Aster Allotment

What is Aster Allotment?

Aster Allotment is an idle game, sometimes called an incremental or clicker game. You start with a single seed in a small allotment plot. Every tap on the aster gathers petals, and petals buy helpers that keep growing more petals by themselves. Numbers start tiny and end up enormous, and the garden on screen grows with them: seed trays, wriggling earthworms, bumblebees, a greenhouse, a windmill on the hill and, much later, a silver moon garden.

It is free, runs in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and needs no download. We built it to be calm and fair. There are no ads, nothing to buy, no daily streaks to protect and nothing that wilts if you take a week off.

How to play

1. Tap anywhere in the garden to gather petals. Each tap is worth 1 petal at the start.
2. At 15 petals, buy a seed tray. It grows 0.1 petals a second on its own.
3. Keep buying helpers. Each one costs 15% more than the last of its kind, and each new kind of helper grows far more than the one before it.
4. Open the Upgrades tab whenever its badge shows a number. Upgrades double helpers, make taps stronger or make two helpers work together.
5. When you have grown a million petals in all, your first heirloom seed is ready in the Seeds tab.

After the first few minutes your helpers do most of the work, so you can tap as much or as little as you like.

The twelve helpers

Helpers appear one at a time: buy one of a kind to meet the next. Here they are in order, with what one of each grows before any upgrades.

Upgrades, milestones and synergies

Every helper has four upgrades that each double it. They open when you own 1, 10, 25 and 50 of that helper. Tap upgrades like Gardening gloves and the Trowel make each tap stronger, and later ones such as Green thumb add a slice of your petals a second to every tap.

Milestones are free. Every helper grows twice as fast once you own 75, then 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 400 and 500 of it. Synergies are upgrades that link two helpers: with Worm turned soil, each earthworm makes your seed trays 2% faster, and Windmill water makes rain barrels 5% faster for every windmill. Six garden wide upgrades, from Morning dew to Harvest moon, speed up everything at once.

Seasons and heirloom seeds

Heirloom seeds are the second currency. They come from every petal you have ever grown: the first at 1 million petals in all, 10 seeds at 1 billion and 100 at 1 trillion. Starting a new season collects them. Your plot goes back to one seed and your helpers and upgrades start again, but every heirloom seed you have ever earned makes everything grow 5% faster, for good.

You also spend seeds in the seed library, a tree of thirteen shelves in four branches. Rich soil speeds up everything, Old gloves triples taps, Long nap and Night shift let the garden grow longer and faster while you are away, Head start gives each new season a few helpers right away, and Thrifty makes helpers cheaper. Spending seeds never lowers the 5% bonus.

A good rule: start a new season when the Seeds tab says it would at least double your growth, then spend the seeds straight away.

While you are away

Close the page and your garden keeps growing at half speed for up to 8 hours. When you come back, one quiet card tells you what grew. The seed library can stretch that to 24 hours at full speed. There are no reminders and no rush: nothing is lost by staying away.

The Daily Plot and leaderboards

The Daily Plot is a short garden puzzle, the same for everyone on the day (it changes at midnight UTC). You get a fresh plot and 100 taps. Each tap gathers your tap petals and every helper you own earns once. Buying costs no taps, so the whole game is deciding what to buy and when. Your score is every petal you gathered.

Each day brings two changes, such as a Bee day (bumblebees earn three times as much), a Shed sale on one helper, Rain showers on every tenth tap, Lucky clovers on three marked taps or a Long day of 120 taps. At the end we show our gardener's mark for the day and one to three sunflowers for how close you came.

Your first Daily Plot of the day goes on the daily leaderboard, and you can replay it just for fun. A second board keeps the most heirloom seeds each player has earned. Sign in if you want your garden on every device.

Controls on phones and computers

• Tap or click anywhere in the garden to gather petals.
• Tap a row in the shed to buy it. The 1, 10, 100 and Max buttons choose how many helpers to buy at once.
• On a keyboard: Tab to the garden, then Space or Enter taps, 1 to 9 and 0 buy helpers, M changes how many to buy, B greets a butterfly and Esc opens the menu.

Awards, goals and looks

There are 25 awards, from First helper to Valley of petals (a quadrillion petals in all). Every award makes everything grow 2% faster, and the Goals tab shows the next three with progress bars. Some awards open new looks: skies like Pink dawn and Starry night, fences from willow to bamboo, and five aster colours.

Tips for growing faster

• Tap hard for the first few minutes. Gloves and the Trowel pay for themselves almost at once.
• Cheap upgrades first. A 150 petal upgrade that doubles your seed trays is worth more than another tray.
• Watch the milestone note on each row. When a helper is a few short of 75 or 100, finishing the set doubles it.
• Butterflies visit now and then while you watch. A tap brings a gift worth about a minute and a half of growth.
• In the Daily Plot, buy early and stop buying near the end. A helper bought on tap 95 cannot pay for itself.

Questions