Beginner Tips

__TOC__
==Introduction==
This guide has been written to answer some of the more common questions that new players typically ask over their first few hours of play. If you'd like to 'replay' the tutorial scroll down on our homepage Shikihime Garden Wiki
The page is organised so that things you're likely to want to know early are at the top, while many of the sections towards the bottom will make more sense after you have been playing for a day or two.
You do not need to read and memorise everything here, however we suggest that you bookmark this page so that you can revisit it as questions arise.
These tips should be read in conjunction with the official game guide. The official game guide comprehensively explains many of the game's basic concepts and terminology.
==Actions==
Basic Himes come with all their actions unlocked, except for Akki and Tengu, but for all other tiers you will need to own duplicates of that Hime to unlock their actions. Example:
*having a cummulative amount of 2 Amenouzume will unlock it's 'eat' feature (be able to eat Medicines)
*having a cummulative amount of 3 Amenouzume will unlock it's'talk' feature (have a Relationship with other himes in the garden)
*having a cummulative amount of 4 Amenouzume will unlock it's 'play' feature (play with Training Equipment )
==Impression==
Impression is a measure of how much your hime likes you..or simply how much you've used a certain hime in battles. For most himes, there is no practical use for this number beside their dialogues in garden change based on the level of Impression. Cho Suzukagozen however, utilizes her Impression for her skill Killing Outburst.
A hime's Impression can be found at the bottom right corner of their card image when viewed in the card list.
Impression can be increased by placing your hime in the front row of your deck and using that deck in battles. It increases by 1 per hit taken and decreases by 1 if the hime faints. Items such as Red Rose, and Gloves will increase Impression while medicines will decrease it. Max Impression is 300.
==What hime type is best?==
You may have received some advanced patterns when you joined up, and many new players ask which is the best hime type to summon. Although you can't really go wrong with any class, the most balanced/flexible classes, and therefore arguably the most useful for a new player, are spear, sword and then magic in that order.
Your team will also need 1-2 good recovery himes, and a good recovery hime will last you for a very long time in this game. Note that there are almost no circumstances where more than two recovery himes will be useful.
Axe and bow himes are, on balance, more suited to end-game tactics as their low hit points leave them vulnerable to an early death unless appropriately buffed. If you receive a particularly good axe or bow as a random summon, however, don't be afraid to use them.
==Leveling himes==
In the early game, the main way to gain experience for your himes will be running dungeons. Battles will grant all conscious ('alive') Himes experience until the experience bar is full.
Himes in the back row (the lower row of himes) also gain experience even if they don't otherwise participate in the battle.
Himes made unconscious ('killed') during a battle do not gain any experience.
Once a hime's experience bar is full you will need to feed the hime a monster to actually level her up (training brushes also work, but you won't see many of these for a while).
Feeding your hime monster cards (or training brushes) will also gain her experience. You can find the experience table here.
==Silver, Gold and Rainbow Tickets==
Silver, Gold and Rainbow tickets offer a chance of summoning a higher-tier hime.
These tickets may be offered as rewards for some events, completing trials or quests, as a daily login bonus, or may be purchased with power (real money).
Except in occasional weekly events it is not possible to grind for Silver, Gold and Rainbow tickets.
Keep an eye on daily trials and read the "Event Info" notes (bottom left of game screen) for opportunities to be awarded tickets, but otherwise think of these as simply a nice boost when the oppportunity arises, not a core part of the game.
If you are tempted to buy tickets with power, note that the actual chance of receiving a top-tier hime is very low. Even a large power purchase may not result in you receiving the hime/s you were hoping for.
Green notifications that a player "has drawn 1 rare card" are a common tactic in free to play games to encourage players to spend money by creating the impression that the chance of drawing a rare card is higher than it actually is. Note also that the green notice appears for both himes drawn from tickets and for those created from unities.
Participation in the Weekly Quiz comes with a chance of being awarded a Silver Ticket. The correct answers can often be found within the pages of this wiki.
==Unity==
To get further in the game you will want to acquire more himes and 'unity' them together to climb the ranking ladder and make more powerful himes.
Your first unity will require leveling two identical Basic himes up to level 5. Higher tier himes need to be level 10 before they can be used as an unity pair.
Pro-tip: use basic to elite special unity until you have a good team (see below for the reasons why).
Ignore "Rank Up", this is only useful for end-game play.
===Chance of success===
Every unity has a base chance of success. For basic himes, this starts at 80%, and is lower for higher tier himes.
