The three tiers
The basic sprinkler waters 4 adjacent tiles and is barely worth the copper. The quality sprinkler (Farming 6: gold bar, iron bar, refined quartz) waters 8 surrounding tiles. The iridium sprinkler (Farming 9: iridium bar + gold + battery pack) waters a full 24-tile 5×5 block minus its own tile — the late-game standard.
Placement patterns
Quality sprinklers fit a plus-shape between four crop tiles. Iridium sprinklers tile most efficiently on a 5×5 grid: place one, surround with 24 crops, repeat with sprinklers sharing edges. A greenhouse field of 120 tiles needs exactly 5 iridium sprinklers for total coverage — plan rows in multiples of 5.
Before you have iridium
Hand watering with an upgraded watering can (steel can + watering-can enchant path) is genuinely fine for small fields, and rain does the job for free. The real sprinkler upgrade trigger is field size: the moment your morning watering exceeds about 30 minutes of game time, automation pays back immediately.
