Here, instead of just wheat and corn, she tended to water-soaked rice paddies. The process was meticulous. First, she flooded the field using a new water physics engine. Then, she used a specialized rice planter, not a drill. The water level had to be precisely one inch above the soil. Too low, the seeds dried out. Too high, they rotted.

Elena raised an eyebrow. Water buffalo?

Her profit margin that year increased by 22% simply because she stopped wasting chemicals.

The new GPS-guided steering system, a base-game feature finally freed from mods, auto-corrected her path. As she drove, the soil deformed in real-time. Mud clumped on her tires. Ruts formed behind her. If she made a turn too sharp, the field would be damaged, lowering her yield for the coming rice harvest.

As the screen faded to black, a single notification popped up: "Your rice sake is ready for transport. Delivery to the mountain restaurant yields +40% profit."

Using a drone—another FS25 first—she had scanned Field 8. The map showed a heat gradient of nitrogen and potassium. In previous games, you fertilized once, you got a boost. Here, you used a variable rate spreader. The machine automatically pumped less fertilizer on the rich patch near the creek and more on the eroded hilltop.

Her neighbor, a friendly AI farmer named Kenji, explained the new production chains over the in-game VoIP. “Rice goes to the sake brewery,” he said. “But first, you need the polishing factory. And the water buffalo for the paddies.”