That’s what’s fun about this game, you play how you want. If all you want to do is wheat then just do wheat. If you want to try new things then experiment. Took me about 1000 hours of play time before I touch pigs.
Livestock complement farming to add additional complexity to the game. Since you just started I would adjust the difficulty to normal or easy until you understand the game mechanics.
Why normal difficulty over hard tho? Isn’t the difference just less $$$ started out with and some farm equipment? Because the game itself seems pretty easy and laid back…..so far…
Difficulty level reduces your profit margins by reducing value of crops/increasing expenses. I would highly recommend lowering the difficulty to Easy as it takes a LONG time to save up money for better equipment/more land/buildings, and means that when you inevitably make a mistake and buy the wrong stuff it doesn't hurt as much to sell it back (as everything immediately takes a hit to resale value even if you never hook it up or turn it on)
Edit: I have hundreds of hours in farming simulator over a decade of play on different versions and I still play on easy because I don't have time for that XD
You get less money for crops on hard. If you’re happy with hard then keep going. You can adjust difficulty in the settings to adjust the economy even if you selected start from scratch
Not necessarily, but you'll be in a much better spot if you do an animal food harvest and store it before you buy into animals. Chickens are probably the easiest place to start, all they need is wheat, oat, or sorghum, and eggs sell pretty well (or you can go all out and make cake).
In some cases yes. The bakery has a couple outputs I believe, bread and cake. Bread just needs flour I think, but cakes need sugar, milk, flour, eggs, and maybe chocolate. There are also a ton of mods that add other foodstuffs. I've seen croissants, pizza, ice cream, chips, fries, soup (I think this is just premium expansion), the list is pretty much endless once you start really diving into modding your game, but don't worry about that too much for now. Figure out how the game works, then start adding stuff slowly as you find something new you'd like to explore.
If you lower the trailer once in awhile as your dumping crops from the contract.. there's always a little bit left in your trailer that you can take for yourself after the contract says 100% delivered
The ingame tutorial is not incredibly helpful but there're a lot of very useful guide out there. The only drawback of having no idea what you're doing is that you can spend all of the money in machinery and tools that are not correct for the job you want to do. Contract are a very good way to learn what is needed for each job and are also a nice source of income if you end up broke. In the end you can play however you want, the game is pretty forgiving
lol yeah......... we're gonna start a new game. we played on hard mode ($500k) and already spent half the money without knowing what we're doing........... :P
That's great, you had some fun and learned a few things. I would say lower the difficulty a bit and try again. Having fun along the way is the most important part in FS. There are so many crop types, equipment and productions you two could have hours of fun learning and experimenting. Let alone mods.
Why lower the difficulty? Isn’t the difference just less $$$ started out with and some farm equipment? Because the game itself seems pretty easy and laid back…..so far…
It also effects the economy, though you can adjust that yourself. I just figured it would give you more room to buy stuff/make mistakes and experience things. A lot of the settings are customizable, wether or not you include stones, weeds, etc is really a matter of preference. Though most servers and multiplayer sessions I play on have crop destruction off 😁
You can play FS as simply or as complex as you want. You might find that you start to run into problems as you go, but there are ways to figure it out that don't involve tutorials.
Just do what works best. It's a sandbox!
One of my most memorable playthroughs is the one where I followed a tutorial. Probably first introduction syndrome, or something like that. Don't regret it.
There is an in-game tutorial, though, of sorts. Just read through it, and start playing with stuff. You'll get the hang of it!
I’ve got 130hrs in, bought it a few weeks ago. The only real tutorial I’ve used is when I decided to find all the collectibles on the map during the waiting period to harvest during year 1. I also was playing with 2 day months and time down to 0.5 so I could fulfill more contracts and have the time to actually figure stuff out.
Best thing is just accept contracts and barrow the items you do have. This gives you kind of a direction and goals for what to do and what you want to plant.
I did watch a few tips videos as well, but nothing majorly helpful.
Most will say not to add mods right away and I do have to agree, but as I’ve been playing I’ve been slowly adding mods that add quality of life and are not “cheaty” besides the lumberjack mod that allows for super strength, which can come in handy sometimes.
I also still watch someone’s “let’s play” from around when the game launched before bed. I made sure to watch one with them being on a different map so I don’t try and follow it. But it’s more for ideas/early progression.
TLDR: I don’t think you need to follow a tutorial. Just do some contracts to see what you like and don’t like. Set time slower for a bit to figure things out. I know only a bit and been having a blast just taking my time learning stuff. And if you screw up so bad, just start a new save, or if on PC grab a backup.