You can sacrifice up to seven monsters or other himes from your deck to increase your chance of success.
Monsters that increase unity chance by 1% and 2% are very common, 3% is less common and 4% and above are relatively rare. Note that all materials used to boost your chance of success are lost during the unity, regardless of whether it succeeds or not.
To reach 100% you might aim for a combination of boosts like 2%, 2%, 2%, 3%, 3%, 4%, 4%, or whatever other combination you can put together from the materials you have available.
Forest of Wood God and Dragon Temple are good sources of 4% unity materials, dropping the monsters Sunekosuri and Chimi respectively (both go up to 5% if raised to level 5). Alternatively, unity of two Ghost Cats will create either Fire Wolf (4%), or much less commonly Luck Cat (5%), with Fire Wolf having the additional benefit of being one of the more difficult to get special unity materials.
You can also use himes as consumables to increase the chance of a successful unity. Leveling a hime to 6 will improve its boost by +1% (so a Variant Basic that is normally 7% becomes 8% boost at level 6 and above). Generally, however, new players will be better off conserving their himes and farming for monsters that offer +4% unity success chance instead.
Attempting to unity any hime with a success chance of less than 100% is a gamble that may result in you losing your secondary hime and all materials. Even a 99% chance still leaves a 1% chance of failure. For most beginners, himes are too scarce to risk losing to a poor result from the random number generator. Aim for a 100% on all your unities or risk joining the '99% club'.
Pro-tip: In the card tab, a card's "cost" is also the percentage boost the card gives if used as a unity material.(only for monsters)
===To special unity, or not to special unity?===
Most established players recommend using basic to elite special unity for constructing a decent starting team.
Special unities are predictable and risk free (so long as you use 100% unity chance), the materials mostly easy to come by, and enable you to skip over the Variant Basic tier straight to Elite. Elites are very solid cards that will serve most players well until the second half of Map Two.
An alternative school of thought is that a new player might want to try their luck on standard unities due to the 20-25% chance of crafting a Rare. Two to three Rares in a new player's deck can have a powerful impact, and will remain useful well into Map Three.
The downside of gambling for Rares, other than the obvious risk of failure, is that Rares are locked into a very resource intensive upgrade path, requiring 40 cherries to unity to the next tier up. (A level 1 Sakura Bonsai Pot produces only one cherry a day, thereby taking over a month to produce enough materials for a single unity.)
Elites, on the other hand, preserve an upgrade path to Variant Elites. Variant Elites have the same statistics as Rares, but are much less resource intensive when the time comes to unity them to the next tier up again.
==='Brushing' himes===
You will hear a lot about 'brushing' himes.
Brushing is the process of feeding your himes cards and other materials to boost their stats or to add skills.
For most players, there is no real need to worry about this until at least Player Lv. 8. By Lv. 8 you will have a better idea of what the game is about, and if need be can ask guild mates or refer to this wiki for the finer details.
The one thing you will need to know now, however, is that when uniting, only buffs and one skill (slot 1 takes priority) on the primary hime transfer to the new hime. All buffs and skills on the secondary hime, as well as any skill in slot 2 and/or 3 (if there are more than 1 skill) on the primary hime, will be lost.
Until you know what you're doing, it's best to limit any stat boosts (brushes, medicine, tools) and skills to a single primary hime within a class to minimise the risk of accidentally losing these stats later.
==What should I do first?==
Work towards uniting your basics into a decent team of elites or better. This shouldn't be as hard as it sounds, as for most basics the materials are fairly easy to come by (see Basic to Elite Unity).
Many dungeons are best attempted with himes of one or two types only (spear/bow, sword/axe and magic). Early on, it is useful to aim be able to field five himes of each set (5x spear/bow, 5x sword/axe and 5x magic) plus two recovery, so you have the flexibility to tailor your team to any dungeon.
Follow the main quest line. This is fairly straight forward, and the first few levels quite fast paced. Completing particular quests is how you (the player) level up. Leveling up also comes with increased action points, which in turn assists you to progress more quickly.
Sculptor Mountain is a good dungeon in which to level basic himes. A mixed team of level 3 and 4 himes and a Tennyo will usually beat it four out of five times.
Add Rusty Silver Mine to your daily dungeon roster. This dungeon is quick and relatively easy, and unlike most other dungeons awards silver for successful runs. The silver you accumulate here will be handy later on, or can be used to purchase patterns of basic race from the shop. Rusty Silver Mine is capped at a maximum of five runs, per player, per day.
