Look, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably hit that annoying wall in V Rising where the gear progression just sort of... stops. You’ve killed Quincey the Bandit King. You’ve moved into the Dunley Farmlands. You’re feeling like a powerful vampire lord until you realize your gear score is stuck because you can't find V Rising cotton yarn anywhere. It’s a bottleneck. Honestly, it’s one of the most frustrating transitions in the early-to-mid game because it requires a multi-step process that the game doesn't exactly hold your hand through. You need the seeds, you need the farm, and most importantly, you need a specific boss dead before you can even think about spinning that wheel.
The Recipe Everyone Misses
You can't just stumble upon the recipe for cotton yarn by looting chests, though you might find a few stray spools if you’re lucky in the Dunley Farmlands. To actually craft it yourself, you have to hunt down Beatrice the Tailor. She’s not your typical boss. She doesn't have a giant sword or dark magic; she’s literally a terrified old woman who runs away from you screaming while the village guards try to cave your skull in. It’s a chaotic fight. You’ll find her in Dawnbreak Village. Once she’s down, you get the Loom structure and the recipe for cotton yarn.
Without that Loom, your raw cotton is useless.
It’s sitting in your chests taking up space. You might be tempted to just farm the yarn from human settlements, but that’s a fool’s errand for the long term. You need hundreds of these things. For a full set of Hollowfang Battlegear, you're looking at a significant investment.
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Why Cotton is Different From Hemp
Earlier in the game, you dealt with plant fiber and maybe some coarse thread. Cotton is a step up. You can't find it in the woods. It grows specifically on Cotton Farms in the Dunley Farmlands. But here is the kicker: cotton plants are often cursed or "garlic-heavy."
If you aren't prepared for the Garlic Exposure debuff, you’re going to have a bad time.
Garlic stacks up fast. It makes you take more damage and deal less. If you’re at 50 stacks and a high-level militia guard spots you, you’re basically a wet paper bag. Most players just rush in, grab the cotton, and run, but savvy players bring Garlic Resistance Brew. It’s cheap. Use it.
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Setting Up Your Own Supply Chain
Once you have the seeds—which drop occasionally when you're harvesting the plants with a sword or sickles—you should stop trekking across the map. Plant them at your castle.
Seriously.
Building a dedicated garden for your cotton saves hours of travel time. You'll want to place your Loom in a room with Tailoring Floor to reduce the material cost. V Rising is a game of efficiency. If you're crafting yarn on a stone floor, you're essentially throwing away 25% of your resources. Over the course of a full playthrough, that's thousands of raw cotton plants wasted.
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The Math of the Loom
To make one single piece of cotton yarn, you need 15 Cotton.
If you have the matching floor buff, that drops to 12.
It doesn't sound like much until you realize you need 16-20 yarn for a single piece of armor.
- Kill Beatrice.
- Build the Loom (requires 12 Copper Ingots, 20 Planks, and 4 Wool Thread).
- Farm the Dunley Farmlands (look for the yellow icons on the map).
- Watch out for the Scarecrows—some of them are alive and they hit like a truck.
Beyond the Hollowfang Set
You might think once you have your Hollowfang set, you're done with cotton. You aren't. Cotton yarn is a component for Ghost Yarn later in the game. You'll eventually combine it with Ghost Mushrooms. So, don't delete your farm once you hit gear level 50. Keep that Loom spinning in the background.
There's also a weird trick some people use involving the "Worker" blood type. If you can find a high-percentage Worker (above 30% or so), you get increased yields when harvesting. It makes a massive difference when you’re clearing out a whole field of cotton. You go from getting 1,000 cotton to 1,500 in the same amount of time. It's the difference between one trip and two.
Practical Steps to Master Your Production
Stop wandering aimlessly and follow this sequence to get out of the mid-game slump:
- Scout Dawnbreak Village first. Don't engage the guards; just find where Beatrice is pathing so you can corner her away from the elite mobs.
- Carry a Slasher or Sword. Swords have a bonus to vegetation. You'll get more cotton per swing than if you use a mace or axes.
- Check the containers. Inside the houses on cotton farms, there are often wardrobes and chests. These frequently contain "Wool Thread," which is another bottleneck item you'll need alongside your yarn.
- Prioritize the Loom. As soon as you get home from the Beatrice kill, build it. Even if you only have enough for five spools of yarn, get them started. The crafting time is slow, and you don't want to be standing around waiting for it to finish later.
- Don't ignore the Garlic. If your stacks get too high, find a safe spot and wait. It’s better to lose 60 seconds of time than to die and have to run back across the map to get your loot.
The move from leather to cotton is the first time V Rising really asks you to be a manager as much as a monster. It’s about the infrastructure. Get the seeds, get the floor, and keep the Loom moving. You'll be ready for the cursed forest before you know it.