Welcome to Elderfield: Advanced Tips and Tricks

Welcome to Elderfield may seem like just another farming game at the start, but it proves to be quite a bit more than that. Combining aspects of exploration, dungeon-crawling, fighting, crafting, forming relationships, Old Gods’ alignment, random encounters, and RPG progression, the game creates quite an engaging experience.

It also makes the biggest strength of the game – and at the same time, the biggest weakness of it – that Elderfield does not tell you clearly enough what your next steps should be.

It allows the player to venture into areas where he or she is not ready, gives new abilities without explaining them, offers quests far ahead in their difficulty curve, and introduces systems that the player expects only for the later stage of the game.

This guide provides you with the most valuable information about playing Welcome to Elderfield gathered through prolonged play-through and organized into useful advice.

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Explore Elderfield as Early as Possible

The most common error that newcomers could make with Elderfield would be thinking of it as any other farming simulation with limited space for the start. The game opens up quite a bit of territory for you to explore. You could go to the Sewers, check out the Mall, investigate the Greystone Estate, fish at the Lakefront, or spend your time just farming. The amount of freedom can seem intimidating since the game does not always indicate what is important right away. Let nothing deter you from exploration.

Enter buildings. Open unfamiliar doors. Investigate mysterious locations. Click on seemingly unimportant objects. Even talk to NPCs when they do not seem to have something important to say. There will be times when you come across places where enemies will be way too strong for you. In such cases, move on, and return to that place later. It does not mean that the whole territory was designed for a much later stage in the game. Often, it just means that you came to the right place before you were ready for it. The important distinction is: Too difficult right now does not mean irrelevant.

In Elderfield, the more levels and equipment and abilities you get, the more it pays off to revisit locations. Never let the game’s hints limit your exploration The game might gradually direct you to one place in particular, but that doesn’t mean that you should give up on everything else. Mall is the most obvious case of this.

NPCs will finally start offering you different quests that take you towards the Mall. Even if you get such a quest, that does not mean that the area is supposed to be your late-game location. Mall is an important early progression spot and actually serves as the game’s first real dungeon. If you have reasons to go to it, go there and explore it thoroughly. Speak to NPCs, explore different rooms, check out side spots and search everywhere you can reach. The main quest tells you to clear the mall, but some of its most useful things are actually totally optional. One of those optional things is extremely important.

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Get the Warp Skill from the Mall

One of the most valuable skills you can learn in the early stages is the Warp skill, however, the game does not stress this fact. It can be obtained at Ultra Video which is the first store after you enter Mall F1. Talk to the Shopper on the extreme right next to the SALE/camera poster. You do not have to pay for the book. Warp allows you to teleport home from anywhere on the map without spending coins. It is active if you are no more than five minutes away from your home. The fact that this is quite a distance on Elderfield’s huge map makes Warp invaluable skill after:

• mining;
• dungeons;
• gatherings;
• quest sequences;
• fights.

If you are already in Mall F1 area, you should try to get Warp as soon as possible.

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Start Mining Early

As you approach the end of the Mall area, you will be able to gain entry into bigger mines. Make sure that you gather Copper and Iron as early as possible. These will be used often in crafting and upgrading tools, and making them easily available from an early stage makes your progress much easier in the future. Don’t wait for the quests to prompt you for the acquisition of these metals in huge numbers. Mining becomes part of the game’s broader progression loop, and having materials available before you need them saves considerable backtracking.

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Do Not Miss Molly’s Workshop and Starter Pickaxe

A small mine and workshop can be found along the way to the farm that is controlled by a NPC named Molly. This NPC will provide you with an early mining quest, whose completion will give you the starter pickaxe. Though easy to ignore due to the workshop being located in a place that you visit often, the quest is not essential to unlocking all of the progression in the game. Failure to complete the quest will not ruin your save file, although it will give you the proper introduction to mining. Therefore, when walking between the farm and the town, look out for Molly’s workshop.

