Rootbound

Description

A seed is waiting in the dark soil. Somewhere below are water, nutrients and a long way to go. You decide where the roots grow, and the plant above ground answers.

Rootbound is a calm educational puzzle in real 3D. Every plan is a cutaway of a garden: layers of soil, boulders that turn a root aside, clay that costs extra energy, and glowing pockets of water and nutrients. Press near the seed and drag to steer the root tip, or start from the middle of a root to branch. Reach the pockets before the root runs out of energy, then watch the plant grow from what its roots found. Undo and restart are free, so you can try an idea and think it over.

A Game About How Roots Feed Plants

The plant above ground is grown from a simple growth model: the water, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium your roots reach, the soil they passed through, and the season and weather. Dry spells, rain and snow change what a plant needs. When a plant struggles, a short "Why did it wilt?" card points back to what your roots did and did not reach.

160 Plans In 16 Biomes

Garden Loam, Clay Bed, Sand Dunes, Orchard Row, Prairie, Wetland Paddy, Desert Wadi, Rainforest Floor, Alpine Scree, Salt Marsh, Fungus Woodland, Burrow Meadow, Twin Plot, Monsoon Terrace, Mediterranean Hill and the Master Greenhouse. Soil, stones, pockets and seasons change from plan to plan, some plans grow two or three plants side by side, and every plan is checked by a solver so there is always a way through.

31 Plants To Meet

Plant Library cards open the first time you grow a species: a tomato, a carrot, a date palm, rice, an oak and many more, each with a few simple, general facts about its roots and what it likes. The facts are conservative and general; they are not gardening, medical or agricultural advice, and the Sources screen in Settings lists the public references they were checked against.

Learn, Experiment, Come Back

Follow the Learning Path of 25 quests, each a real plan with one idea to discover. Play a Daily Garden that is the same for everyone, with a streak. Dive into Deep Dig, an endless mode that keeps getting harder. Open the Free Garden to choose a biome, plants and seasons, and Compare how two species handle the same roots. Keep a Garden Journal of what you grew. Earn coins and stars by playing; nothing is random and nothing is locked behind a purchase. No lives, no timers, plays offline, no account.

Free with ads, optional monthly ad-free. Free with ads. An optional monthly plan removes ads.

Dig roots, watch plants grow

A seed is waiting in the dark soil. Somewhere below are water, nutrients and a long way to go. You decide where the roots grow, and the plant above ground answers.

What's New

Version 1.0 launch: 160 plans in 16 biomes, 31 plant species to meet, a 25-quest Learning Path and a Daily Garden.