Ultimate Guide to Welcome to Elderfield

Welcome to Elderfield seems to be an idyllic farming RPG at first. You plant seeds, keep livestock, build your farmstead, fish, gather resources, make friends in town, and slowly but surely transform your small piece of land.

Then your seeds develop teeth. Your farm is overrun by monsters. Mining is dangerous. The forest contains things which probably should never have been there. Sleeping can lead to nightmares, curses, attack, or even death. If you dare to stray from your farm without having enough food on you, you will wish that you had taken more care of your pantry.

Welcome to Elderfield can be called a cozy farming simulation fused with horror elements, high RNG, and some Soulslike mechanics. Everything in this game works together: farming supplies your cooking, cooking helps you survive, exploring yields materials, mining upgrades your equipment, better equipment ensures you safety during battles, and your relations and random events draw you deeper into the mysterious story behind this town.

This guide will help you make all this work together.

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Understanding Elderfield

This game is based on an incredibly simple concept – get settled in a small village located among an ancient, huge forest while finding out more about what is going wrong.

Unlike other farming games where people can see the happy and lively atmosphere of life in the village, buildings are quite far from each other, the forest is close to civilization, and traveling around the village in the evening is a really weird experience since you may feel like there is someone looking at you on your way from the farm to your house.

It should be stressed that the game combines everyday chores with some weird moments.

You may be watering plants in the morning and see a monster walking around the farm. You may be fishing in order to prepare dinner but find something completely different in the lake. You may be doing something regular but suddenly see something weird appearing on the screen while the game will not pay any attention to it.

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How cozy is it?

Despite being frequently described as a cozy-creepy farming game, Elderfield leans considerably harder toward creepy than cozy. There is an overall feeling of uneasiness as opposed to horror all the time. There are a number of jump-scares, but sometimes it can be hard to figure out whether they were intentional or maybe a visual glitch. There are two memorable instances that occur at Greystone Estates; one instance occurs on its staircase and another on its roof, and it seems as though someone has jumped off the building.

In the game, not everything is explained to the player. Therefore, you should expect to encounter a mystery and unexplained events.

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The Core Gameplay Loop

Elderfield does not force you down a singular play style path.

Rather, most of the progress you make will come through cycling through several related actions:

• Farming
• Ranching
• Cooking
• Mining
• Fishing
• Foraging
• Bug catching
• Combat
• Upgrading equipment
• Exploring
• NPC relations
• Quests and Events
• Improving the house

What’s crucial to note is that these are interrelated systems. You need food to survive. You get food by farming, fishing, foraging, ranching, and processing. Equipment allows you to explore and engage in combat safely. You need mining to provide materials to upgrade equipment. You need exploration to gather resources, loot, quests, and mysteries. NPC relations and events create a new level of content. Thus, the game punishes you for being too specialized and encourages you to be diversified.

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Farming: Your Foundation for Survival

Farming is the most recognizable aspect of Elderfield, and any gamer who has played a classic farming simulator will be instantly familiar with the fundamentals.

The core process is:

• Plant the seeds.
• Water them.
• Allow them to mature.
• Then harvest them.

This does, however, come with one key caveat specific to Elderfield:

some crops are mobile.

Mature crops do not always remain in the same spot that you plant them. Should one of your crops choose to relocate, you will need to track it down and recapture it. Your crops are also not always standard plants and vegetables. Over time, you may be able to grow things like eyeballs and teeth in rows, with pumpkins gaining legs and turning into enemies.

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Protecting the farm

Farmland is normally found near the woods, and therefore, animals and any form of danger could easily find their way into your plot of land.

With this, you have two options:

• Option one: Face the situation.
• Option two: Flee from it and wait until the threat loses its interest.

Option two is especially useful in the early stages of the game. There is one monster in particular that remains in your plot for several days, and if your character is not strong enough to defeat it, your life of farming will entail going out, meeting the monster, fleeing from it and coming back after the danger leaves. Don’t think that you are safe just because you are farming.

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Ranching and Animal Husbandry

Animals are yet another dependable source of resources, albeit it costs gold and materials at first to set up a ranch.

