Guides/Renewable Farming

by Pxex and various wikia contributors

This page lists every renewable resource in the game and explains some of the ways to farm them.

Vegetables
Vegetables are food items you get from Basic and Advanced Farms. Once a farm is placed and a seed is planted, a plant will grow in 20 (Advanced Farm) or 40 (Basic Farm) daylight hours. The growing process can be sped by fertilizing it with Manure, Rot, Guano or Rotten Eggs, with guano being the best. You can use your grown crops on birds in Bird Cages to get Crop Seeds, which can be used to grow crops knowing what it will produce. However, after 20-30 uses, your farm will have to be refertilized.

List of Vegetables
All of these can be cooked or used to make various Crock Pot foods.



Corn (Common): Nothing special, but you should know that while Popcorn (The cooked version of Corn) stays for much longer, it restores half as much hunger as Corn.

Carrot (Common): Can be used for Rabbit bait or cooked and eaten for restoring 3 health.

Pumpkin (Uncommon): Used for making Pumpkin Lanterns (a light source) and Pumpkin Cookies (one of the best Crock Pot recipes to recover Sanity)

Eggplant (Uncommon): When cooked, becomes a very good healing food. Lasts 10 days uncooked. It is not recommended to make Stuffed Eggplant, as it restores less hunger than all of its ingredients combined and as much sanity as picking one flower.

Pomegranate (Rare): When cooked, also becomes a very good healing food (20 health).

Durian (Rare): A plant version of Monster Meat. Durians count as Monster food for the purpose of crock pot dishes.

Dragon Fruit (Rare): Used to make one of the best foods in the game, Dragonpie (restores 40 health and 75 hunger).

Berries
Berries are found growing on Berry Bushes that spawn across the land. The bushes can be dug up, using a Shovel, and planted elsewhere. Replanted bushes will need to be fertilized after planting and again if over-picked. You will see berries slightly appear and then fill in. If you (or usually a Gobbler) picks them too early the bush will return to its dormant state. There is a finite number of bushes in each world, but they are numerous. They are found primarily in grass biomes and occasionally forest biomes.

Building the Farm
It is advised to place a Lightning Rod nearby if you intend to plant large amounts of berry bushes, since a single lightning strike can set fire to an entire farm. Failing that, always plant bushes either spaced far apart or in several groups with only a few bushes very close together, so that a fire would only burn some bushes, rather than all of them. Walling off your farm sections with Stone Walls will prevent Fire Hounds from starting fires. Additionally, Tooth Traps are recommended in a walled farm, to prevent Gobblers from eating all of the berries.

Grass and Saplings
Like berries, there are a finite number of Grass Tufts and Saplings, however they are very common. Once replanted, Saplings do not need fertilizing, however Grass does. As with berries, either build Lightning Rods or space the plants out, as fires can destroy compact farms.

Spiky Bushes
Spiky Bushes are found in Swamps and can be harvested for Twigs, like Saplings. Unlike Saplings, however, they grow during winter, which can be useful, but they damage the player when harvested (armor decreases the damage).

Seeds and Eggs
You can find seeds randomly around the world whenever a bird lands, however to farm them all you have to do is feed a caged bird any vegetable (excluding berries). You can get Eggs by feeding the caged bird any meat besides raw Monster Meat (cooked and Monster Jerky will still work) and other Eggs.

Trees, Charcoal, and Treeguards
To make an efficient Tree farm, all you have to do is collect pinecones from Evergreens and plant them where you want your tree farm. Keep in mind that Lumpy Evergreens will not yield any pinecones. Once you plant the trees in whatever pattern you want for the tree farm, just wait for the trees to grow to full size to yield the most wood, chop it down, dig up the stump, and replant. You can set your farm ablaze to burn all the trees then chop the burnt trees for Charcoal.

Rarely when chopping down a tree a nearby tree will stand up and attack you. These are called Treeguards. They are easy to kite and you can get 4-5 hits in each time they attack. The probability of Treeguards appearing increases the more you survive in your world. If you are not prepared for it, the Treeguard can be pacified by planting new trees until it stop chasing you. They drop Living Logs and a little bit of Monster Meat on death. If you want to kill them without putting yourself at risk, there are a couple ways of doing this.

Tooth Traps
The good ol' Tooth Trap is a good way to farm various mobs, and will be mentioned a lot throughout the guide. You can scatter the traps to lure the Treeguard, reset the traps, and repeat until it is dead.

Pigs
Having a Pig village near your tree farm and luring the Treeguard to it will cause them to fight with each other. Keep in mind that it will take a large village to kill the Treeguard. Additionally, Pigs can be befriended and will chop trees for you. The Treeguard will then attack them automatically, instead of the player.

