Farmer

These farmers seek to apply their wisdom to navigating the Labyrinth despite their clumsiness in battle.

—In-Game Description, Etrian Odyssey III

The Farmer is an exploration based class from Etrian Odyssey III, even better for field use than Survivalists from prior games. Their skills improve the party's condition and locate an abundance of valuable and rare resources from the labyrinth to sell in town for massive profits. They have almost no combat use, preferring to decrease attention from themselves and assist from the sidelines. They can wear up to Medium Armor and wield weapons related to farm tools, and have the highest LUC in the game.

• EO3
• EON

Profile

Farmers simply assist the party on the field, with such abilities as increasing the healing from tents and instantly returning back to town just like using an Ariadne Thread. They can find a vast number of resources from harvest spots, and also increase drop rates from enemies and EXP gained by the party. Farmers have atrociously poor combat capabilities that all have subtle indirect effects. There are only a few Farmer-specific tools among the weapon classes that they can wield, so while they're definitely unfit for combat, Farmers have their use in mysterious ways.

• Strengths: Easy resource gathering. Incredible ailment accuracy in times of need.
• Weaknesses: Terrible combat capabilities.

Stat Progression

Main article: Farmer/Stats#EO3

Level	HP	TP	STR	TEC	VIT	AGI	LUC
1	36	15	3	3	5	6	12
35	169	97	15	17	23	25	41
70	305	181	28	31	42	45	71
99	390	233	36	39	54	57	89

Skills

Skill	Description	Type	Requires	Extra
Earth's Bounty	Farmer skill that increases ally EXP points if you are alive.	Class Skill	-----
Brave Heart	If HP is maxed and you are in the front row, you'll recover TP.	Passive Skill	Sympathy Pain Lv5	Max Lv5
Persistence	You may revive from defeat at the end of the turn once per battle.	Passive Skill	Play Possum Lv5 Strange Seeds Lv3	Auto-revive with 20 HP.
Waste Not	The item drop rate at the end of battle increases.	Passive Skill	Camp Mastery Lv3	Max Lv5
Keen Nose	You have a higher chance of finding rare items at harvesting points.	Passive Skill	Harvestry Lv3
Camp Mastery	Revive and cure petrify at camps. Party HP and TP recovered increases.	Passive Skill	-----
Lullaby	Sing a lullaby, putting yourself and all enemies to sleep.	Special Skill	-----
Play Possum	Breathe slowly to lower the chance of enemies hitting you for 3 turns.	Support Skill	Lullaby Lv1
Strange Seeds	Plant mystery seeds that bind all enemy heads, arms, and legs.	Special Skill	Lullaby Lv3
Rotten Egg	Lower enemy strength for 4 turns. Status ailments increase its effect.	Support Skill
Sympathy Pain	Status ailments you are affected by can be shared with the enemy.	Special Skill	Rotten Egg Lv3
Slap Awake	Revive an ally. Used only from the main menu.	Search Skill	Camp Mastery Lv5
Harvestry	Gather resources at all chopping, mining and gathering points.	Search Skill	-----	Max Lv5
Double Crop	Increase number of times you can chop, mine, and gather.		Harvestry Lv5
Keen Eye	Show FOE locations on the map for a limited number of steps.	Search Skill	-----
To Market	Takes you back to town quickly.		Keen Eye Lv1	Max Lv1
Rain or Shine	Nullify trap floor damage for a limited number of steps.		Keen Eye Lv3
Safe Stroll	Eliminate enemy encounters for a limited number of steps.		Keen Eye Lv5	Max Lv5
Horseplay	Shirk responsibility until an hour passes.	Search Skill	-----	Max Lv1

Skill Breakdown

Farmers are highly skewed towards Labyrinth exploration and gathering. They lack good attack options or in-battle support, not helped by their poor stat spread, so their best in-battle role is supporting with item use. You're effectively fighting with one ineffectual combatant, but their Class Skill Earth's Bounty offsets this by increasing the amount of experience gained by the party so that each of them gains slightly more than they would if there were only four party members. Multiple instances of Earth's Bounty do stack, but a team with multiple Farmers should never seek combat. Instead of running a Farmer in the main party, most players prefer to create a Farmer party with points in Combat Study, passively absorbing up to 10% of the main adventuring party's experience so that the Farmers can grow enough to invest in their farming and exploration skills. All inactive guild members with points in Combat Study also gain experience this way, so alternatively Earth's Bounty can increase the amount of experience gained by the whole guild.

