another way of getting High fertility soil

[CalamityTheWitch]

i think it be nice if High fertility soil had a crafting recipe, maybe bony soil and saltpeter

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums! Technically, it does, though the recipe you're looking for is terra preta. Terra preta is the highest soil quality possible, and can only be acquired via crafting. There are two different recipes--one that uses high fertility soil in the making and one that does not. Both are pricey, but the one that uses high fertility soil has a better return on the resources invested.

[Thorfinn]

Also, you can convert m fert farmland to a variant of h fert by adding sylvite.

[MKMoose]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Terra preta is the highest soil quality possible, and can only be acquired via crafting. There are two different recipes--one that uses high fertility soil in the making and one that does not. Both are pricey, but the one that uses high fertility soil has a better return on the resources invested.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to allow crafting high fertility soil using half the resources required for terra preta, or to remove direct crafting of terra preta and give some other recipe to high fertility soil.

I also recall an idea that bounced around the forums to create higher-tier farmland by adding fertilizer to lower fertility soil and placing mulch on top, or something similar, which would increment soil fertility after a period of time. It would certainly feel much more engaging than just crafting it, alongside other benefits:

• implementing a more incremental and time-consuming process also has the potential to make the soil progression more gradual and satisfying, especially for cold starting climates,
• adding a waiting period for the soil to convert could introduce a nice early-game strategic decision to make, between improving soil quality and planting more crops,
• allowing to upgrade farmland in place would partially circumvent the problem of farmland not dropping itself when broken.

Right now it often feels like farming on random dirt that cannot be improved in any way, then one day whipping up top-tier fertile soil out of a pile of compost and replacing the farmland overnight. It's a very sudden jump, especially if starting out on low fertility for lack of anything better.

 

1 hour ago, Thorfinn said:

Also, you can convert m fert farmland to a variant of h fert by adding sylvite.

That works for all soils, though, no? And it only matches maximum potassium levels, but other nutrients are still worse than high fertility, so it's hardly a variant of it. Either way, it is quite useful and might point to some ideas for upgrading soil more properly.

Edited November 29, 2025 by MKMoose

[LadyWYT]

40 minutes ago, MKMoose said:

It wouldn't be unreasonable to allow crafting high fertility soil using half the resources required for terra preta, or to remove direct crafting of terra preta and give some other recipe to high fertility soil.

Maybe, but why would a player sink resources into crafting high fertility soil, when they can just craft terra preta, which is better? Likewise, if terra preta cannot be crafted, then how does one obtain it?

 

42 minutes ago, MKMoose said:

I also recall an idea that bounced around the forums to create higher-tier farmland by adding fertilizer to lower fertility soil and placing mulch on top, or something similar, which would increment soil fertility after a period of time. It would certainly feel much more engaging than just crafting it, alongside other benefits:

• implementing a more incremental and time-consuming process also has the potential to make the soil progression more gradual and satisfying, especially for cold starting climates,
• adding a waiting period for the soil to convert could introduce a nice early-game strategic decision to make, between improving soil quality and planting more crops,
• allowing to upgrade farmland in place would partially circumvent the problem of farmland not dropping itself when broken.

This could possibly work, however, it's worth bearing in mind that if the process is too time-intensive, then it's likely to be ignored by players instead of engaged with, even if it's beneficial. Case in point--some players skip livestock, fruit trees, and steel due to the amount of time and resource investment those things require, regardless of how useful it is to have them. I'm not saying the gameplay needs to be easy by any means, but whatever process is implemented(that the player is intended to regularly use) needs to be attractive enough for the average player to deem worthy of engagement, or else they're going to actively figure out ways to avoid dealing with it.

[MKMoose]

15 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

1 hour ago, MKMoose said:

It wouldn't be unreasonable to allow crafting high fertility soil using half the resources required for terra preta, or to remove direct crafting of terra preta and give some other recipe to high fertility soil.

Maybe, but why would a player sink resources into crafting high fertility soil, when they can just craft terra preta, which is better? Likewise, if terra preta cannot be crafted, then how does one obtain it?

Assuming the problem of soil not dropping itself when broken is directly removed or circumvented, then it would arguably be more natural to gradually upgrade soil tier-by-tier, i.e. remove direct crafting of terra preta and require the player to create it from high fertility soil. It would at least make for a smoother farming progression, though perhaps not fully realistic for terra preta specifically. But the idea for removing direct crafting of terra preta is more of a side note, it's not a crucial part of the overall suggestion.

 

20 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

This could possibly work, however, it's worth bearing in mind that if the process is too time-intensive, then it's likely to be ignored by players instead of engaged with, even if it's beneficial. Case in point--some players skip livestock, fruit trees, and steel due to the amount of time and resource investment those things require, regardless of how useful it is to have them. I'm not saying the gameplay needs to be easy by any means, but whatever process is implemented(that the player is intended to regularly use) needs to be attractive enough for the average player to deem worthy of engagement, or else they're going to actively figure out ways to avoid dealing with it.

