The Trader
Hidden away in what looks like the crater of an extinct volcano is a building where the Trader lives. You can't enter it but a hatch will open and you can trade - if you have something of value to him. Like all traders he offers both worthwhile items and junk. Some items, seeds, he'll give you free.
The building he's in appears indestructable which accounts for his survival when others were killed or captured by bots. It's in a good defensive location with a water supply so you may consider setting up a base here and growing some crops. It's big enough for bots to spawn inside the area if you trigger a raid though.
Here's the Trader himself
Essential Trader offers:
| Item | Trade | Use | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 soil | 10 carrots | growing | Good deal! You can make soil but it needs 50 scrap wood, 50 sand and 10 carrots |
| 10 fertilizer | 10 redbeet | Fertilizer | You can make 10 fertilizer from 30 redbeet seeds |
| 5 Banana seeds | 30 carrots | Crop | Only source initially |
| 5 orange seeds | 30 tomatoes | Crop | Only source initially |
| 5 blueberry seeds | 30 redbeet | Crop | Only source initially |
| 5 cotton seeds | 30 bananas | Crop | Only source of seeds but you can find wild cotton and reclaim cotton from shed matresses |
| Spud gun | 20 oranges + 20 blueberries + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | Effective for destroying tapebots with a headshot |
| Spud shotgun | 40 broccoli + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | 2nd weapon I make. Essential for destroying farmbots |
| 5 broccoli seed | 100 blueberries | Crop | Only source initially |
| 5 pineapple seed | 100 bananas | Crop | Only source initially |
| Woc brusher 9000 | 250 bananas + 250 pineapples +250 broccoli + 10 caged farmers | Weapon? | The most expensive game item but FUN! Get it after you've traded for an electro-hammer, spud shotgun and made a vacuum gun. |
| Electro hammer | 50 pineapple + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | The first trade I make after getting all the seeds. An essential defence weapon |
| 5 eggplant seed | 10 blueberries | Crop | Only initial source |
Highly desirable items
| Item | Trade | Use | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mountable spud gun | 20 banana + 10 blueberry | Weapon | You need both and a trigger. Limited to one location - not worth it unless you use it with an automatic logic control setup in which case it is a great defense against tapebots |
| Potato ammo container | 10 tomatoes + 10 redbeet | ||
| Spudling gun | 50 pineapple + 2 caged farmers | Weapon | Like a machine gun but you need to carry a lot of potato ammo |
| Tank cannon | 10 banana + 10 broccoli +10 pineapple
|
Static weapon | Useful on a vehicle or static location especially if controlled by logic. You need both |
| Explosive boom box | 10 banana +10 broccoli | Ammo container | |
| Garment box - rare | 20 broccoli + 2 caged farmers | Garment | Allows a change of garment but you have no control of what garment you get. You can find these in chests but they are rare |
| Production module | 10 broccoli + 10 pineapple +1 caged farmer each module | Device improvements | Increases speed, range or production. These can be found on occasion |
| Speed module | |||
| Range module | |||
| Packing gun | 20 broccoli + 20 bananas + 1 caged farmer | Weapon? | As an alternative to fighting you can pack bots into a container. Doesn't work on straw dogs or tapebots. Useful once you have a Woc brusher 9000 Needs capsual ammo. |
| Farmbot drill | 20 broccoli +20 pineapple + 2 caged farmers | Part | Great for getting stone as a component of the autominer. Get one after you have made a resource harvester or waitfor the 1 in 10 chance of getting one when you destroy a farmbot. |
| Totebot mace | 20 blueberry + 20 bananas +30 oranges + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | Useful in the early part of the game to get extra resources from totebots |
| Watergun | 10 tomatoes + 10 redbeet +1 caged farmer | weapon and tool | You can use it to water plants and also as a weapon against straw dogs |
| Mountable shotgun | 30 bananas +30 blueberries | Weapon | A static weapon best mounted on a vehicle or turret and controlled using logic. Needs lots of potato ammo |
Pretty useless trades
| Item | Trade | Use | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saw blade | 40 tomatoes | Part | Can be made faster |
| Drill | 40 redbeet | Part | Can be made faster |
| Circuit board | 10 pineapple | Part | Can be made or collected from bots faster |
| Component kit | 10 broccoli | Part | Can be made or collected from bots faster |