All of Farmer's actual combat abilities come from one branch of their skill tree. Lullaby is one of the best, with a high chance of putting all enemies to sleep. However, it puts the Farmer to sleep, and this part cannot be prevented, keeping the skill from being spammable and exposing the Farmer to retaliation from enemies that didn't get put to sleep. This can be mitigated with Play Possum that deters enemies from targeting them, but AOE skills are unaffected by this. Fortunately, Persistence gives them a chance to get back up from KO at the end of turn mid-battle, so a Farmer dying isn't the end for them. Brave Heart rewards you for bringing the Farmer to the front line despite all this, and even protecting them from harm.

Strange Seeds can at best fully bind an enemy; at worst it can try to bind a part that's already bound and fail. Rotten Egg is poor on its own but becomes much stronger if you inflict an ailment on the enemy, but requires additional party assistance to make the most of due to the mechanics of the Sleep ailment. Sympathy Pain can spread an ailment the Farmer is suffering from to all enemies with astounding accuracy at maximum, but as an active skill can only be used when the Farmer is afflicted by a non-interfering ailment.

Their harvest skills are the main reason for picking a Farmer. Harvestry rolls all Take, Chop, and Mine into a single skill which maxes at level 5, giving a single Farmer five item harvest attempts of each variant. This can be augmented with Keen Nose that increases the chance of a Farmer obtaining a rare item from a harvest point without risking a harvest ambush, allowing Farmers to make big bank without exposing themselves to danger. When harvest attempts are depleted, Double Crop will refill them, or Horseplay can advance time to allow the attempts to refill by passing through midnight. For a 5-man Farmer party, though, Double Crop is generally superfluous since 20+ of each harvest type can easily fill a backpack.

The Keen Eye tree opens up skills to aid exploration. To Market lets you return to town without needing an Ariadne Thread. Rain or Shine provides damage tile immunity, and Safe Stroll eliminates random encounters. These all let a Farming party safely get in and out of the Labyrinth without needing to get into combat at all.

For more party support, Camp Mastery increases the HP/TP they recover from camping, and also revives and de-petrifies party members at camp even at level 1. It unlocks Waste Not, which has a miniscule bonus to item drop rates but can stack additively if multiple instances exist among the party. Slap Awake also lets a Farmer bring a KO'd party member back to life outside of combat to save on Nectars.

Subclass Options

Subclasses for Farmer

Due to their supportive nature, finding a subclass for Farmer to use in combat can be challenging. Most gathering-specialized Farmers are not interested in getting into battle, so can pick up any subclass for the five free skill points. However, there are some subclass combinations that make the most of their stats and non-combat position.

• Ninja: Grant access to ailments with skills like Izuna, Kubikiri, and a proactive Leg Bind with Kagenui. Senpuku also aids in evading attacks that would threaten the Farmer. If things do go south, like a gathering ambush, Tonsou Jutsu is your last minute escape option.
• Prince/ss: Buffs are not stat-dependent, so a Farmer can spend their turns in battle spreading buffs across the party. If you keep them defended, they can heal the party with Royal Veil; having Braveheart up also means that you'll recuperate TP spent on maintaining buffs.
• Hoplite: Shield skills are also stat-independent, so a Farmer/Hoplite devotes their turns in battle to reducing the damage the team takes. Using shields also helps keep the Farmer alive. Focus entirely on Shield skills like Line Guard or Anti-(Element) as the Farmer's low HP and Vitality makes them poor at "covering" their teammates; their low Strength also makes it difficult to capitalize on Spears.
• Wildling: While they lack the class skill that makes the beasts proper combatants, the Farmer's high Luck contributes to shutdown. If your party cannot accommodate the beast, you still get Wild Cry and Primal Drums to contribute to battle. From a gathering team standpoint, you also get Awareness to help bail you out of dangerous ambushes from general exploration or gather points.

