Homestead levels in Where Winds Meet gate how much you can build, how many businesses you can run, and which furniture appears in the shop. Raising prosperity is one of the three things you have to do before a level upgrade becomes available, and it is the part most players miss because it lives inside the placement menu rather than a quest tracker.
Quick answer: Prosperity rises when you place furniture and finished buildings around your island in Blissful Retreat. A homestead level upgrade unlocks only once your prosperity, your production building levels, and your stored melons all meet the level’s requirement at the same time.
The three requirements to upgrade a Homestead level
A homestead level does not advance from a single action. The system checks three conditions together, and all three must be satisfied before the upgrade button activates. The maximum level is 10.
| Requirement | How you meet it |
|---|---|
| Production element levels | Upgrade your production buildings such as the pottery (kiln) and the kitchen. |
| Prosperity level | Place furniture and construct buildings on your island or in the area where Homestead is active. |
| Melons stored | Hold enough melons, the main Homestead currency, to pay the level cost. |
If the upgrade is greyed out, one of these three is short. Check production levels and your melon balance first, because those numbers are easy to read. Prosperity is the value people overlook.
How to increase Homestead prosperity
Prosperity is a score driven by what you place down. Every building you construct and every piece of furniture you set out on your island contributes to it. There is no separate “increase prosperity” button to find, which is why the requirement feels hidden. You raise it by filling your space.
Tip: If your island feels full but prosperity is still short, swap low-value decorations for the larger production fixtures and additional structures, since bigger builds tend to contribute more than single small props.
Where to place buildings and furniture
The most reliable setup is to keep everything together on your island. Placing your stoves, tables, and production fixtures in one area makes it easy to manage workers and feed your tavern. Each production type brings its own decorative pieces, such as a large oven or stove, visitor tables, and flower beds, and all of these count toward prosperity once placed.
Do not forget beds. You cannot hire new workers without somewhere for them to sleep, so place beds early. Workers are the other half of the system, because production buildings only generate goods when staffed.
Earning melons to pay for the upgrade
Melons are the currency you spend on furniture, seeds, buildings, and the books that level up your workers, and you also need a stockpile of them on hand to trigger a level upgrade. There are several steady sources.
| Melon source | What to do |
|---|---|
| Weekly cargo tasks | Hand over collected resources and cooked meals each week. |
| Achievement system | Complete Homestead achievements as they unlock. |
| Tavern sales | Keep food and wine selling continuously through your tavern. |
| Trader sales | Sell off excess materials you do not need. |
To keep tavern income flowing, decide on a fixed set of dishes and drinks to cook and sell, then assign your waiters those items from the tavern assortment tab. A running tavern is the most consistent melon generator once it is set up.
Leveling production buildings and workers
The third requirement is production. Your pottery, kitchen, and other production elements each have their own level, and raising them is required before the homestead as a whole can advance. A practical production loop looks like this.
- Hire workers and assign some of them to resource gathering.
- Buy seeds and plant crops you will use for meals and drinks.
- Set the pottery to produce wine jugs.
- Pick a dish set to cook for both selling and cargo deliveries.
Workers often need specific skills for a job. To unlock skills and raise a worker’s level you need books, which are redeemed weekly from the shop and also handed out for weekly quests and Homestead activities. Sending workers out to gather resources is the strongest way to bring in large amounts of materials every day, including the logs you need for structural builds.
The other Homestead currencies
Beyond melons, three more currencies feed into building and upgrades. Knowing where each comes from prevents you from stalling on a single material.
| Currency | Used for | How to obtain |
|---|---|---|
| Logs | Structural building units | Chop bamboo, or send workers to gather resources daily. |
| Green drops | Unique shop items | Grow vegetables in your garden beds. |
| Wheat | Homestead crafting and upgrades | Weekly cargo, weekly quests, and achievements. |
How to confirm the level upgrade worked
Open the homestead upgrade screen and look at the three requirement bars. When prosperity, production levels, and melons all meet the listed amount, the upgrade option becomes selectable. Confirm it, and your homestead level rises, which expands your business capacity and adds new furniture options to the shop.
If the option stays locked, it is almost always one requirement falling short. Place more furniture and buildings to lift prosperity, upgrade a lagging production building, or keep your tavern and cargo running to bank more melons. Many of these steps are also explained through the quests that accompany the Homestead storyline, so following those objectives will walk you through the same checks. Work the three requirements in parallel and each level toward the cap of 10 becomes a matter of steady upkeep rather than a single grind.
