How to Make (& Maintain) A Farm in Stranded Deep

Stranded Deep sends daring players to desert islands in the middle of the ocean, where they must survive by building their own shelter and tools to overcome all sorts of perilous danger from shark bites to sunburn. It’s also important for players to acquire food to maintain their hunger, and what better way to do so than with a garden?

Farming is one of the many game mechanics players will want to take advantage of if they wish to survive stranded in the middle of nowhere. However, gardens can do more than provide food for meals. Aloe plants are harvested to create the sunburn-relieving aloe salve, while potatoes can be used for filling jerrycans that fuel boat motors. This guide will help walk players through the basics of farming in Stranded Deep, from making the farm to maintaining it.

Stranded Deep Gardening Guide

Craft and Place Farming Plots

• First things first, players will need to create a farming plot to grow their prospective crops in. The most basic one is the wood farming plot, made using 1 lashing and 4 sticks. There are 2 better farming plots players have access to, which are the plank farming plot, made with 2 planks, and the corrugated farming plot, made with 2 corrugated scrap, but those who want to get their crops going as soon as possible should start with the basic wood farming plot. After toggling through the crafting menu to the farming section, select the desired plot type and, while having a crude hoe in one’s inventory, place it down on solid land.

Planting the Crops

• Next, it’s time to start gardening. Grab whatever desired plant the player wishes to farm, and place it in the farming plot by pressing the designated planting button (E on the PC version). Some plants take up the entirety of the plot, so players will want to build as many as they possibly can if they desire a thriving garden. Different plants have different growth rates, with some taking less time than others to fully grow.

Watering

• While the plants grow, they need to be thoroughly watered so they don’t wilt under the harsh sun. Players can use three different types of ‘watering cans’ to aid in this process: the coconut flask, the leather waterskin, and the water bottle. Which one the player uses will be determined by what resources they have access to at the time, as the waterskin requires a tanning rack, the bottle is made with a furnace, and the flask only needs a coconut and a lashing. Additionally, the water bottle holds the most, at 5 water, the flask holds the least, at 1 water, and the waterskin is in the middle. For optimal gardening, players will obviously want to use the water bottle.
• If plants don’t have enough water in their farming plot, they will die. This is where the type of plots differ, with the wood farming plot only holding 4 at a time while the other 2 can hold 8. Water is drained once a day, so be sure to fill up the plots regularly or before they reach zero. When players fill up each plot, they can see how much water it’s holding in the ring UI in the center of the screen.

Harvest!

• After a certain amount of time, the plant will be ready to harvest! Players can walk up the plant and press the collect button (once again, E in the PC version) to add it to their inventory. Conveniently, some crops don’t need to be completely replanted, like the potato plant, as it will simply regrow another one each cycle.

Stranded Deep is available for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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