Ash
Ash is a key ingredient in Healing Salves, a common way to quickly regain lost HP, and is very easy to farm. All you need is a clear open area with no flammables nearby, then fill the area with burnable items. Pinecones and rot work very well for this, as well as any unwanted items that are taking up space. Once the items are placed, set one item ablaze and stand back, then gather the ash. If a stack of items is burned it will result in an equally large stack of ashes. Ash will disappear soon after being placed, so act fast.

Gobblers
Gobblers are turkey-like creatures that spawn from berry bushes and devour all berries and vegetables they can find. They run away from the player and hide in bushes at night. When killed they will drop two pieces of Drumstick. With large farms, they can take much of the bounty. There are three ways to farm them.

Walls
Walling off sections of your berry farm will trap the Gobblers in a relatively small space, allowing them to be easily chased into a corner and killed. Any walls but Stone Walls are susceptible to fire, but all walls can trap the Gobblers.

Tooth Traps
A more advanced yet less permanent solution, is to put Tooth Traps instead of Walls around your berry farms. You can bait the traps with berries/vegetables and, if done properly, will kill the gobbler without losing the bait. Killing gobblers this way does not increase the Naughtiness level.

Boomerangs
Two hits from a Boomerang will kill a Gobbler. But because of its low durability, you will find yourself making a lot of Boomerangs if you rely on it as your main method of hunting them.

Beefalo
Beefalo can provide meat, manure, Beefalo Wool, and occasionally a Beefalo Horn. Herds can be found in Savanna biomes. When one is attacked, all nearby Beefalo will aggro. During mating season, all Beefalo will become aggressive to all other creatures and the player (unless you are wearing a Beefalo Hat), and can be identified by having red backsides. At the end of mating season, some beefalos will have babies that will follow them until they grow into adults.

There are two ways to move Beefalo into a pen to be used for farming. The first is using a Beefalo Horn which will cause five nearby Beefalo to follow the player for the rest of the day. Horns have a 25% chance to drop from Beefalo when killed and can be used to move a group of Beefalo to produce your own herd. The second method is to wait until mating season has finished, then chase baby Beefalo into pens and wall them up until they grow and make your own herd. They will try to run back to their parent whenever they are not being chased.

Getting the resources
Once you have your own herd, you can focus on farming the resources. You can make the floor of your pens Savanna turf so the Beefalo will be more content to stay. Manure can be collected at any time from the ground without trouble (except in the mating season) and can be used as a fertilizer or as a source of fuel. Beefalo Wool can be collected by killing them or shaving them during the night (during mating season, the beefalo will wake after being shaved) for three wool. Meat and Beefalo Horns can only be obtained by killing them.

Killing them can be problematic since the whole herd will aggro if one is attacked. One way to kill them without causing the rest of the herd to attack, is to build a small holding pen connected to the main pen and wait for one to wander into it (or push it along manually), then wall it off. Slaughter the lone Beefalo, then run until you lose the attention of the rest of the herd. Keep in mind that this method hasn't been entirely proven, so exercise caution.

Another way to somewhat safely kill beefalo is to place some tooth traps in a separate pen connected to the main holding pen, then use a beefalo horn to lure up to 5 Beefalo to the trapped area and let the traps kill them. This method does not increase naughtiness and does not aggro the whole herd, but requires many traps to be effective - you need 9 traps to kill one beefalo, which means 45 traps to kill all 5 lured by the horn in a single trip. Alternatively, you may use 9 traps and reset them after they have been sprung.

Rabbits
Rabbits will spawn from Rabbit Holes that are most commonly found in savannas and occasionally grasslands. They will drop Morsels when killed. You can dig up a rabbit hole to force it out, but this will destroy the hole, and there is no way to move or make new rabbit holes at the moment, so there's a finite number of them. You will have to live somewhat close to them if you want to reliably farm them.

To catch rabbits you will need a Trap crafted out of 6 grass and 2 sticks or kill it using a boomerang, if one rabbit takes damage from anything all other rabbits will run back to their hole if they have one. The player can drop carrots or berries on the ground and all nearby rabbits will move slowly towards it. It can be placed behind the trap meaning you will use the bait and still keep it. When a trap is placed above a rabbit hole, it will eventually catch a rabbit leaving or entering the hole, even when it has no bait. This saves having to use precious bait in the winter plus strolling pigs have a tendency to steal any food item on the ground, including bait in traps.