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Find the Church of the Old Gods Early

One of Elderfield’s most easily missed systems involves the strange doors scattered throughout the world. Each of these doors has a symbol and requires that you worship a specific Old God before entering the door. These doors seem like late-game content since Elderfield never explicitly explains the mechanics behind them. But they are not. Go to the Church of the Old Gods on Sundays and select an Old God that you would like to worship.

Following a specific god gives you weekly bonuses temporarily and access to the follower doors belonging to the god. Your alignment changes every Sunday so there is no permanent restriction for your character build by following a specific god. Thus, the Old Gods system works well for combat as well as exploration builds.

Some gods can boost physical resistance of your character, others will be good at enhancing your magic, farming, Luck or utility. It all depends on your plans for the week.

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How to Choose an Old God

There are seven normal Old Gods in the Sunday rotation:

• Gatis
• Delvek
• Kaal
• Daeus
• Hagroth
• Valtris
• Nezroth

Do not choose one simply because its stat bonuses look strongest.

Before making a pledge, consider three things:

1. What stats will the alignment improve or reduce?
2. Which God Forge recipes will it unlock?
3. Which follower rooms or God Doors can you access during that week?

The best alignment often solves several problems simultaneously.

Gatis: Luck and Agility

Gatis provides:

• +10% Luck
• +10% Agility
• -10% Defense

Gatis works well for exploration and Luck-focused play when your defenses are already comfortable.

Its God Forge includes:

• Opal Ring
• Moonlight Shoes
• Cat’s Eyes Necklace

Follower rooms can appear at:

• Greystone Estates;
• a cabin in the Old Woods;
• Catacombs F3.

The Catacombs route requires Wire Cutters around the pit-room route.

Gatis preserves both Attack and Magic Attack, unlike Hagroth, making it attractive when you want Luck without sacrificing damage.

Its downside becomes obvious when enemies start hitting hard. If you are already burning through healing items after every fight, losing Defense for Agility probably is not helping.

Delvek: Luck and MP

Delvek provides:

• +10% Luck
• +10% Max MP
• -10% Agility

Delvek suits Mystery-heavy exploration and ritual use.

Its God Forge includes:

• Lucky Die
• Cursed Die
• Magnifying Glass
• Whip of Delvek

Follower rooms can appear at:

• Mall Mines F2;
• an Old Woods Mines F2 variant;
• Catacombs F2 behind a breakable wall.

Delvek makes an attractive alternative to Hagroth when you want Luck but do not want to sacrifice Attack or Magic Attack.

The trade-off is Agility instead.

Kaal: Defensive Survival

Kaal provides:

• +10% Defense
• +10% Magic Defense
• -10% Max MP

Kaal is the most straightforward defensive choice when both physical and magical damage threaten you.

Its God Forge includes:

• Ring of Immortality
• Bone Shield
• Bone Staff

The Ring of Immortality also contributes toward the Borrowed Time achievement, which requires five deaths to be prevented by Rings of Immortality.

Kaal follower rooms appear at:

• Old Woods Mine F3;
• Mall Mines F3’s Worm Room variant;
• Catacombs F3, far right near the Boney Honey Tree.

If rituals do not form the core of your build, sacrificing some MP can be a worthwhile trade for substantially better survivability.

Daeus: MP and Physical Defense

Daeus provides:

• +10% Max MP
• +10% Defense
• -10% Magic Defense
• -10% Luck

Daeus works particularly well for ritual-focused builds that still need physical durability.

Its God Forge includes:

• Lesser Holy Water
• Greater Holy Water
• Trident of the Deep
• Earring of the Dark Sea

Follower rooms appear at:

• the Mall, in the room containing the broken elevator;
• Old Woods Mine F3;
• Catacombs F2 behind the third breakable wall in a row of four near the church entrance.

Daeus becomes less attractive when magical enemies pose the biggest threat or when you rely heavily on Luck.

Hagroth: Farming and Luck

Hagroth provides:

• +10% Luck
• +10% Max HP
• -10% Attack
• -10% Magic Attack

Hagroth is an excellent farming and gathering alignment because the extra HP and Luck provide useful general benefits while you work around the farm and town.

The trade-off becomes painful during difficult combat because Hagroth reduces both damage stats.