Get on the weekly ranking board for ranked dungeons. To see this week's ranked dungeons click on the ranking book > battles tab > then on the gold coloured dungeon dots. In most cases, getting on the ranking board is rewarded with extra silver. Rankings reset each Wednesday 3:00 server time. Rewards are emailed to your in-game email box each Wednesday, 5:00 (dungeons) and 5:30 (training) server time.
Join a guild. You will be forced to early in your quest line anyhow, but there is no reason not to do so earlier. Established guilds will offer a number of percentage boosts to your stats, and are good sources of helpful advice. More or less every guild is recruiting, all the time. If you are lost about which guild to apply for see the guild rankings. Most of the top 15 guilds are active and friendly. Note that if a guild leader isn't online it may take a few hours for a guild to accept your application - if you'd like a guild immediately advertise in world chat.
Try to log in every day, even if you don't have time to play, as daily login bonuses can be invaluable. Also, as total guild membership is capped, in order to make room for new recruits many guilds will purge inactive low level members after as little as three days.
Collect an Apricot Bonsai Pot from Stone Road to the Mountain Top, and an Sakura Bonsai Pot from Stone Mine at the Mountain Top, and put both in your garden so that you can start collecting apricots and cherries. These materials can take a lot of time to accumulate but are essential for uniting advanced himes (see :Category:Special Unity), therefore the earlier you start collecting them the better.
Start collecting Guide Book I to level up your Rice Ball Shop and Pharmacy. (Forest of Wood God is a good source of guide books, and also drops 4% unity materials.)
Level up and start collecting stat brushes from your farm. 310-all is a widely used recipe as it drops lots of stat boosts, and also has a chance of dropping basic hime patterns.
NOTE: Demon Lair is an optional dungeon, you do not need to clear it to progress.
== What should I do later? ==
Once you progress to map 2, pick up a Yuzu Bonsai Pot from Mysterious Lake at your first opportunity, and place it in your garden, so that you can start accumulating Yuzu.
Collect Guide Book II to level up your Rice Ball Shop, Pharmacy, Sakura Bonsai Pot and Apricot Bonsai Pot.
Start brushing your best one or two himes.
==Getting more basic himes==
Receiving more Himes is possibly the biggest bottleneck in the early game, here are a few ways to earn more.
1. Pattern of Basic Race - This item lets you summon a basic hime of your choice (through the quest > pattern menu). The pattern can be purchased at the shop for 3200 Silver or 80,000 Bronze coins.Note: Pattern is only tradable after reaching player lv 4.
2. Bronze summons - The chance of getting a shikihime from a bronze ticket is about 2%. This means that you will normally expect to receive one to three basic hime for every five "packs of ten" you summon, however this rate may be modified in various ways by weekly events.
After bronze summoning, many advanced players will use the "sell monsters" button (accessed from the card tab) to earn more coin, which can in turn be spent on more bronze summons and (potentially) more basic himes.
3.Traveling - An option under the garden tab is to send one of your himes out 'traveling' for up to eight hours at a time. After 24 total hours travelled per type (sword, spear, magic, etc.) you will gain a free basic hime and the counter resets. Himes that travel earn XP depending on their level, so level 9 himes earn the most (roughly 1000 XP per hour). You should aim to have one of your himes traveling at all times.
*Current EXP - Shows the Hime's current experience points.
*EXP after return - Shows the expected experience gained after the Hime's return.
4. Farming - On your Farm, manure recipies starting from 310-all have a chance of growing a pattern of basic race. Manure recipe 600-500-500-600-500 has a high chance of growing a pattern of basic race.
5. Quests and trials - Some quests, daily/weekly Trials and events may offer a pattern of basic race as a reward.
6. From guild bosses - Guild members receive 2 Pattern of Basic Race each day from the first guild boss killed (ask your guild leader about this).
To receive this pattern you must:
#be at least level 4; and
#have gained a Pattern of Basic Race from shop or quest at least once, and then exchanged it in the quest page for a hime.
Note that you will not receive a pattern on the day you join the guild. The day resets at 00:00 server time (see time stamp on right of chat messages), with the pattern awarded immediately when the guild kills its first boss.
==Combat==
===Combat affinity===
Shikihime Garden combat uses a rock, paper, scissors mechanic.
