Weird Substance is the item you need to grow hedge mazes and a useful mid-game resource on its own. This page covers weird substance code, how to farm it, and how it ties into mazes — without mixing it into the maze code page that currently catches some of these searches by accident.
What Weird Substance is
When a plant is infected and you harvest it, half of its normal yield turns into Items.Weird_Substance. Infection comes from fertilizer (and from using Weird Substance itself). You spend the item later with use_item(Items.Weird_Substance, amount) on a bush to spawn a maze.
Key facts from the game rules:
use_item(Items.Fertilizer)cuts remaining grow time by 2 seconds and infects the plant under the drone.- Harvesting an infected plant converts half the yield into Weird Substance.
use_item(Items.Weird_Substance)on a plant toggles infection on that plant and its adjacent plants (infect healthy, cure infected, and flip neighbors).- Mazes: plant a bush, then
use_item(Items.Weird_Substance, n)to grow an n×n hedge maze (amount scales with maze upgrades).
Starter weird substance farm (fertilizer loop)
Fertilizer regenerates over time (1 every 10 seconds at base, doubling with upgrades). A simple hay loop spends fertilizer to infect crops and harvest substance:
def farm_weird_substance(target):
while num_items(Items.Weird_Substance) < target:
if get_ground_type() != Grounds.Soil:
till()
if can_harvest():
harvest()
plant(Entities.Grass)
if num_items(Items.Fertilizer) > 0:
use_item(Items.Fertilizer)
# Wait until grown — fertilized plants still need to finish
while not can_harvest():
if get_water() < 0.5:
use_item(Items.Water)
harvest() # half yield becomes Weird_Substance
move(North)
farm_weird_substance(200)Use grass/hay when you can: planting cost is low, so you can burn fertilizer into substance without spending wood or carrots. Trees also work if you already run a tree farm — infect before harvest and half the wood becomes substance.
Faster pattern: seed infection, then spread
Fertilizer income is slow. Many players:
- Fertilize and harvest a small batch to get a starter pile of Weird Substance.
- On a large hay or tree field, call
use_item(Items.Weird_Substance)on selected healthy plants so infection spreads to neighbors. - Harvest the whole field — half of each infected plant becomes more substance.
On a big farm you can infect most tiles with far fewer fertilizer ticks this way. Plan the placement so infected tiles form a covering pattern instead of wasting substance on already-infected plants.
Weird Substance and mazes
To spawn a maze you need a bush under the drone:
plant(Entities.Bush)
# Full-field maze cost grows with maze upgrades
n = get_world_size() * 2 ** (num_unlocked(Unlocks.Mazes) - 1)
use_item(Items.Weird_Substance, n)For the left-wall solver and measure() treasure pathing, use the dedicated maze code page. This page stays focused on farming the item.
Common mistakes
- Harvesting immediately after fertilize before the plant finishes growing.
- Spending all substance on mazes before you have a reliable farm loop.
- Looking for “weird substance code” on maze pages that never explain the fertilizer infection loop.
- Curing plants by accident: using Weird Substance on an infected plant flips it back to healthy.
FAQ
Do I need Weird Substance for pumpkins or polyculture?
No. Those systems have their own rules. See pumpkin code and polyculture code.
Why does fertilizer matter?
It is the reliable way to create the first infections. Without fertilizer (or spreading with substance you already have), you do not generate Weird Substance.
Where next?
Once you can bank substance steadily, open maze code and multiple drones to farm gold faster.