Grab has partnered with Sqkii (the company behind those #HuntTheMouse games) to launch GrabRewardsville, a virtual tree planting game that lets you win GrabRewards points.
While I normally donโt dabble in such shenanigans, Iโm never one to turn down free points. I sat through the tutorial but was still hopelessly confused afterwards, so Iโve decided to pen a guide of my own explaining just how GrabRewardsville works.
Step 1: Get Seeds
To grow a tree, youโll need a seed. Youโll be given three seeds upon starting the game, and can earn additional seeds as follows:
Action | Reward |
Join the game | 3 seeds |
1x Grab ride* | 2 seeds |
Complete Mission | 1-3 seeds |
*Eligible Grab rides are from 28 December 2020 to 31 January 2021 (the T&C states 31 January 2020, Iโm assuming thatโs a typo). No seeds are given for GrabHitch rides or rides paid in cash. |
Missions are specific tasks that you can complete once for bonus seeds. For example, planting a seed in infertile soil gives you a reward of one bonus seed; as does planting two seeds in fertile soil.
Missions need not be completed in the order theyโre listed; for example, you could do 1โ>4โ>7โ>2. Remember to tap the green โRedeemโ button to claim your bonus seeds; they are not credited automatically.
Likewise, seeds for Grab rides are not credited automatically; youโll need to find them in the My Rewards section, copy the reward code and paste it into the game.
Step 2: Plant Seeds
Once youโve got a seed, you need to plant it in soil. The type of soil depends on your location, and there are four types in total (just like the parable!):
Type | Location | Likely Outcome |
Infertile | Residential areas | Frail |
Fertile | Commercial areas like malls, supermarkets, hawker centres, community clubs | Healthy |
Rich | Found in tourist attractions and large parks | Healthy or Excellent |
Deluxe | Mystery | Excellent or Diamond |
You can only plant seeds in your physical location, so youโll need to get out and about (beware location spoofers, Sqkii has been known to crack down). Do note that you cannot plant more than one seed in a given location, and some locations may already be full- thereโs no way of knowing until youโre physically there.
Obviously the Deluxe soil has the best chances of high-yielding plants, so everyone will be hunting for that. Hereโs some data points, as reported in the GrabRewards group:
- Fertile: Changi Jewel, Lawn @ Marina Bay
- Rich: ION Orchard, Raffles Place, Fullerton, Marina Bay Shoppes, USS
- Deluxe: Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
Keep in mind the locations above are not static; they are subject to change depending on supply and demand. If too many people start planting in a given Rich location, for example, that soil may later be downgraded to Fertile or Infertile.
Step 3: Evolve or Harvest seeds
Once seeds are planted, you wait. Sprouts will grow into Seedlings, Seedlings grow into Saplings, Saplings grow into Trees. Each stage will be one of four types:
- Frail
- Healthy
- Excellent
- Diamond
Stages take two hours to complete, and at each stage after the Sprout, plants can either be evolved or harvested. While you need to be physically in a given location to plant a seed, you can evolve or harvest it from anywhere.
Evolving takes you to the next level; harvesting cashes you out and ends the cycle. You have 12 hours to evolve or harvest a plant at each stage. Wait too long, and it will wither and become useless.
Hereโs the payoff for harvesting at each stage:
GrabRewards points for harvesting at each stage | ||||
Sprout | Seedling | Sapling | Tree | |
Frail | 0 | 10 | 30 | 0 |
Healthy | 0 | 10 | 30 | 100 -500 |
Excellent | 0 | 10 | 30 | 1,000 โ 2,000 |
Diamond | 0 | 10 | 30 | 3,000 โ 100,000 |
The actual number of points for a Tree is determined by a random number generator, with the possible ranges shown above.
The type at an earlier stage does not necessarily determine the type at a later stage; for example, a Frail Sprout may become a Diamond Seedling (highly unlikely, though). In the same way, a Diamond Sapling may become a Frail Tree.
Is it worth your time?
GrabRewardsville is a fun little game, but is it worth heading all over Singapore hunting down Deluxe soil and accumulating seeds? Well, 1 GrabRewards point is worth roughly 0.2 cents, so your payoff is as follows:
Sprout | Seedling | Sapling | Tree | |
Frail | 0 | $0.02 | $0.06 | 0 |
Healthy | 0 | $0.02 | $0.06 | $0.20 โ 1 |
Excellent | 0 | $0.02 | $0.06 | $2 โ 4 |
Diamond | 0 | $0.02 | $0.06 | $6 โ 200 |
Only you can decide whether thatโs worth the time and expense, but quite frankly, I personally wouldnโt bother travelling around just looking for Rich or Deluxe soil. Based on the data points Iโm seeing, thereโs a fair bit of randomness built into the system. People are harvesting Excellent Trees from Infertile Soil; people are getting Frail Trees from Rich Soil.
Even if you got a confirmed tip on where the Deluxe soil is, you wonโt actually know if the plot is full until youโre physically there. Thereโs nothing worse than making a special trip down only to find that you canโt plant anything!
So my general advice would be:
- Only harvest at the Tree stage; thereโs almost no point cashing out at the Seedling or Sapling stages
- Donโt hoard your seeds for Rich and Deluxe soil; keep one seed planted at your home soil at all times, even if itโs Infertile. You might get lucky.
- Deluxe soil plots have limited capacity; by all means visit if itโs near your house, but think carefully about going out of your way (especially since Deluxe soil is no guarantee of a Diamond plant)
The T&C for this game can be found here.
Conclusion
GrabRewardsville is a cute little game and a nice distraction, though youโll want to carefully consider if itโs worth going out of your way to find good soil. Good soil can yield bad trees; bad soil can yield good trees. Thereโs no guarantee; itโs just the way the cookie crumbles.
Iโm personally just going to be sowing my seeds (fnar) wherever I happen to be. Even a modest haul of GrabRewards points is still better than nothing, and who knows, I may be more fertile than I thought.
Is that last quip an Easter egg?
Iโve never had green fingers. Every plant Iโve had has a short life. Iโm sure Iโll kill digital plants as well
itโs ok I killed my christmas tree in record time.
Grab should have just focused their efforts and budget for this game on making fares lower.
Yes and no. App engagement is a major investorโs KPI, so i get why they want us to come back as often as possible.
Having said that I won 4000 grab points from my free seeds, so thatโs $8 in rides. Canโt complain about a free lunch.
should just give me pts for opening the app then, forgo spending money making a new game
Nothing cute about the game when you end up with multiple โfrail treesโ planted on fertile/rich soil.
But itโs Grab after all, right? ๐
Where is the grabrewards group?