Lawn Mowing Simulator: Beginner’s mowing guide

Lawn Mowing Simulator is now out and the time has come to cut some grass. The game is fairly simple, but there are a handful of things you’ll want to be hammer into your skull while you’re getting used to your options and mechanics. This Lawn Mowing Simulator beginner’s guide will focus on the act of mowing itself, including how to pick the right mower for you, how to most efficiently cut the grass, and what you shouldn’t worry about while you’re out and about in the field. It’s a noisy job, but somebody’s gotta do it.

First off, you’ll have a choice between two freebie lawnmowers at the start of Lawn Mowing Simulator. Whichever one you choose doesn’t matter much, although the yellow one has a collector, which means you won’t incur any fines due to grass clippings. Test drive them both and pick the one you want and it should be fine. You have the option to pick up several contracts at a time, but they won’t pay much to start out with. With the slow starting mowers, the contracts with shorter cut times are a better use of your day. You can take on larger contracts, but they’ll take a lot longer. Some of them can take over an hour with a slow mower.

When you select a contract, you just pick your character and choose which mower you want to use and you can start right away. You’ll load up on foot and you can do a ground check to pick up any items. This is like a scavenger hunt and you can easily skip it. If you do it, you’ll usually only get about 20 Pounds, so it’s often not worth bothering. If you approach your mower and get on it, you’ll be given the option to skip these outright.

Fire it up

Once you’re on your mower, there are a few things you need to do before you get a move on. You’ll have to hold the ignition button to start the thing, then turn on the throttle. Some mowers have a cutting deck that needs to be lowered before you can start the blades, so if you’re pressing the blade ignition button and nothing is happening on a specific mower, then that’s why. One of the most important things you need to do when starting out is to pause the game and look at the cut height. After that, simply lower your cutting height to match the specified range.

Once the cutting blades are engaged, you know what to do here. If you’ve mowed a lawn before (and you almost certainly have, because you have to like it enough to even consider buying Lawn Mowing Simulator), then whatever cutting patterns you’re happy with will get the job done. Obviously, starting by cutting the outermost section near the fences or beds and working your way inward is efficient. I typically prefer to do that, especially with the rear-wheel drive mowers. Once you get a zero-turn mower, it becomes easier cut in different patterns.

The toughest thing about Lawn Mowing Simulator is that you’ll have no edging equipment, meaning that you’ll have to get as close as you can to fences and flowerbeds with your riding mower. This is, obviously, far from ideal. You get fined for collisions and destroying flowers, so you’ll want to be careful. This gets more difficult the wider your mower’s deck is. On decks less than 120 centimeters, it’s far less problematic. I typically prefer to play the game in first person, as you can gauge how much room you have by angling the camera to look at your tires.

You only need the edge

But this doesn’t help much for larger decks. Thankfully, that’s where camera changes come in. The camera angle that follows immediately after the first-person one is a fixed overhead camera. This is perfect for keeping close tabs on your position when edging the periphery. It can get annoying having to cycle back and forth through cameras, but there’s no other way to reliably edge cut on wider decks without using the camera. That is, unless you have excellent spatial awareness and have a better idea of exactly how much room you’ll have with each mower.

However, mowers with wider decks will inevitably miss some grass when it comes to certain obstacles. Troughs and hurdles at the horse racing academy will prove to be the most challenging, as a wide-decked mower won’t be able to get everything some of the time. However, I’ve never not been able to properly finish a contract on any map when using the widest decks Lawn Mowing Simulator offers. Most maps require that 99.9% of the grass be cut, which does offer some leeway, so it’s okay if you miss some of the little pieces you’d need an edger for. It’s just important to try and get as much as you can.

Your other largest obstacle is the length of the grass itself. While it isn’t bad at all at first, a lot of the grass in Lawn Mowing Simulator can be quite tall. If you attempt to cut it to the required height in one go at full speed, you’re going to overload your engine and leave strips. There are two ways to deal with this: either you increase your blade height and cut the grass in two passes, or carefully keep your speed down. The former isn’t preferable because it requires you to effectively mow the entire area twice, so I prefer lowering my speed.

However, that’s not done all that easily, as Lawn Mowing Simulator doesn’t actually let you cap your speed at all. Instead, you’ll have to steadily apply pressure to the throttle and hold it there, which can be a pain. This is easier on a controller since there’s a higher pressure range on a trigger than with a key on your keyboard.

Finally, I will say that you shouldn’t worry much about fines, as they’re so minor that you don’t need to do your best to avoid collisions, leaving grass clippings, or hitting flowers. The game is rather lenient in this regard, so just focus on cutting the grass and you’ll be fine. Also, the very last mower available for purchase has a flail attachment that lets your cut grass without worrying about engine overload. You’ll want that ASAP.