Fences are required to participate in the Farming Life Skill. Farming can be profitable, if you keep on top of it. The crops are used to train dream horses, upgrade alchemy stones, or in countless recipes.

Farming requires a few things:

  • Farming Fence Fence: (rent with CP or quest fences)
  • Farming Seed Seed: (Seed Vendors, Marketplace, rarely from Gathering)
  • Time: (and plenty of it… must be logged in for crops to grow)

Fences Cost CP:
Fences are rented from NPCs with Contribution Points. When you return the fence, your Contribution Points are refunded. Each fence type has a limited number of spaces for seeds. A small fence has 4 spaces for 4 seeds. Grain seeds only take up 1 space each, so you can plant 4 wheat seeds in 1 Small Fence.

There are 5 different fences:

Fence Size
(slots)
CP
BDO Fence Strong Fence* 10 10
Old Moon Fence*
Requires Farming Master 1
10 10
Plain Fence 7 6
Small Fence 4 3
Shabby Fence
quest reward
1 0

* There is a quested one time per family version of Strong and Old Moon Fence. View guide on Finto’s Strong Fence.

The maximum Fences you can have is 10.

After spending 100 Contribution on 10 Strong Fences, the Farming Life Skill can be leveled fairly quick.

You could level Farming without spending CP with 10 Shabby Fences, but it would take much longer.

Fence NPC Locations

BDO Fence NPC Locations

You can type in the search term “fence” to view all Fence Exchange NPC’s. Click the name and it will draw an auto-path to them.

The number beside the NPC is the Contribution cost for their fence.

Beginner Fence Location:
You need a fence and seeds to begin Farming, but where do you start? The image below shows the location of beginner area Fence and Wheat NPC vendors. You can purchase Withered Wheat Seed from Camelia Loggia at the Loggia Farm for 220 silver each. It also shows the location of a Small Fence NPC, Martina Finto. (For an interactive map, I use bdolytics.com )

BDO Fence Location

Fence Rental & Exchange NPC Locations

Fence Slots CP Fence NPC NPC Location Nearest City
Small Fence 4 3 Martina Finto <Node Manager> Finto Farm Veila
Enzo <Node Manager> Dias Farm Calpheon
Plain Fence 7 6 Finlin <Material Vendor> Tarif Tarif
Paola Toscani <Farm Vendor> Toscani Farm Veila
Norma Leight <Node Manager> Northern Wheat Plantation Calpheon
Mercianne Moretti <Node Manager> Moretti Plantation Heidel
Mayeri <Furniture Dealer> Trent Trent
Goolie Gianin <Node Manager> Gianin Farm Keplan
Shabby Fence 1 0 Quest reward from Jemkas Wyrmsbane: Because I Like You (Requires Gathering: Beginner 7 or quest chain) Northern Guard Camp, north of Heidel Heidel
Old Moon Fence* 10 10 Jak <Old Moon Manager> Altinova Altinova
Klau <Old Moon Manager> Velia Veila
Lajee <Old Moon Manager> Calpheon City Calpheon
Stee <Old Moon Manager> Heidel Heidel
Zya <Old Moon Manager> Grana Grana
Taya <Old Moon Manager> Duvencrune Duvencrune
Sahin <Old Moon Manager> Valencia City Valencia
Mene <Old Moon Manager> O’draxxia’ O’draxxia’
Ploux <Old Moon Manager> Eilton Eilton
Strong Fence* 10 10 Derjeen Duvencrune Duvencrune
Flaviano Heidel Heidel
Geranoa Calpheon City Calpheon
Jorjua O’draxxia O’draxxia
Kara Grana Grana
Lashir Altinova Altinova
Purajin Valencia City Valencia
Tulga Eilton Eilton
Zaaira Velia Velia

* There is a quested one time per family version of Strong and Old Moon Fence. View guide on Finto’s Strong Fence.

 

Farming Yields
Your yield when harvesting a crop is based on the rarity/grade of crop you’re growing.

