Grow a Garden Fairy Update Guide – Pets and Abilities

The Grow a Garden Fairy Update adds three pets—Wolpertinger, Red Cap, and Manticore—each with distinct abilities that impact garden growth and pet development differently. Picking the right pet influences how quickly your garden flourishes or how fast your pets level up in this new content.

Playing with these pets reveals that Red Cap’s synergy with Mimic can accelerate pet progression, a game mechanic that many players overlook but should consider to optimize their collection. Meanwhile, Wolpertinger aids plant growth, and Manticore focuses on mutations and XP boosts, though some pets require more careful strategy to maximize their effectiveness.

Before jumping in, check that your garden has a solid number of magical plants if you want Wolpertinger’s ability to shine, or if you own Mimic, try pairing it with Red Cap to speed up pet aging and experience gains.

Red Cap is the most interesting pet in this update because its ability can interact with Mimic pets. This combination may help speed up pet progression, making it worth testing if you want to level up your collection. Meanwhile, Wolpertinger focuses on plant growth, and Manticore provides fruit mutations and pet experience.

Here is a breakdown of all three new pets, their abilities, and whether they are worth getting. Also check out our Grow a Garden Codes for more rewards!

The Fairy Update introduces three new pets obtained mainly through event rewards. Players may need patience since acquiring a specific pet might involve opening many chests or exploring expensive options in the Trade World, where prices fluctuate drastically at launch. Each pet fits a different playstyle: boosting plant growth, hastening egg hatching, or applying mutations. Selecting the pet that suits your strategy will impact your progress and efficiency in the garden. Pet Primary Ability Wolpertinger Enhances plant growth based on magical plants Red Cap Modifies pet levels affecting egg hatching time Manticore Applies Toxic fruit mutations and grants pet XP

The Fairy Update adds three pets with different abilities. You can obtain them through the event’s rewards, although getting specific pets may take multiple attempts. Some pets are also available through the Trade World, but their prices can be extremely high when the update first launches.

The three new pets are:

• Wolpertinger
• Red Cap
• Manticore

Each pet has a different purpose, so choosing the right one depends on whether you want to improve plant growth, speed up egg hatching, or apply mutations to your fruits.

Wolpertinger activates roughly every 9.5 minutes, accelerating growth of a random plant by about 20 seconds multiplied by your number of magical plants, plus a small fixed bonus. Its main use is improving garden output passively, suitable if your focus is steady fruit production without heavy manual intervention. Its effectiveness depends heavily on how many magical plants your garden hosts, so it’s best for mid-to-late-game setups where you have multiple magical plants growing simultaneously.

Wolpertinger is the plant-growth pet introduced in the Fairy Update. Its passive ability activates approximately every 9.53 minutes, advancing the growth of a random plant by around 20.22 seconds for each magical plant in your garden, plus one additional unit according to its ability description.

This makes Wolpertinger a potential option for players who want to improve their garden’s production without manually waiting for every plant to finish growing. However, its impact depends on the number of magical plants you have and how frequently its ability activates.

If your garden already has a reliable setup for growing valuable fruits, Wolpertinger may provide some additional assistance. However, players looking for major improvements to pet leveling or mutation farming may find the other two pets more interesting.

Red Cap stands out due to an unusual effect on pet levels: every 19 minutes it may either reduce a pet’s level to shorten an egg hatching time by about 21 minutes or increase it, while also gaining XP equal to 12% of its level with each activation. Although lowering pet level sounds counterproductive, it synergizes with Mimic in unexpected ways.

Red Cap is arguably the most interesting pet in the Fairy Update because its ability has an unusual interaction with Mimic.

Its ability activates approximately every 19 minutes. When triggered, it can either reduce a pet’s level by one to decrease the hatching time of a random egg by around 21 minutes, or perform the reverse effect. Red Cap also gains 12% of its current level’s XP whenever its ability activates.

At first, this ability might seem confusing because reducing a pet’s level does not sound particularly useful. However, testing revealed that Red Cap can also contribute to pet aging when its ability is copied by Mimic.

Why Red Cap Works Well With Mimic

Mimic copies another pet’s ability, and when set to copy Red Cap, it can contribute to pet aging, effectively speeding up progression. This combo makes Red Cap a valuable asset for players focused on leveling pets efficiently, though its exact results can vary by game version and require personal testing.

The key is to have Mimic copy Red Cap’s ability and observe the resulting effect. The interaction may allow you to gain additional pet progression while also benefiting from Red Cap’s other effects.

However, the exact results can depend on how the abilities interact in the current game version. Since this behavior may be unintended, it is worth testing the setup yourself before investing heavily in multiple pets.

