Difference between revisions of "Frequently Asked Questions"

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<div class="pii_gameplay_tip"><b>Gameplay Tip:</b> Once you tame a sour piñata, another totem block is added to your [[Tower of Sour]] to scare away all sour piñatas of that species.</div>
 
<div class="pii_gameplay_tip"><b>Gameplay Tip:</b> Once you tame a sour piñata, another totem block is added to your [[Tower of Sour]] to scare away all sour piñatas of that species.</div>
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In Trouble in Paradise you can also feed sours joy sweets to chill them out. During this time they will have a halo above their heads and won't cause you any trouble.
  
 
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<div class="pii_gameplay_tip"><b>Gameplay Tip:</b> At [[Rank|level 30]], you can purchase a Captain's Cutlass garden decoration from [[Ivor Bargain]] which will keep Professor Pester and his Ruffians away for good.</div>
 
<div class="pii_gameplay_tip"><b>Gameplay Tip:</b> At [[Rank|level 30]], you can purchase a Captain's Cutlass garden decoration from [[Ivor Bargain]] which will keep Professor Pester and his Ruffians away for good.</div>
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In Trouble in Paradise only the Ruffians will be kept out by the Captain's Cutlass. There are numerous ways to stop Pester, though:
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* bribing him 500CC
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* having a Dragonache in your garden
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* having a Limeoceros in your garden
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* having a Decoy Pinata in your garden
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* using the protective fence glitch
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* playing Just for Fun mode, where he doesn't appear
  
 
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* Use the [[Label Designer]] to label their [[Label|tag]] with unique information about them, and
 
* Use the [[Label Designer]] to label their [[Label|tag]] with unique information about them, and
 
* Outfit them with [[accessories]] that you can get from the [[Shop]]s.
 
* Outfit them with [[accessories]] that you can get from the [[Shop]]s.
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* Variant them to a one of their colours
  
 
The tag actually is quite useful, as it contains a record of ''every'' garden that the piñata has visited over [[Xbox Live]].  It's possible that piñatas could be traded on a round-the-world trip!
 
The tag actually is quite useful, as it contains a record of ''every'' garden that the piñata has visited over [[Xbox Live]].  It's possible that piñatas could be traded on a round-the-world trip!
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In Trouble in Paradise you can also teach you piñatas tricks.
  
 
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The release date for the US and Canada is November 9th, 2006.  The release date for Europe is December 1st, 2006.  The release date for Australia and New Zealand is December 7th, 2006.
 
The release date for the US and Canada is November 9th, 2006.  The release date for Europe is December 1st, 2006.  The release date for Australia and New Zealand is December 7th, 2006.
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Trouble in Paradise was released on September 3rd 2008 in the US and Canada, September 5th 2008 in Europe.
  
 
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Yes.  There are sturdier fences that you can obtain from [[General Store|Costolot's General Store]] or [[Ivor Bargain]] in the [[Village]].  For example, a stone fence is more likely to be sturdier than a wood fence.  This is important, when you have larger piñatas that can trample your flowers, or sour [[Macaraccoon]]s, who like to destroy things.
 
Yes.  There are sturdier fences that you can obtain from [[General Store|Costolot's General Store]] or [[Ivor Bargain]] in the [[Village]].  For example, a stone fence is more likely to be sturdier than a wood fence.  This is important, when you have larger piñatas that can trample your flowers, or sour [[Macaraccoon]]s, who like to destroy things.
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In Trouble in Paradise there is also a Bird Proof Fence that does exactly what it say on the tin. Very handy for growing weeds or keeping a seperate aviary.
  
 
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* An alert appears or Leafos warns you that your garden is full.
 
* An alert appears or Leafos warns you that your garden is full.
  
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In situations like this, you should sell off unneeded piñatas, produce, flowers, seeds, or other items on the ground, to free up more room in your garden.
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In situations like this, you should sell off unneeded piñatas, produce, flowers, seeds, or other items on the ground, to free up more room in your garden. Removing trees and pinatas are you best bet to resolve this as they take up the biggest system resources of those listed.
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When you do receive a garden full message when placing an item then the first thing to check is whether you have too many of that item. If you do then no matter how much you clear out the rest of the garden you won't be allowed to put it down. So, if you're trying to get a piñata from Gretchin and she says you can't, try removing another one before purging your forest.
  
 
As several developers from Rare have commented in public forums, as powerful as the Xbox 360 console is, it still only has a finite amount of memory to maintain information on every little detail of your garden.  When you think about every little active detail that the game has to manage and render, such as fruit growing on a bush, and finally falling to the ground, or the appearance of a piñata's fur as it ripples, there's only so much memory to go around.
 
As several developers from Rare have commented in public forums, as powerful as the Xbox 360 console is, it still only has a finite amount of memory to maintain information on every little detail of your garden.  When you think about every little active detail that the game has to manage and render, such as fruit growing on a bush, and finally falling to the ground, or the appearance of a piñata's fur as it ripples, there's only so much memory to go around.
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As briefly mentioned, each new garden shares a common amount of money, so the coins you earned in one garden can be used to help start a new garden.  Your [[Rank|gardener level]] and [[Tower of Sour]] are also shared between gardens, so you can start a new garden, yet attract (or have [[Shop|Gretchen Fetchem]] hunt) any advanced species you've previously dealt with in other gardens.  You also don't have to worry about [[Taming sour pinatas|retaming]] sour piñatas.  Of course, you could deactivate totem segments, if you did want to retame a sour.
 