Not all animals need the same type of building like:

• Coops
• Barns
• High Houses

Once your farm and ranch start providing resources, you should not sell all your collection automatically. It might be profitable to process your raw resources to enhance their value or make them useful ingredients for cooking and crafting. Elderfield does not shy away from making even ordinary animals creepy. An example of one is a smiling cow that talks. It proves that the game does not always need monsters to make something creepy.

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Gathering: Never Ignore the World Around You

Your farm isn’t the only source of materials. There is a large world out there in Elderfield full of resources, and exploring is among the key methods for keeping the ball rolling on your progression.

Materials can be collected by:

• Mining
• Wood cutting
• Fishing
• Foraging
• Bug catching
• Monster drops
• Exploration

The farther you go from the town, the more diverse the materials will be. Winding trails lead you away from the safety of civilization and into the forest that surrounds it. This is important because bottlenecks in your progression may ultimately boil down to lack of materials.

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Mining: Valuable, Dangerous and Unpredictable

Mining is one of the most effective ways of obtaining ore to upgrade your gear, yet one of the more dangerous things you can do in Elderfield.

The mine may include:

• Valuable ore
• Aggressive monsters
• Environmental dangers
• Flying rocks
• Curses
• Inactive ancient beings

Even the very process of mining isn’t entirely safe. Every strike from your pickaxe gives you a chance of injuring yourself. Spending time underground also results in you receiving curses related to the old gods. This effect stacks several times the longer you spend inside the mines. This makes for a significant factor you should consider when playing the game:

The longer you mine, the more dangerous the next battle will become.

Once your opponent attacks you and you have already been weakened by several debuffs, you’re definitely not going into the battle at full strength. Thus, mining in Elderfield isn’t only about gathering ore; there is a certain danger involved here.

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Fishing: Food, Money and Surprises

There are two main advantages in fishing:

• Ingredients
• Money

The first place that you will go fishing at is the lakeside near your town, but to get there, you have to go through the sewer system. It seems that Elderfield’s town planning skills extend to its transportation as well.

While fishing, you can catch:

• Fish
• Ingredients for cooking
• Treasure
• Other surprises

Therefore, fishing is still worthwhile even if not your main pursuit.

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Foraging and Bug Catching

Foraging is one of the simplest methods of acquiring additional resources while on the go.

There are a great many:

• Plants
• Fungi
• And other natural resources

in the world, and the types of resources available may vary depending upon how far you venture away from civilization.

Another type of gathering to look at is bug collecting. The overall principle is quite straightforward:

Don’t ignore resources simply because you aren’t actively searching for them.

There will be a point in time when you require a resource you didn’t even know was needed.

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Cooking Is a Survival System, Not a Side Activity

One of the worst things you could do in Elderfield is to see food as a product to be sold whenever you’re running low on cash. Not good.

Food could well be considered your single most crucial survival resource.

You can obtain ingredients through virtually every major peaceful system:

• Farming
• Fishing
• Foraging
• Ranching
• Processing

Best recipes will often require ingredients from a variety of sources, which suggests that the game actively encourages you to engage in several systems.

Why food is so important

In dangerous areas, your food inventory will be the only thing keeping you alive. If you use it all up, you won’t have any realistic way of recovering your health other than by retreating. Food preparation offers you an important alternative to bathing in order to restore your health. Eating food restores your health without respawning enemies in a particular area.

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Healing Works Differently Here

One of the key mechanical distinctions that should be made is that sleeping does not restore your health.

Indeed, sleeping is a risky behavior.

Here are some reasons why:

• You may get attacked by a monster.
• You may have a nightmare.
• You may get cursed.
• In the worst-case scenario, you may die.

All these events occur randomly, so sleeping is not always safe. Bathing is the primary way of directly healing your characters. However, bathing involves the following price:

All enemies in the world respawn.

If you’ve already killed most enemies in one location and then go home to have a bath since you do not have enough health, you will again have to fight all the enemies when you come back to this location. Food is extremely valuable in such a situation. Practical tip: Use food as a method of healing when going on expeditions. Use bathing only in cases when the respawn of enemies is acceptable.

