Farlands Beginner Guide: What to Do First

Quick Answer: Fix the droid, get the fishing rod and bug net as soon as they're offered, plant your first crops, and treat the Ark percentage as your quest log — this game gives you very little explicit direction, and the Ark meter plus your ship upgrades are what actually gate progress. Combat uses tools, not weapons (sickle for furry monsters, pickaxe for rocky ones). And if your blacksmith is missing: that was a bug, and it's fixed — update your game.

This guide covers version 1.0 (July 2026). It leans on the developers' own update notes, achievement statistics (which reveal the real progression funnel), and two years of community knowledge — sources are flagged where it matters.

On This Page

• What kind of game this is
• Your first days, step by step
• The Ark: the progression spine
• Leaving your planet (and the fuel trap)
• Combat: match the tool to the monster
• The blacksmith and tool upgrades
• Filling the direction gap
• FAQ

What Kind of Game This Is

Farlands runs on the classic farming-sim loop — crops, fishing, insects, mining, friendships — but stretched across a star system. Your farm sits on your own planet; other planets hold resources, characters, and story. The known lineup from the developers' update notes: Terbin (the main populated world, with most calendar events), Galea, Vanadian (a desert labyrinth with a wandering merchant named Bob and a buried pyramid), and Darmstad (the endgame planet — no oxygen, only reachable with a sufficiently upgraded ship).

Three systems matter more than anything else early:

1. The Ark — the completion meter that doubles as the story's pacing (details below).
2. Your ship — travel, and the gate on which planets you can reach.
3. Friendships — 8 romanceable characters with five friendship levels each, ending in marriage if you want it.

The droid, repaired on day one, spells out the game's travel system: "If you want to go anywhere, just interact with the ship's control panel." (Screenshot: JanduSoft)

Your First Days, Step by Step

The achievement funnel shows what the game expects from everyone early — these are the most-earned achievements in order:

1. Buy your planet (the opening — ~60% of players have this).
2. Fix the droid (~57%) — your first real task. The droid becomes your guide and explains core systems, including travel.
3. Get the bug net and fishing rod (~33%) — this unlocks two of the four collection pillars (fish, insects). Grab them as soon as they're available; both feed the Ark and your wallet.
4. Plant crops immediately. Crops are your steady income, and money solves most early problems (including the fuel trap below). Seasons matter — plant what's in season and expand plots as energy allows.
5. Upgrade your ship once (~18%) — the first ship upgrade is the fourth-most-earned achievement for a reason: it's the real progression unlock. Vendors like Te'Kragh handle ship upgrades (Buy / Upgrade Ship are literally his menu options).

One warning up front: you start with no storage chest and items don't auto-stack generously — a top launch-week complaint. Build/acquire storage as early as you can and accept some inventory friction in week one.

The Ark: The Progression Spine

The Ark is Farlands' completion meter, reworked heavily in the 0.9 update. You contribute completed content — collections, donations, objectives — and the percentage climbs. Two facts about it are official, from the developers' update notes:

• The main story (Gorman's arc) concludes at 70% Ark completion. If you're at 70% and nothing has happened, go to the Ark to trigger the final events.
• The achievement chain runs 10% → 100% ("Completionist"), and its global unlock rates fall off a cliff — 12.8% of players reach 10%, 4.2% reach 50%, and only ~0.1% finish. This is a long game if you want all of it.

Practical use: when you don't know what to do next, do whatever raises the Ark — catch new fish and insects, grow new vegetables, donate finds. It's the closest thing the game has to a quest log.

A few weeks in: mixed crop plots feeding both your credits and your Ark percentage. (Screenshot: JanduSoft)

Leaving Your Planet (and the Fuel Trap)

Travel itself is simple — the droid says it directly: interact with the ship's control panel. What trips players up is the resource cost. Launch-week reviews include people genuinely stranded: no batteries or fuel cells in reserve, no way to craft them yet, waiting on vendor stock to escape their own farm.

How to not get stuck, based on community experience at 1.0:

• Never spend your last travel resource without a plan to replace it — treat fuel/batteries like the return ticket they are.
• Keep crop income flowing. Stranded players' realistic exit is selling produce until the vendor's rotating stock offers what they need.
• Prioritize ship repairs and upgrades when the option appears — the ship is the progression gate, and upgrade tiers are what eventually open Vanadian and (much later) Darmstad, the no-oxygen endgame planet.

Combat: Match the Tool to the Monster

Farlands has no weapon system. When mine creatures attack, you fight with your regular tools, matched to the enemy's body type — a system the game never explains and players had to work out on the forums. Community-confirmed matchups: sickle against monsters with fluffy fur, pickaxe against rock-like monsters. Extend the logic to new enemies and you'll rarely be helpless.

The mines supply ores and stone — and the creatures in them answer to your tools, not weapons. (Screenshot: JanduSoft)

One honest warning from launch reviews: mine enemy hitboxes are rough at 1.0 — keep your distance where you can.

The Blacksmith and Tool Upgrades

Tool upgrades run through the blacksmith. If you've read reviews complaining the blacksmith is missing entirely — that was real, it was Farlands' most notorious bug through late Early Access, and the developer confirmed the fix on July 7, 2026 ("this bug has been fixed", after acknowledging it "was affecting far too many players"). On a current build you should be fine; if not, verify your game files and report it — full status in Bugs & Fixes.

Filling the Direction Gap

The most consistent 1.0 criticism isn't bugs — it's the game not telling you what to do next. There's no map, festival times aren't labeled on the calendar, items lack tooltips (nobody knows exactly how much stamina that tea restores), and after the opening tasks the game goes quiet. Until patches fill this in, structure yourself:

• Use the Ark percentage as your to-do list (above).
• Use the achievement list as a content map — it enumerates every system worth engaging: livestock barns (bought as Barn Capsules from Bonnie), the museum collections, friendship levels, house upgrades. Our Achievements Guide doubles as that map.
• Talk to everyone after story beats — events trigger from NPCs (Mayor Oola runs the marriage explanation, for example), and merchants like Bob on Vanadian move around rather than staying put, which players routinely mistake for a bug.

FAQ

How do I get off my starting planet? Ship control panel. If you can't afford the trip, that's the fuel trap — sell crops, watch vendor stock, and don't strand yourself again.

How do I fight the monsters in the mines? Match tools to enemy bodies: sickle for fluffy, pickaxe for rocky. There are no weapons to buy or sell.

Can I get married? Yes — 8 bachelors and bachelorettes, each with a five-level friendship storyline. Reach level 5, get the Ceremonial Ribbon, and Mayor Oola explains the rest; your spouse moves in after the wedding.

Where did the merchant go? If it's Bob on Vanadian: he wanders between areas by design. Rotating/moving merchants are a recurring player confusion at 1.0.

Written at 1.0 launch (July 2026) from the developers' published update notes and launch announcement, Steam achievement statistics (captured July 17, 2026), in-game dialogue visible in official screenshots, and community-confirmed mechanics from the Steam forums. Numbers we can't verify aren't in here — expect this guide to grow as the game's systems get documented.