Do this first

No: the full official 42.21 notes explicitly clarify that player characters do not damage crops when they step on them. The pathfinding change is cosmetic.

Evidence boundary. Player-footstep behavior is explicitly documented in the official full 42.21 patch notes. Zombie and vehicle damage are older wiki background, not a new test performed by this site.
Original farming illustration accompanying this checking guide.
Original illustration, not an in-game screenshot or a verified layout.

Why the patch wording caused confusion

The short release wording described pathfinding that avoids trampling farming plants where possible. The full notes then corrected that wording to walking over plants and explained that player characters do not damage crops by stepping on them. Use that explicit clarification when interpreting your 42.21 farm.

A character taking a route around a row is therefore not proof that the same character damaged it earlier. Nor is it proof that your crop has become immune to every other source of failure. The correction answers the narrow player-footstep question.

Source: The Indie Stone · full 42.21 patch notes · Official patch notes

A conceptual comparison plot: record one tile, compare a matching tile, keep the vehicle route separate.VEHICLEROUTE01 RECORD02 COMPAREConcept only · no spacing rule implied
Original troubleshooting schematic. It illustrates a checking workflow, not a simulation of game rules.

Separate the routes you actually observed

  1. Record who or what crossed the affected tiles. “Something went through the farm” does not distinguish your character, zombies and a car.
  2. Compare the pattern of failed tiles with the route. An entire batch failing away from any route needs a different investigation.
  3. For a suspected zombie or vehicle route, keep the next comparison plot away from that traffic. Do not run a car through the main food field as a test.
  4. For a plot crossed only by your unmodded 42.21 player character, do not choose footsteps as the crop-damage diagnosis. Inspect water, stage, planting date and visible disease instead.
  5. If a farming or movement mod changes the behavior, record the mod and test its rules separately. The official vanilla clarification does not validate a mod.

What about zombies and cars?

The older Agriculture wiki background describes crop destruction by zombies and vehicles. Treat observed traffic as a lead and compare it with the failed pattern, rather than attributing every dead tile to crushing. We have not measured a 42.21 damage probability or tested every kind of traffic.

A small protected comparison plot gives you something to inspect after the next incident. Keep its crop and sowing date comparable with the main row. The diagram is a record-and-compare workflow, not a recommendation for a precise number of tiles between crops.

Source: PZWiki · Agriculture · Older wiki background

A better failure report

Include the exact patch, mod state, sowing date, last living inspection and a screenshot of the affected pattern. Say whether traffic was seen directly or merely suspected. “I walked over it” and “I saw a vehicle cross these three tiles” carry different evidence. Clear observations help prevent a corrected patch-note phrase from spreading as an unsupported game rule.

Choose the next branch

Sources & verification

Original checking steps are editorial recommendations. This site has not run a game test or inspected a local 42.21 installation. Source review and page update dates describe different work.

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