Agromatic - Game Guide & Wiki

Getting Started

This guide is not a detailed basic guide. The basic guide already exists in-game as a tutorial and it's better suited for learning the fundamentals. This guide will explain the parts players struggle with—how to do things, what to do, shortcuts to improve quality of life (QOL), and things that aren't explained in the game.

Tools

The game has several tools, each with a different purpose. Understanding which tool to use for each task is essential for efficient gameplay:

Plant tool: Used only for planting.
Harvest tool: Used only for harvesting crops and wild grass.
Axe: Used only for chopping trees.
Watering can: Used only for watering hoed tiles.
Pickaxe: A versatile tool that can remove objects, stations, and flooring; mine stones; and remove crops and hoed tiles.

Interaction Tools

SELECT and BUILD tools are quite different from other tools. These tools don't need supreme versions and are used to interact with specific game features:

SELECT tool: Used to interact with workers and other game elements. When you click on an idle worker, it shows the worker info/modal. You can also use it to mark workers for batch operations (see the Expanding Your Land section for details).
BUILD tool: Automatically selected when you want to place objects and buildings. This tool is also used for batch paste station configurations (see the Crafting Stations section for shortcuts).

Supreme Tools

Supreme tools are special tools marked with a star icon. These powerful tools offer significant advantages over regular tools. While normal tools require clicking each tile individually, supreme tools support advanced drag operations.

Instant actions: Supreme tools perform instant actions, such as chopping trees or mining stone and coal with a single hit.

Shortcuts:

Drag to paint: Hold the left mouse button and drag to perform actions continuously across multiple tiles, similar to painting in Photoshop. This allows you to quickly apply actions to tiles as you drag over them.
Batch/Bulk actions: Hold "CTRL", then hold the left mouse button and drag to create a rectangle area. The action will be applied to all tiles within the rectangle when you release the mouse button.

How to Hire Workers

Hiring workers is essential for expanding your operations in Agromatic. Here's how the hiring process works:

Open the Hiring Menu: Access the "Hiring" menu in the right panel.
Choose Ad Type: Select an advertisement type. Lower cost equals lower applicants - cheaper ads will attract fewer potential workers.
Post Job Ads: Posting job ads requires cost, so make sure you have enough funds.
Select Worker Type: After selecting your ad type, choose the available worker type you want to hire:
- Farm worker
- Craft worker
- Animal worker
- Or any other available worker type
Note: Some worker types may not be available. Locked worker types require completing specific objectives to unlock.
Review Applicants: After the job is posted, applicants will be shown the next day. You can then choose who to hire.
Choose Wisely: Each worker may have different traits. Some workers aren't worth hiring, so review their traits before making your selection.

Crafting Stations

There are two types of craft stations in Agromatic, each with different mechanics for how they operate:

Stations That Require Worker Presence

Examples: Stoneworks, Woodworks

Manual crafting is not possible: You cannot craft manually on these stations.
Craft workers only: Only craft workers can operate these stations.
Worker is locked: When a craft worker is assigned to these stations, they are locked in place and cannot leave until the crafting process is complete.
No multitasking: The worker cannot do other tasks while processing at these stations.
Craft speed affected by worker skills: Unlike non-presence stations, the crafting speed on presence-required stations is directly affected by the worker's skill level. Newly hired craft workers start with 0 XP/skills, which means they craft much slower than experienced workers.
Skill impact on craft time: The worker's skill directly affects how long crafting takes:
- 0% skill: Crafting takes double the base time (e.g., an item that normally takes 0.5 days will take 1 day)
- 50% skill: Crafting takes 1.5x the base time (e.g., 0.5 days becomes 0.75 days)
- 100% skill: Crafting takes the base time (e.g., 0.5 days stays 0.5 days, matching the item's craft time in the data)
Skill progression: Craft workers gain XP/skill each time they complete a craft, gradually improving their efficiency over time.

Tip: For worker presence-required stations, it's better to assign a specific worker to the same station consistently. This way, the same worker will work on that station and will increase their skill, making them more efficient over time.

Tip: Meals can provide valuable boosts to your workers. Some meals can increase crafting speed, while others can increase learning speed, helping workers gain XP faster.