As briefly mentioned, each new garden shares a common amount of money, so the coins you earned in one garden can be used to help start a new garden.  Your [[Rank|gardener level]] and [[Tower of Sour]] are also shared between gardens, so you can start a new garden, yet attract (or have [[Shop|Gretchen Fetchem]] hunt) any advanced species you've previously dealt with in other gardens.  You also don't have to worry about [[Taming sour pinatas|retaming]] sour piñatas.  Of course, you could deactivate totem segments, if you did want to retame a sour.
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With Trouble in Paradise the same principles stand except the profile is 5MB and a garden is 16MB.
  
 
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Neither Viva Piñata nor the Xbox 360 provide any way to save images while playing the game.  One frequently-used method to capture an image is simply to photograph your television screen using a digital camera, then download the photo to your PC.
 
Neither Viva Piñata nor the Xbox 360 provide any way to save images while playing the game.  One frequently-used method to capture an image is simply to photograph your television screen using a digital camera, then download the photo to your PC.
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For Viva Piñata:Classic on the PC you can use the standard screen capture facility.
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For Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise you can use in the ingame photo tool. Open up the X menu and you should find it at 7 o'clock. Once you have uploaded a photo it will appear on www.vivapinata.com where you will need to Submit it for it to appear in the gallery.
  
 
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You can also download more [[accessories]] from the [[Xbox Live Marketplace]].
 
You can also download more [[accessories]] from the [[Xbox Live Marketplace]].
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In Trouble in Paradise, more accessories are also unlocked as you complete Langston's challenges.
  
 
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Yes.  [[Shop|Miss Petula's Paper Pets]] carries [[:Category:Domestic|domestic pinata]], such as [[Kittyfloss|cats]] and [[Barkbark|dogs]], that would not be available as wild piñatas.  See [[Kittyfloss]] and [[Barkbark]].
 
Yes.  [[Shop|Miss Petula's Paper Pets]] carries [[:Category:Domestic|domestic pinata]], such as [[Kittyfloss|cats]] and [[Barkbark|dogs]], that would not be available as wild piñatas.  See [[Kittyfloss]] and [[Barkbark]].
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In Trouble in Paradise, they have returned to the wild and you will have to attract them like all other species.
  
 
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{{FAQanchor|section=Species|keyword=DifferentSpecies|question=How many different piñata species are there?}}
 
{{FAQanchor|section=Species|keyword=DifferentSpecies|question=How many different piñata species are there?}}
  
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There are 60 different piñata species.  [[Rare Ltd.|Rare]] has mentioned that it's likely a player will only attract about 30 for their first garden.
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There are 60 different piñata species (over 100 for TIP).  [[Rare Ltd.|Rare]] has mentioned that it's likely a player will only attract about 30 for their first garden.
  
 
Each species also has three differently-colored [[variant]]s which must be discovered through various means.
 
Each species also has three differently-colored [[variant]]s which must be discovered through various means.
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As for the truly rare piñatas, there isn't a specific list at present.  Some species, like the [[Chewnicorn]], have appearance or residence requirements that require you to be a higher [[rank|level]] gardener.
 
As for the truly rare piñatas, there isn't a specific list at present.  Some species, like the [[Chewnicorn]], have appearance or residence requirements that require you to be a higher [[rank|level]] gardener.
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For Trouble in Paradise, piñatas such as the [[Choclodocus]], [[Sarsgorilla]] and [[Tigermasu]] are considered top of the tree.
  
 
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Yes.  Local players can play in Family Mode.  Family Mode allows multiple players to control a common (shared) cursor.  This allows parents and older siblings to help out younger players.   
 
Yes.  Local players can play in Family Mode.  Family Mode allows multiple players to control a common (shared) cursor.  This allows parents and older siblings to help out younger players.   
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In Trouble in Paradise this has been extended. There is a full online, 4-player co-op mode. Offline there is a couch social mode where a second player has their own cursor.
 
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No.  There is no method to invite another player to visit your garden.
 
No.  There is no method to invite another player to visit your garden.
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In Trouble in Paradise, yes you can. You will need to have loaded your garden through the Xbox Live petal on the menu, though. Note also that you can set private slots to stop unwanted players entering your game.
  
 
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* Online trading, where you can ship piñatas and/or accessories to a friend.
 
* Online trading, where you can ship piñatas and/or accessories to a friend.
 
* Leaderboards showing the most valuable pinata and gardens.
 
* Leaderboards showing the most valuable pinata and gardens.
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In Trouble in Paradise:
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* Online trading, where you can ship piñatas and/or accessories to a friend.
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* Leaderboards showing the most valuable pinata and gardens.
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* Online co-op, where 4-players can all garden together
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* Online mini-games, select a pinata and select competitions from the menu
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* Photo uploads, sent to vivapinata.com
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* Online stats, uploaded to vivapinata.com
  
 
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Revision as of 01:11, 2 October 2008


This is a collection of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Viva Piñata:Classic Xbox 360 game. Other information about Viva Piñata, such as merchandise, or the TV show, can be found elsewhere on the wiki.