A color triangle representing this is displayed before every level of a dungeon on the top right, before you press the 'attack' button, to enable you to decide whether to swap any front row himes for thos on the back row with better affinities.
In colour terms: 
green > blue,
red > green, 
blue > red.
===Combat formula===
Example:
Damage Rating: A bow type will do 1.2 times more damage to a magic type than to another bow type. The mage type will do 0.6 times the amount of normal damage to the bow/spear type.
 Damage is [ (Attack / 2) - (Defense/4) ] * AffinityMultiplier * Number of attacks * Crit Multiplier
The affinity multiplier is 1.2 if favorable, 0.6 if not.
===Double tapping===
Double tapping means that the attacker gets a second attack, doubling the damage inflicted.
Double tapping triggers if an attacker has at least twice the agility (AGI) of the defender.
For example, a monster or hime with 300 AGI will double tap if its opponent has 150 AGI or less, and won't double-tap if its opponent has agility of 151 or more.
==Healer management==
Many players find healing in Shikihime Garden frustrating. As hime actions are more or less completely random, your healer is just as likely to attack as she is to heal herself or another hime.
In practice, the only reliable healing you will get is an area of effect (AOE) heal at the end of each floor.
To take advantage of this, place one or two healers (and only healers) in your backrow and bring them out just prior to last hits. By having only healers in your backrow you guarantee that you will draw a healer when you need one, while maintaining a maximum damage (DPS) front row to take down monsters quickly.
==Medicines and tools==
Medicines and tools (weapons) increase one of the hime's stats.
Place medicine and tools on the ground in your garden and himes will eat them if their 'Eat' Action has been unlocked.
Eat is unlocked by having owned two of the same type hime at any time (doesn't have to be simultaneously). To check if eat is unlocked see the hime entry in your catalogue tab.
If you watch a hime eat, blue numbers appear over the hime's head showing the stat changes (+1 DEF, HP, STR, etc.). Red text then indicates that a hime's total impression has dropped by 10 points (IMP-10).
Tools have varying success rates, starting as low as 1/20 (5%) depending on the rarity of the tool. Medicine succeeds 100% of the time unless that stat is maxed.
The stat is maxed when it turns orange in the card list.
Many players make a small cage out of rocks, or similar, that a hime can't escape from. Putting both the medicine/tools and hime in the cage will speed up eating and ensure that your preferred hime gets the boost.
You can obtain medicine from the Pharmacy/Pharmacy of Orihime, or from your farm.
Tools are typically drops from dungeons or your farm.
==Common questions==
===What do I do with...?===
...Flute of Yambiko and Fang of Nozuchi: These are used to call once-a-day bosses for your guild to fight. Note that these bosses are very powerful and will require several other guild members to fight them. Most guilds request that you do not devote (Guild tab > Devote Place) without first seeking permission from a guild leader. 'Devoting' the final item needed to call a guild boss calls that boss immediately.
...Apricot: 40 apricot are part of the materials required to fuse variant basics into variant elites as a Basic to Elite Special Unity. Get 3 every 24 hours from Apricot Bonsai Pot (can upgrade with Guide Books II x 20 to reduce the spawn timer to 18 hours). May also be a reward from some daily and weekly trials.
...Cherry: 40 cherries are part of the materials required to craft an extremely rare hime. See this guide. Get 1 every 24 hours from Sakura Bonsai Pot (can upgrade with Guide Book II x 30 to reduce the spawn timer to 18 hours). May also be a reward from some daily and weekly trials.
...Yuzu: 40 yuzu are part of the materials required to craft Yuzu Spirit, a required ingredient for crafting superior ex.rare himes. Get 1 every 24 hours from Yuzu Bonsai Pot (can upgrade with Guide Book III x 30 to reduce the spawn timer to 18 hours). May also be a reward from some daily and weekly trials. Note that obtaining sufficient Yuzu is arguably the biggest bottleneck in the end-game, expect to never have enough.
... Story Scrolls: Scroll of Akki or any other hime's story is an item which will activate a story-telling session if it's being fed to the corresponding hime. The scrolls are treated as medicine by the game, so you will need to first unlock the hime's "eat" function.
=== Where can I...? ===
...find [monster] or [ornament] required for one of the daily trials: Search this wiki. Note that low level players will not be able to complete many of the trials, which can often involve running Map 3 dungeons, or higher.
...find special unity materials (eg Red Bean): See links for materials from the Basic to Elite Unity page.
