20 points to simplify The Fifth Gate for you:
1. The Help pages (accessed from the main menu) explain the story and the game. During the game, simple tutorials introduce new concepts.
2. Keep the water jug filled at all times to avoid losing plants. Use the fountain / Dewdrop plant whenever available to save money.
3. Hold off watering plants as long as possible to save water, since once the day is over, plants requiring water are automatically replenished.
4. Upgrade the flower holder capacity first, then the fountain.
5. Though the game doesn't have chaining bonuses, it is quicker to do similar activities together: collect flowers in a continuous bunch and water needy plants sequentially (that way they will also be synchronised in their future water requirement).
6. Each potion requires a combination of flowers in various quantities. Green means fully available counts, orange means partial availability, and red means unavailable.
7. Be careful not to sell off the quest potions.
8. If space permits in the harvest holder, save flowers for potions instead of selling them individually, as potions earn more money.
9. Potions can also be made partially depending on available flowers, which keeps the harvest holder free.
10. A plant produces flower variants at random. In case Morgana wants high numbers of a particular variant, grow enough of that plant to ensure you get the adequate number of blooms in the given time.
11. Newly planted saplings need certain rounds of harvesting before they can produce complex flowers, so plants must be kept from dehydrating or being eaten by critters especially towards the later levels when complex potions require the upgraded variants of blooms.
12. The clock ticks loudly to indicate the last 5 seconds i.e. the 'end of the day' - listen for it and once it starts, collects blooms instead of killing critters or watering plants (unless of course, a plant is on the brink of dehydration).
13. Be extra careful of pests that 'pause' - boring beetles, salamanders, stone golems, spiders, hedgehogs - only to emerge a few moments later and continue chomping!
14. Some critters move quickly or fly, and are difficult to click on. Wait till they attach to a plant (note the green health meter of the plant) and click rapidly to kill them.
15. Some critters are poisonous - stone golems, wasps, toads - and if clicked when they're radiating their green aura will cause the cursor to freeze for 2 seconds, which sounds like very little time but is actually quite disturbing.
16. Given that the total number of plant beds are limited, an ideal mix of 'helper' plants would be:
a) During the starting levels of a garden, when cash is scarce but so are pests: 1 Dewdrop near the water jug and 1 Pest Magnet near the edge.
b) During the later levels of a garden, when cash is plenty and spells are available: 2 Pest Magnets at the garden's edges, 1 Fertiliser plant in the central area (surrounded by at least 3 - 4 plants).
c) Use the Butterfly plant only for quests requiring quick plant upgrades.
d) Avoid the Power plant in case Harvest and Rain spells are available.
17. Of the spells, first purchase Rain, since dehydration kills plants.
18. When cash permits, use Rain + Harvest spells. Put a Fertiliser plant in the middle of the garden, then use Harvest to gather all blooms.
19. The Pest Killing spell isn't required if the garden already has at least one Pest Magnet plant.
20. For the later levels, the garden should have at least 3 of each plant type. Sell off extra plants / change helper plants based on quests.
Good Luck!
This is an original Tips & Tricks written by me. Please do not distribute the text and images without my written consent.
