Sorting and Sowing

You likely have a lot of rice seeds from last year's harvest; however, these vary in quality, and some may be better than others, while some may not be up to the standards you hope to meet. This is when sorting rice becomes useful - so you can use only the best grains for your next harvest, defined by a benchmark you set.

Lower quality rice seeds tend to be lighter than higher quality rice seeds, and this is taken advantage of in sorting. You add either mud or salt to the water, which raises the density of the water. As the density increases, lighter (low quality) seeds will float to the top of the water, where they are removed.

In Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin the only part you do yourself is A) determining what to sort with and B) adding however much of it you need to the water and stirring. At first the game only allows you access to mud sorting, though after you obtain enough Salt, you are allowed access to salt sorting.

It is worth mentioning that despite there being a Sorting section in the Farming Skills menu, there are no skills Sakuna can obtain that will help her with sorting.

## Should I sort with mud or salt?

They each have their own benefits, though generally, if you're aiming for aesthetic, sort with mud if you can. Otherwise...

Sorting with salt can increase the rice crops' defenses against pests, weeds and diseases, though at the same time it can *greatly* increase the rice's susceptibility to salt damage, which can lower the overall quality of the harvest. This can be made worse if you add salt to the fertilizer later on or even if you eat salty meals. This can be fixed with toxicity-lowering items but caution is generally advised.

If you're prepared to keep a close eye on the salt going into the rice during the growing phase, by all means, feel free to sort with salt. Otherwise, sorting is a choice with no wrong options; you will be able to produce a good harvest no matter what you use.

## How much should I sort?

You can add as much salt or as much mud as you want to the water, which will in turn increase its density further and leave only higher and high quality rice seeds for you to plant; this will increase the quality of your harvest, but at the same time will decrease your yield, which you should be mindful of if you require a lot of rice for trading or meals.

A general guideline is the chunk of amber in the water; after you have added enough to the water such that the amber begins to float, this can be used as a rough guide for a "default" benchmark of sorting the rice seeds.

## Sowing the rice

Right after you finish sorting, it is time to sow the seeds in boxes in the storehouse - this is to protect them from pests and disease. You have two choices, sow thinly or sow thickly.

The general concept is as before: if the scrolls state a certain option is best for whatever you are going for, it's advised to go for that option, i.e. Yield requires thickly sown seeds while Aesthetic requires thinly sown seeds.

It's a simple concept; thinly sown rice produces higher quality rice but decreases yield, while thickly sown rice increases your yield but at the cost of lower quality. It is a simple quality vs quantity question you face here, and unless the scrolls sway your decision, it is up to you to make this decision depending on your needs - if you want to increase the rice's stats, thinly, if you require a lot of rice, thickly.

From here, the next step is tilling if you haven't already done so.