Farming lets you pick a plot of land almost anywhere in the word, place a fence on it, plants some seeds, and grow your own crops. It can be a decent semi-afk side hustle or a nice complement to other life skills such as Cooking, Alchemy, and Trading. Farming is also a reliable way to obtain materials for dream horse attempts.

Like production nodes, farming requires Contribution Points (CP) to rent fences from NPCs, but you can acquire 2 Free fences (10 grid) via a questline that are Contribution free.

Farming can be power-leveled to Artisan in a few hours if you have enough fences & free time to actively tend your crops. Artisan level Farming allows you to acquire and use Magical Seeds which greatly reduces the effort and energy spent on Farming as Magical Seeds use 5x the grid slots, but yield 5x the crop. You would be planting 2 Magical Strawberry Seeds in a 10 grid fence instead of 10 Special Strawberry Seeds. Higher Farming skill also increases the speed of interacting with your crop. Master Farming allows you to use Old Moon Fences which are 10 grid fences with a much smaller footprint than the Strong Fences.

Introduction to BDO Farming — Keeping it Simple

Farming can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be—like many things in BDO. There are a lot of mechanics and math involved in the Farming lifeskill.

If you don’t need to know all the “dirty” details about Farming and just want to keep things simple, then keep reading. If you like complicated, skip ahead to the Dirty Details or keep reading after the Introduction and How To.

Farming Requirements:

  • Land: a flat, open plot of land that suits your needs
  • Fence: rent with CP or quest for Finto’s Strong Fence x2
  • Seeds: Seed Vendors, Marketplace, rarely from Gathering
  • Time: crops take hours to grow—must be logged in

Land—Farming North of Loggia Farm

One of the most beginner (and veteran) friendly spots for farming is just north of Loggia Farm, in an area called Coastal Cliff, west of Velia. Everything you need is nearby: seeds, fences, storage and market. The climate there suits most crops in the game, and the ground is flat and relatively free of obstructions.

A great beginner Farming questline given by Liana can be completed in this area too.

Beginner Farming Questline

Liana, located in Velia, begins a questline that introduces you to the Farming lifeskill. Pick up the quest: [Farming] Know Anything About Farming?

The only requirements is to be level 20+ and have 3 free Contribution Points. I also recommend bringing a hoe for easier gathering of potatoes and corn at the farms.

The rewards for finishing this questline are 2x Finto’s Strong Fence. These are Contribution Point FREE and have 10 grid slots each.  

Finto's Strong Fence

Rented Fences & Pearl Shop Fence

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 (called grids).

There are 3 different fence sizes. Each has a certain CP cost and number of grid slots for seeds.

*Old Moon fences are for Master level farmers only.

    Fence Vendors Near Velia

    Location Vendor Fence Size
    (# grids)
    CP
    Velia Klau *Old Moon 10 10
    Velia Zaaira Strong Fence 10 10
    Toscani Farm Paolo Toscani Plain Fence 7 6
    Finto Farm Martina Finto Small Fence 4 3

    Pearl Shop Fence—Fence of Abundance

    The Fence of Abundance is a 10 grid fence that can be purchased at the Pearl Shop for 1200 pearls. These permanent fences do not cost Contribution Points to use and are limited to 8 per family.

    Like Strong Fences, you can exchange them for a smaller “Old Moon” version if your farming is at least Master level. Exchange the Fence of Abundance for a Sturdy Fence of Abundance at an Old Moon Manager like NPC Klau in Velia.

    Seeds

    If you can, buy seeds off the Marketplace or from Ahr, the seed vendor in Calpheon City. Ahr sells normal quality seeds.

    Camellia Loggia, the seed vendor at Loggia Farm, sells Withered seeds. These are the worst quality seeds though so try your best to use Normal, High-Quality or Special seeds.

    Normal seeds are rarely obtained by gathering with a hoe—this might take a while though!

    Each seed takes up a certain number of grid slots in a fence. Example: Onion seeds take up 1 grid; Hot Pepper seeds take up 2 grids.

    Ahr Seed Vendor

    NPC Finder for Fence & Seed Vendors

    Clicking on the magnifying glass near your mini map opens up the NPC finder. Type in the search window “fence” or “seed” to view all fence and seed vendors.

    Each fence vendor shows which fence they rent and its Contribution cost.

    Select the vendor you want to visit and an auto-path will be drawn to them.

     

    How to Farm in BDO

    Fence Placement
    Once you have your seeds and fences, run up to the bluff north of Loggia Farm to place your fences. Right click the fence in your inventory to open up the Fence Placement UI. You’ll see a circular blue grid area for placing your fence.

    If you see a lot of red grid lines, highlights, and stakes, chances are the game won’t let you place a fence there. Click to set the fence, ESC to reset your fence and move it around. Press SPACE BAR to place your fence. It takes about 15-20 seconds to place. Repeat with every fence.

    To collect a fence that’s already been placed, step inside it and interact with the hovering UI. Press (F5) to Collect Fence.

    RED = bad spot. BLUE = good spot. See pic below for how NOT to place fences.

    If you have several fences, you may need to exit the Fence Placement UI and move your character closer to the spot you want to place your next fence. Place your fences side by side for convenience of tending and applying fertilizer. See pic below to get an idea of good fence placement.

    Seed Placement
    Once fences are placed where you want them, step inside the fence you want to plant seeds in. Interact with the hovering icon in the middle of  your fence by pressing (R) to enter the Crop Placement UI. The Garden Usage in the upper left of the screen shows how many grid slots are available to place seeds in.

    Pick the seed you want to plant and move it into position. Click to set it temporarily. The crop’s UI will pop up showing the details of that crop when placed in this spot. ESC twice if you want to try another seed or change the seed’s placement. Press SPACE BAR to plant your seed.

    WARNING: If you try to collect the seed after it’s planted, the seed will be destroyed.

    Plant as many seeds as your fence can hold. Remember, some seeds take up more than 1 grid slot. The Garden Usage in the top left will keep track of how many grid slots you’ve used up.

