Grimoire Groves Guide - All the Tips You'll Need!

In this guide, I'll give a whole range of tips if you're just getting started with Grimoire Groves.

BASICS

Feeding Plants

The thing you will probably do the most in Grimoire Groves is feeding energy to plants with your spells. Each plant requires a certain type of energy: Air, earth, fire or water. What type of energy a plant needs, can be seen on their body - each plant has certain body parts that are colored in an element’s color. Red for fire, blue for water, yellow for earth and turquoise for air. Some plants can even change what element they want over time!
You can change the element of your spell with the d-pad on controller or 1 to 4 on keyboard (or scrolling your mouse).
Even though there is no killing or getting killed in Grimoire Groves, it’s still important to be careful! If you don’t feed a plant for too long, feed them an energy type they hate, or walk away from a plant that is connected to you, you will lose energy. This can ultimately make you fall asleep (see next tip)!

Falling Asleep

Grimoire Groves is a roguelite dungeon crawler. Similar to other games in the genre, you can go “game over” during your run, which will instantly teleport you back to your home base.
If you lose too much energy either by feeding plants the wrong energy, failing to feed a plant for too long, or having too much distance between you and an active plant, you will fall asleep and wake up in your garden.
Falling asleep also will make you lose a part of the materials you collected! Unlike other roguelite games, you can always teleport home by using a purple portal. So always try to go home before you get too tired!

Compost

Like in other roguelite games, you will not be able to keep all your materials indefinitely. Before you start a new run into the forest, all materials that still are in your inventory will get converted into compost (except for charms crafted at the workbench, which will stay in your in inventory).
Don’t worry though, because compost is also useful! You can use it to play the cauldroven mini game with villagers in the forest, or to buy things from vending machines.
That being said, be sure to use all materials you want to spend on upgrades in the garden before you start a new run - or keep them on purpose, so you get more compost on your next run. The choice is yours!

Use Your Grimoire!

The grimoire is a useful tool in Grimoire Groves. It lets you see your inventory and your current charmstries, as well as an overview over all spells, plants, charm recipes, and NPCs.

• You can see what a spell does.
  
• You can see what you need to unlock a plant or spell.
  
• You can see in which biomes you will encounter which plants, and which materials they drop.
  
• You can see which materials you need to craft a charm at the workbench.
  
• You can see how much an NPC likes you, where they live and which gifts they love/hate.

Open the grimoire by pressing (Back/Share/G).

Set Goals for Yourself!

Your garden is full of things that you can unlock, and most of the time, you will have multiple things you can/could do at the same time.
It can be super useful if you give yourself a minute to figure out what you want to unlock next. A certain spell? A certain plant? Upgrading a shrine? Once you know what you want most, structure your run accordingly. Go to the best biomes for your goal, or decide to return home once you have everything you need. Not every run needs to be a challenge of how far you can get in the forest!

Making Your Way Through the Forest

Levels in Grimoire Groves are randomly generated, so the forest will be a little bit different every time you start a run. The forest however does not just consist of one level, at most you can progress through 10 of them.
In every level you will find big, round portals. The purple one will take you home. Then there are yellow, blue, red and turquoise colored portals that will take you to a level of the corresponding forest.
At first, you will only be able to explore the earth forest, and 3 levels is the maximum you can advance through. But once you unlock a second forest, you can visit two forest in one run (up to 3 once you unlock even more forests).
To advance to different forests in a run, you have to feed and plant a huge plant in the third level of every forest. That means, forests will always be packs of three levels, with the possibility to go to the next in the third level.

Skipping Dialogues

For a roguelite game, Grimoire Groves features quite a lot of dialogues and story. Many players love just that about the game, but for those who’re not interested in dialogues and story, there is a way to skip that. If you hold the A/X/F button in a dialogue, the dialogue will skip right to the end and you don’t have to read anything.

When Does the Game Save Your Progress?

You might already have noticed it, but there’s no option to save your game. The good news is, the game does that for you! Whenever you get home to your garden or use materials in your garden, the game saves.
There’s just one thing you should be careful about: If you quit the game while you are in the forest, the game handles this the same way as if you would fall asleep - so you will lose some of the resources you gathered, if you do that. That does make sense, as otherwise you could just go to the main menu if you almost fall asleep and start again in your garden, to avoid the material loss by fainting.

UNLOCKING NEW THINGS

Invest Into Shortals, Backpackinator, Pastry Porter and Reconjurator!

There are many things to unlock in your garden. Some of them can be a huge quality of life improvement!

• The Shortal unlock will allow you to teleport around within a forest level.
  
• The Backpackinator will increase your inventory space.
  
• The Pastry Porter lets you buy more charmstries on your run.
  
• The Reconurator lets you store materials for later use.

So it’s very much worth it to unlock these as early as possible! I would first do the Shortals, then Backpackinator and Reconjurator, and save the Pastry Porter for last.
Don't forget that you also can upgrade the Backpackinator, Pastry Porter and Reconjurator for even more space.

