The Secret Garden Side Quest - Wild Arms 3
The Secret Garden is a very important Side Quest to complete in Wild Arms 3 because it's the only reliable and easy method to get recovery consumable items. Before you attempt to unlock The Secret Garden you'll want to get all of your characters to at least Level 25. I usually wait until I get far enough into the game to unlock the Sandcraft before unlocking this garden.
You'll find The Secret Garden nearby the town of Jolly Roger; in order to reach The Secret Garden you'll have to summon a horse and use it to jump over the crevice northeast of Jolly Roger. The Secret Garden can be found on this small fertile piece of land along with a dungeon by the name of Decaying Labyrinth.
Decaying Labyrinth is a dungeon that is involved in this side quest as well, I will talk more about it below. If you need help finding The Secret Garden or the Decaying Labyrinth on the map, use my screenshot below.
When you first arrive at The Secret Garden you'll be unable to do anything outside of speaking with Florina and agreeing to help her. Florina will explain to you that because of something inside of the Decaying Labyrinth the soil quality is deteriorating and her plants are dying. Our task is going to be to enter the Decaying Labyrinth and eliminate the boss so we can gain access to Florina's garden.
The Decaying Labyrinth is a pretty straight forward dungeon and I am not going to do a full walkthrough for it on this page. Ring Keeper is the boss of this dungeon and he's a pretty easy fight too - the only "catch" of this dungeon is once you defeat the boss you'll have to escape the dungeon within 15 minutes. During this 15min all of your character's health will be reduced to 1. It's best to keep a full ECN gauge until this part of the dungeon although it isn't necessary.
Once you defeat the boss and exit the Decaying Labyrinth your health will be returned to normal and you can head back to Florina to complete the quest and gain access to her garden.
Using the garden is kind of a side quest in and of itself too. You'll have 3 options when you speak to Florina, Sow, Breeding and Harvest. For those of you who want a full explanation I explain in more detail what all 3 of these are below. In the mean time let me explain exactly how this garden works.
There is a hidden timer that these plants used which is called Counter Points. Each plant requires a certain number of Counter Points to grow; something like a Heal Berry only takes 25 Points but a Mega Berry takes 100 Points. You can earn Counter Points by doing different things throughout the game, I will talk about this more in detail below.
Last but not least, not every plant has a 100% success chance to grow. You can increase your success rate by using the Breeding option but it'll cost 1 plant per % point. More information about this can be found below too.
Sow: Sow will allow you to plant a plant which you can then harvest once it's fully grown. In order to use Sow you'll first need to sacrifice an item of that type. For example, if you want to plant a Revive Fruit you'll first need to sacrifice one of the Revive Fruits you have. Think of it like creating seeds, you sacrifice one of your current items for seeds which you can then plant to make more.
Breeding: This allows you to sacrifice an item and increase the success rate that your plants will grow. For example, an item like Tiny Flower has a 5% success rate by default but if you use Breeding on 95 Tiny Flowers you'll raise the success rate to 100% and you'll never fail a Harvest. Breeding is extremely useful later in the game but early on you won't have enough items to do much with it.
Harvest: Harvest should be self explanatory, whenever any crops are ready to be harvested you'll select this option and retrieve them.
As for Counter Points, like I said earlier they are a hidden timer that dictate when your plants are ready to be harvested. There are 5 ways to get Counter Points (CP) and all 5 of these methods are listed below. If you're looking to farm CP the best way to do it is by repeatedly sleeping in Baskar Village.
If you'd like to learn more about The Secret Garden and how it all works as well as see a video example of how to easily get Counter Points I recommend you check out my Youtube Video showing this in more detail. Head over to my Wild Arms 3 Gardening Video for more information.
The last entry on the CP list is "Advancing the Story", there are certain flags in this game that count towards this goal. Completing one of the main story dungeons or story events will typically give you a completed harvest with all of the plants you have growing.
How to Accumulate Counter Points:
1 minute of Gameplay: 1 Counter Point
Talk to NPCs in Town: 1 Counter Point
One Battle: 5 Counter Points
Sleep At Inn: 20 Counter Points
Advancing The Story: All Seedlings create 1 Harvest
Now that you know all you need to know about CP there is one more thing that I believe is important about gardening. As I stated earlier, Breeding will allow you to raise the success rate of each crop that you grow. The best items in this game such as Tiny Flower, Full Carrot, Mega Berry etc all have a rather low success rate by default which means you'll have to sacrifice a lot of them to raise your chances of successfully growing them.
Each time you choose to breed a crop at Florina she will give you some dialogue that indicates what your current success rate is at. Below you'll find a list of all the different dialogue that Florina will give you and what level of success rate it corresponds to.
Florina Breeding Dialogue:
0 - 9% "The chances of this seedling surviving are next to nothing. But please do not give up hope on the flower's will to live."
10 - 19% "It is very difficult to raise a flower in Filgaia's current state. Let us pray for a miracle..."
20 - 29% "Water, soil, and a warm heart are what makes a flower grow. Please look on with kindness."
30 - 39% "If you listen closely, you can hear the flower thumping. But it is a small, fragile pulse... Someone needs to carefully watch over it."
40 - 49% "The flower is trying its best to live. Your kind heart and support will help it grow strong."
50 - 59% "A young, vibrant power can be felt from the seedling. The power is still small, but it is definitely there."
60 - 69% "Flowers are actually tough and strong. Just one look at this sapling here and you'll see how strong it is."
70 - 79% "Someday Filgaia will be green again. Every time I see a young seedling, I feel it will happen."
80 - 89% "Strong roots are a wonderful thing. This seedling taught me that."
90 - 99% "What a fabulous seedling. It will take root and grow tall towards the sky."
100% "This seedling should grow strong. No, not should... It will definitely grow strong."
Item & CP Points Needed:
This chart details how many CP is needed before the plant can be harvested.
Heal Berry: 25 CP
Tiny Flower: 25 CP
Revive Fruit: 25 CP
Potion Berry: 50 CP
Holy Root: 50 CP
Mini Carrot: 50 CP
Full Carrot: 100 CP
Mega Berry: 100 CP