So You Want to Garden
Between your wizardly studies, running errands, and saving the spiral, it’s relaxing to take some time for yourself and have fun with electives! Starting at level 12, wizards can speak with Professor Moolinda Wu in Ravenwood to start the quest, Green Acres. Moolinda tells you of a great new activity you are able to partake in–Gardening! As you embark on your gardening journey, you will be introduced to the NPC Farley in Golem Court. While he would love to teach you the ins and outs of the craft, first you need something to plant. The quest then takes you to speak to NPC Blossom outside of the Life School. The tree gives you a dandelion seed, with which Farley will walk you through the different stages of plant life—Seedling, Young, Mature, and Elder–in the quest The Facts of Life. You can find descriptions for each stage below:
Seedlings are the earliest form of a plant. At this stage, there are no maintenance requirements to progress your plant’s growth. Instead, you simply need to wait out the maturation timer. Every plant has a set amount of time that must pass before it continues to the next stage. Though some times are longer than others, there are modifiers you can set into effect to lower the wait times.
In the young stage, plants require daily maintenance. Unique to each plant, you have a chance of needing to give the following: water, sun, music, pollination, magic, and pest management.
The mature stage of a plant offers the most harvests, as you are able to collect rewards multiple times before the plant matures to Elder status. With spells, you can reverse this, keeping the plant in an ageless cycle. However, there are benefits to letting the plant progress. Like the young stage, these plants require daily maintenance to ensure timely harvests.
There is only one harvest for an Elder plant, though these are often the rarer treasure card and reagent drops, as well as significantly more gold than the mature status of the plant offers. Once a plant reaches Elder status, there are no maintenance requirements. You’ve done all the hard work, so enjoy the drops!
From here, you begin the quest Growing Pains where you are introduced to new stages of plant development: withered and dead. Maintenance of the plant is crucial to ensure a harvest and proper health. On the off-chance you forget to take care of your plant, there is a possibility it will die, but don’t be afraid! Fortunately, Farley teaches young gardeners a way to revive lost plants, bringing them back to seedling status–Revive. This spell is included in the beginning spells for young gardeners, along with Small and Medium Soil spells. When you complete Growing Pains, Farley teaches you the spell Plow should you ever need to remove dead plants or soil plots that you no longer want. During this quest, you also meet the Withered stage, which means the plant is close to dying but can be revived to seedling status if the needs are met!
Beginning Spells
By the time you’ve finished Growing Pains, Farley has given you four spells to utilize: Small Soil, Medium Soil, Plow, and Revive. Small and Medium Soil can be used to place the perfect size plot for your plant. Every seed has specific requirements when it comes to planting, so do be sure to read your plant’s description before trying to place it! Plow assists in removing plants at any stage of growth–most commonly when dead. Small Soil, Medium Soil, and Plow only cost 1 energy for beginning gardeners. Should you wish to bring back your dead plant, you can always cast revive for 30 energy.
Once you’ve finished your quest, you can speak to Farley at any time to learn more spells. At rank 1, you are able to learn: Warming Rays (Sun), Mist (Water), Worker Bee (Pollination), Touch of Magic (Magic), Flute Solo (Music), and Bug Bolt (Pest Maintenance–Rank 1). With the exception of Bug Bolt which costs 10 energy to cast on a large area, the other care spells cost 3 energy each and care for one plant’s needs. Upon reaching rank 2 of the gardening tract, you can learn the pest maintenance spell Gusty Winds from Farley, learning to deal with rank 1 and 2 pests at the same time.
Growth Modifiers
As mentioned earlier, there are ways to speed up the growth cycle of your plants. If you happen to own these houses, you can look forward to a boost in growth rate for your seeds: Everafter Village, Red Barn Farm, and Botanical Gardens.
The Red Barn Farm can be purchased in the crown shop for 125,000 gold or 12,500 crowns. This home offers a 10% increase in growth for all plants.
The Everafter Village is currently a bundle available for digital download, the Fantastic Fairytale Bundle, at GameStop for $39.99 USD. If you choose to get this bundle, you will also receive 5,000 crowns or a 1-month subscription, Monarch’s Gear, Poison Apple wand, Noble Toad pet, Pumpkin Carriage (4-person) mount. This home offers a 10% increase in growth for all plants.
