Farming Simulator 25: Beginner tips and tricks

Farming Simulator 25 can be quite daunting for beginners, which is why we've put together these tips and tricks

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

Every year a new Farming Simulator game comes out, and every year a new group of curious gamers finally give in and see what all the fuss is about, plunging themselves into a series whose popularity continues to baffle anyone who hasn’t played it yet. 

If you’re one such person dipping your toes into the game for the first time then you’ll no doubt dive right into the game’s tutorial. While this does a good job of taking you through the basic processes of how to plant, care for, and harvest your crops, but the game is a lot bigger than just that loop. There are a lot of very useful things that the game doesn’t teach you about that you’ll need to start making a serious profit on your farm.

We’ll help you out by explaining these features and how you can use them to get the most out of your fields.

Roads are suggestions

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

While the farming mechanics in these games are very robust, the driving mechanics are not. These tractors are as light as a piece of paper and can turn on a dime no matter how fast they’re going, so it’s safe to immediately disregard any thoughts you had of sticking to the road or being careful when driving around the game’s word. You’re completely safe to just beeline straight to your objective – as long as there isn’t any water in the way, you’ll be able to just drive right on.

Contracts give easy money early

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

Once you’ve finished the tutorial, go into the menu and scroll through the tabs until you find the contracts, as these will be the easiest way for you to make money in the early game. These tasks are usually pretty simple, where other farms will get you to cut their grass, harvest their crops, and sometimes create bales for them to use.

They all have specific vehicle requirements, but if you don’t have the right equipment, you can lease it from the contractor in exchange for a slightly smaller payout when the job is done.

The map’s hidden features

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

The in-game map naturally has one very obvious use – letting you know where you are and where to go – but it’s actually much better than that. You might not think to do it, but if you scroll along the tabs in the map you can get some very useful information. There are tabs showing field ownership, crop types, and even the status of the soil on each field, letting you quickly see what each one needs – this is especially important as you get into the mid-game and you’re juggling many fields at once.

Watch the crop stocks

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

Each crop in the game is worth a different amount, but what you might not know is that the time of year and your actions can affect how much each one is worth from day to day. If you flood the market with lots of a particular crop, then its value is going to drop and you’ll start making less money, so it’s important to keep an eye on this tab in the menu to make sure you’re growing something profitable.

Memorize the crop calendar

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

The first tab after the map is going to be the most useful one when it comes to managing what to plant and when to plant it. As you’d expect, different crops need to be grown and harvested at specific times of year to get the best yield from them, and rather than leaving you to work that out for yourself, the game gives you a cheat sheet.

This chart lists every crop in the game and shows you when is the best time of year to plant it, and when is the best time to harvest it, maximizing your yield, and therefore your profits.

DIY fast travel

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

One of the game’s most useful features is the ability to automatically teleport between any of your vehicles whenever you want. The tutorial explains this, but what it doesn’t mention is that there’s a very crafty way to use this that lets you fast-travel around the game’s big map.

If you buy a small handful of cheap vehicles, you can park them at useful locations around the map, such as the central town, your home base, and anywhere you regularly need to visit, then you can teleport between them to easily transport yourself there without having to drive back and forth constantly.

Hire AI helpers

Farming Simulator 25 / Gaints Software

If you try to do every little job on the farm yourself then you’re not going to get much done – and even if you do, you’ll probably get bored fast. Thankfully, whenever you’re doing a task, you can hand it off to an AI helper that will continue doing the job for you, in exchange for a bit of cash based on how long the job takes, making everything run much smoother.

Manage AI helpers

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

These AI helpers are very useful, but they can be unreliable. It’s not unheard of for them to do a shoddy job, missing sections of a field or simply thinking that the job is done when they’re not even halfway finished. You will need to check up on them from time to time.

On top of that, if you go into the game settings menu, down the bottom a few options that help you control these AI helpers, and make sure they don’t get overeager and use all your resources without you noticing.

Time is yours to control

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

If you don’t fancy sitting around waiting for crops to grow then don’t worry as you can quite easily speed the process up. In the game settings, one of the top options lets you alter the speed of the in-game clock. By default, it moves at 5x real-time, but you can put that as high as 360x, making things move a lot faster. Of course, you can slow it down too, even letting it run in real-time if you’re some sort of maniac.

Don’t expand too quickly

Farming Simulator 25 / Giants Software

If you’re saving up money from contracts to buy a fancy new vehicle, then it’d be a bad idea to buy it the very moment you hit the threshold. Running out of money can be quite punishing in this game, so it’s better to wait until you have cash to spare on top of the cost of what you’re looking to buy, otherwise, you could find yourself in a financial death spiral quite quickly.