Advanced Farming

The information below is incorrect. It is a shell that will be followed when creating the new Farming Strategy page for the Castle in the Clouds. Give it time :). In the meantime, you should definitely have a look at this page's discussion page for a preview of what's to come, and some very useful numbers.

Also, perhaps the stats for the odor extractor effect should be factored in.

Cost-effectiveness

When and why would one item be more cost-effective than another item? This question can be answered with an equation:

(price-price of other item)/(payoff-payoff of other item)

(In Economics, this is known as the "Opportunity Cost" Theory, in which you give up one thing for another for either an emotional, physical, mental, or financial profit, or any combination thereof.)

The equation calculates at what point the higher priced item begins to be cost-effective. To show exactly how this is used, here's an example. Let's compare a bottle of single-barrel whiskey (costs 288000 meat, gives 3 drunkenness, and gives 6 adventures per drunkenness) and gloomy mushroom wine (costs 41000 meat, gives 3 drunkenness, and gives 5 adventures per drunkenness). For booze, you've got to put the information in terms of one drunkenness:

(288000/3 mpd - 41000/3 mpd)/(6 apd - 5 apd) = 82333.33 mpa

This means you must be making more than 82333 meat per adventure before using single-barrel whiskeys. If you don't believe this, we can test it. If the meat you make is just slightly below the value calculated above, gloomy mushroom wine should just barely win out:

• In general: (meat made) = (meat made in one adventure)*(adventures from booze)-(price of booze)
• bottle of single-barrel whiskey: (82333 mpa)*(18 adventures)-(288000 meat) = 1193994 meat
• gloomy mushroom wine: (82333 mpa)*(15 adventures)-(41000 meat) = 1193995 meat

Drunkenness is ignored simply for clarity; this is fine in this case since both booze happen to give the same amount of drunkenness. As you can see, gloomy mushroom wine makes one more meat than single-barrel whiskey if you make 82333 meat per adventure. If you made more, single-barrel whiskey would be more cost-efficient. Of course, this example means nothing unless you can make that kind of meat (if you are, most of us would like to know).

• Cost-effectiveness of equipment and food are calculated this way.
  • Getting a negative value means that the lower priced item is always more cost-effective because it pays more.
  • When comparing an item against a pool of other items, you want the one that gives the next highest value. The problem is that you don't know the value of the current item you're comparing. You can usually see which item you need to compare it to, but a reliable and systematic way to find the other item is to do the following:
    1. Compare it to nothing (price: 0; payoff: 0).
    2. Compare it to the item whose value is highest but still below the value you currently have.
    3. Repeat the above step until there are no more items to compare. This is the value of the item.
  • It gets slightly more complicated with accessories with quantity limitations and if 2-handed weapons affected farming (most don't). For accessories, imagine three accessory slots and fill them with accessories with the next highest values possible. Compare against the accessory with lowest value of the three since that is the one being replaced. Additionally, the cost-effectiveness of getting a second accessory is calculated by comparing it against the one with the second highest value. The same goes for the third.
  • The cost-effectiveness for the last booze drunk is independent of the drunkenness it gives, since that last one is allowed to overflow the limit.
• Effects are compared for straight up profit since having one effect does not interfere with having other effects.
• The best to way to find out how much meat you make per adventure is to farm for a long time, sell what what you farm, and then divide the meat made by adventures used.

Food

• The usefulness of food is calculated only in terms of adventure yield because stat gains do not affect farming.
• Profit per fullness is calculated at various possible levels of meat made per adventure.
• The minimum amount of meat you must make per adventure for a food to be cost-effective is represented under "Cost-Effective After". Even if a food gives a profit at some level of meat gain, it is not necessarily cost-effective because there may be a better food choice (costs less, yields more adventures).
• Food is sorted by pay-off (adventures per fullness), then by cost-effective thresholds.
• Data is largely unverified (Editors: see the talk page).

General Good Rule of Thumb

• This page is, as a whole, no longer updated. The general way to profit from food is as follows:
• 1. Find out about how much you can farm per adventure.
• 2. Look at a given food in the mall, or, if you can make it for less, look at how much it would cost.
• 3. Find out it's adventures per fullness and price per fullness. Do this by taking the price and dividing it by fullness.
• 4. Check if munchies or milk of magnesium would be cost-effective.
• 5. Take your profit per adventure (Let's say 500 meat). If you could get 10 adventures per fullness, then the income per fullness would be 5000 meat. In other words, multiply the adventures per fullness times profit per adventure.
• 6. Subtract from your income per fullness the cost per fullness it took for you to get the food. This is your net profit per fullness. Your final goat should be to get this number as high as you can.