| Small grinder | 10 bananas + 10 broccoli | Part | Can be made faster |
| Medium grinder | 10 bananas + 10 blueberries + 10 pineapple | Part | Can be made faster |
| Large grinder | 10 bananas + 10 blueberries + 10 pineapple | Part | Can be made faster |
| Banananator | 10 bananas + 10 broccoli + 10 pinapple | Weapon | Not very powerful gatling gun which shoots bananas. Needs to be mounted and logic controlled. You need both plus a huge supply of bananas |
| Banananator ammo box | 10 bananas + 10 broccoli | ||
| Garment box - common | 10 oranges + 1 caged farmer | Garment | Allows a change of garment but you have no control of what garment you get. Better left to finding these in chests |
| Grappling hook | 30 carrots + 30 pineapple + 1 caged farmer | Utility | Can be used in a few tricky situations where you can't teleport with a toilet or use suction shoes. Must have rope to use i. Not worth the inventory space |
| Popcorn launcher | 20 pineapple + 40 blueberry + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | This will destroy a farmbot but needing to carry explosive popcorn also makes it not worthwhile |
| Sunshake vending machine | 10 broccoli | Storage | It's bulky, not very strong, can't be disassembled, doesn't hold much and you can get them at trading sheds for nothing |
| Glue | 10 redbeet | Part | Easier to obtain by dicing for glue clams |
| Gas | 10 bblueberries + 10 oranges | Fuel | Easier to obtain by diving for oil or deconstructing plastic |
| Chemical cannon | 10 bananas + 10 broccoli + 10 pineapple | Weapon | A useless item unless you are playing PVP since it won't harm bots |
| 20 Batteries | 20 bananas | Part | Faster to obtain by other methods |
| Baseball bat | 50 blueberries + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | Less effective than the standard hammer and pathetic compared with the electro hammer |
| 10 Beeswax | 20 carrots | Part | Faster to go out and find a beehive |
| Construction lamp | 50 orange + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | An 'unusual' hammer which turns on at night presumably so you can see what you are hitting |
| Great neck wrench | 50 redbeet + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | About half as powerful as an electro-hammer but needs no batteries or ammo |
| Bananammer | 50 bananas + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | The standard hammer is more powerful |
| Fant scrapgun | 20 tomatoes + 20 carrots + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | Ammo is scews and nuts which take up too much space in the inventory |
| Red woc hammer | 50 broccoli + 1 cagedfarmer | Weapon | Only slightly better than the standard hammer |
| Homing carrot launcher | 50 carrots + 10 broccoli + 10 pineapple + 2 caged farmers | Weapon | Launches exploding carrots which target bots in range and which you have to make in an autocrafter. You don't seem to be able to aim it |
| Thruster hammer | 20 blueberries + 20 redbeet + 1 caged farmer | Weapon | Looks like a viceous pick but it won't break up those cuboid rocks. Throws haybots and totebots far away from you but not strawdogs. You then have to wait for them to return. You must carry gas in your inventory. |
| Mendelmennenham Guitar | 1 caged farmer + 30 orange + 30 broccol | Weapon | Makes a twanging noise when you hit something but only a little more powerful than the default hammer |
Roof farming
The Trader's home is indestructable. It has bot unclimbable walls and it's too high to be hit by tapebots. You can build a platform on the top and grow crops there safe from all bots. If you encourage level 10 raids by having a crop score of over 300 then you can fire down on farmbots from a safe location and get a supply of warehouse keys with little effort
But how do you access it? You could build a lift but there's an easier way - use Fant suction shoes. If you have this somewhere in your hotbar then you can walk up vertical surfaces. The Trader building is no problem.
Safe underwater farming
It's possible to farm underwater on a platform with a Fant air generator. The pool at the Trader's home is just deep enough to keep you safe from bot attacks below level 7. It seems red and blue bots are not interested in raiding. Green bots can swim but can't dive down to crops. Haybots won't go in the water. Any straw dogs joining a raid are destroyed by water.
If you trigger a level 7 to 10 raid then tapebots and farmbots will walk underwater and destroy your crops but not if you defend them with an automatic fixed weapon! The pond is small enough to cover it's edges with automatic weapons. Unfortunately projectile weapons won't work underwater.