Tools & Power-ups are a precious resource in Gardenscapes that save you from all the frustrations and stress of redoing stages and wasting a heart in the process. These power-ups may be neat, but they’re not foolproof. Even if you use a power-up, there’s a high chance that you can still lose the stage, in which case, you’ll also lose the power-up that you just used. To avoid wasting these limited power-ups, it’s time for you to learn which situations they’re appropriate for and how to use them properly. 

Gardenscapes rewards players with tools & power-ups whenever they complete a mission or reach certain milestones in the game. Even though the game is generous enough to give us a decent amount of these power-ups, players may get carried away due to puzzle frustration and end up using all their tools and power-ups in a single stage. Like we mentioned in our Gardenscapes Tips & Tricks article, it’s not worth using your tools and power-ups if you have to use more than one in a stage.

Stage Power-ups

Stage Power-ups are buffs that you can select before you start the stage. You can select one or more of these stage powerups to make it easier for you to clear the stage and have an impactful early game. You can’t choose where you want to place your power-ups, though. Instead, it will instead be placed on a random part of the map at the discretion of the AI. 

• Rainbow Blast

The Rainbow Blast powerup is a nice buff that lets you blast away all copies of a single puzzle piece type throughout the board. It’s always good to use this since it guarantees that you can clear almost 10-30% of the board with one move. 

The best time to use Rainbow Blasts is when you have certain piece types that you want to get rid of as much as possible – grass, chains, boxes, ice, acorns, etc. The first time you attempt a stage, you’ll be given this powerup for free. Only use this stage powerup when the requirements for a goal require you to break stuff around the board. 

• Bombs

Bomb power-ups are great at destroying the two-tile radius around it on the board. It might be more difficult to use, but it’s perfect for playing on cramped boards that are filled with boxes or ice blocks at the beginning of the stage. This will open up the map significantly but only has limited use when used on collection stages.

Some stages pop out once in a while that contain a lot of destructible hazards. Those are the stages where explosives work well, and rainbow blasts achieve very little since there aren’t many puzzle pieces available. Try to stick it as close to the hazards as possible so that you maximize the blast zone and open up more space.

• Bombs & Blasts

A combination of the previous two, this stage power-up is the most powerful you can get your hands on. This is also the powerup you get when you attempt a stage the first time around. As for when to use this, it’s best to trust your judgment and use the powerup that’s most appropriate for the stage, as mentioned in the previous numbers. 

Play Gardenscapes on PC

Play Gardenscapes on PC

The only time you should use this powerup is if you’ve failed to complete a stage more than twice. This is quite a desperate move to play and is reserved for those “impossible” stages. Keep in mind how hard it is to get these power-ups, so try to reserve them for when you get to stage 80 and above.

Single-Use Tools

Tools are single-use actions that you can use during a stage. These tools aren’t as big or flashy as stage power-ups but can be used to target a specific area that needs help. These tools help you get rid of pieces that are in the way and can’t be removed easily through other means. If you run out of these tools, you can buy more using the gold you earn, even if it’s the middle of the puzzle. They don’t use up a move.

• Shovel

The shovel is the most basic tool. This is more like a last resort since it doesn’t do anything other than clear a single plot. This tool’s only application is when you need to reveal the last Gnome Statue or get the last puzzle piece. Using more than one shovel during a stage isn’t exactly the best move out there.

Shovels are only usually used when the player only has one move left. There are so many things that can happen over the game’s course, so the best time to use it is when you don’t have any other choice, like when you have exactly one move left. As such, this should be your least used tool, even though it’s the cheapest one on the list.

• Rake

The rake is one of the more useful tools out there. This tool clears one column and row in a cross-shape on the board. Like the Bomb power-ups, this tool is best used to clear hazards on the map and open up those blocked areas on the map. You could use these freshly-opened paths to deliver lemonade or just introduce new puzzle pieces to the lower parts of the board.

To fully utilize the rake to clear the board, try to target as many hazards on the outer rim as possible. Using it down the middle doesn’t help you as much since it doesn’t open a lot of places for your goals to enter. 

• Gloves

The glove is the next item on the list that has very limited applications, but its potential is the greatest. It simply switches one piece on the board with another non-entrapped piece. This means you can fix your board so that you can remove pieces that are impossible to get rid of.

The best way to use this tool is by placing a Rainbow Blast beside another Rainbow Blast piece so that you clear the entire map. Of course, that’s assuming you need to use a Rainbow Blast full-clear to clear the stage or get rid of all the hazards on the map.