Arena Backyard ​

What is it ​

• The Backyard is what you do between runs: grow a little food, show off some trophies, put on a new battle track.
• It is not a new map. "Backyard" is just a name: all three facilities sit in the base you already know, and all three use the game's own buildings.
• Each one does a single thing:
  • Garden — turn seeds into raid meals (the vanilla garden). You get a starter pack, then the vendor sells them and Bosses drop them.
  • Display bonus — put the good gear you've earned on the vanilla weapon display rack or dummies for a permanent health bonus.
  • Jukebox — a few mod battle tracks added to the base's playlist.
• The Backyard is on by default and there is no master switch to flip. What decides how much of it you can use is your progress through the Duck King Campaign.

How to unlock it ​

The three facilities follow the first three chapters of the Duck King Campaign. Each opens the moment you hand in that chapter to Jeff (no need to leave and re-enter the base), and a notice tells you what just opened.

• Hand in Chapter 1 Sign Us Up → Garden (the site opens; you pay Shovel ×1 and Poop ×9 to build it)
• Hand in Chapter 2 The Fighter With a Garden → Display bonus
• Hand in Chapter 3 A Proper Front → Jukebox

Garden ​

• Your base already has a garden. Its construction site just stays closed. After you hand in Chapter 1, Jeff opens the site for you: walk up to the fenced-off pile of scrap at base, interact, pay the cost and construction starts. The scrap disappears and the garden appears. The cost shows in the notice.
• The cost is the game's own: Shovel ×1 (craft it at the Workbench from Metal Plate ×3, Wood ×2, Rope ×1) plus Poop ×9 (dropped by Fly Members and Fly Captains in Farm Town, J-Lab, Lab Area 37 and the Island Challenge; decomposing one Poop Gun Range Module also gives 5). Storage and backpack both count.
• Building the garden is one of Chapter 2's objectives, so hand in to Jeff once it's up.
• Where seeds come from, three ways:
  • Starter seeds: the first time you're back at base after the Garden opens, you get 2 of each of the three seeds in your backpack (once per save), so you can plant as soon as it's built.
  • Base vendor: once the Garden opens, the base's regular merchant (the one that sells tickets) stocks all three seeds, 3 of each per restock, for about 2700–3300 each.
  • Boss drops: each of the three mod Bosses drops an extra seed of its own kind, roughly 25% each. This works whether or not "Boss loot randomization (time bonus)" is on in the settings, and also in Faction War / Blood Hunt and Infinite Hell (Infinite Hell has no crate, so the seed lands next to the body). It's a bonus on top; it never takes the place of the Dragon set pieces or the Dragon Lord's exclusive drops.
• With a seed in hand, open the garden's normal planting screen and the mod seeds are simply there in the list alongside the vanilla crops.
• A plant takes about 20 real-time minutes to ripen and yields 2 per harvest.
• The three backyard crops go to your backpack first, then base storage if the backpack is full. Vanilla crops still go straight to storage. Items merge into existing stacks first; a completion banner shows the item, amount and collection route.
• If storage is full, the harvest waits at Package Pickup in the base. Make room in storage, then select Send to Storage for the pending items there.
• Same rule as vanilla crops: it only grows while watered. Watering is a tool on the planting screen and costs nothing; forget to water and progress stops.

Display bonus ​

• It uses the game's own buildings: build a Weapon Display Rack or a Dummy from the construction menu (either kind, as many as you like). The vanilla "Display Cabinet" is an abandoned building that never appears in the menu, so don't go looking for it.
• Open the rack and double-click a mod Boss trophy onto it: guns go on the weapon rack; melee weapons, helmets, armor, face masks and headsets go on a dummy. The rack really shows the item's model.
• Displayed items stay on the rack: they don't come on raids and can't be lost on death. Move them back off whenever you want to use them.

