Conan Exiles Planter Guide - Conan Fanatics (2024)

Growing things is calming, and if there’s one thing I need while I’m trying to survive the Exiled Lands, it’s a little peace. There are plenty of other games with wildly elaborate farming mechanisms, but Funcom has kept it simple in their harsh landscape. Ironically, though, it is still very satisfying to have a working farm within the safety of your base.

The brutal nature of the outside world highlights pleasant chores behind your walls. Getting stomped back to your base can be healed both mentally and financially with a little maintenance, fishing, and farming. But what do you need to get your farming journey started? A planter, of course!

There is a very important aspect to note about planters before I go any further: they are not an endless resource. They willnot produce more seedsfrom the plants grown in them. This means that while they do add value by expanding your resources, they won’t completely save you from venturing back out into the cruel Exiled Lands.

There are three different types of planters to consider for your base build. These are the crude planter, the planter, and the improved planter.

They all requireseeds and either compost or potent compostto grow a plant. Compost is made in the compost heap crafting station, and seeds are found by harvesting the plant in the wild. As of right now, the only functional difference between the three planters is their inventory slots.

How to Use a Planter

To use a planter, you will need to collect seeds either by hand or with a sickle. Sickles gather more seeds per drop, though seeds still drop less often than the plant or flower will. While it doesn’t feel like a very worthwhile investment to create a sickle early game, once you have one, plant and seed collecting will become much easier.

After placing the seeds in a planter, you will need to add some compost. Each seed will consume one compost to grow one plant, and that plant will be displayed in the planter.

Compost is crafted in the compost heap using either five fiber, four bonemeal, two putrid meat, or ten dung and five fiber. The first recipe is for the adventurer. Check out our complete Conan Exiles Compost guide here!

Bonemeal is processed from bones in the grinder, and bones are obtained from dead humans and animals. The second recipe is for those that prefer base activities. Dung is produced in the small animal pen, animal pen, improved animal pen, or stable, as long as an adult animal is present (and fed).

See also: Conan Exiles Animal Pen Guide – Bring a Friend

The Crude Planter

Let’s get it started!

You’ll be able to learn the crude planter recipe at level 18. It is available under the peasant feat, which can be found under the main feats menu. This feat also teaches the compost pile, which will be required to make compost to use in the planter.

To craft a crude planter, you will need25 brick, which can be made from stone on the furnace. You will need some type of fuel to power the furnace and 250 stone. Once crafted, the crude planter can be placed on level ground outside or inside. It is convenient to place them next to your compost heaps, but I won’t tell you how to design your base aesthetically speaking.

This crude planter can grow any kind of seed, and if you are a patient exile,there is functionally no reason to ever upgrade.

The Planter

The planter recipe can be learned at level 38. You’ll have to go under the survivalist tab in the feats menu and learn the farmer feat. It only teaches the planter (there is no upgrade to the compost heap).

The planter requires50 brick, ten shaped wood, and ten iron reinforcement. This boils down to 500 stones, 100 wood, and 20 iron bars. You’ll need a furnace for the brick and iron reinforcement and a carpenter’s bench for the shaped wood.

The only upgrade from the crude planter to the planter, besides its looks, is its increased inventory. This will allow you to dump more seed types to grow without filling the inventory.

The Improved Planter

You will also need to look under the survivalist tab for the Agricultarilist feat, and it also only teaches the improved planter (no new farming buildings yet).

This is a costly planter and will require100 hardened brick, 25 insulated wood, and ten reinforced steel. Hardened brick requires one crick and one stone consolidant in the furnace. Insulated wood requires one dry wood and two resin in the carpenter’s bench. Reinforced steel requires iron reinforcement and steel fire or two steel bars in the furnace.

Again, the only improvement an improved planter provides is a larger inventory. It is quite a bit of hassle for not very much added benefit!

What Can I Grow in the Planter?

You can grow any seed (and one cutting) you find in the crude planter, the planter, and the improved planter. If it is alotus seed, it must be grown with potent compost, or it will not grow.

Here is a nice list of the seeds you will find to plant in your planter; they all grow their corresponding plant when the correct compost is added:

• Seeds
• Aloe Seeds
• Asura’s Glory Seeds
• Black Lotus Seeds
• Crimson Lotus Seeds
• Desert Berry Seeds
• False Mandrake Seeds
• Frost Lotus Seeds
• Golden Lotus Seeds
• Grey Lotus Seeds
• Highlands Berry-Bush Seeds
• Hops Seeds (Beer!)
• Leavening Plant Seeds
• Lupin Seeds
• Midnight Blue Flower Seeds
• True Indigo Seeds
• Orange PhykosCutting
• Purple Lotus Seeds
• Yellow Lotus Seeds

Regular seeds grow fiber, but as this plant is so easy to come by, it may be more beneficial for you to turn this seed into gruel at a cooking station. While gruel is arguably not very beneficial to feed your combat thralls, it works great on the wheel of pain while breaking a thrall. They don’t seem to care what they eat while pushing the wheel.

What Do I Use All These Plants For?

So what’s the point? Well, in the early game,it’s all about the aloe.

Aloe is used in an alchemist’s bench to make aloe potions and healing wraps. Staying fully sated isn’t enough to keep you healed up out in the wild, and aloe potions will get you out of a lot of trouble. There’s no free heals in the exiled lands, and aloe isn’t a wildly abundant resource. Crafting a crude planter and growing your aloe seeds is a must.

Things like hops, berries, and leavening agents are used in cooking and brewing. Plants such as the orange phykos and true indigo are used to make dyes that can be used on clothes and armor.

If it is a lotus, it will be used at an alchemist’s bench to create a stat affecting potion! These potions are “make or break” once players make it to the high-level areas of the game.

Planters for Decoration

Because planters do not produce more seeds while growing plants, their usefulness in-game is mostly to supplement rare ingredients, many exiles prefer to use them to decorate their bases after they’ve crafted a few for function.

The planter will display the first plant grown in it by default. However, you may place any plant in it, and it will override the last plant displayed, whether it was grown in the planter or not. The plants and flowers are often larger and more impressive than their real-world counterparts (maybe it’s the compost!). If you harvest all of the plants, the planter will go back to displaying dirt.

You only need one plant to display the desired plant or flower in your planter. Unfortunately, if you choose to grow seeds in this planter moving forward, whatever the most recently grown seed will be the display plant until it’s removed.

If guests drop by while you are logged off, this will be the plant on display. How embarrassing! Best to have some functional planters back by your compost heaps for growing plants that do not fit your design.

Planter FAQs

We’re All Plant People Now

Growing plants in Conan is not as rewarding as a more farming-focused game, but it is rewarding by Conan standards. It is often a relief to crank a couple more aloe potions out before you have to head out beyond your base walls, and this wouldn’t be possible without a planter.

All it takes is a planter, a seed, and some compost, and you can squeeze out another fraction of the harsh waste land’s resources. While Funcom won’t allow the player to harvest any more seeds from the planter (say like in actual, real-life farming), it is understandable that they want their Exiles out in the world.

It’s also a well-known fact that a lot of us are in it just as much for the base building features as we are for the adventure, and it’s a nice touch to be able to decorate our compounds with any plant we can grow. If I’m getting raided, at least they will see I have great taste! Sometimes, that’s all we can hope for in the Exiled Lands.

Happy farming, Exiles!

Recommended Reads:

• Conan Exiles Alchemical Base Guide
• Conan Exiles Fish Trap Guide
• Conan Exiles Compost Guide
• Conan Exiles Steelfire Guide