HUNGER Farming Guide

Read This First

This is a launch-watch farming guide, and farming is the part of HUNGER with the least published information. The game has not launched yet: a free open beta runs November 27–29, 2026, and Early Access begins December 3, 2026. The studio has published no drop table, no drop rates, no vendor prices, and no name for the currency. There is no verified "best farm" in HUNGER, no silver-per-hour figure, and no loot table to optimise against — and any guide that gives you one before launch is inventing it. What this guide gives you instead is the farming game as it actually exists in the closed beta (October 19–26, 2026): the loop, the loot categories, the extraction rules that decide whether a run pays, the Stash and Lockbox that decide what survives, the vendors, and the nine professions that turn raw finds into finished gear. If you want the leveling side — quests, abilities, masteries and Prestige — that is our HUNGER Leveling Guide.

Farming in HUNGER is not grinding a spot. It is running an expedition, filling your inventory with things that are worth more in the Chateau than they are on the map, and getting out alive with them. That sentence sounds simple, and the complexity lives entirely in the second half: getting out alive is a mechanic with rules, timers and contested balloons, and the things worth carrying are the ones that feed a profession chain or a quest, not the things that look valuable in your inventory. The players who farm best in the closed beta were not the ones who killed the most — they were the ones who knew what to pick up, knew what to leave, knew when to leave, and never carried anything they could not afford to lose. This guide teaches that judgement, because judgement is the only farming skill that survives a launch where every number is still unpublished.

The Farming Loop in One Picture

The loop is fixed, and it has five stages: prepare in the Chateau, launch, loot and fight and quest on the map, extract, and return — money goes to the Stash, quests count, and you get bonus experience. For farming, the stages that matter are the first, third and fourth. Preparation is where you decide what the run is for: which profession chain you are feeding, which quest ingredients you still need, which Lockbox item you are protecting, and how much gear you are willing to lose. The map stage is where you execute that decision: pick up what feeds the chain, skip what does not, kill what is in the way, and avoid fights that are not. Extraction is where the run either pays or does not, because nothing you are carrying counts until you are out — quests do not count, Missives do not bank, and loot does not reach the Stash. The return is where farming turns into economy: sort the haul, read the Missives, feed the profession workbenches, sell what you do not need, and restock for the next run.

Sessions are designed to last around 30 to 35 minutes, according to the director's 2025 interview, and Expedition windows rotate in three lengths — 12 hours, 3 hours and 1 hour — so the farming day is not one long session but a series of runs with preparation between them. That rhythm matters, because the preparation stage is where most farming value is created: a run launched with a full healing stock, a clear target list and an empty-ish Stash earns more than a run launched in a hurry with a full inventory and no plan. The closed-beta guide's tips keep coming back to the same point from different angles — always bring healing, check the Journal before selling, read maps and Missives in the Chateau, enter the extraction zone early — and every one of them is a preparation habit, not a combat skill. Farming in HUNGER is a planning game with a shooting section in the middle, and the players who treat it that way will out-farm the players who treat it as a shooting game with a loot screen at the end.

What Actually Pays

There is no drop table, so this section is organised by what things are for, not by where they drop — because "what it is for" is the information the closed beta actually gives us, and drop locations are the information it does not. Every farmable thing in HUNGER falls into one of seven buckets, and the bucket decides whether you pick it up.

Two buckets deserve emphasis because beginners get them wrong in opposite directions. Quest ingredients are the most commonly wasted value in the game: flour and charcoal look like vendor trash, they are needed in Eloise's chain, and players on the community forums reported selling them and then having to go back and farm them. The fix is a habit, not knowledge: check the Journal (J) before you sell anything, every time. Missives and Maps are the most commonly lost value: they pay a quest's worth of XP when read in the Chateau, and if you carry one on an Expedition and die before reading it, the in-game text says it is lost. In the closed beta you could no longer move a map from the Stash to your inventory, which is the game's way of enforcing the rule. Read them at home. The third bucket beginners overvalue is weapons: more than 40 are available at Early Access launch, and a weapon that does not fit your build is not income, it is weight. Take the weapon that beats yours. Leave the rest — or rather, take it only if your Stash has room and your run has time, because a full inventory of mediocre weapons is a run that ends with you slow, loud and dead at the balloon.