Stations That Don't Require Worker Presence

Examples: Dehydrator, Composter

Manual crafting available: You can craft manually on these stations yourself.
Craft workers can multitask: Craft workers can place ingredients in these stations and then leave to do other tasks.
Automatic processing: Once ingredients are placed, the station will process them automatically without requiring the worker to stay.
Efficient workflow: This allows craft workers to set up multiple crafting jobs and move on to other work while items are being processed.

Shortcuts:

Configuring many craft stations one by one is tedious. Use these shortcuts to save time:

Hold "C" then click the craft station to copy the configuration.
Hold "V" then click the craft station to paste the configuration.
Batch paste: Select "BUILD" tool, hold "V", then hold click and drag the mouse to paste configurations to multiple stations at once.

Mining

The mining objective is exposed early—selling X amount of coal. You may question yourself: where the hell to get coal? The answer is, on another zone. You need to purchase a zone that contains coal. In demo mode, the closest zone that contains coal is to the right of your starting zone.

You can mine coal using a pickaxe to complete the mining objective and unlock "mining corp" stores. However, using a pickaxe is NOT the proper way to mine. You need to purchase a mining drill from the mining corp store and place it directly above ore tiles. You can identify ore tiles by their distinctive color.

Mining Workers and Skills

Mining workers required: Only mining workers can operate mining drills, just like craft workers operate craft stations.
New miners start at 0 XP: Newly hired miners start with 0 XP and skills, just like craft workers.
Slow ore generation: New miners generate ores very slowly. Miners gain 1 XP each time they generate an ore.
Skill impact on speed: At 100% skill (max level), miners only add 50% speed to the base mining drill speed. This means skills help, but the drill's base speed is still the main factor.

Mining Drill Types

Coal Mining Drill: A coal-fueled mining drill that you can purchase from mining corp stores. Requires a mining worker to operate.
Electric Mining Drill: Mines twice as fast as the coal mining drill, but it only runs on batteries.
Battery requirement: You can get batteries after unlocking the electric engineering objective.
Skills don't transfer: Skill XP from the coal mining drill does not carry over to the electric mining drill. Electric drill skills start at 0.
Electric drill advantage: Even with 0 skill, an electric mining drill works as fast as a 100% skilled worker on a coal mining drill. This makes it much more efficient, even for new miners.

Tip: Before you start operating electric mining drills, make sure you have a stable and sufficient battery production. Electric drills consume batteries continuously, so running out of batteries will stop your mining operations.

Tip: Don't assign low-skill miners to high HP ores. Instead, assign new miners to fast-generating ores like sand (fastest), or coal if you don't have access to sand yet. Since XP comes from ore output, low-skill workers on high HP ores will take a very long time to level up. Save high-skill workers for high HP ores, otherwise their pay isn't worth it.

Tip: You can buy coal from the store, but only use this for urgent needs. Buying coal for regular production is too expensive.

Tip: Use meals to boost mining speed or learning speed. Mining speed meals can exceed the normal skill percentage limit, giving you extra benefits beyond the skill cap.

Expanding Your Land

As you progress in Agromatic, you'll need to purchase additional zones to access new resources and expand your operations. However, there are important things to know about how workers function across zones:

Workers are zone-tied: After purchasing a new zone, workers will NOT automatically work in the new zone. Workers need to be moved or assigned to specific zones.
One zone per worker: Workers are zone-tied and cannot work on multiple zones. Each worker can only operate within their assigned zone.
Housing requirement: You need to build a house in the new zone. Otherwise, workers will return to the starting zone when the work day ends.

Note: After purchasing your initial zone, you will receive an in-game message explaining how to move workers and animals to other zones. This guide focuses on the important details that might not be immediately obvious.

Shortcuts:

For quick move multiple workers to another zone:

Select "SELECT" tool, hold "CTRL", then click idle workers (not moving worker or busy worker). When marked, the worker color will be changed to blue.
Right click in another zone to move the worker there. It will auto assign to this zone.
Batch selection: Select "SELECT" tool, hold "CTRL", hold left click mouse, and drag to make rectangle area. All idle workers inside the rectangle will be marked.

Move animals: Same with worker, but use "ALT" instead of "CTRL". If moved, animal will be teleport to new zone (must have empty sleeping spot inside barn). Animals teleport instantly; the moving transition wasn't implemented for this feature yet.

Meals

Meals are essential for making your workers more effective. They can improve worker skills, extend abilities, and provide various boosts that significantly impact productivity.

