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Massive (400 ) Sunflower Guide
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Jordan and Fairy 'Nuff4 years, 9 months ago

I was asked many times recently about how to get a massive sunflower (400 ), this post will discuss my personal methods and will hopefully clear some drama/myths surrounding the whole thing.

Getting massive sunflowers is easier than ever thanks to the introduction of Birthday Cake. I would really like to see someone break 600  and am hoping that this will help inspire more people to try. I really think that if you got the timing right and got lucky enough with pygmies that it's possible.

//////////////////////////////// FAQ ////////////////////////////////

I would like to clear a myth surrounding a certain extension (I do not want to name it in case it breaks advertising rules):

- Will an extension get me a taller sunflower?
No, there is nothing that an extension can do that a normal person cannot, nor can they play the game for you. This is why they are not cheating. Moreover, the fastest method (list method) cannot be assisted by extensions (explained more later).

- Could an extension help in any way?
Yes, it can help if you are willing to sacrifice the fastest time for a bit of quality of life. The main example being instead of spending a long time creating a list of gardens to water for the list method, you can instead just use the wildlife guide method and be assisted by remembering which gardens you have already opened. The list method is still the fastest, it just takes more preparation.

My point: You do not need an extension, nor will they give you a better time than someone who doesn't have one. They can simply help make the lazy method a bit more viable despite still being slower, this is why myself and others don't see them as cheating. I have hit 500  both with and without, and others have as well long before extensions were ever released. Even if it WASN'T slower, I will show you below why time is not what is limiting your sunflower height when you get fast enough.

Q: What else stops us from getting the maximum height possible?
A: The truth is that the amount of gardens which are currently attracting summer wildlife is the limit of how big your sunflower can get.
When you get fast enough, and until you can do nothing but water unique gardens for an entire hour, this will always be the case.
The game does not have enough players set up for summer wildlife to support a "perfect run" of sorts. The below methods try to best adapt to this fact by first watering everything, then pausing and getting new food for your own garden, then finally going back through the list to get any wildlife that have recently arrived.

- What does one of your runs look like in practice?

Depending on the amount of people with active gardens with summer critters, and which method i'm using, it takes me about 20-30 minutes to click through the list of gardens that I have (or the wildlife guide).
In a perfect world I would spend all 60 minutes on one list of unique gardens, then I could focus on getting my timing faster for better heights. Unfortunately there are just not that many gardens, and so time is not that much of a factor. The strategy instead has to compensate by going over the same list twice, which isn't nearly as effective as going through an untouched list is.

- What are the requirements?

1. To grow a large sunflower you are going to require a lot of gold. Be prepared to spend 400-500, even more if you water everything.

2. One of the most important and often overlooked requirements is timing. I have used the same methods detailed below for multiple attempts and gotten wildly different results based on timing. Peak hours resulted in a height of only 168 where as off hours resulted in 536 for example. The main idea is that you want to be the only one currently going for a huge sunflower when you start in order to maximize the wildlife you will spot.
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Jordan and Fairy 'Nuff4 years, 9 months ago

//////////////////////////////// WILDLIFE PAGE METHOD ////////////////////////////////

Notes:
- This is NOT the fastest method but is comparable and also requires minimal prepwork. This is my preferred method.
- The timing guidelines I list below will vary depending on your speed and how many gardens there are posted that day. Use the timing as a general idea rather than exact times you need to meet.
- When in doubt, just water and go.

***Phase 0 - (before the sunflower is fully grown):
The goal here is to get 2-3 wildlife in your garden very shortly after your sunflower time starts.

1. Make sure you already have a sunflower that is fully grown so that you can attract summer creatures.
2. Get 2 fresh low-plates of birthday cake and a gnome table if you have one, you want to time it so that they have been out for 20-30  minutes once you start your sunflower growing as wildlife which stay for 1 hour must arrive by 30 minutes on a fresh plate of SF.
3. (optional) you can spot some additional birthday field mice so that you only need to spot 1 until your next plate of food to help you refresh it.
4. Finally, begin opening some gardens (don't water anything) and keep the ones open which look due.