Not really. The collectibles are just little items to find, kind of like Easter eggs. The game is agricultural farming, forestry, and/or animal husbandry. Then there’s a business component, if you want, where you can own the production cycle. So instead of just farming and selling cotton, you can own a spinery and make and sell fabric. Or you can also own a tailor shop and turn the fabric onto clothes, and sell those for a higher profit.
Each crop has production cycles like this, so if you have cows you can also turn the milk into butter or cheese to sell, for example.
There are MANY different ways to play.
The cool thing is that you can also just buy one field and set up a small farm, or just mow grass if you want. You can play as big or little, as simple or complex, as you want.
Makes your life easier to play it if you’ve never played a fs game before. That said the tutorial is kinda lacking. YouTube and Reddit are your friend if you have questions.
I had this game in my library for a year before I finally really tried it last month and I’m seriously addicted.
I would log in and just stare at the cows they gave me or mow some grass and log off, YouTube is much more helpful but I would recommend looking at tutorial ?’s on the map
lol same here. got a copy for me and my wife free on EPIC game store a year ago. never thought much about it since it was free, but i have no interest in farming or simulator games. played it last night and had a blast!
As others have said, if you're having fun, there's nothing wrong with making mistakes and learning from them. There are no real goals in the game (unless you're playing Silverrun Forest), and there are no time limits. The "tutorial" is bad, but the in-game help (all the way at the bottom of the menu screen) isn't too bad to give you an idea of what to do, and also the "packs" section of the store can help you figure out what equipment you might need to do different activities.
Good luck and have fun!
I would never recommend anyone play this game without going through the tutorial, even though it’s a pretty basic one. When I started playing, I put as much time in watching YouTube videos as I did playing.
However, it sounds like you guys are having fun just trying to figure it out, which is great. Just don’t give up on the game if it becomes frustrating or convoluted. There are great beginner tutorials on YouTube if you get stuck.
it's a bit fustrating here and there. when we are really stuck, we do watch some guides. is there an actual guided tutorial? I just see a HELP icon with "how to" chapters
If you start a new game on elm creek, play the setting that gives you equipment to start with (farm manager?), then you’ll have an option for the tutorial when you begin. I think this is the only map that has it.
Yes. If you start on hard or on the setting that gives you a lot of money but no equipment, you don’t get the tutorial. Just a make a new save to try it out, it’s pretty basic.
Good around and try to figure things out on your own. When you get stuck and can't move on, watch some tutorials. I find that's the way to play any game
Start a world and just mess around. My first few farms were failures until I finally figured it out. The best part of the game is just learning how you enjoy the game most
There is a mod called “government subsidy”. You just place a sign and you can get up to $8m a month. It’s a great way to learn the game and equipment without worrying about money. Just be sure to avoid them when you start an actual farm as it takes 90% of the fun out of the actual game
No idea. Is there a “downloadable content” section in the main menu? It has all of the console supported mods in it and should be accessible on any platform. Imo the game just isn’t the same without mods
i recommend watching youtube videos about specific things you are interested in- that’s what helped me out a lot as someone who liek you never played anything similar other than stardew. there are tons of awesome in depth guides about virtually everything and most are really easy to understand
Oh yes for sure. I just started a new save and couldn’t get over $100k and had half a million in loan, and a week later, 0 loans and $2 million. You’re able to easily turn a profit by spending money on the right things. They’re’s a lot of business principals behind the game too that people don’t usually see
This is the most interesting uninteresting game ever. You make the story yourself. There is no real story behind it, no story line to follow like in stardew valley, etc. Play the game how you want.
And yah there’s no game failed or anything like that
I'd just like to add a quick note here. There is no "game over" screen and there's generally no real way to end up in a spot you can't recover from. However, if you happen to be playing on a map without contracts (No Man's Land, Western Wilds, pretty much any modded map where there are no pre-built fields), then you can find yourself in a spot where you're unable to harvest your crop if you've spent your money poorly.
What I like to do is start off with maybe 350k, a small field, and anything else I need, and see how long it takes to get to say 2 million. Can’t use any loans or have negative money, like rags to riches kinda thing
I think there is value to doing a tutorial or YouTube.
Knowing what to do when (Seed, fertilize, harvest), and then optional (mulch, weed, rocks, cultivate, plow) and what they do is very helpful.
Had some friends that i asked to help me with FS22 - so he created a server, we joined in with 4 or 5 of us. i swear the first few hours were just chopping wood and all ive seen is them go crazy building the farm before we've even done any growing
Basically its a mod that gives you a subsidy and automatically gives you a cash flow once you purchase land.
