Gardenscapes Guide (2023 Update): Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Beat Every Level and Restore the Garden to Its Former Glory

Many home design match-3 games seem to operate on a similar principle: you, as the player, will suddenly find yourself inheriting or owning a mansion. You can’t really tell how big the estate is, and it’s usually bigger than you imagine. The catch, of course, is that the place is awfully rundown and your long-term objective is to restore the mansion to its former glory.

As is typical of these types of games, you’re either a part of the audience watching a story unfold, or you are the invisible yet omnipresent character accompanied by some kind of assistant or friend who will guide you through the process of restoring the estate.

An example of the former is Storyngton Hall, where you get to follow the story of Jane Green, an aspiring novelist whose family inherited a mansion they need to fix up in time for a grand ball. On the other hand, in a game like Matchington Mansion, you’re an unseen player guided by Tiffany, your best friend who happens to be an interior decorator.

That’s why in Gardenscapes, a game that falls under the home design match-3 genre, it’s no surprise that you’re the new owner of a mansion. Your faithful companion is your quirky butler Austin, who is a third-generation butler who actually grew up in the estate. The twist with Gardenscapes is that, as suggested by its name, your ginormous garden takes center stage instead of the mansion proper.

Like many home design games, the garden holds more than a handful of secrets and interesting bits of information, which you can discover while in the process of restoring it.

In terms of gameplay, Gardenscapes is, as mentioned, primarily a home design match-3 game where you play match-3 levels to earn stars that can be used to complete garden restoration tasks. However, you do get to enjoy other game types through the occasional puzzle side quests, as well as other game types you can encounter during limited-time events.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of this guide, let’s have a quick review of the game’s main mechanics: basically, you play match-3 levels that you can clear by matching 3 tiles of the same type.

Each level also has an objective, such as collecting a specific number of a particular tile type.

The challenge in a match-3 game lies in the number of moves you’re allowed to make to clear the stage. Depending on the level’s difficulty, your allotted number of moves will vary. You will have to accomplish your objectives before your moves run out.

Whenever you manage to successfully complete a stage and hit all the objectives, you earn 1 star. Aside from stars, you may also get other rewards such as coins, boosters, power-ups, and the like.

Stars, in particular, are used to accomplish tasks intended to restore your garden or progress the story. Most tasks in the beginning only require 1 star, and you may get a single task at a time. However, down the line, you may get more than 1 task and some may require more than 1 star to complete or may come in multiple parts.

Since tasks are intended to beautify your garden, you will occasionally be asked to repair fixtures and even choose “furniture” or flora and fauna to enhance the garden’s appearance. You have 3 designs to choose from and may change this for free anytime simply by long pressing on the item and selecting another design.

In between restoring your garden, you get to unravel a bit of story through your butler Austin and the other characters you’ll encounter along the way, such as Robbie the carpenter.

You may get coin rewards for progressing through the story and accomplishing repairs. For instance, when you’ve chosen some plants for your garden, you will get the attention and admiration of the city council and they’ll send you a letter along with some coins.

Accomplishing tasks can get you more rewards as well: if you check your task list, you will see that there’s a progress bar above it. At the end of the progress bar (or, sometimes, in the middle), you will see a gift box. These gift boxes contain various rewards, which you may view by tapping on them.

Once your progress bar reaches 100% and you’ve completed your current set of tasks, you’ll be able to begin a new day.

Of course, to get these rewards and increase your progression both in terms of story and garden repairs, you’ll need to continuously clear match-3 stages. Now, Gardenscapes might look cute and colorful, but don’t be deceived! Match-3 levels in this game can be really challenging. They will test your observation skills, your wits, and your creativity in using the power-ups and boosters at your disposal.

That said, some well-crafted strategy is in order to make sure you maximize your allotted moves, use your power-ups and boosters to their fullest advantage, and win each level with flying colors despite their difficulty tier.