    Seeds start to grow as soon as they’re planted. On average, seeds take around 4-5 hours to mature when planted in the right temperature.

    Speed up growth time by using Fertilizer in your fence. You can buy fertilizer off the Market or craft it yourself. See below for more details on fertilizer.

    Tending Your Crops
    The work isn’t done after planting your seeds. Now you need to watch for infestations of weeds or bugs called Blight. When crops get Blight, their growth slows way down until the Blight is removed.

    Crops that are blighted will have a RED health bar. You may even see a message telling you that your crop is crawling with bugs or weeds.

    To remove Blight, approach the crop until the hovering UI appears. Press (R) to Prune or Kill Pests.

    Allthough cleaning crops yourself is the best way to level Farming, you might want a more AFK farming experience. To assign a worker to your fence that does all the cleaning for you, hit the Garden icon in the upper left of your screen. Hit the small Worker button to open the Worker List UI. You can assign any worker from any city. Read more about assigning workers to your fences under the Dirty Details.

    Harvesting or Breeding
    Once the crop has reached 100% growth or more, it’s ready for harvesting or breeding.

    Harvesting a crop yields produce (onions, peppers, strawberries, etc) which can be used in Cooking or other life skills.

    Breeding a crop instead yields more seeds (1-3). There’s also a chance to proc a higher quality seed.

    For example: Breeding a High-Quality Onion Seed could proc a Special Onion Seed.

    There are many other rare procs in breeding, harvesting, and tending blighted crops. Keep reading to find out.

    Please Note:
    Once a crop is fully matured at 100% or more, its hovering UI changes when you approach it. Pay attention to which key you need to press for what you wish to do.

    Key Function
    R Harvest
    F5 Breed
    F6 Prune or Kill Pests
    F7 View Crop Information

    Use, Reuse, or Recycle
    After harvesting and/or breeding all your crops, you can plant more seeds and keep using the same fences.

    If you are done with farming, collect your fences by stepping into them and pressing F5.

    Rented fences should be returned to the fence vendor, so your Contribution Points can be refunded. You might decide to use the CP on houses or nodes instead of fences.

    The fence’s tooltip will tell you where to return it if you’ve forgotten.

    BDO Farming — The “Dirty” Details

    Dieing to be a Farmer
    Seriously…you just might. Fences must be placed in Combat zones. If your farmer is level 50+, that means PVP is enabled. There are special people out there who get a kick out of killing dedicated farmers, so don’t be surprised if it happens! Season servers and Olvia servers are farmer-killer free as PVP is disabled there.

    no shai were harmed in the making of this pic

    Wide Open Spaces:
    After acquiring a fence and seeds, you need to pick a nice plot of land to place your fences. Your land should be in a Combat Zone that’s relatively flat and large enough to hold all your fences when placed side by side. Ideally it will also be relatively free of objects like boulders, trees, gatherables, NPCs, and mobs for ease of crop tending. Choose land that has humidity and temperature that is conducive to the particular crop you want to grow.

    Every seed has a preferred Temperature and Humidity that it grows best in. If your purpose in farming is Harvesting produce or Breeding seeds, Temperature is most important for optimal growth rate, Humidity is secondary. You’ll want to place your fences in an area that falls inside the seed’s preferred Temperature range.

    If your want to power-level your Farming skill, then you’ll want to follow a different strategy with a focus on Humidity.

    More details on where to place fences later.

    Blight & Bird:
    After planting, your fledgling crops can get blighted with weeds or pests which slows down their growth rate. Blight is indicated by a RED health bar. Quickly clean your crops by interacting with them to Prune and Kill Pests so the crop can get back to growing.

    If you aren’t at your farm location, you can check the map. The farm indicators on your map will turn red when crops are blighted. You can also see exactly which crops have blight by hitting the Garden Icon UI. More on the Garden UI later.

    You can assign workers to your fences to help tend your crops if you don’t want to do it yourself. Workers will prune, kill pests, and gather weeds which they place in storage when their job is done. They will not fertilize, water, harvest, or breed your crops. Workers are useful if you want a more AFK farming experience and don’t care about leveling your Farming skill.

    Normally, Blight is something you don’t want as it increases the time it takes for crops to mature so you can harvest or breed. Ironically, you can take advantage of Blight to power-level your Farming. More details at the end of the guide on power-leveling.

    Damaging flocks of birds can randomly attack your crops. This has a chance of reducing crop yield when it comes time to harvest. The only way to combat this is to install a scarecrow inside your fence. Scarecrows are crafted at workshops and take up 1 slot in your fence. Most farmers will tell you not to bother with installing scarecrows because the slot that a scarecrow uses doesn’t make up for the lost crop of planting a seed instead.

    Food and Drink:
    Food and drink? Are you growing humans or crops??

    Although not necessarily a requirement for farming, fertilizer speeds the growth time of your crops. Water is usually only necessary in hot dry climates where groundwater and rain is scarce. See tables for details on how to craft fertilizer and water for farming.

    Fertilizers from the weakest Inorganic to the strongest Organic:

    FERTILIZER Ingredient 1 Ingredient 2 Processing
    Inorganic 5 Grains Drying
    Byproduct 3 Inorganic Fertilizer 2 Leavening Agent Shaking
    Organic 1 Byproduct Fertilizer 2 Purified Water Shaking
    Organic 1 Byproduct Fertilizer 2 Distilled Water Shaking

    Bottle of River Water which is gathered from fresh water with empty bottles replenishes a bit of groundwater. Process the Bottle of River Water for a stronger version that replenishes more groundwater.

    WATER Ingredient 1 Processing
    Purified Water 1 Bottle of River Water Filtering
    Purified Water 5 Bag of Muddy Water Filtering
    Distilled Water 1 Bottle of River Water Heating

    You can also purchase Purified Water from select NPCs in Valencia Region.

