Farmside Guide

Farmside — Title Screen ImageFarmside is an adorable farming game from Team17, on Apple Arcade. The following data includes information on how to play Farmside. Specifically, it’s a tutorial in the form of a frequently asked questions list (FAQs). Additional data is included on subsequent pages, such as the Quest Guide, Gardening Supply Stats, and Level Rewards.

If you would like to see videos about Farmside, there’s a Farmside playlist on Photics.TV (YouTube).

If you want to see this guide as a video, the “Farmside Guide” is also available on Photics.TV.

Note: This Farmside guide is no longer being updated. 🙀

How do I play the game?

There are four basic aspects to Farmside…

  • The planting and harvesting of crops — this involves clearing the farm land of debris, planting vegetables or trees, and then collecting the food once it’s fully grown.
  • Crafting — which entails the creation or upgrading of machines, improving your tools, and cooking food. There are many different machines in this game. Perhaps it’s too many.
  • Socializing — There are several characters in the game, which are entwined by a common storyline. Certain parts of the game are inaccessible until the related quests are completed.
  • Running a resort — As your farm grows, the game shifts towards entertaining visitors. In particular, that means feeding them food and drinks. If your farm is well decorated, and the visitors are well fed, there are many rewards to collect.
How do I expand my farm?

The farm is expanded by completing quests. Some of these quests award the “Pro Construction License”, which is used to unlock new farming areas. If you follow the storyline, eventually the new areas will become available. Building material is also needed to unlock new farming areas.

  • The first Pro Construction License is awarded after completing “The Newcomer 9” quest, which is part of the “Your New Home!” series of quests.
  • The second Pro Construction License is awarded after completing the “Land Expansion 12” quest, which is part of the “Initial Planning” series of quests.
  • The third Pro Construction License is awarded after completing “The Party 8” quest, which is part of “The House-Warming Party” series of quests.

If you’re having trouble expanding into a new area, checking the currently available list of quests is a great way to see what’s missing.

How do I get the Tool Stand Construction Kit?

The Tool Stand is located in the second farm area. When this area is unlocked, The Tool Stand will be damaged and requires repair. To repair the Tool Stand, the following items are needed… 15 pieces of wood, 2 bricks, and one Tool Stand Construction Kit. That last item is a special reward from the “Meet Mayor Green 4” quest.

The Tool Stand is critical to the game, as that is how you can upgrade your tools. Without a better axe or a better hammer, certain tasks are impossible. Even though the Tool Stand is discovered in the second farming area, you don’t need to keep it in that area. Machines can be moved around.

How do I get more storage space?

Your storage can fill up rather quickly. To expand your storage, upgrade the Barn. This requires specific building materials and friendship points with Gabriel Tucker. If you want to maximize your storage space quickly, then focus on his quests.

It’s also important to know that there are different storage areas. When looking at your inventory in the barn, there are separate tabs. Storage for seeds and produce is separate from building materials.

If you run out of space, you can use the barn inventory screen to sell items that are not needed. This is especially true regarding items collected from mounds of sand on the beach. Many of those objects have no purpose in the game, other than to be sold for coins.

How do I water plants and what does that do?

To water plants, the first thing to do is to repair the well. This is a requirement of the “The Newcomer 9” quest. Once the well is fixed, you can use the “Water Hose”. This is accessed from the “Amazing Tools” section.

Once you’re in the watering mode, the objective is to efficiently water the plants. Watering can be maximized by targeting multiple plants at once. Also, using a game controller operates the watering mode differently, creating more options for efficient watering. After a plant or tree has been watered, it will produce more food when it is harvested. Even if your plant is fully grown, it can still be watered before it is harvested.

Unless it is part of a quest, or you’re trying to maximize the value of your plants, watering plants is not required. The water supply is limited by the amount that is available from the well. This is typically way lower than what is required to cover all of the plants on your farm. But if you are planting a particularly expensive crop, watering improves the yield. With more produce produced, this increases revenue or the amount of ingredients available for cooking.

How do I make Apple Pie or other editable items?

Creating Apple Pie is part of the “Cooking Trial 5” quest. Like other recipes, the Apple Pie recipe can be purchased from the “Badge Store” section of Dunn’s shop. Recipes are purchased with Badges, which can be earned by completing Badge Quests. A list of Badge Quests is available in the house. Basically, if you’re playing the game, you’re probably earning badges.

The ingredients for Apple Pie are Flour (3) and Apple Jam (2). Flour is made with Wheat at the Mill and Apple Jam is made with Apples at the Jam machine.

The process of making other food for visitors is similar. It involves obtaining the blueprint for the specific cooking machine, building that machine, collecting the ingredients to be used with that machine, learning the recipe, and then ultimately putting it all together.

How do I get reputation points?

Reputation points determines your level. Complete quests and help visitors to earn reputation points. Early in the game, completing full sets of deliveries for Bran is a great way to earn reputation points. Once the Train Station is repaired, feeding visitors is another great way to earn reputation points. Completing quests is yet another great way to earn reputation points.

🐔 How do I get a chicken and how do I take care of it?

The Chicken is part of Margaret’s storyline. She’s a veterinarian.

First, unlock the second farming area to gain access to the Chicken Coop. Repair it to adopt your chicken. You can give your chicken a random name, like “Tootsie”. Next, build the “Feed Mill”. The blueprint for that machine is a reward for the “A Feathery Friend 1” quest.

Once the Feed Mill is built, add food until the bar is greater or equal to 100 points — for each available slot. Any excess over 100 can be used next time, so you ingredients don’t need to exactly equal 100.