***Phase 1 -- 60 minutes remaining:
1. Immediately water everything that you already had opened.
2. Begin going through the wildlife page for Summer Field Mice (most people will always post here rather than the others, so we will call this the primary).

It is imperative if you want a large sunflower that you be as quick as possible, I spend no more than a couple seconds on each garden.
You also have the option of just instantly watering every garden that you open (and double water if you spot something), but this will be more costly.

***Phase 2 -- 35-40 minutes remaining:
Around this time you should have made it to the "1 day ago" posts in the wildlife guide. At this point most things you run across will just be reposts that you have already checked and it is time to move on. If you did not make it this far then do not start this phase until you do.

1. (OPTIONAL) Get fresh birthday cakes in your garden (assuming the first ones already had a visit).

2. Go to a different summer wildlife page of your choice and begin opening, what we are hoping for is to find someone who posted here but not in the primary page.
We are also buying time for the primary page to have new wildlife visit, you do not need to worry about missing anything as our wildlife will stay for at least 55 minutes and we already checked them once. You can expect to not get that many spots on this new page as most of these will have posted on the primary page and we will have already checked it.

***Phase 3 -- 20-25 minutes remaining:
1. Return to the primary page (summer field mice) and do exactly as you did the first time.
2. If you get far enough that you are only seeing the same gardens, proceed to do exactly as we did on phase 2 and find a wildlife page of your choice to try and find stragglers.
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Jordan and Fairy 'Nuff4 years, 9 months ago

//////////////////////////////// LIST METHOD ////////////////////////////////

Notes:
- This is the fastest method but requires a decent bit of preparation to make the list.
- The timings given will vary depending on your speed and list size. Use the timing as a general idea rather than exact times you need to meet.
- When in doubt, just water and go.

***Phase 0 -- (before the sunflower is fully grown):
The goal here is to get 2-3 wildlife in your garden very shortly after your sunflower time starts.
You want to make a giant list of links to gardens attracting summer critters as well, you want only 1 link to each garden. You also want to be able to CLICK the links, not copy and paste! Notepad   and other free software make this easy.

0. (optional) Go through and check that each garden in your list is still attracting and not frozen.
1. Make sure you already have a sunflower that is fully grown so that you can attract summer creatures.
2. Get 2 fresh low-plates of birthday cake and a gnome table if you have one, you want to time it so that they have been out for 20-30  minutes once you start your sunflower growing as wildlife which stay for 1 hour must arrive by 30 minutes on a fresh plate of SF.
3. (optional) you can spot some additional birthday field mice so that you only need to spot 1 until your next plate of food to help you refresh it.
4. Finally, begin opening some gardens from your list (don't water anything) and keep the ones open which look due.

***Phase 1 -- 60 minutes remaining:
1. Immediately water everything that you already had opened.
2. Begin going through your list.

It is imperative if you want a large sunflower that you be as quick as possible, I spend no more than a couple seconds on each garden.
You also have the option of just instantly watering every garden that you open (and double water if you spot something), but this will be more costly.

***Phase 2 -- 30-40 minutes remaining:
Around this time, depending on your list, you should have opened everything. If you did not make it that far then do not start this phase until you do.

1. (OPTIONAL) Get fresh birthday cakes in your garden (assuming the first ones already had a visit).

***Phase 3 -- 20-30 minutes remaining:
1. Return to your list and open everything again like you did the first time.
2. If you get to the end your list either try to check the wildlife pages for new posts in case one isn't on your list, or start from the bottom of your list again and work through until your time is up.
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Again, these are just my personal methods and findings and I'm sure they can be improved on. If anyone has anything to add or feedback please feel free to share.

Good luck on your sunflowers!
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