Farming system appreciation post

[TomatoEater]

I just wanted to say that Don't Starve Together is the game that made me like farming on games and that part made other games disappointing because the majority of them is bland or very very basic.

I know many people enjoy fishing on games, tending to plants, farming whatever else like slimes, but no other game (at least that I know of) has this friction DST has on farming: plants can be self-sufficient with combos, or you can be totally nutrition dependant and you have to pay more attention, you can grow giants, seasons affect your dishes, etc. There are mechanics on them, like the miniboss, a helper like Fruit Fly, the gardeneer hat and other items to tend to plants, Wormwood himself (although I don't have him unlocked), stress levels, you can even farm weeds.

Growing plants in real life if very pleasant to me, pretty much because of these things we have to pay attention to, and maybe that's why the farming system really got me. I became the "stay in base" person not because I don't like to explore in DST, but because I overly enjoy this section of the game paired up with cooking.

I'm glad to have learned this part of the game and I really hope more stuff comes in the future for us who enjoy it, and I really hope that people pay more attention to it because this makes it a totally different game (it's like a game inside the game).

And I kinda hope that more games invest time to create more complex farming systems, I always go back to DST because how complex the farming system is and how rewarding it is for me.

[Hungry French]

I hope they will add the missing vegetables that were in the DS.

And I want the nerf of the garden to be just a food aid, not the main source.

[benfroyobro9381]

This. Farming is practically a game in it of itself. It's the perfect amount of complexity so casual players can get some return on crops while players who are willing to engage with the watering, fertilizer, or crop combination mechanics are rewarded with higher yields. The updated farming system also works so well with preexisting mechanics or items, giving more use to items like the One Man Band, Beefalo Horn, and shells; farming never feels out of place or divorced from the rest of the game. 10/10 system mwah Klei.

 

[Ohan]

One of the best updates ever, so much depth! So many interesting ideas. 

its true, I dont know of any dedicated farming sims with mechanics as interesting and fun as RWYS farming, i actually wish there were! 

Imagine if klei would expand on RWYS mechanics and built a whole new game around it outside the DS world 
 

at the same time however ive always thought that RWYS deserved a food/cooking rebalance to complete it. As it stands now many crops and crop-based dishes are very weak especially if ur not playing Warly. 
 

Example: pomegranate has no unique dish. Best use is cooking it over a fire for 20 hp with a 3 day spoilage time. Compare that to cooked tomas and potatoes and theres no reason to ever grow pomegranates other than for its beauty which is a huge shame imo. 

Edited November 7, 2025 by Ohan

[GetNerfedOn]

I would never have killed durians using beargers by making two thousand Advanced Farm Plots

[shaurun]

I also enjoy DST farming a lot

However I'm not that type of person who would like to only do farming, and when I drop gardening it's so sad to see all is covered with weeds...

[Milordo]

YES! EXACTLY!

Thanks for this appreciation post! ❤️ As I always said (and you can check it on my profile), reap what you sow was the magnum opus of Klei!!! It is sad that the first weeks of the release, people were repulsive, not convinced and negative towards it (myself included....I'll admit it.... I was a different person back there..)

On 11/7/2025 at 6:01 PM, Ohan said:

at the same time however ive always thought that RWYS deserved a food/cooking rebalance to complete it. As it stands now many crops and crop-based dishes are very weak especially if ur not playing Warly. 
 

Example: pomegranate has no unique dish. Best use is cooking it over a fire for 20 hp with a 3 day spoilage time. Compare that to cooked tomas and potatoes and theres no reason to ever grow pomegranates other than for its beauty which is a huge shame imo. 

Absolutely ^^^^^^^^

[GimplyGoose]

I think farming is a satisfying activity that stands on its own, but considering other sources of food, I don't think the rewards for growing giants are a worthwhile use of time. Options like banana bushes, stonefruit, lureplants, spider dens, and pig houses are a more efficient use of time than growing giants.

It takes about 20 minutes of babysitting to grow giants, regardless of the amount that you plant. For those 20 minutes, the amount of things you can do in the game is greatly limited. At the end of those 20 minutes you are rewarded with an abundance of food (or spices for Warly). Other options to produce food don't have a time restriction like that.

I don't think anything should be changed about farming based on this though. I think it fits nicely into the game as is. I won't deny that the activity is fun on its own, but I think there are a lot of folks who overvalue the rewards of growing giants.

[TomatoEater]

Thank you all for the replies until now, I'm really glad to see that people share the same view as me, on how cool the farming system is and how it can be improved pairing it with cooking.

I do agree that it needs more dishes, I just don't know how difficult that is to implement in game, hopefully more people will gather to ask more content on that (or I'll just continue chewing cooked tomatoes and potatoes).

1 hour ago, GimplyGoose said:

I don't think the rewards for growing giants are a worthwhile use of time. Options like banana bushes, stonefruit, lureplants, spider dens, and pig houses are a more efficient use of time than growing giants. [...] I don't think anything should be changed about farming based on this though. I think it fits nicely into the game as is. I won't deny that the activity is fun on its own, but I think there are a lot of folks who overvalue the rewards of growing giants.

That is true, when I was not aware that farming was possible I first learned to farm other resources, specially spiders and bushes. Giants are not needed, but it's a fun thing to exist. Normal plants are "strong" as is, I pointed at it on my post because it's nice to have more details to the farming mechanics. I feel like it's more of an sidequest than anything.

But anyways, I'm glad that this appreciation post was welcome!

[Veyred]

i would like some crockpot recipes for the excessive amount of seeds one ends up with, maybe something like whole grain bread?

otherwise its not that bad if a bit time intensive if you want giants