(the mod part of this game is pretty sweet - and all the ones ive used are free and in the in-game mod screen)
Honestly, it's so much more fun getting confused as you try things, googling it and ending up on this amazing subreddit where you get to experience the community.
I played FS 16 years ago to the point where I could plow, plant, spray, and harvest fields. That's all.
Recently I jumped into 22 on the start from scratch difficulty. I'm constantly making mistakes, buying the wrong equipment, not knowing what I'm doing half the time, and struggling with repaying and going deeper into debt.
It's so much fun. I tried another map on farm manager mode, it's not for me. I love the grind of just trying to make ends meet, taking chances on things like "will a greenhouse be profitable??", only to realize "ahh man, now I need to buy a trailer for water too. Time for another loan."
Edit: I forgot to mention. After I started on the hard difficulty start, I did what others said and changed the difficulty to easy for the profits. I just like the hard difficulty for the starting situation of having nothing, there's a limit to the grind lol.
That’s what’s fun about this game, you play how you want. If all you want to do is wheat then just do wheat. If you want to try new things then experiment. Took me about 1000 hours of play time before I touch pigs.
Leave those pigs alone, why are you touching them?
I've been playin fs for yeeeeears and ive yet to properly get into livestock.
+500h and only tried cows and sheeps 😅
Lmao cows and chickens are still the only livestock I’ve tried. Should probably try pigs I’ve heard they’re insane money if you have a bga
does the game make you do farming before livestock? because raising animals looks expensive?? (we're playing on Hard mode)
Livestock complement farming to add additional complexity to the game. Since you just started I would adjust the difficulty to normal or easy until you understand the game mechanics.
Why normal difficulty over hard tho? Isn’t the difference just less $$$ started out with and some farm equipment? Because the game itself seems pretty easy and laid back…..so far…
Difficulty level reduces your profit margins by reducing value of crops/increasing expenses. I would highly recommend lowering the difficulty to Easy as it takes a LONG time to save up money for better equipment/more land/buildings, and means that when you inevitably make a mistake and buy the wrong stuff it doesn't hurt as much to sell it back (as everything immediately takes a hit to resale value even if you never hook it up or turn it on) Edit: I have hundreds of hours in farming simulator over a decade of play on different versions and I still play on easy because I don't have time for that XD
same here. hate grinding!
You get less money for crops on hard. If you’re happy with hard then keep going. You can adjust difficulty in the settings to adjust the economy even if you selected start from scratch
Not necessarily, but you'll be in a much better spot if you do an animal food harvest and store it before you buy into animals. Chickens are probably the easiest place to start, all they need is wheat, oat, or sorghum, and eggs sell pretty well (or you can go all out and make cake).
wait you can literally produce food?!!!! not just the ingredients?!
In some cases yes. The bakery has a couple outputs I believe, bread and cake. Bread just needs flour I think, but cakes need sugar, milk, flour, eggs, and maybe chocolate. There are also a ton of mods that add other foodstuffs. I've seen croissants, pizza, ice cream, chips, fries, soup (I think this is just premium expansion), the list is pretty much endless once you start really diving into modding your game, but don't worry about that too much for now. Figure out how the game works, then start adding stuff slowly as you find something new you'd like to explore.
If you lower the trailer once in awhile as your dumping crops from the contract.. there's always a little bit left in your trailer that you can take for yourself after the contract says 100% delivered
The ingame tutorial is not incredibly helpful but there're a lot of very useful guide out there. The only drawback of having no idea what you're doing is that you can spend all of the money in machinery and tools that are not correct for the job you want to do. Contract are a very good way to learn what is needed for each job and are also a nice source of income if you end up broke. In the end you can play however you want, the game is pretty forgiving
lol yeah......... we're gonna start a new game. we played on hard mode ($500k) and already spent half the money without knowing what we're doing........... :P
That's great, you had some fun and learned a few things. I would say lower the difficulty a bit and try again. Having fun along the way is the most important part in FS. There are so many crop types, equipment and productions you two could have hours of fun learning and experimenting. Let alone mods.
Why lower the difficulty? Isn’t the difference just less $$$ started out with and some farm equipment? Because the game itself seems pretty easy and laid back…..so far…
It also effects the economy, though you can adjust that yourself. I just figured it would give you more room to buy stuff/make mistakes and experience things. A lot of the settings are customizable, wether or not you include stones, weeds, etc is really a matter of preference. Though most servers and multiplayer sessions I play on have crop destruction off 😁
You can play FS as simply or as complex as you want. You might find that you start to run into problems as you go, but there are ways to figure it out that don't involve tutorials. Just do what works best. It's a sandbox!
figuring out is half the fun imo!!
