Four gates between your cash and a purchase: baseline, candidate mechanism, payback, and confirmation. Walk every purchase through them and bad buys eliminate themselves.
My Wood Farm gives you one currency and many things to buy it on: axe upgrades, more axes, plot expansion. No source publishes costs or gains, so the only defense is process. The four gates below take about five minutes per decision and have caught every bad purchase we've seen: the pricey axe with no measured gain, the expansion bought with an empty plot, the "deal" that a silent weekly update had already nerfed. Run the numbers with the farm calculator, and keep the confirmation test as a habit — it is the cheapest skill in the game.
In order. Each gate assumes the previous one's numbers.
One measured minute of wood and one sell check for cash per wood. Without these two numbers a purchase is a vibe, and after an update they are the only comparison that matters.
Failure mode: Skipping this turns every later step into a guess.
Name the mechanism: faster chop, more axes on the plot, more plot space, or a boost. Only the mechanism tells you which measurement will move — a new axe changes wood per minute; expansion changes how many axes can work.
Failure mode: 'It's an upgrade' is not a mechanism.
Cost ÷ (rate gain × cash per wood). Under one session: buy. Multi-session: schedule it. Never computed: don't buy yet — the calculator's upgrade section does this part.
Failure mode: Price alone is the trap; expensive upgrades often repay fastest.
Repeat the identical one-minute test after buying. If the gain isn't there, the candidate was misjudged or an update rebalanced something — either way you just learned it for the cost of one minute.
Failure mode: Assuming the gain is the reason silent nerfs survive for weeks.
Example numbers only — your measurements replace every figure.
| Candidate | Cost | Measured change | Payback verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Axe upgrade | 9,000 | 50 → 65 wood/min (× 2 cash/wood = +30 cash/min) | 300 minutes — multi-session; buy when the farm has no cheaper gain left |
| Second axe | 4,000 | +20 wood/min once placed (+40 cash/min) | 100 minutes — under one session; buy first |
| Plot expansion | 12,000 | 0 wood/min while axes remain unplaced | Infinite until the plot is full — revisit at Gate 3 after filling it |
Notice the expansion's verdict is not "bad" — it is "not yet." Gate 3 exists to sequence purchases, not to ban them. Once the second axe is placed and another waits for space, the same expansion re-runs with a real gain and can win outright.
Where the surrounding facts live.
Starter → Rare → Legendary → Magical, and which tree target each tier is for.
LineupThe axe lineup as a roster: density, placement doctrine and the measurement records that justify each slot.
OrderProduction before space, axes before expansion, payback as the referee.
Because your plot is a roster: every axe you place is a unit with a production stat you measured, and every expansion is a roster slot. The planner borrows team-building discipline — each slot must earn its place on measured output — and applies it to axes, the only units My Wood Farm has (confirmed by the official description; checked October 8, 2026).
Buy the one whose gain you measured, not estimated, and re-baseline immediately. The second one's payback changes after the first purchase — in this game upgrades compound, so sequential single buys beat hedging across both.
It depends on Gate 2's mechanism: expansion only adds production if axes are waiting for space. The fan-guide doctrine (checked October 8, 2026) is fill before you expand — when the next axe can't be placed efficiently, space becomes the upgrade with the short payback.
Boosts change farming speed, not upgrade value — payback math is boost-neutral unless you do all your payback farming inside the window. If the reported code rewards are real (see the codes page), farm during the window; buy whenever the numbers say so.
The planner is a habit, not a page: measure (beginner guide), decide on payback (this page), confirm (one minute), and re-check after every entry on the update watch. Sources for everything stated here are registered on the sources page.
