...or do you know how to play Tic-Tac-Toe, Bingo or Chess?

Some people have been saying that they don't understand the Breeding charts. Let me see if I can explain it a bit better.

If you look at the Excel sheet that Borg has with his prices, you'll see that it is just a 23x23 grid table. 23 Flowers and 23 Foliage. Think of this instead as a very large Tic-Tac-Toe, Bingo or Chess board. The goal (as in the first two of those games is to fill in the rows, columns or diagonals.

The same is true for Plant Tycoon.



If you isolate the grid to make a 5x5 grid (anywhere, it doesn't have to be in a corner) something Magic happens!

Mark each of the corners with an 'A', then mark the cells half way between each of them with a 'B'. This is the plant that you will get if you cross one corner cell with another. i.e. cross a Spotted Astera with a Bluestar Maranta, and you will get a Daisy Fern (the center of the X.) The same is true if you go the other diagonal.

In addition, the rows and columns will do the same trick. A Spotted Astera and a Bluestar Astera will make a Daisy Astera.

Take this one step further and fill in the other cells, with a 'C' and that is the plant that you will get if you cross the 'A' and 'B' plants on either side (up, down or diagonal.)

Also, this works whether you have a 3x3, 5x5, 7x7, all the was to 23x23! The corners will make the plant in the center!

So what does this have to do with chess? There is a chess piece called the knight. It moves around the board by taking two steps in one direction and one in another. The Magic X works here also! It doesn't have to be squares that you isolate to find the Magic X. If you have a block of 7x3 cells, and you mark two corners on one side with 'A' and the corners on the other side with 'B', then if you make the center with a 'C' you'll get the plant that will be the cross between the opposite corners. You'll notice that you are taking two steps down and one over to find the center, and then again to find the other corner, just like a knight moves in Chess!



Again, this isn't limited to a 5x3 rectangle, any size will work the same, no matter where you are on the grid. 3x5, 5x3, 3x7, 5x9, 3x11, etc.

You may have noticed that my examples all used odd sized cells. What about a 4x4, or 6x8? Well it works the same for that, but it gets a little more complicated. There's no center cell of the square or rectangle to find the center of the Magic X. So instead, you find the cell that is one below or one to the left or both of the center spot of the X of the corners.



It's really quite easy once you get the hang of it.

This seems to me like a very clear explanation. I have one question, though.. is this a function of the particular sequencing for this grid? That is, if the flower names and/or the foliage names were sequenced differently--say, alphabetically--would the method still work? (I tried it with my own grid, and it doesn't seem to.) If it's a function of this particular sequence, how was the correct sequence derived?

Yes, it is specifically for a grid made in a specific order like Borg's grid. If you can't read his file, use the Pocket Guide order that is posted in the guides sections.

Borg and I both "reversed engineered" the specific order used. How it was originally derived is Arthur's secret.

Thanks, sfrose, I rather thought as much. I might try to do that myself, just for kicks and to see if what I'm thinking about would work to get the right sequence. Then again, I might not, since you guys have already done the work.

I think the thing to remember is that it isn't necessary to the game to understand this. The guides that have been uploaded that some people use to help them aren't official parts of the game. They were just things that have been discovered by paying attention to cross-breeding and mutating plants.

Many of us started this game without any aids or guides and we've been able to find the Magic Plants by just making lots and lots of cross-breedings and see what results.

I created my own breeding charts (that didn't use the magic order) and I'm used those to check on what will result if I cross a Fabled Rare Oak with a Spotted Maranta. I then checked another list to see if that result will give me a plant combo that I haven't seen before. (I'm way behind Charley, but in one of my games, I'm at 225 species discovered...)

Before I found all the Magic Plants, I used this method (on several games at once) to find holes in my "all games all species" chart to see if that new combo will result in what I want! I made an exception when a new trial combo resulted in a nw (for that game) Magic Plant that I already knew about.

It turned out in the end, that the last two I needed to discover were found using different methods. One was found while recording Mutation data, the other happened to be a seed I bought from the Supply Store!

As one of the Faucet Tips says, there are many approaches to solving the game.

Sailorben, sometimes doing your own work can be just as rewarding! I was about 3/4 done with my breeding charts when Borg posted his. Since I didn't want the spoiler information on where the Magic Plants were located, I avoided looking at his until I found all six myself. In the mean time, I continued working on my own charts and my own research.

I discovered the Mutagen pattern and when I did finally look to see how he setup his chart, I noticed the same pattern there and that was a bit of a confirmation.

My charts are ordered by Tiers, and there are different patterns within that...

You may discover something new by taking yet another approach that will help others in this forum.

Thanks, sfrose.. I guess I'm not doing too badly then, at 254 discovered using just my own grids. (The "boring" part for me is waiting for plants to pollinate.) I didn't look at Borg's either until I'd found all the MP's and nearly filled in all the foliage/plant type grids. I just worked on filling all the holes for each cross breeding and species, using my grids to choose breedings. (and yes, I used another game or two at times to fill in holes) I deliberately didn't look up the MP's until the last one, then succumbed to curiosity. But I was continuing my methodical crossing intending to look up how to get to the MP, when a crossing I'd already done turned out to be it. Funnily enough, that night, and again the next night, that MP's seed showed up in the shop. I think I'd have been disappointed if that had been how I'd gotten it!

It has appeared to me that there is a pattern, but I think I'm not quite far enough along with my species grid to pull it out yet. I've carefully not examined Borg's too closely.

(sigh) the old dinosaur programmer in me is flexing its arthritic joints a bit. LOL I'm now playing a bit again with Fish Tycoon, which I originally played pretty randomly as just a pastime, and got tired of it after finding 5 MF's because I had no method or records and was spinning my wheels.

Sailorben, I know exactly how you feel! I was thrilled to buy the Magic Plant in the store, but somewhat disappointed that it ended up being "so easy."

I was probably 75-90% finsihed with my breeding charts when I was able to figure out a pattern, even though it wasn't the Magic X pattern. It thrilled me to be able to predict what flower or foliage to expect in a cell and then see it happen.

I also understand about going back to Fish Tycoon. After figuring out the Plant Tycoon key, I went back to my spreadsheets and figured out the one for Fish Tycoon also. (I also "cheated" at the end in my initial game and used the charts that were available to find my last couple of Magic Fish...)

BTW, did you know that adding Insta-grow to a pollinating plant will help it produce seeds faster? I'll also often have my games on slow mode (like checking in the morning after letting new plants grow overnight and before going to work.) But when I figure out what I want to breed next, I'll switch to fast mode to get at least one or two seeds before swithing back to slow and leaving the game for hours again.

Thanks for the tip on Insta-grow for pollination! I'm NOT patient when I'm wanting to see what kind of seed is produced.

Being retired, I have the supreme luxury of immersing myself in games for hours on end if I want to. (Beats the heck out of immersing myself 20/7 in work in the old days!) Once I get the last _bug_ I suspect I'll go slow-mode casual with PT to finish out the charts, while I futz around with something else.

So many books to read, so many games.. so little time. LOL