Guide
Jacob's Farming Contests
Everything you need to know about SkyBlock's farming contests — how they work, what the medals mean, and how to be ready for the next one.
Jacob's Farming Contests are one of the most rewarding recurring activities in Hypixel SkyBlock, and one of the main reasons players keep an eye on the calendar. They're short, competitive farming events run by the NPC Jacob at the Farming Islands, and doing well in them unlocks upgrades that make every future farm more valuable.
How contests work
A new contest starts roughly every three SkyBlock days and lasts for 20 real-life minutes. Each contest features three crops, chosen from the ten farmable crops in the game. When a contest is live you can enter it from Jacob's menu and start farming any of the three crops; the game counts how much of each you collect during the window.
Because the three crops are decided in advance, you can prepare: our live contest tracker lists the upcoming contests with their exact crops and a countdown to each, so you always know whether to set up your Wheat farm, your Nether Wart farm, or something else before the timer starts.
The ten crops
Contests can feature any three of these crops:
- 🌾 Wheat 🥕 Carrot 🥔 Potato 🎃 Pumpkin 🍈 Melon
- 🍄 Mushroom 🍫 Cocoa Beans 🌵 Cactus 🎋 Sugar Cane 🔥 Nether Wart
Most players specialise. A well-built farm for a single crop, combined with high Farming Fortune, will out-collect a general-purpose setup by a wide margin, so it pays to know which crops you're strong in and target the contests that include them.
Farming Fortune
The single most important stat for contests is Farming Fortune. It increases the number of crops you collect from each block you break, so more Fortune means a higher score in the same amount of time. Farming Fortune comes from your farming tools, armour, pets, reforges, accessories, and permanent upgrades — building it up is the long-term game behind contests, and higher Fortune is what separates a Gold medal from a Diamond one.
Medals and brackets
At the end of a contest, your collection for each crop is ranked against everyone else who entered that crop, and you're awarded a medal based on where you place:
- Bronze and Silver — for taking part and finishing in the lower brackets.
- Gold — for a strong result, and the first medal that meaningfully feeds into rewards.
- Platinum and Diamond — reserved for the very top of the leaderboard, requiring both a great farm and high Farming Fortune.
Because medals are relative to the other participants, the thresholds shift from contest to contest — a score that earns Gold in a quiet contest might only reach Silver in a busy one. Placing first for a crop also earns special recognition and can put you on the contest leaderboard.
Rewards
Medals aren't just for bragging rights. Gold-and-above medals are the currency behind farming progression: they can be exchanged for Jacob's Tickets and unlock upgrades from Anita, the farming NPC. Anita's upgrades include permanent Farming Fortune boosts and extra contest-related perks, so every good contest result compounds into better future farming. Contests also reward coins, farming XP and the occasional rare drop, making them worthwhile even outside the reward shop.
How to prepare
- Check what's coming. Look at the upcoming contests and their crops so you're never caught farming the wrong thing.
- Build a dedicated farm for the crops you're strongest in, rather than a general one.
- Stack Farming Fortune — tools, armour, pets and reforges all add up.
- Enable a reminder. On our homepage you can turn on a notification that pings you a few minutes before each contest starts.
- Warm up first. Contests are only 20 real minutes — have your farm loaded and be standing in it before the timer begins.
Contests and the calendar
Farming contests sit alongside the rest of the SkyBlock calendar — mayors, seasonal events and the Dark Auction. Our live calendar shows contest days directly on the month grid with their crops, so you can plan a whole season of farming at once. New to all of this? Start with our beginner's guide, or read up on how mayors can boost farming during their term.