While many of the below answers also apply to the sequel, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, for questions specific to that game see Frequently Asked Questions - Trouble in Paradise.

General questions
Achievement questions
User Interface questions
Shops and currency questions
Species questions
Multiplayer questions
Appendices

General questions

What is Viva Piñata?

"Viva Piñata" is a vibrant world of living piñata animals filled with spontaneity and fun. The colorful and unique animals live and thrive in a growing garden where they interact with each other bringing adventure to life. The piñata universe is exciting and humorous – a place where anything can happen.

The television series debuted in September 2006, the Xbox 360 game launched in November 2006, and a line of merchandise will be available in 2007.

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What's a wild piñata?

A wild piñata will be black and white, and appear at the edge of your garden. Once it becomes a resident, its monochrome colors will change into their more vibrant colorful pattern.

Wild piñatas are attracted to your garden, by meeting the right conditions for each species to appear. For example, specific flowers and trees, or piñatas that already reside in your garden, can capture the interest of a wild piñata. Once a wild piñata has appeared, you can entice it to become a resident in your garden by providing it with what it needs to be happy there. Once a piñata has decided to stay, the game will alert you. After a short cutscene, the wild piñata will burst into color. At this point it is a good idea to build a house for your new piñata resident.

You can see which wild piñatas are visiting your garden, by opening your Journal's Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia will show you the specific requirements that you need to meet, for your visitors to become residents.

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What's a variant?

A variant is a differently-colored version of a species. For example, if you feed a Turnip to a Whirlm, it changes color to a purple Whirlm. Each species has three color variants which must be discovered through various means.

Every time you discover a new variant, you are awarded more experience.

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What's an evolve?

An evolved species is one that is created from an existing species. For example, if you feed a Buttercup to a Sparrowmint, it turns into a Candary (a new and different species from the Sparrowmint). Evolved species must be discovered, since they don't visit your garden from the wild like most other species.

There are 8 evolved species to discover, and each of them has 3 color variants, like any other species.

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An evolve isn't a variant?

Nope. A variant is differently-colored, but the same species. For example, you can change a Whirlm's colors to shades of purple (by feeding it a Turnip), but it's still a Whirlm.

An evolve turns a species into completely different species, with its own romance requirements and romance dance, own unique house that needs to be built, and its own set of 3 color variants.

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What's a sour piñata?

A sour piñata is red and black, and a troublemaker! When one appears, it will start fights, smash garden objects, or scare off other residents. It also leaves sour candy around your garden, which you'll want to promptly destroy (with your shovel), since your other piñatas will rush over and eat the candy, which will make them ill. Taming a sour piñata will bring out its good habits, and it will become a helpful resident around the garden.

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How do I tame a sour piñata?

You can tame a sour piñata by meeting its Resident requirements. See Taming sour piñatas for details.

Gameplay Tip: Once you tame a sour piñata, another totem block is added to your Tower of Sour to scare away all sour piñatas of that species.

In Trouble in Paradise you can also feed sours joy sweets to chill them out. During this time they will have a halo above their heads and won't cause you any trouble.

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Can any species become a sour piñata?

No. While eating sour candy will make a piñata ill, they will not become a sour piñata, themselves. There are eight different sour species. However all piñatas can fight and compete over land without actually being a sour.

Gameplay Tip: The only way to obtain a Macaraccoon, Bonboon, Cocoadile, Crowla, Sherbat, Mallowolf, Profitamole, or Shellybean resident for your garden, is by taming a sour one, as non-sour wilds of those species do not exist. Of course, you could always ask a friend to ship you a tame one.

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Why did my piñata turn green and yellow?

A sick Sour Macaraccoon

A green and yellow piñata is sick. Piñatas can become ill for several reasons:

  • Eating sour candy,
  • Losing a fight with another resident piñata,
  • Eating or being close to weeds, like the Toadstool,
  • Getting whacked with the shovel,
  • Not having enough room to roam, or
  • Just general random illness.

Even sour piñatas can become ill, as the Macaraccoon image shows.

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How do I heal a sick piñata?

Hire Dr. Patchingo, who will heal your sick piñata for you, or direct a Chewnicorn resident to heal it. There is also a Witch Doctor named Dastardos who probably isn't very helpful. If you ignore your sick piñata, he'll eventually show up and try to break open your sick piñata to put it out of its misery (because he's such a good guy.) Of course, this is not a good thing for several reasons, as you'll have to wait for that piñata species to return as a wild piñata and become a resident again.

Gameplay Tip: Your best bet, is to try to avoid sickness in the first place, by keeping your pinatas happy, well-fed, and giving them plenty of room to roam. Also try to avoid keeping different species who don't get along.

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How do I get two piñatas to romance?

First, you'll need to have met all the Romance requirements for two piñata of a species, which includes having built a house, so they'll have a place to be romantic. A pink heart will appear over each piñata, as its Romance requirements are met. Next, introduce the two to each other, by directing one of them to the other one.

Highlight one romantic piñata and press Button a.png to select it. Your cursor will split into two. Highlight a second romantic piñata of the same species and press Button a.png to direct them together to be romantic.