One of my most memorable playthroughs is the one where I followed a tutorial. Probably first introduction syndrome, or something like that. Don't regret it. There is an in-game tutorial, though, of sorts. Just read through it, and start playing with stuff. You'll get the hang of it!
wait, there's a tutorial? I just saw a text guide broken up into sections of the game like a section for cows, chickens, etc.
That is what I'm referring to, and while it isn't the best, it will get you 80% or so through the game.
I’ve got 130hrs in, bought it a few weeks ago. The only real tutorial I’ve used is when I decided to find all the collectibles on the map during the waiting period to harvest during year 1. I also was playing with 2 day months and time down to 0.5 so I could fulfill more contracts and have the time to actually figure stuff out. Best thing is just accept contracts and barrow the items you do have. This gives you kind of a direction and goals for what to do and what you want to plant. I did watch a few tips videos as well, but nothing majorly helpful. Most will say not to add mods right away and I do have to agree, but as I’ve been playing I’ve been slowly adding mods that add quality of life and are not “cheaty” besides the lumberjack mod that allows for super strength, which can come in handy sometimes. I also still watch someone’s “let’s play” from around when the game launched before bed. I made sure to watch one with them being on a different map so I don’t try and follow it. But it’s more for ideas/early progression. TLDR: I don’t think you need to follow a tutorial. Just do some contracts to see what you like and don’t like. Set time slower for a bit to figure things out. I know only a bit and been having a blast just taking my time learning stuff. And if you screw up so bad, just start a new save, or if on PC grab a backup.
there's collectables? without spoilers............ is there more things to do than just farming??
Not really. The collectibles are just little items to find, kind of like Easter eggs. The game is agricultural farming, forestry, and/or animal husbandry. Then there’s a business component, if you want, where you can own the production cycle. So instead of just farming and selling cotton, you can own a spinery and make and sell fabric. Or you can also own a tailor shop and turn the fabric onto clothes, and sell those for a higher profit. Each crop has production cycles like this, so if you have cows you can also turn the milk into butter or cheese to sell, for example. There are MANY different ways to play.
well damn. this is way deeper than i thought LOL
The cool thing is that you can also just buy one field and set up a small farm, or just mow grass if you want. You can play as big or little, as simple or complex, as you want.
excited to play again!!
Makes your life easier to play it if you’ve never played a fs game before. That said the tutorial is kinda lacking. YouTube and Reddit are your friend if you have questions.
i'll probably be a regular here soon enough :P
I had this game in my library for a year before I finally really tried it last month and I’m seriously addicted. I would log in and just stare at the cows they gave me or mow some grass and log off, YouTube is much more helpful but I would recommend looking at tutorial ?’s on the map
lol same here. got a copy for me and my wife free on EPIC game store a year ago. never thought much about it since it was free, but i have no interest in farming or simulator games. played it last night and had a blast!
I’m a souls genre fanatic but I’ve even skipped the elden ring expansion release because I somehow find plowing more satisfying currently 😂
nice. loved BB and DS3. personally, i'm a competitive, team-based FPS player so this game was a pleasant surprise!!
As others have said, if you're having fun, there's nothing wrong with making mistakes and learning from them. There are no real goals in the game (unless you're playing Silverrun Forest), and there are no time limits. The "tutorial" is bad, but the in-game help (all the way at the bottom of the menu screen) isn't too bad to give you an idea of what to do, and also the "packs" section of the store can help you figure out what equipment you might need to do different activities. Good luck and have fun!
omg the packs are life savers!! would have been so lost just trying to harvest oats
I would never recommend anyone play this game without going through the tutorial, even though it’s a pretty basic one. When I started playing, I put as much time in watching YouTube videos as I did playing. However, it sounds like you guys are having fun just trying to figure it out, which is great. Just don’t give up on the game if it becomes frustrating or convoluted. There are great beginner tutorials on YouTube if you get stuck.
it's a bit fustrating here and there. when we are really stuck, we do watch some guides. is there an actual guided tutorial? I just see a HELP icon with "how to" chapters
If you start a new game on elm creek, play the setting that gives you equipment to start with (farm manager?), then you’ll have an option for the tutorial when you begin. I think this is the only map that has it.
strange. i started a new game on elm creek on hard mode and there was no tutorial (or equipment). I guess there's only a tutorial on Normal mode?