Its God Forge includes:

• Lesser Rune of Growth
• Enchanted Pitchfork
• Straw Hat

The Enchanted Pitchfork stands out because it can harvest wandering crops on contact, providing a practical farming improvement rather than merely changing a number on your character sheet.

Hagroth follower rooms can appear at:

• Mall Mines F3’s big-tree layout;
• an Old Woods Mine F2 variant;
• Catacombs F3, far right near the Boney Honey Tree.

Valtris: Magic Attack and Progression

Valtris provides:

• +10% Max MP
• +10% Magic Attack
• -10% Max HP

Valtris works well for ritual-focused combat.

The downside is reduced Max HP, which makes the alignment less forgiving when your character is still fragile.

Its God Forge is particularly useful because it includes:

• Basic Skeleton Key
• Small Mine Key
• Forbidden Lorebook
• Starmap of Valtris

The Small Mine Key and Basic Skeleton Key can sometimes be more valuable than the stat bonuses because they permanently open useful routes.

Follower rooms appear at:

• Mall Mines F3’s Ancient Statue Room variant;
• Catacombs F3 south of the entrance.

The Catacombs route involves both a Wire Cutter obstacle and a breakable door.

Nezroth: HP and Physical Durability

Nezroth provides:

• +10% Max HP
• +10% Defense
• -10% Agility
• -10% Magic Defense

Nezroth works particularly well against physical enemies.

The increased HP gives you more room for mistakes while Defense reduces incoming physical damage.

Magical enemies change the calculation because Nezroth also reduces Magic Defense.

Its God Forge includes:

• Blood of the Gods
• Bloated Chestplate
• Finger Necklace

Blood of the Gods restores 50 HP and 10 MP while also applying a random blessing and a random curse. Treat it as a useful but unpredictable recovery item.

Follower rooms appear at:

• Mall Mines F2;
• an Old Woods Mines F2 variant;
• Catacombs F3 behind the second breakable wall to the right of the entrance.

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Remember That Mine Rooms Can Change

Mine location should not be considered fixed coordinates. Some follower rooms exist on certain variants or layouts of the floors.

For instance:

• Kaal is found in Mall Mines F3 Worm Room variant.
• Hagroth is found in Mall Mines F3 big-tree layout.
• Valtris is found in Mall Mines F3 Ancient Statue Room variant.
• Delvek, Hagroth and Nezroth can be found in three variants of Old Woods Mines F2.

If one goes to the right floor and does not find the correct room, then the issue may be the layout itself. Find the right landmark or room variant instead of thinking that the guide, alignment or game itself has gone wrong.

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Xxarteck Is Not the Eighth Sunday God

Do not spend your Sunday trying to align with Xxarteck through the standard alignment process in Church.

The seven standard gods on Sundays are:

Gatis, Delvek, Kaal, Daeus, Hagroth, Valtris and Nezroth.

Xxarteck is aligned in a different progression process and he is associated with the Stone Tower. This is important in relation to the Zealot achievement too – you do not have to align with all the Old Gods.

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Start the Library Quest Early

Visit the Library as soon as possible. This will initiate the tower quest for your farm. This quest chain seems to work in the background over an extended period of time, so starting it early will give it more time to progress. Elderfield often rewards players that start up long-term systems before they become relevant.

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Talk to Everyone and Use Your Weekly Gifts

Do not neglect the villagers. Each character gives you the opportunity to offer them two gifts per week. The missed week becomes lost chances to develop relations that will be very difficult to restore. There is no need to memorize the favorite gifts for each character right away. Just offer gifts, test and use the information saved by the game. The Social tab saves what characters love, dislike, and hate, giving you an opportunity to create your own gift database. Though you do not care about relations now, it helps you not to have a lot of relation grinding in the future.

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Treat Daily TV Events as Optional Content

A random event is possible each day from the television.

These may involve:

• Blood stain;
• Phone number;
• Treasure hunt;
• Dog wanting to play;
• Other bizarre events.

Most of these events will end up making you face monsters instead of the treasure. These monsters can be way more powerful than you at your initial level of encountering these events. You don’t have to chase all these events right away. They are recurring events, and you won’t lose them forever just by skipping them once.

