Farming

Farming, or grinding, is a term in video games used when players collect something over and over with the intent to amass it. An example include item farming, a term used mainly in role playing games when a player fights an enemy over and over to collect the items that can be obtained from them, such as Battle Chips and Battle Cards in the Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Star Force series, respectively.

In early games, item farming is done to collect Life Energy or Weapon Energy to refill the player's energy and the energy from Special Weapons before proceeding. In later games it is also done to refill Sub Tanks.

Players may also farm 1-UPs to have more chances to complete a stage that they consider difficult to pass. With the inclusion of the ability to escape from stages, it became easier to collect 1-UPs as the player does not require to travel the whole stage to obtain a specific 1-UP. If the player is focused on other items, such as currency (P Chips, [{Screw]]s, Energy Crystals, etc.), and escape is not available, the player may collect an item, lose extra lives, and continue to collect the item again.

In some games, like Mega Man Zero, 1-UP farming isn't very effective due to requiring more skill, being more effective to load and try again and keep as many as possible to the desired mission. In games with a shop, it is better to farm the game's currency to purchase 1UPs.