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Sleeping, Skipping Sleep and the Passing of Nights

Unlike other farming games, there’s no obligation to go to sleep at a fixed time in Elderfield.

You can stay awake for:

• One night
• Two nights
• Even longer

You can save the game without going to sleep too. But there’s a catch. Each night, the moon resets and something random happens in the world, even if you don’t go to sleep. But if you skip sleep, you get some debuffs as well. The more nights you skip sleep, the more debuffed your character will be due to fatigue and misfortune, affecting his fighting abilities as well.

The solution is simple:

You shouldn’t stay awake forever just because you can do that.

It’s convenient to skip sleep if you need to go far into the dangerous place and don’t want to waste several minutes traveling back, but it should be used only in an emergency case.

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Plan Your Expeditions Around Travel Time

Travel becomes an unexpectedly important element of Elderfield. If you cannot unlock the bus stop in a certain area, going home will take about four or five minutes of real-time. It’s long enough to make leaving an area unappealing especially if you have spent quite a while clearing it. The bus stops fix this problem, yet there is no standard requirement for unlocking them.

For example, the requirements may include:

• A sandwich
• 3,000 gold
• 50 pieces of wood
• Cursed relic

The requirements differ depending on the location.

When venturing into distant areas, keep in mind:

• The amount of food you have
• Your health
• Equipment
• Available materials
• The presence of unlocked bus stop
• The length of your visit
• Practicability of going home.

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Combat: Expect to Fight—A Lot

Battle is not an optional extra in Elderfield. A large part of the game consists of battles against enemies. In one play through, battle was estimated at about 70% of play time.

The battle system is turn-based and fairly simple. It doesn’t always have to involve elaborate strategies for each battle. A lot of the battles can be rather simple and repetitive, involving the use of the same attack over and over again. The reason why this does not become boring is the pace and progression of the game.

Battles are normally fairly short, and winning the battle provides something of value:

• Gold
• XP
• Equipment
• Items
• and other rewards.

This means that even a battle consisting of only a few turns becomes worth playing.

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Equipment and Gear Progression

Your equipment is just as important as your food supply. There are several kinds of defenses, such as using light armor for agility and heavy armor for defense. There are also different types of weapons, and having a good weapon is critical.

These include:

• Exploration
• Enemy drops
• Loot
• Crafting

But one of the best ways to upgrade your equipment is by mining ore and crafting equipment in the nearby workshop. If you constantly have problems with enemies, it does not mean that you should continue to fight with them. Instead, go out there and get new materials to upgrade your equipment. The difficulty curve of the further levels in the game proves this point. There is much harder level three than the first and second.

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Death Has Consequences

Elderfield borrows some mechanics from Soulslike games, especially those where death can be very punishing. The most annoying thing is to die just before finishing the area. Your enemies, who were killed by you, will instantly respawn and make you go through all of the area once again.

Thus, reckless exploring will cost you dearly. In case when you are just about to finish one area, but you have little health and food left, think twice whether it is worth it to enter the next room.

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Know When to Turn Around

One of the topmost survival skills required in Elderfield is knowing when an expedition becomes non-profitable. There will always be something enticing on the other side of the next corner.

That could be:

• Loot
• Ore
• An enemy
• Resources
• An objective for quests
• Anything that you have not seen before

But, it might also turn out to be some scary monster that could bring an end to the expedition itself. If you have less food in your inventory, if you are low on health points, if you lack proper equipment or have gained negative effects in excess, go back home. And, if you do not hurry, then you may never even get an option to take that decision.

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Your Home Is More Than a Decoration Project

Your house is your sanctuary or, at least, your nearest sanctuary in Elderfield. Home customization helps to create a place according to your style preferences.

You can construct cozy places with:

• Shelving units
• Kotatsu
• Furniture
• Decorative elements

Alternatively, you can use dark themes of the game by using skulls, as well as skin-covers of the wall. It’s up to you. Moreover, there are skilled workers in Elderfield who could assist you in improving your house.