Booze

• Booze is different from food in that the counter of how much you can intake is drunkenness. Other than that, the same principles apply. Cheap booze from the mall is buying salty dogs, which you can get 5 a day at only 130 meat apiece from Boozerbear.

Icy Peak Farming

The Icy Peak is one of the best areas in which to farm. Depending on your budget, you can amass a variety of buffs, skills, and equipment which will help you farm the peak. This section of the guide focuses on maximizing your meat gain through a combination of all three. In an attempt to be complete this guide will cover ALL items in the game which give meat or item drop bonuses and attempt to explain why they are or are not efficient for meat farming. See the tables below for more details.

• mpa stands for meat per adventure.
• Actual prices may fluctuate.
• Assumptions:
  • You're adventuring at The Icy Peak (requires cold resistance).
  • You're using a leprechaun-type familiar that does not affect item drop percentages.
  • You're converting your yeti furs to hippopotamus skins and autoselling all your skins.

Familiar Choice

Before this guide does anything else, I think it is necessary to first explain which type of familiar should be used. By default everyone seems to use a leprechaun-based familiar, but is this really the right way to go about farming? Which is better, Leprechaun or Gravy Fairy?

Let's look at the math:

• Leprechaun gives 5% bonus meat drop per pound which translates (using the Icy Peak base meat average of 200) to an extra 10 meat per adventure per pound.
• The Gravy Fairy gives a bonus 2.5% item drop per pound which translates (using the Icy Peak base meat from items drop of 78.604) to about 2 extra meat per adventure per pound.

This means that without any doubt, Leprechaun-based familiars are far better than Gravy Fairy-based familiars when farming The Icy Peak.

Since they are so much better, the rest of this guide will assume that you have a Leprechaun-based familiar.

Of course, if you get a familiar that acts like a leprechaun and more, like the Attention-Deficit Demon, then all the better for farming.

Item Effects - UPDATED (Not prices though)

Using item effects is a quick way to increase your peak reapings, but needs to be constantly maintained.

• Effects are sorted by profit, with NPC buyable effects (having fixed prices) listed first.

Name	Meat Bonus	Weight Bonus	Item Drop Bonus	Price	Payoff	Profit	Comments
Wasabi Sinuses	+30%	n/a	-10%	150 meat (15 mpa)	45.64 mpa	+30.64	The Knob Goblin nasal spray can be bought at the laboratory for 150 meat and gives Wasabi Sinuses for 10 adventures, but it takes away 1 substat per battle.
Heavy Petting	n/a	+5 lbs	n/a	250 meat (25 mpa)	38.03 mpa	+13.03 mpa	The Knob Goblin pet-buffing spray can be bought at the laboratory for 250 meat and gives Heavy Petting for 10 adventures. This subtracts 10% from all stats, which high level players will likely not notice.
Egg-stortionary Tactics	+50%	n/a	n/a	~2000 meat (100 mpa)	76.06 mpa	-23.94 mpa	Black oyster eggs are fairly expensive, even for 20 adventures, but it's still worth it to use an oyster basket in hardcore; just be careful about your spleen.
Object Detection	n/a	n/a	+12.5%	~200 meat (20 mpa)	15.63 mpa	4.37	A farmer would have to first find out which Dungeons of Doom potion gives this effect.
Blue Tongue	n/a	n/a	+30%	~800 meat (40 mpa)	37.51 mpa	-2.49 mpa	A cheaper alternative to black is the blue snowcone. Despite the +30% item drop for 20 adventures and its relatively low cost, the fact that it only gives item drop leaves you in the hole.
Cupcake of Choice	n/a	n/a	+30%	~1000 meat (50 mpa)	37.51 mpa	-12.49 mpa	Granted by using a blue-frosted astral cupcake. Despite the +30% item drop for 20 adventures and its relatively low cost, the fact that it only gives item drop leaves you in the hole.
Red Tongue	+30%	n/a	n/a	~2000 meat (100 mpa)	45.64 mpa	-54.36 mpa	A cheaper alternative to black is the red snowcone. Despite the +30% meat for 20 adventures, its price still keeps you in the hole.
Peeled Eyeballs	-16%	n/a	+15%	200 meat (20 mpa)	-5.59 mpa	-25.59 mpa	The Knob Goblin eyedrops can be bought at the laboratory for 200 meat and gives Peeled Eyeballs for 10 adventures. This may be focused on farming for a specific item, but not meat farming, as the item boost doesn't even balance out the meat penalty, let alone the cost of the item.
Green Tongue	n/a	+5 lbs	n/a	~2000 meat (100 mpa)	38.03 mpa	-61.97 mpa	A cheaper alternative to black is the green snowcone. Despite the +5 lbs for 20 adventures, its price still keeps you in the hole.
Your Cupcake Senses Are Tingling	+30%	n/a	n/a	~2500 meat (125 mpa)	45.64 mpa	-79.36 mpa	Granted by using a pink-frosted astral cupcake. Despite the +30% meat for 20 adventures, its price still keeps you in the hole.
Eggs-tra Sensory Perception	n/a	n/a	+50%	~2400 meat (120 mpa)	62.51	-57.49 mpa	Off-white oyster eggs are even more expensive than black ones, and the effect they give does not even come close to being helpful when peak farming.
Black Tongue	+30%	+5 lbs	+30%	~40000 meat (2000 mpa)	83.15 mpa	-1916.85 mpa	The most coveted of the snowcones, the black snowcone is quite expensive in the mall.
Ermine Eyes	n/a	n/a	+10%	797 meat (159.4/79.7 mpa)	12.50 mpa	-146.9/67.2 mpa	A Sauceror's Advanced Saucecrafting potion, with Impetuous Sauciness it becomes a bit less useless.

