Speed Runner's Guide

The Burn & Churn Speedrunning Guide (Levels 1–40)

CRITICAL WARNING: This guide is designed exclusively for offerwall speedrunners looking to hit milestones within a 60-to-90-day window. We will make aggressive choices that will damage your farm's long-term economy for immediate, short-term XP (levels) gain.

I would strongly encourage you to read the market guide and land guide to be able to fully understand the principles of this guide.

For perspective: the top players in the world—with high spending and 12–15 hours of daily play—hit level 40–41 in 90 days. Achieving this milestone requires a focused, intense effort. Level 20 is possible in 1-2 days. Level 30 is a month. Level 50 is impossible in 90 days. If you want a healthy, sustainable farm at the end of 90 days, do not follow this guide.

The Core Rule: XP is the Enemy

In a standard playthrough, inflating your XP too fast ruins your economy. The game relentlessly punishes rapid advancement. New product lines hit hard and fast (for example, the game will demand ham when it takes a minimum of 10.4 hours of perfect synchronization just to harvest your first ham).

On an established healthy farm, a new product line is a minor, half-day or overnight annoyance. On a speedrun farm, it can cause your entire operation to come to a grinding halt.

By chasing XP gain, you are committing to a high grind lifestyle.

The Market is the Fount of XP

Because market contracts are your largest source of XP, you must manipulate the system aggressively:

Skip the Barge and Trains: They do not offer enough XP per product. Exception: Fill easy trains early on; the double coin rewards are vital for surviving the low-coin crunch below level 32.
Ignore Player Tournaments: They do not yield assets valuable enough to justify the massive production costs (barges and trains) required to compete. Let tournaments happen passively.
Pivot Your Guild Loyalty Points (LP): Join a decent guild immediately for the LP from projects, helps, and the Country Fair. Get the LP decorations (all 3), but do not upgrade them past level 3. Invest your mid-game LP towards fine seeds and animal feeds.
Weaponize Negative Happiness: Happiness reduces production costs. You want to maintain a comfortable 40–60 rating until you clear the "coin corner" between levels 30 and 34. Once your coin flow stabilizes, aggressively dump your happiness into the negative to gain space for more production buildings.
Trash Bad Contracts: Contracts will always recycle. If a contract demands a product line that breaks your flow, dump it instantly. Market your highest value produce towards the highest value materials (read the market guide)

Upgrade Priority: Chasing Maximum ROI

Every material and coin must be funneled into the highest possible Return on Investment (ROI). (Material value: Glass = Saws = Books and Bricks = Rakes = Ink).

The Barn Capacity Pinch: The game will frequently throw train crates at you that exceed your barn capacity. Ignore them. If you get pinched by a massive contract, trash the contract rather than wasting days hyper-focusing on barn upgrades. If you do push trains, you are risking trains you can't fill.
Buildings with Production Time Upgrades (Mills, Cannery, Watermill): Delivers a 5% ROI, but only if you are online to restart production the exact minute the timer expires.
Buildings with Output Upgrades (Fields, Stables, Workshops): Delivers a massive 20% ROI for that specific building.
Library Book Upgrades (Product-Specific): Delivers a 10% ROI across all matching buildings. (Upgrading 1 pasta mill gives you +2 pasta; unlocking a 10% library book across 4 pasta mills gives you +4 pasta).
Library Book Upgrades (Feed-Specific): Delivers an unmatched 50% ROI. Priority #1.
Manure Management: Grind manure in the early game, but do not waste precious research materials on manure books. Your inventory will naturally overflow the moment you unlock goats.
Farm Expansion: Ranges from 0% to 100% ROI depending entirely on what you place in the new space. Note: This is the most expensive path and demands the highest worker overhead.
Production over Delivery: Generally, increasing library books on the production side will give you more products and more materials than a material book will give you on the delivery side.
Production Priority: Your first priority on the production side is buildings that only decrease time with upgrades (cannery, mills, etc). Don’t upgrade the cheapest book; upgrade the most strategic book (sometimes that is the cheapest book to unlock the next shelf)

The End Game: The Market Cooldown

Your ultimate mission is high-volume contract cycling. Focus your library research heavily on the production side to maximize product output over delivery materials.