Hey guys,

I have a "small" question, which could decide if I fail in my playthrough or not^^: "How" should I plant a garden? More specific: I know how to give a tree color a.s.o., this is not my problem. But I don't know how I should "manage" a garden? Should I fill every tree with as much color as I have? And if I don't have enough to fill a tree completely, should I wait until i have enough for it or should I give the tree what I have? Also, what has a higher priority: Giving a sister color or growing the garden? Because I'm afraid that I gave sister "Death" (you know, the nameless sister) too much in the beginning and I should have given more to my garden. Might this be correct? I'd also be happy about every clue you might give me regarding gardens and general clues for beginners in this game (I read the unofficial FAQ though).

I hope for an answer, because I 'd like to understand these things without making 3 playthroughs and fail in every of them to succeed in the fourth^^.

It's really up to you on how you want to play. After a while, you'll find a set-up you enjoy. No matter what advice people give you, you're probably going to die several times

I, personally, do not feed a tree unless I can fill it. I also try to avoid feeding sisters unless I have 100 gold, and 100 violet respectively for trees.
Never plant more color than you need to. I try to use feedings to balance out my color levels. With that said, plant a variety of colors. Do not dedicate a whole garden to one color. You'll end up with too much of that one color in the next cycle, and have nowhere to keep it.
Only fill a sister to her second heart. You will not have to worry about her other hearts until much later.
Worry more about yourself over the sister. She's not going anywhere.
Remember that gardens give less and less each cycle, so don't plant your trees all at once. It'll be great that next cycle, but by the time the trees are close to dead you will barely have enough to survive.
When you're trying to conserve color, do not fill all of your hearts at once. The Void sucks color from ALL of your hearts, and will drain you much faster. It's a much better decision to keep only your Donor heart filled, so that color only ticks away with the seconds.

If you get stuck, don't be afraid to check out the walkthrough: http://faqs.ign.com/articles/105/1057960p1.html

Thank you very much for the many hints. This is what I hoped for and I'm sure that this will help me quite a lot.
When I think of my current amount of color, you might be right with this^^.
I tried to do the feeding with the sisters as well, but I have to admit that I just filled my donor heart. Small question: When I fill several hearts with one color, will its effect, like the better feeding of a sister, be improved more and more? Or can't it be increased over 100%?

I assume that the waiting for 100 violet can be ignored in the beginning, am I right^^? Or can I get some in the beginning? I got my first violet in the 6t cycle or so.
Can you please explain this a little further. I'm not sure if I got what you wanted to tell me, sorry.
Same here^^. Or do you mean that you feed the sisters to balance your colors out, so that you have similar amount of all of them? If yes, then I made something wrong^^. I never had color left in the end of a cycle (I'm just at cycle 7 or so though). Is this normal in the beginning or did I feed sister Death to much? Small question, related to this topic as well, that might help me understand this more: Did I make something wrong if I already opened both hearts of sister Death when the brothers are appearing at the 5th cycle? Did I used too much color on her that I should have put into my garden or was this just right? Because I have not much color by now and I believe I know why...
Good to know. I read something about dying sisters in the FAQ, but this seems to be related to something else then^^.
Should I even stop planting when I have quite some Lympha (This is the color that can be used for glyphes, right? If no, I meant Nerva^^.) left? Or does an additional tree never harm?
Yes, I know. I already learned in the demo that filling all hearts is not wise :p.
Downloaded this yesterday^^. But since I couldn't answer all my questions, I'm here^^.


Thanks again for your answer, also in the other thread!

-- Bright-Warrior

You are correct, the effects of hearts will stack. So if you fill Shell with 25 violet, and your Donor heart with 75 violet, you will have a combined effect of 100% inspiration. However, the effects cannot go over 100% so adding anymore violet would be a waste.
This is correct
You should try to avoid spending ALL of your color on trees. If you spend too much, you won't have enough to feed the sisters. Although staying alive is more important than feeding, if you focus too much on yourself you will have a difficult time with opening hearts.
Yes, I try not to play "favorites" with the colors, so that they don't overpower each other. When I first started the game, I never spent my gold and so that color stopped coming to the void at all
Having both of her hearts opened when the brothers arrive is normal. In the beginning, since there's so little of it, you will end up with hardly any color at the end of a cycle. Once you unlock Ava's chambers, things will start to get easier, as her garden gives great color and she has a mine. Also, violet will start appearing, making trees easier to feed. Thus, less color spent, more color gained
Yes, dying sisters will not come into play until... cycle 20 maybe.
If you are full of a color and having a hard time spending it, then yes. It would be best not to plant a tree in that color. In the beginning, additional trees are fine. However, the more brothers that show up, the harder it becomes to defend your gardens. If you don't have enough room to hold all of that extra color, they'll run around gobbling up your trees
I prefer to dump "excess" color (ie, if I am completely full of Lympha and Nerva) on a sister. She's happy and I have enough room to begin harvesting again.