If you happen to find yourself stuck in a level, then you’ve come to the right place! Our beginner’s guide for Gardenscapes will cover viable strategies that can help get you out of that rut. Additionally, we’ll be providing additional tips and tricks to get more rewards, discuss what limited-time events you may encounter, and how mini games and side games can help you accomplish tasks faster. Without further ado, let’s dive into our beginner’s guide for Gardenscapes!

Gardenscapes at a Glance

First thing’s first: match-3 levels for Gardenscapes have 4 levels of difficulty. These are:

• Normal: Majority of the levels you will encounter will be within this difficulty tier. However, don’t be complacent as Normal levels can still give you a run for your money.

• Hard: Hard levels amp up the difficulty but give 3x the rewards.

• Super Hard: Levels in this category are even more difficult than Hard levels, but give 5x the rewards.

• Challenge: Like Super Hard levels, Challenge levels also give 5x the rewards. However, you can only claim these rewards when you clear the stage with just one try. If you fail to clear a Challenge level, you forfeit the rewards and move on to the next level.

The difficulty of each level depends on a handful of factors, such as the orientation of the board, the arrangement of tiles, the obstacles or special tiles put in place, the power-ups you can make, whether or not you’ll be using boosters, your level goals, and, of course, your number of allotted moves. The last two we’ve mentioned seem to often be the biggest factors that can affect your chances of clearing a stage. But while there are aspects of the level you can’t control, you can definitely still beat them if you know which factors you can manipulate to your advantage.

That said, below are some general tips that you can apply to every level regardless of their difficulty. When it comes to power-ups, obstacles and special tiles, and boosters, we’ll discuss them in detail in the succeeding sections.

• Take your time observing the board. Since match-3 levels have no time limit, you’re free to observe the board for as long as you like. Don’t hurry when doing this. It’s important to know what you’re up against so you can formulate strategies to beat it.
  
  When observing the board, take note of things like its shape, orientation, and layout. Is it a single board or is it a board with 2 play areas separated from each other? Is it wide or narrow in shape? Are there holes in the board that will prevent tiles from flowing downward?
  
  These questions and more can help you determine how to approach the current play area. For instance, if a board is narrow, it’s best to make vertical matches; on the other hand, if it’s wider, making horizontal matches will be more beneficial. If there are 2 play areas separated from each other, activating power-ups that will affect both play areas will be advantageous. Simply put, be observant and don’t rush.
• Positioning is key. This applies not to only making matches, but also where you’ll activate power-ups and boosters (more on these later). A good rule of thumb is to position power-ups and boosters in areas that can trigger chain reactions by activating other power-ups with a single move.
  
  Similarly, knowing where obstacles and special tiles are located can help determine where you should make matches to eliminate or collect them faster. Should you address obstacles or special tiles located in the middle or near it, or should you take out the ones near corners instead? Will eliminating obstacles at a certain location free up a bigger space on the board? Is there a way you can do this with just 1 or 2 moves? Again, these questions can help you make the best matching decisions.
• Match from the ground up. Further to positioning, it’s a good idea to start matching from the bottom half of the board instead of the upper half. The reason is that matching from the bottom half will also affect tiles on the upper half without you having to spend too many moves.
  
  Since tiles drop from the top, you can clear the bottom while replenishing the top with new tiles that have a possibility to match with those remaining at the lower layers. Naturally, apply this tip only when the board favors it. If a board is too narrow, then you might want to consider making vertical matches instead, but you may still do that from the bottom half of the board. 
• Be conscious of your allotted moves. It’s easy to just keep matching and matching without realizing that you aren’t actually maximizing each move you make. That said, be conscious of how many moves you’re allowed each level.
  
  For levels beyond the Normal difficulty, it could feel like there are never enough of these, but when you’re aware of how many they actually are, you can make better decisions that can accomplish level goals without wasting precious moves.
• Know your obstacles and special tiles. As we mentioned, we’ll be discussing obstacles and special tiles in succeeding sections, but suffice it that knowing these is important as well.
  
