Farmer

These farmers seek to apply their wisdom to navigating the Labyrinth despite their clumsiness in battle.

—In-Game Description, Etrian Odyssey III

The Farmer is an exploration based class in Etrian Odyssey III. They have almost no combat use, and are infinitely more useful for their field use.

The Farmer class is like the Survivalist class from prior games, but they have an atrocious lack of combat capabilities. While their field skills improve the party's condition, keep all Farmers away from the front lines. They even have a skill that decreases enemy attention on themselves. They can only wield Farmer specific tools that vary between weapon classes, and can wear up to Medium Armor. They also have the highest LUC in the game.

Gameplay

The Farmer has only a few actual combat abilities, all of them being from one branch of their skill tree. Lullaby puts the enemy (and themselves) to sleep and Play Possum that makes them less likely to be attacked. They can also lower the attack of all enemies with Rotten Egg, which gets improved effects from status ailments. Strange Seeds can completely bind a single enemy and Sympathy Pain copies any ailments the unit has onto an enemy.

Otherwise, they will simply assist the party on the field, such as increase healing from tents with Camp Mastery or using To Market take you back to town immediately.

They are also incredibly useful at harvesting from harvest spots: Harvestry allows the Farmer to gain one point in all 3 gathering skills per skill level, while Double Crop allows you to farm much more per usage. Keen Nose makes finding rare items more likely and Horseplay passes time to reset the amount for gathering you can do.

Additionally to that, Farmers can increase drop rates from enemies and EXP gained by the party. So while they're definitely unfit for combat, Farmers have their use in mysterious ways.

Stat Progression

Does not include any stat bonuses from skills, equipment, Books, or Retirement.

Level	HP	TP	STR	TEC	VIT	AGI	LUC
1	36	15	3	3	5	6	12
35	169	97	15	17	23	25	41
70	305	181	28	31	42	45	71
99	390	233	36	39	54	57	89

Skills

Note: Skills are listed in the same order that is used in the game and do not necessarily unlock one after another. See the "Requires" column to see how to unlock a skill. If that column has dashes in it the skill is accessible at level one; no other skill is needed to unlock it. Skills are normally maxed at level 10, but there are some exceptions where the level cap is 5 or even 1.

Passive Skills are passive benefits that grant bonuses without being activated.

Support Skills are in battle skills, that have various uses, but normally don't damage the enemy.
Search Skills are out-of-battle skills. Farmers excel at the use of these skill and therefore at the gathering of materials.

Extra shows skill detail or any special bonuses that are gained at certain levels.

Skill	Description	Type	Requires	Extra
Earth's Bounty	Farmer skill that increases ally EXP points if you are alive.	Class Skill	-----
Brave Heart	If HP is maxed and you are in the front row, you'll recover TP.	Passive Skill	Sympathy Pain Lv5	Max Lv5
Persistence	You may revive from defeat at the end of the turn once per battle.	Passive Skill	Play Possum Lv5 Strange Seeds Lv3
Waste Not	The item drop rate at the end of battle increases.	Passive Skill	Camp Mastery Lv3	Max Lv5
Keen Nose	You have a higher chance of finding rare items at harvesting points.	Passive Skill	Harvestry Lv3
Camp Mastery	Revive and cure petrify at camps. Party HP and TP recovered increases.	Passive Skill	-----
Lullaby	Sing a lullaby, putting yourself and all enemies to sleep.	Special Skill	-----
Play Possum	Breathe slowly to lower the chance of enemies hitting you for 3 turns.	Support Skill	Lullaby Lv1
Strange Seeds	Plant mystery seeds that bind all enemy heads, arms, and legs.	Special Skill	Lullaby Lv3
Rotten Egg	Lower enemy strength for 4 turns. Status ailments increase its effect.	Support Skill	Lullaby Lv3
Sympathy Pain	Status ailments you are affected by can be shared with the enemy.	Special Skill	Rotten Egg Lv3
Slap Awake	Revive an ally. Used only from the main menu.	Search Skill	Camp Mastery Lv5
Harvestry	Gather resources at all chopping, mining and gathering points.	Search Skill	-----	Max Lv5
Double Crop	Increase number of times you can chop, mine, and gather.	Search Skill	Harvestry Lv5
Keen Eye	Show FOE locations on the map for a limited number of steps.	Search Skill	-----
To Market	Takes you back to town quickly.	Search Skill	Keen Eye Lv1	Max Lv1
Rain or Shine	Nullify trap floor damage for a limited number of steps.	Search Skill	Keen Eye Lv3
Safe Stroll	Eliminate enemy encounters for a limited number of steps.	Search Skill	Keen Eye Lv5	Max Lv5
Horseplay	Shirk responsibility until an hour passes.	Search Skill	-----	Max Lv1

Subclass Options

Due to their low stats and focus on map navigation, the Farmer has limited options for successful subclassing. Some of these options are:

Ninja

Possibly the best subclass for the Farmer, despite their limited use. The main draw of this combination is the ability to instant-kill most non-boss enemies with Kubikiri, which calculates LUC for success; this in adittion to the Farmer's ailment skills Lullaby, Strange Seeds and Rotten Eggs, and the Ninja's Izuna and Kagenui.

The feeble Farmer also benefits greatly from the evasion bonuses granted by Senpuku to avoid getting killed too often, and Karuwaza further helps with TP recovery. Sarutobi and Kumogakure might be useful to avoid damage, but you're better off spending your Farmer's turns on ailment skills.

Earth's Bounty and Keen Nose guarantee increased EXP and higher chance of rare drops, which go along perfectly with this combination's focus on instant death and ailments. Harvestry, for it's part, gives the Farmer something useful to do outside of battle.

The downside of this combination is that it can be too gimmicky, the reason you might want to keep it around is for rare drops only, as other classes, like the Wildling, have better stats and options as Hexer-types; also, it falls short against bosses due to their increased ailment resistance and immunities, but can still support with binds.

Prince/Princess

The Prince(ss) Royal Veil is supported by the Farmer's Braveheart, giving HP and TP recovery as long as the Farmer's HP is full. Since this combination needs the Farmer to be on the front row, it's better used in reverse (Prince(ss)/Farmer).

Hoplite

The actual reason you'll be using this combination is for the Hoplite's Shield Mastery, to give your Farmer access to shields and better survivality; don't bother with Spear Mastery, since the Farmer's low stats mean you'll be barely doing damage even with the skill at Lv10. Shrug Off is a good way to keep you Farmer free of ailments and ready to support with items, and Recuperate gives you healing for every turn you spend defending.

Parry and Magic Parry, as with the Hoplite, may or may not be good skills to invest in due to their random activation rate.

UNTESTED: Overwatch might benefit from the Farmer's low HP, but without ways to mitigate the cost it can quickly deplete the Farmer's TP.

The downside of this combination is that your Farmer will be too busy surviving to do much else.

Trivia

The blonde, blue dressed female Farmer closely resembles Alice, a recurrent demon in the Shin Megami Tensei series.