Gardener

**Emma Woods** (formerly **Lisa Beck**), also known as the **Gardener**, is a Contain/Assist Type and Difficulty 1 Default Survivor unlocked after finishing the prologue. She is one of **43** playable Survivors added to Identity V.

—Emma Woods (Deduction Quest No. 9)

## Appearance

Emma is a petite, thin doll with peach skin, green button eyes cross-stitched with white thread, thin brown eyebrows, brown hair parted into two bangs and pulled into a bun, and freckles. Her mouth is pulled into a permanent, serene smile.

She wears a green apron with a small scrap of white fabric with a black "**×**", "□", and "○" from left to right, and multiple stitched, faded green patches over a collared white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, jeans, a leather belt holding a pair of shears and a red watering can, and leather ankle boots with shiny black heels. A large straw hat sits on her head, and she wears white gloves. A tear is visible in her left forearm, showing cotton stuffing. She holds a green metal toolkit with a grey handle, a lid fastened by a matching clasp, and a light grey symbol of a spanner in her right hand.

## Gameplay

The Gardener is a contain/assist-type Survivor who specializes in supporting her team by breaking Rocket Chairs or taking protective hits using her shield. She starts each game with a long shield which breaks after being hit by the Hunter while the shield is still active or by itself after 50 seconds. She can later summon a shorter lasting shield (6 seconds) multiple times by standing still for a short period of time.

### External Traits

Below is a list of Gardener's intrinsic traits. For more in-depth information, please check the individual pages.

 Ingenuity | *Carries around a toolkit that is used to destroy Rocket Chairs. Hunters are able to repair destroyed Rocket Chairs. The toolkit has a **12** seconds cooldown after each use.*
**Exclusive**
 Protection | *With the memories of the past, the Gardener is able to block one incoming damage during the first **50** seconds of the game. This effect expires when attacked by the Hunter or when the duration ends.*
**Recall**
***20** second(s) after the memories are gone, the Gardener can Recall on the spot for **2** seconds to regain her memories for another **6** second(s).*
*Each successful Recall will delay the next Recall by **10** seconds.*

### Character Statistics

Below is a list of Gardener's statistics. To view other Survivors' gameplay data, please view **this article**.

### Tips

**Please press "Expand" to see tips about playing as and against this Survivor.**
Strengths* Compared to the other survivors the player gets when they first start the game, Gardener has fairly decent performance that makes her a good character for beginners.
* While she doesn’t have much in terms of flashy stuns or such, she lacks any debuffs and the gameplay of breaking rocket chairs is straightforward.
* The shield means that if she ends up being the first to be chased, she’ll have a bit more breathing room, especially against hunters that rely on surprise attacks. Remember that the shield taking a hit will feed the hunter presence, which will make them stronger, so be careful.
* As rocket chairs are plentiful on almost all maps, the bonus to vaulting speed might as well be permanent.
* Not so bad when it comes to rescuing. The shield can be used to secure a rescue without risk of a terror shock, and even in circumstances where she’s hit before rescuing, the veterans bonus means she can get a large amount of distance from the rescued survivor and their chair, decreasing the risk of a double-down.
* The shield is a fairly strong ability.
	+ Effectively, it’s Seer’s owl shield that last 5 seconds, and it has multiple uses such as rescuing, helping out the Gardener kite, taking a hit for the final cipher completion, or taking detention hits.
	+ The first cool down time for using the 2 second shield is 20 seconds, but this will increase by 10 seconds each time it’s activated. You’ll need to carefully consider how you’ll use it.
	+ If the shield is used well, Seer’s owl can be potentially preserved until late game.
	+ Unlike Perfumer’s euphoria, Gardener’s ability can be used to block damage even when damaged.
* A harasser that can’t be dealt with by using Excitement.
	+ Note that the persona traits Giant Claw and Control Freak can be taken as a countermeasure to facing Gardener.
* Increased chair durability of broken chairs by 10%.
* You can avoid crows spawning overhead by touching a chair with the toolkit (you don’t have to break the chair). Useful for late game when trying to find the dungeon.

