Farming & Crop Guide

Farming & Crop Guide

Farming is one of Scrap Mechanic's core survival systems. Grow crops for food, trade them at packing stations for currency, and manage the raid mechanic that triggers when your farm becomes too valuable. This guide covers everything from basic planting to automated irrigation and defense.

How Farming Works

The farming cycle in Scrap Mechanic follows these steps:

1. Prepare soil — Use a hoe to till grass or dirt blocks into farmland
2. Plant seeds — Place seeds on tilled soil
3. Water crops — Crops need water to grow (manual or automated via vacuum pipes)
4. Wait for growth — Crops grow over time, faster with proper watering
5. Harvest — Collect mature crops for food or packing
6. Manage raids — High farm value triggers robot attacks

Crop Data Table

Each crop has a different growth time, yield, and farm value. The total farm value of all your growing crops determines when robot raids trigger.

Raid Mechanic Explained

Scrap Mechanic's signature farming mechanic is the raid system. When the total value of your growing crops exceeds a threshold, the robots detect "unauthorized farming" and launch an attack on your base.

Managing Farm Value

• Early game — Keep total farm value under 10 to avoid raids before you have defenses
• Harvest promptly — Harvest crops as soon as they mature to remove them from the value calculation
• Use low-value crops — Carrots and beetroots (value 1) give you more plants before hitting the threshold
• Space out planting — Plant in batches so not everything matures at once
• Build defenses first — Once you have walls and turrets, you can safely farm at higher values

Optimal Crop Combinations

Early Game (Under Raid Threshold)

Stick to low-value crops to avoid raids:

• 8 Carrots (value 8) — Fast growth, reliable food source
• 5 Potatoes (value 7.5) — Good yield, useful for cooking and Spud Gun ammo
• 6 BeetRoot (value 6) — Fast growing, easy food

Mid Game (With Defenses)

Once you have walls and turrets, mix high and low value crops:

• Potatoes — Versatile: food, cooking, ammo
• Cotton — Needed for fabric and crafting
• Tomatoes — Good for cooking meals with buffs
• Blueberries — High value, good for packing and selling

Late Game (Automated)

Maximize profit with automated farms:

• Bananas & Oranges (value 2 each) — Highest value crops for packing stations
• Blueberries — High yield per plant
• Cotton — Essential for advanced crafting

Automated Irrigation

In the 1.0 Drilling Thunder update, vacuum pipes and pumps allow you to automate crop watering. This is essential for large-scale farming.

Components Needed

• Vacuum Pump — Draws water from a source (lake, river, or water container)
• Vacuum Pipes — Transport water from pump to crops
• Water Container — Stores water for farms far from natural sources
• Controller — Can automate pump scheduling (optional)

Basic Setup

1. Place a Vacuum Pump at the edge of a water source
2. Connect Vacuum Pipes from the pump to your farm rows
3. Position pipe outlets above or beside crops
4. Power the pump (some setups require a generator or engine)
5. Test by activating the pump — crops should get watered automatically

Farm Defense

When raids trigger, you need solid defenses to protect your crops and base.

Wall Design

• Minimum height — At least 7 blocks high (Haybots can climb 3-block walls)
• Attack gaps — Leave gaps at the 3rd and 5th block levels to shoot bots through
• Corner protection — Reinforce corners, bots often target them
• Spike traps — Place spikes along the base of walls for passive damage

Automated Defenses

• Spud Gun Turrets — Automated turrets that target hostile bots
• Logic sensors — Use sensors to trigger lights, alarms, or traps when bots approach
• Piston gates — Automated doors that close during raids
• Flamethrowers (1.0) — New flame-based defenses using the fire physics system

Packing and Selling

Mature crops can be packed at Packing Stations and sold for currency. This is the main economic loop for farming.

• Packing Station — Found at Mechanics Stations and other locations
• Crop value — Higher-value crops (bananas, oranges, blueberries) sell for more
• Quantity bonus — Packing larger quantities may yield better returns
• Use currency for — Buying rare items, unlocking recipes, purchasing from NPCs

1.0 Drilling Thunder Farming Changes

• Seed Bots — New passive bots that drop all types of crop seeds when destroyed. Great for getting rare seeds early.
• Wocs (cows) — Feed them corn to get milk, used in cooking recipes like Sunshake.
• Cookbot meals — Cooked meals now provide temporary buffs (speed, mining, health regen, fall damage reduction), making farming more rewarding.
• Health-only system — Food now heals directly instead of filling hunger, so you always need a food supply.
• Flame physics — Fire can spread to crops, so keep fire sources away from farms. Some bots now use fire attacks.
• Claygun — Can reshape terrain for custom farm layouts, but some bots can dig through clay.

Quick Tips

1. Start small — A few carrot plants is enough for early food. Don't trigger raids before you're ready.
2. Hunt Seed Bots — These passive bots are the easiest way to get a variety of seeds without exploring ruins.
3. Build near water — Saves you from building long vacuum pipe systems early on.
4. Harvest daily — Check your farm regularly and harvest mature crops to keep farm value low.
5. Plant cotton early — You'll need fabric for many crafting recipes.
6. Use potatoes for ammo — Potatoes are ammunition for the Spud Gun, making them doubly useful.
7. Light up your farm — Bots spawn more in darkness, and lights help you see incoming raids.

Related Guides

• Survival Mode Complete Guide — Master the full survival loop
• Vacuum Pump & Fluid Guide — Automated irrigation and fluid systems
• Base Building Guide — Design a defensible base with farm integration
• Spud Gun & Weapons Guide — Weapons and turret setup for farm defense