Getting Started with Meals

To craft meals, you'll need a stove or electric stove. Here's how to set up your meal production:

Purchase a stove: Stoves can be purchased from the Northstar food store.
Kitchen requirement: Stoves can only be placed inside a kitchen building. You cannot place them elsewhere.
Unlock kitchen: To build a kitchen, you need to:
- Unlock the kitchen objective
- Purchase the kitchen blueprint
Meal crafting: Once you have a stove placed in your kitchen, you can craft meals from it. The electric stove works similarly but without coal.

Why Meals Are Important

Meals play a crucial role in worker efficiency:

New workers start at 0 skills: Newly hired workers have 0 skills, making them much less efficient than experienced workers.
Skill improvement: Meals can improve worker skills, helping them perform tasks faster and more effectively.
Ability extension: Meals can extend worker abilities beyond their normal skill limits, providing boosts that exceed standard skill percentages.
Different boosts: Each meal provides different boosts. Hover over a meal item to see detailed information about what boosts it provides.

Setting Up Dining Areas

For workers to consume meals, you need to set up a proper dining area:

Dining table and chair: Place a dining table and a chair above it in your zone.
Meal storage: Put the meals in storage within the same zone. Workers will access meals from the zone's storage.
Zone requirement: Meals must be stored in the zone where workers are assigned. Workers cannot access meals from other zones.

When Workers Eat Meals

Understanding when workers consume meals is important for planning your meal production:

Work day start: Workers will eat meals when the work day starts. This means they consume meals at the beginning of each work day, not during or at the end of the day.
Meal availability: Make sure meals are available in zone storage before the work day begins, otherwise workers won't be able to eat and won't receive the meal boosts for that day.
Boost duration: The boosts from meals last for the entire work day after consumption, providing benefits throughout the day's work.

Configuring Dining Tables

You can configure dining tables to control which workers eat meals:

Worker type configuration: You can configure the dining table to set it for a specific worker type (e.g., farm workers, craft workers, mining workers).
Individual worker limitation: Currently, there is no feature to set what individual workers eat. Configuration is done at the worker type level, not per individual worker.

Tip: Different meals provide different boosts. Some meals increase crafting speed, others increase learning speed, and some can boost mining speed. Check the meal details by hovering over them to find the best meals for your specific needs.

Trains

Trains are an efficient transportation system for moving items across your zones. They can be obtained after completing the rail transport objective, which unlocks the Railsteel Industries store where you can purchase train components.

How to Place Trains

Setting up a train requires following a specific order:

Place train depot: First, place a train depot in your zone. This serves as the starting point for your train.
Place railroad track: Build railroad tracks connecting your zones or locations where you want the train to travel.
Place train head next to depot: Place a train head (locomotive) next to the depot. This is the front of your train.
Add train wagons: Place train wagons following the train head. You can add multiple wagons in sequence.
Place train head at the end: Place another train head at the end of your train. This allows the train to travel in both directions.

Train Configuration

Maximum wagons: The maximum amount of wagons per train is 10.
Fuel consumption: Trains consume fuel equal to the number of wagons per trip. For example, a train with 5 wagons will consume 5 coal per trip, regardless of how long or short the track is.
Load/unload configuration: You need to decide if a position will be load or unload by clicking the train head. If the train head next to the depot is set to "Load", when the train is at this position, all wagons for that train will be set to "load".
Individual wagon limitation: You cannot set individual wagons to be load or unload. The configuration applies to all wagons when the train is at a specific position.
Logistic workers required: Wagons need a Logistic worker to load/unload items. Make sure you have logistic workers to handle train operations.
Turning on trains: To turn on a train, click the train head, then turn ON.

Electric/Volt Trains

Electric trains (volt trains) offer significant advantages over regular coal-powered trains:

Battery consumption: Volt trains consume 1 battery per trip, regardless of track length and wagon count. This makes them much more fuel-efficient than regular trains.
Double speed: Volt trains travel at double the speed of regular trains, significantly reducing transport time.
Double capacity: Volt train wagons have double the capacity of regular train wagons, allowing you to transport more items per trip.

Shortcuts:

Configuring many train wagons one by one is tedious. Use these shortcuts to save time:

Hold "C" then click the wagon to copy the wagon configuration.
Hold "V" then click the wagon to paste the wagon configuration.

Tip: Before setting up volt trains, ensure you have a stable battery production. Volt trains consume batteries continuously, so running out of batteries will stop your train operations.