You'll have to play a romance minigame for the romance to be successful. If you fail the minigame, the two will be broken-hearted for a short time, but will be ready for romance again in a minute or so. Once you successfully romance them, they'll disappear into their house, and you'll get to watch their romantic mating dance. (Each species has their own unique dance.)

Gameplay Tip: The more of a particular species that reside in the garden, the less lives you get in the minigame.
If you have trouble finishing the minigame as the lives reduce, you can pack up and post, all but the two pinatas of that species that you are romancing, to yourself in the post office. You don't need to be on Xbox live to do this. You will then find that your lives in the minigame have reset to maximum. When you have finished romancing them you can retrieve the others from the post office so as to achieve your Master Romancer Award.

Once you've romanced a species for the first time, you can use a 'romance sweet' (available from Costolot's General Store) to get that species' piñatas 'in the mood' without having to meet all of their romance requirements again.

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Who is Professor Pester? The Ruffians?

Professor Pester is the leader of a gang of Ruffians. As you level up, Ruffians (and eventually Professor Pester himself) will come into the garden and cause trouble, such as by smashing garden items.

If you're quick, you can run over to them as they enter, and bribe them with chocolate coins to leave your garden. If you wait too long, however, there's not much you can do to get them to leave.

Select a Ruffian and press
Error creating thumbnail: File missing
to bribe it. Enter the amount of coins to give as a bribe -- 100 is sufficient -- and press Button a.png to complete the bribe.

Interesting details about how Professor Pester came to be, can be discovered by reading the Story chapters in the Journal.

Gameplay Tip: At level 30, you can purchase a Captain's Cutlass garden decoration from Ivor Bargain which will keep Professor Pester and his Ruffians away for good.

In Trouble in Paradise only the Ruffians will be kept out by the Captain's Cutlass. There are numerous ways to stop Pester, though:

  • bribing him 500CC
  • having a Dragonache in your garden
  • having a Limeoceros in your garden
  • having a Decoy Pinata in your garden
  • using the protective fence glitch
  • playing Just for Fun mode, where he doesn't appear

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In what ways can I customize my piñatas?

You can:

  • Name each piñata resident,
  • Use the Label Designer to label their tag with unique information about them, and
  • Outfit them with accessories that you can get from the Shops.
  • Variant them to a one of their colours

The tag actually is quite useful, as it contains a record of every garden that the piñata has visited over Xbox Live. It's possible that piñatas could be traded on a round-the-world trip!

In Trouble in Paradise you can also teach you piñatas tricks.

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Are there any tips for playing this game?

You can find some tips and advice at the Gameplay Tips article.

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Is breaking open a piñata a bad thing to do?

Yes, yes, and yes. When your back is turned, piñatas will actually talk about you. Seriously.

If you break open too many, there are consequences. Other wild piñatas of that species will have heard that your garden isn't a friendly place for them, and they'll be less likely to visit or become residents.

On the brighter side, if one of your piñatas need to eat another piñata that is a lot faster than it, e.g. the slow as molasses Fourheads against the much faster Lackatoad, hitting the quick piñata with your shovel and making it ill will make it all the easier for the Fourheads.

Besides, how would you feel about being whacked with a shovel?

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What effect does day and night have on the game?

Some piñatas are nocturnal (they like to sleep during the day). So, you might see different species roaming about the garden, depending on what time of day it is. See Day and night cycle for more information. Daytime (or nighttime) also affects when a species might appear in the wild. Other species only appear after a certain amount of days have passed.

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How do I increase the size of my garden?

Your garden size will automatically increase once you reach level 11, and again when you reach level 21.

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Does my garden evolve, while I'm not playing the game?

No. Your garden will be in the same state you left it in (e.g. flowers won't have died from lack of water, sour piñatas won't have scared other piñatas away).

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Is it better to fence in piñatas, or let them free roam?

Like any good issue, moderation is the key. You want to strike a balance between protecting your piñatas from other (wild) species or sours, and giving them plenty of room to roam. (If they don't have enough room to roam, they will become ill.) In addition to protecting your piñatas, fences also help protect your garden objects. There's nothing worse than a free-roaming Elephanilla trampling your garden, and eating your flowers! Also, some species don't get along with other species, and they'll start fighting each other. Fences are one way to help isolate species and prevent fights.

See Designing your garden for some layout suggestions.

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When will the game be released?

The release date for the US and Canada is November 9th, 2006. The release date for Europe is December 1st, 2006. The release date for Australia and New Zealand is December 7th, 2006.

Trouble in Paradise was released on September 3rd 2008 in the US and Canada, September 5th 2008 in Europe.

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When will patches for the game be released?

No official annoucements have been made as to the existance of any patches for the XBox 360 version of Viva Pinata.

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Where can I find out more information about the game?

The Community Portal has several links to official Viva Piñata websites. There's also a lot of information at this wiki, which the Site Map will help you to find. Another good source of information is the forum (where wiki contributors are members).

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Achievement questions

Where can I find a list of Achievements?

See the Achievements article for a complete list of achievements.

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What's the difference between an Award and an Achievement?

Good question! While Achievements are like any other game, Viva Piñata has added lots of awards for completing various tasks, or for winning competitions. These awards will help you compare your accomplishments with other players, such as to see who has raised the best breed of a species.