Dare I say, terra preta is already kind of not worth it, because a slightly larger area with medium fertility soil is almost free, at least outside of cold climates, and can provide identical average returns at almost no additonal effort (or may even end up better for players who don't check on the crops regularly). People do often craft terra preta eventually, but I feel like it has more to do with how easy it is to slowly accumulate the necessary resources as byproducts of regular gameplay, and less with it being a truly worthwhile improvement. If balanced well, terra preta could have reduced material cost but some added time expenditure and opportunity cost, ending up with a similar or even smaller perceived cost.

That said, yeah, it's a valid concern, and as always there has to be a balance between effort and payoff. I think it could be interesting to add something beyond just faster growth rate to make high fertility soils (including terra preta, or specifically terra preta) more enticing, instead of this "might as well" thing that seems to often occur now.

[LadyWYT]

17 minutes ago, MKMoose said:

Dare I say, terra preta is already kind of not worth it, because a slightly larger area with medium fertility soil is almost free, at least outside of cold climates, and can provide identical average returns at almost no additonal effort (or may even end up better for players who don't check on the crops regularly). People do often craft terra preta eventually, but I feel like it has more to do with how easy it is to slowly accumulate the necessary resources as byproducts of regular gameplay, and less with it being a truly worthwhile improvement. If balanced well, terra preta could have reduced material cost but some added time expenditure and opportunity cost, ending up with a similar or even smaller perceived cost.

I dunno, in my opinion terra preta feels worth it, as it grows crops from seed to maturity in about half the time it takes via medium fertility farmland. So depending on what crop you plant, you can get an extra yield or two in a growing season. It's also very useful for growing things like pineapples outside of the tropics.

Additionally, given how many nutrients terra preta has, you can easily plant the same nutrient crop again immediately after harvest, and still get a good yield in decent time without needing to fertilize.

[ArgentLuna]

Terra Preta is worth it for small scale things like a Pumpkin patch or select green houses, mass flax farming for example isnt what you use it for. Its good that HQ soil is just rare out in the world. The save im back on now has several stacks of Terra Preta left over from when it was the rare find but it never made sense that it was findable and that HQ was craftable.

[Thorfinn]

4 hours ago, MKMoose said:

Dare I say, terra preta is already kind of not worth it,

Dare! Dare! (Blazing Saddles)

Agreed. Grow extra food to let it rot so you can make terra preta so you can grow extra food so you can let it rot so...

If you are playing for several years, maybe, but when it takes about 3 months (rot time plus 20 days), and you can't even start until late May, it's hard to justify.

3 hours ago, ArgentLuna said:

Terra Preta is worth it for small scale things like a Pumpkin patch

Oh? Have they rebalanced the spreading/wilting? I'll have to check it out again.

[CalamityTheWitch]

14 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the forums! Technically, it does, though the recipe you're looking for is terra preta. Terra preta is the highest soil quality possible, and can only be acquired via crafting. There are two different recipes--one that uses high fertility soil in the making and one that does not. Both are pricey, but the one that uses high fertility soil has a better return on the resources invested.

the reason i'm suggesting another way of getting high fertility soil is for the cheaper terra preta recipe and because i've been having bad luck finding any. the reason i suggesting a crafting recipe of bony soil and saltpeter is because both are easier to find and neither are used for making terra preta.

[Heart_Afire]

25 minutes ago, CalamityTheWitch said:

the reason i'm suggesting another way of getting high fertility soil is for the cheaper terra preta recipe and because i've been having bad luck finding any. the reason i suggesting a crafting recipe of bony soil and saltpeter is because both are easier to find and neither are used for making terra preta.

Part of the issue here is balance. Let's go with the Saltpeter/Bony Soil idea. Both of these are relatively common, if you know where to look and how to gather them. If we assume similar ratios of Saltpeter/Bony to Compost/High Fert for Terra Preta, then you're looking at 16 Saltpeter for every block of High Fertility soil, since Bony soil will not be the limiting factor here. I do agree I'd like to see some better ways of locating High Fertility Soil, but part of the challenge of making Terra Preta is finding the blasted stuff.

And on the world where I play with my friends, ever since I gathered enough HFS to fill our entire farm with Terra Preta (I am NOT initializing that), I've been finding HFS left and right, now that I know what to look for. It's been ridiculous enough that I sometimes feel like the Gods of VS are laughing at me.

 

Also, just as one final thing, completely off topic, but...

THIS definitely made me do a double take!

[CalamityTheWitch]

24 minutes ago, Heart_Afire said:

Part of the issue here is balance. Let's go with the Saltpeter/Bony Soil idea. Both of these are relatively common, if you know where to look and how to gather them. If we assume similar ratios of Saltpeter/Bony to Compost/High Fert for Terra Preta, then you're looking at 16 Saltpeter for every block of High Fertility soil, since Bony soil will not be the limiting factor here. I do agree I'd like to see some better ways of locating High Fertility Soil, but part of the challenge of making Terra Preta is finding the blasted stuff.

