Thistle Guide

Overview

One thistle seed is used per planting, and water, dung, and saltpeter can be added at various times throughout the growing process to help produce the desired type of vitamins.

The growing period is 40 ticks of 10 teppyseconds each, so thistles take roughly 8 minutes per batch to grow. The yield is 5 thistles of varying vitamin levels and 2 seeds. Only the vitamins present in tick 40 determine the final result. Aborting the process early yields no thistles or seeds.

The three symbols used to represent vitamins levels are:

-	Low	≤ 20
~	Average	> 20, < 80
+	High	≥ 80

So a Thistle: A-B+C-F+N~P~T- is produced when the batch finishes with 80+ Bio and Fol, 20- Asc Car and Thi, and levels of Nia and Pyr somewhere between 21 and 79. The exact numbers do not matter for the final product: all thistles with the same set of symbols are identical.

Process

During each tick, the garden has levels of 4 nutrients, sunlight, and 7 vitamins. The levels are represented by decimal numbers between 0 and 99, though they are displayed as integers.

The garden automatically starts with 50 each of Nit, Pot, H2O, and Oxy. These drop by 10 each tick, and each click of their button adds 20. Clicking Nit, Pot, or H2O consumes one deben of dung, saltpeter or water from your inventory.

Sunlight can be only partially controlled: clicking the Sun button toggles the position of the shade. When the shade is closed, it reduces the sunlight to 1/3rd of the open position. Sunlight is 0 at night, 99 during broad daylight, and smoothly changes between 5:20-9:00am and 3:00-6:40pm.

There are 21 possible conversions of which some (usually 1-5) are inactive for a game week. The inactive ones are typically called "voids", and change at the same time as the fresh leaves. There are 3 conversions for producing each of the 7 vitamins; depending on levels of each of water, oxygen, or sunlight.

All conversions follow the rule that 10 of one thing produces a certain amount of another. Whenever there's more than 10 of the required nutrient available, only 10 is used. When there is less than 10, all of it is used and the amount of product is proportionally smaller. The reactions proceed in order of the vitamin being created. Within those, they proceed in order of the substance being converted.

If the condition (water, oxygen, or sunlight) is not met at the end of the previous tick, the conversion does not proceed. As a consequence of the sunlight conditions, time of day is quite important when growing thistles. Full daylight is necessary for some recipes, with sufficient sunlight only available between 8:10am and 3:50pm.

Conversions table

H2O > 79 10 Nit → 3.33 Asc	Oxy < 49 10 Car → 5 Asc	Sun > 69 10 Fol → 20 Asc
Sun < 20 10 Pot → 2.5 Bio	H2O < 29 10 Asc → 20 Bio	Oxy > 89 10 Pyr → 10 Bio
Oxy > 69 10 Pot → 3.33 Car	Sun > 79 10 Asc → 10 Car	H2O < 39 10 Thi → 20 Car
Sun > 69 10 Pot → 2.5 Fol	H2O < 59 10 Nia → 30 Fol	Oxy < 49 10 Thi → 20 Fol
Sun < 20 10 Asc → 20 Nia	H2O > 69 10 Pyr → 5 Nia	Oxy < 39 10 Thi → 10 Nia
H2O < 39 10 Nit → 3.33 Pyr	Sun > 59 10 Car → 10 Pyr	Oxy > 79 10 Fol → 20 Pyr
Sun < 40 10 Asc → 10 Thi	Oxy < 49 10 Car → 20 Thi	H2O < 49 10 Nia → 5 Thi

Strategies

<to be completed>