During winter, rabbits have a snowy white coat, though merely cosmetic. When your sanity drops below 80 (60 for Wes and Willow) all rabbits, caught and wild, will turn into Beardlings. When Beardlings are killed they drop Nightmare Fuel, Beard Hair, or Monster Meat.

Birds
Birds can be hunted using a Boomerang, but to farm them all you need are Bird Traps. Birds will land randomly and will occasionally land on an unbaited trap, but traps can be baited with seeds to greatly improve the chances of catching one. Wearing a Feather Hat also speeds up the process of catching birds.

Once caught, the trap can be harvested to receive the type of bird as an item. There are three types of birds: Crows, Redbirds (which appear only during Summer), and Snowbirds (which replace Redbirds during the Winter). Only crows will appear on Rocky turf. Caught birds can be murdered, yielding a morsel or feather, cooked on a fire for a guaranteed cooked morsel, or place in a Bird Cage.

Bees
Bees spawn from Bee Hives found around the world, mainly in grasslands but occasionally in savannas and forests. In order to move them, you need to catch at least four bees, get two Wood Planks, and destroy a Bee Hive to get its Honeycomb for use in a Bee Box. Since Bee Hives and their Honeycombs are finite, you can only have a limited number of bee boxes.

When a bee box is placed, it will make four bees which will begin to make Honey. The more flowers near the Bee Box, the faster it will create Honey. It is advised to keep groups of Bee Boxes and their surrounding flowers separated from other groups of Bee Boxes and their flowers to prevent fires from destroying a large compact Bee farm. You can catch bees using a Bug Net and murder them for Stingers with a small chance of honey. You can get two to six Honey by harvesting a ready Bee Box. However, the bees belonging to that box will become aggressive, so a Beekeeper Hat is recommended when harvesting honey.

Butterflies and Flowers
Flowers spawn very commonly in grasslands, occasionally in forests, uncommonly in savannas, and rarely anywhere else. Flowers are a good source of sanity and useful for Honey production with Bee Boxes. Butterflies spawn from flowers occasionally and can be caught with a Bug Net. When killed, they drop Butterfly Wings, which heal 8 HP, or have a 2% chance of dropping Butter, a rare Crock Pot ingredient.

Butterflies can be "planted" on the ground to make a flower grow. You can make large flower fields to use as a farm, or douple up the space by combining butterfly and flower farm with your bee farm.

Koalefants
In order to find a Koalefant you need to find a Suspicious Dirt Pile and track it down. It will run away from the player but will aggro when successfully attacked. They come in two variations, normal and winter. They can be farmed for manure after being chased into a pen. They are usually kept as pets by advanced players who've chosen not to kill them. Farming them is not advised because they do not reproduce and are only useful for Manure which can be obtained much more easily with Beefalo and are more valuable dead since they drop eight meat and a Koalefant Trunk (or a Winter Koalefant Trunk in the Winter) when killed. They would only be a reliable source of Manure if there are no Beefalo nearby and you do not want to use resources to produce manure by using Pigs.

Pigs
Pigs can be spawned by creating Pig Houses, and when one dies another will respawn in the house three days after the previous one was killed. When attacked, all nearby pigs will try to kill you. They will drop Meat or Pig Skin when killed. They can also be befriended by giving them meat, and will produce manure when fed vegetables, berries or flower petals. When fed four Monster Meat or Durians (or when the moon is full), they will turn into Werepigs and attack anything nearby. Werepigs will always drop two meat and one pig skin, so if you plan on killing them for drops, always try to feed them four Monster Meat first.

Killing Them
To kill one without making all of them aggressive, you can chase one away from the rest then kill it, or befriend a pig and lead it away to its death. Tooth Traps can also be used to kill them without angering the rest.

It is much more efficient to turn them into Werepigs by feeding them 4 monster meat before killing them, as they will then always yield two meats and a pig skin.

Another option is to befriend a pig, then fake-attack another pig (click attack on the second pig when you are some distance away, then quickly move away so you don't actually attack it). Your pig friend will still attack the second pig, and will cause any other pigs to aggro against your friend. Since you never attacked a pig, you will be safe and they won't attack you. Once a pig dies (either your friend or one of the others), pick up the drops quickly, as other pigs will eat them.

Merms
Merms a way to farm them without having to kill the pig yourself. However, this will require you to maintain the farm around Rundown Houses in Swamps. Because the Merms will leave the Meat and Pigskin, you just have to watch out for the aggressive Merms when collecting the loot, bagging the occasional Frog Legs and Fish. If the pigs outnumber the Merms, you will have an inefficient Merm farm.