Skill Effects - UPDATED

Taking advantage of skill effects is similar to using item effects, but are more reliable, since costs of buffs and MP are more constant.

• MP to meat calculations are based on the mall price of phonics down as ((mp cost)/48)*350.
• Effects are sorted by profit.

Name	Meat Bonus	Weight Bonus	Item Drop Bonus	Price	Payoff	Profit	Comments
Polka of Plenty	+50%	n/a	n/a	6 meat (.03 mpa)	76.06 mpa	+76.03 mpa	An Accordion Thief buff, you must decide whether you want this skill. Alternatively, this can be purchased as a philanthropic buff from Testudinata once a day for 6 meat and lasting 240 adventures. This should be used in even the most basic farming strategy.
Empathy of the Newt	n/a	+5 lbs	n/a	8 meat (0.03 mpa)	38.03 mpa	+38 mpa	A Turtle Tamer buff, you must decide whether you want this skill. Alternatively, this can be purchased as a philanthropic buff from Testudinata once a day for 8 meat and lasting 160 adventures. This should be used in even the most basic farming strategy.
Leash of Linguini	n/a	+5 lbs	n/a	87.5 meat (8.75 mpa)	38.03 mpa	+29.28 mpa	This Pastamancer skill can be cast for 10 adventures with 12 mp and only on yourself (self-buff). This means that you will need to either ascend or stay in that class to benefit from this skill.
Fat Leon's Phat Loot Lyric	n/a	n/a	+20%	7 meat (.03 mpa)	25.01	+24.98 mpa	An Accordion Thief buff, you must decide whether you want this skill. Alternatively, this can be purchased as a philanthropic buff from Testudinata once a day for 7 meat and lasting 240 adventures.

Passive Skills

These skills cost thousands of meat, but are bought once and stay constantly in effect. If you plan to peak for a while, these are far more cost-efficient than using buffs or effects. Getting all of these will require multiple ascensions. For each skill, you must decide whether you want it enough to either ascend with it, stay in that class or sign, or not bother. Based on just passive skills in an attempt to get all of them, the Disco Bandit is the best class to settle under for peaking because you don't have to ascend with Nimble Fingers nor Mad Looting Skillz. Staying under a moxie sign removes the need to ascend with Gnefarious Pickpocketing and Powers of Observatiogn. Of course, there are other factors to consider for which class or sign to stay under or whether to just continue ascending.

• Passive skills are sorted by payoff.

Name	Meat Bonus	Weight Bonus	Item Drop Bonus	Price	Payoff	Cost-Effective After	Comments
Amphibian Sympathy	n/a	+5 lbs	n/a	3000 meat	50 mpa	60 adv	A Turtle Tamer skill
Expert Panhandling	+10%	n/a	n/a	1800 meat	20 mpa	90 adv	A Sauceror skill
Nimble Fingers	+20%	n/a	n/a	6000 meat	40 mpa	150 adv	A Disco Bandit skill
Gnefarious Pickpocketing	+10%	n/a	n/a	5000 meat	20 mpa	250 adv	Offered under a moxie sign
Mad Looting Skillz	n/a	n/a	+20%	8000 meat	15.72 mpa	508 adv	A Disco Bandit skill
Powers of Observatiogn	n/a	n/a	+10%	5000 meat	7.86 mpa	636 adv	Offered under a moxie sign
Double-Fisted Skull Smashing	+2%	n/a	n/a	12000 meat	4 mpa	3000 adv	A Seal Clubber skill, allows equipping 2 Bottle-rocket crossbows

Equipment

Equipment function similar to passive skills, except you need to use equipment slots for them to work.