    • Sand Grain Bazaar: Waid [General Goods Vendor]
    • Arehaza: Yasum [General Goods Vendor]
    • Muiquun: Noura [General Goods Vendor]

    Farming Seeds

    Seeds can be purchased at the Marketplace or from Seed Vendors. They can also be obtained through breeding crops and gathering in the wild. Just like gear and other items in BDO, seeds and produce have a hierarchy as well.

    Seed Quality

    There are 5 different qualities of farming seeds. From lowest quality to highest quality:

    1. Withered
    2. Normal
    3. High-Quality
    4. Special
    5. Magical and Mysterious 

    For the most part, seed quality determines produce quality. Normal quality seeds grow normal quality produce; high-quality seeds grow high-quality produce; special seeds grow special quality produce.

    There are always exceptions! Withered seeds grow a very small amount of normal produce—around 8. These seeds are purchased from Seed Vendors only and are mostly used for breeding purposes to obtain Normal quality seeds.

    Magical and Myserious seeds produce special quality produce.

    Produce Quality

    There are 3 different qualities of produce: Normal, High-Quality, and Special.  Each quality of produce carries a weight when used in recipes:

    Normal: 1
    High-Quality: 3+
    Special: 8+

    1 High-Quality produce = 3 or more Normal quality produce
    1 Special produce = 8 or more Normal quality produce

    To see more details about material substitutions in recipes please view this awesome infographic that Summer created.

    The recipe for Beer requires 5 grains, so you could use 5 Normal quality grains, OR 1 Special quality grain , OR a combination of Normal and High-Quality grains, to cook Beer.

    If your cooker has low weight (LT), you may want to use 1 Special quality grain for this recipe so you can cook a larger batch of Beer at one time.

    After deciding on the quality of produce you want, plant that same quality of seed whenever possible.

    Exchanging Special Quality Produce

    Certain Special quality produce can be exhanged for Normal or High-Quality produce at seed vendors: Garlic, Onion, Pepper, and Hot Pepper. Cooks everywhere rejoice!

    This is the exhange rate:

    1 Special→ 4 Normal

    1 Special→ 2 High-Quality

    Purchasing Seeds and Produce at Market

    Normal, High-Quality, and Special seeds and produce can be purchased from the Marketplace. 

    sunflower seed marketplace

    Normal and High-Quality seeds and produce are often sold out on the MP, hence why many players first look into the Farming lifeskill.

    Purchasing Seeds at Seed Vendor

    Most Seed Vendors only sell the lowest quality Withered Seeds, but a few sell Normal quality seeds.

    Ahr is a Seed Vendor located in Calpheon City who sells normal quality seeds. Vilentia (located in Grana) and Kayle (located at Delmira Plantation near O’draxxia) also sell normal quality seeds.

    To find a Seed Vendor, click the NPC finder icon at the top right of the screen and type in “seed”. Select the vendor you wish to visit and an authopath will be drawn for you.

    You might notice some funny seeds at certain seed vendors: like Bumpy Seed and Contorted Seed. These strange things grow into housing decorations!  See this guide on seed vendors and farmed housing furniture.

    Ahr Seed Vendor

    In my opinion, you’re better off buying Normal quality seeds from one of the above NPCs or Central Market whenever possible. Trying to obtain a Normal quality seed from breeding Withered crops can take a while. Also, breeding Withered crops only produces more seeds – no Fruits, Blush Leaf, mole spawns, etc.

    Gathering Seeds

    Normal quality seeds can be obtained rarely through gathering with a hoe.

    What to Gather for Seeds:

    • Get Specific Seeds:
      • Use a hoe on the plant related to the seed you want.
      • Example: Gather Fire Flake Flower plant nodes to get Fire Flake Flower Seeds at a much greater chance.
    • Get Random Seeds:
      • Fruit Trees
      • Shrubs
      • Thickets
      • Dry Thickets
      • Bushes
    citron gathering orchard
    Chantrelle Mushroom Gathering

    Breeding for Seeds

    Breeding seeds gives you a chance to acquire 1-3 seeds of the same seed you planted and a rare chance to proc a higher quality seed. For example, if you plant and breed a High-Quality Sunflower Seed, there is a rare chance to obtain a Special Sunflower Seed. If you plant a Special Sunflower Seed, there is a rare chance to obtain a Magical Sunflower Seed. This method will take a bit of patience and luck.

    Magical Seeds

    If your farming level is Artisan 1+, there is a rare chance to obtain Magical seeds through breeding Special crops. Breeding Magical crops will always yield 1-3 Magical seeds.

    These rare seeds take up 5x the grids in your fence when planted but yield 5x the harvest.

    Normal 1 slot seeds = Magical 5 slot seeds (Ex: Garlic, Wheat, Strawberry)
    Normal 2 slot seeds = Magical 10 slot seeds (Ex: Hot Pepper, Corn, Grape)

    Please Note: You’ll need a Plain Fence (7 slot) or larger to plant a Magical Garlic Seed and a Strong Fence (10 slot) to plant a Magical Hot Pepper Seed.

    While farmers of any level can plant Magical seeds, Farming Artisan 1+ is required to prune, kill pests, harvest, and breed Magical crops.