  For one thing, it’ll help you decide which obstacles to eliminate first, whether it’s better to start with the easier or harder ones. Similarly, you’ll get to decide which special tiles are the easiest to collect. This will get you closer to achieving level goals faster.
• Use power-ups and boosters to your advantage. Speaking of power-ups and boosters, don’t hesitate to use them whenever they’re available. Make it a point to trigger chain reactions that will affect a significant part of the board. Let’s get into the next sections so you can be acquainted with power-ups even more.

Power Up with Power-Ups

Simply put, power-ups are tiles that can be created by matching more than 3 tiles of the same type. Depending on the number of tiles you match, each power-up has its own area of effect when activated.

Activating power-ups can be done in 2 ways:

• Double tapping
• Swapping a power-up with another tile

In most match-3 games, swapping 2 power-ups with each other will result in a bigger area of effect. This isn’t the case in Gardenscapes. In this game, if you swap 2 power-ups, you’ll simply get a combo streak but the area of effect will be the same—unless you trigger chain reactions that will set off other power-ups near the one you’ve initially activated.

There are 4 power-ups that can be created, which are the following:

• Firecracker: Firecrackers are made when you match 4 tiles in a line either vertically or horizontally. When activated, Firecrackers remove 1 tile each in a cross pattern.

• Bomb: Bombs are made when you match 5 tiles in a straight line, T-shape, or L-shape. When activated, Bombs eliminate tiles within a small radius.

• Dynamite: Matching 6 tiles will create Dynamite power-ups. However, this is quite difficult to do manually as Dynamite power-ups are usually the result of chain reactions that cause tiles to fall into place, thus creating this power-up. Whenever you encounter Dynamite, activating them will eliminate tiles within a medium-sized radius.

• TNT Barrel: TNT Barrels are made by matching 7+ tiles. However, like Dynamite, TNT Barrels are difficult to create via manual matching and are thus the result of chain reactions and 7+ tiles falling into place to create this power-up. When activated, TNT Barrels eliminate tiles within a large radius.

Now, we’ve mentioned the importance of triggering chain reactions a few times since the more power-ups activated, the more significant its effect on the board. One other important aspect of activating multiple power-ups or triggering chain reactions is that every time you use a power-up, you fill the Rainbow Blast gauge.

Once the gauge is filled, you’ll get a Rainbow Blast power-up. Its position on the board will be at random. Rainbow Blast power-ups are activated by swapping it with any regular tile, which will cause all tiles of this specific type to be eliminated from the board. For instance, if you swap the Rainbow Blast with a pink flower tile, all pink flower tiles on the board will be removed or collected if they’re part of your level goals.

If you happen to have 2 Rainbow Blast power-ups next to each other, you can swap them to create a huge explosion that will eliminate all tiles on the board. Power-ups are extremely useful as they can help remove obstacles and collect tiles listed as part of your level goals. Of course, knowing how to use them is key to maximizing their effects. In the subsection below are more tips you might want to consider when using power-ups.

How to Effectively Use Power-Ups

• Remember the importance of positioning: a power-up activated at the right location can be the move that spells victory. For instance, if your goal is to bring a Lemonade tile (more on obstacles in a bit) to the bottom of the board, activating any of the power-ups near or under it may just bring it down even if you don’t have any matching opportunities available. The method of activation you use can play a big role in positioning. For instance, if you have a Firecracker power-up, you can either swap it with another tile to move it closer to your intended target or activate it in place via double tapping.
• Activating Rainbow Blast power-ups can affect the board significantly, even if you can’t swap it with a tile type you’re supposed to collect. Just getting rid of a tile type that composes the majority of the board arrangement can help change it up in a significant way.
  
  Thus, use this power-up whenever available and swap it with a tile that has the most number if you want the maximum possible amount of new tiles to replenish the board.
• Try to make as many power-ups as you can, but not to the point that you’d waste precious moves. Keep your objectives in mind and remember that power-ups are meant to accomplish goals—not accumulated.
• Further to the previous point, don’t try to force the creation of power-ups, especially Dynamite and TNT Barrels, if you’ll end up wasting more moves doing so.
• Aside from filling the Rainbow Blast gauge, triggering chain reactions can help remove obstacles that have multiple layers. That said, let’s move on to the next section to discuss obstacles and special tiles further.

