Quote Originally Posted by twsanders View Post
Hello again,

After a day of struggling with the Elven Archer thing (basically all of my games ended before level 10) I have decided to transition to something that I've read is a little bit easier. I'm playing with a Drakeling Healer right now. However, there is so much that I don't know about these damn herbs growing in the dungeons. Do I just pick all of them every time I come upon them? That's what I've been doing up to this point. I feel like I'm supposed to pick all of them from what I've read and then later on plant them in some farming fashion in order to grow the good stuff?

I have taken the DD quest in order to receive gardening from the druid since I already know Herbalism. Basically, I haven't been able to find a great resource for information on all these herbs and things. The Wiki helps some but doesn't really give advice on the best thing that I should be doing with all of these things. I'm only on UD:1 and I have a TON of herbs already. I use my Herbalism skill on each plant before I pick any of them because I think that's what I'm supposed to do.

Basically I'm really lost on the whole herb thing and could just use some general advice...
Okay, simplest explanation... herbs will regrow over time if you don't pick all of them, so it's best not to just pick everything. Herb generations range from about 10 turns minimum to about 500 turns maximum, so it can be a bit of a wait.

Ideally, you want to pick herbs so that they end up in a 2x2 square configuration
Code:
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This configuration is very useful. If you pick any one of the four bushes away completely, but don't touch the others, it will regrow in the same position.

That is:
Code:
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grows into

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Alternately, if you have the herbalism skill, you can look each plant and see if it is "withered" "strong" or "blossoming" (if you're playing with tiles, you can see this visually as well). If you pick a plant that is blossoming, you will get a herb of that type, and it will either stay as it is or go to strong. If you pick a strong one, it will either stay as it is or go to withered. If you pick a withered, it will stay as it is or die. So if you have the 2x2 square above and all four plants are blossoming, you can pick at minimum 2 herbs from each bush without actually losing any of the bushes. If you wait around awhile, they'll regrow to strong, and then to blossom (this is more time-efficient than just picking one bush completely to death and waiting for it to regrow).

Each row going across gives a different type of herb. So it's not just getting a 2x2 square, but getting one on the rows that are most useful to you. There are tricks you can do to move things around before you set the 2x2 square. The other option is to use gardening. If you Apply the Gardening skill (the same way you'd use First Aid, say) on a blossoming bush, then there's a chance you will pick some seeds. Or you destroy the bush. If you plant a seed on an empty tile, then there's a chance to get a new bush. This way you can build new squares. Helps to have Gardening above 60 to make this work. There's seven types of plants. You can figure out which row is which this way: Press L. Move the cursor to the top of the map. This row is 3. Count down 4, 5, 6. The first row you can normally get to on a dungeon level without digging is always 5 as is the bottom row you can access without digging. After row 6, go back to 0 and start again. So it goes 3,4,5,6,0,1,2,3,4,5,6, etc. Cross check with this table:
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3 Stomafilla/stomacepta herbs
4 Pepper petals/Burb root
5 Morgia root
6 Moss of marelion
0 Spenseweed
1 Curaria mancox/devil rose
2 Alurina antidote/devil daisy
All herbs except 0 and 6 have an effect while eaten. Burb/stomacepta/devil have bad effects. Stomafilla is food. Pepper petals give healing (about 25 HP when blessed). Eating 4 morgia roots at a time will increase Toughness and Willpower stats (after some time), up to potential max or 25, whichever comes first. Mancox will cure sickness. Antidote will cure poison. Generally, effects are better when blessed. Moss of marelion can be put in the tool slot and used. Using 3 or so of these will increase Dx up to potential max or 25, whichever comes first, as long as they aren't cursed. Cursed ones will abuse Dx. Spenseweed gives healing when used as a tool.