    Magical Seed Benefits:

    • Reduced time spent actively farming as there are fewer crops in a fence
    • Reduced Energy consumption as there are fewer crops to tend; assigned Workers also use less energy
    • Reduced Water and Fertilizer consumption as there are fewer crops in a fence
    • Increased proc chance for Blush Leaf, Fruits, etc. when Breeding
    • Increased amount of Blush Leaf when Breeding
    • Breeding Magical Crops produces more Magical Seeds

    Magical Seed Cons:

    • Reduced Farming EXP as there are fewer crops to tend
    • Reduced chances to gather Weeds, Mysterious Seeds, sharp/hard shards, ect. while pruning and killing pests
    • Requires Artisan 1 Farming skill to tend crop
    • No increase in amount of Fruits when Breeding

    Example of Yield from Magical Garlic Seed Breeding 

    Example of Yield from Magical Garlic Seed Harvesting 

    Crafting Magical Seeds

    You can also craft Magical seeds. Use Processing > Shaking:

    1 Special seed + 2 Mysterious Seeds + 10 Purified Water.

    processing shaking magical seed haystack

    As you know, BDO loves adding exceptions to every rule! It keeps things interesting wink

    The exceptions:

    • Magical Haystack: This item takes up 5 grids in a fence garden and gives a 25% bigger yield than Special Haystack which uses 4 grid slots.
    • Magical Chicken Feed: This item takes up 4 grids in a fence garden and gives a 15% bigger yield than Special Chicken Feed which uses 3 grid slots.
    magical haystack

    Mysterious Seeds

    Mysterious Seeds are obtained rarely through breeding, harvesting, pruning, or killing pests. Mysterious Seeds are used to craft Mysterious ‘Named’ Seeds (example: Mysterious ‘Sunflower’ Seed) or used to craft Magical Seeds.

    Use Processing > Shaking to craft the recipes below.

    Product Materials
    1x Mysterious ‘Named’ Seed 1x Mysterious Seed
    1x Special Seed
    5x Mysterious ‘Named’ Seed 5x Mysterious Seed
    1x Magical Seed
    1x Magical Seed 2x Mysterious Seed
    1x Special Seed
    10x Purified Water

    Mysterious ‘Named’ Seeds require 5+ grid slots in your fence just like Magical Seeds, so you’ll need a Plain (7 slot) or larger fence to plant Mysterious ‘Named’ Seeds.

    Breeding Mysterious crops yields 30-40 Fruits but no seeds. Harvesting Mysterious crops yields 7x the Special-quality produce that harvesting Special crops do.

    Please Note: Breeding Mysterious ‘Named’ Seeds won’t produce more Mysterious ‘Named’ Seeds. This makes Mysterious Seeds a finite resource—unlike Magical seeds.

     

    Mysterious ‘Named’ Seed Benefits:

    • Increased Fruit yield – Breeding yields 30-40 Fruits
    • Increased produce yield – Harvesting yields 7x the amount of Special crops
    • Reduced Energy consumption as there are fewer crops to tend; assigned Workers also use less stamina
    • Reduced Water and Fertilizer consumption as there are fewer crops in a fence

    Mysterious ‘Named’ Seed Cons:

    • Breeding does not yield more mysterious seeds
    • Breeding does not yield Blush Leaf
    • Reduced Farming EXP as there are fewer crops to tend
    • Reduced chances to gather Weeds, Mysterious Seeds, sharp/hard shards, ect. while pruning and killing pests

     

    Mysterious Hot Pepper Seed – 10 Grid Slots

     

    Strange and Beautiful Rice Seed

    When breeding Rice Seed, normal—magical quality, there’s a chance you could proc the rare Strange and Beautiful Rice Seed. When planted and harvested, the Strange and Beautiful Rice Seed produces x5 Strange and Beautiful Rice which is used to craft Miraculous Tteokguk.

    Truffle Mushroom Hypha

    When crafting via Alchemy, there is very rare chance to proc Unknown Seed as a byproduct. Combine Unknown Seed with Truffle Mushroom through Processing→Simple Alchemy to create a Truffle Mushroom Hypha that can be planted in a fence, grown, and harvested for an average of 60 Truffle Mushrooms. The Truffle Mushroom Hypha can only be harvested and not bred for more seeds. Surprisingly, the hypha grows into a huge tree!

    Farming Fences

    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 space for seeds—called grids.

    Certain NPCs will rent Strong, Plain, or Small fences. To find an NPC that will rent the size fence you want, search for that fence in the NPC finder in the top right of your screen. For example, if you want 10 Strong Fences, search for “strong fence”.

    Rented Fences Size (grids) CP
    Old Moon 10 10
    Strong Fence 10 10
    Plain Fence 7 6
    Small Fence 4 3

    To find fence vendors, hit the NPC finder button near your mini map. Type ‘fence’ in the search to see all fence vendors. You can be more specific and type ‘strong fence’ to see only those vendors that rent Strong fencs.

    The Old Moon Fence requires Master level Farming to rent from Old Moon Managers. This is a 10 grid fence with a smaller footprint to allow easier placement of fences in smaller areas and conservation of fertilizer and water. Since fertilizer and water have an AOE (area of effect), a well placed application can cover several fences at once. This is especially useful when planting fewer seeds in each fence as you would with Magical seeds.

    Quested Fences

    There are a couple of quested fences that cost NO Contribution Points. The Finto’s Strong Fence is a must-have for any responsible conscientious CP conservationist. tongue-out Follow the links to see details.

    Quested Fences Size (grids) CP
    Finto’s Strong Fence 10 0
    Shabby Fence 1 0
    Finto's Strong Fence

    Farming with CP Efficiency

    Smaller fences are more efficient (give more grids per CP). With that in mind, you might think the best thing is to use a ton of Shabby Fences or Small Fences. At some point you run into a problem though—you can only have 10 fences total placed on the land. NOOOOO!!

    This means…depending on how much CP you want to spend, you may have to finagle your fences to maximize planting space.

    Using this chart will help you figure out the best fences for the CP you have available.

    This chart doesn’t inclue the Shabby Fence, the free 1 grid fences you can acquire from the questline Because I Like You. It can only be done once per character, so you’d have to repeat the questline on an alt. You also need Beginner 7 Gathering to avoid the prerequisite quest line.

    Ten Shabby Fences would provide a really small, low-yield, low-maintenance farm. Maybe that’s what you want.

    But…for a modest, contribution free garden you can complete the Finto’s Strong Fence questline that begins at Liana. This nonrepeatable questline provides 2 Contribution free 10 grid fences!! The only requirement is that you be level 20+.

    Where to Install Fences

    Now that we have some fences and seeds, it’s time to decide where to place them. Fences can’t be installed in Safe Zones, node war areas, or in the Great Valencia Desert. They can’t be installed on roads, solid rock, or in rivers and bodies of water.