...find Apricot Spirit: Collect 40 Apricots from Apricot Bonsai Pot (or some daily and weekly trials), then trade them through the quest "Bring 40 Apricot here!". Yes, this will take weeks. See also Variant Basic to Variant Elite Unity.
...find Sakura Spirit: Collect 40 Cherries from Sakura Bonsai Pot (or some daily and weekly trials), then trade them through the quest menu. Yes, this will take weeks. See also Rare to Extremely Rare Unity.
...find pieces of certain weapons (eg Piece of Forbidden Magic Book): Obtain these in the Daily Dungeon  These are then used in the making of an Extremely Rare hime. See also Superior to Superior Extremely Rare Unity. Note: you need to turn in the quest twice to have enough material for the unity.
...find answers to the weekly quiz: See the Weekly Quiz page on this wiki.
...cash in patterns: Quest menu -> Pattern
=== How can I...? ===
...unlock the "eat" action. Eat is unlocked by having owned two of the same type hime at any time (doesn't have to be simultaneously). See Medicines and tools.
==Silver==
Silver is used for purchasing ornaments for your garden and consumables (such as basic patterns, and ap recovery pills) from the shop.
Silver is acquired by
*Selling a hime, which gives you silver depending on the rarity of the card (2000 for basic, 3000 for variant basic, etc.).
*Farming at Rusty Silver Mine, a dungeon limited to five runs a day for 160 silver each run (5 x 160 = 800 daily).
*Weekly ranking prize for most battles in specific subjugations.To see this week's ranked subjugation click on the ranking book > battles tab > then on the gold coloured subjugation dots. In most cases, getting on the ranking board is rewarded with extra silver. Rewards are emailed to your in-game email account each Wednesday, 5:00 server time.
Here's a guide on silver grinding.(it's at the bottom of the page)
==Gold==
Gold is used for Foreign Hime summons (such as a Reaper or a Valkyrie) and for some purchases in the shop.
Gold is acquired by
*Visiting other player's gardens ('visit' tab) and petting one of their himes. You can do this five times per day for a total of 50 gold. Note that gold is not credited until you return to main screen.
*Sending your himes training (PVP) five times a day. Note that the percentage displayed is the opponent’s previous win/loss ratio, so lower percentages usually (but not always) mean you are more likely to win. There is a gold bonus for win streaks, however streaks do not carry over to the next day. The player rating is calculated as attacks won + defenses won / total attacks + total defences, rounded down.
* Participating in 'devote' guild boss fights (although the amount is relatively insignificant - particularly for a new player).
* Completing the daily trial 'level love'.
* Weekly Damage Rankings. Similar to silver, but these are rankings for the highest total damage dealt in specific subjugations. (these are usually located at map3 and 4 though..)
== Maximising the game screen ==
In most popular browsers, press F11 to make the game take up your full screen.
If F11 doesn't work in the first instance, click just outside the main green box and try again.
Pressing F11 again reverts back to normal screen mode.
==Where does the name "Shikihime Garden" come from?==
"Shikigami" are spirits in Japanese mythology that can be summoned from slips of paper. In Japanese, "kami" can mean both "paper" and "spirit", depending on the context. (The "k" in kami is changed to a "g" (-gami) in this instance due to Japanese grammar rules.)
"Hime" is a Japanese word that broadly translates as "princess".
A significant component of the game is "brushing" (that is, painting) "cards" and thereby changing and/or improving that card's (the hime's) abilities.
Gardens have significant cultural, historical, ceremonial and spiritual importance in Japan, particularly as places for meditation and quiet reflection. (In this case, a quiet and relaxing place to retire to and rejuvenate between bouts of beating the living snot out of various monsters.)
==General==
*Turn on Lock to avoid moving furniture by mistake.
*Zoom in/out your browser to adjust play area (Control +/- or hold control and mouse wheel forward/back).
*Watch your cards' experience cap. You will not receive a notice if they've reached it.
*Monster cards disappear permanently if they fall in battle, hime and special monsters do not.
* Himes and monsters fully heal when they level up (or when u use an item on them, like brush of strength).
* Monster cards can't be healed outside of battle, however you can run damaged monsters with a healer through a beginner dungeon to heal them if you need.
* Watch your free card spaces before doing subjugations as once it's filled, any additional cards acquired will be lost. There is a line of text that will appear above the subjugation name(when u selected a subjugation) when u have less than 10 card space remaining.
* Action Point recovers by 1 every 2 minutes.
Category:Guides