Preview: Hydroponics Farm and Store Simulator is an idle lovers dream

Hydroponics Farm and Store Simulator is still in Early Access. However, that hasn’t stopped it from having a ton of content to play with. In this simulator, you run a store that is connected to a nursery. So, instead of buying products to pop on a shelf, you’re buying seeds and baby fish that you grow to sell.

We recently did a review on Aquatic Store Simulator and while there are similar facets, Hydroponics Farm and Store Simulator did something right. While you do get bombarded by customers and have a ton to juggle, you have the luxury of help.

Not only do you get a cashier who’s stationed there the entire time, but you get additional helpers as well. At first, you’ll only be able to hire three additional workers. But, as you level up, you’ll have as many as nine helpers to help you manage the stock.

Each helper has three tasks they can be assigned to and individual stats that reflect how good they are at that task. You can assign your workers to plant, harvest, do maintenance (getting rid of diseased seeds), or restock the shelves. And, even if your worker isn’t great at a particular task, you can spend money to upgrade them fully.

Obviously, this is a costly option, but it’s worth it in the later stages of the game. And, you’ll be able to prioritize their tasks. So, they’ll perform their duties in the order that you’ve chosen.

The only unfortunate part of hiring is that it’s contractual. You hire them for a 7-day period, but it really doesn’t break the bank to rehire them at the end of their contract.

In terms of gameplay, you can literally be as involved as you like. You can be super hands-on with everything or you can assign your people and sit back to watch them run the shop while you idle by. Honestly, I’ve dropped 19 hours into this game and it’s because I’ve set them to a task and just did something else for a bit.

I should probably be embarrassed about dropping nearly a full day on a game… but I have no shame.

The progress in Hydroponics Farm and Fish Simulator is handled in “chapters”. It’s basically just a series of tasks that you have to complete. It’s pretty simple things like buying a certain seed, planting it, and harvesting it 100 times. It’s selling it 100 times that takes some patience.

Once you’ve completed your tasks, the next series of tasks will open up and with them, you’ll usually gain access to better equipment, or different merchandise.

I’ll be honest – there were some things that went over my head simply because I missed them. This game doesn’t have a tutorial in the traditional sense of it guiding you. There’s a section in your main tablet where the tasks are that has an icon at the end that says “Docs & Feedback”.

I don’t know why I assumed it didn’t pertain to me, but this is where you can learn more about functions. So, I’d recommend paying attention to it.

I feel like in terms of simulator games, this is the most well-rounded one. This isn’t just an asset flip with the barest of functions. It feels like the developers really sat down and kept the player in mind. This game has so much capability of being overwhelming or feeling like a hamster on a wheel, but it doesn’t feel that way at any point during gameplay.

Normally, you harvest in just a tiny little box that holds 12 of one item. For instance, if you were to plant and harvest bok choy, you’d have two types grow; regular quality and special quality. Well, your little box will only hold regular or special, not both. Additionally, it will only hold 12 of them. When you plant hundreds of seeds at a time, this can seem like an overwhelming task, especially when your workers will harvest from one growbed at a time.

Why plant a few when I could plant thousands?

This leaves you with dozens of boxes left on the workbench that you have to sort through. However, if you pick things up one box at a time like I did early on, you’d be doing yourself a huge disservice.

There are unique containers that you can buy that hold a greater portion. If you have one of those equipped, you can click and hold on a bok choy box of regular quality and ALL the bok choy of that quality will zoom into your box. So, if you can carry 144 in your container, then you’ll have 144 bok choy from various boxes in one button press.

It’s so nice and saves a huge headache because your workers will make a mess of inventory.

As you go through the chapters, you’ll unlock new plants, fish, grow beds, and new equipment for your store. Later, you’ll be able to advertise and this will open up the ability to be contracted by other people for larger orders.

For instance, as I’m writing this review, someone put in an order for 300 special quality yellow perch. All I had to do was accept, put nutrients in the grow beds, and then buy 300 yellow perch guppies. Using the nutrients means that I increased the chance of special quality by 50% using the best nutrients. You can do this twice so that your outcome is 100%

The nutrients do get leeched out as you grow things, so I like to buy about 100 extra of what I need because it ensures that I get what I need and I have some left over to sell in my shop.

While I wrote this, my workers did everything in the background for me. All I had to do when they were done was load the truck which was made easier by my handy-dandy container that holds 144 items.

Hydroponics Farm and Store Simulator: Try saying that 10 times fast…

I really enjoyed playing Hydroponics Farm and Store Simulator. Right now, there are 14 chapters of tasks to complete and I’m on the 13th. When I hit the 14th, I’ll be able to unlock a second floor to my store which means even more space to sell.

I’m not sure how much more the devs are planning to add, but since it’s still in Early Access, there has to be more and, like I said earlier, I’ve dunked 19 hours into this game.

As far as simulators go, this is a top-notch one. And, as far as games (in general) go, I feel like this is a pretty solid option since it caters to more hands-on players and the idle gamer.

If you’d like to get Hydroponics Farm and Store Simulator — and I think you should — you can get it for $9.99 on Steam. If this isn’t your cup of tea, you can check out the review we did on an idle life sim; My Little Life.