Patch 5.2 PTR: How to get your hands on Sunsong Ranch

When we last visited Sunsong Ranch in patch 5.2, it was to news of several improvements of the farming content. This included some changes to the Master Plow, some changes to the way seeds were planted, and to top it all off, the option to purchase your farm and make it your very own. This meant that the farm would turn into a rest point and an area where one could immediately log out of the game -- something that players had been requesting ever since they began helping Yoon and planting their own crops on his farm.

While we knew that the option would eventually be added, it was not available with patch 5.2's first iteration on the PTR. So we had no news on how much it would cost, what kind of reputation you would need to have, or what exactly would happen to Farmer Yoon after you purchased his property. The latest build to hit the PTR has now unlocked the feature, and players can now test out the content to their heart's content.

But uh ... you can't purchase the farm.

Before you get out the pitchforks, the reason you cannot purchase the farm is because Yoon decides to flat-out give it to you. At the moment it appears that once one has reached exalted reputation with the Tillers, a new quest will unlock in the center of Halfhill. Nana Mudclaw has decided it's time to retire, but she needs to find a person to fill her spot on the Tiller's Council. It turns out she's had her eye on Yoon as her replacement, and it's up to the player to convince Yoon that this would be a great idea in a quest that rewards a little over nine gold.

So not only do you not have to purchase the farm, you actually get gold for taking it over. This is actually the nicest solution all around, because it always seemed pretty odd to me that you'd be purchasing Yoon's inheritance from him -- and it didn't seem like something someone would do to an NPC they'd spent all this time being friends with. Plus, the thought of poor Yoon trudging back to wherever he came from with gold in his pockets after spending all that time making the farm work just didn't make sense.

But a reward to a friend that helped him take the farm from nothing to what it looks like when you reach exalted? That's actually a really nice gesture, and a really good reward for those that have made the trek to exalted with the Tillers. So players needn't worry about what's next for Yoon -- he's quite happily serving on the Tillers council and making his ancestors quite proud.

Once you have obtained the farm, Yoon will be replaced with the post that contains work orders as an additional way to get reputation. At the moment, it doesn't seem like the farm is designated as a rested area, and there's no way to set your hearthstone to the location. But the mechanic to obtain the farm is an ideal solution all around.

Planting made easy

In addition to owning the farm, a new NPC has been added to the Halfhill Market. Little Milly Greenfield sells bags of all of the seeds you can plant on your farm. However, she's not selling the seed bags for gold -- she's selling them for 30 seeds each. This seems a little awkward, because it requires purchasing 30 seeds from the seed vendor, and then turning those seeds over to the little girl standing right next to the seed vendor.

But the seed bags themselves are a really nice item. Using them at your farm will give you a targeting circle that will overlap four mounds of dirt and plant all four at the same time. This makes planting a much faster process all around, although you still have to deal with the pests that pop up after planting.

While this seems like it should speed up the time it takes to plant crops on your farm, at the moment it isn't really speeding up the process at all. This is largely because of the two-step process to obtaining seeds from Milly. In addition, the fact that it takes 30 seeds just to plant four plots on your farm seems ridiculously lopsided. Why would you go through a two-step process and pay 30 seeds to plant four crops, instead of just grabbing four seeds and planting them individually?

Because of this, and the absence of the rested flag when you take Yoon's gift and keep your farm as your own, it looks like the improvements to Sunsong aren't quite ironed out just yet. But even though all of the details aren't quite in, planting crops seems remarkably easier when you can do it four at a time -- and the solution to nabbing the farm is a satisfying one. We'll be keeping an eye on future patches to see what else is added to the farm as the PTR moves on, but until then, you can rest easy that Yoon isn't out of a job -- he's just moved on to a better place.