Treat them like optional events rather than necessary daily events. There are events that make use of unusual environmental mechanics. For example, in the summer season, staying under the sun outside will hurt you gradually with sun damage.

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Understand Elderfield’s Four Seasons

Elderfield doesn’t follow the conventional naming pattern of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

It has four seasons:

• Season of Rebirth
• Season of Harvest
• Season of the Witch
• Season of Death

Each season runs for 28 days and there’s an event that marks the end of the season. There’s an important farming distinction in that the crops are not strictly seasonal. Some crops can be grown all year round but some crops are still seasonal. Farming is easier compared to traditional farming games.

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Those Strange Farm Plots Have a Purpose

Some of the fields on your farm look open and ready to be planted, but common seeds cannot be used in those plots. These plots are meant to grow special plants, including:

• flowers;
• fruit-bearing trees;
• other special seeds.

Sunflowers can serve as one of the first examples. Moreover, you can buy fruit-bearing trees and other special seeds from a little-known town store. If some common seed is unable to grow in one of those plots, leave the plot alone until you get the right kind of seed.

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Build a Scarecrow Before Planting Valuable Crops

However, the aggressive nature of the creatures that eat crops in the game cannot be overlooked. It appears that they have a special liking for crops that cost more. Constructing a scarecrow before growing any expensive seed is highly recommended. The initial scarecrow is rather affordable, costing about five gold from the individual selling the crops.

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Use the Auto-Selection Trick When Planting and Watering

When sowing or watering crops, stay in place rather than constantly moving around to target individual tiles. The game automatically selects the next applicable tile within range. This makes large plots much faster to plant and water and avoids the awkward targeting that can otherwise make farm maintenance feel unnecessarily clunky.

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Rain Does Not Automatically Water a Freshly Planted Crop

There is a farming peculiarity when it comes to rain. When you harvest one crop during the rain and then plant another right away in the same spot, the newly planted crop doesn’t necessarily get the rain of the day automatically. When planting during the rain, always remember to check your newly planted crop, and water it manually if needed. It is not known whether this behaviour is intentional or a bug, so don’t count on the rain watering your newly planted crop.

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Flowers Produce Seeds

Do not make an assumption that you will get flowers by harvesting flowers. The mentioned sunflower harvest results in sunflower seeds and not harvested sunflowers. It implies that you should not plant flowers anticipating receiving flowers for gifts.

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Save Your Crops for the Weekend Merchant

There is also a travelling merchant who visits once a week and gives lower prices for randomly chosen two crops. Rather than selling everything to the vendors on regular basis, try storing the crops for a while. Once the visiting merchant comes, look up the two crops that he needs and sell those crops to him and make more profit. This way, keeping your crops becomes profitable on weekly basis.

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Click on Everything

Elderfield’s artistic style allows for useful items to fit into their surroundings. When the game first begins, you will probably not recognize many of the materials for crafting due to not having learned the visual language of the world yet. Click on the items that look like part of the background scenery.

An object which is part of the scenery might actually be:

• a crafting material;
• a collectible;
• a forageable;
• a useful item.

The more you play, the easier this gets, but doing it early on ensures you don’t keep passing by useful items.

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You Do Not Have to Sleep Every Night

Sleep is very different from what many players imagine it would be in farming-sim games. You can stay awake for several days. The game does not make you go home just because the day ended, and shops and NPCs do not run on an ordinary traditional day and night cycle. NPCs may stay active even late at night. You can perform quests, whether day or night. But there are penalties for that too. Not sleeping gradually results in debuff effects, with your character becoming more tired and weakened.

When you have been awake for two or more days, then you may get Heavy Eyelids debuff at the end of the night on the second day. It will decrease EXP to about 85%. Heavy Eyelids cannot stack and does not get washed away in baths. You need to sleep to remove this debuff.

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Sleeping Does Not Heal You

Don’t expect sleep to regenerate your HP. Even when you fall asleep with 10 HP, you can wake up with 10 HP or even less. Some occurrences could be detrimental for you even while you sleep, resulting in death. At the same time, sleep may grant you blessings at times. Thus, sleep is still beneficial, but not a substitute for healing.