Weaknesses* The amount of how much you can affect the game is limited, good or bad.
	+ As her evaluation can be described “a good character for beginners,” this means that other characters can outperform her in terms of kiting, support, rescuing, or harassment, as well as other advantages. While Gardener is good for practicing, if you want to consider ranking up in a serious manner then Seer or Priestess are general suggestions for more meta characters that are still beginner friendly. (Note that if you find yourself repeating the thoughts “I’m having trouble using the owl properly” or “I seem to die instantly” then this may mean you should spend more time practicing with Gardener.)
* Kiting can be difficult at times.
	+ The shield is the main means of defense, but it has a finicky activation period and cool down, so for much of the chase you’ll have to rely on your own abilities to survive.
* Doesn’t really benefit from not being found first by the hunter.
	+ Relating to this, they’re poor compatibility with Quenching Effect. As by the time Quenching is activated the shield will be gone, as well as the Gardeners location being shown to the hunter.
* Poor performance against The Breaking Wheel.
	+ The ability Pessimistic will ignore the shield and deal damage if the Gardener is afflicted with spikes.
	+ The shield doesn’t block the debuff caused by traps. You won’t lose the shield, but you might just end up being hit with pessimistic.
	+ As of 2021, the shield functions as follows. (The same logic applies to Seer’s owl shield.)

 Spike from form switching | Can prevent

* Has difficulties with multi hit hunters.
	+ The shield doesn’t have terrible performance against hunters who rely on their normal attack, but against hunters such as Guard 26, Violinist or Sculptor, the Shield is easily removed.
	+ Of course, in the context of lower ranks, she still has better performance against these hunters in comparison to the other beginner survivors, so try not panic too much and focus on improving your skills.
* It’s difficult to use the recall ability mid chase.
	+ As you have to stop to activate it, and the effect of its activation is displayed overhead, it’s very telegraphed. You’ll need to consider the distance between you, the hunter, and the safe area such as a pallet or window. You’ll have to simply get a judgment for when to use the shield through practice.
* A broken rocket chair can be fixed very quickly.
	+ While a broken chair has its timer speed decreased by 10%, when considering the amount of effort and time it takes to break a rocket chair for harassment in the first place, the return for doing so is often limited.
* Breaking a rocket chair will alert the hunter to the location of the broken rocket chair.
	+ Note that you can also intentionally use this to draw the hunter towards your location, but you should only do this if you are confident in your ability to kite.

Gameplay Tips* Firstly, *do not give priority to breaking rocket chairs*. It has drawbacks such as alerting the hunter to your location, but most of all takes away time that is better spent decoding. If you do want to go about breaking a rocket chair, memorize the spawn positions of the rocket chairs, figure out the location of the basement and break the nearest rocket chair that will be advantageous. Fixing a broken rocket chair takes only a few seconds, so going about breaking rocket chairs that already have chairs nearby them is pointless.

Chase* At the start, thanks to the effects of the shield lasting 50 seconds and blocking a single hit of damage, even if you spawn into a bad position, taking the first chase wont be too bad, and you can reposition to a stronger kiting area potentially without taking any damage. Since the initially kite will inherently be not so bad, instead of focusing on transition to a safe kiting area, instead try to focus on decoding a cipher machine.
* If you have the persona Knee Jerk Reflex and find yourself at a weak cipher machine, preemptively throw down a pallet, and if the hunter comes near, use the speed boost to transition to a safer area. Some specific examples are:
	+ The cipher machine on Arms Factory located in the center of the map with few obstacles in the woods. Throw down the single pallet nearby.
	+ The cipher machine on Red Church located in the center of the church. Throw down the pallet that leads to the shack. Another one is the cipher machine at the red carpet wedding venue, throw down any pallet found nearby the machine.
	+ The cipher machine on Sacred Heart Hospital located nearby the front gate. They’re are usually 3 pallets around here.
	+ Remember that the above advice can also be applied while playing other survivors.

Rescue* While the suggested build for Gardener is the kiting based 39 persona build, the combination of both the shield as well as the veterans bonus means that reaching the rocket chair unscathed when the hunter can attack at a range or is roaming while camping. Along with this the veterans bonus means that avoid a double down after rescuing is viable as distance between the Gardener, hunter and rescued survivor is easy to make.
* If you are using a rescue persona build, they’re are a few things to keep in mind for when you should go about rescuing.
	+ No Mercenary (or other rescuer) is present on the team or has already rescued and used up Tide Turner. Make sure to use the ping system to let your teammates know you're going rescue.
	+ You should start moving away from the cipher machine when someone is down a little early. The shaking of the cipher can be used to locate where survivors are, as well as whether or not someone is coming to rescue or where the rescuer is coming from.
	+ By showing up to the rocket chair a bit early you’ll be under less pressure while rescuing, and it will generally go 2 ways. You’ll either be hit early, taking 1 hit of damage but allowing you to safely rescue your teammate without the risk of being terror shocked or the rescued survivor being able to gain some distance from the hunter. The other scenario is that the hunter will not hit and it will instead turn into a waiting game. Make sure to rescue before the survivors icon reaches the middle bar (or the gauge reaches the top of the icon.) At about 40% you can try to use the shield to safely rescue.
* Be careful about using the shield at the last moment during rescues. As the shield takes 2 seconds to activate, in the time it takes to apply it and get into position, the gauge can potentially pass 50%, all the more reason to show up to the chair a bit early.
	+ It’s good to show up at about 30% on the gauge (18 seconds have passed) or 80% (48 seconds have passed.)