  • Normal crops yield 60-80
  • High-Quality crops yield 40-60
  • Special crops yield 20-40

There is also a chance for extra loot that gives an additional 1-5 crops. Farming yields are double for seeds that use 2 slots.Farming Yields Update: 200% crop growth no longer lessens crop amount gathered: Crops used to yield significantly less at 200%. But the 4/21/2018 Patch Notes state, “Even if the growth of crops at garden reaches 200%, the yield will not be reduced anymore.”

Maximum Fence Slots Per Contribution

Smaller Fences give more fence slots per CP. But, you are limited to a maximum of 10 fences per account. Are you interested to know how many Fences your current Contribution Points can buy?

This fence chart will help you optimize your CP for fence rentals.

BDO Farming Fence Slots CP Chart

Fence chart author unknown

BDO Quest to get Shabby Fence

Shabby Fence

This chart doesn’t mention the Shabby Fence. Remember the free 1 slot fence that doesn’t cost Contribution Points? You can only have 10 farms total, but if you only had 5 fences anyways, wouldn’t it be better to plop down another 5 quested fences?

Shabby Fence is a reward from the quest Because I Like You. It can be done once per character, so for each shabby fence you want you have to do the quest on an alt. You also need Beginner 7 Gathering to avoid the prerequisite quest line.

Be sure to obtain the 10 slot Finto’s Strong Fence via a short quest line.

You could just get 9 Shabby Fences and 1 Finto’s Strong Fence to avoid the Contribution Point costs.

Old Moon Fence

Old Moon Fence and it’s quested version, Klau’s Old Moon Fence, is a nice reward once you obtain Farming Master 1. This is a helpful fence because it takes up less room than a Strong Fence, but gives the same amount of farming slots. This makes it possible to use less water and fertilizer. Old Moon Fence can be obtained by visiting an <Old Moon Manager>. One is located conveniently inside the northern inn in Heidel. NPC name: Stee. Thank you to MikeyMutz’s screenshot below, taken from their forum post, showing the place to stand that will water and fertilize all 10 Old Moon Fences at once.

BDO Farming: Old Moon Fence Placement

Best Fence Location

Now that we have some fences, it’s time to decide where to put them. I mentioned before that you can’t place fences in a node war area, and also not in a safe zone. (ex. You can’t place a fence inside of Calpheon, but you can place one right outside)

They generally have to be placed in grassy areas, but sometimes you can place them on sand (I’ve fit a 10×10 on a beach before). You can’t place it if the ground is just pure stone. You can place a fence if there is a rock or tree inside, it’ll just be really annoying to have to deal with trees inside of your fence.

BDO Fence Window after Placing SeedWhen deciding where to place your farms, there are a few important things you have to consider, like temperature and humidity. When you place the seed, a window will pop up showing that crop’s information.

  1. Temperature: % growth every 5 minutes
  2. Humidity: % chance of your plants getting blighted every 5 minutes
  3. Water: without water your Moisture bar will lower
  4. Fertilizer: +20% growth rate (2 hours for a full bar)
  5. Growth: at 100%, you can Harvest or Breed the crop
  6. Health: when this decreases from bird attacks, you get less crop yield
  7. Moisture: if this reaches 0, your yield will be 50% less (normally only a concern in desert areas like Valencia)

Arguably, the most important parts are the meters for temperature and humidity.

Every crop has a preferred temperature it likes to grow in. If your fence is in a location that the crop likes, it will grow normally. If it’s in a temperature the crop doesn’t like, it will take much longer to grow. (up to 2x longer or more)

Similarly, each crop has a preferred humidity it likes to grow in. Depending on how you balance the humidity, it will affect how often your crops get “blighted” (need to be pruned or have bugs).

BDO Farming Crop Humidity Water Temp Preferencebdocodex.com has some great resources to help you decide where you should farm. You can view the Water, Humidity, and Temperature effects on different crops.

