Farming & food

1. Week one: fridge and freezer food first, then cans and dry goods. Keep a can opener.
2. Weeks two to four: fish, forage and trap. A fishing rod on a river is food that never runs out.
3. Month one: plant your first crops. In Build 42 the month matters, so check the season before you sow.
4. Long term: animals for eggs, milk and meat, a drying rack and preserved food for winter.

Every crop has a sow window. Plant in a good month for a healthy plant and sometimes a bonus yield; plant outside the window and the crop is doomed before it sprouts. Examples reported by players on Build 42: cabbage from February to July, potatoes February to April, corn March to May, garlic July to September, hops and hemp August to October. In-game, the seed packet and the farming panel tell you the right months.

• Growth takes real time: radishes in about a month, most vegetables around two, potatoes and corn around three, and slow crops like tobacco, garlic and hops half a year or more.
• Ground level only by default. Roof farms need a sandbox option switched on.
• Tools: a trowel or shovel to dig, seeds, and a watering can or bucket.
• Grains such as wheat can be harvested with a scythe, which also clears grass for animals.

Plant something slow early. Garlic and tobacco sown in late summer are ready the following spring, when you need them most.

• Water: seedlings are thirstiest. Let a plot dry out early and it slows down and gets sick.
• Weeds steal water and invite disease. Pull them when you see them.
• Compost from a composter (Carpentry 3 for a shoddy one, 6 for a proper one) gives each plant one boost. It is help, not a cure-all.
• Fertilizer: one dose speeds a crop up a lot. A second dose hurts it, and more than two can kill it.
• Diseases and cures: mildew wants milk in a garden spray; aphids want water with a little rubbing alcohol; flies want water with tobacco. Cure recipes come from Farming 6, the Farmer occupation, or magazines.

Soap does not work on aphids, whatever Build 41 taught you.

Build 42 added livestock and wildlife: chickens, cows, sheep, pigs, deer, rabbits, rats, turkeys and raccoons. Farm animals give meat, leather, eggs, milk and manure.

• Chickens and turkeys live in a hutch (Carpentry 4) that holds up to 20 birds. They take about four months to mature.
• Cows and sheep take about six months. Cows give milk, sheep give wool.
• Pigs have no hutch: fence them outdoors.
• Rabbits are wild. Trap or hunt them.
• Animals need food, water and space, and they get stressed by zombies, noise and (for some) rain. Since 42.17 they calm down more when you pet them.
• Butchering: a butcher hook hangs large animals and gives more meat since 42.20. The Rancher occupation starts with Animal Care and Butchering.

• Fishing: a rod or a spear at any river or lake. The west of the map has the Ohio river, Fallas Lake and plenty of ponds.
• Hunting: wild animals leave paw prints and droppings you can track. Deer and rabbits are the usual targets; some advanced recipes need their hides and bones.
• Trapping: small traps on the edge of woods catch rabbits and birds while you do other things.
• Foraging: search zones in woods and fields for berries, mushrooms, herbs and firewood. Some mushrooms and berries are poisonous: learn them with the Herbalist magazine or the right occupation.

• Before the power cut: freeze meat and eat perishables first.
• After: a generator can run a fridge, but it is loud and drinks fuel.
• Preserve: drying racks for meat and crops, jars and canning for vegetables, smoking over a fire.
• Cook: a campfire, barbecue or fireplace replaces the oven. Raw meat makes you sick.

Animals use dedicated zones, feed and products, and are aimed mainly at rural settlements.

• Feeding. Keep a feeding schedule and watch nutrition.
• Health. Monitor health and treat sick animals.
• Breeding. Pair animals to grow your stock.
• Housing. Build pens and shelters before you bring animals home.
• Harvesting. Collect milk, eggs and wool, and butcher animals for meat and hides.

• Crops follow seasonal sow, best and bad months. Planting any time you like is not supported.
• In Outbreak, farming speed and yield are 1.5x. In Rising, farming supplies are 2.0x in loot.
• Plan your plots before the first cold snap, and keep stored food as a backup.

Days are approximate at default farming speed. Disease, missed watering and fertiliser all shift the real timing. No crop lists December or January as a sow month.