How the bonus works

• Only mod trophies count (quality 5 or above: Boss gear, the new weapons, Sky Island boss gear and the like). A rack full of vanilla items gives nothing.
• Each piece gives max health by quality: +0.5% for every level above quality 4. Quality 5 is +0.5%, quality 8 is +2%.
• One of each kind counts. At most 8 pieces count; beyond that, the best 8 by quality are used.
• Eight pieces add another +5%, so eight quality-8 pieces give roughly +21% max health.
• Putting things in or taking them out applies immediately, no scene change needed. The bonus is always on: it counts in the base and in a run.
• One of Chapter 3's objectives is to display one trophy first, then hand in to Jeff.

Jukebox ​

• Once unlocked, mod battle tracks are appended to the base jukebox's playlist, sitting alongside the vanilla songs for you to pick from.
• Three tracks so far: Dragon Elegy, Umbral Corridors and the Sky Islands theme Mermaid Bay (Roco Kingdom). Switching language updates their titles without duplicating tracks.
• Mod tracks always go after the vanilla ones, so nothing you already had shifts position in the list.

Eating your harvest ​

All three harvests can be eaten at base or during a raid. Each immediately grants its matching Boss form for 30 seconds:

• Dragonbreath Fruit: Dragon Descendant. Wear its armor, gain +30% gun and melee damage and fire immunity. Attacks breathe flame in an 8m, roughly 70-degree cone: 24 fire damage, at most once every 0.8s.
• Emberheart Chili: Skyburner Dragon Lord. Wear its armor, gain +15% gun damage, +50% melee damage and fire immunity. Attacks burst into flame in a 6m circle: 36 fire damage, at most once every 1.2s.
• Umbral Mushroom: Phantom Witch. Take its full ghostly form with a scythe, +40% melee damage and +20% movement speed. Attacks sweep a 5m, 120-degree arc: 32 physical damage, at most once every 0.65s.

Both shooting and melee trigger these abilities. Allies and targets behind walls are excluded. Your current health, maximum health and actual gear remain your own. Only appearance and combat bonuses change temporarily.

• Wait for the current form to end before eating another harvest.
• Pausing stops the timer. Expiration, death and scene changes restore your appearance. Forms do not persist between runs.
• Meals already prepared in an older version still apply their original bonuses on the next run. Newly eaten harvests transform you immediately.

Seeds and food ​

Seeds (2 of each in the starter pack; sold at the base vendor; each Boss drops its own at roughly 25%)

• Dragon Seed — from the Dragon Descendant, grows Dragonbreath Fruit
• Ember Seed — from the Skyburner Dragon Lord, grows Emberheart Chili
• Phantom Spore — from the Phantom Witch, grows Umbral Mushroom

Boss-form harvests (harvested from the Garden, 2 per harvest)

• Dragonbreath Fruit — Dragon Descendant: forward fire breath, balanced damage bonuses and fire immunity
• Emberheart Chili — Skyburner Dragon Lord: close-range flame burst, melee damage and fire immunity
• Umbral Mushroom — Phantom Witch: a full ghostly body and scythe, quick sweeps and movement speed

Questions you might have ​

• Is the Backyard a new map? No. All three facilities are in the base; "Backyard" is just a name.
• Where is the garden site? The fenced-off patch of scrap at base. After Chapter 1 is handed in, walk up and the interaction is there.
• Will the rack take my gear? It keeps the item until you move it off. The rack is base storage: nothing on it goes on raids or gets lost on death.
• Do two copies of the same item count twice? No. One of each kind counts.
• What if I display more than 8? Only the best 8 by quality count, and eight is exactly what earns the extra +5%.
• Can I eat all three harvests during a run? Yes. Each transforms you immediately for 30 seconds.
• Can I eat before deploying? New harvests act immediately and end on scene changes. Eat when needed. Meals prepared in an older version still apply on your next run.
• Can I stack two forms? No. Wait for the current transformation to end before eating another harvest.
• Are Boss drops the only way to get seeds? No. You get a starter pack when the Garden opens, and the base vendor always stocks them after that. Boss drops are a free bonus.
• Can I turn the whole Backyard off? There's no such switch; it's default content. Just don't use it: skip the garden, skip the racks, and it stays out of your way.