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Use Baths to Heal

Bathing is one of the best ways to recover in Elderfield.

Taking a bath will allow you to:

• recover HP;
• recover MP;
• remove non-permanent blessings;
• remove non-permanent curses.

The only downside is that a bath also removes any buffs that you might need. Bathing is therefore a good way to refresh yourself in case of failure, particularly after mining or fighting and accumulating several curses. Alternatively, you can recover through cooking and eating. However, bathing gives you an easy way to recover without having to use any healing resources. Lastly, Bathing also triggers the world’s resource respawn cycle.

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Understand Resource Respawns

This is not always the case that resources will respawn the following day. Overworld resources respawn after each weekly reset, which can be either bathing or death.

The resources are for:

• wood;
• forageable items;
• resources from other worlds.

Mines will have a separate respawn pattern as well. When you clear out a mine, don’t expect it to respawn overnight. Plan your resource collection based on the weekly respawn cycle.

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Learn How Blessings and Curses Work

Blessings and Curses are often bestowed by Elderfield temporarily.

They may occur because of:

• fighting;
• mining;
• falling asleep;
• moonrise events;
• God Shrines;
• eating;
• drinking potions;
• other random events.

Many effects stack up with about ±10% per stack up to five stacks maximum.

Common Blessings

• Brutalism: +10% attack per stack
• Stubbornness: +10% defense per stack
• Zealotry: +10% magic attack per stack
• Skepticism: +10% magic defense per stack
• Daring: +10% agility per stack
• Panic: +10% hit rate per stack
• Greed: +10% luck per stack

Common Curses

• Sickness: -10% Attack per stack
• Weakness: -10% Defense per stack
• Chaos: -10% Magic Attack per stack
• Hex: -10% Magic Defense per stack
• Dread: -10% Agility per stack
• Fear: -10% Hit Rate per stack
• Doom: -10% Luck per stack

Mining, enemy attacks, moonrise events, God Shrines and poor random rolls can apply curses.

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How to Remove Status Effects

There are various ways through which you can remove blessings and curses.

Home Bathing

It will restore your HP and MP and will remove any temporary blessing and curse. Please note that it will also remove all the good buffs that you have received.

Soul Moon

A Soul Moon at midnight can help restore HP and MP and remove blessings and curses.

Potions

Restore Potions can help you remove curses. Holy Water and some foods can give you blessings.

Some Special Blessings

Some special blessings can survive even after bathing.

Tax Effects

• Carrion;
• Blight;
• Tax Plague;
• Tax Blessings

are not under the same rule and will continue until the Tax Man returns.

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Storage Is Generous, but Food Storage Has a Catch

Your backpack is limited in terms of capacity, however, you can increase the capacity by adding more pouches. You can buy pouches from NPCs and/or enemies. Your personal chest has unlimited capacity.

Additionally, you have an extra fridge which has unlimited capacity as well. The key difference here is that while cooking can only utilise the ingredients that you keep in your fridge. If you put the food into a regular chest, then it won’t be able to be used for cooking at all. As for crafting, it is different in this respect.

Ingredients that are stored in a regular chest can be used by crafting stations automatically. The fridge does not count toward crafting.

That means materials such as:

• bones;
• eyeballs;
• bugs;
• salt;
• other ingredients

can accidentally become inaccessible to crafting if you store them in the fridge.

So, if you know that you have an ingredient but it is not found by crafting station, you should look into the fridge. Also, you can build as many chests as you need.

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Use Equipment Swapping to Manage MP

Interactions in the RPG systems created by Elderfield have small interactions that encourage you to experiment with your gear. For instance, a high damage weapon will increase its attack MP usage as well as its healing MP usage. You can use this interaction when you’re not fighting. Since the high damage weapon increases your healing cost, temporarily switch to another weapon, then heal at a low cost before switching back to your weapon. This will cost you very little, but you can save a lot of MP. Since you only have limited resources, saving small amounts of mana and materials will make certain areas and boss fights way easier for you.

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