• Each water action adds 10 to the plot's water level, capped at 100, so a dry plot may need several pours.
• Each growth stage has its own water threshold, and later stages need more than the first.
• Missing the threshold delays growth and lowers health.
• Weeds double water drain.
• Outdoor plots refill from rain. Sun and flies speed up drying.

Compost helps but is not required for any harvest. Weeds block all fertiliser benefits. The chemical counter drops by one each time a stage advances.

• Starting health is not fixed. With seasons on and a best sow month it is about 57 to 64 plus skill; cursed at planting is about 37 to 44 plus skill. Otherwise a moon-based roll gives roughly 47 to 53, 57 to 64 on a full moon, or 37 to 44 on a descending moon.
• Health changes every few hours from weather, temperature, water, weeds, light, winter hardiness and location (outdoors, a named greenhouse room, or a normal indoor room).
• Cursed multiplies health loss and disease pressure. It comes from planting outside sow months, growing through a bad month (unless hardy), or fertiliser abuse.
• Yield scales with health relative to 50. Aphids and slugs cut it, skill rolls add to it, and bonus yield is blocked on a cursed plant.
• Seeds come back at roughly half a seed per vegetable, with a minimum of one when the plant produces seed.

Sandbox settings

Line and hooks

Bait

• Artificial lures: jig and minnow only. They are rarely lost.
• Natural bait: worms, maggots, crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, leeches, bait fish, tadpoles, meat scraps, cheese, bread and open canned corn.
• Worms stay fresh about 4 days and rot by day 8.
• Each species has its own bait preferences.

When and where

Fishing skill

• Fishing close to shore gives smaller fish.
• Passive nets catch bait fish, frogs, mussels, crayfish, tadpoles and junk. Baited nets take only chum and can catch catfish.
• Slice a fish into 2 fillets with a sharp knife (Butchering XP).
• Whole fish stay fresh about 4 days, fillets about 2. Cook before eating.
• In multiplayer, schools are shared, and you cannot fast-forward time while fishing.

• Deer travel in groups of about 2 to 5 females, plus males and fawns.
• Rabbits travel in groups of about 3 to 8 females. Breeds include swamp, Appalachian and cottontail.
• Use Search Mode to spot clues, follow the freshest signs, stalk quietly, then butcher for meat and leather.
• Hunter starts with +1 Tracking.

Traps are checked every in-game hour, but only while you are far enough away that the area is unloaded. Standing nearby stops catches.

Bait that works

• Rabbits, squirrels and raccoons are active from 7 pm to 5 am; birds, mice and rats all day.
• Set small-game traps in deep forest. Towns barely work for them; farms and trailer parks are best for mice and rats.
• Rabbits, mice, rats and raccoons can be caught alive.
• Every trap needs fresh bait. Bait can vanish and traps can break.
• Higher Trapping raises your odds. Park Ranger and Hiker start with +1.

Open Investigate Area (the spyglass icon) and turn on Search Mode. Icons appear on outdoor ground in view.

What each level unlocks

• Most plants and insects appear from March to November. Winter, beauty and holly berries appear in winter.
• Rain helps worms, insects and mushrooms. Night helps mushrooms. Snow hurts most plants.
• Mushrooms are best in organic forest, berries in deep forest, fruit and vegetables on farmland.
• Forests hold the most finds; towns and roads the fewest.
• Berries and mushrooms can be poisonous even when they look the same. The Herbalist trait or magazine shows which.
• Medicinal herbs (Plantain, Comfrey, Wild Garlic, Common Mallow, Black Sage, Ginseng) need Herbalist recipes. Lemon Grass does not.

1. Planting out of season. Check the season before you buy or find seeds.
2. Forgetting to water. Dry crops stall or die.
3. Harvesting too early or too late.
4. Planting right next to your door, where zombies can trample it. Fence and defend your plots.
5. Putting all your food into one crop. Mix them, and keep stored food as backup.
6. Ignoring storage. Fresh produce rots, so can, dry or freeze what you do not eat.

• Crafting in B42: build the tools, fences and containers you need
• First week guide: water, food and power before the shut-offs
• Beginner's guide: the core rules for a new survivor
• Item database: food, tools and containers