Farmer as Subclass

Due to how the Farmer's skill set is support-based and independent of stats, you'd generally only be taking a Farmer subclass on a party member who doesn't have a good subclass to aid them, and they're most valuable in the mid-game when you've still got labyrinth to explore or items to gather. Harvestry, Keen Nose, and Waste Not let you make big bank, To Market eliminates the need to maintain a supply of Ariadne Threads, and Camp Mastery extends the duration of a viable dungeon run.

• Ninja: A Ninja with a Farmer subclass makes for a better main party harvester than a Farmer main! Keburi no Sue discounts all their skills by 9 TP at max, so the normally costly Double Crop at level 1 (no higher) goes down to 1 TP and a Ninja can restore their harvest attempts to their heart's content. In case of an actual ambush, the Ninja is still a viable combatant unlike the Farmer.

External Links

• Skill Simulator Guide, leading to the Simulator itself.
• Game data reference

Profile

Farmers make a return in Nexus as premier field explorers and money-makers. They boast new and reworked abilities to support the group both in battle and on the field, but lost To Market and Horseplay. They have a similar lack of combat power as before, with the exception of Harvest Festival, their new and only direct attack skill. Harvest Festival leverages Farmer's LUC stat - still the highest in the game - to deliver instant death after binding up with Strange Seeds. With this combination, Farmers actually can pull their weight in battle, but since storyline bosses are all immune to instakills, Farmers offer no benefits in these battles. They also heal poorly due to low WIS. Farmers are allowed to equip any Gun, Spear, Knife, or Scythe weapon, greatly expanding their flexibility in battle.

• Strengths: Easy resource accumulation for a quick buck. Can now contribute to battles better with efficient item use.
• Weaknesses: Poor damage capabilities.
• Force Boost - Item Echo: For 3 turns, items used by the Farmer take effect twice without spending two of the item.
• Force Break - Final Secret: Fills the party's Force Gauges to 100%, and may restore the gauges of those who've used their Force Break.

Stat Progression

Main article: Farmer/Stats#EON

Level	HP	TP	STR	INT	VIT	WIS	AGI	LUC
1	56	41	11	9	16	10	13	21
30	111	81	24	19	34	21	27	46
70	225	164	51	40	73	44	57	98
99	336	244	78	61	110	66	86	148
130	487	354	114	89	160	96	125	216

