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[CrapSandwich]

Fertilizer is confounding me. Seems random whether I fertilize properly on the first try, or the sixth try. Can't figure out what the trick is. Any of yous guys know?

 

[Mr Jared]

I need to physically stop myself from playing anymore at this point. I have work I have to do ;___;

I will say this though. . . Viva Pinata has not left my 360 since it's initial entry.

Take that, bald space marines.

 

[White Man]

Can someone give a detailed explanation of fertilizer use? I'd like to get into actual farming.

 

[purg3]

Info on fertilizer and what it the different colors are for can be found here

http://pinataisland.info/index.php?title=Fertilizer

 

[goldenpp72]

Sure. The fertilizer is colored cooridinated to the seeds usually, so like a chili seed which is red, you use red fertilizer on. The general rule is you dump it on the plant 3 times at any point and it will have its maximum growth potential by the time it finishes growing.

The other cool thing is you can posistion plants in a way that you hit multiple plants with one shot of fertilzer, I made like 20 chili beans really close together and was able to hit 4 of them at a time, saving a lot of time and money.

When its raining, the plants dont seem to need watering as well, so doing profit planting is best during the rain.

Also, overwatering them kills the plant, and not going to high allows them to grow faster.

Anything else?

 

[goldenpp72]

I have 3 more things to master in garden before im done.. the hazel nut tree (which im messing with now, I think I know how to do it) and the blackberry boosh and water leak, or whatever that was called. Anyone know how to do those?

 

[White Man]

Sure. The fertilizer is colored cooridinated to the seeds usually, so like a chili seed which is red, you use red fertilizer on. The general rule is you dump it on the plant 3 times at any point and it will have its maximum growth potential by the time it finishes growing.

The other cool thing is you can posistion plants in a way that you hit multiple plants with one shot of fertilzer, I made like 20 chili beans really close together and was able to hit 4 of them at a time, saving a lot of time and money.

When its raining, the plants dont seem to need watering as well, so doing profit planting is best during the rain.

Also, overwatering them kills the plant, and not going to high allows them to grow faster.

Anything else?

Ooooooooh, I thought using red fertilizer on something would make it turn red!

Thanks!

 

[Timedog]

how do you make medicene?

 

[Tieno]

Another nice blogpost from John Davison
Reviewing Viva Pinata - part two of several

OK...so I've been plugging through the game all weekend (when my boys weren't insisting on watching the Cars DVD,) so here are some more pre-review thoughts, plus answers to questions people have lobbed at me.

Mo_Hawk asked what I think a lot of you have been wanting to, "How is it fun?" The easiest way to answer that is to compare it to The Sims as it shares a lot of gameplay ideas. You're spending your entire time affecting the moods and emotions of a group of creatures, and you're mostly doing this by manipulating their environment. Instead of giving them a nice bedroom, an expensive toaster, and telling them when to go poop as you would in The Sims, you're giving them plants they like to eat, and landscaping they can frolic around. Does this mean its repetitive and mundane? Absolutely not.

Early on, I have to admit that I was playing it a bit safe. My initial inclination was to treat the garden and everything in it as absolutely sacred, so I'd tend to every whim, and focus on the happy balance of every critter. I even named everyone (good for an Achievement) and started noticing behavior patterns that I could take advantage of. Belligerent omniscience, I think you could call it. This lasted for the first four or five hours, and while it worked - there soon came a point where something more...belligerent was necessary.

It all started when I leveled up to a point that my garden's boundaries were expanded out in all directions. For some reason this coincided with all hell breaking loose among the pinatas. Previously friendly critters like young Mickey Mousemallow started turning into complete assholes and picking fights with anything higher up the foodchain. In Mickey's case this means just about anything, and his first altercation was with Squinky, an otherwise friendly Squazzil that Jared had gifted me through the game's internal critter-mailing system. Apparently when a Mousemallow takes on a Squazzil, the Squazzil invariably wins...so I was soon forging a fond and financially lucrative (for him) relationship with Doctor Patchingo, who I had to ask to fix up poor Mickey every ten minutes or so. It wasn't just him causing trouble though, before I knew it there was crazy shit going on all over the place. Raisants were inexplicably picking fights with Buzzlegums, while most shockingly my new best buddy, Pretzel the Pretztail (he looks like a big fox, he's really kinda cool) picked a humdinger of a punch-up with Steve, Squinky's brother/partner/lover from the ever-growing Squazzil faction that was occupying the southeast corner of the garden. Needless to say, it was getting out of hand.