Breaking Rocket Chairs* On Sacred Heart Hospital, if the hospital doesn’t have basement in it, breaking rocket chairs nearby the hospital can help a balloon escape. This is in the context of the early game, or the first kite.
* An advanced technique is to break a rocket chair before a teammate is about to be chaired and the final cipher is ready to be popped. This technique requires practice and communication so attempting this strategy if you aren’t used to it can easily result in disaster.
* It’s a standard strategy of hunters to chair survivors nearby cipher machines to impede its progress. If a teammate is likely to go down nearby a cipher machine, it’s fine to break the nearest chair. If you break the chair before the survivor enters the balloon state, the hunter may not attempt to chair at the cipher machine at all, and while the hunter will receive a notification for the broken chairs, if the hunter is not familiar with this strategy they may just assume that the notification was making a mistake while decoding. On the other hand, if the hunter is overly greedy and attempts to harass at the cipher machine using the ballooned survivor, you should attempt to make time to see if you can get a balloon rescue.
* For destroying chairs for the sake of extending the chair time, your targets should be chairs that say “if a survivor goes down here, this is the chair the hunter will have to end up using.”

Rocket Chair Harassment* The general strategy is to break the rocket chair while using the shield to buy struggle time for the ballooned survivor so that they can potentially escape. The hunter will have to drop the ballooned survivor in order to fix the rocket chair, and when this is done the struggle progress will start up from where it left off.
* Unfortunately, this is fairly difficult to pull off, especially when attempting to coordinate with random teammates. It’s best to attempt it when in voice chat communication.
* Without proper execution of this strategy, the risk for taking damage is high, and this will worsen the situation. It should be attempted when you both have knowledge of the situation, and feel that it would be low risk to harass. The judgment for when you should or shouldn’t harass is similar to other harassers. Generally, if the harassment is successful you can hope for about 4 cipher machines being finished in the time bought, but failure can result in the game being much more difficult to win.
* After learning the basics of kiting, if you're still choosing to play Gardener over more meta characters, you’ll need to start practicing how to properly harass.
* You’ll need to learn before hand the strengths of the various rocket chairs based on their positioning, and how likely it is for a survivor to be downed at it or for a hunter to use it over another one.
* Hunters can take Giant Claw to counter Gardener, so be careful.
* Back off when the hunter is repairing the chair and watch what they do next, when they go to balloon the downed survivor and chair them, break the chair again. If you don’t feel confident about doing this, use the shield before breaking the chair.
* Hunters you can aim to harass without the shield are usually Gamekeeper, Hell Ember and Wu Chang.
* It’s possible to pop the last cipher to be finished while the hunter is fixing the chair.

Some Rocket Chairs that are Good to Destroy* On Leo's Memory, the rocket chair on the first floor of the factory, so long as the basement isn’t at the factory. Note that this is the one inside the building, not the one outside nearby the stairs. Once the chair is destroyed, depended on where the survivor was downed they should be able to struggle free even without Will to Survive, but also note that the first floor of the factory only has a single pallet, and the chair itself is not in a position where you can have an easy time harassing.
* On Lakeside Village, the rocket chair on the deck of the ship, ‘so long as there is no rocket chair at the entrance of the ship on the ground level’ or the basement is located on the ship.
* On Moonlit River Park, either of the rocket chairs found at the two story building, the one outside or the one inside. Pick one or the other. Usually need will to survive to properly struggle free.

Other Notes* You can replace the toolkit by looking through chests or picking up items left by eliminated survivors. Note that you won’t be able to ward off crows by doing this.
* If you enter the Priestess’s long portal and quickly activate the shield, the first of damage your afterimage takes will be blocked. (After this anything else will function as usual.)
* The time it takes for a hunter to fix a chair, balloon a survivor and then chair them is about the 10 seconds.
* If the hunter Photographer takes a picture while a rocket chair is broken, the photo world version of that chair will also be broken and the Photographer will not be able to repair it.
* The activation of the shield can be canceled by emoting.
* If the Gardener has both the Seer’s owl shield as well as her own and is hit, both shields will be lost. It isn’t possible to block non attack recovery attack with Gardener’s shield and then block a normal attack with Seer’s owl. You cannot activate the Gardener’s shield while under the protection of the Seer’s owl.