Start with their Farming List. Just click on a Farming item to view that crop’s details. Then hover your cursor over the Water/Humidity/Temp bars at the bottom to view the crop’s Weather Preferences.

bdocodex also has a list of nodes that shows the Weather info for each region. Notice the high Water and Humidity levels that are found in the swampy regions surrounding Glish.

BDO Region Temp Water Humidity

If you open your world map, you can use the controls on the top right to view Weather details about the region that will help you in picking a location for farming.

BDO Farming Humidity Map
BDO Farming Humidity Map Button

The cloud button called Humidity Information will show the most humid regions, which are a darker red. Low humidity is white. The colors will fluctuate a little as rain comes, but we can expect some regions (like swamps) to be more humid than others.

BDO Farming Ground Water Map
BDO Farming Ground Water Map Button

The water droplet button called Groundwater Information will show the regions with the most ground water. Regions with the highest ground water are shown as a darker blue. Low ground water is shown as white. But it’s a little misleading. The colors will fluctuate and move dramatically as rain comes. You would expect “Groundwater” to not move as much as it does. For example, land around lake and river regions should have more ground water, but this isn’t true. It looks like it’s more a reflection of current and recent rainfall than what we normally think of as ground water (for digging wells, etc). You really can’t count on the blue areas staying blue for very long. Honestly, I don’t see how this helps farmers much. If you know, please pass the info to me!

BDO Farming Temperature Map
BDO Farming Temp Map Button

The barometer button called Temperature Information will show the region temperature differences. Cooler regions are shown as green. Medium temp is shown as yellow and the hotter climates are orange/reddish color. The colors will not fluctuate like they do for humidity and water. Expect hotter climate (higher percentages for temp) in Mediah and desert areas like Valencia.

Seeds for Fences

BDO Seed Vendor for FarmingSeeds can be purchased with silver from the Marketplace or from a Seed Vendor. Too find all the Seed Vendors you have already spoken to, use the NPC button on the top right of the screen. Type in “seed” in the search.

BDO Seed Vendor Locations

Most Seed Vendors only sell Withered Seeds, but these can be bred into a normal quality seed. It takes some time and relies on luck, but eventually you will have an upgraded seed to plant. Ahr is a Seed Vendor located in Calpheon City, who sells normal/white quality seeds. Her prices are expensive, but it may be worth it to you to pay extra. For example, her strawberry seed sells for 3,360 silver, but you can buy it on the Marketplace for…

BDO Strawberry Seed Prices on the Marketplace

Notice the extremely low quantity of white grade seed at the Marketplace. Most of the time, high-demand, white seeds are completely sold out.

BDO Gathering Seeds from a Fruit Tree

Gathering Seeds for Farming
Seeds are also obtained rarely through gathering. The gatherables that drop seeds is a long list that includes: Fruit Trees, Shrubs, Thickets, Dry Thickets, Bushes. But this way of obtaining seeds is really hit or miss and it’s hard to know which seed you might get. For example, look at the image showing 1% drops for 4 different seeds obtainable from gathering Fruit Trees. (Source: bdocodex.com)

If you look at the drops from gathering Shrubs, you will find that only Olive and Grape seeds drop from them. Shrubs also have the same low RNG percent drop rate for seeds as Fruit Trees.

You can either put workers on your farm to tend to it (keep away bugs, prune it, etc) or you can do it yourself.

Then you have to wait x hours for your crop to grow to at least 100% growth. From here you can either harvest your crop, or breed seeds.

If you choose to breed the crop, you’ll get 1-3 seeds for that plant. There is also a chance that the rarity of seed you get will be higher than what you planted (for example if you planted a High-Quality Sunflower Seed, you could breed a Special Sunflower Seed).