(Pretzel kicked Steve's ass, by the way.)

It was at this point I started to wonder what could be done. The manual suggests "pouring water on them to calm them down" but I fast came to the conclusion that this idea was a load of bollocks. Invariably the only option was a swift whack with a shovel, and even that wasn't a guaranteed deterrent. There came a point (after the Pretzel tiff) where Steve became such a problem that I ended up selling him. I felt awful about it. My first failure. The Squazzil population probably hated me for it. Soon after though, there was a game-changing moment when Leafos started to warn me that my personal pinata Eden was too full. Wait. What? How is that even possible? Aren't I supposed to nurture life indefinitely?

Nope.

I'd been concerned that I was having a bit of a cashflow problem for a while. Partly due to Patchingo's exorbitant rates (there's no pinata HMO,) and partly due to the crappy market value of hazlenuts and apples (the only produce I seemed to be reliably growing, or manufacturing) this mini crisis meant that I only ever seemed to have a hundred or so chocolate coins at my disposal. This meant I couldn't buy the much-needed Macaraccoon hut (another critter gift from Jared) to ensure young Ricky would stick around, nor could I spruce the garden up with any frivolous features to increase it's overall value. When I sold Steve, everything changed. With a thousand chocolate coins at my disposal, the metaphorical lightbulb thing happened. Ooooooh you don't need to keep them all happy indefinitely, you can just try and keep your favorite and exploit the rest of them.

I am now enjoying the trappings of the immense riches gleaned from selling pinatas that are surplus to requirement. My Whirlm population has been absolutely decimated, and new arrivals of their kind are no longer given names; they're simply numbered. At 100 coins a pop, they're not particularly valuable, but they're easy to attract (they just need dirt) and easy to encourage to procreate. They've become a way to breed currency.

Does that make me evil? What does my willingness to enslave an entire race for financial gain say about me?

 

[Mr Jared]

Every Pinata I send to people ends up fighting everything. . John. . My girlfriend. . I raise horrible monsters

 

[CrapSandwich]

A few observations on fertilizer:

1. Color is tied to the color of the plant, not the seed. Carrot has a brown seed, but uses orange fertilizer. This holds true for everything so far.

2. Everything needs 3 shots of fertilizer for maximum growth.

3. Trees and bushes require fertilizing at specific growth intervals, everything else can be given a triple shot immediately after planting.

 

[PizzaFarmer]

wtf, when that kid come to kill my sick pinates i try swwatting him with my shovel but it no do any damage =\

That is Dastardos. You can delay him using at least the two following methods. There are more

1. Buy the Dastardos shield head from Ivor's shop. You can now whack Dastardos in the head to delay him from reaching your sick pinata.

2. Buy the Dastardos scarer statue from Ivor's shop. It makes the delay longer before Destardos can enter your garden.

I have another problem. Visitors or whatever get sick and I don't get a heal option for them.. They just stay there doing nothing, one was there for 3 real life hours and I got sick of it and beat him to death :lol Anything else I could do to help it or whatever?

Yeah, it's sad. Beating them to death is also the only way I know to "fix" them.

 

[Timedog]

A few observations on fertilizer:

1. Color is tied to the color of the plant, not the seed. Carrot has a brown seed, but uses orange fertilizer. This holds true for everything so far.

2. Everything needs 3 shots of fertilizer for maximum growth.

3. Trees and bushes require fertilizing at specific growth intervals, everything else can be given a triple shot immediately after planting.

oh yeah, i was wondering why it would only let me do 1 shot of fertilizer on some stuff. cool.

Please someone tell me how to make medicene.

 

[PizzaFarmer]

oh yeah, i was wondering why it would only let me do 1 shot of fertilizer on some stuff. cool.

Please someone tell me how to make medicene.

Buy honey from the shop (produce section) or get your buzzlegums to make it.

Then hire the tinkerer to tinker with the honey. He will transform it into a bottle of medicine.

 

[Orodreth]

Given that i can´t join the game party yet, here are some great shots showing the dirty and not so dirty Rare Humour:

Also, I took a few random screenshots yesterday. Possible spoilers, so click at your own risk:

-Leafos likes GBTG. (I went out of my way to look for this after Mark said something about it.)

-The Banjo team can't keep sexual innuendo out of their games, can they? (Don't even get me started on the texture of honey and how the hive shoots honey out of top.)

And here i remember Shane comments on 1upyours about being all cuteness and nothing like Conker.

-These look familiar...

-...and here's the pi?ata that needs them.

