$19.99Is Garden Paws worth it?
Garden Paws is worth it if…
- you want a farm game with no pressure, no timers and nothing that can kill you
- you'd rather sell flowers and pies to animal villagers than fight your way through a story
- you like long to-do lists: over 700 quests, 600 crafting recipes and a shop to stock
- you want a relaxed world to build and hang out in with friends, online
- you enjoy taming animals, decorating your farm and dressing up a fox in a bucket hat
Screenshots
A shop where everything sells, from flowers to poop
Coins come from running your own shop. There are over 1000 items to sell, from raw materials to crafted dishes, and you can upgrade from a single table to a large showstopper with mannequins modelling your hats and accessories. If you'd rather be out exploring, hire an assistant to mind the till. You set the prices, pick the stock, and watch what the town actually wants to buy.
Farming, fishing and cooking at your own pace
Dig up seeds in the wild or buy new ones from Sammy the Seed Seller, till the soil with your hoe, water it daily, and harvest a few days later. Crops can be cooked into pies, salads and grilled fish at several cooking stations, or wrapped into bouquets for the shop. Rainy days water the fields for you, and sprinklers take over the chore entirely, so you can spend the afternoon fishing instead. There's water everywhere on these islands, with a large variety of fish to catch from dawn to dusk, or fish and shellfish traps that work while you do something else.
Building up the town, one commission at a time
Frank runs the local construction shop, and Mayor Wilson wants the town to reach its full potential. Spend your spare coin commissioning new buildings, and each one brings its own upgrades, shops, quests and sometimes whole new areas to explore. Build the mining camp and the miners clear rubble to open caves full of geodes and treasure, with no spirits to battle down there. Your own home gets the same treatment: upgrade the cottage your grandparents left, or lay foundations and walls and build anything from a fishing shack to a castle, then paint it with everything from classic colours to galaxy floors.
A world with no timers and no failure
Nothing here punishes you. There are no enemies wandering the islands, no dying, and no withered crops waiting if you skip a day, because the game simply waits for you. Days are calm, the music is gentle, and the art is all soft colours and rounded animal characters. You can play for an evening or leave the farm for two weeks and pick up exactly where you left it. One player put in over 4600 hours; another made barely any progress in two years and still opens it whenever they need to unwind. Both are playing it right.
A farm full of animals, from chicks to alpacas
Talk to Frank about building your first Chicken Coop and Barn, then start filling them. You can raise chicks, ducks, calves, alpacas, goats, sheep, rabbits, ferrets and more, and wild animals can be tamed too: befriend them with their favourite food (rabbits apparently love carrots) and they'll follow you home. Larger mature animals work as mounts when you'd rather ride than glide, and there are legendary creatures out there to find if you keep your eyes open.
Gathering, crafting and a dungeon if you dare
The survival-crafting loop is here, minus the starvation. Gather wood, stone and ore, upgrade your tools to unlock new recipes and blueprints, and work through over 600 crafting recipes: chests, furniture, building pieces, from classic wooden decorations to crystal furniture and glass walls. When you want a bit of danger, the dungeon has ten levels of monsters and a boss at the end, and shooting the mushrooms at the entrance from smallest to largest switches on hardcore mode. In Fall, a boat ride to Halloween Island offers some epic loot.
Play together, from four friends to a 32-person lobby
Want a bigger crowd? Pick your animal, pick a skin, and split the chores: someone waters the crops while someone else empties the traps.
What should you know before playing?
Can you play it solo?
Yes, and many people do. The whole game works alone: farming, quests, the shop, the dungeon, all of it. Online co-op for up to four players and Creative lobbies for up to 32 are there when you want company, but nothing requires a group. Be aware that some players report rough bugs in multiplayer, so solo is the steadier way to play.
How long is the game, and does it ever end?
The town keeps growing as you commission buildings, and seasonal events like Halloween Island rotate in. It's built to be returned to rather than finished.
Who do you play as?
Each has a unique appearance, and there are over 400 skins across them, plus more than 150 dye-able clothing items from wings to bucket hats. Clothing and skins come from chests, quests, or Splash's shop in town.
Is it still being updated?
No. Several long-time players report that Bitten Toast Games stopped updating the game years ago, so existing bugs will likely stay unfixed and no new content is coming. The single-player game remains playable and many people still happily sink hundreds of hours into it, but go in knowing it's a finished, frozen world rather than a growing one.
Is there any combat?
Only if you go looking for it. The islands themselves have no enemies and no way to fail, but there is an optional dungeon with ten levels of monsters and a boss, and a hardcore mode you unlock by shooting the entrance mushrooms from smallest to largest. The rest of the game stays peaceful either way.