In my opinion, you’re better off buying seeds instead of breeding them, even if it’s from the Seed Vendor, Ahr. She already saves you hours trying to get lucky breeding a Withered into a normal quality seed. Breeding takes hours to attempt and you may only get 1 seed of the same quality back! Grrrrr! However, you may be more interested in the rare procs from breeding, like Fruit of the Sun from breeding Wheat Crops. (Withered crops do not produce Fruits. Must be white/normal grade or higher)

Magical Seeds & Mysterious Seeds

BDO Magical SeedMysterious Seeds:
Mysterious Seeds produce 7x the crop. If you breed them, you get a random amount of the corresponding fruit (eg. ‘Fruit of Nature’ or ‘Fruit of the Sun’).

Magical Seeds:
Magical Seeds produce a crop that breeds and harvests 5x the normal amount. They take up 5x the farm slots. Magical seeds require Artisan 1 Farming skill. These seeds are only beneficial if you’re looking to save time/energy/fertilizer. If your goal is to get shards, or level up Farming, you wouldn’t want to use these.

Magical Seed Benefits:

  • Takes up 5x the slots to yield 5x the crops. This means farming time is 5x quicker and less hassle for you. (If you find pressing the R key 4 extra times a hassle.)
  • You get 5x more fruits/byproducts per seed bred (on average).
  • Save on energy. For example, if you have 10 Strong Fences, you only need enough energy to breed/harvest/prune 10 times instead of 20 time.
  • Workers almost never run out of energy removing blights in Magical Seed Farms before the crops hit 100%. This means you can do 3 harvests per day if your reason for farming is crop gathering.
  • Fertilizer lasts longer since they get consumed slower by less amount of crops.

Magical Seed Cons:

  • 5x less Farming XP chances
  • 5x less sharp/hard shard chances while pruning
  • Requires Artisan 1 Farming skill

How to Obtain Magical and Mysterious Seeds:
Magical Strawberry Seed = breeding Special or Magical Crops
Mysterious Seed (generic) = breeding, harvesting, pruning, killing pests of Special or Magical Crops
Mysterious Strawberry Seed = Processing > Shaking: 1 Magical Strawberry Seed + 5 Mysterious Seeds (generic)

Which Crops are Best to Farm?

The next thing you should think about is what to grow in your fences. You should decide this based on the following criteria:

  1. Usefulness
  2. Silver
  3. XP

More or less in that order. A huge emphasis needs to be made on “usefulness” here, because if you’re not growing something useful, it’s very likely that you shouldn’t even be farming.

So what’s “useful”?

BDO Strawberries from Mysterious SeedsFarming for Crops You can Use
Special Strawberries are useful for upgrading alchemy stones because they give the most XP. If you’re going to be doing cooking/alchemy/processing/gathering in the future, you’re going to want a good alchemy stone. Instead of spending billions buying strawberries on the market, you could grow your own. Strawberries are also very useful in cooking. For example: Tea with Fine Scent, Essence of Liquor, Vinegar, and many more.

BDO Strawberry Prices on the Marketplace

If you want to cook specific dishes that happen to require a rare ingredient unobtainable via nodes (say, onion or garlic), you would probably need to farm those yourself. (or expect to pay high special crop rates for them: 6k-7k each) As with most cooking ingredients, it’s rare to find cheap, normal/white grade crops on the Marketplace.

Other rare and useful ingredients you obtain from farming include those used in alchemy. Breeding seeds sometimes produces Fruits of ______. Weeds are common from pruning. You could grow cereals to aid your beer production. With haystacks you could farm milk, and chicken feed provides eggs

There is almost certainly something you could grow that would be extremely useful to you in the future.

