Going Medieval Best Crops Tier List

S S-Tier: Barley & Redcurrant — The Untouchables

Barley sits alone at the top of the food chain for one reason: it produces ale. In Going Medieval, ale is the single most powerful mood-boosting consumable in the game. A settler who drinks ale regularly maintains significantly higher morale, which translates into faster work speed, fewer mental breaks, and greater resistance to negative mood penalties from things like eating raw food or sleeping on the floor. When your colony faces a brutal winter or a devastating raid, the morale buffer ale provides can be the difference between a settler holding the line and one snapping into a berserk rage at the worst possible moment. Barley also doubles as animal feed and can be milled into flour for bread production, making it the most versatile crop by a wide margin. The only downside is its summer-only growth window — you must plan your planting cycle carefully to stockpile enough barley before autumn ends. Under ideal conditions, a single 5x5 Barley field tended by a decent botanist produces enough grain to keep six settlers supplied with ale through an entire winter.

Redcurrant shares S-tier for an entirely different reason: it is perennial. Unlike every other crop on this list, Redcurrant bushes are planted once and produce berries every single year without requiring replanting. The labor savings are enormous over time — while your botanists are busy sowing and harvesting seasonal crops, Redcurrant bushes silently deliver a steady stream of edible berries year after year with zero ongoing labor investment. The berries can be eaten raw (providing immediate food in emergencies), cooked into meals, or fermented into alcoholic beverages. Even a modest patch of 8-10 Redcurrant bushes can provide a reliable food baseline that cushions your colony against poor harvests or unlucky crop blights. The only limitation is that Redcurrants are summer-harvest only, so they do not contribute during winter. However, their labor-free nature makes them a "set it and forget it" food source that every colony should establish as early as possible.

A A-Tier: Cabbage & Herbs — The Essentials

Cabbage is the fastest-growing food crop in Going Medieval, with a growth cycle estimated at approximately 6 days under optimal conditions. This rapid turnaround makes Cabbage the ideal early-spring panic button — when your food reserves are running low after a long winter, a field of Cabbage planted on the first day of spring produces an edible harvest before most other crops have even sprouted. Cabbage can be consumed raw in a crisis, eliminating the bottleneck of waiting for a cook to process it, and it also serves as a versatile cooking ingredient for stews and prepared meals. The combination of speed, versatility, and high yield per tile places Cabbage firmly in A-tier. The only reason it does not reach S-tier is that it offers no unique secondary benefit (no alcohol, no medicine, no perennial advantage) — it is simply the best pure food crop, and in a game about survival, that counts for a lot.

Herbs occupy a unique position in the crop hierarchy: they are not a food crop in any meaningful sense, but they are the only source of medicine, and without medicine your colony cannot recover from combat wounds or treat diseases. In Going Medieval, wounded settlers who go untreated develop infections that dramatically slow healing and can cause death even from seemingly minor injuries. A raid that leaves three settlers bleeding will turn into a colony collapse if you have no Herbs to craft bandages and medicinal treatments. Herbs also double as a cooking ingredient for certain recipes, adding modest food value, but their primary role is medical. Every colony should maintain a dedicated Herb plot — it does not need to be large, but it absolutely must exist. The low yield is the trade-off for this essential utility.

B B-Tier: Carrot & Beet — The Workhorses

Carrot and Beet share the B-tier because they fulfill essentially the same role: reliable, unremarkable food staples that do their job without fanfare. Both are spring/summer crops with moderate growth cycles (approximately 7 days), decent per-tile yields, and reasonable shelf life for winter storage. Carrots additionally serve as animal feed, providing an emergency option for keeping livestock alive if your Hay supply runs out. Beets excel at long-term storage, lasting significantly longer in underground stockpiles than most other vegetables. Neither crop is flashy — you will never hear a player say "I won this game because of my Beet field" — but they form the backbone of a diversified food economy. A colony that relies on only barley and cabbage will suffer from meal monotony penalties (settlers get unhappy eating the same food repeatedly), and Carrots and Beets provide the variety needed to keep meal quality high.

The optimal approach is to plant moderate Carrot and Beet plots alongside your S-tier and A-tier staples. They fill harvest schedule gaps (staggering planting times across different crop types ensures continuous supply), contribute to meal variety bonuses, and serve as insurance against the failure of any single crop type due to blight or mistimed planting. They are the definition of B-tier: solid, dependable, and never the wrong choice — just not the game-changer that Barley or Redcurrant represents.

C C-Tier: Flax — Specialist Crop

Flax is the only non-edible crop on this list (excluding Hay), and its C-tier ranking reflects its narrow but important purpose: producing linen for clothing and armor. In Going Medieval, exposure to cold without adequate clothing causes hypothermia, which rapidly degrades settler health and mood during winter months. Flax fields supply the raw material that your Tailoring bench transforms into linen, which is then crafted into winter coats, hats, gloves, and bandages for wound treatment. A colony without Flax must either trade for cloth (unreliable and expensive) or watch settlers freeze in the first snow. The reason Flax lands at C-tier rather than higher is timing — you need clothing before winter starts, but Flax grows in summer, meaning your first-year colony can survive with scavenged animal leather while you gradually build a textile economy. Flax is essential for mid-to-late game survival but not urgent in the opening weeks. Plant a small Flax field by mid-summer of your first year and expand it once your food supply is secure.