    Fences can’t be placed on top of each other. That’s like wishing for more wishes!

    Fences need to be installed on relatively flat ground, but sometimes you can place them on sand or rocky ground. You can install a fence if there is a rock or tree inside, but it might be in the way when you tend your crops.

    When in doubt, attempt to install your fence by right clicking the fence in your inventory. If you see a lot of red outlines or stakes in the Fence Installation UI, it’s likely you won’t be able to install the fence there. See pic.

    Many farmers place their fences North of Loggia Farm, near Velia. The location itself is convenient: near a major city, port, and abyssal well for transportation. NPCs are very nearby to rent 10, 7, and 4 grid fences. The area is large, flat, fairly empty of rocks and trees with few low-level mobs. The temperature there hits the sweet spot for a lot of different crops which is important for faster crop growth. It’s a great place for new players to start their farming adventure.

    More Details on Crop Placement

    When you set the seed into the fence, a window will pop up showing that crop’s information and the location’s climate. Don’t press SPACE BAR if you just want to view the information! Pressing the SPACE BAR after setting the seed into the fence, plants the seed—making it permanent. If you try to collect a planted seed, it will be destroyed!

    1. Temperature: % growth every 5 minutes
    2. Humidity: % chance of your plants getting blighted every 5 minutes
    3. Groundwater: 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 hot dry areas like Valencia)

    Climate: Temperature, Humidity, Groundwater, & Fertilizer

    When deciding where to place your farms, there are a few climate stats you should consider—chiefly Temperature and Humidity. Groundwater also affects crop growth, but not as much as Temperature and Humidity. 

    Every crop has a preferred Temperature and Humidity range. This is indicated on the crop UI by the highlighted red and blue ranges on the Temperature and Humidity bars. This is the crop’s sweet spot.

    The location’s Temperature and Humidity is indicated by the pointers (the line with the triangular bottom) intersecting the bars.

    When the crop’s sweet spot overlaps the location’s pointers, the crop becomes very happy, causing it to grow faster with less chance of Blight.

    If your crop grows in a Temperature it doesn’t prefer, it’s growing time increases greatly. See pics above of my experiment placing Strawberry in Mediah and Eilton.

    If your crop grows in a Humidity it doesn’t prefer, it will get “blighted” (infested by weeds or bugs) more frequently. Blight causes your crops to grow very slowly until it’s removed. Interact with an infested crop to Prune or Kill Pests; interact with livestock to Feed and Kill Parasites. No crop or livestock is immune to Blight—with a Blight chance of 1–10%. The pic of the Special Wheat Crop shows the Wheat Crop in the sweetest spot ever with only 1% chance of Blight when planted in its preferred Humidity range.

    Every crop loves Groundwater (some more than others). Groundwater supplies moisture to your crop. When groundwater is low, the moisture level of you crop decreases. When groundwater is high, the moisture level of your crop increases.

    WARNING: If the Moisture bar reaches zero, the produce yield on your crop will decrease by half.

    Groundwater does not affect livestock (Haystack & Chicken Feed) at all. test

    Unlike Temperatue and Humidity, Groundwater and Fertilizer are localized ‘climates’ that you, as the farmer, can affect. Groundwater reserves by rain and by using bottles of water while standing among your fences. You can also add fertilizer to the same area to decrease growing time.

    Water and Fertilizer have an AOE effect, capable of crossing fencelines to reach other crops in other fences. The major perk of using Old Moon Fences is that they are smaller than Strong Fences, so the added water and fertilizer reaches more crops. See possible fence layouts below.

    The consumption rate of Groundwater and Fertilizer increases with the number of crops planted in the fence. This is why the same amount of water and fetilizer added to an area can last longer in a fence with 5 crops than a fence with 10 crops.

    Using the Game Map to See Temperature, Humidity, and Groundwater

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

    The barometer icon shows Temperature. Coldest temperatures are shown as blue, warming slightly into greens. Warm temperatures are shown as yellow. Hot temperatures are dark orange and red. These temperatures will not fluctuate like humidity and groundwater. Expect hotter climate in Mediah and Valencia; colder climate in Eilton.

    The cloud icon shows Humidity in shades of red. Low humidity is white while high humidity is dark red. Humidity fluctuates a little as rain comes, but is fairly steady. Expect higher humidity around Glish swamp, Eilton and the islands.

    The water droplet icon shows Groundwater in shades of dark blue to light lavender. Regions with the most groundwater are shown as dark blue. Low ground water is shown as white. Groundwater is highly influenced by rain. Groundwater fluctuates frequently as rain soaks the ground and the ground dries again. A few areas have groundwater almost all the time—like the areas around Eilton and the swampy area between Heidel and Glish. 

    Other Resources

    bdocodex.com has some great resources to help you decide where you should farm. You can view the Temperature, Humidity, and  Groundwater sweet spots and their 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.

    I experimented by placing a Strawberry Seed in 3 different Temperature climates. It was quite amusing to see the extreme difference in growth time. Like Goldilocks and the 3 bears, the sensitive strawberry likes it ‘Just Right’. See pics if you’re curious.

    Strawberry in Velia
    Just Right

    Strawberry in Mediah
    Too Hot

    Strawberry in Eilton
    Too Cold

    Fence Layouts

    Since fertilizer and water have an AOE effect on fences, you might wonder what the best layouts might be to reach the most crops. The layouts below were taken from discord.

    10 Old Moon Fences Layout — Location of Magical Crops & Fertilizer

    bdo fence placement

    The Garden Icon Interface

    You can check on your crops at any time from any character by clicking the Garden Icon in the upper left of your screen. The icon throbs with a green ring when all crops have reached 100% growth, ready for harvesting or breeding. The icon throbs with a yellow ring when some of the crops have reached 100% growth.