Skills

Skill	Description	Type	Requires	Extra
Item Echo	For 3 turns, the effect of a used item may activate a second time.	Force Boost	--	Doesn't expend a second copy of the item.
Final Secret	Fills party Force Gauges to 100%. May recover gauge even after Force Break.	Force Break
NOVICE
Sympathy Pain	Binds/ailments on the user may spread to all enemies.	Support	None
Strange Seeds	Plants mystery seeds that may bind all enemy heads/arms/legs at end of turn.	Support	Sympathy Pain Lv1
Play Possum	Lowers the chance of enemies targeting a specified ally for 3 turns.	Buff
Keen Eye	Displays nearby treasure, paths, stairs, FOEs, and gathering points on the map.	Field	None
Excavation	For each step taking in the labyrinth, may obtain gathering materials.		Keen Eye Lv2
Flee	Consumes party HP to escape battle to the last-used stair or Geomagnetic Pole.	Support	None
Slap Awake	Revives an ally. Can only be used from the main menu.	Heal	None
Harvestry	Find additional materials when taking, chopping, or mining.	Gather	None
Earth's Bounty	Increases ally EXP points if user is alive.	Passive	None
VETERAN
Rotten Egg	Lowers enemy strength for 3 turns. Status ailments boost its effect.	Debuff	Strange Seeds Lv3 Play Possum Lv1	Enemy must maintain ailment for strong debuff.
Persistence	You may revive from defeat at the end of the turn.	Passive	Rotten Egg Lv2
Waste Not	Increases drop rate of items from monsters.	Passive	None
Godsend	For each step taken in the labyrinth, may obtain consumable items.	Field	Excavation Lv3
Rain or Shine	For a set number of steps, muddy floors and hazards are nulled.	Field	Flee Lv1
Safe Stroll	Lowers the encounter rate for a set number of steps.		Rain or Shine Lv2
Share the Wealth	Uses own TP to restore ally TP in the same line.	Heal	None
Fearless	If the user is in the front line with MAX HP, restores user TP at end of turn.
Survival Wisdom	Restores HP/TP to the party when taking, chopping, or mining in the labyrinth.	Field	None	Also triggers during Double Crop.
MASTER
Lullaby	May put all enemies to sleep. User may doze off as well.	Support	Persistence Lv2	Lv6 increases action speed.
Fruitful Song	Entire party's TP recovers for every 12 steps while exploring the labyrinth.	Heal	Lullaby Lv3
Blessed Remains	When user finishes off an enemy, party's Force Gauges increase.	Passive	Waste Not Lv2
Harvest Festival	Melee cut to all enemies. If target is bound, deals more damage/may instakill.	Attack	None
Nature's Blessing	May acquire more rare materials when taking/chopping/mining in the labyrinth.	Gather	Survival Wisdom Lv2
Double Crop	May gather materials again when taking, chopping, or mining in the labyrinth.		Nature's Blessing Lv2	Activates only once per gather point.

Subclassing

Subclass for Farmer

Their low combat stats make the Farmer ill-suited for direct combat; however, they have the highest Luck stat of all classes which fits in nicely with their support skill set.

• Survivalists, the second-best field explorers, add further to a Farmer's core role. Both classes already have a good set of skills to ensure safe navigation, and Sorting Skill and an additional Nature's Blessing provide better harvests of rare items. Risk Perception, even at Level 1, can negate some ambushes and let the party escape precarious positions. Efficiency ties in nicely with the Farmer's own Force Boost for healing the party and making the most out of money.
• Arcanists and their Circle skills work splendidly with the Farmer's high Luck, and in battle the Farmer can shuffle Circles around to apply the best ailments for the job. The binding circles provide more chances to inflict binds for sweet Harvest Festivals, but if doubling up on binds is not desired, they can be avoided. Charm Eye and Atrophic Eye can let them diminish the power of problematic enemies, and Bracing Walk combines with Fruitful Song to further regenerate out-of-battle.
• Pugilist grants Farmers binding options, which they want to inflict as fast as possible so they can execute with Harvest Festival. Strange Seeds is a valid trigger for Following Strike.
• Harbingers work nicely with the Farmer in debuff support and ailment-inducing Reaps, the former not requiring any stats and the latter working incredibly well with their high Luck. Binding Miasma in particular has great synergy with Strange Seeds. The Farmer has low Wisdom, so don't overinvest in healing skills.

Farmer as Subclass

The general reason any class would take a Farmer subclass is for their numerous field skills that ease travel and increase harvest yields. Earth's Bounty is another important investment as it increases EXP gained, and Fearless offers passive TP regeneration for frontliners. Nature's Blessing is a godsend in acquiring rare materials from gather points for a quick buck. As these skills are very generic, a Farmer subclass can go onto literally any other party member who doesn't need to focus on a specific subclass. They will not however, have access to Harvestry.

External Links

• Skill Simulator

Trivia

• The blonde, blue-dressed female Farmer closely resembles Alice, a recurrent demon in the Shin Megami Tensei series.

Gallery

Featured in Navigazione's cover.