Every award you receive will earn you experience, which helps level up your gardening skill. You can see all the Awards you have obtained, by opening your Journal.

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What's the advantage of leveling up my gardening skill?

As you level up (by earning awards), this unlocks new benefits and challenges:

See List of benefits gained at each gardener level for more details as to when each is unlocked.

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What is the fastest way to level up my gardening skill?

Fast ways to earn experience include:

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How do I get a Rashberry and Swanana to romance?

Unlocking the Pigxie achievement is probably the most interesting one in the game, since it's the only cross-species romance possible. To mate a Rashberry and Swanana, first meet each species' separate Romance requirements. Next, build a Mystery House in the garden. Now, mate two of the Rashberries to get a baby Rashberry, and two of the Swananas to get a baby Swanana. Now that you've mated each species separately, feed them a piece of Romance Candy to get a Rashberry and Swanana in the mood again. Finally, direct one to the other, to introduce them. (If they aren't interested, try switching which species you're directing.)

OR:

After meeting both the Swananna and the Rashberry mating requirements and buying the mystery house, feed each one of Ivor Bargain's joy candy and they will now both mate with each other. You will get experience once for mating the Rashberry to the Swananna and then once again vice versa. This method is much easier and time saving in the long run.

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How do I unlock the Master Romancer achievement?

Each species has a Master Romancer award. The first time you receive the award for any species, you will unlock the achievement. As for receiving a species' Master Romancer award, there are several ways to accomplish it.

The condition for receiving a Master Romancer award is having seven piñata of a species resident in the garden at the same time. Don't sell any until you have unlocked the award! You can reach 7 in several ways:

  • Romance 2 piñatas (this is the only way to get the romance award for the species),
  • Receive piñatas of that species from a friend,
  • Hire Gretchen Fetchem to hunt some for you,
  • Evolve the pinatas, if you're dealing with one of the evolved species,
  • Purchase the pinatas, if available at Paper Pets in the Village, or
  • Any combination of the options above

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How do I unlock the ... Secret Achievement?

While most of the secret Achievements are straight-forward -- outside of being secret in the first place! -- here are some tips for unlocking most of them:

  • Helper achievements - Hire each of the 5 helpers.
  • Fertilizer achievement - Direct a Taffly to any piece of fruit to produce fertilizer.
  • Shovel achievements - Hit level 30; purchase the Shovel upgrades from Ivor Bargain.
  • Watering can achievement - Hit level 27; purchase the "One Pour Wonder" Watering can upgrade from Ivor Bargain.
  • Harvester achievement - Get a Buzzlegum to produce Honey, a Moozipan to produce Milk, or a Goobaa to produce Wool.
  • Generosity achievement - Give the Begger 1000 chocolate coins.
  • Cluckles hatches egg achievement - When an egg is delivered, direct a Cluckles to sit on it.
  • Macaracoon gift achievement - Select a tame Macaraccoon and press Button x.png for the menu, then choose the "Find Romance Sweet" option to send it off to find a sweet.
  • Distract Dastardos achievements - Direct a Crowla and a Sherbat to delay Dastardos, to unlock 2 achievements.
  • Cocoadile tears achievement - Direct a tame Cocoadile to a plant that needs fertilizing.
  • Mallowolf howl achievement - Direct a Mallowolf to scare off a Ruffian or Professor Pester from the garden.
  • Chewnicorn healing achievement - Direct a Chewnicorn to heal a sick piñata.
  • Pigxie achievement - See How do I get a Rashberry and Swanana to romance? for details.

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User Interface questions

Where do I learn more about my piñatas?

Your Journal's Encyclopedia is the best in-game source of information about your piñatas. You can also read up on each species right here at the wiki.

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How do I name a piñata?

Select a piñata to rename, then use its Encyclopedia page to rename it.

Select a piñata with the cursor, then press Button y.png to open its Information page. Use the left stick to scroll down to "Basic Info" and press Button a.png to bring up a dialog, where you can type in a new name for that piñata.

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What's the purpose of labeling a piñata?

Each piñata has a tag, like what you'd find on a plush animal. A piñata's tag contains useful information about that piñata, such as its name, which garden it came from, and your gamertag. When a piñata travels from garden to garden, as you ship one around to a friend, each place that it visits is recorded on the tag. You can use the Label Designer to customize all your piñatas' tags.

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What can I place in my garden?

There are all sorts of garden objects that you can add to your garden. They range from flowers and vegetables, to bushes and trees, fences and paths, houses for each species, and even statues for your garden. Most items can be bought from Shops in the Village with chocolate coins, or downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Several items have upgrades that you can buy, such as sturdier fences.

See Designing your garden for some helpful tips about locating garden objects.

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Are some fences better than others?

Yes. There are sturdier fences that you can obtain from Costolot's General Store or Ivor Bargain in the Village. For example, a stone fence is more likely to be sturdier than a wood fence. This is important, when you have larger piñatas that can trample your flowers, or sour Macaraccoons, who like to destroy things.

In Trouble in Paradise there is also a Bird Proof Fence that does exactly what it say on the tin. Very handy for growing weeds or keeping a seperate aviary.

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How do I know when to water my garden?

Your flowers will turn yellowish brown.