And on the world where I play with my friends, ever since I gathered enough HFS to fill our entire farm with Terra Preta (I am NOT initializing that), I've been finding HFS left and right, now that I know what to look for. It's been ridiculous enough that I sometimes feel like the Gods of VS are laughing at me.

even if saltpeter isn't the hardest thing to find, with a ratio of 16 per soil you would still need 1024 for a stack.

Edited November 30, 2025 by CalamityTheWitch

[LadyWYT]

5 hours ago, CalamityTheWitch said:

the reason i'm suggesting another way of getting high fertility soil is for the cheaper terra preta recipe and because i've been having bad luck finding any. the reason i suggesting a crafting recipe of bony soil and saltpeter is because both are easier to find and neither are used for making terra preta.

Right, but...if you're crafting high fertility soil in order to use it exclusively for the more efficient terra preta recipe...you end up sinking many more resources into the endeavor overall, than you would have by just crafting the less efficient terra preta recipe in the first place.

[ArgentLuna]

9 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Oh? Have they rebalanced the spreading/wilting? I'll have to check it out again.

Uh, i wasn't aware that there was a issue with them.

[CalamityTheWitch]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Right, but...if you're crafting high fertility soil in order to use it exclusively for the more efficient terra preta recipe...you end up sinking many more resources into the endeavor overall, than you would have by just crafting the less efficient terra preta recipe in the first place.

the point of this is to give players a choice between looking for high fertility soil and crafting it, also if the recipe doesn't use anything you need for terra preta then crafting it wouldn't reduce how much terra preta you can make

Edited November 30, 2025 by CalamityTheWitch

[LadyWYT]

56 minutes ago, CalamityTheWitch said:

the point of this is to give players a choice between looking for high fertility soil and crafting it

Right, and when you find high fertility soil it's nice to have, but terra preta is still better, and not at all difficult to craft. Charcoal is easy to make, bonemeal is easily obtained, and compost is easy to make and obtain as well...you just have to wait for rot to compost.

 

59 minutes ago, CalamityTheWitch said:

also if the recipe doesn't use anything you need for terra preta then crafting it wouldn't reduce how much terra preta you can make

It's still a bigger sink of resources than just opting to craft terra preta from the start, especially considering where saltpeter comes from and other things it can be used for. I suppose if someone just really wanted to go this route for whatever reason, sure, but it's a horribly inefficient way to obtain terra preta compared to the current recipes. 

[CalamityTheWitch]

22 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Right, and when you find high fertility soil it's nice to have, but terra preta is still better, and not at all difficult to craft. Charcoal is easy to make, bonemeal is easily obtained, and compost is easy to make and obtain as well...you just have to wait for rot to compost. 

when you have to get 64 rot and wait 20 in game days just for 1 block of terra preta i feel like it's fair to want to get more out of it.

 

31 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

It's still a bigger sink of resources than just opting to craft terra preta from the start, especially considering where saltpeter comes from and other things it can be used for. I suppose if someone just really wanted to go this route for whatever reason, sure, but it's a horribly inefficient way to obtain terra preta compared to the current recipes. 

how expensive it is entirely depends on how much saltpeter/bony soil you need, also unless someone is immediately trying to get terra preta at the start of the game they probably either have some saltpeter or know where some is, and yes saltpeter is used for other things but the point of this is the choice between looking for high fertility soil and crafting it, so if saltpeter is only used for fertilizing and making better soil then that choice would be boring.

[ArgentLuna]

Its rather easy to get a lot of rot once you are established with berries

[Zane Mordien]

23 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Dare! Dare! (Blazing Saddles)

Agreed. Grow extra food to let it rot so you can make terra preta so you can grow extra food so you can let it rot so...

If you are playing for several years, maybe, but when it takes about 3 months (rot time plus 20 days), and you can't even start until late May, it's hard to justify.

Oh? Have they rebalanced the spreading/wilting? I'll have to check it out again.

Amen, Terra preta isn't a must have unless you are playing something like snowball earth with a very limited growing season. I do make some, because why not and I don't turn my  nose up at it if I do find it (yes you can still find it in one vanilla ruin), but it isn't going to make your game any better having 3 pieces of it in your farm. 

[Thorfinn]

6 hours ago, ArgentLuna said:

Its rather easy to get a lot of rot once you are established with berries

Berry rot is almost round-off error once you get dough going. What else are you doing with all that flax grain?

[ArgentLuna]

Sitting on it in a massive reserve. I've never considred using it for compost fuel. Recently we've been letting hides rot aswell because we have so much leather and i tend to come back with heap anytime i go out for a walk.