¶ Animals
Take a break from farming to do some ranching instead! Although, you'll need products from your farm if you want to get the maximum benefits out of each animal.
Sunflower Land as a game is very generous when it comes to allowing new players access to its features. You don't have to wait very long to be able to do many different things in the game, but animal raising is one of those features where most experienced players will recommend you WAIT to begin. All animals require large amounts of food, and unless you have a huge stockpile of feed already, they will eat you out of farmhouse and home island before you know it.
You can find all the hard numbers on ranching at https://sfl.world/info/animals
¶ Animal Basics
There are several elements that are common to every animal, so let's begin with those. There are two buildings that house animals, the Hen House contains chickens and the Barn houses both Sheep and Cows together. By default both buildings have 10 slots for animals, so you can have 10 chickens and 10 sheep or cows in any combination. Animals don't age and cannot die from neglect or underfeeding.
¶ Buying an animal
When you first step into your new building, you'll find it empty. To buy your first animal, click on the bag/shop icon in the upper-right corner. Each creature costs Coins initially. You can buy as many as will fit in your building, as shown by the Capacity number at the bottom.
¶ Feeding an animal
Once you have your new level 1 creature, it needs to be fed. Every animal requires an amount of food to gain experience and level up, and when reaching a new level, they will produce a certain resource and then fall asleep from the exertion. An animal that is awake and wanting food will display an icon above its head with the specific food it desires. There are currently five different types:
- Kernel Blend- 1x Corn
- Hay- 1x Wheat
- NutriBarley- 1x Barley
- Mixed Grain- 1x Corn, 1x Wheat, 1x Barley (3x Kale with skill Kale Mix)
- Omnifeed- 1x Gem
All foods are made at the Feeder Machine at the top of your building. Feed is stored in your inventory after you Mix it, and clicking on it in the Machine's window makes it the top item in your active bar, even if you don't Mix any. The feed you want must be the top item when you tap on your animal.
You can feed any animal any food at any stage of its life. However, you want to give it the food displayed above its head whenever possible as that will give it the maximum amount of XP. Any other food will give it half the amount of XP per feeding. So, pay attention to your item bar when it's feeding time.
Feeding is structured according to “packs." Each animal requires a different amount of feed that must be given to it all at once for the feeding to be successful. At the basic, unboosted level, chickens require 1 unit of food per pack, Sheep 3, and Cows 5. Each level requires a different amount of packs, though, meaning you must feed the animal that many times and use a pack's worth of food each time. By looking at the charts at sfl.world, you can see that feeding gets expensive very quickly.
Omnifeed is a special “wildcard” food that will give an animal full satisfaction from a feeding no matter what food it is currently requesting. While feeding your animals ground-up Gems may seem daunting, depending on the price of resources it may actually be cheaper to use Omnifeed instead of Mixed Grain, especially since you can now buy Gems directly with the FLOWER you earn from selling all of that Milk and Leather.
¶ XP and Levels
An animal is awake until its XP bar is full, after which it will produce and fall asleep. Each pack of feed fills up the bar by a certain amount, and overflow is not lost. Meaning if they have 90/100 XP to the next level, and you feed them a pack worth 20 XP, they will have 10/100 XP afterward. Which will be helpful later on.
Every animal requires different feed at different levels, but that breakdown is currently the same for all three types.
The highest level an animal can currently attain is 15. They will produce the most resources at this level, but also require the most food, so you must discern when to feed and when to sell.
¶ Sleep and Petting
After an animal falls asleep, you must wait a while for them to regain their strength. But that doesn't mean you should ignore them. Periodically when an animal is asleep, they will request (subconsciously) that you give them some attention. An icon will appear with one of three tools in it: the Petting Hand, Brush, or Music Box. All three of these are available at your Workbench on your home island.
Unlike with feeding, you don't have to select the “right” tool to use on an animal when it's sleeping. If you have the tool it requests, you'll use it when tapping, and if you don't, you won't. Don't worry if you haven't saved up enough Coins for that Music Box, though, since petting can only give bonuses, not penalties.
Petting an animal will give it some bonus XP, depending on the tool you used. This means it will require less feed when it wakes up again, which is absolutely critical when dealing with high-level animals. It's even possible to level up an animal while it's sleeping, meaning it will produce as soon as it wakes up (and then fall back asleep again). If you can't pet it before it wakes up since you don't have the right tool, it won't gain any XP, but won't lose any, either.
If you really need that extra Egg for a recipe right away, you can give your animal a Doll of a specific kind. That will wake it up, allowing you to feed it again and get an extra product. The dolls required for an animal of a certain level are shown at the sfl.world link above.
¶ Sickness
Periodically your animals will become sick, gaining an icon above their head. Sick animals cannot be fed, and the sickness is contagious: every sick animal increases the chances of another animal becoming sick every day. You must cure them as soon as possible, and fortunately the cure is in the Feeder Machine. Mix up some Lemons and Honey into Barn Delight and give it to the sick animal to have them producing resources for you as soon as possible.
Tea with lemon and honey is an effective remedy in the real world, too. Previously, Barn Delight required Iron and Eggs to mix, which was a curious combination for medicine.