Unlocking a New Element (Shrine Level 1)

The shrines in your garden are a crucial part of Grimoire Groves. Like other things in the garden, you can use materials to upgrade them. Reaching the first level of a shrine will unlock the corresponding element (except for the fire shrine, as you have the fire element from the start). That means you will be able to channel said element through your spells. This also means that plants in the forest will start to appear in the corresponding color. So if you don’t feel ready for that additional challenge, you might want to wait a bit. Don’t wait too long though, because the shrine also features other important elements like charm pedestals and unlocking new parts of the forest (see next tip).

Unlocking a New Part of the Forest

Unlocking the second level of a shrine in your garden will allow you to explore the corresponding biome in the forest. So once you reach the second level at the water shrine, you will be able to travel to the water biome, the air shrine unlocks the air forest, and so on. As there are new plants to find in every biome, you should try to unlock the second level of a shrine if you want to progress further in the game!

Unlocking Giant Plants

After you travelled through two levels in the forest, the third level looks a bit different than the ones before. They are way smaller and only feature a few plants as well as a villager that has a quest for you. These villagers’ quests not only will let you build houses for them, but also unlock a very important thing:
After you finished the first quest, this will remove a thicket which lets you progress further into the level. What you will find there are giant plants, similar to bosses in other games. As with other plants in Grimoire Groves, you can feed, plant and harvest the fruits of these plants. You will need the huge plants’ materials for certain quests, as well as to further build the shrines at the garden.

Bonus tip: Also, once you unlocked at least two forests, planting the giant plant will activate a portal in the level that lets you advance further into the forest!

Feeling Stuck With Unlocks?

In Grimoire Groves, you’re pretty free to select which things you want to unlock right away, and which ones you want to wait a bit with. If you’re purposefully waiting with certain unlocks (which is completely legit) you need to know one thing about the game’s unlocking system:
The game will only give you certain quests and plant seeds, if you are able to get all materials that are necessary. Let’s say there would be quests and or plant seeds that need Castarock materials. The game will only consider these for you once you unlocked the Castarock plant and can farm its materials.
So if you ever feel like you don’t get any quests or new plants to unlock, check if there are plant seeds in your garden that you haven’t fully grown yet!

SPELLS

How Does the Spell Tree (aka Witch WiFi) Work?

In the top left corner of your garden you can find the Witch WiFi - a literal spell tree. Each small mushroom stands for one spell that you can unlock. Currently, there are a total of 21 different spells. You can unlock a new spell by bringing the required materials to the corresponding mushroom.
However, not all mushrooms/spells are unlockable right from the start, they are spell tree after all. You can see the paths of the spell tree on the ground, where the mushrooms are connected by little moss patches. There are three main branches in the tree that you can follow.

Spell Types

Each spell in Grimoire Groves has a bunch of spell types. For example, a spell might affect a big area and feed plants over time, which would give the spell the Area and Over Time spell types. There are charmstries which affect spells of certain types, which makes spell types and creating spell builds interesting.

Here’s an overview of all spell types:

• Area: A spell which affects a bigger area
  
• Mobility: A spell which can move plants around
  
• Following: A spell that can follow plants
  
• Over Time: A spell that feeds plants over a longer time
  
• Channel: A spell which is active while you are channelling it (actively keeping a button pressed)
  
• Charges: A spell that has multiple charges, so you can cast multiple instances of the spell
  
• Short Range: A spell that has a short range (similar to melee in other games)
  
• Multi Magic: A spell which casts multiple copies of itself at the same time
  
• Flying: A plant which flies towards a plant or in a direction

PLANTS

Unlocking New Plants

Sometimes you will encounter plants with a yellow aura in the forest. If you do so, be extra careful - these are seed plants! Seed plants will spawn plant seeds, which you can plant in your garden. Once you have grown the plant by feeding it with materials, that plant will then show up on your future adventures in the forest.
That means that only a few different plants types will show up in the forest when you start the game, and the longer you play, the more different plants you will unlock.

The Art of Activating Plants

You’ll probably notice pretty soon when you start feeding plants, that more than just one plant will activate and start interacting with you. That’s because plants activate in a radius when you start feeding one of them. The center of this radius is at the first plant you feed, so you can be tactical about it.
Want only as little plants as possible to be activated? Try to hit a plant at the edge of a plant group.
Want to pull as many plants as possible? Aim for a plant in the middle of the group!

Plant Special Actions

Most plants in Grimoire Groves have some sort of action that they perform. These actions usually have an impact on the player. For example, a Mudcorn’s puddle slows the player. However, these actions do not only affect the player, they also affect plants! The Mudcorn’s puddle also slows and feeds plants, and a Waildrake’s spell can sleep Primrose just as well as plants. As a player, you can use that to your advantage.

Some Plants' Actions Are Interruptable

Most plants in Grimoire Groves have some sort of action that they perform. Castarocks can roll, Waildrakes can make players and plants around them fall asleep, etc. Many of these actions can be interrupted, if you cast a spell that controls a plants position at the right time. For example, if you cast Flower Vortex on a Castarock that is just jumping up to start rolling, it will cancel the action and the Castarock will not roll.