You can hire professionals in order to get:

• New furniture
• More room
• Construction
• Exterior improvements

Comfortable home is not only about appearance but is also your main base in between quests.

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Building Relationships Takes Time

The Elderfield game has the classic farming/RPG relationship system, where players have the options for friendships and romantic relationships. However, one should not think that all people will become instant close friends. The locals are often distant, strange, and even suspicious.

It will be hard for the player to get attached to anyone during the beginning of the game. NPCs do not always give players gifts, teach them how to cook something, and rush to their assistance. The key point here is that players should develop relationships right away. Gifts will help to make people closer, and some people whom you might think are boring at first may prove to be the most interesting individuals from town. There is also a limit of two gifts per character per week, so relationship progression rewards consistency rather than trying to do everything at once.

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Festivals and Community Events

In the calendar provided by Elderfield, there are traditional holidays and some more unusual holidays.

The biggest festivals consist of:

• Egg Festival
• Harvest Festival
• All Hallows’ Eve
• Carnival of Souls

And there are some other events such as:

• Traveling merchants
• Fishing competitions
• Other town events

It is worth keeping track of the calendar as it gives another reason to get involved in the community.

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Watch the News Every Day

Local TV news broadcasts are not just for background ambiance.Daily news broadcasts can give you information regarding any local oddities or bizarre events.

Some news broadcasts may direct you to engage yourself in some other activities such as:

• Call a certain phone number
• Follow a certain blood trail
• Investigate a particular place
• Treasure hunt
• Other mysterious events

All these events may be random, and most of them may not be clear enough to be solved right away.
This is perhaps one of the best game features since it promotes observing rather than quest markers.

Watch news. Note odd clues. Investigate weird stuff.

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Don’t Be Afraid to Explore Without a Wiki

There is a lot of information in Elderfield that does not get explained immediately. Player preferences, odd occurrences, clues, and environmental puzzles can motivate experimentation. As all of the above mentioned systems are quite complicated, it can be quite tempting to look for solutions on the Internet right away.

However, the game is especially fun when a player solves a mystery himself/herself. Random occurrences can hide some clues that lead somewhere, and finding out how to make sense of them is quite rewarding experience. You do not have to refuse to use other sources forever, but Elderfield is obviously designed to reward your curiosity.

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Expect Periods of Slower Progress

The abundance of content in Elderfield also has its drawbacks: there are situations when the story cannot flow smoothly. For example, there can be situations when you are effectively waiting for something to occur.

Sometimes your quest is stuck due to some RNG issue. Sometimes you lack the required crafting material. Sometimes you must upgrade a tool in order to move forward. And since mining does not allow resources to regenerate overnight, sometimes you might exhaust one place leaving nothing available to collect.

Here is another problem: some side quests require main story progress.

So in the situation when:

• Main quest requires certain resources.
• You do not have them right now.
• Required resource source is exhausted.
• Side quest access is blocked.
• Several days of farming, fishing, logging and waiting for regeneration/quest.

All of the above was encountered on more than one occasion during a 30 hour playtime. It should be mentioned that all of the above is not necessarily caused by your playing improperly. Sometimes Elderfield just makes you wait.

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Recipes

Welcome to Elderfield is not just a farming game with horror mechanics slapped on top. The whole essence of the game is in the clash of comfort and danger. Your farm gives you food. The food keeps you alive. The woods give you materials. The woods also have monsters. Mining provides you with the necessary ore for equipment upgrades. The mining can kill you and curse you. Your home is comfortable. The sleep is dangerous. The villagers can become your friends and romantic partners. The villagers are also initially distant, mistrusting and even weird. The world encourages the exploration, but it also punishes the greed. This duality is what makes Elderfield unique. The most reliable strategy is to prepare before exploring, keep a variety of resources, eat well, upgrade the equipment, form relationships early, follow the news and go back to the village whenever your expedition becomes too dangerous.

What makes Elderfield especially fascinating is the fact that it can never be safe for you. Not by far.

Welcome to Elderfield.

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For more articles on other indie games, please check out the links below:

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• The Relic: First Guardian Best Early Game Tips and Tricks
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