Currently, I have been playing a ton of Tiny Monsters, for reasons I cannot explain. Tiny Monsters is much like any of the seemingly endless numbers 'breeding cutesy creature' simulations out there, albeit well-done. If you've played one, you know the drill - purchase creature eggs, hatch 'em, feed 'em, and breed 'em. All of this done via an interlocking system of farms, habitats, and various monster concierge-service buildings that aid in the creation of the greatest variety of little monsters. Tiny Monsters has a light touch, at least through the first 50%+ of the game, when it comes to making the player spend money to level up in the game. We'll get to some of the less "polite" F2P games in later posts.
I'd originally blamed my daughter for getting me hooked on the game, when the truth of the matter is, I stumbled upon it myself. It's a bit embarrassing in certain conversations and social situations, as a grown man to own up to playing a game like TM - at a glance, it resembles My Little Pony. I don't want it to seem creepy that I play the game, as I'm doing quite well with the weirdo reputation I almost surely have already, thankyouverymuch.
Anyhow...the point of this post. Farms play a large role advancing through Tiny Monsters - Farms produce food, which you feed to the monsters to increase their level (all the way up to Level 10). As you increase their Level, they make more money for you while hanging out in the Habitats. For example, a Level 1 Fire monster will make you 11 coins/minute, versus a maxed-out Level 10 Fire monster, which will make 81 coins/minute. Again, feed the creature, increase the level; increase the level and increase the rate at which you make money. Also, creatures cannot be bred until they reach "Adult" stage (i.e. Level 8 and up), so it's in your interest to feed these suckers so they can add diversity to your creature gene pool.
Farms come in two flavors: Small and Large. Let's start out and tackle maximizing Small Farm output, as it's the only Farm available in the beginning of the game. The below table is pretty straightforward. Tiny Monsters provides the player with the Cost (in coins), and Harvest (in generic Food units) in the "Grow" menu.
| Food (Small Farm) | Cost | Harvest | % H/C | |
| Cloudberries | 30 | 5 | 17% | |
| Bluff Broccoli | 40 | 20 | 50%!!!!! | |
| Baby Banana | 120 | 40 | 33% | |
| Nimbus Grapes | 390 | 90 | 23% | |
| Mount Melons | 990 | 195 | 20% |
| Plumpkins | 2,190 | 275 | 13% |
However, what the player doesn't know, at least in a readily apparent manner, in the game, is the ROI - Return On Investment. In other words, what Food should I grow in order to spend the least amount of Coins but obtain the most amount of Food. That's where the "% H/C" column comes in handy - in this case, the bigger the percentage, the better the investment. For Small Farms, Bluff Broccoli is clearly the best, standout choice. The most expensive, Plumpkins, despite the appearance of rewarding a huge pile of Food, relative to smaller harvests, is clearly the worst ROI.
There are two other factors that impact the game to consider when maximizing your Food Harvest: Time needed to grow the Food, and Experience Points (XP) given upon harvesting said Food. XP isn't even listed in the Grow menu, so you'll get a tiny (haha - get it?) bit of extra information here to consider, assuming you spend your free time pondering such things like I do.
P.S. Apologies in advance for the spartan formatting in the table - I still am a serious noob when it comes to Blogger, so what looks all purty and color-coded in Excel, show up looking like I put it together in 1978 on a Selectric typewriter in here.
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