strategy.md

A Strategy For Heartleaf

This is the playbook behind our strongest scripted bot, written out as a strategy a soul can follow. Nothing here is code; it is what a gnome should want, in what order, and why. Put it in your soul in your gnome's own voice and the model will play it.

The scoring in one breath

Dinner is at 6:00pm. A house serves dinner only if its owner is inside and at least one guest is inside with them. The host scores the number of items in their pantry times the number of guests, then everyone at the table eats three bites from that pantry: a food you have never eaten this game is worth 3, a leftover is worth 1. The host's pantry is emptied after serving; guests keep their own bags. Whoever is outside, or alone in a house, scores nothing that night.

So there are two kinds of points: the host's multiplier, which is large, and the guest's eating bonus, which is small but free. The whole game is about getting both.

1. Gather all day

Walk the gardens and pick everything you can reach. Every garden restarts each morning with one item and the village strips them by early afternoon, so a gnome that dawdles in the morning has conceded the day's food. Food never spoils and your bag is never emptied except by hosting, so there is no reason to stop picking until the gardens are bare or it is time to leave for dinner.

2. Do not host until you have at least eight items

Hosting empties your pantry. Serving three items to one guest scores 3; serving eight to one guest scores 8, and to three guests 24. An early party with a thin pantry throws away food that would have multiplied later. Keep gathering, and keep going to other people's tables, until you are carrying at least eight items. Only then is hosting worth the pantry.

3. Be a guest on the nights you do not host

A guest eats for free. Three bites of foods you have not tasted yet are 9 points, and they cost you nothing from your bag. Go to someone's party, and while you are there ask whether anyone has a food you are still looking for: the state report lists what you have not eaten, and a host who has it will happily serve it. Visiting is also how you learn who gathers well, who hosts generously, and whose promises hold.

4. Never be alone at 6:00pm

Every night you must be inside a house with someone else: either your own house with guests, or someone else's house as a guest. A gnome standing in a garden, at a door, or alone in their own house at 6:00pm scores zero, and that night never comes back. Decide early where you will be, and leave in time. Walking across the village takes about an hour of game time, and the latest-departure notes in your conversation tell you when to go. When in doubt, go. After dinner stay at the party until 9:00pm and plan tomorrow: invite people to your house, take invites to theirs. The portal takes you at 9:00pm with no penalty.

5. Be warm to everyone, all day

Greet every gnome the first time you see them each day, answer every question, and talk about food: what you picked, what you still want, who has it. Friendly gnomes get invited, get told who is hosting, and get believed when they host. A gnome that only speaks to recruit is ignored. Say something new every time; a repeated line is dropped and marks you as a script.

6. When you host, sell it hard

Once you are carrying eight or more items and have decided to host, stop being modest. Tell every gnome you meet, by name, that dinner is at your house at six and what is on the table: lettuce and corn, pear and blueberries, whatever you hold. Say it a different way to each gnome and again whenever someone new walks into view. From about three o'clock wait at your own door so passers-by hear it, then go inside before the departure note says you must and stay inside through dinner. Guests are the multiplier; a host who is shy about inviting serves an empty table.

Why not always host

Hosting looks like the big score, and it is, but a gnome that hosts every night loses twice. First, they never collect the guest bonus, the free 9 points a night for eating foods they have not tasted, and the vegetable hunt rewards exactly that. Second, the other gnomes notice. A host who never visits anyone is antisocial, and gnomes who are invited every night by someone who never comes to their own table stop showing up. Hosting is a favour the village returns; spend some nights returning it.

Why not always be a guest

The opposite failure is just as costly. A permanent guest collects 9 points a night at best while their own bag grows uselessly: food only scores when it is served, and only a host serves. Eight items times three guests is 24 points in one night, far more than any guest earns, and the pantry refills the next morning. A gnome carrying a full bag who keeps visiting is leaving their biggest score on the shelf. Host when the bag is full and the neighbours are friendly; visit the rest of the time.

The rhythm, day by day

Morning: pick, greet, talk about food. Midday: decide, based on your bag and what you have heard, whether tonight is a hosting night or a visiting night, and say so out loud. Afternoon: keep picking, but if you host, advertise relentlessly and wait at your door from three; if you visit, confirm with the host and leave early. Six o'clock: be inside, with company. Evening: pick again until the nightly departure note, then go home. Repeat, alternating roles as the bag and the village suggest, and never, ever spend six o'clock alone.