The daily market

From 8 December, daily farms sell at prices that move with what players sold the day before.

What it is

From Tuesday 8 December 2026 the daily challenge has a market. Every item sells at a price set for that day, the same for every player. Until then the game and the site show “Market opens in N days”, and dailies keep using the base prices.

The price of an item moves between 50% and 200% of its base price, and by at most 25 points of base price per day. The game shows today’s prices and, next to them, the share of units each item made up in yesterday’s best runs.

How prices move

Prices are set from what players sold the day before, so the market answers to the crowd:

• An item that too many players sold gets cheaper the next day.
• An item that few players sold gets dearer.
• Each player counts once, with their best run of the day, whatever the volume. One account cannot move a price by selling a lot.
• The change is smoothed over three days (newest counts most) and stepped from yesterday’s price, so a price never jumps.
• If fewer than 10 players sold anything the day before, prices stay at base.

The target is a blend: half a fixed split, half what the crowd has really been selling over the last two weeks.

Herding is punished the next day

If everyone piles into the crop that paid best today, it is cheap tomorrow. Following the crowd works until the crowd arrives. That swing is intended: the winning program is the one that spreads or anticipates, not the one that copies yesterday’s best.

Orders stay at base price

Prices on the market only change what you earn by selling from the barn. Orders do not change. An order still pays twice the item’s base price plus 10 coins on any day. That makes orders your hedge: a predictable payout while the market moves.

Net worth uses the day’s prices too, for both the coins you have and the stock in your barn.

Reading prices in Sprout

price(item) is a free query. It costs no ticks and does nothing to the farm. Its unit depends on the day:

We kept the old answer on old days so that programs written before the market still behave the same when replayed. If you write a program that has to work on both kinds of day, don’t compare the number with a constant for the same item. Compare it with itself, for example against price(wheat).

if price(carrot) >= price(wheat):
    sell carrot, all
else:
    sell wheat, all

Compost has no price, and asking for it is an error. A sale can pay 0 coins at very low prices. It is legal and the stock is still removed.

Older versions of the app

A market day needs Tendril 0.2 or newer. Older versions refuse to play it and show “This day needs a newer Tendril. Update the app.” Endless farms, seasons and days before 8 December work as before.