Dealing with Obstacles and Special Tiles

Obstacles and special tiles are as their names suggest—they’re either blockades or tiles that have special properties that level goals require you to collect. Some special tiles may act as obstacles as their presence on the board may limit your matching opportunities.

There are many kinds of obstacles and special tiles but we’ll only be discussing 10 of these, which you will encounter until Level 100. Though this is just a short list, it will give you an idea of how to deal with obstacles and special tiles regardless of their variation.

• Gnomes: The very first obstacles you will encounter are Gnomes. These Garden Gnomes are hidden under grass tiles, which may come in more than 1 layer. When collecting Gnomes, you need to make matches on top of grass tiles to expose them. Since grass tiles may have multiple layers, you will need to keep matching until you can see parts of the Gnomes themselves.
  
  A Gnome will be collected when all its parts have been exposed. Keep in mind that some Gnomes are small (occupying only 2 tiles) while others are huge and may even take up half of the board area.

• Boxes: Boxes can block your path and limit the places you can make matches. To remove Boxes, simply make matches next to them. During later levels, Boxes can have multiple layers, meaning you would need to make more than 1 match next to them to free up the tiles they occupy. You’ll know if Boxes have multiple layers when they look like they have wooden planks on their surface.

• Lemonade: Glasses of Lemonade aren’t really obstacles but more like special tiles you have to collect as part of your level goals. To collect Lemonade, you simply need to bring the glasses to the bottom of the board.
  
  The good news is that unlike Gnomes or Boxes, which are fixed, Lemonade glasses can be moved or swapped with regular tiles provided the latter makes matches. Usually, semi-transparent arrows will appear on parts of the board designated as the “bottom” where Lemonade glasses must reach to be collected.

• Chains: Chains keep regular tiles from being moved. To remove Chains, you need to make matches that include the tiles locked by chains. Similar to Boxes, Chains can have multiple layers, thus necessitating multiple matches. Once a tile has been unlocked, they can be moved around again.

• Acorns: Acorns can be eliminated just like Boxes by making matches next to them. Usually, Acorns are included in your list of level goals, but in the event that they’re not, they make for effective obstacles, though they can be moved provided you’re swapping their position with a tile that makes a match.
  
  One notable feature of Acorns is that if you swap an Acorn with a Rainbow Blast power-up, all Acorns will be easily eliminated from the board.

• Water Lilies: These are perhaps the trickiest obstacles you’ll encounter as a beginner. Water Lilies are always situated on a pond and they shift to follow the current after every move. Basically, with each move you make, Water Lilies move 1 tile either clockwise or counterclockwise.
  
  Whatever tile is on top of these Water Lilies also move, thus changing their position on the board. You can’t really remove Water Lilies, but you can take advantage of their movement to place a tile at a location favoring a match without you having to spend a move.

• Ice: This obstacle works similarly to Chains in that you need to make a match including the frozen tile to smash the ice trapping it. Ice may also have multiple layers so when this happens, expect to make more than 1 match to free the frozen tile.

• Flowerbeds: Flowerbeds are rather interesting special tiles: if you make matches beside them, they grow seeds until these become flowers that will replace random tiles on the board. You need to make around 4 matches for flowers to spring out. Usually, if Flowerbeds are placed on the board, this means collecting flowers is likely part of your level goals.

• Walls: These obstacles work uniquely in Gardenscapes: you can’t break them down, but tiles can still bypass them provided these tiles drop from the layer above. Otherwise, you can’t move tiles if a Wall obstructs them. Thus, you need to work around Walls to make matches.

