Forest And Trees

Forest and Trees: Cultivating the Woods!

Welcome to the forestry side of Farmhand! While crops are the bread and butter of your daily life, trees and forests offer a different kind of steady growth and resource management. Whether you're looking for fruit or building materials, mastering the woods is a key part of your journey.

🌳 The Tree Lifecycle

Trees in Farmhand have a unique lifecycle. They manage two different "clocks" simultaneously: their growth and their age.

Life Stages

Every tree moves through four distinct stages:

• Sapling: The very beginning of your tree's life.
• Growing: The tree is actively maturing.
• Grown: The tree has reached full maturity and will begin producing fruit.
• Dead: After reaching the end of its life, the tree will no longer produce fruit, but can still be chopped down to harvest wood.

Growth vs. Age

• Days Grown: This tracks how far the tree has progressed toward maturity. As this number increases, your sapling will eventually become a full-grown tree.
• Days Old: This tracks the actual time that has passed since the tree was planted. Every tree has a specific lifespan based on its species.

Maturity & Lifespan

Every tree has a set Lifespan. Once the tree's Days Old exceeds its total lifespan, it will die. It is important to note that while fertilizers can help a tree reach the "Grown" state faster, they do not extend the tree's actual lifespan.

🌲 Forest Management

Forests are managed as a collective grid of plots. Unlike individual crop plots, forests are purchased as a unit and provide experience points as you develop them.

Processing & Growth

The forest is "processed" daily, which means the game automatically updates the age and growth progress for every tree within your forest. You'll receive notifications when fruit on your trees is ready to be harvested.

Mulching (Fertilization)

Just like crops use fertilizer, trees use Mulch to improve their growth:

• Standard Mulch: Speeds up the initial growth phase, helping your saplings become full trees faster.
• Rainbow Mulch: Provides the same initial growth speed as Standard Mulch, but also accelerates the regrowth cycle of fruit once the tree is fully grown.

Note: You can only apply mulch to trees that do not already have a fertilizer type applied.

🪓 Harvesting and Chopping

There are two distinct ways to interact with trees to gather resources:

Harvesting Fruit

If your goal is to produce fruit, you will use the Picker Pole.

• Tool: Picker Pole
• Result: Collects fruit based on your pole's level.
• Mechanic: Harvesting fruit only resets the time until the next harvest; the tree remains in the forest and continues to grow.

Chopping for Wood

If you need building materials, you will use an Axe to chop down trees.

• Tool: Axe
• Result: Collects wood based on your axe's level.
• Mechanic: Chopping removes the tree from the forest plot entirely.
• Fruit: If a tree is chopped down while it has ripe fruit, those fruits are automatically harvested before the tree is removed.
• Yield: Note that saplings and growing trees will yield significantly less wood than fully grown or dead trees.

Resource Summary

Action	Resource Involved	Tool Required	Result
Planting	Saplings	N/A	Creates a new tree plot
Mulching	Mulch (Standard/Rainbow)	N/A	Speeds up growth/fruit cycles
Harvesting	Fruit	Picker Pole	Collects fruit; tree remains
Chopping	Wood, Bonus Fruit	Axe	Collects wood; removes tree

Happy farming, Farmhands! May your forests be lush and your harvests be plentiful! 🚜🌲