Farming System
Farming in Windrose is deliberately simple. There is no watering, no fertilizer, no sunlight rule, no wilt state, and no tiered progression through composter or greenhouse structures. The player places one of two planting structures (Seedbed or Ground Plants), waits for a global ~70-minute growth timer, and harvests. Seeds return 1:1 at harvest, which enables a permanent self-sustaining loop once enough seeds are acquired.
The Only Station: Seedbed
The Seedbed is the only dedicated farming structure. Each Seedbed has four planting slots (one at each corner) and is built from 5 Fertile Soil. Once placed, a Seedbed is also the soil. There is no additional per-crop soil cost.
Three crops (Shrub, Ficus, Palm) are Ground Plants. They can be placed directly on the terrain anywhere on the plot without a Seedbed and without any Fertile Soil cost. The four-slot-per-Seedbed rule does not apply to Ground Plants.
Growth
Aspect | Rule |
|---|---|
Time to grow | Approximately 70 minutes of real-world time. |
Per-crop variance | None documented; all crops share the same global timer. |
Offline progression | Yes. Crops continue to grow while the game is closed. |
Water / fertilizer / sunlight | None required. |
Failure states | None. Crops do not wilt, rot, or fail. |
Harvest and Seeds
Harvesting a Seedbed plant returns the seed used plus the crop product. Planting 25 seeds across six Seedbeds and waiting out the growth returns 25 seeds at harvest, enabling a permanent loop. This is the main reason early-game farming investments never go to waste: the seed pool is a one-time gather.
Ground Plants (Shrub, Ficus, Palm) follow the same seed-returns-on-harvest rule. Palm Seeds are slightly harder to source: they only drop from trees deeper inland in the Coastal Jungle, not from beach-edge palm trees.
Crop Categories
Seedbed Plants (Need a Seedbed on Fertile Soil)
Ground Plants (Direct Placement, No Seedbed)
Fertile Soil
Seedbeds require Fertile Soil as their construction ingredient. Fertile Soil is mined with a pickaxe from small raised dirt mounds at Ancient Farm ruins in the Foothills. A secondary source exists at ruins in the Cursed Swamps (Leeks grow in these specifically). Access to Foothills is gated behind defeating the Coastal Jungle boss (Thomas Richards).
One Seedbed costs 5 Fertile Soil, so a typical mid-game farm of six Seedbeds needs 30 Fertile Soil. Players commonly gather a stack of 100+ on the first Foothills trip to avoid repeat runs.
Farming Contractor (Automation)
The Farming Contractor is a Tortuga NPC that runs a parallel crop cycle passively. It is not a placeable structure and does not compete with Seedbeds; both systems run in parallel.
Property | Value |
|---|---|
Recruitment cost | 10 Gold Coins (Guineas) at the Tortuga Recruitment Vendor |
Per-job cost | 20 Silver Coins plus 50 seeds of the chosen crop |
Job duration | Approximately 8 hours of real-world time |
Return | All 50 seeds returned plus a large bulk yield of the crop |
Early-Game Priority: Flax
Flax is the single most important seedbed crop because it is the only source of Plant Fibers used for fabric (every armor and sail recipe). Community-consensus guidance is to dedicate 15-20 Seedbed slots to Flax as soon as Fertile Soil is accessible. The other crops are nice-to-have; Flax is the engine.
See Also
Seedbed Placement - placement rules and surface requirements
Crop Growth - detailed growth-timer breakdown
Farming Contractor - Tortuga-based crop automation
Fertile Soil - Seedbed construction material