One of the main customization features of Rusty's Retirement is the set of five farms you can choose from. I'll walk you through all five Rusty's Retirement estates and how they can be unlocked to customize your Rusty experience.
Each farm unlocks requirements in Rusty's Retirement
Of the five farms in Rusty's Retirement, you start with one and unlock the other four as you play the game. Several of the farms provide extra benefits that make farming easier. I recommend exploring all the options and choosing the one that appeals to you the most as your main property. After all, the beauty of Rusty's Retirement is that it gives you something to admire while you do other things on your computer.
Open Range
The Open Range is the only farm available from the start of Rusty's retirement. It is a basic grass area with no extra environmental features such as rivers or trees. I would recommend sticking with this farm if you want to completely customize your farm without worrying about river layout or tree placement.
Flower Swamp
The Flower Swamp is basically the Open Range with winding rivers. The rivers have floating flowers matching those found in the wells. The nice thing about this map is that Water Boots can use rivers to water planted seeds! This means players can use resources for more crops, houses or even land expansions instead of building wells.
To unlock the Flower Swamp, you must purchase all land expansions from the Open Range farm. Afterwards, a notification will appear informing you that you have unlocked a new farm.
Related: 5 things to do first in Rusty's Retirement
Sandy Desert
The Sandy Desert is exactly as the name implies – a sand-covered wasteland with cacti, animal skulls, and small patches of grass. I found this to be the hardest farm in the game because plants can wither if not taken care of quickly.
Often, I turned back to my screen to notice that a row or two of plants had wilted, forcing me to replant them. If you enjoy western aesthetics, you will love this property! Be sure to either check it more often or build more Boots to take care of your crops. To unlock the Sandy Desert, you must fully expand a Flower Swamp farm.
Flower Forest
Blossom Forest is perfect for players who enjoy cherry trees and autumn leaves. The trees are more rose-gold than perfect pink, but I think it adds to the rustic charm of the game. The trees are the main environmental feature, so you'll need to build wells around the map to tend to your crops. To unlock the Flower Forest, play through the Desert Sands farm and unlock all of its expansions.
Desert Oasis
The Desert Oasis is exactly like Desert Sands but with the addition of pools of water! Not only is it beautiful, but it greatly reduces the probability of crops wilting due to the abundant sources of water. This farm is unlocked with Blossom Forest after fully expanding the Desert Sands farm.
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How to expand farms in Rusty's Retirement
As mentioned before, unlocking any farm after Open Range requires you to fully expand the previous farm. The actual process of this is easy but time consuming due to how many Spare Parts it costs. When you start a new farm, you'll notice that scrolling left and right (or up and down, if you're in a vertical farm) reveals plots of land with prices on them.
Once you have enough Spare Parts, click on the price and approve the purchase to unlock the plot. A red and yellow triangle with a black exclamation mark will appear in the center to show that the land has been purchased.
Once you've paid for it, either Rusty or Haiku will extend the farm to cover the purchased land.
It will match the rest of the farm once everything is removed from it.
To fully expand a farm, you will need to complete four land expansions on both sides of the map. The total cost of all the expansions is about 192,000 Spare parts.
For more Rusty's Retirement, check out How to use Focus Mode (and what it's for) in Rusty's Retirement here on Pro Game Guides.