-"Every girl's crazy about a sharp-dressed mole!"

-Is this what I think it is?

-The "Bird and Bear Statue," as the game calls it.

edit: Looking forward to more blogposts from John & the final review.

 

[Aaronology]

The little pre-romance game really annoys me. It's not fun or entertaining for me. It throws off the feel of the game and I've come to dislike it almost to the point where breeding feels like a hassle. It's my only issue with Viva so far.


Speaking of romance, the doenut's dance is so awesome. Easily the best out of all the pinatas I've mated so far. I wish there was a way to replay it.

 

[dskillzhtown]

I have a question, is anyone else having plenty of graphical issues with this game?

Mainly houses being built and are invisible? My gf was playing last night and this happened over and over again. I am wondering is my 360 about to kick the bucket or if this is something that is a problem with the game itself.

 

[Aponi]

Speaking of romance, the doenut's dance is so awesome. Easily the best out of all the pinatas I've mated so far. I wish there was a way to replay it.

Actually, I think if you go to the encyclopedia's entry for the species, you can replay the romance dance.

 

[Blimblim]

I should get my review copy tonight, I'll do some videos asap

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I should get my review copy tonight, I'll do some videos asap

Thank you.

 

[Speevy]

I have a question, is anyone else having plenty of graphical issues with this game?

Mainly houses being built and are invisible? My gf was playing last night and this happened over and over again. I am wondering is my 360 about to kick the bucket or if this is something that is a problem with the game itself.

Yeah it's definitely not supposed to do that. The game transparifies things when you bring the cursor right over them, but no invisible houses.

However, it might not be your 360 either. Start a new garden and see if the problem continues.

 

[dskillzhtown]

Yeah it's definitely not supposed to do that. The game transparifies things when you bring the cursor right over them, but no invisible houses.

However, it might not be your 360 either. Start a new garden and see if the problem continues.

I did some searching on 360/Viva boards. Seems the problem is becoming a familiar one. There are pinatas disappearing as well. I started a new garden and the problem was actually worse. I am going to try to hold down 'a' to clear the cache as the game starts and hope it fixes the problem.

 

[IJoel]

I... I played more last night and was able to get to level 20. Essentially if your garden is too full, new piñatas won't come, so in that case, just get rid of the ones you don't care about anymore.

On another thought... the game is digital crack. It's sooooooo easy to let the hours pass by while playing it. Oh, and another thing, it's such the game to draw 'oohs' and 'aahs' from people when new piñatas show up. Those evil

Spoiler

cinnamonkeys showed up last night and I... I was all 'zomg MONKEYS!'

 

[lix2k3]

It's funny ... I'm playing this game more than GOW. Go figure. It's surprisingly fun, addictive, and challenging.

 

[Speevy]

I did some searching on 360/Viva boards. Seems the problem is becoming a familiar one. There are pinatas disappearing as well. I started a new garden and the problem was actually worse. I am going to try to hold down 'a' to clear the cache as the game starts and hope it fixes the problem.

Yeah, definitely do. I'm not damage controlling the game by any means. I've just never heard of this. The important thing is that your game works right.

If you bought it at EBGamestop, you can do an exchange for another copy.

 

[lix2k3]

If anyone wants to send me one of these scarecrow things for the sour shellybeans or sherbats, I'm all for it. I can't seem to get rid of these things.

Gamertag: SportsUnit

 

[Dr_Cogent]

Just picked this game up. If it sucks, you will all pay dearly :lol

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Is there any place that sells this game in a normal DVD case? I may have to wait instead of going out and getting it today.

 

[Orodreth]

Thanks in advance for the videos, BlimBlim.

Just picked this game up. If it sucks, you will all pay dearly :lol

haha, i think you would be the first gaffer dissapointed with the game. Anyone who tried it is hooked

Is there any place that sells this game in a normal DVD case? I may have to wait instead of going out and getting it today.

In play-asia both versions seem to be available. Tomorrow should say if its region free.

 

[dskillzhtown]

Yeah, definitely do. I'm not damage controlling the game by any means. I've just never heard of this. The important thing is that your game works right.

If you bought it at EBGamestop, you can do an exchange for another copy.

I didn't think you were doing damage control and it might just be a case of a defective copy of the game actually. I enjoy the game, just want it to work correctly. I e-mailed Rare and hoping for a response.

 

[Dr_Cogent]

Is there any place that sells this game in a normal DVD case? I may have to wait instead of going out and getting it today.

Uh, I don't see how any place would have this in different packaging at all. Maybe if the game becomes a Platinum Edition sometime in the far off future.