    The My Gardens window shows:

    Territory: what territory the fence is placed in – the arrow draws an autopath to the fence
    Type: the type of fence and (the number of crops growing in fence)
    Crop: the name of the crop with the lowest percentage of crop growth and (the percentage of growth it’s at)
    Worker: clicking on the button opens the worker list window so you can assign a worker to Prune and Kill Pests

    Selecting a row in the My Gardens window opens the Garden Information window. Garden Information lists every crop growing in the selected fence and the percentage of growth completed for each crop. It also shows if a crop is Blighted with a red Prune or Kill Pests icon.

    Scheduled Removal Time
    Fences that are not interacted with for 14 days will expire and be sent to storage automatically. Any crops that were in the fence will be destroyed.

    Assigning Workers to Fences

    Assigning workers to fences makes farming a more AFK experience. Every 5 minutes, crops have a chance to become blighted, which really slows down the crop’s growth until it’s removed. Workers can clean your blighted crops for you, collecting weeds and the occasional Monk’s Branch which will be placed in storage when their job is done.

    Workers from any town can be assigned to your fences, but keep in mind that workers have travel time to and from their hometown. Workers at the top of the Worker List have the least amount of travel time to your fence.

    Workers use 1 Stamina when they travel to the fence and 1 Stamina each time they clean a crop. If you have 10 crops in a single fence, the worker could go through a ton of Stamina in a very short time depending on the crop’s Blight rate.

    Workers that run out of Stamina will stop working and return home—crops will then be in danger of Blight if they aren’t mature (100% growth or more). Workers also return to their hometown if you cancel their job or remove the fence they were working in. 

    Note: Workers won’t gain EXP or place weeds and branches in storage until they go home. So, if they’ve been working a while, you may want to send them home for a break. sealed

    AFK Farming & Family Inventory
    Placing worker food in Family Inventory plays a major role in how truly AFK your farming experience is. Food that is placed in Family Inventory will keep workers fed automatically until the food runs out. Family Inventory makes worker management carefree and keeps crops Blight-free with more consistent growth times.

    If you don’t use Family Inventory to hold worker food, keeping workers fed and crops Blight-free becomes more challenging. You would need to keep a closer eye on the workers’ stamina and manually top up the Workers’ stamina with food through the Worker UI.

    In this situation, assigning workers with bigger Stamina pools would help. You would likely want to assign Giant workers to your fences because they have bigger stamina pools than Goblins and Humans. Assign Fadus in Kamasylvia and Shellfolk in LOML.

    Pros & Cons of Workers
    To make a long story short…here’s the highlights.

    Pros of assigning workers to fences:

    • More AFK since workers will be tending to Blight
    • Crops will grow faster because they are never blighted
    • Less energy used for farming; energy-free weeds

    Cons of assigning workers to fences:

    • Workers need lodging and food = extra costs
    • Workers mostly gather weeds from tending—they must pocket everything else tongue-out
    • You’ll get almost NO farming EXP since worker doing all the work!

    Named Workers 
    BDO loves exceptions to every rule! Case in point: named workers can gather more weeds than normal workers when assigned to fences. Named workers can gather 1-10 Weeds, while normal Artisan workers can only gather 1-5 weeds. Named workers are NPCs throughout the world who are willing to work for you if you become their friend. Purchase named workers with Amity. See the pros and cons of hiring named workers: Named Workers.

    Farming Crop Yields: Pruning, Harvesting, & Breeding

    Crop Tending – Pruning Loot

    Possible Loot from Pruning, listed in least to most EXP and rarity:

    • Twig
    • Weeds 1-10
    • Blush Leaf 1-2
    • Monk’s Branch
    • Sharp Black Crystal Shard
    • Mysterious Seed 

    Crop Tending – Killing Pests Loot

    Possible Loot from Pests, listed in least to most EXP and rarity:

    • Caterpillar
    • Weeds 1-10
    • Blush Leaf 1-2
    • Spirit’s Leaf
    • Sharp Black Crystal Shard
    • Mysterious Seed

    Crop Harvesting Yields

    Crops can be harvested when they reach full maturity at 100% growth—any growth over 100% has NO effect on yields when harvesting or breeding. Produce yields are based on the quality of seed you are harvesting. Farming level does not influence yields.

    • Withered seeds = @8 Normal crops
    • Normal seeds = 60-80 Normal crops
    • High-Quality seeds = 40-60 High-Quality crops
    • Special seeds = 20-40 Special crops
    • Magical seeds = Special crops x5 with a bonus of +15% to +25% (details & requirements below)
    • Mysterious seeds = Special crops x7

    Extra Loot from Harvesting

    It’s possible to get more than produce when harvesting your crop.

    Rare Procs from Harvesting:

    Average Produce Yields:

    1 Slot Crops

    • Normal Seed: 65
    • High-Quality Seed: 50
    • Special Seed: 30

    2 Slot Crops

    • Normal Seed: 107
    • High-Quality Seed: 82
    • Special Seed: 53

    *Produce yields are approximately 1.75x for seeds that use 2 grid slots in the fence. (For example: Hot Pepper Seed)

    Haystack

    • Special Seed (4-slot): 62
    • Magical Seed (5-slot): 98

    Chicken Feed

    • Special Seed (3-slot): 32
    • Magical Seed (4-slot): 59

    Magical

    • 5x Special

    Mysterious

    • 7x Special

    Please Note: Be aware that Eternal Winter mushrooms produce about half the normal amount of produce when harvested! This includes: Mesima, Chanterelle, Dictyophora, and Amanita mushrooms.

    Crop Breeding Yields

    Instead of harvesting a fully mature crop, you can choose to breed it. Breeding gives you a chance to acquire extra seeds, fruits, and Blush Leaf. Fruits are used in Alchemy and are usually sold out on the Marketplace. Blush Leaf is a “farming byproduct” which can be turned into certain NPCs for other usable items or used to craft Stonetail Fodder.

    Extra Loot from Breeding

    It’s possible to get more than seeds, fruit, and Blush Leaf when breeding your crop.

