Finding farmers can be a very hard task, and on some servers it is nearly impossible. However you should always give yourself as much of an advantage as possible. To this end this blog post will help you find farmers as well as communicate with them.
So how can you look farmers, how do you spot a farmer, and once you’ve found one how do you talk to them?

Looking for farmers

Finding farmers can be a simple or difficult process depending on the server you are on. One of the easiest ways is to go to the auction house and search for the item you’re trying to buy.

If you see a large listing of the item all by the same seller then there is a good chance they are a farmer.

For example if you look at the screenshot you’ll see a large listing of herbs all by the same person. This is far more herbs than any normal person would sell at one time. While this does not mean the person has to be a farmer it is still worth checking just in case.

There are many ways you can go about checking if someone is a farmer. The first of which is to add the person to your friends list, and the next time they come online whisper them and ask. However you might not find the person online, in which case you can mail them a simple letter.

Finally you can spot farmers in trade chat. Look for people that are using very few words in their messages, such as just saying “WTS [item] [price]“. This does not necessarily mean they are a farmer, but is unusual for farmers to use much more than this in their messages.

Communicating with Farmers

So once you have found a farmer you need to communicate with them. As I mentioned before, you can mail them a simple message.

Try to keep this mail short, if the farmer does not speak English then you will confuse them by writing a long and complicated message. Here is an easy example of you to copy and paste and use yourself.

Hi there,

I want to buy [item] for [price] each.

Please send me all.

Thanks

It might look stupid and badly worded, yet it is important to use easy to read and translate words.

If they are online however then it is worth communicating with them directly, as you’ll get a much better response face-to-face than you will with a mail message.

First of all always say hi in the simplest way possible, such as just “Hello”. Then in a new line simply state what you are after, such as “I wtb [item] 10g each”. Again this may look stupid and be a poor way of working sentences, however it works and that’s what’s important.

In some cases it is apparent that the person you’re speaking to is not able to speak English very well at all. As such it can be a good idea to find out where they are from, as this will allow you to try and speak their language if possible. By doing so it will allow you to more easily communicate with them and get better deals.

As a large majority of the hard-core farmers are Chinese I have created a dedicated post to talking with Chinese farmers. This post is before this one, and you can find it here – Chinese Phrases to Talk to Your Farmers.

It is never a good idea to just assume the person is Chinese however. By starting a conversation with “Ni hao ma” you might offend the other person if they are not Chinese!

As such, start with “Hello” and go from there!

Was this post useful to you? How do you find farmers and communicate with them? Let me know in the comments!

It is widely known that a lot of farmers are Chinese, and as such I have included a list of Chinese to English phrases for you to use when talking to Chinese farmers.

You can use other online sources of translation in different languages but be aware that some of them are very inaccurate.

Before starting to use these, first ask “Ni hui jiang zhong wen ma?” which is “Do you speak written Chinese?” If they don’t then these sentences are useless to you!

I owe a great deal of thanks to Zekta from Phase 3 : Profit! for this list – as he had a friend spell check the entire thing for me and add a few corrections for me.

So thank you Zekta!

For more information on getting farmers and talking to them check out my post Finding Farmers and Communicating With Them