The Botanical Gardens estate is also available at GameStop in a digital download bundle called the Evergreen Bundle for $39.99 USD. In this bundle, you also receive 5,000 crowns or 1-month subscription, Evergreen Armor, Thornblade wand, Spirit of the Forest pet, and the Celestial Wolf (1-person) mount. Fortunately, though this bundle is no longer available on the w101 website, it is occasionally found in the crown shop when Kingsisle has flashback sales. This home offers a 10% increase in growth for all plants.
Plants also get a benefit over the presence of pixies, which tend to be attracted only to certain plants. Have no fear though, they can always be temporarily summoned through the Summon Pixie garden spell or treasure card. This spell costs 25 energy to cast and can be learned from NPC Charley at rank 10 (Grandmaster Gardener) for 175,000 gold. On occasion, you may be able to snag this spell from the Bazaar in treasure card form.
In addition, plants can have increases or decreases in growth if certain housing items are placed nearby, or other plants. With few exceptions, most plants enjoy the presence of Tropical Garden Gnomes. Some plants have multiple housing items that can bring bonuses in growth. For example, Couch Potatoes enjoy the presence of and Litter and Sandwich Stations, meanwhile, Evil Magma Peas enjoy the presence of Egg Baskets and Djembe Drums! If you do happen to place a housing item a plant doesn’t like, the growth cycle can slow down. Commonly, plants in the spiral do not like the presence of another plant known as stinkweed, and this is known to slow down plant growth by at least 25% in some cases.
Megan’s 5 Tips for Success
1. Energy Matters
Even though using the larger-range care spells in the garden can be convenient, when you are trying to maximize your energy, pay attention to the lowest-cost options. For example, if you have two plants that are nearby, it may be convenient to use the medium rays spell, costing 8 energy, however, taking the time to apply sun individually to these two plants only costs 6 energy in the end. Once your garden is filled with plants, this frugalness goes a long way toward making sure all of your plants are kept happy and satisfied.
2. Do the Research
Every plant has a specific maturity time to the different stages of life. Doing proper research on your seedlings can greatly reduce the waiting times if you find out the individual likes and dislikes of your plants. There are many different modifiers that can affect how fast your plant grows. These items can range from flying pixies to nearby plants, even to certain housing items. Be careful though, some plants can have a negative effect on others when placed. If you are relying on gardening to obtain reagents/treasure cards for crafting, time is often of the essence, so the use of modifiers greatly aids in your journey.
3. Have Fun with Your Layout
Above all, stacked gardening is the most efficient way to maximize your energy when gardening. However, it’s possible for some wizards to get burned out from the hobby when they are spending a lot of time farming for reagents. Having a fun layout in your garden or decorating with other nature pieces can liven up the atmosphere and offer a reminder of what made gardening fun in the first place! There’s always the possibility of having two gardens as well: one for harvests and one for fun. Get creative!
4. Use a Seed Vault
Unless you’ve purchased a backpack elixir, your bank and backpack can fill up with seeds pretty quickly from the daily grind of quests. Fortunately, there’s a way to store them by themselves! Seed Vaults are housing items that serve as a vault for your collected seeds. They are available for purchase in the Crown Shop for 1995 Crowns, or they can be crafted by Initiate Crafters. To gain the recipe, you will need to visit NPC Toshio (Mooshu–Jade Palace) and purchase the Seed Vault for 10,000 Gold. The recipe calls for 10 Pest Zappers (Gardening Treasure Card), 10 Dragonflies (Gardening Treasure Card), 25 Pink Dandelions (Seed), 5 Braided Vines (Reagent), 50 Deep Mushrooms (Reagent), 10 Flawless Amethysts (Reagent), and 50 Mist Wood (Reagent). Not only are these vaults incredibly useful, but they add a fae-like element to your garden. Do take note that there is a limit of one vault per player, so, unfortunately, you cannot use these to make a mushroom village.
5. Eat Your Plants
Though many resemble food, I don’t mean literally send your wizard to eat your plants. Instead, it can be good practice to check on your plants multiple times a day–as you would with your meals. This way, you can ensure you do not miss a need requirement and are able to maximize your harvests! With faces as cute as most have, how could you not want to visit them?
Now that you’re finished with the first rank, you are one step closer to becoming a visionary gardener! From here, you can make your way to Krokotopia, where Charley can teach you how to care for multiple plants at once, as well as how to care for higher-rank plants. Though the maintenance increases as they grow in rank, there are plentiful rewards in store. Patience is key in gardening, but most importantly, maximize your energy use, know what plants you need, and have fun with the beautiful scenery you create!
Happy Questing,
Megan Fireheart
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