    Rare Procs from Breeding:

    • Shimmering Piece of the Old Moon +5% on Marketplace Sale
    • Mole’s Feed Chase & Kill mole for extra loot!
    • Sethra’s Artifact – Life EXP
    • Sethra’s Artifact – Life Skill Mastery
    • Sethra’s Artifact – Farming EXP
    • Imperfect Lightstone of Flora
    • Mysterious Seed

    Breeding Yields

    • Normal seeds
      • 1-3 Normal seeds
      • 0-1 High-Quality seeds
      • 0-3 Fruit of Nature
      • 0-3 Procs of 3-9 Blush Leaf
    • High-Quality seeds
      • 1-3 High-Quality seeds
      • 0-1 Special seeds
      • 0-3 Fruit of Nature
      • 0-3 Procs of 3-9 Blush Leaf
    • Special seeds
      • 1-3 Special seeds
      • 0-1 Magical seeds
      • 0-3 Fruit of Nature
      • 0-3 Procs of 3-9 Blush Leaf
    • Magical seeds
      • 1-3 Magical seeds
      • 0-3 Fruit of Nature (higher proc rate than other seeds)
      • 0-5 Procs of 3-9 Blush Leaf (higher proc rate and higher amount than other seeds)
    • Mysterious seeds
      • 30-40 Fruit of Nature
      • NO seeds or Blush Leaf

     

    Which Crops are Best to Farm?

    What should you grow in your fences? Decide this based on the following criteria:

    • Usefulness
      • Most likely, you decided to look into the Farming lifeskill because you wanted certain crops for Cooking or fruits for Alchemy that couldn’t readily be found on the Marketplace.
    • Silver
      • If farming doesn’t produce anything useful for you, it likely will for someone else. Sell farming products on the Market for another semi-afk source of income.
    • EXP
      • If farming EXP is your main focus right now, you can power-level Farming in a few active hours of playtime. 

     

    Farming for Things You can Use in Cooking

    If you want to cook specific dishes that require a rare ingredient unobtainable via nodes (like onion or garlic), you would probably need to farm these yourself—or expect to pay high special crop prices at the Marketplace. As with most rare crops used in cooking, it’s hard to find the cheaper normal and high-quality grade crops on the Marketplace.

    Many players don’t like gathering milk—farming Haystacks would provide milk with a more AFK experience.

    BDO Cooking Mastery

    Farming for Things You can Use in Alchemy

    Other rare and useful ingredients you obtain from farming include those used in alchemy like Fruit of Nature and Weeds.

     

    Pruning can proc Monk’s Branch; killing pests can proc Spirit’s Leaf. Both are used in Alchemy and other things. Weeds can also be gained by pruning—even workers assigned to your fence will gather weeds and the occasional branch.

    Other Uses for Farming
    Crops also provide EXP fuel for polishing Alchemy Stones of Life. In my experience, Special Strawberries and Special Purple Mushrooms provide the most EXP for polishing.

    There are several decorative Housing items you can grow in your fence like this Tulip Lantern! Buy the seeds from seed vendors. Guide on farmed Housing Furniture.

    BDO Tulip Lantern from Farming Seeds

    Blush Leaf, a byproduct of Breeding, Killing Pests, or Pruning, can be exchanged for Stonetail Fodder which is used in Dream Horse attempts.

    If nothing else, you may want to collect Pit-A-Pat Petals from rare mole spawns to craft the super rare but super cute Mole Pet. See this guide.

    Farming for Silver

    Always check the Marketplace for which crops and fruits are in high demand. Blush Leaf can be exchanged for Stonetail Fodder at Liana. Stonetail Fodder is used in Dream Horse attempts and always seems to be in high demand.

    The best sustainable method of making silver with Farming is to Breed 2/3 of your crop for fruits, Blush Leaf, and enough seeds for replanting. Harvest the other 1/3 for selling at the Marketplace if the crop will make good money, if not then breed all of your crop. Extra Magical Seeds can be sold to the Vendor for around 300k silver each.

    The Trading lifeskill can use crops to make crates at a Workshop in town. I’ve heard its hard to make decent money doing this, but I’ve never tried it myself.

    Here are some helpful links when deciding what to farm for silver:

    Summer’s Magical Seed Spreadsheet

    Farming for Silver Guide

    View Market trends at BDOlytics

    Farming for EXP

    Farmers gain access to Magical seeds at Artisan Farming which streamlines the farming experience, increasing its usefulness and profit. For this reason, you may want to power-level farming.

    Since very little Farming EXP is gained from harvesting or breeding crops (grow time is too long), you must take advantage of the Blight mechanic. Every 5 minutes your crops have a chance to get infested by weeds or pests—called Blight. Although Blight slows down the crop’s growth, it’s great for power leveling your Farming skill. Every time you Prune or Kill Pests you gain Farming EXP.

    Increase the chance your crops will get Blight by:

    • Planting as many crops as you can in each fence. Blight rate increases when more crops are planted in the same fence.
      • Bigger fences = more crops in a single fence. Use 10 grid fences if you can.
    • Planting your crops in a Humidity that is outside your crop’s preferred range.
      • For example: growing Dry Mane Grass which likes dry climate in an area that has high humidity.

    Reminder: If you assign workers to your fences, they will automatically Prune and Kill Pests for you, stealing any EXP you might have gained by doing it yourself.

    Crops will not get blighted after reaching 100% growth, so breed or harvest after that, then replant.

    Agris Outfit — Pearl Shop Farmer’s Costume

    You can purchase the Agris Outfit Set for 2200 Pearls at the Pearl Shop. It includes the Agris Clothes and Agris Hat. Both pieces must be equipped to receive the set effect buffs.

    This outfit gives +30% Farming EXP and -2 seconds when performing Farming tasks like Breeding Seeds and Harvesting. It can be worn in combination with Life mastery clothes or Silver Embroidered Clothes for a super-charged EXP buff.