The Three Maps and Where to Farm

Early Access launches with three maps — Sarlat Farm, Jacques Bridge and Sombre Forest — each about a square kilometre with a large dungeon beneath it, and the closed beta had the same three, so the farming knowledge you build in the beta is the farming knowledge you use at launch. The maps are large and very different from each other, and each has named locations that fan sources mapped during the closed beta: Sarlat Farm holds the Undercroft and Gunline Fort among others, Jacques Bridge holds Sleeping Eye Mill and Fort Sang Rouge, and Sombre Forest holds Cutter's Hamlet and The Pit. Those named locations are where quests send you, where the best loot sits, and where other players go. Farm them the way you would farm any contested ground: learn the extraction points first, then the quest locations, then the loot — because a player who knows where the balloon is will extract with a full bag, and a player who only knows where the loot is will die with one.

The dungeons beneath each map are the highest-risk, highest-reward farming ground in the game. They are confined, dark, full of the Hunger, and full of the loot and quest steps the surface does not have — and they are also where runs end, because there is less room to retreat and more to bump into. The farming rule for dungeons is simple: do not go in on a cheap run with nothing to protect, and do not go in on an expensive run with everything to lose. Go in when you have healing, armour, a Lockbox with something worth protecting, and a clear idea of which exit you are using. Conditions change during an Expedition — weather shifts, night falls — and a route that is safe in daylight can be a trap at night. The game does not mark quest objectives on the map, so farming routes are knowledge routes: the more of the map you know, the less time you spend wandering and the more time you spend carrying. That is the real reason the beta weekend matters for farmers. The players who spend November 27–29 learning the three maps will farm faster on December 3 than the players who spend the beta chasing loot, because the loot resets and the map knowledge does not.

Farming the Hunger: Enemy Loot and Enemy Risk

There is no published loot table for any enemy, so this section is about risk, not drops — because risk is what the closed beta documents, and drops are what it does not. Six enemy types are reported from the closed beta, and the first three are described by the in-game tutorial itself. Dregs are the weakest zombies; aim for the head, because a headshot kills much faster. Shamblers are slow but strong, and a hit applies Bleed, which deals damage while you move — a Shambler fight is about not getting hit at all. Bloats explode when you get close or when damaged, and they apply Poison, which weakens your healing and is cured by an Antidote — kill them from range or with a headshot, and never let one die on top of you. The other three come from the 2025 developer interview: Waifs crawl and slash at your legs, Droolers shoot their tongues, and Brutes are huge and deal heavy damage. The closed beta added new Dreg and Shambler variants, so expect the roster to keep growing through Early Access.

The farming lesson in that table is that enemies are a cost, not an income. Nothing in the closed-beta reporting says a given enemy drops a given thing, and the players who farm best are the ones who spend the least time fighting for its own sake. Noise is the mechanic that enforces that lesson: gunshots attract both the Hunger and other players, so every fight you start is a fight you advertise. A quiet run that clears two quest steps and fills a bag with profession materials beats a loud run that kills a Brute and dies at the balloon. And the other player is the enemy the table cannot price: there is no PvE-only mode, the gear gap the community complained about in October 2026 is real, and a player who has been farming for a week hits harder than you do. Play quieter. Move slowly. Gather information. Listen. The closed-beta guide's ninth tip is a farming tip as much as a survival tip, because a fight you avoid is a bag you extract.