Suggested Persona Build* 39- Borrowed time, exit path, distress, cold and 3 points in snooze.
	+ A good performance chase based build. Snooze is used to extend the time of the rocket chair. Overall easy to use.
* 36- Borrowed time, tide turner, exit path, distress.
	+ If you have a Seer on the team, going 36 as Gardener is fine. For those that have difficulty noticing the approach of the hunter or where they are coming from, it’s good to put 1 point into cold.
* 39- Borrowed time, exit path, distress, 1 point in sticker and 3 points in will to survive.
	+ Build that aims for balloon rescues by breaking rocket chairs. Should primarily be used on Sacred Heart Hospital and Leo's Memory.

If Gardener is on Your Team* If you’re in voice chat, try to go down where you know a rocket chair has been broken, as you can earn yourself about 10 seconds in the time it takes to drop a ballooned survivor and fix the chair. Also note that broken chairs will have 10% durability increase.
* Other harassers such as Wildling, Prospector, or Forward should try to focus on increasing struggle progress instead of going for a full stun. Remember that one person being downed and one person harassing means that only 2 people will be decoding.
* If you can afford it, the persona Will to Survive can be taken.
* If the Gardener is harassing while you are downed, crawl away from the chair instead of healing yourself.
* If Gardener is eliminated, the toolkit will be left at the sight of the blast off. It can be used to avoid crows.

Playing Against Gardener
Chase* Has a 10% increase to vaulting and pallet throwing when nearby rocket chairs.
* Veterans bonus will increase speed when hit for 2 seconds.
* Shield that lasts for 50 seconds at the start of the game. Absorbs a hit of damage. 20 seconds after the first shield is used, another shield can reapplied by standing still for 2 seconds. This shield will last for 5 seconds. Every time the shield is reactivated 10 seconds will be added to cooldown of the shield.
* Chase can be pretty strong. The shield will absorb even terror shocks. When the shield is struck Gardener won’t get a speed boost of any kind, and you’ll also accumulate presence. If you find Gardener first don’t try to wait out the shield, as it will buy the Gardener too much decoding time.
* If you bring the persona Quenching Effect, the shield will disappear at the same time quenching effect will activate. So she’s a good target if you’re close to her.
* After the initial shield is used, subsequent shields will only last 5 seconds, so it’s best to either wait this shield out or remove it with an ability that won’t trigger your attack recovery animation. Pay attention to where the Gardener is going while waiting for the shield to end.

Decoding
100% (General Decoding Speed.)
* (Did you know? Gardener used to have a trait that increased the room for error for calibrations when decoding. This was removed when her shield was added.)

Rescue* If you down a survivor other then Gardener very quickly, such as with a terror shock, note that Gardener’s initial 50 second shield will still be active.
* The Gardener can apply a shield for rescuing. You can try to get a hit in on her while she’s attempting apply the shield, damaging her but allowing her to safely rescue while your stuck in the attack recovery animation, or allow the shield to be applied and proceed to tunnel the rescued survivor, but note that the Gardener may attempt to body block as she is potentially at full health.
* Hunters that have abilities that can remove the shield without attack recovery animation of course have an easier time.

Post Rescue
Chair Durability: 110%
* Without the shield her only other means of defense is the veterans bonus as well as the increase to vaulting speed and pallet interaction, which makes her a fairly easy target to tunnel as the shield is difficult to reapply after being rescued. If you’re stuck in some kind of animation like a stun or attack recovery animation, this can be room to apply the shield.
* If a Priestess’s long portal is nearby, be careful. Gardener can block damage dealt to her afterimage by activating her shield while on the other side of the portal.
* Remember that she will lasts longer on the chair than other survivors.

