Forager: Complete Guide

This guide covers Forager from your first tree to a nuclear-powered empire: early priorities, how land buying and levelling work, automation, the NPC quests and museum, dungeons, bosses, the Void, and a plan for the 103 feats (achievements).

Researched September 2026 — current as of the Nuclear Update content plus the "Forager: Evolved" free expansion (mid-2020); no further PC content updates since. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Status: Forager is finished. The last big content drops were the Nuclear Update (16 January 2020) and Forager: Evolved (announced on Steam 2 July 2020), an official collection of mods, content and fixes built by the team's Topher with the community, adding solar power. A planned multiplayer mode was announced but, per Wikipedia, eventually cancelled. Steam Workshop mods have been supported since the Nuclear Update.

Quick Start

1. Hit everything. Trees, rocks, bushes and flowers all give items and XP. The game is built around constant gathering.
2. Watch energy. Gathering drains your energy bar. Eat food (berries, cooked fish and so on) to refill it. When it's empty you slow down badly.
3. Build a Furnace first. Bricks, coal and ingots unlock almost every other structure. There's even a feat for 500 furnace items.
4. Coins buy land. Buying adjacent land tiles is how you progress. Each one brings new resources, puzzles, NPCs and enemies.
5. Use skill points on automation and economy early. Anything that makes resources for you, or makes coins faster, pays for itself.
6. Talk to every NPC. Their quests (Druid, Fairy Queen, Princess, Goblin, Old Man, Wizard, Engineer, Fox, Ghost) give big rewards, and "Extrovert" and "Diligent" need all of them.
7. Donate to the museum. Completing bundles gives permanent rewards and eight "Master ..." feats.
8. Keep a bottle. Bottled critters and fish feed several recipes and museum bundles.
9. Don't sell your first gems. "Gemologist" wants one of each in your inventory, and gems are used in high-tier crafting.

Core Loop

1. Gather raw resources (wood, stone, berries, ore, fibre and so on).
2. Craft structures that turn raw materials into refined ones.
3. Gain XP from everything, level up and spend a skill point.
4. Earn coins and buy the next land.
5. New land brings new resources, enemies and secrets. Repeat.

Energy, health and food

Levelling and skills

Levelling gives a skill point for the skill grid. Unlocking a skill often unlocks new structures, tools or recipes, so the grid is also your tech tree. The grid covers four broad areas: economy, industry (automation), foraging/farming and magic. Pick based on what you're stuck on:

"Skillful" is for learning every skill. That's long-term, so prioritize by need.

Land buying

Each land tile costs coins and gets more expensive as you own more. Ways to make coins:

• Forge coins from gold (the "Mint" feat is for crafting 2,000).
• Sell surplus at a Market.
• Banks generate coins over time ("Coin Collector": 1 million coins from banks).

Feats along the way: "Expansionist" (5 lands), "Tycoon" (10 lands and 5,000 coins), "Imperialist" (every land).

Structures and Automation

Early structures to prioritize:

Late-game production

• Railroads and Locomotives move resources between islands.
• Nuclear-powered structures (Nuclear Update) massively increase production. Feats: "Mad Scientist" (upgrade a structure to nuclear), "Radioactive" (a Nuclear-tier item), "Production Master" (own 100 nuclear structures at once).
• Forager: Evolved solar tech: the Solar Panel (four tiers, daytime energy), Lunar Panel (four tiers, night-time energy), Solar Workbench (solar crafting), Solar Drill (coal, iron and gold automatically), Solar Kiln (next to a Solar Drill, makes ingots, bricks and glass), Industrial Grinder (extra drops from nearby ores), Fracturing Rig (petroleum), Metabolic Infuser (heals HP and energy in a radius), all joined with Cable. It's a strong late-game automation path.

Layout tip: cluster production next to the storage it feeds, and leave walkways. You'll run the same routes hundreds of times.

NPC Quests

Each NPC has a quest chain, usually delivering specific items, and each one has a "Helper" feat:

Do these as they appear. Rewards include rare items and unlocks, and "Diligent" wants every NPC quest done.

Museum

The museum has eight bundles: Mining, Trapping, Foraging, Farming, Cooking, Alchemy, Building, Archaeology. Finishing each unlocks a "Master ..." feat, and all eight gives "Curator". Keep one of every new item type you find in storage until it's donated.

• Archaeology needs digging with a shovel ("Spelunker", "Digger").
• Trapping and Foraging need bottled critters ("Bug Catcher": 100).

