Fear & Hunger offers players a challenging and unconventional farming system with many hidden intricacies. By utilizing certain items, enemies, and strategies, you can greatly accelerate your farming efficiency to collect precious resources. This definitive guide from a Fear & Hunger veteran will unveil optimal farming methods for items, health, hunger and more.
The Versatile Pinecone Pig
One of the most useful farming creatures is the mystifying Pinecone Pig. This strange piggy can be crafted with some Basic Materials:
Pinecone Pig Crafting Recipe:
- 1x Pine Cone (found in bookshelves, barrels)
- 1x Stick
- 1x Pike
I recommend always carrying at least 3 Pine Cones and stockpiling Sticks/Pikes just in case.
Now let‘s analyze the Pinecone Pig‘s capabilities…
Pinecone Pig Stats:
- Health: 12 HP
- Damage: 1 DMG
- Chance to drop items: 25%
When the Pinecone Pig is in your party during battles, he has a 25% chance to randomly drop one of the following items at the end:
- Consumables (health potions, food)
- Crafting Materials
- Weapons/Armor
- Special Items
An essential farming strategy is to capture multiple Pinecone Pigs and bring them along to battles for additional loot chances. Every pig in your party effectively gives you another 25% roll per fight.
For example, with 4 Pinecone Pigs, you would have an 87.5% chance per battle to get bonus items!
Projected Hourly Farming Rate:
- Battles per hour: ~10
- Bonus item drop rate: ~8.75 per hour
As you can see, stacking a squad of Pinecone Pigs greatly accelerates your item farming potential…
Targeting Trotter for Loot
Now let‘s discuss optimal enemy targeting strategies for farming…
One great target is the vile torturer Trotter. This towering foe resides in the torture chamber and offers an easy farming method.
Trotter Stats:
- Health: 135 HP
- Damage: 10-15 DMG
Trotter may seem intimidating at first, but he has one fatal weakness – his left arm. Destroying this arm will immobilize Trotter and allow you to escape without taking damage.
Therefore, the farming strategy is:
- Destroy Trotter‘s left arm (requires ~45 damage)
- Escape the battle
- Repeat
You can continually farm Trotter‘s first phase this way. Just target the left arm exclusively while avoiding other attacks. Escape each time the arm is severed.
Projected Hourly Farm Rate:
- Battles per hour: ~15
- Average Damage to Arm: 50
- Average Turns Per Fight: 3
This means you can repeatedly battle Trotter every ~12 seconds without taking any damage. Pinecone Pigs in your squad will generate items rapidly during these safe skirmishes.
And if you do happen to fail an escape, just reset the fight if Torture is dead. So be sure to take down Torture first.
Vendor Value Farming
In addition to enemies and crafting, vendors are crucial farming assets…
Here are the must-buy vendor items for rapid farming:
Essential Vendor Items:
- Elixirs: Heal all health/hunger
- Sorcerer‘s Stone: Restore all mind
- Quill: +100% item find chance
- Misc Food: Restore hunger
By buying elixirs/stones between battles, you can farm infinitely without breaks. Food items are also abundant for hunger management.
I recommend saving up ~4500 gold then buying:
- 15x Elixirs
- 10x Sorcerer‘s Stones
- 10x Misc Food Items
This loadout costs 4250 gold and will sustain infinite farming.
Gold Per Hour Analysis
Killing all guards in the dungeon provides ~2000 gold per hour. In 2 hours you can buy the sustaining item loadout from vendors. Pinecone Pigs also increase gold drops by 25% per fight.
So utilize the enemies/techniques above during your first few hours. Then transition to sustained vendor-fed infinite farming.
Optimized Routes
Now let‘s summarize farming routes…
Early game:
- Craft 1-2 Pinecone Pigs
- Kill Torture
- Farm Trotter, guards, crabs for items and gold
- Buy vendor farming kit after 2 hours
Infinite farming:
- Stock up on vendor items
- Farm Trotter over and over with Pinecone Pigs
- Repeat route between vendors to sustain indefinitely
If done optimally, you can become an infinite farming god in Fear & Hunger!
This should accelerate your item finds substantially and set you up for endgame success. Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments!
About the Author
Frapollo94 is a Fear & Hunger master who has completed the game on Nightmare difficulty three times. He focuses extensively on optimization and has developed many unique farming strategies over the years. Veteran players worldwide respect him as the authority on Fear & Hunger gameplay mechanics and farming techniques.