Lightyear Frontier Crops: Full List and Grow Times

Lightyear Frontier has eight core crops, each tied to one of three soil types: Nitrogenic, Phosphoric and Potassic. Version 1.0 adds four more crops in Sandswept Highlands and Hollow Marsh. This page is the reference table: what to plant, where it grows, how long it takes, and what it turns into.

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Lightyear Frontier Crop Rotation Chart and Rules

The full Lightyear Frontier crop rotation chart: which soil each crop leaves behind, the fastest loop, the best oil loop and how to fix a field that drifted.

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What are all the crops in Lightyear Frontier?

The four 1.0 crops grow in the two new regions. Their names appear in the Codex when you first harvest them; this table covers the eight crops that every save can plant from the early game.

Grow times are in-game days. A crop planted in the morning is ready the next morning for Wheat, and up to four days later for the slow varieties. Weather does not pause growth; water affects yield, not the timer.

How do soil types work?

Each mound has one type, shown in the HUD before you plant. The type changes only when a crop is harvested:

• High-yield harvest moves the mound to the next type: Nitrogenic → Phosphoric → Potassic → Nitrogenic.
• Mutated harvest moves it to the previous type.
• Normal harvest leaves the type unchanged.

The practical consequence is that you cannot plant the same crop in the same mound forever without either accepting a neutral harvest or using Mulch to reset the type. Mulch is the 1.0 renaming of the old fertilizer, and it is the item that changes soil. The new Fertilizer only raises yield.

The full transition table, including what each crop does to the next mound, is on the crop rotation page →. If you only want the shortest loop: Wheat → Rabbage → Caroot → Wheat.

Which crops are best early?

Wheat is the best first crop. One-day growth means a harvest every session, and the seed cost is trivial. It is not the most valuable crop, but it is the fastest feedback loop and the easiest way to keep delivery credit moving.

Polyberry is the best early oil crop. Two days for two energy per unit beats Wheat's one energy, and Polyberry Oil is used in several early crafts. Rabbage is the alternative at the same grow time with a different soil type, which makes it the natural third crop in a rotation.

Caroot is a mid-early crop with three-day growth and three energy per oil unit. Plant it when you have a stable water supply, because the longer timer punishes a dry field more than Wheat does.

Which crops are best late?

The four-day crops are the moneymakers, but they are not interchangeable:

Honeybottle and Lumbloom are the best fuel crops per unit, but they take four days and occupy a mound for most of a week. Do not replace your entire farm with them; keep a fast crop for delivery filler and rotate the slow crops through the best soil.

How do mutations work?

A mutated crop is a rare harvest variant. In 1.0, a mutated harvest gives you both the mutated produce and a normal unit, so a mutation is never a loss. Mutations are also the only way to push a mound backward in the rotation, which makes them useful for correcting a field that has drifted out of sequence.

Mutation odds are not published as a fixed percentage. The reliable way to increase your chances is to keep the mound healthy: correct soil, water, and no overdue harvest. The crops disappeared page → covers the failure states that kill a harvest before mutation can happen.

Where do you get each seed?

Early seeds come from the Seed Extractor and from harvesting the crop itself. Region-locked crops require you to reach their native region first:

• Outset Grasslands: Wheat, Polyberry, Rabbage, Caroot.
• Frostpeak Ridge: Honeybottle, Lumbloom.
• Hexagon Valley: Chromaize, Zappertwig.
• Sandswept Highlands and Hollow Marsh: the four 1.0 crops.

The region-by-region seed route, including which plants to scan, is in the crop locations guide →.

FAQ

How many crops are in Lightyear Frontier?

There are eight core crops plus four added in 1.0, for twelve total. The eight core crops cover all three soil types and are available without entering the expansion regions.

Which crop grows fastest?

Wheat, at one in-game day. Polyberry and Rabbage take two days; Caroot and Chromaize take three; Honeybottle, Lumbloom and Zappertwig take four.

Do crops die if you do not harvest them?

A crop that stays ripe too long can wither, which is one of the reasons a field appears to lose plants. Harvest on time, or check the crops disappeared guide → for the other causes.

Can you grow every crop on one farm?

Yes, once you have the seeds. Soil type is per mound, so a single farm can host all three types as long as you rotate and use Mulch to correct drift.

Sources

Crop table and soil rules checked against the 1.0 build and the in-game Codex on November 6, 2026. The four 1.0 crops are documented by region rather than by a guessed name.

Official source: Steam store ↗, official site ↗, community wiki ↗.