I decided to learn about planting berries in Pokemon and found a lot of information about it on the internet. However, I came across a piece of "advanced" data does not seem to have much information about: Soil Drying Rate (or Water Absorption Rate).
The absorption rates can be found on these sites: http://www.legendarypokemon.net/dp/berries/, http://veekun.com/dex/berries/, http://serebii.net/berrydex-dp/
I went through the Absorption column of Legendary Pokemon's table and picked out the available rates that were in the game: 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, 35.
I wanted to find out how long it takes for the soil to go from dark to tan and tan to grey for the different absorption rates in the game and compare them.
My method for finding out how long it takes for the soil to change:
Run Game (I used the NO$GBA emulator because it helped me speed up time without having to actually wait the long hours)
Plant berry
Change system time (Only possible when using emulator, I tried with my DS but the berries does not mature when I change the DS system time)
Record exact time it takes to go from dark to tan and tan to grey
Note: I tested one berry 5 times for the five time changes of Pokemon, but the results were the same. Because of this, I'm not sure if people are right when they said water absorption is faster during the day and slower at night. What I believe didn't help was that I tested it with a berry that had a rate of 35.
Actually, if the absorption rate were slower at night, then I would think that it would greatly affect the berry with a rate of 35 the most.
For Reference:
Day: 10:00 am to 4:59 pm
Dusk: 5:00 pm to 7:59 pm
Night: 8:00 pm to 11:59 pm
Late night: 12:00 am to 3:59 am
Morning: 4:00 am to 9:59 am
Data
Soil Dry Rate Dark->Tan Tan->Grey
4 13 13
6 9 8
7 8 7
8 7 6
10 5 5
15 4 3
35 2 1
What I found interesting was that the soil always changed after X hours and not X hr X min. After I compiled this data, I tried to figure out how it works. I decided to total the two columns, but it didn't seem to help. Then I decided to see what happen if I multiplied the rate by the total.
Soil Dry Rate Dark->Tan Tan->Grey Total Total x Rate
4 13 13 26 104
6 9 8 17 102
7 8 7 15 105
8 7 6 13 104
10 5 5 10 100
15 4 3 7 105
35 2 1 3 105
After I saw how close the products of total and rate were, I believe I figured out how the absorption rate works.
A plant's water level is 100 when newly planted.
A plant's water level is 100 when watered.
The rate number is subtracted from the plant's water level hourly.
If the water level is less than or equal to 50 (but greater than 0) the soil is tan.
If the water level is less than or equal to 0 the soil is grey.
Possible future testing
Is there a difference between night and day? (or among Day, Dusk, Night, Late Night, Morning)
Is there a difference in water absorption if you turn off the game? (My testing was as though the person played without turning off the game)
How does Mulch affect this?
Questions or comments?