Other Notes* Gardener can avoid crows gathering overhead by touching rocket chairs (not fully breaking them, just touching them.) It’s a common strategy to use this to find the dungeon and escape.
* Fixing the broken chair will only buy a small amount of time, or sometimes the broken chair will be nearby a perfectly usable chair. Observe your surroundings before deciding where you’ll chair the survivor.
* Remember that the shield only lasts 5 seconds. Sometimes you can get an easy hit on a Gardener if she applies her shield too soon. Also note that not all chairs are in locations where the Gardener can easily get to a safe position if the hunter decides to commit to getting a hit on her.
* Be wary of the maps Arms Factory, Sacred Heart Hospital or Eversleeping Town. They have certain locations where rocket chairs can be very spaced out.
* When playing the hunter Photographer keep in mind that when you take a picture, chairs broken in the real world will be broken in the photo world, and you won’t be able to fix them. Pay attention to the notification sounds.

## Concept / Design Notes

### Chinese Art Reference Book

Gentle, courteous, love everything around, have a pair of dexterous hands and perfect gardening skills, carry gardening tools with you, these are the original background settings of this character. Compared with romantic literature and art or country atmosphere, she prefers a lively and refreshing image, so she decided to adopt a casual style with short hair and small broken hair around her ears. The little straw hat on her head has become her character symbol, and the clothing involved in the following is also designed differently according to this unique feature.

### Official Website

The Victorian era began in 1837 and ended in 1901. During this period, European women began to play a more important role in society, and their clothes and dresses were more lively and masculine. The straw hat girl in "The Fifth Personality" has exquisite and capable short hair in the middle, and the worn-out straw hat and apron reflect the hard work during work. The stained jeans were a sign of the identity of the workers at that time.

## Change Log

December 3rd, 2020
* Buff: Added an effect to the Gardener's external trait "Protection," so that after the effect has expired for 20 seconds, she can Recall on the spot for 2 seconds (this effect won't be triggered while she is decoding, moving, or conducting other actions) to gain another protection effect for 5 seconds. Each successful Recall will delay the next Recall by 10 seconds.

June 30th, 2022
* Buff: Added a switch for Recall. The Gardener will no longer enter Recall while standing still if the switch is turned off.
* Buff: If the previous Recall is interrupted by a Hunter's attack or ability, progress from the previous Recall will be carried over to the next Recall for up to 1.7 seconds.
* Buff: Increased the duration of memories from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.

October 12th, 2023
* Buff: The Gardener's Recall will no longer be interrupted when struck by the Wax Artist's Wax Hit.

## Trivia

* She is the mascot of Identity V.
* Emma is the only character who has a crossover costume of a character who shares her name.
* She appears in all three episodes of the stage play series produced in Japan. She was played by Fujimi Reimi. She is one of the featured characters in the second episode's Side A, in a Blackjack Mode team alongside Robbie. Her Boudoir Dream costume appears in that episode.
* There is an S tier accessory based on her (see Gardener Doll).
* According to the Official Identity V Museum she is 163 cm tall (5'4).
* Emma's birthday being December 21st, 1876, places her manor game in the year 1899, near the end of the Victorian era.
* One of Emma's original traits was called "Mech Expert". This trait increased the calibration success zone by a significant amount making her a good main for newer players back in the day.
* She is 1 of 14 survivors that have a 'secondary role' which classifies them in two categories. (This can be seen on the paperclip when viewing Survivor Profiles.)
	+ She is classified as both a Contain and Assist role, Contain appears to be her primary role while Assist is her secondary role.
	+ She was previously a pure Contain Type Survivor until it was changed to Contain/Assist with an update on May 19th, 2022.
* A fanfiction was commissioned by Netease about Emma and posted on their official Weibo and WeChat. The story was eventually translated into English and posted on the Identity V official website.

## In Other Languages

 🇺🇸 | English
 español | Español(Spanish) | Jardinera (Emma Woods / Lisa Beck)
 🇮🇩 | Bahasa Indonesia
 🇲🇾 | Bahasa Melayu
 🇻🇳 | Tiếng Việt(Vietnamese) | Thợ Vườn (Emma Woods / Lisa Beck)

## References

1. ↑ In the Diaries and the In-Game Voice.
2. ↑ In the Diaries (Offical Confirmation Post), in the 4th Anniversary News Video, as Lady Truth in the Season 15 Essence 3 Trailer, as Monstrous Bird in the 3rd Global Anniversary Trailer, as Monstrous Bird in Monstrous Bird's Tale and as Cosmic Witch in the Season 23 Essence 1 Trailer.
3. ↑ In the Diaries, according to the cast list on the Identity V IMDb page.
4. ↑ She appears in all three episodes of the Identity V Stage Play as Emma Woods.
5. ↑ Age from the official Art Reference Book
6. ↑ Design notes obtained from the first volume of the Official Art Reference Book in Chinese.
7. ↑ Design notes obtained from the official website.