Sprout Scouts Guide – Sprout Kinds, Every Bug and Boss, Treasures and How to Get 3 Stars
Sprout Scouts! is a free browser game where you play Pip, a scout gnome who leads a squad of little veggie sprouts. You pluck sprouts out of the ground, toss them at things and whistle them back, and they do all the heavy lifting: fighting bugs, breaking twig gates and carrying lost treasure home before sunset. This guide explains the three sprout kinds, how carrying and growing work, how to handle every bug and boss, and how to earn all three stars.
Controls
- Walk: WASD or the arrow keys. Your squad follows you around hedges on its own. On phones and tablets, drag on the left side of the screen for the floating joystick (Settings can switch it to “walk toward your finger”).
- Toss: click where you want the sprout to land, or hold the mouse button to keep tossing. On touch screens, tap the garden where you want to throw, or press TOSS to auto-aim at the most useful thing in front of Pip. The dotted arc shows where the sprout will land. A red cross means a hedge or gate is in the way.
- Whistle: hold the right mouse button or Space. Every sprout inside the yellow circle stops what it is doing and runs back to you. On touch screens, hold WHISTLE to call everyone near Pip.
- Switch kind: Q / E, the number keys 1 to 3, the mouse wheel, or tap the sprout chips at the bottom of the screen.
- Pause: Esc or P. Restart: R.
The three sprout kinds
| Kind | Good at |
|---|---|
| Radish (red) | Hits twice as hard as the others, and it is the only kind that properly dents armored bugs like the Pinch Beetle and Big Bertha. Also the fastest at breaking twig gates. |
| Bluebell (blue) | The only kind that can swim. Bluebells walk into ponds with you and are the only ones that can carry loot across water. |
| Sunpuff (yellow) | Thrown much higher and further (about 9 m instead of 7). Flies over hedges and gates, and it is the only kind that can hit flying wasps and knock down treasure stuck up in a tree. |
Radishes and Sunpuffs can’t swim. When you wade into a pond they wait on the shore for you. If one gets tossed or shaken into the water it panics, and after a few seconds it is lost, so whistle it back right away.
Carrying, growing and the Sprout Pot
- Every piece of loot shows a tag like 2/3: carriers / carriers needed. It only moves once enough sprouts hold it, and every extra carrier (up to twice the number needed) makes it walk faster. Throw a few more than the minimum at heavy treasure.
- Carriers find their own way home around hedges. If the only way home is through water, every carrier has to be a Bluebell. A mixed crew gets stuck at the shore (“Stuck at the water!”), so whistle the others off and toss Bluebells instead.
- Pellet flowers drop a pellet when your sprouts hit them. Carry it home to grow 2 buds of the flower’s colour. Flowers grow back after 30 seconds.
- Beaten bugs leave a seed pod. Carry it home to grow new buds of the colour most of the carriers had. Bigger bugs leave bigger pods (a Pinch Beetle pod grows 10 sprouts).
- New buds pop up around the pot. Walk over them to pluck them. Up to 100 sprouts fit in the garden, and extra seeds wait in the pot until there is room.
- Sprouts that finish a job come back to you on their own. Sprouts that land with nothing to do wait there until you whistle.
Pip’s hearts
Pip has three hearts. Bites, belly flops, charges and mole ambushes all cost a heart, and a heart comes back after 30 seconds without getting hurt. Red rings on the ground show where something is about to land, and red stripes show a charge or a tongue. Step aside!
Bugs
| Bug | How to handle it |
|---|---|
| Aphid | Harmless. Toss a couple of sprouts on it for a free seed pod. |
| Dotty Ladybug | Bites sprouts and Pip, and shrugs off everyone on its back every 6 seconds. Toss a group at once. |
| Shelly Snail | When three or more sprouts pile on, she hides in her shell for 3 seconds and nobody can hurt her. Wait for her to come out, then go again. |
| Pinch Beetle | Armored: only Radishes do full damage. It charges at Pip along a red lane, so step out of the lane and attack while it is dizzy. |
| Buzzby Wasp | Flies out of reach and swoops down to steal sprouts. Pin it with 2 Sunpuffs and it crashes down for 5 seconds, so everyone can attack. |
| Croaky Frog | Leaps at your squad and belly-flops. A red ring marks where it will land. Move your squad out, then attack while it sits. |
| Digby Mole | Tunnels under your squad. A bulging mound warns you about a second before it pops up and gulps. Once it is up, it is open to attack for a few seconds. |
Bosses
- Big Bertha (Sunny Backyard): a huge armored beetle with a pink bow. She charges in long straight lines and gets dizzy for 3 seconds when she smacks into a hedge or rock. Use Radishes and attack while she sees stars.
- King Croak (Lily Pond): giant belly flops with a big landing ring, and a long tongue that slurps up to six sprouts along a pink stripe. Keep your squad out of both and bring Bluebells, because he loves the water.
- Queen Buzz (Apple Orchard): hovers out of reach and calls two wasps every 15 seconds. Pin her with 5 Sunpuffs and she crashes down for 7 seconds. That is when the whole squad should pile on.
- Mow-Bot 3000 (Tool Shed Yard): a runaway robot mower. It revs up (red lane), charges, and bowls over or mows anything in front of it. While it drives it barely takes damage. After three charges it overheats and steams for several seconds, and that is your window. Lure it into a rock or hedge and it overheats right away.
Beating a boss drops the stage’s treasure. Carry it home to win.
Stars, hats and the album
Every stage has three stars:
- Bring every treasure home before sunset.
- Finish under the par time shown on the stage card.
- Complete the stage challenge, for example “Lose at most 3 sprouts”, “Grow 8 new sprouts”, “Defeat every bug”, “Pip never gets hurt” or “Finish with 25+ sprouts”.
Stars unlock Pip’s 8 hats, from the Classic Red cap to the Gnome King’s crown at 42 stars. Every treasure you bring home goes into the Treasure Album, 24 in all, each with a little story. Clear 4 stages to unlock Bug Rush, an endless mode where bigger and bigger waves of bugs march on the Sprout Pot.
Quick tips
- Pluck every bud before you leave the pot. A bigger squad does everything faster.
- Bring the right kind: check the stage card for water (Bluebells), wasps or hanging treasure (Sunpuffs) and armored bugs (Radishes).
- Toss sprouts in bursts. Five sprouts on a bug at once beat five sprouts one after another.
- Whistle after every fight so nobody is left standing around, and keep an eye on the sundial at the top of the screen.