Turbo charge your mega-snack production with... Ultra Ninja Figs!

[Zarin64]

In my recent guide on using Helephant Ears to get Deadly Helephant Ears via the Ultra version of the seed, I targeted the really low level wizards, with very little access to crowns and game areas. This guide is intended for those who has already advanced in the game somewhat, got to Mooshu and learned all the gardening spells there, but can't/doesn't want to spend crowns on seeds or farm Grizzleheim to no end. They just want to go on questing and get some healthy food for their new pets to grow them faster .

If you are one of those people, I've got great news for you: you can create a mega-snack producing factory in your backyard!

While questing in Mooshu, you are bound to get some Ninja Figs and Deadly Ninja Figs as drops. Do not feed them to your pets! Stick a Tropical Garden Gnome in your yard, plant a (Fiery) Boom Shroom, put some Enchanted Large plots around it and plant seeds of preferably the same type around it. If you've got enough Ninja Figs, go for them - they are easier to take care of than their Deadly cousins, grow faster and always drop their seed at elder. They (as well as DNF) can, also at elder, drop their Ultra version:
Ultra Ninja Figs
I liked them when I tried to grow them last time, but it was some time ago, so I forgot why and decided to get back to check. And I now see that I had some good reasons.

1. As is the case with most, if not all, Ultra seeds, mature harvests are more valuable than elder. UNF have huge quantity of mature harvests (a dozen? more? need to test) before they go to elder, so even naturally growing them to elder, without "wilt-and-revive", is going to give you a lot.
2. The mature harvests on UNF are really frequent. As in really frequent. For my test, I grew them in the place where I raised their sources (NF and DNF), so they had all 7 likes. They showed a maximum of 3hr 35 min to the next mature harvest immediately after I reaped them. Remove 3-4 likes to get to more reasonable time .
3. Their time to elder is very long. Not as long as DNF, but still... This allows you to safely get most of the available mature harvests and still execute "wilt-and-revive" easily.
4. The mega-snacks they drop are really valuable: granted, they might yield just a Ninja Figgy Pudding (8 XP) or a Ninja Fig Bars (15 XP), but the rest of the snacks are Pharaoh Taro (25 XP), Pixie Stix (yes, the Pixie Stix, 30 XP) and an amazing Grasshopper Canapé (36 XP! The best of the snacks dropped by Ultra plants). Those mega snacks, in addition to having some awesome pet XP, are also really balanced, raising all attributes more or less evenly.

Suggested Growing Sequence

1. Get all your Ninja Figs seeds to one wizard via shared bank, if necessary.
2. Get an agricultural house (Red Barn Barm or Botanical Gardens).
3. Create a patch of Enchanted Large plots with an Enchanted small plot in the middle. Plant a Boom Shroom (maybe a Fiery one if you got that, but it might get rank 5 pests) in the small plot.
4. Craft Bamboo Fountain and Weapon Rack if possible.
5. Plant your Ninja Figs. Visit them later to get them to young, then visit again to find them at mature and take care of the needs and pests. In a few days, come back and get the elder harvest. Replant all the Ninja Figs you got back, put any DNF and UNF into the bank or a Seed Vault.
6. Repeat this a few times and/or in a few places. Get enough UNF seeds for a decent patch.
7. Once you got them, plant them at a different castle. Make sure you can visit that one frequently enough.
8. Grow your UNF, collect the mega snacks and take notice how much "progress to elder" bar moves between the harvests. Once you got it almost at the end, stop treating the needs and visit the location in 12+ hours (maybe even 20+, just to be sure) to find all seeds wilting. Take care of them to bring them back to young. Then visit them in a day or two (depending on the number of likes) to find them at mature. Repeat the sequence.
9. Once you see that UNF stopped showing the time to the next harvest, let them go to elder and reap the last reward.

This is very easy to execute. In addition to the mega-snacks and some great reagents (Agave Nectar, for crying out loud!), they will eventually drop some of their (and their regular, non-Ultra cousins) likes, which you can borrow for that patch of NF you might still be growing. Those Ninja Figs will, in the mean time, produce some more UNF as a replacement for the far off yet inevitable elder harvest.

[Angel Eyes]

Another great guide for getting the most out of your ultra seeds.

I might add that you can start out with only a few ninja figs, and throughout their mature life, they will drop additional ninja fig seeds. They are a 12-hour cycling plant, so you can expand each ninja fig by up to 8 or so mature harvests (they multiply).