Extraction: The Mechanic That Decides Whether a Run Pays

Extraction is the farming mechanic. Everything else in this guide is preparation for it, and a player who does not understand it will lose more value in a week than any loot table could give them in a month. The rules come from Missive XIII, as reported in the closed-beta guide, and they are worth memorising before your first run rather than discovering mid-run. You enter an active Extraction Zone and a 30-second timer starts; then you walk to the balloon yourself and interact with it. Leaving the zone rewinds the timer instead of resetting it, which is kinder than it sounds until you realise it is still eating your margin. The first player in the zone starts the timer for the whole party, but leaving is individual: everyone must reach the balloon on their own, so a party that splits up at the end loses people. The first balloon arrives shortly after the Expedition starts, while the timing of the second is variable — and when the last balloon arrives, a 10-minute countdown begins, after which anyone who has not left dies and loses everything. Red smoke over a balloon — Deadsmoke — shows up only when at least two separate parties are in the zone, which is the game's way of telling you the extraction is about to be contested.

The farming rules fall out of that list, and they are all about time. Enter the extraction zone early, because the timer is 30 seconds and you still have to reach the balloon — the players who die at extraction are usually the ones who arrived with ten seconds to spare and found a fight waiting. Do not search loot in the open near the end of a run, because searching takes time and a headshot kills, and the last thing you pick up is the least valuable thing in your bag if it costs you the bag. Do not stay on the map until the last balloon, because ten minutes is less time than you think when you are mid-loot and the map has gone dark. And remember that the first balloon arrives shortly after the Expedition starts: the earliest extraction is often the safest, and a short run that banks a full bag beats a long run that ends in a fight over a balloon. The closed-beta guide's advice on this is blunt — do not refuse to retreat from a losing fight — and it is a farming rule, not a courage rule, because a retreat that saves a bag is worth more than a fight that loses one.

The last balloon is a deadline, not a target. When it arrives you have ten minutes, and anyone who has not left dies and loses everything. Plan your run to extract on an early balloon with a full bag, not to squeeze the map dry and sprint for the last one.

Stash, Vault and Lockbox

Your Stash is where farming becomes wealth, and the Lockbox is the one bridge between the map and the Stash that survives death. You talk to Louis, the Stashmaster, in the Outer Ramparts to use the Stash. Every unlocked character has its own Stash, money from Expeditions goes to a separate currency slot, and the Vault is a Stash shared by all characters on the account. That structure has a direct farming consequence: your characters do not share storage except through the Vault, so spreading your farming across three half-used characters is slower than concentrating it on one, and the Vault is where you put the things your other characters will need. The Lockbox unlocks during Eloise's quests and lets you carry out one protected item even after death — put your most valuable single item in it, and remember that players on the community forums report an item inside stays locked until you take it out in the Chateau, so you cannot use a key stored in a Lockbox on an Expedition.

The Stash capacity is disputed, and this guide will not pretend otherwise. Missive X from June 2026 gives 50 item slots, 10 weapon slots and 4 expansion slots; the in-game text quoted by the fan site hunger-companion.com gives 70 and 25 plus 4 slots. Check in the game when you get there, and do not build a farming plan that depends on either number. What is not disputed is the discipline the Stash demands: keep a reserve of armour and healing in it, keep quest ingredients separate from vendor trash (check the Journal before you sell), and never leave the Chateau with a full Stash and an empty plan, because a run that comes back to a full Stash is a run that wastes its last ten minutes sorting. Two edge cases are worth knowing: after a server crash, your gear returns to the Stash after a few minutes, so wait before you panic-buy replacements; and if you are left without a weapon at all, Louis gives you a free Pricker dagger through the "I've hit a rough patch..." option. Take the Pricker, run a cheap Expedition, and rebuild — the Stash is where your progress is safe, and the Expedition is where it is at risk.

Vendors and the Chateau Economy

The Chateau is the economy, and its vendors are the people you will deal with between every run. Piro is the quirky shopkeeper with a metal mask who sells items from a tray around his neck. Louis is the Stashmaster, who manages your inventory, hands out the free Pricker, and teaches the Conservator profession. Reynauld is the Expedition Master, who queues you for Expeditions and teaches Gunsmith. Eloise is the cook, whose first quest unlocks Expeditions and who teaches the Cook profession. The hub also holds the crafting workbenches where profession materials are refined — the Conservator refines curios into components there, copper filament among them — and the quest givers who turn your runs into progression. What the Chateau does not have, as of the closed beta, is a published price list: vendor prices and buy/sell values are unpublished, the currency has no published name, and no closed-beta source has produced a reliable price table. This guide therefore talks about vendor strategy in terms of rules, not numbers.

