The Gardener

Overview

Hello Everyone.We are now going to switch gears a bit, and look at one of the special gathering skills of Villagers and Heroes – gardening! [i.imgur.com]Gardening is one of ten skill types that all players have access to in Villagers and Heroes. Choose one, or all ten! It is entirely up to you.What you do is up to you. Who will you become?

The Lore

For hundreds of years, citizens of the Seven Realms have been tilling the firm soil of Ardent, growing a plethora of flowers, fruits, vegetables, spices, and more. Working together, these crops have aided heroes in countless battles, as the healing serums and spirit elixirs have changed the tides of battle for the better.

What catches the eye of most passers-by is not only the joy on the gardener’s faces, but the outfits they are attired in. For it’s not the traditional garb of farmers or ranchers, but the many forms of plate armor, wizard robes, hunter jerkins, and more. In the Seven Realms, gardening isn’t a pigeon holed skill that only the select few are able to participate in, but something that every person from any walk of life may train in and enjoy

Strengths and Weaknesses

• A relaxing way to end your day
• A skill that can actively be participated in, or casually tended to
• Open to all classes and all players regardless of other skill choices
• Synergizes well with Cooking

• None! If you don’t want to garden, you don’t have to!

Overview

Gardening is a skill that can be accessed by the player as soon as the player owns a house in a village. A gardener can grow a variety of different crops and produce that can be used for various things, like cooking, feeding to sheep and farm animals, selling for gold, or even trading for rare seeds.

Gardening is a time gated skill, meaning it takes time for your crops to grow. Crops grow regardless if the owning player is online or offline.

The only way to accelerate your crops growth is by watering them, using water. Water if available for free from any well in game.

Seeds

The first thing a player needs in order to start gardening, are seeds. Seeds can be purchased from the seed vendor or from the seed board just behind a player’s garden.

Once a player has seeds in their inventory, they can then plant them in the garden. To plant a seed, players can drag and drop the seed from the inventory into an open section of the garden. If that slot of the garden is an acceptable place to plant the seed, then the slot will be highlighted green. If it is not an acceptable place, then the square will be highlighted red. The only reason that a slot is deemed as unacceptable for planting is if another crop is already growing there.

Once the seed is dropped into a green garden plot, then the seed is planted and will begin to grow! A gardener can return to the garden after the duration of growth to harvest the crop.

Seeds have various growing times, which will be displayed on the seed packet. When a crop is harvested from a garden, the player will receive the produces along with the allotted amount of experience in the gardening skill.

Watering

What better way to make a garden grow than watering it? A watered crop will grow at a faster rate. Crops do not need to be watered, and will not die if they are not watered. Watering is an optional activity that can be used to speed up the growth process, but it is in no way mandatory!

Crops can be watered immediately upon planting, and once every four hours after that. Players will know it is time for crops to be watered when crops have a watering can icon hovering above them.
To water crops, players can drag and drop a watering can from their inventory onto the crop.

Characters will animate watering and crops will get a boost in growth. Water can be pulled from any well found in the Seven Realms, several of which are conveniently located in each and every village.

Every time a crop is watered, the total duration on the crop will move forward. The amount of duration shaved is dependent on the total time of the crop.

• 20 Minute Crops: Watering will reduce the total duration by 4 minutes.
• 2 Hour Crops: Watering will reduce the total duration by 20 minutes.
• 9 Hour Crops: Watering will reduce the total duration by 1 hour, 30 minutes.
• 22 Hour Crops: Watering will reduce the total duration by 2 Hours.
• 45 Hour Crops: Watering will reduce the total duration by 2 Hours.

Magical and Rare Seeds

Magical seeds are special seed that produce magical advanced crops. Magical seeds can only be obtained through trading with the Magical seed vendor. There is a magical seed vendor in the village and in Ardent City.

To trade for magical seeds, players can talk with a magic seed vendor. If the player has enough of any particular crop, then the vendor will have an option to trade. The amount of produce needed to trade for magical seeds depends on the growth time of the crop. These numbers can also be seen on any seed packet.

• 20 Minute Crops: 500 fully grown crops are required for a trade.
• 2 Hour Crops: 90 fully grown crops are required for a trade.
• 9 Hour Crops: 20 fully grown crops are required for a trade.
• 22 Hour Crops: 10 fully grown crops are required for a trade.
• 45 Hour Crops: 5 fully grown crops are required for a trade.

Once a player has a bag of magical seeds, they can open it to see what type of seeds they have received. The bag will give you a few various normal seeds, a few rare seeds (the titles of which will be green), and a chance at some very rare seeds (the titles of which will be blue). All magic seeds grow in two hours, and only normal crops can be traded for magical seeds. You cannot trade magical crops for more magical seeds.

Types of Crops

There are several different categories of crops, with special benefit associated with it.

