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 Your Rollover Adventures for examples.
Encounters
Encounters are adventures used in a location. There are two types of encounters - combat and non-combat. Each type of encounter has a fixed chance of occurring, regardless of the number of different specific encounters in the location.
Combat encounters involve fighting monsters, and monsters can drop meat or items. Drop increasers (see below) can help increase the meat or items that monsters drop when defeated.
Non-combat encounters do not have fights, may involve choices, and always give certain results. While some non-combat encounters may give random amounts of meat or certain items, they always give within a certain range and they are not affected by drop increasers.
Adjusting Combat Frequency
Potentially, adjusting the frequency of combat or non-combat encounters could lead to more encounters of a preferred kind. However, in practice this does not seem to be particularly cost effective (see below). Unless you are sure about it, you should limit your use of consumable combat frequency adjusters to the ones you find and not purchase them.
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:
In general, increasing meat and item drops results in a) more meat and b) more items to sell. You should equip non-consumable drop increasers you already own any time you are farming.
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, particularly from The Mall. Basic cost-effectiveness is calculated by comparing the amount of meat you spent on an item (or could get from selling it if you already have it) to the amount of meat you could potentially gain through the use of the item. If the first number is higher, you will lose money by using the item (or you would make more if you sold it). The actual calculations for cost-effectiveness can be somewhat complex and vary by location so they have not been included here. Also see the Advanced Farming guide for more information on a cost-effectiveness comparison of certain items in a specific location.
Meat or Items?
A common question is whether or not to use meat drop increasers or item drop increasers. When farming for wealth, in almost all circumstances a meat drop increaser is the better choice. The reason for this is that there is no cap on the modified amount of meat that a monster can give, but it can only give 1 of each item it drops. A yeti, for instance, can potentially give almost 1550 meat to the best equipped adventurer, but it can only ever drop one yeti fur, no matter how high your item drop increasers are. The rare exception to this are areas where most monsters don't drop meat.
Items That Drop Meat or Other Items
Some items, like an old coin purse, an old leather wallet, a Warm Subject gift certificate and a Penultimate Fantasy chest drop meat or items when used from your inventory. Like non-combat adventures, these items do not appear to be affected by drop increasers.
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 resort because you might be able to find a better price.
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, whichever is more. The availability of some items can exceed the demand, so some particularly common items (like items from The Castle, thanks to other meat farmers) can sometimes be difficult to sell. Demand is usually higher for consumables such as food and booze.
If you're not in hardcore, you might consider selling directly to other players via the Trade Chat Channel. While you can find good deals here, watch out for bad deals and scams. Prices are frequently worse than the Mall, but bulk sales (with discounts) are more common. However, you might be able to find someone willing to buy items that won't sell for minimum price in the Mall and still get more than the autosell value.
The Bounty Hunter Hunter
Post NS-13, the Bounty Hunter Hunter no longer buys normal items.
however, you can get filthy lucre for him by killing X amount of enemies and getting X amount of items for him, if you get 15 FL you can buy parts of the Bounty-hunting rig costume, which gives you more items from monsters, the BHH's new items (brought with filthy lucre) can't be autosold or traded (meaning: can't be sold at the mall/flea market), but the items dropped by monsters can be autosold or sold at the mall/flea market; more items dropped my monsters= more meat!
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 and tactics 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. Adventuring with a ten-leaf clover in this location will yield a dense meat stack (autosell value is 1000 meat), 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 over 5000 meat. Clovers also have a Mall price of about 4000 meat, so even if you aren't able to farm for the drink tickets or fruit baskets you can still make quite a bit of meat at lower levels.
The other method for obtaining clovers is to increase item drops as much as possible and farm The Orc Chasm for various scrolls and construct 31337 scrolls. These scrolls should give worthless trinkets and clovers, with no daily limit.
Cobb Ingredient Farming
In Cobb's Knob you can farm dry noodles, which unbuffed you will get ~1/20 adventures (1/2 to get Knob Goblin Master Chef, ~1/10 drop), or farm reagents ~1/12 adventures (1/3 to get Knob Goblin Very Mad Scientist 1/4 for reagent). Noodles sell for 800, reliably, and reagents for 1k, reliably. Due to constant demand, prices are unlikely to drop by more than 400 meat. Depending on your item and meat drop rates and character power, this could be more efficient than farming the castle.
Mid Level Farming
Locations and tactics available to mid level characters.
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 is still 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 before autoselling them - hippo skins are worth slightly more meat. Increasing meat drops is the best tactic because of the huge amount of meat dropped by yetis and rams. One advantage to farming this area in Hardcore is that food, booze and MP restorers are dropped, as opposed to some of the other prime farming locations.
The Itznotyerzitz Mine (in disguise)
Inside of Itznotyerzitz Mine is a good place to farm, and can yield plenty of meat, once you sell what you farm, but won't help you level. Always click on the shiny chunks of wall (If you hover over it, it should be captioned "promising chunk of wall") and you will get an ore, a stone of eXtreme power, or 3 meat stacks. It has no combat, and only on occasion will it hurt you, so you can equip whatever you want, as long as you have the mining gear on. Ores auto sell for 50, stones for 30, and meat stacks for 100.
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 yield between 400 and 600 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 equipped adventurers to succeed here. Having meat drop increasers is effectively useless in this location because all meat is dropped from items or non-combat adventures. An item drop increaser will help make combat encounters drop the purse and wallet more often. Note that in a best-case scenario you can earn only 600 meat per turn here, making most other locations better for a well-equipped adventurer.
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 meantime). This yields 1 to 30 times the normal amount of Meat, but will usually be close to a 15x yield with a 29th-round victory. The very best monster for meat vortex farming is the huge ghuol, but it can only be defeated once per ascension. You can intentionally run away without defeating it to get a 1-29x yield. The next best Meat drop from a monster comes from the cubist bull.
While it is theoretically possible to make a profit (especially fighting the huge ghuol), it is not usually cost effective to buy meat vortexes to use in this manner, and there are better techniques than to farm for them. If you already have them from farming The Orc Chasm for other items, then this is a good use for them.
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 fighting physically resistant monsters so that 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.
Haunted Gallery
This place can be a nice meat farming area. A high lb meat gain familiar will be helpful. The Bull, according to other articles, is the best meat dropper in the game. The Guy with a pitchfork may give less meat, but it is still useful. This place has some non-meat droppers. However, the items dropped here can sell for nice amounts in the mall, and they can go quite fast. If anything else, combine this area with meat vortices to maximize the meat gains.
High Level Farming
Locations and tactics available to high level characters.
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 values. Increasing meat drops is the best tactic, but item drops will also help. Make sure you turn the Wheel in the Clouds in the Sky to position D, 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. Because of over-farming, most of the items from this area won't sell in the Mall, so expect to autosell most of them. For a detailed analysis of farming the Castle, including cost-effectiveness analysis, see Advanced Farming.