• Earth and Emeralds: Emeralds are hidden underneath Earth tiles. To collect Emeralds, you need to make matches next to Earth tiles to dig the former out. This special tile acts as both an obstacle and something to collect: Earth tiles restrict your play area while Emeralds often need to be collected as part of your level goals.

As we mentioned, there will be a lot more of these obstacles and special tiles you’ll encounter past Level 100. But to get to that point, you need to be able to successfully deal with these first. That said, the subsection below contains our general tips and tricks when dealing with obstacles and special tiles regardless of their nature.

How to Deal with Obstacles and Special Tiles

• The easiest way to deal with obstacles and special tiles is, of course, to use power-ups and boosters (more on boosters in the next section). These aforementioned tools can make it faster for you to remove or collect the tiles you need. In the case of obstacles or special tiles with multiple layers, triggering chain reactions can also make easy work of these since you’ll get multiple explosions.
• Some power-ups work better for certain obstacles or special tiles. For instance, a Rainbow Blast power-up can quickly collect all Acorns. However, it’s not that effective against Boxes, Earth tiles, or Gnomes. A double Rainbow Blast will work better for these.
  
  On the other hand, if they have multiple layers, you’ll need multiple double Rainbow Blasts to eliminate all these layers. It might be better to trigger chain reactions from regular power-ups instead. Gauge what works best based on the conditions of the level goals and the board’s orientation.
• If obstacles or special tiles have multiple layers, we suggest eliminating these first so as to free up more play space on the board. Doing so will increase your chances of making successful matches.
• Specifically for Gnomes, some parts of the board may have grass tiles but aren’t hiding Gnomes. Be observant about parts you’ve already exposed so you can tell where to match next to expose the entire Gnome. For instance, if you’ve exposed a Gnome’s head, observe whether it’s upright, to the side, or upside-down. This should give you an idea of where its feet are so you can match above that grass tile.
• If possible, try to eliminate obstacles starting from the bottom. This goes hand in hand with our tip to start matching from the bottom up. But if you can’t, favor making matches that will eliminate the most obstacles to free up more play space for regular tiles or power-ups instead.
• Further to the previous point, try to make matches next to or above obstacles that will create power-ups. If you’re running out of moves and have no matches that will lead to power-ups, it may be a good time to use boosters, which we’ll cover in the next section.

Give Yourself a Boost with Boosters

Aside from power-ups, the game also provides you with the option to use boosters. Boosters give you an extra hand in the game. There are 2 types of boosters, which are:

Starter Boosters

These are essentially extra power-ups you can choose to start a level with. There are 3 kinds of starter boosters and you can select more than 1 provided you have enough to consume. Once the level begins, you will find these boosters placed at random areas on the board. Since these are extra power-ups, using them during the round will count as a move.

Though you can’t really tell which starter booster is the best for a particular level considering you have to choose them before entering a round, suffice it that each one will be useful for any situation. Below are the 3 kinds of starter boosters:

• 2 Bombs: Start the level with 2 Bombs. These are great for clearing away obstacle tiles and freeing up play space on the board. If you manage to get them beside each other, you’ll trigger a x2 chain reaction and fill up the Rainbow Blast gauge faster.

• Rainbow Blast: Begin the level with an instant Rainbow Blast, which is great for collecting tiles of a certain type.

• Rainbow Blast and Dynamite: Start the level with a randomly located Rainbow Blast and Dynamite power-up. Use the Dynamite wisely as this can be a difficult power-up to acquire.

In-Level Boosters

On the other hand, in-level boosters are those you can select in the middle of playing a level. There are also 3 kinds of in-level boosters but using any of them won’t count as a move. It’s like having a bonus move that, when used properly, can make or break a round. Here are the 3 kinds of in-level boosters:

• Shovel: Clears a single tile of your choice, whether it’s a regular tile or a special one. For obstacle tiles that have multiple layers, using a shovel will only clear 1 layer.

• Rake: Clears a single row and single column of tiles in a cross pattern. The tile you select when using the Rake will be considered the center of that cross pattern.

