How to play PocketPetal

How do you catch a plant in PocketPetal?

Tap the camera button in the middle of the bottom bar, point it at a plant and take the photo. A street tree, a houseplant, a weed in a crack in the sidewalk: if it's a plant, it counts.

The “Is this a plant?” check

If the phone can't find a plant in the photo, it asks “Is this a plant?” before going any further. Take a new photo, or tap Continue Anyway if you're sure it's a plant. A photo that's too blurry, too dark or too bright gets the same choice, with tips for a better shot. Continuing uses one of your daily catches, like any photo sent off for a name.

For players under 13, a photo with a person in it is turned down on the phone and never sent.

A short notice on your first catch

The first time you catch a plant, a short notice comes up while the game works on the name. It says what we want every player to know: PocketPetal is a game, plant names come from image recognition and are often wrong, and you should never eat, touch or use a plant because of the app. Tap I understand, and your catch is revealed. Players under 13 see a version written for kids.

What does the match % mean?

Every catch shows a match %, like “82% match”. It's how sure image recognition was about the name, and a high number doesn't mean the name is right. Below 70%, the result asks “Is this correct?” so you can confirm the name or say it's wrong. From 70% up, there's a small “Not quite right?” link. Confirming or correcting a name earns 2 XP, once per catch.

How does rarity work?

The moment you catch a plant, the game rolls its rarity: one of six tiers, from Common to Mythic. It's pure luck. The odds are the same for every plant, and the roll says nothing about the plant itself, how common it really is, or its conservation status.

Catch the same plant again and it rolls again. Your collection shows the best rarity you've rolled for each species, and higher rarities earn more XP.

Rarity, the odds and stars in full

How do you earn XP and level up?

Every catch earns XP, and the result shows how much. Tap the XP on the result to see the breakdown.

For example, a new species that rolls Rare with 3 stars, caught the day after your last catch, earns 25 + 25 + 5 + 5 = 60 XP. Quests, badges and confirming a name earn XP too.

Levels

XP fills your level bar. Reaching level 2 takes 100 XP, and each level after that takes 5% more than the one before. Levels go up to 100, which takes about 248,000 XP in all. Some levels bring a new title, a streak freeze or a badge.

How do daily and weekly quests work?

Weekly quests come four at a time: one fixed and three at random, with bigger goals like Weekly Goal (capture 15 plants this week) or Creature of Habit (capture on 3 different days). The fixed one is Spread the Word: share 5 captures this week. They reset at midnight on Monday, your time.

When a quest is done, tap Claim to collect its XP before it runs out. You'll need a free account to claim. Players under 13 skip the sharing and friend quests, and claim without an account.

PocketPetal+ and Pro also add a Special tab: one-time quests with no time limit, like Century Club (capture 100 plants).

How do streaks and streak freezes work?

Catch at least one plant every day to grow your streak. Days run from midnight to midnight where you are. Your first catch of each day that keeps the streak going earns 5 bonus XP, and streaks earn badges at 3, 7, 14 and 30 days, and on up to 1,000.

Miss a day and a streak freeze is used for you, if you have one. Each missed day takes one freeze. If you don't have enough to cover every day you missed, none are spent and the streak starts again from your next catch.

Freezes refill once a week, at midnight UTC on Sunday, up to your plan's allowance: 1 on the free plan, 2 with PocketPetal+ and 4 with Pro. The refill never takes any away, so freezes you earn on top, from levels 5, 15, 25 and 50 and from some event quests, are kept.

With notifications on, a reminder comes at 8pm on days you haven't caught anything yet. Players under 13 don't get notifications.

Badges

There are 116 badges, for your first catch, species collected, total catches, streaks, levels, plant types, seasons, the time of day and rarity, among others. Each one pays XP when you earn it. Season badges go by the season where you are, north or south of the equator.

See all 116 badges

Your collection and favorites

Every species you catch gets one card in your collection, with its photo, its rarity and its stars. The counts at the top show how many species you have and how many catches in all. Catch a species again and its card keeps the best rarity and the most stars you've rolled for it, with the photo from your best-rarity catch.

Filter the collection by All, Favorites, Flowers, Trees or Rare+ (Rare and up), and sort it by Recently Caught, Alphabetical, Rarity or Most Captured.

Tap a card to open the plant's page, with every photo you've taken of it, the day you first found it and its best stars. To make it a favorite, tap the heart at the top; it then shows under the Favorites filter. Opening a plant's page needs a free account, except for players under 13.

If a name looks wrong, you can remove the plant from its page.

Friends and sharing (13 and up)

Usernames, friends and sharing are for players 13 and up. Pick a username, search for friends by theirs and send a request. Once they accept, the catches they share show up under Friends Captures on your Home screen. Teens start out hidden from search, and can change that.

On a catch's result, the Share to Friends switch puts it in your friends' feed. It starts on for adults and off for teens. You can also share a catch as a picture card to other apps. Sharing counts toward the Share the Love and Spread the Word quests, and there are badges for friends and for sharing.

If someone bothers you, you can remove, block or report them from the Friends screen.

Game Center

If you're 13 or older and signed in to Game Center, 83 of the badges show up as Game Center achievements as you earn them. Two leaderboards rank players by species collected and by longest streak.

Nothing ranks rarity, and the rarity badges aren't Game Center achievements, because rarity is luck. Game Center is off for players under 13, and for anyone who hasn't told the app their age yet.

How many plants can you catch a day?

PocketPetal is free with no ads. The free plan has 5 catches a day; the optional subscriptions add more.

Your count resets at midnight where you are. Each photo sent off for a name uses one catch, even if no name comes back. On Pro, after 100 catches in a day, names can take a few seconds longer.

Seasonal events

Now and then a limited-time event brings its own quests. They turn up in your Weekly tab with a countdown to the end of the event, and you finish them like any other quest. To hear when one starts, turn on Seasonal Events in Settings.

All seasonal events