You can use the Water Meter to help determine how much water is needed, while watering your garden. If you buy the One Pour Wonder from Ivor Bargain once you reach level 27, you'll only need to water a plant once, and it will be set for life. (It also waters a plant just the ideal amount, so you no longer have to deal with over-watering.)

Gameplay Tip: If you over-water your plants and flowers too much, they will turn blue (and possibly die). Leaving the plant alone for a while will allow the excess water will drain off over time.

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Why don't hearts appear? plants grow? My garden is full?

If you run into the following situations, these are indications that your garden is full:

  • Hearts don't appear over a piñata even though the Romance requirements are met.
  • Seeds refuse to be planted in the ground, or plants stop growing before maturity.
  • No new wild piñatas visit your garden.
  • A shopkeeper complains that your garden is full, when you try to buy/place an item.
  • An alert appears or Leafos warns you that your garden is full.

In situations like this, you should sell off unneeded piñatas, produce, flowers, seeds, or other items on the ground, to free up more room in your garden. Removing trees and pinatas are you best bet to resolve this as they take up the biggest system resources of those listed.

When you do receive a garden full message when placing an item then the first thing to check is whether you have too many of that item. If you do then no matter how much you clear out the rest of the garden you won't be allowed to put it down. So, if you're trying to get a piñata from Gretchin and she says you can't, try removing another one before purging your forest.

As several developers from Rare have commented in public forums, as powerful as the Xbox 360 console is, it still only has a finite amount of memory to maintain information on every little detail of your garden. When you think about every little active detail that the game has to manage and render, such as fruit growing on a bush, and finally falling to the ground, or the appearance of a piñata's fur as it ripples, there's only so much memory to go around.

Here are a few rough guidelines that might guide you as you manage your garden. These numbers may vary from garden to garden, depending on what's in your garden already. Also, these numbers are an absolute maximum, if you have many things from many categories you may find the limits reduced in order to spread the load.

Viva Piñata: Classic

  • 36 piñatas (combined total of residents and visitors, it's not possible to get 36 resident piñata)
  • about a dozen houses
  • about a dozen trees
  • about a few dozen plants
  • about 2-3 dozen fence pieces
  • about 20 transmuted items

Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise

  • 40 piñatas (combined total of residents and visitors, it's not possible to get 36 resident piñata)
  • 8 helpers
  • 32 accessories
  • 64 plants
  • 16 trees
  • 12 eggs
  • 81 fences
  • 64 flowerheads
  • 48 fruit
  • 17 homes
  • 130 paving slabs
  • 64 props
  • 16 seeds
  • 32 sweets
  • 32 vegetables

Again, outside of the piñata limit which is fixed, you may be able to fit a little more (or less) of a particular item, before you bump into a limit.

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How many gardens can I create? on a memory card?

On a premium system (i.e. console with attached hard drive), the only limit is the amount of hard drive space, so you could create hundreds if you had several GB free. (Once you created more than 8 gardens, the Load Garden screen would allow you to scroll through the gardens shown on the 8 petals.)

On a memory card, it's obviously limited by the remaining amount of free space on the memory card. There is a 4 MB profile (which keeps track of common information for all gardens, such as total cash, or which totems are on your Tower of Sour). Each garden you create has its own 8 MB save file. So, you could generally fit 4 or more gardens on a memory card.

As briefly mentioned, each new garden shares a common amount of money, so the coins you earned in one garden can be used to help start a new garden. Your gardener level and Tower of Sour are also shared between gardens, so you can start a new garden, yet attract (or have Gretchen Fetchem hunt) any advanced species you've previously dealt with in other gardens. You also don't have to worry about retaming sour piñatas. Of course, you could deactivate totem segments, if you did want to retame a sour.

With Trouble in Paradise the same principles stand except the profile is 5MB and a garden is 16MB.

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Can I delete a garden and start over?

You're not limited by any total number of gardens, on your hard disk, but if you desire to delete a garden so it no longer shows up on the Load Garden petal menu, you can do so via the Dashboard System blade (Select Memory, then Games, then the desired garden save.)

Note: In addition to each separate garden save file, there is a common profile which tracks your cash, Tower of Sour, and other shared information. Do NOT delete this file, or it will invalidate all your gardens, and you'll be forced to start from scratch, with no money, at the very beginning of the tutorial.


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How do I take pictures?

Neither Viva Piñata nor the Xbox 360 provide any way to save images while playing the game. One frequently-used method to capture an image is simply to photograph your television screen using a digital camera, then download the photo to your PC.

For Viva Piñata:Classic on the PC you can use the standard screen capture facility.

For Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise you can use in the ingame photo tool. Open up the X menu and you should find it at 7 o'clock. Once you have uploaded a photo it will appear on www.vivapinata.com where you will need to Submit it for it to appear in the gallery.

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Shops and currency questions

What can I buy with my chocolate coins?

The list is probably too long to mention everything, but here are a few items and services available at the Village shops:

  • Hiring helpers for your garden,
  • Upgrading your tools,
  • More seeds, vegetables, and trees,
  • Tinkering (transforming one item into another),
  • Accessories for your piñatas,
  • New (or upgraded) objects for your garden,
  • Domestic pets, such as cats or dogs.

Ivor Bargain is a begger/trader in the Village who will also help you part with your coins.

