List


 * 1) Mannitol – Grass, Sugar (White Beet, Sugarcanes), Water.  Yes, as a Tribesman or Wastelander, you must not walk around with brain damage, waiting for a doctor to come along. The recipe is simple in nature, grind up around 5:1 ratio of grass for every sugarcane you intend to add, mix in with water, and you’ll get a gritty brew that tastes not that great, but will keep your mind healthy. Had to use this recipe a lot while I had a friend in my head.
 * 2) Tricordrazine – Xander Root, Broc Flower, Agave leaf  As simple as it can be. As we remember, Xander Root and Broc Flower contained both Antitoxins and Bicaridine, and Agave leaf is the final solution: it contains… Something that helps against burn damage, which when mixed with the other three will create Tricordrazine, a weaker version of all three, but capable of curing all of those damages while taking up less space. Good if you get hurt just a tiny smooch and you’re not sure what to use.
 * 3) Gold Bars – Golden Apples, Ice Peppers, Metal.  Unbelievably, you can make your own gold bars following this simple recipe. Just grind up a few ice peppers with golden apples, and mix metal in at a steady dosage and you’ll be capable of retrieving gold bars. Usefulness is not guaranteed.
 * 4) Wasteland Soap – Liquid gibs, ash, water, and a lighter.  This one hasn’t been as useful since the vendors came that allows you to purchase soap bars, but you might still find some use for it, which is why I’m mentioning it. Scoop up about six piles of liquid gibs and burn a piece of paper to retrieve ash. With this ash, mix with water in the same beaker and then heat up the solution until you produce your soap bar. If it fails, you’re probably lacking in gibs.
 * 5) Synthflesh – Tower Caps (Wood Planks), Blood, Aluminum can, nettles, grass, and a lot of sticklights.  Believe it or not, if you dedicate enough time to a task, you may prosper still. Synthflesh will be capable of mending the wounds that death beyond death has marked someone with, and by that I mean- they shot your friend to the point an open casket funeral's out of the option.
 * 6) Pax – Ambrosia Deus + Rainbow Weed + Water  A powerful agent that seizes up all violent thoughts in the person who has this liquid within them. It can be used to sedate those who are insane or used to break up fights if placed within gas grenades.

Part 6. The Plant DNA Analyzer
I would argue that the most powerful tool within farming for anyone to possess, is the Plant DNA Analyzer. A machine that takes up the space of a chem-dispenser, alcohol-dispensery or vending machine, it’s capable of rewriting the makeup of plants to suit your needs, should you have the parts for it. This can be entirely skipped, should you not be a farmer who possesses one.

For some easy points as to how you can use it, I will bring up:


 * 1) Razorgrain  On its own, razorgrain at 100 potency only produce 5 nourishment that you can convert into flour. But, if you should use a Plant DNA Analyzer, you can use it to extract from a high-nourishment containing plant (Pineapples, Watermelon) and take that gene, and place it within Razorgrain. This will increase the yield of flour per razorgrain by upwards of 20%, so instead of 5 flour, you will receive 20 flour per razorgrain at 100 potency.
 * 2) Chemical-creations   In the previous chapter, I mentioned Pax, and you might’ve noticed that the contents it required was Rainbow Weed, Ambrosia Deus, and Water. We can take from A. Deus synaptizine, and from Rainbow Weed mindbreaker toxin, and alas- from Watermelons we can take water production to instantly make Pax within a plant, ready for harvest and use.
 * 3) Boosting and unlocking the power of farming  I will not go into too much details here, but cetain traits when combined together will unlock new, awesome powers that few would be capable of grasping what it is you're actually doing. Try it out amongst yourselves, and see what trickery you can succeed in creating.
 * 4) What plants can I use to extract powerful stats from?  To give you a good overall view, here's a few suggestions:  Tower caps for Potency.  Tobacco plant for Yield.  Razorgrain for Production Speed.

Part 7. Xander Root, Grass, and other oddities.
Oddities have been noticed in farming, should you have attempted to create medicines. These would be primarily Xander Roots that falls under this category, where if you attempt to grow multiple harvests of Xander on the same soil, the amount of time it takes between each harvest is increased. The cause of this is unknown, but what I'd assume is the reason is that they require some special nutrients that cannot be easily gotten, and thus, the only way to fix this is a relatively simple but tedious task of removing soils with your shovel that has succesfully been used to harvest, and make new soils specifically to plant Xander Roots on.