• Vegetables: Vegetables gives an average amount of experience, and have an average sell rate. Vegetables are often used in cooking recipes, cooking things like fish dinners which boost maximum health, or healing potions, which restore health over time.
• Fruit: Fruits can be consumed immediately after harvest to boost maximum health. Additionally, they can be used to cooking spirit boosting elixirs and cordials. Fruits give average amounts of gold and experience.
• Spices: Spices tend to give low gold and average experience. Spices can be used to cook many different types of spirit restoring potions.
• Flowers: Flowers tend to give very low amounts of experience, but sell for very high amounts of gold. A gardener who plants lots of flowers can make large amounts of gold quickly. Often times, various farm animals have a taste for flowers, so make sure to keep a few on hand.
• Exotic: Exotic crops tend to give very low amounts of gold, but very large amounts of experience. Exotic crops generally are not used in cooking or ranching, making them excellent candidates for magic seed trades.
• Magical Vegetables: Magic Vegetables give the same amount of experience as their normal versions, but additionally can be consumed to grant veggie power. Veggie power boosts your maximum energy.
• Magical Fruits: Magical fruits will give normal amounts of gold and experience, but additionally can be consumed to grant a more powerful version of fruit invigoration. This buff increases your maximum health for ten minutes.
• Magical Spices: Magical Spices grant normal amounts of gold and energy, but can also be consumed to restore small amounts of energy.
• Magical Exotic Crops: Magical exotic crops will grant the same amount of gold as their normal counterparts, but will grant a bonus 150% experience.
• Magical Flowers: Magical Flower grant a normal amount of experience, but will sell for 150% normal gold.

Gardening Tips

Here are a few tips to help you till the firm earth into a bountiful garden.

• Plan, Plan, Plan: Some crops can take upwards of a day and a half to grow. If you know that you will be running out of a certain consumable before then, make sure to get your crops growing, so none of your adventures are without precious and valuable effects.
• Buy ‘em out back: By clicking on the sign just behind your garden, you can access a convenient vendor window to buy all of your seeds (as well as some ranching tools).
• Don’t Forget to Water: Watering can greatly accelerate your crops, allowing you to get gold, experience, and harvest quickly. Try to water as often as you can to get the most out of your garden.
• Forget Watering : If you don’t like to water, don’t! Some players like the active and involved aspect that watering grants, others want to be much more casual about gardening. If you would rather slay bounties and save faraway lands, then get going on that! Watering is not required; there is no negative effect for not watering!
• The Hasty Advantage: There are hasty variants available for both exotic and flowering crops; hasty crops grow in either 2 hours or 20 minutes depending. If you are going to go out on a quick bounty run, drop a garden full of hasty crops before you go, and harvest when you get back to snag some quick XP or gold.
• They Always Grow: Crops always grow, regardless if you are logged in or not!
• Time to Plan, Plan to Time: If you plan your garden around when you will be playing next, you can make sure to plant an appropriate timed crop to make the most out of your log off time. If you are going out of town for a weekend, throw some 45 hour crops in the ground, they will be ready for you when you get back.
• Exotics into Magics: After harvesting your exotic crops, and gaining the boosted experience, there is no in game use for the harvest. This makes them perfect to trade to the magic seed vendor to get a chance at some rare seeds!
• At The End of All Things: Gardening experience is granted as you harvest the crop. This means if you want to have an XP boosting effect running, you only need it running at the very end. Plan accordingly for 22 or 45 hour crops.
• ALT-ernate: By using ALT’s (alternate characters on the same account) you can grow extra crops. Each character with a house has a garden; this means each account could potentially be growing up to 75 crops at a time.
• Cinnamon Spice is Always Nice: All pies (experience boosting consumables) require cinnamon, which is only a level 4 crop. A great option for an alt character.
• Always Boost: If you don’t want to use a full 2-hour pie or a village XP potion for gardening, then why not use a cheap vendor pie? Buy a cherry pie from a food vendor to turn a little extra gold into some boosted experience.
• Hasty Scheme: The Hasty form of a 22 hour crop is 2 hours; the hasty form of a 9 hour crop is 20 minutes. Hasty forms are always available at the same levels as the normal form.
• Duration Scheme: Flowers and Exotic seeds follow the same pattern for their varieties of durations. Two new type of flowers or exotic seeds are available every four or five levels, a normal and a hasty variant. The durations alternate every 10 levels, alternating between 22 hours (and a 2 hour hasty) and 9 hours (and a 20 minute hasty).
• The “Ann Guish” Principle: Adventurers love boosted experience, but not all take the time to grow the ingredients to bake pies. If you have the time, grow some extra ingredients, bake some pies, and sell them on the Auction House for some extra gold income (this principle is named off of one of our lovely entrepreneurial players, the famous Ann Guish).

Conclusion

The gardeners of the Seven Realms supply the world with a variety of beneficial crops, all of which can be grown by any villager or hero. Want to solely grow crops and stay out of the troubles of the world? So be it! Want to make Gardening your 10th trade skill? It’s all yours! Want to set down your staff or sword after a long day of killing bounties to sink your fingers into the earth and watch the sunset? Sounds like a wonderful time! So what are you waiting for? Create any class and add Gardening to your roster of skills, harness the power of nature in your quaint and cozy backyard. Grow the crops that you like to see blossom, and share an apriquat with a friend.

What you do is up to you. Who will you become?