• Gardening Glove: Swap two adjacent tiles with each other. Swapping a regular tile and a power-up using the Gardening Glove will not trigger the power-up to take effect.

Like power-ups, boosters won’t give you a 100% guarantee of winning, but they do dramatically increase your chances of clearing a level. You can use boosters anytime depending on how well the level is going, but we recommend using starter boosters early on while in-level boosters should be used as a sort of backup plan.

This is due to the nature of their function: starter boosters are just extra power-ups that simply skip the matching process so using them early on in the round can trigger chain reactions or quickly eliminate obstacles.

On the other hand, in-level boosters don’t count as moves so even if you’re down to just 1 move, you may have enough of these boosters to turn the tide of the game at the last minute. Proper timing then is key to using these boosters the right way, or else you might end up wasting them.

The good news is that you can get more of these boosters when you participate in limited-time events, which we’ll cover in the next section.

Join Limited-Time Events

As you play the main match-3 levels, you will occasionally encounter several limited-time events that give tons of bonuses. Whenever you participate in these events, you stand to gain the following rewards:

• Coins
• Infinite lives for a limited duration
• Infinite boosters for a limited duration (this may apply to one or all types of boosters depending on the reward you get)
• More boosters
• Extra power-ups
• Infinite power-up for a limited duration (for example, you will automatically get 1 Rainbow Blast for 30 minutes every time you play a round of match-3)
• Exclusive furniture

The good news is that you can easily participate in all active limited-time events simply by playing the main match-3 levels. How these events work is that they last for a couple of hours or days depending on when you’ve caught them. Each event may require you to either fulfill tasks or play a side game.

For instance, we’ve caught the Treasure Hound event during our run. To get rewards, you need to be able to beat levels in one try to acquire treasure chests containing rewards.

On the other hand, the Bumper Crop event requires you to collect as many apples as you can to top the leaderboard. More apples means more rewards. Additionally, the higher your rank in the leaderboard, the more chances you can increase your position in the leagues. Leagues can determine how much rewards you can get—naturally, the higher your position in the leagues, the better your rewards!

Other limited-time events, such as Secret Ingredient, will ask you to play a side game where you will merge different food and cooking items. Merging two identical items will lead to one new item, and so on. You will also be asked to treat customers by giving them different food items of their choice.

Whenever you make merges, you will spend energy, which you can recoup by playing the main match-3 games. Merging, of course, will give you rewards that you can use for the match-3 levels. By the end of the event, you may exchange your surplus energy into rewards as well.

These are just a few of the limited-time events that you can participate in. There can be 3 or 4 active events at a time, thus giving you more chances to get rewards by playing just 1 round of match-3. Be sure to check which events are currently active and make it a point to fulfill requirements so you can make the most of each level.

Try Mini Games for Extras

Besides limited-time events, you may also encounter mini games from time to time. Basically, Gardenscapes gives you the choice to either play a mini game in exchange for completing a match-3 level. For every successful mini game, you get 1 star and coins.

We recommend playing mini games whenever you get the offer to do as they’re quite easy and won’t cost you lives, unlike when you lose a match-3 level. If you don’t clear a mini game on your first try, you can try as many times as you like to earn that 1 star for your tasks.

Mini games come in a variety of puzzles that are fairly easy to solve and may take even less time to complete than match-3 levels. You can’t choose when to play mini games but you’ll know if they’re available when the play button for a match-3 level changes into that of a puzzle icon. When this happens, take advantage of this opportunity to earn an easy 1 star and a handful of coins.

Spending Coins the Best Way

Speaking of coins, you’ll notice that there isn’t really a shop in Gardenscapes that requires coins for buying anything. So now that you’ve got all these shiny coins, where do you spend them?

Coins are primarily spent on two very important things:

• Extra moves
• Extra lives

Whenever you run out of moves but fail to complete all your level goals, you may choose to either repeat a level but lose a life, or continue the level by paying for 5 extra moves.