Fruits Obtained From Breeding Crops

Fruit Crop
Fruit of the Sun
Fruit of the Sun
CornCorn
WheatWheat
PaprikaPaprika
TomatoTomato
Fruit Crop
Fruit of Abundance
Fruit of Abundance
SunflowerSunflower
StrawberryStrawberry
GrapeGrape
OnionOnion
Fruit Crop
Fruit of Perfection
Fruit of Perfection
Arrow MushroomArrow Mushroom
Cloud MushroomCloud Mushroom
Bluffer MushroomBluffer Mushroom
Fog MushroomFog Mushroom
Fruit Crop
Fruit of Magic Power
Fruit of Magic Power
Emperor MushroomEmperor Mushroom
Fortuneteller MushroomFortune Teller Mushroom
Hump MushroomHump Mushroom
Tiger MushroomTiger Mushroom
Fruit Crop
Fruit of Crimson Flame
Fruit of Crimson Flame
GarlicGarlic
Hot PepperHot Pepper
PepperPepper
OlivesOlives
PumpkinPumpkin
Fruit Crop
Fruit of Destruction
Fruit of Destruction
Amanita MushroomAmanita Mushroom
Ancient MushroomAncient Mushroom
Ghost MushroomGhost Mushroom
Sky MushroomSky Mushroom
Dwarf MushroomDwarf Mushroom
Fruit Crop
Fruit of Enchantment
Fruit of Enchantment
Dry Mane GrassDry Mane Grass
Fire Flake FlowerFire Flake Flower
Silk Honey GrassSilk Honey Grass
Silver AzaleaSilver Azalea
Sunrise HerbSunrise Herb
Fruit Crop
Fruit of Nature
Fruit of Nature
CarrotCarrot
BarleyBarley
Sweet PotatoSweet Potato
PotatoPotato
Acacia LeafAcacia Leaf
FigFig
FreekehFreekeh
LeccinumLeccinum
NolinaNolina
NutmegNutmeg
Pie MushroomPie Mushroom
Purple MushroomPurple Mushroom
PenestrariaPenestraria
Star AniseStar Anise
TeffTeff
Dalvenia AlreaDalvenia Alrea

BDO Special Sunflower CrateFarming for Silver
If, after careful thought and consideration, you realize you don’t want to actually use your farming goods, then you might consider farming for silver. Here, again, Special Strawberries are still a good choice. Many players also grow Special Sunflowers and have their workers pack them into crates for trading. (Artisan 2 Trade required.) These are also often sold on the Marketplace.

BDO Special Sunflowers Marketplace PriceThere’s a few things to consider here.

First, if you’re selling products to the market, you need to consider your output vs how much people are buying. If you are selling thousands of crops every day, but only 200 things get bought, it’s not really maintainable.

Second, it’s almost always significantly more profitable to buy seeds than to breed them yourself. In that case, you have to consider the availability of seeds on the market. If you can’t reliably buy a certain kind of seed, you might make more money growing something else.

Farming for Farming XP
Picking your crop based on Farming xp will probably be your last consideration. To maximize your xp, you must increase the blight rate. The more often things get blighted, the more often you can prune them, and thus the more xp you’ll get.

By picking a crop that is extremely incompatible with that region’s humidity you can raise your Farming xp per hour. Northern Cienaga is one of the highest Humidty areas in the game and it’s very close to Heidel. If you find a crop with low preferences for Humidity, like Dry Mane Grass…

Good Location for Farming XP

Northern Cienaga

Local weather conditions:

Humidity: 80%
● Temperature: 30%
● Water: 85%

View Map: BDO Location Map for High Blight

BDO Temp Humidity Water Preferences for GrassWe can see here that Dry Mane Grass loves dry, hotter climates and would do extremely poorly in a cool swampy area like Northern Cienaga. Therefore, it will have more instances of Blight and you will have to attend to it more often, and earn more Farming xp per hour.

Find every crop’s best growing conditions in bdocodex’s Farming List. Weather Preferences are shown when you click on a Farming item to view that crop’s details. Then hover your cursor over the Water/Humidity/Temp bars at the bottom.

Farming is a slow skill to level, if you don’t dedicate a full 100 Contribution in fences to power level it at once. This strategy takes dedication and patience, but it has been reported that you can achieve much quicker results. (Three days for Artisan level farming.) If you have the patience and fortitude and don’t care about what you grow, go for it.

Crops that aren’t tended take forever to grow: 10-16 hours. There are those who enjoy just growing something that’s useful and getting farming xp slowly as it comes.