Five Plants

You’re a speculative horticulturist trying out some new seeds. Nobody’s ever grown them before; nobody knows what they do. But plenty of people have theories…

How to play

(there is an in-game tutorial, this is just for reference)

Goal

Learn how your seeds behave, and use that knowledge to get their fruits into particular patterns.

Planting

• Learn which seeds produce which fruit by planting them
• Plant seeds by selecting a seed bag 💰, then selecting a tile
• Generally speaking, a plant grows once per turn until fruited unless something interferes with it
  • they go 🫘 > 🌱 > 🌿 > 🪴 > (some fruit)
• Plants all have various effects that you can only learn through experimentation
• The effects and fruits are different every game
• A 💡 will appear when a new effect becomes apparent - tap it to see the details
  • You should aim to discover every effect each game. It is worth points, and is critical information toward completing research grants.
• You can use the secateurs ✂️ to remove plants that are in the way
• You can use the bucket 🪣 to re-plant the latest plant you moved somewhere else, but it will cost you some of your final score, and any plant that gets replanted will lose its fruit.
• You can only hold one plant for repotting at a time, older plants will be destroyed

Goals

The University prize

• Get all five fruits in a row to be eligible for the prize. Tap it to claim it and get 25👍.
• It doesn't matter which order the plants are in, or which direction, just gotta be all five.
• The prize doesn't lose value over time, you can leave it til late and you don't need to commit to it.

Research grants

• Once you’ve met a grant’s requirements, tap it to claim its points.
  • The arrangement matters! The fruits must match exactly.
• Grants that you haven’t committed to begin to decline in value over time. 
  • If you're confident you can do it, you can commit to a grant & lock its value. Just selecting it and pass the turn.
  • But if you fail to complete a committed grant, you’ll get penalised 5 points!
• There is no guarantee that a grant will be easy - or even possible!

Ending

• Use your bus pass to head home when you’re finished
• After 60 turns, you have to head home
• You’ll get some bonus points based on the amount of turns remaining
• Sometimes quitting early is the best play!

Credits

• Music by James Fahy
• Using SFX from Film Cow SFX library and Sidearm Ultimate Sound FX Bundle
• Emojis from the Twemoji emoji set
• Huge hat tip to Cinco Paus, a major inspiration for this game