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How do I get more money?

You can get more money by:

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Where do I pick up the piñata that my friend sent me?

Visit Fanny Franker's Post Office in the Village to receive your package.

Press Button x.png to open the gameplay menu, select the Post Office option from the menu, and press Button a.png.

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Where do I go to hire helpers for my garden?

Visit Arfur's Inn in the Village to hire helpers. Helpers are available for weeding, sprinkling, watching, gathering and digging.

You can also hire Gretchen Fetchem to track down lost strays.

Press Button x.png to open the gameplay menu, select the Village option from the menu, and press Button a.png, then select Arfur's Inn (or Gretchen Fetchem) from the menu, and press Button a.png.

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How do I upgrade my tools?

New watering cans and shovel handles and shovel heads to upgrade your tools can be purchased from Costolot's General Store or Ivor Bargain. You will need enough chocolate coins to pay for each upgrade.

Press Button x.png to open the gameplay menu, select the Village option from the menu, and press Button a.png, then select Costolot's General Store or Ivor Bargain from the menu, and press Button a.png.

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Where do I get more seeds?

Seeds can be acquired in the following ways:

  • Visit Costolot's General Store in the Village to buy more seeds and vegetables. Additional seeds are available as you reach higher levels.
  • Ivor Bargain has one of the more exotic seeds for sale.
  • Seedos will give you a random seed for free if you talk to him.
  • Flowers will produce one seed per flowerhead when tapped with the shovel, or if they die of old age.
To visit Costolot's General Store or Ivor Bargain, press Button x.png to open the gameplay menu, select the Village option from the menu, and press Button a.png. Then select the appropriate store from the menu, and press Button a.png.

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Where do I buy a bottle of medicine? a mushroom?

It isn't possible to buy these things. You must hire Bart, the tinkerer, from Bart's Exchange to transform items such as honey into a bottle of medicine, or a toadstool into a mushroom.

See List of items that can be transformed for a complete list of items that can be tinkered, as well as their transformed uses.

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How do I get more accessories?

Head to Miss Petula's Paper Pets shop in the Village for your domestic pinata, and accessory needs.

You can also download more accessories from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

In Trouble in Paradise, more accessories are also unlocked as you complete Langston's challenges.

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What downloadables are available for the game?

Rare has released a series of accessory packs on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

No other downloads for the game have been announced.

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How do I know how many chocolate coins my garden is worth?

Go to the Menu, select "Journal", "Player Awards" and "Player Status". You'll see a screen with your garden value, rank, and account balance.

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Species questions

Are there cat and dog piñatas?

Yes. Miss Petula's Paper Pets carries domestic pinata, such as cats and dogs, that would not be available as wild piñatas. See Kittyfloss and Barkbark.

In Trouble in Paradise, they have returned to the wild and you will have to attract them like all other species.

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How many different piñata species are there?

There are 60 different piñata species (over 100 for TIP). Rare has mentioned that it's likely a player will only attract about 30 for their first garden.

Each species also has three differently-colored variants which must be discovered through various means.

As you progress through the game, you'll be asked to make choices. The decisions you make will affect which piñatas you can attract into your garden. All is not lost, however, if you need a species in a pinch. It's likely that a friend would be able to trade what you need, in return for helping them out!

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My piñatas are fighting! What can I do?

You can sprinkle a piñata with water or lightly 'tap' a piñata with your shovel, which gets its attention, without breaking it open. However, this can make your piñata ill.

It's not known if there are other ways to actively discourage or break up fights, especially since some species naturally don't get along with other species. (See Food chain for a list.)

There are a couple of passive options that you can use:

  • Isolate unfriendly species from each other, by distance and/or fences and/or ponds,
  • Buy a Red Eye Rainbow (minimizes fights) from Ivor Bargain, or
  • Tame a sour Bonboon, which will help you out by stopping fights.

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What species don't get along with each other?

See Food chain for a list of predators that will eat other piñata. See Conflict for a list of species that commonly fight.

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How can I attract a different piñata species?

In general, there are at least four different ways to obtain a new species:

  • Meet the right requirements to entice a wild piñata to become a resident,
  • Tame a sour piñata,
  • Evolve a new species from an existing resident species,
  • Get a friend to send you one ;)

See Attracting new species for a detailed list that covers the different ways.

Note: Certain decisions that you make while playing the game, may make it impossible for certain wild piñatas to appear, if you don't have the required piñata in your garden to attract them.

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What's the best way to keep sours out of my garden?

After you tame a sour piñata, a totem pole segment is added to your Tower of Sour to scare away all sour piñatas of that species.

A tame Cocoadile will also help scare away sour species that you haven't tamed yet.

Gameplay Tip: Your Tower of Sour is shared among all new gardens that you start. You can activate/deactivate specific totems, to control which sours can enter your new garden, should you wish to tame one.

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Which piñatas are rare?

The answer to that question should be split into two parts. There are uncommon piñatas that are harder to obtain, and then there are most likely rare piñatas.

The uncommon piñatas would be species that require certain items, or certain other piñata species before they can be attracted or created. For example, to get a Zumbug, you need blackberries, daisies, and a Horstachio (which requires other species being residents, before it will reside in your garden).