For players who already own Mimic, Red Cap is arguably the most promising pet from this update. Its combination with Mimic could be more useful than its ability description initially suggests.

Manticore operates on a 29-minute cycle, consuming fruit with eight or more mutations and then offering a 20% chance to apply a Toxic mutation to a random fruit. Each success triggers an additional 20% chance for repeating effects in sequence. It also provides substantial pet XP boosts at each activation, with tested values up to 15,000 XP under optimal conditions. Due to its long cooldown and dependency on highly mutated fruits, Manticore’s impact is less consistent, making it ideal for players experimenting with mutation strategies rather than those prioritizing rapid pet progression.

Manticore is another new pet in the Fairy Update, but its ability is more complicated than those of Wolpertinger and Red Cap.

Approximately every 29 minutes, Manticore consumes a fruit with at least eight mutations. Afterward, it has a 20% chance to apply the Toxic mutation to a random fruit. Each successful effect can trigger another 20% chance to continue the next effect in its sequence.

Manticore also provides a large XP boost and a passive boost. During testing, its ability granted 12,000 XP, with the possibility of reaching a maximum of 15,000 XP under the tested conditions.

Is Manticore Worth Using?

Manticore can be useful if you want another way to apply Toxic mutations and gain pet experience. However, its ability relies on fruits meeting the mutation requirement, and the chance of triggering additional effects means you cannot always expect the same result.

Testing also showed that the ability’s effects happen in sequence. You may need to wait for the mutation effect before seeing the experience boost or other parts of its ability activate.

Although Manticore has several effects, its long cooldown and reliance on highly mutated fruits make it less convenient for some players. If your main goal is to level pets quickly, Red Cap combined with Mimic may be a more interesting setup to try.

Manticore may still be worth collecting, especially if you want to complete your Fairy Update pet collection or experiment with mutation-based strategies.

How to Get the New Fairy Update Pets

To obtain these pets, participate in the Fairy Update event by collecting and opening chests in the event area. Since pet drops aren’t guaranteed, persistence is required to get your preferred pet. Alternatively, Trade World listings may offer immediate access but often at premium prices initially.

1. Access the Fairy Update event zone in Grow a Garden.
2. Collect event chests and open them for pets.
3. Repeat until obtaining the desired pet.
4. Check Trade World listings cautiously if you want to buy pets directly.
5. Compare prices, especially for rare pets like Manticore, to avoid overpaying.

Follow these steps to get started:

1. Enter Grow a Garden and find the Fairy Update event area.
2. Collect the rewards or chests available through the event.
3. Open the chests and check which pets you receive.
4. Repeat the process if you do not get your desired pet.
5. If you want a specific pet immediately, check the Trade World for available listings.

Be careful when trading during the first days of an update. Players may set extremely high prices because the pets are new and demand is still high. Their values can change quickly as more players obtain them.

If you are trying to get Manticore, compare several offers before spending a large amount of currency. Buying the first listing you see may not be the best deal.

Which Fairy Update Pet Is the Best?

Ranking by practical usefulness from ability testing places Red Cap at the top, particularly when combined with Mimic, as it significantly aids pet progression. Wolpertinger is a solid choice for enhancing plant growth, supporting garden productivity. Manticore offers mutation-based benefits and XP but is less reliable due to cooldown and specific fruit prerequisites.

Players owning Mimic should prioritize testing Red Cap first. For others, Wolpertinger and Manticore provide useful but more niche abilities tailored to different gameplay goals.

• Red Cap: The most interesting option for pet progression, particularly when combined with Mimic.
• Wolpertinger: A plant-growth pet that can help advance the growth of random plants.
• Manticore: A mutation-focused pet that also provides XP and a passive boost, but has a relatively long cooldown.

Red Cap stands out because of its potential interaction with Mimic. Wolpertinger is more specialized for garden production, while Manticore is better suited to players who want to experiment with fruit mutations.

These rankings are based on the described ability tests rather than a complete comparison across every possible garden setup. Updates or balance changes could also affect how useful each pet becomes.

The Grow a Garden Fairy Update introduces three new pets, but their abilities offer different levels of practical value. Wolpertinger helps with plant growth, Red Cap has an interesting interaction with Mimic, and Manticore focuses on Toxic mutations and pet experience.

If you already have Mimic, Red Cap is the first pet worth testing because its interaction may help with pet progression. Manticore is still worth considering for collection purposes and mutation experiments, while Wolpertinger can provide additional support for gardens with magical plants.

These pets’ value may shift as updates and balance changes arrive, so always test abilities in your current setup before committing significant in-game currency. Early trade prices often inflate and become more reasonable as the player base acquires pets over time.

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