Minion Gardening Soil Discovery

[h0tNstilettos]

I wanted to share this with the community. Some of you might already know this, while others might not. As an experiment, while planting and growing Onion Prince seeds I got from intercrossing for it, I wondered if it was possible to get more than 1 minion by using the shroud soil to increase yield. I assumed it would not be possible, like too broken if it was. Well it turns out I'm half right and half wrong. I was wrong in the sense that it does give you 2 minions (I used grade 3 shroud soil), but right in the sense that SE also sort of solved any brokenness since the 2nd minion is the seeds for it, which means it bypasses intercrossing. So while you don't get 2 full fledged minions, you technically get a minion and a half by skipping 1 step in the minion gardening process. The seeds were for the Eggplant Knight. So I got an Onion Prince minion and Eggplant Knight seeds from 1 harvest. Of course soils do not guaranteed 100% chance of whatever the soil increases, but at least with grade 3 it's like a 60% chance. So if you do this and you don't get anything extra, then you simply had bad luck.

[Wulfyn]

Nice of you to share your findings. Kudos to you!

[Welsper59]

Interesting find.

[Noah_]

was the prince seed planted by itself? did you plant anything else next to it with thanalan soil?

[Scarletyoshi]

Received a similar result. Harvested a Garlic Jester planted with Shroud soil (in the hopes of getting more than one) and also received Eggplant Knight seeds. I don't recall what was planted next to it, though I think it was planted adjacent to days old plants. Wishing I had done the same with the other minions I've planted xD

[Defteros]

that's fantastic! thanks for sharing!

[Erendis]

Thanalan soil lets you get minion seeds if there is appropriate cross plant. Getting seeds with Shroud soil is more of a lucky chance, since crossbreeding rate for it is low. Check out this thread for minion gardening: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...vesting/page47

[h0tNstilettos]

was the prince seed planted by itself? did you plant anything else next to it with thanalan soil?

Yes it was planted by itself as the spaces around it are reserved for minion intercrossing, but since I wanted to grow the Onion Prince intercrossing had to be put on hold. I don't get entire garden for it. I grow minions for our FC. Rest is used for choco food and crafting mats, and we make sure one doesn't interfere with the other. So blank spaces for a while.

Thanalan soil lets you get minion seeds if there is appropriate cross plant. Getting seeds with Shroud soil is more of a lucky chance, since crossbreeding rate for it is low. Check out this thread for minion gardening: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...vesting/page47

Yes that is how I got the Onion Prince seeds, but this did not come from intercrossing as this was a controlled experiment on 1 minion plant by itself using grade 3 Shroud Soil to grow it. The point is using Shroud Soil to increase yield has a chance of giving you an extra minion, but in the form of seeds. No intercrossing was done around the Onion Prince seeds while they were growing. In other words Shroud Soil was not used to intercross. Technically it's a free 'intercrossing step' bypass for a minion seed, which helps save time on gardening minions, plus the seeds sell good if you'd rather sell the seeds than grow them.

[Erendis]

I see. It is nice to know in case you do not want to grow anything else. But in my opinion it is a real waste to leave empty spaces to avoid any intercrossing.

[h0tNstilettos]

I see. It is nice to know in case you do not want to grow anything else. But in my opinion it is a real waste to leave empty spaces to avoid any intercrossing.

It was a 1 time experiment, and the minion seeds are not used in intercrossing combinations anyways, so technically you can put anything next to them and nothing will intercross with it. But a controlled experiment should make sure it's empty around it anyways.