As for the truly rare piñatas, there isn't a specific list at present. Some species, like the Chewnicorn, have appearance or residence requirements that require you to be a higher level gardener.

For Trouble in Paradise, piñatas such as the Choclodocus, Sarsgorilla and Tigermasu are considered top of the tree.

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Are there any mythical piñatas?

One of the TV show episodes alluded to a legendary Dragonache. It's also reasonable to believe that the Chewnicorn is a mythical piñata. The Chewnicorn was recently featured on a new Xbox 360 Dashboard Theme.

As you've probably discovered by following the links, both species do exist, and can reside in your garden, if you're a skilled enough gardener :)

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Can I create new piñata species?

Some new piñata species can be evolved by feeding an item to an existing resident species. For example, a Horstachio can change into a Zumbug after eating blackberries and daisies. See Attracting new species for a list.

Gameplay Tip: When creating a new species from an existing resident, it's helpful not to change your only resident species into a different species. Wait for a second one to become a resident, then romance them first, so you will have some of both species.

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Will there be any new piñatas on the Marketplace?

Rare has not made any annoucements regarding any new pinata species.

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Do accessories benefit my pinata?

Yes, accessories can affect a piñata in a couple of different ways. Giving a piñata an accessory will increase its happiness for a period of time. Accessories also increase a piñata's value. Some accessories also have specific effects, when added to a piñata. For example, placing a bonnet accessory on a Goobaa will prompt it to regularly visit a shearing shed, to get shorn, once its wool has regrown.

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Multiplayer questions

Is there a Co-op mode?

Yes. Local players can play in Family Mode. Family Mode allows multiple players to control a common (shared) cursor. This allows parents and older siblings to help out younger players.

In Trouble in Paradise this has been extended. There is a full online, 4-player co-op mode. Offline there is a couch social mode where a second player has their own cursor. top

Can I invite a friend to visit my garden?

No. There is no method to invite another player to visit your garden.

In Trouble in Paradise, yes you can. You will need to have loaded your garden through the Xbox Live petal on the menu, though. Note also that you can set private slots to stop unwanted players entering your game.

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What different online modes are there?

Viva Piñatais offers the following via Xbox Live:

  • Online trading, where you can ship piñatas and/or accessories to a friend.
  • Leaderboards showing the most valuable pinata and gardens.

In Trouble in Paradise:

  • Online trading, where you can ship piñatas and/or accessories to a friend.
  • Leaderboards showing the most valuable pinata and gardens.
  • Online co-op, where 4-players can all garden together
  • Online mini-games, select a pinata and select competitions from the menu
  • Photo uploads, sent to vivapinata.com
  • Online stats, uploaded to vivapinata.com

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How do I ship a piñata to a friend?

Visit Fanny Franker's Post Office in the Village. It will cost one chocolate coin to buy a crate, which you can place in your garden. You can then pack up to five items, including piñatas, garden objects, and/or accessories in the crate, and send it to anyone on your Friends list.

Press Button x.png to open the gameplay menu, select the Post Office option from the menu, and press Button a.png.

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Do I need an Xbox Live account to trade with a friend?

Yes. Although you only need a Silver (free) Xbox Live membership, it is necessary to have a membership on Xbox Live to be able to trade between friends. Trading is managed via the Friends list feature of Xbox Live, so you need to be signed in to Xbox Live while playing, to send or receive crates.

A (wired or wireless) internet connection for your Xbox is obviously required.

Note that you can ship crates to yourself (such as for moving piñatas between your different gardens) without requiring an Xbox Live account or internet connection, since the "shipment" is local.

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Appendices

Revision history

Version Date Notes
1.20 Jul-15-2007 Updates references to patches or future features.
1.14 May-23-2007 Added garden size question and fixed broken forum links.
1.13 Feb-18-2007 Added leveling fast question.
1.12 Feb-02-2007 Added patch release question.
1.11 Jan-06-2007 Corrected gaining Achievements section.
1.10 Dec-29-2006 Added housing limit detail.
1.09 Nov-23-2006 Updated 12 answers, and added 11 new questions.
1.08 Nov-08-2006 Removed incorrect variant usage; added new Variant question. Updated day/night information.
1.07 Nov-03-2006 Added Tower of Sour and Accessory effects questions.
1.06 Nov-02-2006 Corrected Horstachio variant examples.
1.05 Nov-02-2006 Updated answers with latest game information.
1.04 Oct-03-2006 Added introductory question
1.03 Oct-02-2006 Updated info for shipping a crate to someone.
1.02 Sep-21-2006 Updated number of different species and sours.
1.01 Sep-12-2006 Corrected minor typos and capitalization.
1.00 Sep-11-2006 Initial version.

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Contact information

Comments, corrections, or questions about this guide can be discussed on the FAQ talk page, or at the forum.

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Credits

The initial version of this guide was written by FeralKitty. Additional information added by Spartan, jimmcq, and FeralKitty.

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This guide was written for the PinataIsland.info wiki. While it can be freely reproduced elsewhere, it would be more practical to link to this site, since the guide is frequently edited, and also contains extensive hyperlinks to other information at this wiki.

If you reproduce this guide elsewhere, please clearly credit PinataIsland.info (in text, and with a link back to this site) at the top of your repost. Thank you.

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