It's that 'one more day' mentality that keeps us automating and optimizing our farms, and we wouldn't have it any other way. So if you're on the hunt for your next agricultural addiction, we can help you find it as we rank the ten best farming sims you need to play.

10 Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

While I can't even begin to pretend to love Story of Seasons as I long for the days when the series went by Harvest Moon, it would also be unthinkable to leave a series of such a lineage off of this list entirely, so I give to you what I regard as the best Story of Seasons outing in recent years, Friends of Mineral Town. This is a remake of the famous Harvest Moon title and allows you to retread old ground and meet old friends while enjoying the modern mechanics and style the series boasts today.

It's a game that respects the source material and provides the same cathartic and relaxing gameplay loop that made the old Game Boy Advance title so successful while offering plenty of much-needed quality-of-life changes to add to the experience. It's a perfect blend of old-school and new-age ideals and the best way to get the Harvest Moon experience today without breaking out and dusting off your retro consoles.

9 Rusty's Retirement

While they aren't everyone's cup of tea, there is a large collective of gamers who have a lot of time for idle games. Titles that you can dip in and out of as and when you wish, and when your eyes are elsewhere, the game keeps working in the background. These games are all about automating and optimizing to make sure when you look away everything is running smoothly, and quite frankly, I can't imagine a genre more fitting for the idle game treatment than farming sims. Which is an idea that Rusty's Retirement takes and runs with.

This is a title where you use little robots to run a farm, which fits nearly like a banner along the bottom of your screen, allowing you to multitask while still getting your daily dose of farming fun. It'll start slow, but before long, you'll have an efficient farm running on environmentally conscious biofuel, with a robot army that keeps the place running like clockwork. So if you like a game that is a little more hands-off, Rusty's Retirement is a fun, relaxing and stress-free game to try.

8 Echoes of the Plum Grove

Next, we have a Farming Simulator with a twist. Echoes of the Plum Grove isn't just your typical title where you're handed a ruined farmstead and asked to rebuild from the ground up. It's also a game with some survival game elements, which essentially means that your actions have consequences.

This game plays out sort of like Rogue Legacy in the sense that, as long as you have a family member to keep playing with after death, the game continues, which essentially means you need to set yourself up for the harsh winters and plan accordingly.

There's also the flipside to this, however, which allows you to have a lot of fun. For example, if someone marries your preferred romance option in the town, simply kill them off. It's this sense of sandbox fun and mischief that sets this one apart from most other farming sims, but it also has all the relaxing staples you've come to expect from games of this nature. It's a new kid on the block within the sub-genre, but one that makes quite an impression, so be sure to give it a try.

7 Coral Island

I'm always wary of giving Coral Island too much praise because, for all intents and purposes, this is a Stardew Valley clone through and through, with the only real difference being that this game has a tropical setting. To its credit, however, it's a Stardew clone that is of the highest quality, and you know what they say: imitation is the highest form of flattery. So if you can look past this shameless attempt to cut off a slice of the Stardew pie from Humble Games, you'll effectively be getting a fresh new experience that feels like more Stardew Valley.

The similarities to Eric Barone's magnum opus are clear to see, but to focus on the differences, Coral Island has a lot more romanceable options, has unique mini-games and excursions like deep-sea diving, and also offers 3D graphics that are more in line with something like Animal Crossing. It's a game that takes the tried and tested blueprint and sticks to it religiously to offer a high-quality title that doesn't reinvent the wheel. But if you're looking for more of the same done well, Coral Island is exactly that.

6 Roots of Pacha

It's always nice when a farming simulator takes things back to basics, but when it comes to rolling back the clock, there aren't many games out there that can compete with Roots of Pacha, as this title jumps back in time to the Paleolithic era. The good news is that the mechanics and systems present in this caveman epic are still as refined and fun as most other games within the sub-genre, but the twist here is that, due to the setting and time period, agriculture isn't an established practice, so you need to be the trailblazer at the heart of these discoveries.

Through working the land, helping your tribe and tending to your animals, you'll discover new techniques and technologies that will help you and your tribe rise from humble beginnings to forge a new dawn for farmers everywhere. It's a wonderful re-imagining of the core farming simulator gameplay loop that's rewarding and it's well worth trying out if you fancy something new yet familiar.

