Speed upgrades in SkorpionDev's reverse-farming incremental game Unharvest center on two mechanics: manual wither cooldown reductions and swarm mobility enhancements. Lowering your manual action timer accelerates life-draining from individual crop stalks, while swarm upgrades increase locust flight speed and shorten ability downtime to sweep entire fields.
Wither Cooldown Progression and Costs
At the start of a run, withering crops takes 3.0 seconds per manual action. Upgrading the Wither Cooldown node in the Tab menu systematically lowers this delay, allowing rapid harvesting cycles.
| Upgrade Level / Milestone | Observed Cooldown | Cost (Skulls/Souls) | Practical Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Level | 3.0 seconds | Free | Default starting click rate |
| Early Reduction 1 | 2.0 seconds | ~10–18 skulls | Immediate early-game pacing improvement |
| Early Reduction 2 | 1.5 seconds | 20–25 skulls | Smoother manual clearing near the perimeter |
| Mid Reduction 1 | 1.0 second | 40–50 skulls | Reaches one action per second |
| Mid Reduction 2 | 0.7 seconds | 250 skulls | Rapid clearing before automation unlocks |
| Advanced Reduction | 0.4 seconds | 25,000 skulls | High-tempo clearing across dense fields |
| Cap Tier | 0.03s to 0 seconds | 100,000 skulls | Removes manual delay, triggering near-instant decay |
Unlocking the "Hold to Wither" upgrade for 1,000 skulls lets you hold the left mouse button instead of clicking repeatedly. The withering action fires continuously at whatever cooldown threshold you have unlocked.
Swarm Speed and Ability Cooldowns
The locust ability unlocks at 10,000 skulls and serves as your long-range clearing tool. By default, right-clicking launches a locust wave on a 60-second cooldown timer. Investing in swarm-specific speed and timing upgrades dramatically cuts run completion times.
- Swarm Speed: Base locust flight moves steadily through crops. Upgrades increase flight velocity from standard pace to 25 meters per second and up to 40 meters per second. Higher speed enables the swarm to cross the entire farm border before its duration expires.
- Swarm Cooldown: The initial 60-second delay drops sequentially to 50 seconds, 45 seconds, 35 seconds, and 30 seconds across successive skill tree tiers (costing between 2,000 and 35,000 skulls).
- Swarm Duration: Upgrades extend active flight time from 6 seconds to 12, 18, and 25 seconds. Pairing duration with higher speed ensures locusts sweep broad patches of untouched wheat without pausing.
Optimizing Clearance Pace
Focusing purely on cooldown reduction without output scaling creates a bottleneck. Video tests demonstrate that balancing speed nodes with volume upgrades yields the fastest field clearing:
- Alternate Early Cooldown with Stalk Count: Dropping cooldown to 2.0 and 1.5 seconds while upgrading "Stalks per Wither" from 1 to 2, 3, and 5 provides exponential early skull generation.
- Unlock Spores Before Deep Cooldown Cuts: For 100 skulls, the Spores ability infects neighboring stalks on a 10% base chance. Increasing spread chance to 25% and 40% multiplies your effective actions per second more than micro-reductions in manual click timers.
- Transition to Automation: Once "Hold to Wither" (1,000 skulls) and "Wither as You Walk" are unlocked, the character passively infects crops by walking through them. At this stage, prioritizing Swarm Speed and Swarm Cooldown delivers greater map coverage than manual pathing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you achieve a 0-second wither cooldown in the demo?
The 100,000 skull upgrade node at the top of the skill tree targets a 0-second cooldown (recorded as 0.03 to 0.00 seconds in player logs). Reaching this threshold allows continuous, uninterrupted decay, though many players finish 100% field clearance shortly before or just as they afford the 100,000 cost.
Does character movement speed increase with upgrades?
Character walking speed remains fixed throughout the demo. Players navigate the map at a steady running pace without dedicated player sprint upgrades. To clear distant areas faster, rely on Swarm Speed and Swarm Radius upgrades rather than foot traversal.
What is the difference between Swarm Speed and Swarm Duration?
Swarm Speed increases the travel velocity of the locust wave in meters per second, allowing it to penetrate deeper into untouched wheat patches. Swarm Duration controls how many seconds the locusts remain active and feeding before vanishing. Upgrading both stats simultaneously maximizes total field coverage per cast.