    Power-leveling Farming

    Farming & Life EXP Buffs:
    The more farming and life EXP buffs you have active, the better! Permanent buffs are preferred of course, but if you really want to level fast, add as many temporary buffs as you can. There are many sources of Life EXP in the game→Please see this guide on Life EXP.

    Also, the more buffs you’re wearing, the less energy you’ll need to hit Artisan Farming.

    Note: Farming is not affected by Life Mastery. Even though life mastery gear also has Life EXP buffs, remember that Season characters can’t wear life mastery gear.

    60+ Contribution Points:
    It is possible to power-level your Farming skill to Artisan in just a few hours if you have enough buffs and can spare enough Contribution Points (80) to rent 8 Strong Fences. You may already have 2 free 10 grid fences from completing the Finto’s Strong Fence questline. If that’s the case, then you would only need 60 Contribution Points more to rent 6 Strong Fences.

    Fence of Abundance for CP free Farming
    With the addition of the Fence of Abundance which is purchased at the Pearl Shop for 1200 Pearls each, you no longer need Contribution Points to rent fences from NPCs. Though purchase of these fences is limited to 8 per family, if you have the 2 free Finto’s fences, you can now have the full max of 10 fences and 100 grid slots without using any Contribution Points at all.

    Big Energy Pool:
    Cleaning takes Energy. If you have 10 Strong fences and 100 crops that are blighted, then chances are you will use a lot of energy in that round of cleaning—when you first start leveling. As your Farming level increases, you will begin to use less energy when you tend  your crops. That is one of the perks of having higher Farming skill. Hopefully your noob farmer has a big Energy pool or some big Energy potions.

    Unless your farmer is logged in, buffs to Energy ticks (Blessing of Kamasylve) won’t be much help.

    Note: I’ve read that higher gathering levels reduce the energy used in farming, but I can’t verify this for sure. I had Artisan 2 gathering on my newb farmer and used about 150 energy to reach Artisan 1 Farming. Honestly, I thought I would use more. I’m not a math whiz, so let me know what your experience is.

    Dedicated Farmer & Inventory:
    Ideally, you would also have a toon you can park at the fences that has plenty of Inventory Space since seeds do not stack. While actively playing on another toon you can check the status of your crops and see how badly they are infested by hitting the Garden icon in the upper left. If they seem good and blighted, you can log in your farmer to clean your crops then go back to playing on another character.

    If your farmer doesn’t have a lot of Inventory space, take advantage of an alt with bigger inventory. Park your alt with the bigger inventory at the fences and log them in to breed and/or harvest when needed. This way, your farmer conserves any buffs they may have running too.

    Misadventures in Power-leveling a Farmer

    I leveled a farmer years ago—before I understood what all the numbers and bars in the crop UI even meant. BDO was a complicated game and there were a lot of things to learn, so I took the advice of more experienced farmers like a good noob and planted farms south of heidel in the swampy area.  I recently decided to power-level a new farmer to see how quickly I could reach Artisan Farming. I was astonished at how fast and easy it was.

    At first, I worried about Inventory space and used extra Inventory slots that were given away during Seasons and events. After I started, I realized that it wasn’t necessary to have a lot of Inventory on my farmer just for power-leveling. It would almost be a waste on a dedicated farmer who would mostly be  farming with Magical seeds after Artisan.

    I parked another character with bigger inventory at the farms. When the crops were matured and cleaned I logged her in to breed the seeds and go to storage when necessary. This also conserved all the buffs my farmer had going since she was only logged in to clean the crops.

    I chose the location north of Loggia Farm in Velia for convenience. I placed 4 Strong fences, then upped it to 6, then 8 as I cleared out contribution points that were spent on nodes.

    It was pretty easy to put a short stack of Life EXP buffs on. There are so many that are stackable, given away during events. I could have used more but I wanted to be conservative! tongue-out HAHA

     

    Here is the list of buffs I used on my new farmer:

    Farming EXP buffs:
    25%  +4 Silver Embroidered Farmer’s Clothes
    15%  Pets Farming EXP

    Life EXP buffs:
    50%  Secret Book of Old Moon
    50%  Life EXP Scroll
    20%  Housekeeper Event Item Buff
    15%  GM’s Blessing
    10%  Seafood Cron Meal
    10%  Coconut Juice Event Item Buff
    12%  Pets Life EXP

    TOTAL: 207%

    With these buffs, I reached Artisan 1 Farming in under 2 hours of mostly active time—only Pruning and Killing Pests. I still had 20 minutes left on 2 hour buffs when I reached Artisan. I had a couple of accidents during this time… I started with only 4 fences. I planted a fence of garlic and didn’t realize till after the first round that garlic loves growing in Velia. I performed Breeding twice and forgot to replace my Fishing Pets with Farming Pets a couple times. sigh

    Pic below shows the loot I had in my inventory after reaching Artisan 1. It still surprises me how little there is.

    What I Would Do Differently
    If I leveled another farmer I would plan ahead better. I would have 8 fences placed right away, and the most blighty crops planted right away. I might even plant the most blighty crops with the slowest growth rate, so I don’t have to breed so much. Considering how quickly it’s possible to level Farming to Artisan, why bother breeding or harvesting if you can avoid it? Plenty of time to do that after Artisan 1 and Magical Seeds.

    Advice
    If your farmer is low on inventory or you don’t want to worry about harvesting or breeding while power-leveling, use a crop that has a longer growth time. This means finding a crop that is both outside its preferred Temperature and Humidity. Be sure to check on the crop’s Moisture level so it doesn’t go below zero.

    Although Dry Mane Grass is outside it’s comfort zone almost anywhere, its normal growth time is short. Try planting Pepper seeds near Heidel, either in King’s Forest area, or south of the city. Look for areas with light green or cooler temps and pink or darker Humidity. See maps below for possible fence locations near Heidel.

    When Pepper is planted outside it’s comfort zone near Heidel, its Blight rate increases to 8% and its growth time doubles to over 8 hours. See maps.

    Sources & Additional Info

    Shout outs and thank yous to many players and content creators!