With Chicken Feed produced, you can feed it to your chicken in the Chicken Coop. Each unit of feed converts to one unit of eggs. It just takes time for your chicken to convert the feed into an egg. Unlike using a machine, the egg laying process cannot be boosted. It’s just a matter of waiting.

🐮 How do I get a cow and how do I take care of it?

Similar to the Chicken, the Cow is obtained by unlocking the third farming area. That means completing the “Land Expansion 12” quest and starting the “Lifting the Moo-d!” line of quests. The cow is fed “Cow Feed”, which is created at the Feed Mill. It needs to be upgraded to level 2 to produce “Cow Feed”.

Just as the Chicken produces eggs, the cow produces Milk. Several of the recipes require milk or ingredients made from milk, such as butter or cheese. Time management is an essential part of the game, as there’s only one Feed Mill. Is it more important to make eggs or milk? The reality is that both items are important.

🐑 How do I get a sheep and how do I take care of it?

The Sheep is available after unlocking the fourth farming area. That requires completing “The Party 8” quest and starting the “A Little Lamb” line of quests. Similar to the Cow and Chicken, the Sheep is fed “Sheep Feed”. A level 3 “Feed Mill” is required to produce food for the Sheep. To raise the machine to that level, completing the “Lifting the Moo-d!” line of quests is required.

The Sheep can be used to produce Wool. But just like the Chicken and the Cow, the Sheep needs food from the Mill. This puts even more pressure on that machine.

🦞 How do I collect lobsters?

Mounds of sand will appear on the beach. Your character can dig up those squares to find useful items, such as wood, coal, and kelp. But additionally, this is how you can collect lobsters. If you need lobsters for a recipe, they can be purchased in Dunn’s shop.

🦀 How do I catch crabs?

Over time, crabs will show up on your farm. You can remove them with the Bubble Catcher. This “Amazing Tool” is acquired by smashing the “Treasure Chest” on the beach with a sufficiently strong enough hammer. If you need crabs for a recipe, they can be purchased in Dunn’s shop.

Will my plants die if I don’t harvest them right away?

I’m not sure. I left a square of Basil unharvested for over 36 hours and it still looked fine. So, at least in the short term, this might work as a means of extra storage. Instead of harvesting everything and packing it away in the barn, plants could be harvested as necessary.

How do I repair the train station?

The “Train Station Construction Blueprint” is a reward from the “Train Station 5” quest, which is part of “The Islanders” series of quests. If you have the necessary construction items, including the blueprint, the Train Station can be repaired.

Who are all these hungry people on my property?

Visitors will start to appear on your farm once the Train Station has been repaired. That’s when Farmside becomes like the offspring of FarmVille and Diner Dash. 😄

These visitors will treat your farm like an amusement park. If you feed them and entertain them with elaborate decorations, the visitors will show their appreciation with rewards.

What do I do when Visitors ask for food that I can’t make?

Don’t rush with buying recipes. You’ll likely find that Visitors are less annoying when it’s easy to make food and drinks for them. That also means holding off on crafting certain machines until you absolutely need them to progress in the game. The more recipes you have, the more options the visitors can choose from.

But if a visitor requests something that you can’t make, you can use the Train Station interface to ask the visitors to leave. There’s a little train icon at the bottom right. That’s how you can tell the current group of visitors to leave. Soon after, they will be replaced with new visitors, with hopefully easier food requests.

What’s the point of decorations?

The game says, “The more decoration points, the better rewards from your visitors.” New decorations can be purchased from Dunn’s shop. The list of available decorations is updated daily.

I strongly recommend against planting flowers though. Otherwise, the visitors will constantly make awful sniffing sounds. In other words, it’s important to be careful with your decorations, as visitors can make noises while interacting with those decorations.

It’s also important to note that decorations can be placed on the beach. You don’t have to waste precious farmland with frivolous ornaments.

That’s why the “Beach Chairs and Umbrella” is my favorite decoration. While it is an expensive decoration, it’s worth 810 decoration points. To complete all of the quests in the game, that were available at launch, only 1,000 decoration points were necessary. (That’s a requirement of the “Treasure Hunt 6” quest.)

This one item brings you to more than 80% of that goal. But also, your character can use certain decorations too. The Farm Girl looks so happy and peaceful resting in that beach chair. 🏖️

How do I get the Coffee Bean Machine?
The Coffee Bean Machine is a level 35 reward. See the Level Rewards page for a complete list.
How can I play better in the game?

Farmside has a candy-coated exterior, but there is a lot of depth to this game. It can be a surprising challenge. But since the game does have a significant amount of complexity, there are ways to optimize how you play the game. Here are some tips to help you out in Farmside…

  • Food Power-Up — If you know you’re going to be playing for a while, eat some food for a power-up. That will make the farmer move faster and harvest faster. The better the item consumed, the longer the effect will last. The disadvantage here is that it does take time to make food, and that food might be something that a visitor wants to eat.
  • More Water Storage — You can store more water with the 99% trick. The Water Hose is limited to two buckets of water in reserve. However, you can have a third bucket if you have extra water left over. By simply dropping the percentage down one point, it’s like having an extra bucket of water.
  • Fast Planting — If you have a game controller with a turbo button mode, such as an 8BitDo Pro 2 Controller, you can plant crops at an incredibly fast rate. This trick works even better if your farm is optimized for fast planting. After each button press to plant a crop, the game automatically moves to the next available square. If you plan ahead, huge areas of farmland can be covered in seconds.
  • Have Fun! — Remember, it’s just a game. You don’t have to rush to the end. You can take time to enjoy decorating your farm, or using the Drone to make nice pictures. If you want to know how to take a screenshot or record a video, there’s a separate Photics.TV (YouTube) video about that topic.