The rules are short. Sell what does not feed a profession chain, a quest, or your loadout — and check the Journal before you sell anything, because quest ingredients look like vendor trash and are not. Keep everything that feeds your two professions, because profession materials are the one category of loot whose value rises the longer you hold it, as your ranks unlock better recipes. Keep medicines and tools, because healing is the one consumable you never regret carrying, and a run without it is a run that ends early. Keep weapons that beat yours and leave the rest, because a full inventory of mediocre weapons is a run that ends slow and loud at the balloon. And keep every Missive, Map, recipe and Cosmetic Schema until you have read or used it in the Chateau — they are meant to be used there, and a Missive you die with unread is XP you threw away. The vendor economy at launch will be discovered in the first week, when players compare prices and the first price lists appear; until then, the rule is to sell the obvious, keep the useful, and never sell anything the Journal says you still need.

Professions as Farming

Professions are HUNGER's farming endgame, because they are the system that turns raw finds into finished gear — and the closed beta shows nine of them, three gathering and six crafting, where the 2025 plan showed six. You can hold two at a time, and learning one costs a fee shown in the in-game menu as 50, in a currency with no published name. The chains are the economy: the Scavenger gathers metals and materials that feed the Metallurgist (melee weapons) and the Outfitter (armour, jewellery, bags); the Conservator gathers rare mechanisms and curios and refines them at a Chateau workbench into components that feed the Gunsmith (firearms and ammunition) and the Artificer (tools and contraptions); the Naturalist collects wild plants and spices, then presses, dries and grinds them for the Cook (food and drink) and the Physician (remedies and medicine). Pick your two professions by the chain, not by the name: a gathering profession and the crafting profession it feeds is a complete economy in two slots, and a pair that does not connect is two half-economies.

Profession leveling follows the familiar MMO ranks reported from creator footage of the closed beta: Apprentice at 1, Journeyman at 75, Expert at 150, Artisan at 225, with recipes unlocking along the way. Blueprints found on raids teach new items at the Chateau. The farming advice is to pick your two professions early, because acquiring them early lets you carry more resources and craft better gear than you otherwise would, and because profession XP is a second income track that runs in parallel with your character level. The Cauldron — the Chateau area where professions are learned — opens after roughly 50 to 60 hours of content, according to the director's 2025 interview, so your early farming should stockpile the materials your chosen chain will need the moment it opens, rather than selling them for short-term money. Which profession makes the most money is the question every farmer asks, and the honest answer is that no prices are published, so no profession has a verified income. The profession that pays best at launch will be the one whose finished goods other players want most — and that is a launch-week discovery, not a pre-launch fact. Pick the chain you enjoy running, stockpile for it, and watch the first week's prices before you commit your Stash to a single market.

Crafting From Farmed Materials

Crafting is where farming stops being collection and starts being production, and the closed beta gives us the shape of it even though it gives us no recipe costs. The Gunsmith crafts firearms and ammunition from the mechanisms and curios the Conservator gathers and refines — copper filament is the named example from creator footage — which makes the Conservator-Gunsmith pair the game's ammunition supply chain. The Metallurgist shapes scavenged materials into melee weapons, the Outfitter crafts armour, jewellery and bags from the same scavenged stock, and the Artificer uses curios to craft tools and contraptions. The Cook turns the Naturalist's gathered ingredients into food and drink, and the Physician crafts remedies and medicine from the herbs the Naturalist gathers — which makes the Naturalist pair the game's sustain supply chain, the one that keeps every other farmer alive. Every finished item in those chains is either something you use (a weapon, armour, medicine, food) or something another player wants, and the difference between farming and crafting is that farming fills your bag and crafting empties it into something worth more than the sum of its parts.