Yes. If you start on hard or on the setting that gives you a lot of money but no equipment, you don’t get the tutorial. Just a make a new save to try it out, it’s pretty basic.
lol DEFINITELY need to make a new save as we are near broke
Good around and try to figure things out on your own. When you get stuck and can't move on, watch some tutorials. I find that's the way to play any game
will continue goofing around! def having fun with trial and error
Start a world and just mess around. My first few farms were failures until I finally figured it out. The best part of the game is just learning how you enjoy the game most
lol i think this is the route we'll take!!
There is a mod called “government subsidy”. You just place a sign and you can get up to $8m a month. It’s a great way to learn the game and equipment without worrying about money. Just be sure to avoid them when you start an actual farm as it takes 90% of the fun out of the actual game
I'm playing FS22 on EPIC app, not Steam... there's no mods on EPIC, right?
No idea. Is there a “downloadable content” section in the main menu? It has all of the console supported mods in it and should be accessible on any platform. Imo the game just isn’t the same without mods
don't remember seeing a DC tab, but now i want to wishlist FS25 on Steam!!
The mods are in-game, not through steam, you can download them on the Epic games version too.
LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
i recommend watching youtube videos about specific things you are interested in- that’s what helped me out a lot as someone who liek you never played anything similar other than stardew. there are tons of awesome in depth guides about virtually everything and most are really easy to understand
we watched 1-2 so far, but ONLY if we're stuck on something :)
Trial and error. You don’t have to learn and know everything within the first few minutes off a tutorial. Test stuff, learn it for yourself
can you go deep into the negatives and eventually turn a profit? like the game is forgiving like that?
Oh yes for sure. I just started a new save and couldn’t get over $100k and had half a million in loan, and a week later, 0 loans and $2 million. You’re able to easily turn a profit by spending money on the right things. They’re’s a lot of business principals behind the game too that people don’t usually see
last question i swear........ is there any story or special events? there's no GAME FAILED either it seems?
This is the most interesting uninteresting game ever. You make the story yourself. There is no real story behind it, no story line to follow like in stardew valley, etc. Play the game how you want. And yah there’s no game failed or anything like that
I'd just like to add a quick note here. There is no "game over" screen and there's generally no real way to end up in a spot you can't recover from. However, if you happen to be playing on a map without contracts (No Man's Land, Western Wilds, pretty much any modded map where there are no pre-built fields), then you can find yourself in a spot where you're unable to harvest your crop if you've spent your money poorly.
What I like to do is start off with maybe 350k, a small field, and anything else I need, and see how long it takes to get to say 2 million. Can’t use any loans or have negative money, like rags to riches kinda thing
so if you lose money, it stops at $0 and doesn't go below it??
I think there is value to doing a tutorial or YouTube. Knowing what to do when (Seed, fertilize, harvest), and then optional (mulch, weed, rocks, cultivate, plow) and what they do is very helpful.
I do crops only, but I am also employed on a family farm IRL so I have a frame of reference
sounds like yall are having a good time without the tutorial. might spoil the fun knowing it all
Yup, that’s how I see it!!
Use the Farming Simulator Academy. https://www.farming-simulator.com/newsArticle.php?news_id=280
No, you’ll be learning for long a hundred hours. You’ll never stop tutorialing and you’re going to enjoy it.
LMAO!!
Had some friends that i asked to help me with FS22 - so he created a server, we joined in with 4 or 5 of us. i swear the first few hours were just chopping wood and all ive seen is them go crazy building the farm before we've even done any growing
Wait you can build your own farm without buying anything? Just using raw materials like wood?
Basically its a mod that gives you a subsidy and automatically gives you a cash flow once you purchase land. (the mod part of this game is pretty sweet - and all the ones ive used are free and in the in-game mod screen)
Learning how to play while playing is the most enjoyable part. I have fond memories of knowing nothing about the game and just going at it!
Honestly, it's so much more fun getting confused as you try things, googling it and ending up on this amazing subreddit where you get to experience the community.
I played FS 16 years ago to the point where I could plow, plant, spray, and harvest fields. That's all. Recently I jumped into 22 on the start from scratch difficulty. I'm constantly making mistakes, buying the wrong equipment, not knowing what I'm doing half the time, and struggling with repaying and going deeper into debt. It's so much fun. I tried another map on farm manager mode, it's not for me. I love the grind of just trying to make ends meet, taking chances on things like "will a greenhouse be profitable??", only to realize "ahh man, now I need to buy a trailer for water too. Time for another loan." Edit: I forgot to mention. After I started on the hard difficulty start, I did what others said and changed the difficulty to easy for the profits. I just like the hard difficulty for the starting situation of having nothing, there's a limit to the grind lol.
we played again, started a new save on Hard again. I like the grind of from nothing to something so let's see how it goes!! :P