The latter sounds like a pretty good option, especially if you want to complete a Challenge level, which requires you to clear the round in one try so you can get 5x the rewards. If you pay for 5 extra moves but still fail to clear the level, you may pay for 5 extra moves again—but for a significantly higher price. Paying for 5 extra moves once costs 900 coins; paying for 5 extra moves the second time costs 1,200 coins, and so on. The upside is that the succeeding times you pay for those extra moves, you may get a bonus power-up.

However, this can quickly deplete your coin resources as you don’t really earn a huge amount every time you do manage to clear a match-3 level. That said, it may be better to lose a life if you feel like you’re going to need more than just 5 moves to successfully complete the level goals.

When you lose a life, you need to wait 30 minutes to replenish it. You have a total of 5 lives to spend, which means you need to wait for a total of 2.5 hours until all 5 lives have been refreshed. You may, however, skip this long waiting time by paying 900 coins to refill your set of lives.

This sounds somewhat like a cheaper option than paying for extra moves, but again, this can easily deplete coin resources if you keep losing match-3 levels. If you don’t have coins to spend or would rather save them up for those instances when you really need to pay for extra moves, extending a little patience would come a long way.

Otherwise, you may join a team so you can get extra lives.

Join a Team for Free Lives and Coins

After reaching a certain level, you’ll be able to join a team of other players or form your own. As a beginner, we recommend joining a team first. Having an active team by your side will get you added perks such as free coins  upon joining and extra lives.

Particularly for extra lives, you can ask fellow team members to give you lives by pressing the Request button in the team’s Chat tab. Team members can only give you 1 life each until you replenish your whole set. Once you’ve received all the lives you need, you have to wait for 4 hours before you can submit another request.

Conversely, you can return the favor by giving lives to team members who have submitted their own requests.

It’s important to join a team whose members actively and regularly play the game so your request for lives can be immediately attended to. Teams with a decent membership count usually points to an active team. You can see this in the Join Team tab.

Additionally, you can check a team’s position in the Leaderboard tab, which can also give you an idea of how active members are. If possible, join a team that’s a little high up in the leaderboard.

You may also take advantage of having a team by using the Chat tab to get some advice from fellow members who are at higher levels. Who knows—they might just give you some sound piece of advice that you can add to the tips we’ve discussed so far.

Reaping More Rewards

Normally, match-3 games would occasionally ask you to watch ads for extra rewards. Surprisingly enough, Gardenscapes has no ads. However, you can still get extra rewards by:

• Spinning the Lucky Wheel: Every day, you get a chance to spin the Lucky Wheel so you can get rewards like a variety of boosters and coins. The Lucky Wheel usually appears on the upper right corner of the screen. Whenever you see its icon pop up, spin the wheel and see if you get lucky. The best part is that it’s for free!

• Gain the attention of locals: As we briefly mentioned, completing tasks and progressing through the story can impress some of the locals. For instance, if you welcome Peter, your neighbor, into your home for some Tea, he will reward you with 1 life as a token of his gratitude.
  
  On the other hand, if you donate some old books to the library, you’ll receive a letter from the city and coins as thanks. Basically, when you complete story-related tasks, you can get a few extra rewards every now and then so keep spending those stars and tick off those tasks in your list for bonuses.

• Open gift boxes: As we briefly mentioned early in this guide, completing story-related tasks will fill up a progress bar. Once you reach a certain point of that progress bar or fill it up to 100%, you’ll receive gift boxes that contain random rewards. Open these boxes for a big surprise!

With all that being said, this concludes our beginner’s guide for Gardenscapes! We hope that you learned more than a handful of useful tips to keep winning match-3 levels, completing tasks, managing your coin resources, the benefits of joining a team, and getting added rewards!

Which level took the longest to complete? Do you have a go-to power-up you love using, or has saved you a couple of times? What are the easiest and hardest obstacles you’ve dealt with? Are there other tips and tricks you’d like to share with your fellow Gardenscapers? Feel free to share your thoughts in our comment section!