Hill-top Farm Barnaby Blue from Blue Moo Farm and the superiority of the chicken

[riklaunim]

Inferior potato will give 8.33g/day, while clearly superior chicken quickly gives 190g/day (base mayo) and goes up to 285g/day with some friendship and 399g/day with Artisan on top. Mayo machines are easy to make, and all they require is resources from copper-levels of the mines, no need to farm mass gold/iron/quartz bars for quality sprinklers ;)

So, let's try a chicken-focused start on a non-Meadowlands farm to see how it pans out :) The goal is to have 2-3 coops with chickens, then upgrade them one tier up and increase the number of chickens in summer. Then use mayo income to invest in the next money maker to avoid being overrun by daily chicken management. If you use one of the super-rain seeds for spring, you could rush a fully upgraded barn and then either sheep with shepherd or pigs ;)

Hill-Top, random seed, remixed CC/mines and go:

Day 6, killing bugs in the mines and already ancient seed... but this is a no-keg-run, we say no to uggly plants :)


You can always count on fishing to deliver:


14th of spring and we have coop ready as well as Demetrius cave project:

Early on, best source of wood is fishing for gold and buying from Robin:

 

[riklaunim]

Quality parsnip has its uses:

My favorite catfish fishing spot:

By the end of spring, you should get a steel axe/pickaxe to be able to clear the farm, as well as cut down the whole of Cindersap forest for wood. We will need a lot of wood, hardwood and moss ;)

If you are hard at work in the mines, you can process eggs there as well:

Chicken income is ramping up:

While a rainy spring day is still a nice fishing income boost, allowing you to upgrade coops quicker:

 

[riklaunim]

And when chests are running out of space, it's time for an upgrade:

Next one will be a Joja run:

Without buying seeds and planting starter parsnips, rice, carrots, etc I got to farming level 5. Chickens give exp, but not that much. Mining 5, Foraging 7, Fishing 10, Combat 4 at the end of spring, with a bit over 100k in total earnings.

With tree fertilizer unlocked, it's time to start farming mahogany trees for more and more seeds:

The more trees, the more bonus seeds drop. A lot will be needed for mystic trees, so it's good to have a section of the farm dedicated to multiplying mahogany and green rain trees.

Holy Slime Blade dropped:

And after processing all geodes, it was enough to unlock the sewers:

 

[riklaunim]

Green rain and subsequent day moss harvesting should give around 400 moss, for 40 initial mushroom logs:

Starting green rain tree farm:

Even if going Joja, it may be beneficial to do easy unlocks in the CC. Bus repair will give a crystalarium, which can be used to duplicate early minerals like basalt for lava eel ponds or fire quartz for mass dehydrators:

Chickens going strong in summer:

Going armed and ready for the Trout Derby with targeted bait and tackle:

First day results:

 

[riklaunim]

After Green Rain, and after buying a lot of stone from Robin, a lot of pine trees were planted with tree fertilizer:

Plus a few oak and maple trees for tappers and whatnot. Later on, I'll also add some green rain trees in between them to increase moss production (tree fertilizer and green rain trees improve moss production). The goal would be to get way more moss to have 100-200 mushroom logs, and after getting foraging mastery, start switching to a denser layout with mystic trees for the best income.

 

[Terdin]

I see you put your first coop in the space I found for it, even if you moved it later on. I guess the move was for esthetic purposes rather than practical.

 

[riklaunim]

Chicken start summary:

• Hard on fishing in the first days; switching to a fiberglass rod with bait asap
• Mines are optional, although you will want at least a few earth crystals and copper to make the mayo machines... but also you can stash eggs if you get late
  • Go mines if it's best luck day, and fish if not
• Coop takes 3 days to build. In my two attempts, I always clipped egg festival, so 4 days :)
• Build 2-3 coops, then silo, then slowly go towards upgrading one coop (or both in summer)
• When the first coop finishes, I pretty much already have resources/gold for another (including buying missing wood).

Then you have to decide what you want to do after those chickens. They are good for Y1 income levels, but you can't mass-add chickens (not without autograbbers and the Automate mod at least) without going insane with chicken management.

• Late spring is mining iron levels to get tool upgrades (axe, pickaxe) as well as bat wings so you have lightning rods for summer (10-20)
• I was ignoring crops in summer and spring. In fall, I'm thinking about spamming bok choy to quickly level up farming
• 40+ mushroom logs is way more income. Same as moving to sheep/pigs or unlocking Greenhouse and running low-volume, high-profit ancient fruit wine later on.

 

[riklaunim]

I see you put your first coop in the space I found for it, even if you moved it later on. I guess the move was for esthetic purposes rather than practical.

It's mostly to get them to eat the grass evenly, and not focus on one part and eat until empty. Here is my second attempt at aligning coops:

The right coop likley could go a tile or two lower so it's even more even.

 

[Cuddlebug]

So it seems to end up being a Forest Farm with additional chickens Hope, your strategy works out well. Looks good so far, pretty organized for a first year.

 

[Rahnee]

First day results:

Whoa!! That's impressive . Was it a best luck day? Even with targeted bait I don't ever seem to get more than 5-6 tags per day. But then, I'm not sure I ever have the iridium rod and a dressed spinner by this time Y1, so maybe that's it.

 

[riklaunim]

Whoa!! That's impressive . Was it a best luck day? Even with targeted bait I don't ever seem to get more than 5-6 tags per day. But then, I'm not sure I ever have the iridium rod and a dressed spinner by this time Y1, so maybe that's it.

Targeted bait doesn't shorten the bait time, so tackle is mandatory for it not to be slow. Either way, the rewards aren't "that good" to push it overly hard. Still fun for some challenge runs or general fishing superiority run ;)

 

[riklaunim]

So it seems to end up being a Forest Farm with additional chickens Hope, your strategy works out well. Looks good so far, pretty organized for a first year.

Spring Chickens, Summer Shrooms, Fall Crystalariums, Winter farm redesign. As things should be :) With Hill-Top farm, those coops can later be moved next to the "river" and filled with ducks. 20-30 ducks in the river could be fun to watch :D