Groveheart Online

Beginner's guide

Welcome to the grove! This guide gets you from your first step in the Starter Village to your first party, nest and Story Gate win. You can play right away in your browser at play.groveheart.online - press Play now, no sign-up needed - or with the Android app or the Windows client.

Controls

On a phone or tablet (turn it sideways for the best view):

• Drag the joystick at the bottom left to run, or tap the ground to walk there.
• Tap a monster to attack it, or press the big attack button to hit the nearest one.
• Tap a character to talk to them, or press the hand button to talk to the nearest one or pick up an item nearby. Most items are picked up as you walk over them.
• The six round buttons are your skills and the small slots your items: put a skill or an item there from the Skills window or the Bag.
• Tap another player to whisper, invite them to your party or nest, trade or battle with Begle cards.
• In Settings you can switch to left-handed controls (joystick on the right), turn on auto attack or turn off tap to walk.

On a PC (in the browser):

• WASD or the arrow keys move, Space attacks, Tab picks the next monster, E talks or picks up.
• 1-6 use your skills, 7-0 your items, Enter opens the chat.
• B bag, C character, K skills, Q quests, M world map, P party, N nest, Z sit down or stand up, Esc menu.

You can always find this list in the game's menu.

Choosing a class

You choose your class when you make your character, and it stays with you. All six can play alone or in a party, so pick the one you like the look of:

• Fencer - swords and spears; balanced attack and defence. Raises Strength.
• Fighter - fists and gloves; tough and always in the front line. Raises Strength.
• Thief - pistols and throwing daggers; quick, with many critical hits. Raises Dexterity.
• Archer - bows, crossbows and slingshots; strikes from a distance. Raises Dexterity.
• Summoner - staves and forest magic; strong spells. Raises Wisdom.
• Dancer - bells and dances that heal and strengthen the party. Raises Wisdom.

Thieves and Archers carry bullets or arrows in their off hand: buy more at the Combat Shop before you run out. Summoner and Dancer weapons are sold at the Magic Shop.

Your first steps

Every hero starts in the Starter Village with a weapon, some Garu and a few healing items. A Getting started card shows five small steps - walk around, meet Toto, finish your first quest, win a fight and use an item - and each Go button shows you the way.

1. Talk to Toto, the village guide, right where you start. His first quest sends you to meet Puko (Combat Shop) and Armand (General Store), and pays you healing Seeds and Dews.
2. Head south into Sprout Meadow for Toto's next quest: Kkumuri, Stronghorns and Thorn Caterpillars are perfect first fights.
3. Keep taking quests from the people in the village (the quest window, Q, shows what is next). They pay well in EXP and Garu.
4. Heal up: Seeds restore HP and Dews restore MP. Put them on an item slot so they are one tap away, or sit down to recover faster. Toto heals you for free until level 10.
5. Around level 7, Toto asks you to carry a letter to the Mushroom Village: the start of the wider world.

Falling in battle is no disaster: you come back in the nearest village with half your HP, and you lose no EXP and no items.

Where to level

The road leads south from the Starter Village. Most monsters leave you alone until you strike first, but some attack on sight - Jwimanul in Green Valley is the first.

• Sprout Meadow - level 1 to 4
• Green Valley - level 4 to 8
• Mushroom Village - your next home, with its own shops and quests for level 10 to 16
• Mushroom Grove (south of it) - level 10 to 12
• Toadstool Woods (west of the Grove) - level 14 to 18
• Then on to the Desert, Lake and Millennium Tree villages, with dungeons for parties.

Kodo the Traveler, next to Toto, can take you straight to a village you are ready for, for a few hundred Garu.

Stats and skills

Each level makes you stronger by itself and also gives you 3 stat points and 1 skill point. A badge on the Character and Skills buttons tells you when you have points to spend.

• Strength - physical attack (Fencer, Fighter)
• Dexterity - hitting, dodging and critical hits (Thief, Archer)
• Wisdom - magic attack (Summoner, Dancer)
• Vitality - HP and defence
• Spirit - MP and magic defence

New skills are taught by the Skill Masters: Rodan stands beside Toto in the Starter Village. They ask for Begle cards rather than Garu - one card for an early skill, more for later ones. Use your skill points to raise the level of the skills you have learned, then put them on your skill buttons.

Begle cards

Monsters sometimes leave a Begle card behind. Cards fill your Card Book, pay the Skill Masters for new skills, and make a deck for card battles: a quick game of rock-paper-scissors against other players. Tap a player to challenge them or to trade. Your cards are in the Bag's Cards tab.

Story Gates

Story Gates are short mini-games with other players, open from the menu wherever you are. Some you play together, others are races where everyone plays for the top spot: an OX quiz, bubble contests, a dumpling hunt, an escape, and for higher levels the Summoning Room and the Ant Prison. Many are open from level 1, they give EXP, Garu and sometimes rare cards, and the top three win win points for the weekly rankings.

Parties and nests

• Party: up to 6 players. EXP from kills is shared among the members on the same map, and the bigger the party, the bigger the bonus - up to 2.6 times the EXP with six.
• Nest: Groveheart's guilds, with up to 50 members and their own chat. From level 10 you can found one for 10,000 Garu, or ask a friend to invite you.
• You can also duel friends (nobody loses anything) and send mail with Garu and items, even when they are offline.

Garu and shops

Garu is the grove's money. Monsters drop it, quests and daily tasks pay it, and every shop buys the items you no longer need. Each village has a Combat Shop (weapons, armour, ammunition), a Magic Shop, a General Store, a Trade Shop and a Warehouse, where you can keep spare items and Garu for free. Shops also repair worn gear.

Every day in the grove

• Daily reward: claim it once a day for a 7-day streak, from 300 Garu on day 1 to 2,000 Garu and a Blessing Card on day 7. Miss a day and the streak starts again.
• Daily tasks: three new tasks for your level every day - a hunt, a Story Gate round and one more - each paid the moment it is done, with a bonus for all three.
• Weekly rankings: the three players with the most Story Gate win points each week win Garu every Monday.
• Weekend events: every weekend brings one of double EXP, double win points, lucky drops or a Begle card hunt. They are announced on our Discord.

The day starts at 00:00 UTC.

Keep your character

When you start with Play now, your character is kept for 7 days. Save it any time to a free Groot ID (the button on the top bar shows how many days are left) to keep it for good. Saving also unlocks chat, trading, mail and nests, and lets you play the same character on the web, on Android and on Windows.

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