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Getting Started

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TisonK edited this page May 30, 2026 · 6 revisions

Getting Started

What the mod does at game start

When you load a career with the mod active, every field starts with slightly depleted soil values — intentionally below optimal to match the base game's "needs fertilizing" starting state:

Nutrient Starting value Scale
Nitrogen (N) 50 0–100
Phosphorus (P) 33 0–100
Potassium (K) 38 0–100
Organic Matter 3.5 0–10
pH 6.0 5.0–7.5

Fields you have already saved in a previous session load their stored values instead of these defaults.

Step 1 — Open the HUD

Press J to toggle the soil HUD. The overlay shows N, P, K, pH, and OM for the field you are standing in or driving through. See HUD Guide for a full breakdown.

Step 2 — Check your fields

You have two ways to get a farm-wide overview:

Shortcut What it opens
K Soil Report — quick read-only list of all fields, sorted by urgency
Shift+P PDA Soil Page — two tabs: Farm Overview (full field list, click any row for detail) and Treatment Plan (urgency-sorted list of fields needing attention)

Both give the same underlying data. The K report is faster to glance at; the Shift+P PDA is better for planning and filtering — you can switch between All Fields and Owned Fields and tap any row to open the detailed per-field breakdown.

The Soil Map overlay lives in the native PDA Map (ESC → Map). Use the sidebar to select and cycle layers (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, pH, etc.).

Step 3 — Fertilize fields

Apply fertilizer with any standard sprayer or spreader. The mod recognizes all base-game fertilizer types as well as 25+ custom types (liquid nitrogen, MAP, potash, etc.). Each type restores different nutrients — see Fertilizer Types for profiles.

Rules of thumb for your first season:

  • Fields showing Poor nitrogen → apply liquid fertilizer or manure
  • Fields showing Poor pH (below 5.5) → apply lime
  • Fields showing Poor phosphorus → apply MAP or DAP
  • Fields showing Poor potassium → apply potash or liquid fertilizer

Step 4 — Harvest and watch depletion

Each crop removes nutrients at harvest. Heavier crops (potato, sugar beet, soybean) deplete significantly more than light feeders (barley, oats). After harvest, re-check the HUD before the next planting cycle.

Difficulty settings

The mod ships with three difficulty levels, adjustable in Settings (ESC → Settings → Soil & Fertilizer):

Level Depletion multiplier Best for
Simple 0.7× New players, relaxed gameplay
Realistic 1.0× Standard balanced challenge
Hardcore 1.5× Intensive soil management focus

What you do NOT need to do

  • Soil data saves automatically with your savegame — no manual export required.

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