 

[sammy]

I picked mine up yesterday ---- have been going through a few days (tutorial)

it hasn't hooked me yet, but i can see this game getting crazy addicting ------ i'm still juggling the shops - not to mention other games (FF:XII, Gears) .... but this one's a great break from all those.

how many hours in before it really takes off?

 

[Speevy]

how many hours in before it really takes off?

There's no telling. The game picks up based on how well you're doing. So you might spend a lot of time with the same pinatas, then a few level-ups causes tons more to appear, which breaks the game wide open for a while, but then after a while of managing and leveling up, your progress slows. It depends on what you put into it, but the game always finds some way to reward you.

 

[SaggyMonkey]

Has anyone run across the guide for this game yet in stores? I checked best buy/eb and barnes and noble out here and didn't see it.

I have to be really careful starting up Viva, it seems like you can do all these little things and before you know it you've been in the game for 4 hours. It never feels like much.. ok i'm just going to mate these two, then i'm going to dig a pond over here, oops i should water that plant, ah crap what's my Pretztail eating now...? It seems like simple little moves you're making, but there's always one more thing to require your attention.

 

[Vark]

I picked mine up yesterday ---- have been going through a few days (tutorial)

it hasn't hooked me yet, but i can see this game getting crazy addicting ------ i'm still juggling the shops - not to mention other games (FF:XII, Gears) .... but this one's a great break from all those.

how many hours in before it really takes off?

Once you get past the insect based pinata it really takes off. Things seem to open up rather quickly from that point on and the options that you have to work with grow exponentially.

 

[Tieno]

Has anyone run across the guide for this game yet in stores? I checked best buy/eb and barnes and noble out here and didn't see it.

I have to be really careful starting up Viva, it seems like you can do all these little things and before you know it you've been in the game for 4 hours. It never feels like much.. ok i'm just going to mate these two, then i'm going to dig a pond over here, oops i should water that plant, ah crap what's my Pretztail eating now...? It seems like simple little moves you're making, but there's always one more thing to require your attention.

Rare didn't want to do a guide

We decided not to publish a guide at launch as we didn't want to remove the 'discovery' aspect of the game. This, for us, is what makes the game fun and so addictive. We like seeing people sharing their findings on forums like this though. Enjoy!

http://www.vivapinataforum.com/showpost.php?p=6747&postcount=19

 

[sportzhead]

If anyone wants to send me one of these scarecrow things for the sour shellybeans or sherbats, I'm all for it. I can't seem to get rid of these things.

Gamertag: SportsUnit

All you have to do is "tame" one, and your problems will be solved. I believe for the Shellyberry you need it to eat an apple seed, and the Sherbat needs to eat a jack-o-lantern.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Alright before I head out the door, is there any deals online or offline to help me get this cheaper?

Right now, my best bet is this 5 bucks worth of Best Buy bucks from Mc Donalds and a gamers gift card (which I think still knocks off 5 bucks).



Edit: Found a 5 dollar best buy gift card I earned.lol Hehehehe......Best buy it is!

 

[Mr Jared]

Does anyone know how to start up factory challenges? All I've ever gotten is the initial challenge and thats it.

If anyone wants to send me one of these scarecrow things for the sour shellybeans or sherbats, I'm all for it. I can't seem to get rid of these things.

Those guys require a birdbath to be in your garden. Just watch out. . Moozipans will drink out of it and just keel over sick instantly.

 

[IJoel]

Sour candy piñatas need to DIE!

*looks around menacingly with shovel in hand*

 

[Orodreth]

Reading elsewhere about an epic and at the same time sad encounter between a wild fox and 2 poor little bunnies called "toby" and "usagi 2" ( will use that name xD ) which had some accesories put on got me to think if the rpg aspect may go as deep as to modify stats for the individual creatures if they are wearing or have eaten specific items.

So, are there only general states (healthy, sick,..) & general stats that depend only on the kind of species involved or does for example wearing a helmet affects the resistance/defense of a concrete piñata?

 

[Aaronology]

Actually, I think if you go to the encyclopedia's entry for the species, you can replay the romance dance.

Awesome, thanks.

 

[heavy liquid]

I just bought the game last night at Target. It was definitely on a whim, but I couldn't pass it up after the good reviews and $10 gift card.

I was only able to put in about an hour and a half last night, but it was fun and strangely addictive. I think I'm on level 3 or 4... somewhere around there.