The practical crafting rules for launch week are about stockpiling, not spending. Before the Cauldron opens, farm the materials your chosen chain needs and keep them — do not sell curios, mechanisms, metals or herbs for short-term money, because their value rises the moment your ranks unlock better recipes. Learn blueprints the moment you find them, because blueprints found on raids teach new items at the Chateau and a blueprint you leave in your Stash unread is a recipe you do not have. Refine at the Chateau workbenches as you go — the Conservator refines curios into components there — rather than carrying raw stock on Expeditions, because refined components are what the crafting professions actually consume. And keep a reserve of finished gear in the Stash, not just materials: a crafted weapon in the Stash is a run you can start after a death without buying anything, and the players who rebuild fastest after a loss are the ones who crafted ahead. Crafting costs beyond the learn fee are unpublished, and recipe costs are unpublished, so this guide gives no numbers — only the order of operations, which is the part that does not change when the numbers arrive.

Farming Routes by Map

There is no verified optimal route on any map, because there is no drop table to optimise against — so this section gives you route principles and a starter route per map, built from the named locations the closed beta mapped, and labelled as such. The principles come first, because they survive any change in loot: learn the extraction points before you learn the loot, because a route that ends at a balloon you know is a route that pays; farm the named locations, because quests, loot and other players all concentrate there; move quietly, because noise attracts everything and a quiet route is a profitable route; and never plan a route that needs the last balloon, because ten minutes is less time than you think when you are mid-loot and the map has gone dark.

Sarlat Farm is the map to learn first. Its named locations include the Undercroft — the dungeon beneath the farm, the highest-risk ground on the map — and Gunline Fort, a fortified position that concentrates both loot and players. A starter Sarlat route runs the farm's open ground for quest ingredients and gathering materials, hits the fort for weapons and gear, and saves the Undercroft for a run where you have healing, armour and a Lockbox item worth protecting. Jacques Bridge is the map of crossings: Sleeping Eye Mill and Fort Sang Rouge are its named locations, and the bridge itself is a chokepoint where other players hunt, so farm it with a plan for being seen. A starter Jacques route works the mill and the riverbank for materials, treats the fort as a deliberate fight rather than a casual stop, and extracts early rather than pushing the far side. Sombre Forest is the darkest of the three: Cutter's Hamlet and The Pit are its named locations, and the forest rewards the quiet farmer more than either of the other maps, because visibility is short and noise carries. A starter Sombre route moves slowly, gathers information before every clearing, and never searches a container in the open. All three routes share the same ending: enter the extraction zone early, let the 30-second timer run, walk to the balloon, and get out with the bag. A route that does not end at a balloon is not a farming route. It is a walk.

Risk Management: Gear Fear vs Profit

Gear fear is the farming tax, and the closed-beta guide names it directly as one of the most common beginner mistakes: hoarding good gear in the Stash forever. Gear you never use is gear that never earns anything, and a Stash full of weapons you are afraid to lose is a Stash full of wasted runs. The farming answer to gear fear is not to take your best gear on every run — it is to take gear matched to the run. A cheap run, with poor gear and a small Lockbox item, is the right run for learning a new map, testing a new route, or rebuilding after a loss. An expensive run, with your best weapon and a full healing stock, is the right run for a dungeon push or a quest step you have failed twice. The mistake is not taking cheap gear or expensive gear; the mistake is taking expensive gear on a cheap run's job, or cheap gear on an expensive run's job, and then blaming the gear when the run fails. Match the kit to the job, and the fear goes away, because the loss is priced in before you leave the Chateau.

