Farming Guide

How important is Farming in Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin? If food you’re thinking of gathering food, you can just hunt down or forage them, right? Well, farming is very important if you want to become stronger! Eventually, you’ll find out that Princess Sakuna, is the daughter of a Warrior God and a Harvest Goddess.

As such, she has abilities that let her go on combat as well as tend to the farm in order to plant, and eventually harvest rice. In order to get stronger, Sakuna must complete a full harvest Cycle since the Rice that she will be able to get will determine how stronger she gets. Farming in this game isn’t simply planting, watering, and harvesting your crops.

The entire harvest process will take you all seasons before winter, and it will involve multiple steps. In this farming guide, we’ll help you learn about the difference cycles that you’ll need to do from planting, all the way to harvesting and hulling your rice. So, let’s get started!

Planting

When starting the game, the very first step of the cycle that you’ll have to undergo is planting your seeds. You’ll manually guide Sakuna and plant seeds on the Rice Paddy one by one as you step around the field. Planting your seeds must be placed properly and they shouldn’t be too far apart. When starting out in the beginning, it will be tricky since there isn’t any guide on the ground that you can follow.

For your first year, it would be best for you to imagine tiles on the ground. Place your seedlings side by side as you work your way and plant all of your seedlings. This first step will be repeated in the future as well each time you plant. The Seasons in this game have 3 days each before you move on to the next. Generally, you’ll be planting all of your seeds every Spring 1 of each year.

Planting Skill: On your second year of Spring, continuing to plant all of your seeds will provide you a skill upgrade. You’ll be provided with a grid that you can follow on the rice paddy. You can then plant one seedling for each tile as you place them on the ground.

Fertilizing

Once all plants have been placed, you’ll want your soil to be fertilized in order to maximize your growth quality. You can gather waste at the outhouse, and then bring them to the pit near the paddy that’s beneath the wooden plank. You’ll be able to place base materials and then additional items in order to create your fertilizer. You’ll have to leave this to age before you can spread them on your field.

How often you should fertilize: You’ll have to fertilize your soil up to two times each day. Once in the morning, and another later in the afternoon. This is why it’s important for you to prepare another batch of fertilizer once you have spread out the first one. This way, you’ll have fertilizer aged and ready for use. Preparing fertilizer in advance the night before will let you spread it out in the morning the following day.

Letting your plants grow and managing Water

Your Rice will grow from Spring up to Autumn, and there are 3 days for each season. This is why you’ll need to manage your paddy’s water levels depending on its growth. In order to know how much water you need to place, you can always talk to Tauemon each day since he provides Tips. Your plants will have different stages of growth, and their water levels will come as follows:

Ears turn golden: Your water should be completely drained. Harvest should be ready.

Managing Water levels during rain: Rain is a common occurrence in the game so they can affect your water levels. Make sure to check the water gates and adjust your water accordingly. Later on in the game, you can provide an Amber Tribute and talk to Tauemon if he anticipates rain on the next day. This is important since you’ll need to dry your harvest before placing them in your storehouse.

Managing Weeds and Pests: Much like in real life, Weeds and Pests can appear on your crops and they can affect your production. Weeds can grow on your Rice Paddy and they can stunt the growth of your crops, so it’s best for you to check around and pull out any weeds you’ll find daily.

Weeds and Pests can affect your crops

Pests can also destroy your growth, so it would be best for you to look around the farm and check for any Exclamation mark that will appear. You can find Snails and Frogs on the field, and Spiders inside the house. Catching them will enable you to release them as well and they’ll be the ones to manage your pests.

Harvesting

Towards the end of your Rice’s life cycle, you’ll be able to Harvest them using your sickle. This will be done in Autumn, and you must harvest your rice before Winter sets in or else all of your hard work will be wasted. You’ll need to drain the rice paddy completely before beginning.

Similar to planting seeds, you’ll move around your paddy and use a Sickle to reap all of your rice. Once you have completed reaping all of your plants, the harvesting portion of your farming will be complete, and you will then move to the next step.

Laying

Once you have completed your harvests, you’ll then have to lay them on wooden drying racks. This can take some time as well, and you’ll want to have your harvest as dry as possible before bringing them in the store room. You’ll have to go around the rice paddy and pick up your harvest, and them move them on the racks.

If you interact with each rack, Sakuna will tell you if they’re still soaked, or if they are dry enough. However, you’ll always have the option to store them in advance when needed. As stated earlier, rain can happen often in the game, so submitting an Amber Attribute to Tauemon will help prevent rain during the drying process.

Drying can take some time, so you go check the map and spend time fighting monsters, or perhaps you can use the resting area near the house. You can put in specific number of hours you can rest, and this will help speed up the drying process. Once Sakuna tells you that they are dry enough, you can finally place them on the Store House.

Threshing and Hulling

Your harvest must be placed in the Store House in order to protect it from the harsh winter. If you’re able to place your harvest, you can then begin the process of converting it to rice through threshing and then hulling.

Threshing: This is the process of removing the rice husks, and you’ll play a minigame in order to complete this. You’ll simply follow the directions on the screen, and this can show you directions you need to input, as well as directions and button combinations. You will keep doing this until all rice husks from your harvests have been removed.

Hulling: The final process in order to get your Rice will be to hull them. You’ll have to input up and down in order to pound the rice. You can get Brown rice which provides better buffs for your food, or White Rice which will provide better growth stats for Sakuna. Pounding the Rice longer will turn it white, so you’ll have to choose between food buffs and stat growth.

Once you have completed the rice that you obtain, you’ll be provided with a results screen regarding your harvest for the year. This will include how much stats Sakuna has obtained since harvests are linked to her power. For the remaining of Winter, you will then need to prepare for your next batch of rice.

Tilling and Preparing your Seeds

Towards the end of Winter, your Rice Paddy will be frozen therefore it won’t be able to support growth for new crops. Similar to planting seeds, you’ll move around the paddy and clear any rocks, as well as soften the soil with a hoe. You’ll want to till as much of the plot as possible so try to cover as much as you can. This will happen usually at the last day of Winter so take as much time as needed.

Once you have completed tilling the land, you’ll then be able to fertilize the land once again and then prepare the seeds for your next batch. On your first year however, Tauemon will prepare the seeds for you in the store house. You’ll eventually be able to prepare the seeds on your own by mixing the seeds with mud and water. The ratio you place will alter the number of seeds you’ll get, as well as its quality. Once Spring arrives, you’ll be able to get your seedlings and begin the Planting step all over for the new year.

Completing a year and harvest season is important in order to make Sakuna stronger. Not only will she be able to get better stat growth, but she’ll also develop skills in relation to farming that will help out with the production of better-quality rice. We hope that this guide has helped you with your farming.

We’ll be creating more guides as well so please check our menu on the right side of our page. If you have any other questions, you can head to our Questions Page and send them there. Our community can also help out by providing your own Tips there, or you can leave us with a comment. Please don’t hesitate if you have information you can share as well!

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