Gold Nuggets
After mining all the rocks, the Pig King is one source of Gold Nuggets. Giving the Pig King Gravedigger Items (non-renewable, except RoG) will yield many gold nuggets, but after all the graves are dug up you can only give him Meats. Any meats besides Monster Meat and Frog Legs will satisfy the Pig King and yield one Gold Nugget. He will also trade for Eggs, therefore Cooked Monster Meat and Frog Legs can be first given to a caged bird, then the resulting Egg traded to the Pig King. The Pig King also accepts Monster Jerky, so Monster Meat could be dried to obtain a gold nugget.

Gold Nuggets can also be obtained from occasional Earthquakes inside Caves.

Flint, Nitre, Rocks, and Marble
With the release of Caves, all variety of minerals can be obtained without limit. The occasional Earthquake will drop some of these resources near (but hopefully not on top of) the player, where they can simply be picked up.

Rocks also can be mined from Mini Glaciers in the Reign of Giants, making rocks easily renewable during winter season.

Frogs and Fish (and Mosquitoes)
In grasslands, and occasionally forests, green Ponds will uncommonly spawn throughout and will spawn Frogs. Ponds can be fished for, you guessed it, Fish.

To farm frogs, just place normal Traps around the pond and wait for one to jump into one. Frogs will drop Frog Legs which can be cooked or used as a meat in Crock Pot recipes.

Swamps will spawn purple Ponds which you can fish in as well. At dusk however, Mosquitoes will spawn in a swarm and attack the player if he comes close. They can be caught using a Bug Net, and they have a 55% of dropping a mosquito sack, which heals the same amount as a spider gland and is very flammable.

Neither ponds can be moved and you will have to live near them to make successful farms.

Spiders
Spiders spawn from Spider Nests. Spider Nests have three tiers and will randomly grow to the next one, just like Trees. The higher the tier of spider nest, the more spiders will spawn and higher chances of Warrior Spiders. In order to farm spiders, you need a Spider Nest. To make one you need a Spider Egg, which will drop from a teir 3 Spider Nest or a Spider Queen. It is advised that you make your spider farm away from your base because a Spider Queen can spawn from it after some time. Spiders can drop Monster Meat, Silk, or a Spider Gland. There are multiple ways to farm the spiders.

Traps
Spiders, both normal and warrior, can be caught and instantly killed using a trap. Placing many traps in the nest's webbing can be very efficient, as wandering spiders will most likely get caught at night if placed near the nest.

Tooth Traps
Tooth Traps will also kill the Spiders, but will have to be reset often. Also, other spiders will eat any Monster Meat that is dropped by their slain brethren, making this method viable only if you are trying to farm Silk or Spider Glands.

Pigs
Placing multiple Pig houses around the nest will cause the spiders and pigs to fight, so long as one of each is still alive. If there is only one spider nest and several pig houses, then the pigs will almost always defeat the spiders, so long as a spider queen doesn't spawn. They will both eat any Monster Meat, Meat, or Pig Skin left lying on the ground, so it is not an efficient Pig or Meat farm.

Merms
Merms are a great way to farm spiders for all the drops, including the Monster Meat. This requires you to build your spider nests in swamps around Rundown Houses. If Merms outnumber spiders, the farm will yield the occasional Frog Legs and Fish, along with the spider drops. However, the Merms will attack you if you come too close. If the spiders outnumber the Merms, you will have an inefficient Merm farm.

Merms
In swamps you will find the occasional Rundown House cluster, these are were the Merms spawn. There is no way to replicate them or move them, so your home would need to be somewhat close to the Merms. Doing so is ill advised because that would mean living close to a Swamp, a dangerous housing spot. When killed, they drop Fish and Frog Legs. The best way to farm merms is by letting them and any nearby Tentacles battle it out. Keep in mind, however, that Tentacles will not respawn and will run out eventually

Tooth Traps
Using Tooth Traps is probably the most efficient way. If enough Tooth Traps are placed, they will kill a lot of Merms. Merms won't eat the food, however they spawn very frequently compared to pigs so it can be a bother to collect the loot and reset traps.

Pigs and Spiders
You can outnumber the Merms with pigs or spiders, killing just about all merms that spawn. However, the main problem with this strategy is that the pigs and spiders will eat any meat left on the ground, requiring you to be actively collecting the loot while the two sides fight.

If the Merms outnumber the pigs or spiders, you have a pig or spider farm.

Reeds
There is no real way to farm Reeds because currently they cannot be moved, so you must gather them by venturing into marshes. Occasionally however, you may stumble upon a Reed Trap Set Piece. After clearing out the tentacles, it becomes the best place in the game to farm reeds.

Caves
Below with list and explain how to farm resources in caves, however I won't list them because I haven't had an experience in caves before.