This Farthest Frontier 1.0 Guide is meant for players who already understand the core mechanics of Farthest Frontier — building, resource gathering, farming, and survival — but want to optimize their town’s growth and efficiency for the long term.
We’ll dive into advanced resource planning, town organization, food chains, and trading priorities with insights based on the finalized v1.0 release balance.
If you’ve already built a stable settlement and survived a few years, this guide will help you turn that settlement into a flourishing, self-sustaining frontier city.
Farthest Frontier 1.0 Guide – Food, Trading
1. Game Progression Overview
Farthest Frontier follows a natural, tier-based expansion model tied to your Town Center upgrades. Each tier introduces new production chains, economic systems, and sustainability challenges.
Tier 1: Foundation (0–30 Population)
Your goal is to stabilize.
You’ll focus on basic food production (hunting, fishing, gathering), essential housing, and protection against disease and weather.
Prioritize: Water Wells, Firewood, and Food Storage.
Tier 2: Survival (30–150 Population)
You transition from foraging to structured food and material production.
Build your first farms, smokehouses, markets, and trading post.
This is the point where your settlement either stagnates or becomes self-sufficient.
Tier 3: Prosperity (150–400 Population)
Industrialization begins.
Iron smelting, advanced workshops, beer brewing, and medicine production unlock.
Efficiency and storage become the core challenge.
Upgrade logistics with Wagon Shops, Granaries, and Root Cellars.
Tier 4: Mastery (400+ Population)
Endgame growth is about automation and layout refinement.
You’ll balance sustainability, luxury goods, and desirability for full house upgrades.
By this point, you’re not surviving — you’re engineering a city.
2. Choosing Your Town Location
When placing your first Town Center, take your time — the world pauses, giving you breathing room to plan.
You want to secure a triangle of essential early resources:
- Water: For wells, farming, and proximity to fishing.
- Wood + Stone: For construction and tools.
- Deer or Fish: For reliable early protein.
Ideal Secondary Resources
- Clay – Needed heavily in Tier 2 for pottery, bricks, and construction.
- Iron – Required from Tier 3 onward.
- Willow – For baskets; increases worker efficiency.
- Sand – For glassmaking and fertility improvement.
Avoid
- Areas near boars or wolves (if combat is enabled).
- Uneven terrain with poor farming potential.
A good habit is to mark mining spots early, even if you won’t exploit them until Tier 3–4.
3. Food Management and Sustainability
Food Categories
Your villagers require five major food types for full health and happiness:
- Protein (Meat, Fish, Eggs)
- Grains (Wheat, Rye, Buckwheat)
- Dairy (Milk, Cheese)
- Fruits (Apples, Pears, Berries)
- Vegetables (Beans, Roots, Greens)
Keeping a variety ensures higher happiness, less sickness, and better productivity.
4. Advanced Farming Systems
Crop Specialization
Each crop in 1.0 has refined fertility and soil composition stats:
| Crop Type | Fertility Impact | Shelf Life | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clover | +3% | N/A | Best fertility recovery |
| Beans | +1% | 18 months | Fertility-positive crop |
| Carrots/Turnips | -2% | 12 months | Reliable early food |
| Cabbage/Leek | -5% | 8 months | High yield, fast spoil |
| Wheat | -6% | 24 months | Base grain for flour/bread |
| Buckwheat | -2% | 18 months | Resistant to weeds/frost |
| Flax | -3% | 24 months | Clothing and trade good |
Farm Layout Strategy
- Start with 6×6 fields to minimize workload.
- Expand later to 12×12 for compost efficiency.
- Maintain rotation balance between food crops and fertility crops (clover, beans).
Soil Composition
Use sand and clay balancing to tailor soil types:
- Sandy soil = faster growth, less fertility.
- Clay soil = slower but higher yield.
Match the field composition to your dominant crop type for up to 10% yield bonus.
5. Fruit and Arboriculture
Fruit trees are the most stable long-term fruit source in version 1.0.
Build Arborist Buildings (Tier 2) and specialize plots:
- Apples → Fall harvest
- Pears → Summer harvest
- Peaches → Early summer
With one arborist managing up to four 3×3 plots, you’ll easily produce over 700 fruits annually.
Fruits can be preserved in Glassware (Tier 3) to last 18+ months.
6. Animal Husbandry
Livestock Options
| Animal | Products | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chickens | Eggs, Meat | Small footprint, fast growth |
| Goats | Milk, Meat, Tallow | Efficient early dairy |
| Cows | Milk, Meat, Hide | Slow but best output |
| Horses | Used for soldiers and wagons | Combat/economy specific |
Maintain pasture rotation to keep fertility up.
Manure from animals turns into Compost, crucial for late-game farm fertility.
Tip:
Don’t overbuy early — animals are expensive and multiply naturally. Start small and let them breed.
7. Trade and Economy
Trading becomes your strongest mid- and late-game pillar.
Best Goods to Sell
- Soap, Pottery, Baskets, Linen Clothes, Candles
- Gold Ore (early game)
- Beer (Tier 3; high volume profit)
Best Items to Buy
- Tools (Tier 2–3 essential)
- Heavy Tools (for Mills, Foundries, Blacksmiths)
- Livestock (chickens first)
- Iron/Clay (if local resources are poor)
Pro Tip:
Compare prices between merchants. Some buy goods at higher rates than others — quick-profit trading can net hundreds of gold per visit.
8. Town Organization and Logistics
Markets
Markets automatically restock shelters within their radius.
Max out market workers early — it drastically boosts happiness and supply flow.
If you expand your town, overlap market areas slightly for coverage rather than building far apart.
Roads
Upgrade major transport routes to Stone Roads (Tier 3).
Keep your industrial zone close to a central Storage Yard and Wagon Shop to reduce idle time.
Storage Rules
Avoid unnecessary local storage near production.
It can cause workers to waste time “transferring goods” instead of producing.
Let wagons handle distance hauling instead.
Temporary Shelters
Still situational. They theoretically reduce worker travel, but results vary.
Use them near mines or forester camps, but don’t expect massive output changes.
9. Production and Workforce Tips
- Always limit production output (e.g., bread, flour, tools) to prevent overflow and spoilage.
- Assign minimal workers until demand rises — flexibility is key.
- Work Camps can now plant trees efficiently (fixed since v0.9.5).
- Keep Smokehouses near hunters and fishers — meat spoils fast.
- Apiaries benefit from nearby farms and wildflowers; don’t cluster them too close.
Apiary Output Uses
- Wax → Candles (luxury item for house upgrades)
- Honey → Beer or Medicine
10. Efficiency and Storage Management
- Bread has the shortest shelf life (3 months). Store grain longer and mill it only as needed.
- Use Root Cellars for vegetables, cheese, and fruits.
- Granaries preserve grains and flour.
- Always build multiple Smokehouses near protein sources.
A simple rule:
Store food close to where it’s produced, not where it’s consumed.
11. Endgame Optimization (Tier 4)
Once your city surpasses 400 population:
- Automate trading: keep gold in your Trading Post.
- Expand luxury production (candles, beer, glassware).
- Focus on Desirability Buildings (Theater, Shrine, Bathhouse) for maxed-out taxes.
- Replace all dirt roads with stone.
- Build a Vault if combat is enabled; it prevents major gold losses.
Your economy will naturally self-balance — at this stage, you’re managing comfort, not survival.
The full release of Farthest Frontier 1.0 brings tighter balance, better logistics, and more meaningful economic depth.
This guide should help you move beyond survival into city management — optimizing your food networks, trade economy, and population happiness for a thriving frontier civilization.