The rest of risk management is arithmetic. Never take anything on an Expedition that you cannot afford to lose — the developers' rule, repeated in every closed-beta guide, and the only rule that matters. Keep a reserve of armour and healing in the Stash, because a death that leaves you with nothing is a death that costs you the next three runs as well as the one you died on. Wear armour and keep a reserve: chest armour is a second layer of health, Armour Plates repair quickly, Armour Tongs are reusable but slow, and putting armour on takes 10 seconds, so do it before a fight. Always bring healing, because health is 100 HP and only medicine heals, and the Bloodbag (slow, reusable) and the Ampoule (fast, single-use, interrupted by damage) are a loadout choice, not an afterthought. And after a loss, run a cheap Expedition to rebuild the basics on low stakes instead of chasing the loss with your best gear. The players who spiral are the ones who keep doubling down after a death. The players who profit are the ones who price the loss, rebuild cheap, and go again.

Solo vs Duo vs Trio Farming

Parties in HUNGER are solo, duo or trio, and the farming maths of each size is different — because the game pays XP and loot differently by size, and extraction works differently by size, and the two differences point in opposite directions. For XP, solo wins: in-game text reported from the closed beta says solo Expeditions give more experience than duo, and trio has no bonus over duo. For loot survival, a group wins: more guns, more eyes, someone to cover you while you search, someone to carry on if you go down. For extraction, the sizes are equal in risk and different in coordination: the first player in the zone starts the timer for the whole party, but leaving is individual, so everyone must reach the balloon on their own, and a party that splits up at the end loses people. Only the party leader picks the Expedition and presses Start, and once a match is found there is a ten-second countdown and no way back, so the party's farming plan has to be agreed before the queue, not during the run.

The practical advice is to farm solo when you are confident and duo when you are learning, and to treat trio as a social choice rather than a farming choice, since it pays no XP bonus over duo. Solo farming is the fastest way to fill a bag with profession materials, because you keep everything you find and you move at your own pace — but it is also the riskiest, because there is nobody to cover you and nobody to carry your Lockbox item out if you fall. Duo farming splits the loot and splits the risk, and it is the best size for learning a new map or a dungeon, because one player can watch while the other searches. Trio farming is the safest and the slowest, and it is worth it for a dungeon push or a contested named location, where three guns are the difference between farming the fort and being farmed at it. Whatever size you run, agree the extraction plan before you launch: which balloon, what time, who carries the Lockbox item, and what happens if someone goes down. A party without an extraction plan is three solo players who happen to be on the same map.

Mastery Synergy for Farmers

Masteries are a leveling system, but one of them is a farming system in disguise — and the farmers who notice that first will out-earn the farmers who do not. Cunning is the gathering tree: it covers gathering and spotting resource nodes, and the HUNGER Wiki's mastery advice is blunt about its economic value — finding resource nodes at distance is an economic advantage, and professions pay for themselves. A Scavenger who takes Cunning is stacking two systems that both pay for spotting and gathering; a Conservator who takes Cunning is doing the same for mechanisms and curios. The other trees pay farmers indirectly: Survival covers traps, including taking over enemy traps, which is the tool that wins the ambush at the extraction zone; Physiology keeps you alive through the mistakes that end runs; Martial and Arms make you better at the fights you cannot avoid, which means fewer lost bags. But Cunning is the only tree that pays you for farming itself, and it should be the first tree of any player whose main income is gathering.

The mastery facts that constrain the choice are the same ones the leveling guide covers: masteries unlock at level 10, there are five trees with about 120 talents, trees are organised in tiers that need points spent to open the next tier, the point curve is unpublished, and there is no published respec. Treat the first tree as a commitment. For a farmer, that means the Cunning decision has to be made before level 10, not after — test the gathering playstyle in the beta, decide whether it is how you want to earn, and commit to Cunning at launch if it is. If you cannot decide, follow your profession: a Scavenger benefits from Cunning, a Gunsmith benefits from Martial, and the profession you picked is the best evidence of the tree you will actually use. Abilities matter here too — your Passive, Tactical and Ultimate arrive at level 3 and shape how you farm before masteries open — but abilities are a leveling topic, and the leveling guide covers them in full.