• Ascending is difficult to value and is different for every player; you will have to decide whether it's worth it yourself.
• Since you can resell most equipment later, the most cost-worthy equipment for peak farming are the ones with the highest payoff per adventure. Cost-effectiveness atttempts to gauge what level of commitment a farmer must have, whether you are ultra-rich, simply devoted, or only play on the weekends.
• Equipment is sorted by payoff.

	Name	Meat Bonus	Weight Bonus	Item Drop Bonus	Price	Payoff	Cost-Effective After	Comments
Hats	plexiglass pith helmet	n/a	+5 lbs	n/a	hardcore oxygenarian	50 mpa	Depends	Also regenerating hp and mp and giving +30% muscle, this is arguably the best hat in the game. It is also one of the hardest hats to obtain, being a hardcore oxygenarian ascension reward for the Turtle Tamer.
	ice pick	n/a	n/a	+15%	4 mill meat	11.79 mpa	508882 adv	This item is a great addition for item farming, but not meat farming. This is far more useful when turned into ice skates. In this case, getting a plexiglass pith helmet can be more efficient. You would only use this if you already have ice skates, don't want to ascend, and plan to farm for a long time.
	miner's helmet	n/a	n/a	+5%	180 meat	3.93 mpa	45 adv	With very little pay-off, this is one of the few hats that help with farming.
Weapons	meatspout staff	+15%	n/a	n/a	3400 meat	30 mpa	113 adv	Definitely the best weapon for meat farming -- despite being two-handed, its meat bonus is far enough above the muculent machete to compensate for not being able to wield an off-hand item, such as the box-in-the-box-in-the-box. The extra 3 adventures per day don't hurt, either.
	muculent machete	+5%	n/a	n/a	6950 meat	10 mpa	695 adv	Most likely your best bet for Peak farming, with both higher meat bonuses and higher power than the penguin whip
	penguin whip	+3%	n/a	n/a	500 meat	6 mpa	83 adv	With low power and a small bonus, you're probably better off with a muculent machete
	acoustic guitarrr	+2%	n/a	n/a	5950 meat	4 mpa	Never (try meatspout staff)	This item is more expensive than the penguin whip, gives a smaller meat bonus, and is a 2-handed ranged weapon, thus preventing the usage of an offhand item. If, however, your Moxie is very high, it may reduce the amount of time spent in combat.
	duck-on-a-string	n/a	n/a	+5%	49900 meat	3.93 mpa	Never (try meatspout staff)	This item was available last Crimbo. It costs far more than the penguin whip and gives a smaller payoff, but its attack power is much higher (and it has a +5 melee damage bonus), which may reduce the amount of time spent in combat.
	bubble bauble bow	n/a	n/a	+5%	20000 meat	3.93 mpa	Never (try meatspout staff)	One of the new advanced packing materials weapons. It costs far more than the muculent machete and gives a smaller payoff, but has a slightly higher power, which may reduce the amount of time spent in combat.
	gnauga hide whip	n/a	n/a	+3%	800 meat	2.36 mpa	Never (try meatspout staff)	This item is a great addition for item farming, but not meat farming.
Off-hand	hypnodisk	n/a	n/a	+25%	60 mill meat	19.65 mpa	Never (try meatspout staff)	This ultra-rare is an excellent addition for item farming. However, now that the best meat farming weapon is 2-handed, and even muculent machete + hypnodisk is less effective (by .35 mpa) than the meatspout staff, this is no longer worth using at the Peak.
	box-in-the- box-in-the-box	+3%	n/a	n/a	5400 meat	6 mpa	Never (try meatspout staff)	For off-hand items, this suped-up box is it for most farmers. All off-hand items, however, are inferior to the meatspout staff.
	box-in-the-box	+2%	n/a	n/a	2900 meat	4 mpa	Never (try meatspout staff)	An upgraded box, when it's worth it to build one of these, it's worth it to build an even better one.
	box	+1%	n/a	n/a	1240 meat	2 mpa	Never (try meatspout staff)	This item is in demand to build campground equipment.
Pants	stainless steel slacks	+20%	n/a	n/a	hardcore	40 mpa	Depends	Giving +15% combat initiative and moxie, these pants are one of the hardest to obtain, being a hardcore ascension reward for the Disco Bandit.
