Category:Gameplay Tips

General Suggestions

• Try not to overwater your plants and vegetables. You want a balance of half-blue (wet), half-white (dry), on the Water Meter. If you overwater a plant, leaving it alone for a while will allow the excess water will drain off over time.

• If you have a Sprinkling helper, a good time to plant things is right before dawn. If you finish your planting around 6-7:00am game time, the sprinkling will show up first thing in the morning, and help you water the new plants all day. By the end of the day they should sprout without you having to worry too much about how much water they are getting. If you plant right after dark and expect your helper to do the watering, they will be dried out in the 12 or so hours it will take for her to show up.

• Just because it's nighttime in your garden, it doesn't mean that you can sleep. Some predators, like the Pretztail, like to hunt and eat other species at night. Some species, like the Mothdrop, will only romance at night.

• If you are having problems with Ruffians or Professor Pester, then you should buy a Captain's Cutlass from Ivor Bargain. It will keep them both out of your garden.

Pinata Advice

• Hitting or breaking a piñata with your shovel might be fun, but it will have consequences. A piñata of that same species may be afraid to come to your garden.

• You can increase pinata's happiness by giving it an accessory to wear. (Some accessories also prompt a pinata to perform routine tasks on its own, such as a Goobaa getting shorn.)

• If you have an ill pinata, call the Doctor as soon as possible. If you wait and the doctor cannot make it in time, Dastardos will come and smash the ill pinata.

• It's better to tame a sour piñata, rather than breaking it open. If you tame a Sour, it will become helpful, such as by stopping fights, or scaring off Sours. You may break open sours to get rid of them, though they don't drop candy when broken open. They will, however, drop sour candies as they roam your garden if not tamed or disposed of. Any candies dropped can be destroyed with a single swat of the shovel. If sour candies are not disposed of; your pinata will eat them and become ill.

• 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.

• Simply renaming a pinata can make it happier.

• If you have a Cocoadile, then you can use its tears instead of fertilizer.

Strategies

• A little forethought in how you want your garden to look will help avoid problems like cramped habitats, or traffic jams as Piñatas and Helpers travel around from spot to spot.

• A good plan for the player who likes to sell and trade their pinatas is to surround their houses with a fence. That way you keep all your species organized. Just make sure while fencing them in that you give them adequate space so they don't get sick.

• A Pinata's value will increase as it returns from parties, eats candies and/or adds new accessories.

• A Tower of Sour will help keep unwanted sours out of your garden. As you tame each species of sour pinata, you will receive another section to add to the tower. Each section may be turned on or off, and when on they will prevent that sour species from ever returning. You can also buy Tower of Sour segments from Costolots General Store in the garden items section.

• If your pinata is too depressed to eat a happy/joy sweet, go to Paper Pets and buy it an accessory. This should cheer it up enough to respond to your commands. The more accessories you buy it, the happier it becomes.

• If your piñata is in it’s home you can tap the house and it will come out. This is especially useful when you need a Chewnicorn to heal a sick piñata before Dastardos gets them. But this can also annoy your pinata.

• Pinata Central will send you a factory request within minutes of creating a new garden. Usually it is a request for a "Single-Preferably a more valuable pinata". So just send 1 of your more valuable pinatas to yourself via the Post Office, and do the Challenge. This will raise the value of your pinata. Then just keep repeating.

Making Money

• One strategy for making money is to grow produce. Some of the best produce are the Pumpkin and the Chili pepper. Both have inexpensive seeds and the produce sells for many more chocolate coins. For even more profit, put the chili plants in tight bunches and use the appropriate fertilizer on each group up to three times. You can usually get about five per bunch if you work in an X pattern. Costolata will only sell 12 at a time so do five and five, pay , fertilize, and re[eat the process. If you start just before you your waterer gets there you can go all day and make about 20000 coins. Dont forget to give something back to your helper too! This doesn't work for pumpkins though. If they are too close together they will be stunted. The fertilizer will increase the value of the produce and earn you a growth award.

• Have one garden that is solely used for making money. Put a helper house in, hire two waterers and some watchers. Plant chili pepper seeds and fertilize as described above. Before you know it you will have 100,000 coins and an achievement.

• Another early strategy to make some quick money is to create a new garden solely for the purpose of growing poison ivy. Plant as many poison ivy seeds as you can in this garden. Then let the poison ivy "green" flower heads bloom and fall to the ground. You can then sell these poison ivy flower heads for 100 chocolate coins each. Re-plant the seeds that each poison ivy plant spits out. More than likely you won't need to buy any more seeds to re-plant anything. Eventually they spread like wildfire. The best part about poison ivy is that is doesn't need watering. Don't plan on having many animals stay healthy in a poison ivy money garden.

• Once you advance higher in level, you can grow valuable flowers. Some of the most valuable include the Bullrush, Bird of Paradise, Snapdragon, and Orchid flowers. Fertilizing each of these flowers makes them even more valuable and earns you a growth award.

• Placing seeds in holes makes them grow faster, which means a faster payoff for you.

• When selling a tree, check to see if it has fruit ready. If so, make them drop first and sell them too to make a little bit more money.

• After you tap a flower to separate the seed and flower head, you can sell the bare stalk before it dies.

• You can always make money by selling the pinatas that you have made resident.

• Evolving a pinata makes it worth more money.

What to avoid

• Try to avoid piñata fights before they happen by making sure that each piñata has enough of whatever it needs. If a piñata has broken open in a fight, it will be reluctant to return.
• Avoid boxing in pinatas with fences, without giving them adequate room to roam a bit. It will make them unhappy and also sick