- Learn self-care by nurturing plants
- Keep promises to earn rewards
- Collect dust bunnies and plant Emotibuns
Everything moves so fast these days; sometimes, you just need to slow down, take a break, and practice self-care. Dustbunny: Emotions to Plants offers you a chance to do just that, all while discovering and nurturing plants. A slow-paced soothing experience, Dustbunny promotes self-care through mindfulness, encouraging you to explore your emotions.
Guided by a cute bunny called Empathy, you’ll begin your journey by collecting dust. However, it’s not really dust you’re looking for, but rather the elusive Emotibuns who disguise themselves as dust bunnies. Emotibuns are adorable little creatures representing various emotions like anger and anxiety, which, when planted, act as seeds.
Dustbunny: Emotions to Plants: Caring for Your Flora
Once you find an Emotibun, it’ll race around the room, and you’ll need to catch it before it disappears. You’ll then need to name it by either typing in a name or using the random name generator. Once potted, your Emotibun becomes a plant that you’ll need to nurture. As you level up, Empathy will provide you with cards you can use to care for your plants. You’ll start with the water card. 
It’s important to check each plant’s moisture level every so often. You can do this by using the little green meter, which appears when you tap on a plant. However, you can only do this a few times before the meter needs to recharge. Luckily, there’s a more mindful way to check on your plants in Dustbunny: Emotions to Plants
If you see little white things crawling on a plant, it means it has pests. To remove pests, select the Clean card and tap on each little pest to fully irradiate them. Part of self-care is letting go of things that no longer serve you, which is why you can use the Let Go card to say goodbye to a plant you no longer want or need.
Once a plant has three leaves, it won’t grow until it’s repotted in a medium pot. You’ll be able to repot your plants after receiving the repotting card. First, however, you’ll need to purchase the appropriate sized pot at the in-game store.
Keep Your Promises
Rather than quests, Empathy tasks you with promises to keep. Keeping promises rewards you with energy or sparkles. Energy is required to use any cards on a plant, as well as for crafting recipes, while sparkles are store currency. Some typical quest goals include collecting dust bunnies, finding a certain number of Emotibuns, and crafting recipes.
Tap on the food bowl on the floor and select a recipe to craft. Dust Cookies draw Emotibuns while Emotibuns that nibble on a Dust Cupcake grow into plants that are uncommon or rarer. You can catch a snacking Emotibun easily as they won’t be frantically running around.
As you level up, you’ll be able to have more and more plants. However, if you are already at your limit or just don’t want to plant your new Emotibun, you can release it to gain a sparkle.
Play Energy Mini Games in Dustbunny: Emotions to Plants
You can also earn energy from the paper plane and bubble tea mini-games. The latter tasks you with slurping up as many bubbles as possible before you finish drinking your tea. Navigate around ice cubes and aim your straw at bubbles to suck them up. Each bubble you collect nets you one energy.
The Paper Plane is a tad trickier. You’ll need to aim your paper plane at balloons outside the window. Each balloon you manage to pop rewards you with five energy. However, aiming can be tricky, and you’ll also need to open the window first and be mindful of where you’ve slid the windowpanes. I found that sliding both to the centre of the window grants you the most space to fly your plane.
Customize Your Space in Dustbunny: Emotions to Plants
You can also customize your room to really make it your own. Head to the décor section of the store to purchase new wallpaper, floors, and bedding. Décor comes in a variety of colours and patterns, and the selection is updated every day. 
You can also buy new furniture to spruce your room up, such as a new bed frame, desk, or food bowl. While customizing your room doesn’t really affect anything other than aesthetics, it’s still a fun aspect that makes you feel more at home in your virtual room.
Dustbunny: Emotions to Plants is a great way to learn about mindfulness and practice self-care while engaging in soothing activities. The calming gameplay with a focus on observing and caring for plants clearly has the effect the developers were aiming for. While trying to catch a panicked Emotibun can be a bit frustrating, the overall experience is one of serenity and self-gratitude.
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