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Flagging Seeds and Managing Flags and Farmers Retrieving Flags and Buying Replacements

Once you’ve found a seed and planted it, you have only one obstacle left: rabbits! Those unlikable leporids will notice your flags and try to get to your seeds before the farmers do. Fortunately, you’ve come equipped for mammalian battle with every Vinesweeper’s best friend: ogleroots!

Okay, I’m just kidding, there’s no poetry here, so you can all relax. J

If you followed my advice, you bought some ogleroots before starting the minigame. If not, you may have dug up some while exploring the playing field. If neither of these is true, and you have no ogleroots, then go get some from Farmer Blinkin before you plant flags. Do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200! Believe me, it’s quite frustrating to realize you have no roots after you’ve placed a flag, and watch helplessly as it disappears. Munch, munch…

When Vinesweeper first came out, you had to “use” the ogleroots on rabbits, and the critters were so small and moved so fast that this was quite difficult. They have been enlarged and slowed down, fortunately, and also given an easy left-click option called “Feed”. All you need to do is click the rabbit, and your character will run over to the rabbit and give it an ogleroot; a message will appear in your chat window saying “You feed an ogleroot to one of the rabbits and it starts to disappear…”.

After getting the root, the rabbit will stop in its tracks, eat the root, utter a “Squeak!” and then slowly vanish. It will later respawn at one of the rabbit burrows in the empty space margin surrounding the playing field.

The primary purpose of feeding the rabbits is to get them away from where you are playing, so you can plant flags without the seeds under them getting eaten. As an added bonus, you also get 30 Hunter XP each time you feed one—not a lot, but it can add up over time, and hey, it’s free XP! J

I particularly recommend searching the area around you for rabbits before you plant a flag. If you see one, run over and feed it, even if it’s not that close to you; they move pretty fast. After planting a flag, stay near it and watch for rabbits while you are waiting for a farmer to come check it. This is even more important if you are planting multiple flags at one time.

If you find a rabbit near you when you aren’t about to plant a flag, I recommend feeding it anyway. It won’t hurt anything, it means one less rabbit to worry about for a minute or two, and you earn yourself some cheap and easy Hunter XP.

There are several burrows located just outside the edge of the field, which is where new rabbits spawn after they “disappear”. Some players recommend avoiding planting flags near these spots, for obvious reasons. On the other hand, I sometimes like playing there, because I notice immediately when a new rabbit appears and can get rid of it right away (Figure 296). Experiment to see which approach you prefer.

There are a couple of “gotchas” related to the rabbits that you should watch out for.

First, if you wait until a rabbit is too close to one of your flags, you won’t be able to feed it in time. Even if you are right near it, you’ll click the rabbit but nothing will happen. Oops, too late—you’ve lost your flag, sorry.

Second, when a rabbit first appears at one of the burrow holes mentioned above, there’s a period of about 10 seconds in which you cannot feed it; the game simply won’t respond to attempts to click on it. Fortunately, during that time it also can’t get your flags, so just wait until it starts moving and you should be able to nab it.

Flagging Seeds and Managing Flags and Farmers Retrieving Flags and Buying Replacements