5 Sun Haven

As someone who is a huge fan of pixel-perfect RPGs, I've always wondered if there was a way that these traditional JRPG story tropes and mechanical systems could exist within the humble farming sim. I don't wonder anymore,however, not since Sun Haven burst onto the scene, that is.

Sun Haven will still have you growing crops, meeting the locals and tending to livestock just as most traditional farming sims do, but the twist here is that you'll also have a rich vein of RPG action to tap into as well.

This game weaves a wonderful fantasy-fuelled tale. It features a compelling combat system supported by skill trees, loads of dungeon crawling and a variety of tough bosses to take on. Plus it can also be played in 8-player co-op if that's your thing.

In short, it's a farming sim that has a dual focus, catering to traditionalists and those who want more action between harvests. So for a versatile farming sim that feels like a love letter to the 1990s golden-era RPGs of old, this is just the ticket.

4 Moonstone Island

One thing that tends to be right in the middle of the farming simulator Venn diagram is the focus on small-town life. Practically all farming sims pen you into a small village or town and focus on making this densely-packed area as rich in character and whimsy as possible.

This does limit the player's freedom to explore, though. Well, that potential issue cannot be leveled at Moonstone Island, as it feels as close to an open-world farming sim as we will likely ever get.

This game plays a lot like a 2D Zelda adventure where players will have the ability to float off their home island, either by balloon or broom, and explore one-hundred unique islands, complete with unique flora, fauna, dungeons, puzzles and oddities.

But when you return home, you'll still be able to get to know the locals, grow crops, build a gorgeous base and much more. Oh, and if you weren't sold already, this game is also a creature tamer with card-based combat akin to Slay The Spire. It's a mesh of ideas that has no right to work, but inexplicably, it comes together beautifully, so if you want a farming sim that's light on farming and big on adventure, this is the one for you.

3 Slime Rancher

If you've ever wondered if it would be possible to create a farming sim with FPS mechanics and still maintain that quintessentially wholesome feel and relaxing vibe, well, the answer is yes, and the game that serves as proof is none other than Slime Rancher. In this title, you take control of Beatrix Lebeau. Equipped with a powerful Vacpack not too far removed from the Ghostbusters, you'll need to capture, breed and farm various Slimes dotted around the Far Far Range.

Just as planting your first crop starts simple, this is a slow burn too, but before long, you'll likely have a spreadsheet out as you play and be tracking the different breeding habits and behaviors of your rarest slimes in a bid to make as much cash as possible. It's a seamless blend of farming simulator, FPS shooter, puzzle and creature-tamer mechanics, which, against all odds, culminates in a unique and tasty farming sim cocktail that you need to check out.

2 Core Keeper

Our runner-up is a game that hasn't even technically come out yet, which seems preposterous, but through the medium of early access, Core Keeper has been a game that has gone from strength to strength.

Core Keeper may be set for a full release this month at the time of writing, but as an early access supporter myself, I can tell you that this game has been the finished article for quite some time. This extra time in the oven, however, allowed the developers to add lots of additional content and polish all the existing system, which has led to an end result that defies belief.

It's a title that feels like a perfect blend of Terraria and Stardew Valley, offering unique underground exploration, an endless supply of things to do and discover, a multiplayer-friendly format that supports up to eight players and a ream of bosses that will test your combat ability when you aren't farming, fishing and kitting out your base.

This game is a testament to what can be accomplished with the support of early access and we cannot wait for the full-blown release so that everyone can see for themselves.

1 Stardew Valley

It's rare that we cover subjective topics such as this and know without a shadow of a doubt that our top pick is the undisputed correct answer. Stardew Valley is the ultimate farming simulator that builds on the strong foundation of its Harvest Moon ancestors to create a modern, refined and ever-evolving experience that is the textbook definition of what gamers want from a farming simulator.

It offers infinite ways to optimize and automate your farm, plenty of colorful characters to get to know, a wealth of events, quests, festivals and side-content to keep you busy for hours, and honestly, that only scratches the surface.

This is because Eric Barone, Stardew's creator, simply can't stop making free and expansive updates to his beloved creation, which has led to full new areas to explore, a cavalcade of new items to collect, new puzzles and quests to work through and so much more.

Perfect is a strong word in this ever-evolving industry, but I'll stick my neck out and say that Stardew Valley is the perfect farming simulator, and if someone ever intends to come for the crown of the ultimate farming sim, they have their work cut out for them.