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)

Flax - the single most important farmed crop (fabric supply)
Corn
Peppers (Cayenne Pepper)
Tomato
Bean
Leek
Cocoplum
Sweet Potato

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.

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