Pollen Path guide: route planning and garden strategy
In Pollen Path you plant a garden, and a bee flies the route your planting makes. You never steer the bee. This guide explains the one rule it follows, which flowers bend the score, and how to plan a garden that lasts all four seasons.
How to play Pollen Path
Each turn you choose one of three seed packets and plant it on a 5×6 plot. Two plantings end the day. Tap a bed first: a dashed ghost route shows tonight's whole flight and its score before you commit.
At dusk the bee leaves its hive and flies to the brightest unvisited flower beside it: up, down, left or right, never diagonal. Then the brightest next to that, and on, until nothing is left in reach. When two flowers tie, it picks clockwise from up.
Scoring
Each visit scores petals × multiplier. The multiplier starts at ×1 and rises by 1 with every flower.
Seasons
A year is spring, summer, autumn and winter, three days each. Every season sets a bloom target; miss one and the garden ends.
Charms
After each season, pick one of three almanac charms. It lasts the rest of the year.
Garden actions
Between seasons, prune, transplant, add a hive (up to three) or set a butterfly perch (up to two).
Tips for longer routes
The tenth flower of a route is worth ten times the first, so length is the whole game.
- 01Plant at the end of the route.Add to the far end of tonight's flight, not beside the hive. A long chain of plain daisies outscores a short cluster of rich flowers.
- 02Leave the bee somewhere to go.A dead end stops the flight. Use thistles as walls to fold the route back on itself into a snake.
- 03Order the special flowers.Bluebells early, so every later flower gains. Foxglove right before your richest flower. Nettle last.
- 04Give a second hive its own garden.A new hive flies its own route with its own multiplier from ×1. A flower visited once is spent for the night, so place the hive where the first bee does not reach.
- 05Use a butterfly to cross gaps.A butterfly flies one straight line in from the edge, crossing empty soil and spent flowers and ignoring brightness, until a thistle, a hive, the well or the far edge stops it.
- 06Pick charms for the garden you have.Golden Hour and Long Stem reward routes that are already eight flowers or longer. Rain Barrel suits a thirsty garden before summer; Wreath and Cold Frame are for winter.
Meadow plants and what they do
Every seed packet prints its one rule. These are the ones that shape a route most.
| Plant | Rule |
|---|---|
| Lavender | Very bright: bees go to it first. Never gets thirsty. |
| Thistle | Blocks every pollinator. Scores nothing, and that is its job: a wall. |
| Clover | Can be visited twice, so the bee doubles back through it. Hardy. |
| Sunflower | A bee leaving a sunflower turns right. |
| Bluebell | Raises the multiplier by 2 instead of 1. Plant it early. |
| Foxglove | The next flower scores ×2. Put your richest flower straight after it. |
| Poppy | Six petals, but dim, so the bee saves it for last, when the multiplier is highest. |
| Nettle | Seven petals, but halves the multiplier. Plant it at the very end of a route. |
| Marigold | Makes its neighbours 2 brighter. |
| Reed | Waters its four neighbours through summer drought. |
| Holly | Evergreen: never freezes, and scores triple in winter. |
| Heather | Never wilts and never freezes. |
A year, season by season
The targets climb fast, so each season builds on the last. The autumn garden is the winter garden.
Spring
Build a spine of six or more flowers leading away from the hive, bright end first. Start it near the well.
Summer
Drought. Thirsty plants wilt unless they sit in the well's 3×3 square or next to a reed, and a wilted flower is skipped.
Autumn
Every daisy sows a wild daisy into an empty neighbour at dusk: free flowers that can also pull the route somewhere new.
Winter
Frost takes tender plants before the flight. Clover, nettle, mint, reed, heather and thistle are hardy, and holly scores triple.
Pollen Path ranked Daily
Every player gets the same seed and the same draft each UTC day, with one ranked attempt. Your plantings are replayed on the server before your score ranks. Climb the weekly league and keep your streak, then practise the same garden as often as you like, unranked. The Daily is identical for free and Pro players.
Pollen Path free vs Pro
Free includes today's ranked Daily with its streak, and as many Meadow gardens as you like, each a full year of four seasons with all fifteen plants, the bee and the butterfly, and all twelve charms. There are no ads, no energy and no paid retries.
Pro lets a garden keep growing past Year 1, each new year with higher targets and a new rule. It opens the Desert, Alpine and Tidepool biomes, adds the Daily archive and unranked practice of any past Daily seed, and every plot and pollinator skin. Choose the one-time Pollen Path Full Game Unlock or a StackForge Play Pass. Pro never changes the ranked Daily.
Desert
Water is scarce from summer on, and a moth flies too. The moth wants the darkest flower, so the bee and the moth pull opposite ways.
Alpine
Frost in three seasons and a wind no pollinator flies into, unless it leaves a bed sheltered by cushion moss. Scree blocks the plot.
Tidepool
Every other dusk the tide floods the bottom rows, and the hummingbird lands on red flowers only.
Pollen Path FAQ
Can I draw the bee's path?
No. The bee always flies to the brightest flower next to it, so you steer it by where you plant. The ghost route shows the flight before you commit.
Why did my route stop early?
The bee ran out of flowers in reach. It cannot cross empty soil or enter a thistle, and in summer a wilted flower is skipped.
How long does a free garden last?
One full year: four seasons of three days. Start as many as you like. Pro lets a garden keep growing into Year 2 and beyond.
Do I need an account?
No. An account is optional, and you can play and rank without one. The Daily needs a connection; Meadow gardens play offline.
Pollen Path is coming soon.
See Pollen Path