¶ Selling and Bounties
When that Cow stars asking for Mixed Grain, you know it's time to let it go. At the same menu where you buy your animals, you can sell them too. Each building has its own Bounty Board, where you can sell up to 10 chickens, or 5 cows and 5 sheep, as long as they are of the required level. There are three categories of bounties: Coins, Chapter Tickets, and Gems, the last of which only appears on Auction Week or the weeks between Chapters.
An animal must be awake to sell it, so check the Board first thing in the morning before you start feeding. If an animal is sick, you can still sell it, though you will only get 75% of the reward listed for the bounty (rounded down).
While you may be hesitant to sell that animal you've spent so long caring for, keep in mind that high-level animals require much more food than lower-level ones, so you may end up spending more in feed than it would cost you to just buy the resources it is producing on the marketplace. Check https://sfl.world/boost/ (enter your farm ID) to see your specific farm's output, and whether you should push that cow to level 11 or let it feed some hungry goblins.
¶ Specialization Skills
Or: how to make animals more worthwhile
Just by looking at the numbers at https://sfl.world/info/animals, you may think that raising animals just isn't worth your time. 60 Barley for 3 Milk and 3 Leather? Without any boosts, you'd be absolutely right. However, there are many ways to make your ranching journey more bearable.
First of all, just like in the real world, any feed you grow yourself is feed you don't have to buy. All crops are cheaper when grown from seed compared to when bought on the marketplace, so if you can keep up your production of Corn, Wheat, and Barley when they are in season, you will dramatically reduce your feed budget. The Acre Farm crops skill will also be a great boon to you, as each of the feed crops are Advanced and that +1 bonus will go a long way. There are a few NFT items that boost the output of those crops as well, but they are well out of the reach of the beginner player. Unless you have unlimited money at your disposal, but then why would you be worrying about reducing costs?
The Kale Mix skill might sound attractive, until you do the math and see that 3 Kale can be more expensive than one each of the other grains (cereals). Since taking the skill permanently changes the requirement for the recipe, you can't pick and choose depending on market conditions. And, Kale can only be grown for two weeks out of the month, while the three grains collectively can be grown all month long.
The Chonky Feed skill sounds confusing, but it is worth while when you have the skill points. Every pack of feed gives twice the XP, so you need half as many to level up a single animal. But, each pack becomes 50% larger, so you will need more food in each one. The math works out, though, and you will use less feed in the long run, especially at higher levels.
If you're concerned about the cost of Barn Delight, you can choose to boost your Lemon and Honey output through several fruit and flower skills, or reduce its cost through the Alternative Medicine skill, but honestly it's better to take the skill Healthy Livestock, which will make sickness a rare thing.
So, with all of that out of the way, the best way to reduce costs and improve yields on animals is to pick one and align your skills toward it. You will have a much easier time compared to raising two or all three types of creature.
- Chicken Specialist
- Fine Fibers- +0.1 Feather
- Double Bale- +0.4 Egg total from Bale
- Featherweight- +0.25 Feather, -0.25 Leather & Merino Wool
- Abundant Harvest- +0.2 Egg
- Clucky Grazing- 25% less feed required per pack, 50% more to other two animals
- Sheep Specialist
- Fine Fibers- +0.1 Merino Wool
- Bale Economy- +0.2 Wool
- Double Bale- Additional +0.2 Wool with Bale
- Abundant Harvest- +0.2 Wool
- Merino Whisperer- +0.25 Merino, -.25 Leather & Feather
- Sheepwise Diet- 25% less feed required per pack, 50% more to other two animals
- Cow Specialist
- Fine Fibers- +0.1 Leather
- Bale Economy- +0.2 Milk
- Double Bale- Additional +0.2 Milk with Bale
- Abundant Harvest- +0.2 Milk
- Leathercraft Mastery- +0.25 Leather, -.25 Merino & Feather
- Cow-Smart Nutrition- 25% less feed required per pack, 50% more to other two animals
- Chonky Feed- 2x XP per pack, +50% pack size (recommended for Cows because of high food requirements)
With some groups of skills that give bonuses and penalties together, you can take both and get a net gain (Hectare and Acre Farm; No Axe, No Worries and Fruity Woody) but with animals, the numbers just don't work out. You will use less feed and get more resources out of choosing one animal and focusing your skills on it, and even more if you can afford the NFT items that boost your animal of choice. So, if you want a steady supply of Eggs for cooking, pick the chicken. If you want to supply Wool to the world's doll crafters, choose the sheep. Or, if you want to take on the challenge and run a dairy farm, providing Milk for the top-tier foods and Leather for dolls and oil drills, take the cow by the horns.
¶ NFT Items
There are many items that will help with animals, and many are extremely expensive. The Gold Cow/Sheep/Egg items let you feed your animals for free, but will be out of the budget range for the vast majority of players. There are some that you can find for more reasonable prices, however.
- Speed Chicken: -10% Egg production time (Chickens wake up faster, can be fed more often)
- Fat Chicken: -10% Chicken feed required
- Rich Chicken: +0.1 Egg
- Summer Chicken: Chickens cannot get sick in summer
- Frozen Cow: Cows cannot get sick in winter
- Nurse Sheep: Sheep cannot get sick in summer
- White Sheep Onesie: +0.25 Wool
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