The Economy After Launch

HUNGER's economy at launch will be discovered, not announced, and this section is about what to watch rather than what to do — because the numbers do not exist yet. What is known is the structure: a player-driven economy, in the studio's own description, built on crafting and professions, with vendors in the Chateau and a Stash economy behind them. What is not known is everything that makes an economy actionable: vendor prices, buy/sell values, the currency's name, drop rates, and which finished goods other players will actually want. The first week of Early Access will answer those questions in order: first the vendor prices, as players compare notes; then the profession incomes, as the first crafted goods change hands; then the farming meta, as players work out which materials are scarce and which are common. The farmers who profit most in that first week will be the ones who stockpiled broadly before the Cauldron opened, watched the prices instead of guessing them, and sold into the scarcities rather than the gluts.

Two warnings belong here. The first is about real-money trading: there is no verified seller market for HUNGER before launch, and nothing in this guide is bought — everything is earned in-game. Any real-money market that appears after launch will need the same verification this guide applies to everything else, and this guide will not recommend a seller it has not verified. The second is about the two-year Early Access plan: more weapons, maps, hub areas, characters and enemies are coming through updates, and each one changes the economy. A material that is scarce at launch may be common by spring, and a profession that pays best in December may not pay best in March. Farm the chain you enjoy, stockpile broadly, watch the prices, and do not build a farming identity around a single scarcity. The economy will move. Your map knowledge, your profession ranks and your Stash discipline are the parts that do not.

Daily and Weekly Farming Loop

Farming in HUNGER is a routine, and routines beat inspiration. Here is the loop this guide recommends, split into the beta weekend — where the job is learning — and the launch week, where the job is earning. In the beta (November 27–29), run all three maps and learn the extraction points, the named locations and the enemy behaviours. Test one gathering profession and one crafting profession far enough to know whether the chain feels good. Lose gear freely and die cheaply, because nothing carries over and the only thing you can bank is knowledge. Note the learn fee, the rank thresholds and the Stash capacity as you find them, because those are the numbers this guide will re-verify against the open beta. In the launch week (December 3 onward), the daily loop is: check the Journal, pick a target chain for the day, run Expeditions with a matched kit, extract on an early balloon, sort the haul in the Chateau, read the Missives, refine at the workbenches, sell what does not feed a chain, and restock healing and armour before the next run. The weekly loop adds: push one dungeon run when your kit allows it, check vendor prices against last week's, and review which materials you are short of — because the scarcities are the farming plan for next week.

Patch State (as of November 12, 2026)

Written November 12, 2026 — two weeks before the open beta, three weeks before Early Access — from the closed beta (October 19–26, 2026) and the developer's Missives through Missive XIX (November 10, 2026). The facts most likely to change first are the ones the studio has already changed before: the profession count (six in the 2025 plan, nine in the closed beta), the mastery tree structure (split in August 2026), the Stash capacity (two conflicting figures), and the ability unlock levels (level 3 versus Tactical 6 / Ultimate 9). The open beta on November 27–29 is the first chance to re-verify all of them, and the launch on December 3 is the second — and the first prices, drop observations and profession incomes will arrive in that same window, which is when this guide's farming sections get their numbers. After each date, check the profession count, the Stash capacity, the vendor prices and the currency name before trusting any figure in this guide. The HUNGER Wiki tracks the systems on its release-date and mastery pages, and the Steam news feed for app 1752080 carries every Missive and hotfix. This guide will be updated after the open beta and again after launch; until then, treat it as a launch-watch document, and treat anything the game contradicts as the game's word winning.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best thing to farm in HUNGER?

There is no verified answer yet, because the studio has published no drop table or drop rates. What the closed beta does show is the shape of value: quest ingredients and Missives pay in XP, curios and mechanisms feed the Gunsmith and Artificer chains, herbs feed the Cook and Physician, and weapons and gear feed your loadout. Farm toward a profession chain, not toward a loot table nobody has seen.

How do I keep my loot when I die in HUNGER?