Is there any advice that the Pinata pros can give a newbie for land and pinata management? I've read a lot of stories about people starting over when their pinatas all start fighting. Is this from having too many pinatas, and not focusing on just a few?

 

[PizzaFarmer]

Does anyone know how to start up factory challenges? All I've ever gotten is the initial challenge and thats it.

You don't choose when they start. Pinata Central chooses when to send requests.

The requests arrive throughout the game. Seems to be roughly every hour of real time or so.

 

[Vark]

I just bought the game last night at Target. It was definitely on a whim, but I couldn't pass it up after the good reviews and $10 gift card.

I was only able to put in about an hour and a half last night, but it was fun and strangely addictive. I think I'm on level 3 or 4... somewhere around there.

Is there any advice that the Pinata pros can give a newbie for land and pinata management? I've read a lot of stories about people starting over when their pinatas all start fighting. Is this from having too many pinatas, and not focusing on just a few?

Yea, the tendency is to get all these new pinatas in your garden and to try and keep them all. You're better off focusing on a few at a time and selling off ones you don't need. They're very easy to re-attract / buy once you've gotten them once, so don't worry about it.

 

[platypotamus]

Thanks to whoever it was who sent me Keys the Kittyfloss yesterday... but unfortunately, this tale ends tragically.

I decided to try and breed Kittyfloss, so I acquired one of my own, and satisfied the first two (outrageously expensive for me) requirements: they both ate a ball of wool and drank a jar of milk

Was working on breeding Mousemallows to finish things off, and had just set up a fenced in enclosure when I get the alert "Keys is despresed."

Unfortunately, this isn't a warning that you need to cheer him up, this was a notice that he was leaving my garden! WTF! No warning whatsoever he's just gone. That bummed me out, since he had been a gift AND I had invested a lot of money into romancing him already.

Was there some earlier warning that I missed, or do I have to do a better job at babysitting?

Hope Princess Slimy is working out a bit better for my benefactor!

On a totally unrelated note: Squazzils (sp?) seem to be great for romancing for cash. I attracted two residents without even really trying just with one hazelnut tree. Checked out their romance requirements, and they just need to eat blackberries (which I have a bush of already). The first one hasn't hatched yet (this was the last thing I did before I went to sleep last night), but I think they sell for good money.

Oh, and one other unrelated note:

SPEEVY, do you think you could edit the first post and start up (slash maintain) a list of viva pinata gamertags? The thread is getting a bit long for people to search through for tags. Mine is bonbu.

 

[PizzaFarmer]

If you're having problems with fights in your garden, try buying the Red Eye Rainbow from Ivor's shop.

It'll fruit up your garden, for sure, but its description page says that it relaxes the pinatas.

If the above didn't make any sense to you, try being really generous to a certain annoying bearded beggar walking through your garden.

 

[Captain N]

If anyone wants a Pigxie just let me know and be sure to send me 7200..you'll get a secret achievement that only two people have right now.

 

[Aaronology]

Thanks to whoever it was who sent me Keys the Kittyfloss yesterday... but unfortunately, this tale ends tragically.

I decided to try and breed Kittyfloss, so I acquired one of my own, and satisfied the first two (outrageously expensive for me) requirements: they both ate a ball of wool and drank a jar of milk

Was working on breeding Mousemallows to finish things off, and had just set up a fenced in enclosure when I get the alert "Keys is despresed."

Unfortunately, this isn't a warning that you need to cheer him up, this was a notice that he was leaving my garden! WTF! No warning whatsoever he's just gone. That bummed me out, since he had been a gift AND I had invested a lot of money into romancing him already.

Was there some earlier warning that I missed, or do I have to do a better job at babysitting?

Hope Princess Slimy is working out a bit better for my benefactor!

Yeah, Princess Slimy is doing fine, Bonbu. Sorry to hear it didn't work out on your end, though. Poor Keys, snatched away from home and family and plunked into an unfamiliar garden. That was my first native Kittyfloss, too. Oh well! I'll send you some chocolate to recoup the cost of trying to breed them, ok?

Kittyflosses are my main pinata right now, along with Doenuts (my favorite pinata so far!), and I've several others. So it's no biggie. If you want, I could send you another later on, too.



Edit: I just imagined Keys slowly prancing down a road with the old Hulk tv series theme playing in the background. :lol


Oh, and my gamertag: Intertron.

 

[Mr Jared]

If anyone wants a Pigxie just let me know and be sure to send me 7200..you'll get a secret achievement that only two people have right now.

Gamertag plz :O Mine is the same as my GAF name.