Basic Farming
Farming for meat and items is a common activity in KoL. Farming is simply spending time adventuring for the purpose of accumulating meat or items in quantity. It is the only reliable way in the game to amass a large sum of meat, but it is very time consuming. This guide outlines simple strategies that can be used to maximize your meat and item farming. You can find more advanced strategies, including cost-effectiveness analysis and NPZR farming on the Advanced Farming page.
Adventures
Obviously, the more Adventures you have available, the more time you can spend farming. See Adventures and Extra Rollover Adventures for ways to get more turns. Also see Maximizing Rollover Adventures for examples.
Drop Increasers
Certain items, skills and familiars can increase the amount of meat or items that is dropped in a location. See the following pages for more information on meat and item drop increasers and how they work:
Basic Cost-Effectiveness
Note that it is possible to spend more meat on items and effects than you gain while farming with them. Be cautious about buying extra equipment unless you're sure that the benefit outweighs the cost. See Advanced Farming for more information.
Selling Items
When you farm for items, there are multiple ways to exchange them for meat. Some are more effective than others.
Autosell
Nearly all items can be autosold for meat. Just go to your Inventory page and click the Sell link. However, autoselling items should be your last recourse because you might be able to find a better price.
The Mall
The first place any softcore player should check. Most items have a Mall value that far exceeds their autosell cost, and all items must be sold for at least twice their autosell cost, or 100 meat, which ever is more. The availability of low end items often exceeds the demand, so they can sometimes be difficult to sell. Demand is usually higher for consumables such as food and booze.
The Bounty Hunter
Visit The Bounty Hunter Hunter's Shack and he will purchase certain items for twice their autosell cost. Unfortunately, the list of items he buys is rather short and it changes from day to day. Even so, it's an excellent resource for hardcore players.
Skins
One way to eek every last gob of meat out of a yeti skin is to trade it to The L33t Tr4pz0r (The Trapper) at Mt. McLargeHuge for a hippopotamus skin. The Hunter buys hippo skins for 12 more meat than he will pay for yeti furs. However, with the restructuring of the Icy Peak this tactic is no longer among the most effective ways to farm.
The Pretentious Artist
While he only buys rat whiskers, the Pretentious Artist will buy them for 50 meat each, a veritable fortune for low level players. Rat whiskers can be obtained from the pre-quest Typical Tavern.
Tactics
While meat and items can be farmed from any location, some are more effective than others. Other tactics may help as well.
Low Level Farming
Locations available to lower level characters.
Pre-Quest Typical Tavern
In the Typical Tavern, before the Typical Tavern Quest is complete, the encounter "drunken rat" will always yield a rat whisker. This can be sold for 50 meat to the Pretentious Artist once you have completed the Pretentious Artist Quest. It is very easy to get the drunken rat encounter because of the Typical Tavern layout - simply choose the same square repeatedly. Equipment, skills and effects that increase meat or item drops will have an effect on the meat and other items dropped by the rat, but are generally not helpful due to the flat rate at which the Artist buys whiskers. Note that if you complete the Tavern Quest you can no longer farm this location.
Cobb's Knob Treasury
The Cobb's Knob Treasury is also a good location to farm, due to the relatively high amounts of meat, meat stacks and items dropped. Increasing both meat and item drops will be useful here (though it is unclear which is a better choice). Adventuring with a ten-leaf clover in this location will yield a dense meat stack, so it is a good place for hardcore characters to go if they have lots of clovers.
Clover Farming
While it is no longer possible to get bulk amounts of ten-leaf clovers from the Hermitage, you can still spend clovers in locations like the Orcish Frat House (in disguise) or The Hippy Camp (in disguise) to get a roll of drink tickets or a fruit basket, respectively. Each of these (currently) have Mall prices of well over 2000 meat.
Mid Level Farming
The Icy Peak
The Icy Peak was formerly the most prolific area for meat farming, but it has been much reduced since the addition of more (lower-yield) adventures in the area. Still, yetis do drop a large amount of meat and it may still be decent for adventurers who haven't reached better locations. Don't forget to trade yeti skins for hippo skins at The L33t Tr4pz0r's C4b1n. Increasing both meat drops is probably still the best tactic because of the huge amount of meat dropped by yetis and rams.
The Haunted Bedroom
The Haunted Bedroom in Spookyraven Manor is a good place to farm meat due to the frequency of meat-generating items. With many non-combat adventures, it is possible for characters without drop increasers to still get large amounts of meat. Most encounters either drop meat, an old leather wallet or an old coin purse, all of which yeild over 400 meat. Combat encounters can be avoided by using the CLEESH spell, running, or can be fought for their possible item drops (wallets and purses), so it is possible for weak or poorly equiped adventurers to succeed here.
Meat Vortex
Using a meat vortex in combat will cause a monster to drop meat immediately. The meat dropped varies between 1 and the maximum amount of meat the monster can drop and is unaffected by meat drop increasers. With enough vortices available, once can pull as much meat from a monster as possible and then kill it on the 29th round of combat, having used only one adventure. That's assuming your moxie is high enough to not get killed in the mean time. This could potentially yield 30x the normal amount of meat but is more likely to be signifigantly less. Save meat vortices for the yeti adventure in the Icy Peak, as this is the highest meat yield adventure in the game.
Cocoabo and Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot
The cocoabo and NPZR familiars can steal meat from enemies during combat. Meat stolen is not affected by meat drop increasers. Like with meat vortex farming, combat can be dragged out as long as possible to allow the creatures to get as much meat as possible. Usually this involves increasing monster level to the point where the familiars won't accidentally kill the enemy too early. Unlike the meat vortex, these familiars can steal meat regardless of monster location or actual meat drop. A NPZR is thought to be approximately twice as effective in combat. See Advanced Farming for a more detailed analysis of NPZR farming.
High Level Farming
The Castle in the Clouds in the Sky
The Castle in the Clouds in the Sky is probably the highest yield area in the game currently. Giants all drop large amounts of meat and items with high autosell costs. Increasing meat drops is probably the best tactic, but item drops will also help. Make sure you turn the Wheel in the Clouds in the Sky to position B, with the Procrastination giant guarding the door. This eliminates a non-combat adventure that would drop no meat or items. When encountering the wheel again, leave it alone and you won't spend an adventure on it.
