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In this game, you are a plant trying to grow tall and flower. Growing branches costs energy, and you need leaves to photosynthesize and get energy. If the plant gets too spindly, it might bend and snap. To avoid this, you can strengthen its lower branches. To protect your leaves from bugs, you can deploy your chemical defenses.
To begin, switch to new branch mode by pressing N. Move your cursor near the seed (the brown dot near the bottom of the game screen to the left of these instructions) until it is highlighted. Then click and move the cursor to choose where the new branch should grow. Click again to grow the branch.
Tip: balance-wise, it's usually best to grow the first branch straight upward.
After adding branches, you can add leaves and start photosynthesizing. Switch to new leaf mode by pressing L and click where to grow leaves.
Tips: (1) each branch supports only so much; if it has a lot of leaves, it can't grow new branches and vice versa. (2) hold shift to add as many leaves as possible to a single branch with one click. (3) hold control to add as many leaves as possible to a single branch and all its child branches with one click.
Once you have leaves, bugs will start to fly down and eat them. To defend your leaves from bugs, switch to defense mode by pressing D and click the leaves you want to defend.
Tip: the defense doesn't last forever, so keep an eye out!
You can also defend your leaves by spawning "helper bugs" to eat them. To do this, switch to helper bug mode by predding H and click where the helper bug should spawn
If a branch bends too far, it will snap. To avoid this, you can switch to strengthen mode by pressing S and click the branch you want to strengthen.
Tip: it's usually best to have a strong core "trunk" that stretches straight upward.
Once the tip of your plant reaches flowering height and you have 1000 energy points, you can switch to flower mode by pressing F and click the highest point on the plant. This is the win condition! My best time is about 6.5 minutes. Can you beat it?