About Idle Bloom

A garden that grows itself, once you get it going. Tap the big flower for petals, then spend them on helpers that grow petals on their own: sprouts and watering cans to begin with, then bumblebees, gardeners, greenhouses, rain clouds, sun lamps and, eventually, a whole bloom fair. Every helper of a kind costs a little more than the last, so the question is always what to buy next — another cheap sprout, or saving for the next big thing.

Upgrades double a kind of helper once you own enough of them, make your taps stronger, or let every tap grow a share of what your helpers make in a second. Keep an eye on the sky: now and then a golden bee flies across the garden. Catch it for a bloom rush, when everything grows seven times as fast for half a minute, or a shower of petals. Once your garden has grown a million petals you can replant: start again from nothing, but with seeds that make everything grow faster for good.

Your garden keeps growing while you're away, at half speed, for up to eight hours. For something sharper there's the daily sprint: five minutes from an empty garden, with the golden bees coming at the same moments for everyone, ranked by petals grown — a little race of tapping and shopping wisely.

Tips to win

• Early on, taps are everything: buy the first Green thumb as soon as you can
• Compare price with petals a second — the best buy pays for itself soonest
• Milestone upgrades at 10 and 25 of a helper are bargains: aim for them
• Save the bloom rush for tapping hard: taps grow seven times as much too