QUESTS

You Can Scroll Through the Forgetti List

On the left side of your screen, you can open the Forgetti List by holding the corresponding button (LB/L1/Tab). The Forgetti List shows you all your active quests. But once you collected several quests, the list can get a bit longer. By pressing and holding the Forgetti List button, the list will start to scroll automatically.

Quests to Unlock New Charms

After you played through the story in each forest, the corresponding elemental spirit will wait for you in the forest with new quests. Through these quests, you can unlock new recipes for charms that you can craft at the workbench in your garden.
As these charms will give you permanent boosts to your stats and abilities, it’s 100% worth it to hunt for them!

CHARMS & CHARMSTRIES

The Two Ways To Improve Your Stats

As Grimoire Groves is a roguelite game, it also has several features which are typical for the genre. Charmstries and Charms are good examples for that. Both, Charms and Charmstries, let you boost your stats and abilities.
Charmstries are boons that you can get during a run in the forest by either baking one together with a villager, or by buying them at certain vending machines. But, as they are magical pastries, they will only be active for that one run and disappear after.
Charms on the other hand can be crafted at the workbench and boost your stats permanently (see next tip).

Charms (Permanent Boons)

There’s a workbench in your garden, and it’s not just there to look pretty. At the workbench you can craft charms that will permanently increase your stats.
When you update a shrine in your garden, you will get pedestals around the shrine, where you can put your Charms. A Charm’s boon will be active whenever you visit the corresponding forest. So if you place a Charm around the earth shrine for example, this boon will be active in the earth forest.
You can also upgrade the effect of a Charm by crafting more copies of the same Charm, and placing them on the same pedestal. That way, you can increase the effect 5 times in total.

Rainbow Pedestals

The fifth pedestal you unlock at every shrine is a rainbow pedestal. This means, a Charm placed on a rainbow pedestal will be active in every forest. It thus can be smart to think about which Charm you want to place on that pedestal, and if you want to save some Charms until you unlocked the rainbow pedestal.
This is especially important as you can not move Charms between pedestals - if you remove a Charm from a pedestal, it will get turned into compost.

VILLAGERS

Different Villagers = Different Charmstries

If you meet a villager on their excursions in the forest, you can play a mini game with them. At the cauldroven, you can bake a Charmstry. These Charmstries will give you a boon for the remainder of your run, and every Charmstry does something else.
Each villager also has a specific set of Charmstries, so not all of them will show you the same options.

Increasing Your Friendship

Each villager has a friendship level from 0 to 10. You can check the friendship level in your grimoire. The higher your friendship level, the more Charmstries you have to choose from when playing the cauldroven minigame. Some of the best Charmstries are only available once you reach friendship level 7 with a villager, so it’s worth investing into your friendships!
You can increase the friendship with villagers by solving quests for them, playing the cauldroven minigame, or giving them gifts (see next tip).

Gifts

Plants can drop rare fruits! You can not only use them for certain unlocks and recipes in your garden, but you can also gift them to villagers in the forest.
Each villager has a certain set of rare fruits that they love and hate. If you give a villager a gift they feel normal about or that they love, this will increase the friendship with that villager (of course loved fruits will increase the friendship more). If you give them a fruit they hate, the friendship level will drop a little bit.
Whenever you give a villager a fruit they love or hate, this will update your grimoire so you can check their preferences later.

House Quests

Each villager has a quest line that you can finish. At the end of the quest line, they will move into the forest, and each villager has their own super cute house!
But this is not just for decorative reasons: Once you finish their quest line, you will get the following benefits:

• Villagers living in the second level of a forest will have two random vending machines in their garden in every run. There, you can purchase new items or access your reconjurator.
  
• Villagers living in the third level of a forest have a vending machine with bottles of water. That’s useful because you can regain some energy before you tackle the giant plant in the villager’s backyard!

OTHER TIPS

Getting Tips In the Game

There are many things to unlock in your garden, and they also do different things. When you stand close to them, many will feature an info interaction (Y/triangle/Q) that will show you what they are good for.

Camera Settings

There are two camera settings in the game: The default one will let the camera move smoothly and focuses on the area in front of the player character. If that’s not your cup of tea and you prefer a static camera, you can change to that in the game’s setting screen. The fixed camera also works better for people prone to motion sickness!

Difficulty Settings

For a roguelite, Grimoire Groves is not the most challenging game. For a cozy game however, it can be a bit overwhelming. No worries though, because the game has a relaxed mode. You can switch the game anytime between default mode and relaxed mode on the setting screen. That means, you don’t even have to decide when you start a new game, you can switch whenever you feel like it!
In the relaxed mode, the game's level are a bit bigger but plant groups are less crowded. Also, you will not lose any energy by bumping into plants, and you will not encounter a plant group with opposing elements. So you are also less likely to have plants getting unhappy because they get hit by a spell that they hate.

Anything Else I've Been Missing?

Alright, this was my guide to Grimoire Groves. Is there anything I'm missing that should be added to the guide? Let me know!