Farming & Seasons¶
Runaria replaces vanilla farming with a seasonal system. Crops grow only in their season, need watering, and roll a quality grade when harvested.
Seasons¶
Four seasons rotate automatically — Spring → Summer → Autumn → Winter — each lasting 28 in-game days, or roughly 9 hours of real time. A full year takes about a day and a half.
- Planting a crop out of season is refused outright.
- If the season turns while a crop is in the ground, it simply stops growing. It does not die.
- Farming is disabled in the spawn world — plant elsewhere.
Greenhouse Glass beats the calendar
Greenhouse Glass within 5 blocks lets a crop grow in any season. That's the real reason to build a greenhouse: not protection from winter, but the ability to farm a Spring crop in Autumn and keep every plot productive year-round.
What actually kills crops¶
Crows. That's it.
Seasons don't kill anything on Runaria — an out-of-season crop just sits there until its season comes round again, or until you glass it in. Scarecrows protect crops within 7 blocks from crows, and a scarecrow plus greenhouse glass makes a plot effectively safe.
How growth works¶
A crop only makes progress while its conditions are met. Two things are checked as it grows:
- Season — must be one the crop accepts, unless Greenhouse Glass is covering it.
- Water — the farmland has to stay hydrated. Tree and fruit crops are thirstier than field crops.
Runaria uses ordinary vanilla farmland, so the usual rules apply: keep water within range of your plot, or bring it to the crops yourself with a watering can or a sprinkler. Rain waters your fields for free. Dry farmland won't kill a crop, but it will stall it.
Star quality¶
Every harvest rolls a grade:
| Grade | Base chance |
|---|---|
| Normal | 85% |
| Silver Star | 10% |
| Golden Star | 5% |
Quality fertilizer shifts those odds substantially:
| Fertilizer | Normal / Silver / Golden |
|---|---|
| Quality I | 70% / 20% / 10% |
| Quality II | 55% / 30% / 15% |
| Quality III | 40% / 40% / 20% |
Star crops aren't just worth more — cooking carries their quality straight through to the plate, and a handful of the best dishes won't accept anything less. See Cooking.
Seeds and rarity¶
Every crop has a rarity, and rarity is what decides how hard its seed is to come by. Seeds come from Seed Bags, which roll three times each.
| Rarity | Seeds in the pool | Chance of any seed of this tier, per bag | Chance of one specific seed, per bag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common | 9 | 87.5% | 15.8% |
| Uncommon | 6 | 57.8% | 12.0% |
| Rare | 6 | 36.4% | 6.8% |
| Epic | 5 | 20.9% | 4.4% |
| Legendary | 4 | 8.7% | 2.2% |
| Unique | 1 | 1.5% | 1.5% |
Reading those numbers
The last column is the one that matters when you're hunting a particular crop. Chasing Lychee specifically is roughly a 1-in-67 bag, while any given Common seed turns up in about one bag in six.
Seeds can also be bought from the server shop, which restocks a small rotating selection every three hours — weighted so common seeds appear far more often than rare ones.
The crops¶
Common¶
| Crop | Season | Yield | Stars | Farming XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blackberry | Summer | 1–5 | Yes | 3 |
| Cabbage | Spring | 1 | Yes | 3 |
| Chili | Autumn | 1–5 | No | 3 |
| Corn | Summer | 1 | Yes | 3 |
| Cucumber | Spring | 1–5 | Yes | 3 |
| Garlic | Winter | 4 | Yes | 3 |
| Pepper | Autumn | 3–6 | Yes | — |
| Raspberry | Winter | 1–5 | Yes | 3 |
| Tomato | Spring, Autumn | 1–4 | Yes | 3 |
Uncommon¶
| Crop | Season | Yield | Stars | Farming XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blueberry | Summer | 1–5 | Yes | 6 |
| Cherries | Spring | 1–5 | Yes | 6 |
| Grape | Autumn | 3–5 | Yes | 6 |
| Hop | Summer | 2–5 | Yes | 6 |
| Napa Cabbage | Spring | 1 | Yes | 6 |
| Plum | Winter | 1–5 | No | 6 |
Rare¶
| Crop | Season | Yield | Stars | Farming XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avocado | Spring, Summer | 1–5 | Yes | 9 |
| Eggplant | Summer, Autumn | 2–5 | Yes | 9 |
| Goji Berry | Autumn, Winter | 1–5 | Yes | 9 |
| Lemon | Winter, Spring | 1–5 | No | 9 |
| Orange | Spring, Summer | 1–5 | No | 9 |
| Pineapple | Autumn, Winter | 1 | Yes | 9 |
Lemon is planted from a sapling rather than a seed.
Epic¶
| Crop | Season | Yield | Stars | Farming XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coconut | Spring, Summer | 1–5 | Yes | 21 |
| Guava | Summer, Autumn | 1–5 | Yes | 14 |
| Kiwi | Autumn, Winter | 1–5 | Yes | 14 |
| Mango | Winter, Spring | 1–5 | Yes | 14 |
| Papaya | Summer, Autumn | 1–5 | Yes | 14 |
Legendary¶
| Crop | Season | Yield | Stars | Farming XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Fruit | Spring, Autumn, Winter | 3–5 | Yes | 21 |
| Durian | Summer, Autumn, Winter | 1–5 | Yes | 32 |
| Red Packet | Spring, Summer, Winter | 1–4 | No | 32 |
| Starfruit | Spring, Summer, Autumn | 1–5 | Yes | 21 |
Unique¶
| Crop | Season | Yield | Stars | Farming XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lychee | All four seasons | 1–5 | Yes | 21 |
The only crop that grows year-round and has star grades — and the rarest seed in the game.
No seed of their own¶
Peach (Spring–Autumn, 1–5 yield, 6 XP) and Apple (any season, 1–4 yield, 3 XP) don't appear in Seed Bags. Apple is a tree that keeps producing once established, and neither rolls star grades.
What to plant
Durian and Red Packet give the most farming experience by a wide margin. Grape, Dragon Fruit and Apple are the slowest growers. And because Greenhouse Glass frees you from the calendar, the practical question is less "what's in season" than "what's worth the plot".
Tools¶
Watering cans¶
| Tier | Water per use | Area |
|---|---|---|
| I | 1 | 1×1 |
| II | 2 | 2×2 |
| III | 3 | 3×3 |
| IV | 5 | 5×5 |
Sprinklers¶
| Tier | Range | Storage | Infinite water |
|---|---|---|---|
| I & II | 3×3 | 4 | No |
| III | 5×5 | 20 | Yes |
Sprinkler III is the one worth saving for — it never needs refilling.
Fertilizers¶
Four families, three tiers each.
| Family | What it does |
|---|---|
| Quality | Better star odds (see above) |
| Yield Increase | Chance of extra crops per harvest — tier III guarantees at least two extra |
| Speed Grow | Chance to grow faster |
| Soil Retain | 10%, 20% or 30% chance not to consume water |
Quality and Soil Retain last 28 growth cycles; the others last 14.
Apply order matters
Quality, Speed Grow and Yield Increase must go on before you plant. Soil Retain can be applied at any time.