Dungeons, Puzzles and Secrets

• Dungeons have skull chests ("Champion") and big treasure chests ("Treasure Hunter": 20, "Treasure Master": all).
• Secret rooms are hidden in land tiles. "Secret Finder" is 3 and "Enlightened" is every one. Look for suspicious wall segments and gaps.
• Seals are hidden collectibles ("Seal Collector") and give bonuses.
• Other hidden challenges: the ice wizard challenge ("Duelist"), a trivia minigame ("Jester", for failing it badly), slot machines ("Winner"), blood rituals ("Occult"), the giant crystal ("Miner") and the magic deer ("Greedy").
• "Unscarred" is for clearing a dungeon without taking damage. Try the first dungeon once you have good gear.

Bosses and Combat

Combat tips:

• Dodge ("Acrobat", "Daredevil"). Most attacks are telegraphed.
• The bow kites everything. "Marksman" (100 arrows) and "Sharpshooter" (a one-shot kill) come naturally.
• Bombs open things up. "Bomberman" wants 3 active at once.
• Sigils summon bosses ("Summoner").
• Use pets for extra damage and help. The Nuclear Update added new pets and improved pet AI.

The Void

The Combat Update (15 October 2019) added The Void, a procedural, endless world you travel to late in the game, with numbered levels. Feats track Void level 5, 10, 20 and 30. The Void drops Void and later Cosmic gear tiers ("Other Worldly", "Galactic"), the best equipment in the game. Go in with top-tier gear, plenty of food and a bow.

Game Modes

• Normal: the standard game.
• Hard Mode (Combat Update): a much more difficult setting.
• Single Island Challenge (win by getting all Tools) and Speedrun Mode (Appreciation Update, June 2019) for replays.
• Unlimited save files (Nuclear Update), so try the modes without risking your main save.

Feat Plan (103 Achievements)

1. Natural progress: play normally and you'll get lands, structures, crafting counts, NPC helpers, museum bundles, dungeons and bosses.
2. Grinds: "Artisan" (craft 10,000 items), "Constructor" (200 structures), "Wealthy" (100,000 coins) up to "Billionaire" and "Trillionaire" (1,000,000,000,000 coins). The coin feats need a fully automated nuclear economy running for a long time.
3. Quirky ones: "Gourmand" (eat a gem), "Disgusting" (100 poop in your inventory), "Hopeless" (die 10 times), "Jester" (fail the trivia), "Rainbuddy" (use a bottled rainbow), "Waterproof" (build on every water tile).
4. Collections: "Artifact Collector", "Accessory Collector", "Tool Collector" (every tool and weapon), "Seal Collector".
5. Completionist requires all of the above.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Selling everything. Keep one of each new item for the museum and quests.
• Spending skill points randomly. Economy and automation early speed up everything afterwards.
• Ignoring energy. Running on empty makes gathering painfully slow.
• Messy base layouts. Plan walkways and clusters around your storage.
• Rushing the Void. Get Void gear gradually and don't dive deep in early-tier gear.
• Missing secret rooms. Many feats and upgrades are behind them.

Advanced Tips

• Banks early, nuclear late. Early passive coins buy the lands that unlock everything else. Nuclear upgrades are what make the trillion-coin feat possible.
• Evolved solar chain: a Solar Drill with a Solar Kiln next to it produces ingots, bricks and glass with no input from you.
• Speedrun Mode: once you know the land order and skill priorities, the core loop is about sequencing. Plan which lands give you coin structures fastest.
• Mods: the Workshop is fine for single-player saves, but check whether a mod affects feats before using it on a completion run.

FAQ

Does Forager have multiplayer? No. Multiplayer was announced in 2020 but eventually cancelled.

How do I make money fast early? Forge coins from gold, sell surplus at the Market, and build Banks as soon as your skills unlock them.

What should I build first? A Furnace, then a Forge and Anvil for tools, then economy structures.

How do I get to the Void? The Void was added in the Combat Update as a procedural, endless late-game world with numbered levels. Go in with strong gear and food.

Is Forager: Evolved official? Yes. It's a free official collection of mods, content and fixes built by the team's programmer and audio designer Topher with the community, announced on Steam on 2 July 2020.

Who is the final boss? The Toxic Guardian, the endgame boss added in the Nuclear Update.

Sources

• Steam store page
• Steam achievements list (103 feats)
• Steam news: Appreciation, Combat, Nuclear updates and Forager: Evolved
• Wikipedia: Forager (video game)