Deadly figs do this too, and have more harvests, but do not reseed. Pick whatever suits you and follow the guide.

Oh and both forms drop in all tiers of Pagoda. You don't even need to have current access to Mooshu, just have your large soil spells.

[ValdusWildheart]

Terrific guide. I grew a ton of NFs and DNFs to get a seed for the mount (and stats for @ghola's Ultra thread) but never planted them :D

Do they UNFs give their own seed like UKPs at mature (similar to their cousins)? Or reseed at elder? I'm guessing the first is a maybe, I doubt the second...

[Zarin64]

Terrific guide. I grew a ton of NFs and DNFs to get a seed for the mount (and stats for @ghola's Ultra thread) but never planted them :D

Do they UNFs give their own seed like UKPs at mature (similar to their cousins)? Or reseed at elder? I'm guessing the first is a maybe, I doubt the second...

They do drop themselves at elder sometimes, but not at mature - at least in my limited experience. Also Agave Nectar, which I explicitly mentioned, is dropped at elder only, IIRC. Fortunately (or unfortunately - I haven't decided yet) they drop only their family seeds, no side stuff like Goose Tree or Queen Crape Myrtle from UKP.
In fact, they still go to elder relatively quickly, more or less on par with the crown NF seed - but they have some insane number of mature harvests in-between. Forget about 3hr 35 min to the next harvest - how about 2hr 15 min? I've seen a few similar times last night.

Frankly, I started growing them purely out of curiosity - and was in for a great surprise. I totally understand your "never planted them" feelings - after seeing what other Ninja Figs drop... That's exactly the reason why I decided to make this guide - to raise awareness .

My next project should be the Trumpet Vine family. It was a decent approach to get STVs from TV's elder harvest even prior to UTV - for Braided Vine and treasure cards. But the arrival of UTV changed everything - they are great on their own accord, unrelated to the regular seeds. UTVs, just like UNFs, are an ideal candidate for "wilt-and-revive" - Pixie Stix and Fish on a Vine alone justify it! On the other hand, I suspect many people know that already.

Tiger Lilies are another possible project, but I was disappointed when I tried it (for a long time, btw). Huge energy expenditure for some extremely slow plants (WTL/MTL). Again, I've seen quite a few discussions on them, so it's not like they are the enigma that Ultra Ninja Figs were.

I recently ran Ultra Fly Trap experiment with nothing to write home about. Same with Ultra Snap Dragons - you'll need to remove all likes to be able to catch more than a couple its harvests and they are not that great. Not much to say about Alligator Pears, too.

UKP is a good one, but is also widely discussed, so I'll stay away from that topic for now .

[Zarin64]

Finally got around to planting a UNF in "no likes, one dislike" state - and got this:

Well, that's closer to my normal schedule . Similar to CP with all likes, but, unlike CP, drops megas at mature . I guess removing the Stinkweed should make that a 12-hour plant.

[Zarin64]

Update: The "no likes, one dislike" plant went from 16 hr before the first mature harvest to about 10 hours for the next two times. Keeping an eye on it...

[Vaivorik]

Want to thank Zarin64 for her guides and being helpful answering my questions.

Want to share my results so far:

1. Started with 50 deadly ninja figs garden.
2. Planted another 56 deadly ninja figs garden.
3. 50 one gave me nice amount of normal crown shop ninja figs with the little help of still young 56 garden.
4. Unfortunately 50 yield no ultra.
5. 50 was newly planted with NJ.
6. 56 one with DNF hit elder and yield me 2 UNF
7. 56 newly planted with NJ hitting mature.
8. Meanwhile 50 with NF hit elder without giving me any UNF.

Reminder, you can now buy deadly ninja figs for gold. From my small experience it seems deadly ones got more chance, but it's a luck too.

Everyone good luck with their gardens!

[Icy BlackHeart]

Nice guide gonna get started

[Vaivorik]

Hello everyone growing Ninja Figs! Please share some statistical data.

Number of Ninja Figs or Deadly Ninja Figs in single a garden and how much it yields Ultra Ninja Figs.

I have one 50 Ninja Figs garden and it gave me 4 Ultras two times in a row. While I also have some 60+ soil gardens with Ninja Figs and max they gave me is 0-2 Ultras.

I start to believe that either it's just luck and RNG or Ultras drop way less often when garden is bigger.

[HaleyRavenHeart]

Nice guide ! Going to try to get as many as I can on my second account to make pet training easier