ArcheAge – How to Farm as a F2P Player

ArcheAge launches today, and as a free to play player you’re in for a rude awakening if you haven’t paid attention to how the game works: Farming and crafting are a total uphill battle for non-Patrons.

While Patron players (who pay the monthly sub) receive 10 Labor Points every five minutes, F2P players will only gain 5 Labor Points every five minutes. Furthermore, only Patrons can place houses and farms.

The long and the short of it is, if you want to play and get involved in the economy, you will need to subscribe. If you’re looking to just go through the normal MMO hubbub, you may be just fine never paying a dime — but you’re missing out on half the game.

So if you’re not paying to get the full ArcheAge experience, how can you farm? There are three primary options for F2P users:

1. Using family and guild land
2. “Illegal farms”
3. Public farms

I’m going to cover the first two briefly , and will provide a list of public farms (and what you can plant/take care of) below.

Something to bear in mind before moving ahead is that tending to livestock and crops does use Labor Points. Planting “illegal” crops in itself uses 10 Labor Points per crop.

Because of Labor Point accumulation is slow on free accounts, every point spent counts. Carefully consider what you want to plant/raise before going through with it, and always time your harvesting so you don’t miss a beat.

A note on gathering

If you don’t think farming is going to be your thing, it is still entirely possible for you to gather as you progress through the game.

Gathering nodes, whether mines or plants, Labor Points each time you gather from them. It is entirely possible you could make more money from gathered items than those you can grow on public farms.

Relying solely on gathering isn’t ideal, but it is better than nothing.

Family and guild land

Family and guild land requires a subscribing player to add you to their family (or be in their guild) and set their land to family or guild use use. Don’t expect someone you don’t know to allow you to use their land because of the risk involved.

The game expects you to make friends if you want to make it, from new F2P players to those taking on risky trade runs at level cap.

“Illegal” farms

These babies can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. An “illegal” farm refers to crops or livestock placed down outside of housing zones or public farms, generally amidst the game’s plentiful and rocky mountain ranges.

The above all sounds nice, but there is a lot of risk involved and placing things outside of these areas costs 10 Labor Points each. You also cannot get started with this method until you get your first glider, as you must traverse the mountaintops for safe planting areas.

Because you are planting outside of an area designated for your personal use, anyone can come by and either uproot or harvest your plants or livestock. They will receive Infamy Points for doing the deed, but you will lose the gold and Labor Points you invested in placing those seeds, sprouts, or livestock.

On the flip side, it is entirely possible to steal other people’s “illegal” crops for your own. You will accrue Infamy, but it may just be worth it. This also uses Labor Points, but is ultimately the ideal option for free players despite the practice ruining someone else’s good time.

There is nothing illegal about putting your own crops up in the wild, but rather the term “illegal farm” comes from stealing other people’s crops. If your glider’s slow speed is making mountain-hopping difficult, you can upgrade it to the Ultimate Glider for 1 Gold 75 Silver and 75 Labor Points.

Public Farms

If you just click through the quest dialogues (I don’t blame you), you may completely overlook or forget the usefulness of public farms.

Public farms allow you to grow your own seeds, sprouts, or livestock with the safety of knowing no one can steal your stuff — at least for the first 24 hours. Anything you plant in a public farm is safe for 24 hours, after which anyone can come by and take what you have planted.

There are four types of public farms for you to get to know and make use of, each one specializing in a select range of seeds, sprouts, livestock, or mounts.

The restrictions on how much you can place do not carry over from one type of public farm to the next.

The types of public farms, what you can grow, and how much you can grow at a time are as follows:

Ranch (max 5 at a time)

• Barley
• Chicken
• Duckling
• Gosling
• Rice
• Turkey chick

Farm (max 10 at a time)

• Barley
• Carrot
• Chicken
• Cucumber
• Onion
• Potato
• Rice

Nursery (max 5 at a time)

• Apple tree
• Avocado tree
• Fig tree
• Grapes tree
• Hornbeam tree
• Lemon tree

Stall

• Mounts

Public farm locations

So, where are public farms? Below are images marking where they can be found, as well as each area’s climate. Always pay attention to crops’ ideal climates to have them grow faster than in climates not suited to them.

Public farm icons with no marker in the images below are Stables, which are suitable only for mounts.

Nuia public farms (west)

Dewstone Plains (Temperate)

Gweonid Forest (Temperate)

Lilyut Hills (Temperate)

Solzreed Peninsula (Temperate)

White Arden (Temperate)

Haranya public farms (east)

Arcum Iris (Arid)

Falcorth Plains (Temperate)

Mahadevi (Tropical)

Solis Headlands (Arid)

Tigerspine Mountains (Temperate)

Head to our sister site Guild Launch to create a free ArcheAge guild site or find an ArcheAge guild!