Also, it's always best to start planning which sister you want to fill all four hearts of from the the beginning. That way, you know which colors you need to give priority to.
Combat based sisters: Una (Azure and Crimson) and Ima (Azure and Emerald)
Sister focused gameplay: Ole (Violet and Gold) and Ire (Amber and Gold)
Emphasis on color: Ava (Violet and Amber), and Echo (Violet and Silver)
The more challenging: Uta (Emerald and Silver), Eli (Crimson and Silver), Aya (Amber and Azure), Yani (Azure and Violet)

I do NOT recommend Sister Death for your first run, as tempting as it might be. Filling her hearts is extremely difficult, and requires intensive planning.

Thanks again for your great explanation, I start to see now how this game is intended to work. However:
Do you mean that the kind of color that I'm using is coming back to the void? So if I'm using very much gold, then there will be a higher amount of gold in the next cycle? If I understand that right, this is a great system^^!
Now this is a tricky question: What^^? I haven't played since some days so I haven't proceeded in the game, but I have no idea what you mean with opening four hearts. Well, I have a slight theory which goes hand in hand with a trailer of this game that I once saw and which was full of spoilers... So, let's just stick with the fact that I'll have to open four hearts of a sister. No more notes on this please, I want no spoilers^^.
But I have one question regarding this and I ask you to answer it in a way that contains no spoilers. If this is not really possible, please don't answer this question :p. But what do you mean with "combat based sisters", "sister focused gameplay", "emphasis on color" a.s.o.? Though I can guess what you mean with the "more challenging"^^. This means that it'll be hard to fill all four hearts of them, correct?
Darn^^.

This is correct
Well, lets just leave it at that a sister has more than two hearts, and a brother will get angry if you open more
"Combat based" will give you an edge for the fighting in the game, "sister focused" will make it easier to open hearts, and "emphasis on color" will make color easier to collect and more plentiful in the Void. It comes down to the effects color has (i.e: Gold increases Trust, making hearts easier to fill).
And yes, the more challenging Sisters will not give you any sort of gameplay benefit.
To simplify it a bit, Ava requires the colors Amber(Metabolism) and Violet(Inspiration). Violet reduces the amount of color needed to feed the trees, so gardens will be easier to grow. Metabolism will convert color faster in the Void, so you'll have more casting color(Nerva). With these two traits combined, you can see that it will be very easy for you to have plentiful amounts of Color, both Lympha and Nerva, throughout the game. Thus, I label her as a Color based Sister.

Does this make more sense?

Thanks again for your answer!
Yes, this way it becomes a shoe^^. This is a nice German saying which means as much as: Now it makes sense^^.


I have two last questions (or at least I hope so^^):

1) Sister Death told me that I should kill all the predators in her chambers because their presence would make the brothers angry. But I read that it'd be more clever if I'd avoid them, because they're reappearing anyway. Should I generally fight them or should I just leave them be if they don't disturb me? I also read in the FAQ that I should fight them the right way, because I'd need much color for them otherwise. But, well... how can I fight them the right way^^? I mean, I can't do more but drop color on them, which sure costs a lot of Nerva (the color you can actually use, which is Nerva I hope^^). Or is there another way to defeat them?

2) ... darn, I forgot my second question^^. When I remember it, I'll just edit my post here^^. Sorry, I just slipped through my mind^^.

I recommend you kill the original predators if only to get a feel for it, but generally, you want to avoid them rather than kill them, but it is often cheaper to kill them than to get hit.

The exception to this are blobmagnets which will usually drop silver of roughly the same amount it takes to kill them.