	plexiglass pants	n/a	n/a	+20%	hardcore oxygenarian	15.72 mpa	Never (try stainless steel slacks)	Giving +25% combat initiative and +30% moxie, these pants are also one of the hardest to obtain, being a hardcore oxygenarian ascension reward for the Disco Bandit.
Accessories	incredibly dense meat gem	+25%	n/a	n/a	55 mill meat	50 mpa	1100000 adv	This ultra-rare is a great addition for meat farming if you already have it. Otherwise, consider it a long-term investment.
	Natty blue ascot	+20%	n/a	n/a	1 mill meat	?? mpa	??	This Battlefield rare is great for an advanced meat farmer. A great bonus is the ability to equip three at a time.
	Baron Von Ratsworth's money clip	+15%	n/a	n/a	boss reward	30 mpa	Depends	While only able to equip one, this item is your best bet for meat farming, if you're willing to willing to work/ascend for it. If this is an easy item for you to get, consider it top-priority to get, since it gives the third best peak bonus.
	ice skates	+15%	n/a	n/a	8.5 mill meat	30 mpa	283333 adv	While only able to equip one, this is quite useful for meat farming in long-term investments. Get a porquoise necklace then toy train before this.
	Jekyllin hide belt	n/a	n/a	+35%	13.5 mill meat	27.51 mpa	Depends	This item is an interesting choice due to its effect changing with the lunar cycle. Get this last; you can swap it with other items to skim some extra meat on better moon phases.
	porquoise necklace	+10%	n/a	n/a	12500 meat	20 mpa	625 adv	While only able to equip one, this makes a slight improvement over tiny plastics when compared to its price.
	toy maglev monorail	+10%	n/a	n/a	25000 meat	20 mpa	1250 adv	It has the same effect as the toy train but it is much cheaper at the moment, its price will probably increase in the next months.
	toy train	+10%	n/a	n/a	165000 meat	20 mpa	8250 adv	While only able to equip one, this barely makes an improvement over tiny plastics when compared to its price. Get a porquoise necklace before this.
	toy crazy train	+10%	n/a	n/a	10000 meat	?? mpa	?? adv	You can equip this and the toy train at the same time.
	Mr. Accessory Jr.	n/a	n/a	+25%	3.3 mill meat	19.65 mpa	429094 adv	This item is a great addition for farming, but not particularly meat farming; consider it a long-term investment. Get a porquoise necklace, then a toy train before this.
	Lucky rabbit's foot	+7%	n/a	+7%	14000 meat	19.50 mpa	1000 adv	This object is somewhat new and available to all 7th-level players: its price is dropping and will likely continue to do so.
	tiny plastic hermit	+6%	n/a	n/a	5000 meat	12 mpa	416 adv	Compared to its price, this barely makes an improvement over other tiny plastics. Get porquoise necklace, then lucky rabbit's foot instead of this.
	tiny plastic familiar	n/a	+1 lb	n/a	120 meat	10 mpa	12 adv	If you can't have any of the other accessories, at least have this.
Baron Von Ratsworth's monocle	n/a	n/a	+10%	boss reward	7.86 mpa	Never (try a tiny plastic familiar)	While only able to equip one, this item still can be a great addition for farming, but not meat farming.
Familiar Equipment	lucky Tam O'Shanter/Shatner	+50%	+10 lbs	n/a	20 mill meat	100 mpa	200000 adv	This item is a great addition for meat farming, but only as a long-term investment.
	plastic pumpkin bucket	n/a	+5 lbs	+5 lbs (+12.5%)	30 mill meat	60 mpa	500000 adv	This item is a great addition for farming, but if you have enough meat to afford it you might consider the lucky Tam O'Shanter for meat farming instead.
	Meat detector	n/a	+5 lbs	n/a	5500 meat	50 mpa	110 adv	This item is your best bet for meat farming.
	lead necklace	n/a	+3 lbs	n/a	150 meat	30 mpa	5 adv	If you can't have any of the other familiar equipment, at least have this.
	miniature gravy-covered maypole	n/a	n/a lbs	+10 lbs (+25%)	7.8 mill meat	19.65 mpa	Never (try lead necklace)	This item is a great addition for farming, but not meat farming.
Containers	Mr. Container	n/a	n/a	+3%	46 mill meat	2.36 mpa	19491425 adv	Only the most insane farmers in the kingdom (that is, insanely good) would be farming with this item. You can always sell it back later...
	hemp backpack	n/a	n/a	+2%	29 mill meat	1.57 mpa	18471337 adv	Only an insane farmer would farm with this.
	Newbiesport™ backpack	n/a	n/a	+1%	11 mill meat	.79 mpa	13924050 adv	Only a crazy (but not too crazy) farmer would use this.