You mostly do not: dying on an Expedition takes the gear in your inventory. The exception is the Lockbox, unlocked during Eloise's quests, which carries out one protected item even after death. Everything else you want to keep has to be extracted — and Maps, Missives, recipes and Cosmetic Schemas should be read in the Chateau, never carried out unread.

Which HUNGER profession makes the most money?

No prices are published, so no profession has a verified income. What is known is the chain structure: Scavenger feeds Metallurgist and Outfitter, Conservator feeds Gunsmith and Artificer, Naturalist feeds Cook and Physician. The profession that pays best at launch will be the one whose finished goods other players want most — and that is a launch-week discovery, not a pre-launch fact.

Where do I farm in HUNGER?

The three launch maps are Sarlat Farm, Jacques Bridge and Sombre Forest, each about a square kilometre with a large dungeon beneath it. Named locations reported from the closed beta include the Undercroft and Gunline Fort on Sarlat Farm, Sleeping Eye Mill and Fort Sang Rouge on Jacques Bridge, and Cutter's Hamlet and The Pit in Sombre Forest. Dungeons hold the best loot and the most risk.

Does HUNGER have a currency, and what is it called?

The game has money — expedition earnings go to a separate currency slot in the Stash — but the currency has no published name as of November 12, 2026. This guide does not invent one. Vendor prices and buy/sell values are likewise unpublished.

Is it better to farm solo or in a group in HUNGER?

For XP, solo: in-game text reported from the closed beta says solo Expeditions give more experience than duo, and trio has no bonus. For loot survival, a group is safer — but extraction is individual, since the first player in the zone starts the timer for the party and everyone must reach the balloon on their own.

What should I never sell in HUNGER?

Quest ingredients — flour and charcoal among others — which Eloise's chain needs. Check the Journal before selling anything. Also never sell a Missive or Map you have not read, and never take one on an Expedition unread: if you die before reading it, it is lost.

Can I buy HUNGER loot with real money?

There is no verified seller market for HUNGER before launch, and nothing in this guide is bought — everything is earned in-game. The game's economy is player-driven crafting and vendor trade inside the Chateau, and any real-money market that appears after launch will need the same verification this guide applies to everything else.

Sources

Every fact in this guide carries its source. Launch dates and beta details come from the developer's Missive XIX on Steam; the loop, extraction rules, Stash and profession chains come from the closed beta (October 19–26, 2026) as reported by the AFKTimes beginner's guide and the fan-run HUNGER Wiki; prices, rates and the currency name are unpublished and flagged as such wherever they would matter. Last checked November 12, 2026.

• HowToVideoGame: HUNGER Has Early Access and Open Beta Dates (Missive XIX, Steam, November 10, 2026 — open beta November 27–29, Early Access December 3, 10:00 AM GMT, no price announced, specs)
• HUNGER Wiki (fan wiki): HUNGER Release Date — 3 December 2026 (dates, 60–70 hour main-story reading, no forced wipes, Missive timeline)
• HUNGER Wiki (fan wiki): HUNGER Mastery Tree — Abilities and Prestige (abilities at level 3, masteries at 10, five trees, Cunning as the gathering tree)
• AFKTimes: HUNGER Beginner's Guide (October 24, 2026 — closed-beta state: expedition loop, extraction rules, death and Lockbox, Stash dispute, enemies, maps, tips)
• Battle4Play: HUNGER Early Access Brings a Dark RPG Twist to Extraction (dates, three maps, 40+ weapons, price unannounced)
• GameSpark: HUNGER opens its OBT to all on November 27, with Early Access starting December 3 (two-year Early Access plan, Epic Games Store, 100+ masteries)
• Niche Gamer: Multiplayer horror extraction RPG HUNGER launches in December (Steam + Epic, December 3, open beta November 27–29)
• 2025 director interview (Maximilian Rea) via Qxacl: Hunger — A Multiplayer RPG with Extraction Loop (three 1 sq km maps, 50–60 hour content aim, six professions as planned in 2025, Missives and Maps, 30–35 minute sessions)
• MMODude: HUNGER game page