Romance

For answers to commonly asked Romance questions, see below.

Romance is essentially reproduction in the Viva Piñata series. Romancing allows for eggs to be sent into the garden to increase the population and help attract other piñatas to the garden. When a heart a heart appears above its head, this means that the pinata is able to romance. Piñatas will not spontaneously romance; a player will have to play the role of matchmaker.

Overview

First, the romance requirements need to be met for a pair of piñatas of generally the same species before they'll get romantic. Next, direct one romantic piñata to another romantic piñata (of the same species) to initiate the romantic encounter. When the smitten piñatas meet up, the player. If the player wins, the lovers will head to their house for a romantic dance. Shortly thereafter, Storkos will appear and deliver an egg that will eventually hatch into a new piñata.

Romance Requirements

Each piñata has a set of requirements that must all be fulfilled before the piñata can get romantic. The romance requirements can be viewed by selecting a piñata and pressing or by looking in the Journal. Early piñatas have trivial romance requirements, while higher level piñatas have requirements that will require much more time and effort to complete. Once the requirements have been met, a heart appears above the piñata's head.

Romantic Encounter

Piñata will not romance on their own, even if two or more piñatas of the same species are ready for romance. In order to pair the piñatas up, select the first romantic piñata using and the cursor and then use again on the second romantic piñata. If all goes well, the two piñatas will embrace and the romancing minigame will begin, or in Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise the pinatas will do the romance dance, as there is no romancing minigame.

Romancing Minigame

The romancing minigame basically invloves guiding one piñata through a maze, without touching any walls, to meet its partner before the timer runs down.

Each species has a unique maze associated with it, each having a different pattern painted on to the terrain with materials and all of the mazes are decorated with plants and walled off with a picket fence. For example, the Smelba maze has a pattern of a nose sniffing a bad smell, while the Whirlm maze is shaped similarly to a bent worm. The difficulty of the maze is related to the level and rarity of the piñata being romanced. The mazes actually reuse the basic terrain found in the main garden.

The red/green walls in the maze are made up of little creatures called loathers. The loathers are created by Professor Pester and they hate the piñatas being happy, so the whole idea is to avoid them at all costs.

Players start with a limited amount of time and lives to reach the partner. The maximum number of lives the player can have is five and is determined by the number of piñatas of that species in the garden. Each additional piñata of the same species above two will reduce the amount of lives by one, unless there are six or more in which there is one life to do the challenge. If the controlled piñata touches a loather a life will be lost and the piñata gets stunned, wasting some time. In Viva Piñata, there are different Chocolate Coins to collect in the maze, worth a total of 20 chocolate coins per maze. It is recommended to just ignore the coins and focus on getting the piñata to its partner since there are much better ways of easily making money. In Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise the player is required to collect an amount pink hearts before reaching the other piñata. The amount increases as there are more piñatas of that species. In Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise if the player collects all hearts and has at least 6 piñatas of that species in the same garden it is possible to get a Wild-card piñata, and possibly twins as well if the challenge is done fast enough.

Loathers will behave in different ways, depending on their type and the maze.

• Stationary loathers act as walls and will not move.
• Mobile loathers will move around either singly or in coordination with other loathers. Be sure to learn their movements and plan accordingly.
• Sleeping loathers are harmless unless disturbed. The player will need to move the piñata very slowly to tiptoe over them without waking them up.
• Invisible loathers can be seen when the minigame starts, but soon disappear. Invisible loathers can be stationary, mobile or sleepers. Keep a mental eye out for these and if a reminder is wanted hold down to make them re-appear. Be aware that doing so will drain time on the clock and prevent movement of the piñata while the invisible loathers are shown, however.
• In Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, there are shocking loathers that can shock a piñata from far away.

After completing the minigame successfully, the happy piñatas will eagerly travel to their house so that they can start their romance dance. If all lives are lost, the minigame will end and the heartbroken piñatas will not romance. This does not cause the requirements to become un-met and the player can try to romance the heartbroken piñatas once again after a certain time. In Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise it is possible to pay 50 Chocolate Coins to try again.

Romance Dance

Piñatas love to dance! Every piñata home has a jukebox where they play their favorite songs and dance 'til they drop. After successfully completing the romancing minigame, the piñatas will travel to their home to get real friendly behind closed doors. The piñatas will perform a species-specific romancing dance, consisting of everything from tacky romance music to weird piñata dance moves!

A New Piñata

After the piñatas have romanced in their home, an egg will be delivered by a character named Storkos. When the egg hatches, a new baby piñata of that species will emerge. After stretching its legs for a few moments, the new piñata will form a cocoon and a full-grown piñata will soon emerge. Congratulations!

Misc

Odd Piñata Out

The only piñatas that can be romanced outside their own species are the Swanana and Rashberry. After they have romanced with a member of their own species and there is a Mystery House built in the garden, it is possible to romance these two together to produce a Pigxie.

Population Control

Cyan hearts indicate that there are too many piñata in the garden for romance.

If the piñatas have all of their romance requirements met, but hearts don't appear above their heads, or the hearts are cyan colored instead of pink or red, the piñata population limit in is preventing piñatas from romancing. Make room by selling piñatas, or using the Post Office to crate piñatas from the garden that are not needed. Wild piñatas also count against this limit.

Cluckles Hatches Egg

Directing a Cluckles to an egg will cause it to hatch immediately. This can save a lot of time when trying to romance piñatas.

If At First You Don't Succeed..

Sometimes a piñata may be too distracted or unhappy to go close enough for the romance to begin straight away. This may be a simple matter of clicking on the piñata and directing it a couple of times, or, buy buy a happy sweet from Costolot's Store.

External links

• Rules of Attraction on the official Viva Piñata site

Commonly Asked Questions

Are there any helpful romance mini-game videos?

Yes, but not on the wiki.

I'm getting a "Romancing problem" message. What can I do?

This message will show up if one or both pinatas can't manage to get into their house to romance, because another pinata (or garden item) is blocking their way, or they've tried to enter at the same time and managed to block each other. Since they can't be selected, it's not possible to directly help them. If they've been stuck for a long time and the problem hasn't cleared itself, it is possible to whack them, water them, or move their house by crating it up and shipping it to yourself.

How do you get Master Romancers? I have romanced the Whirlm like 15 times.

As the FAQ mentions, there must be seven members of a particular species in the garden at the same time. Don't sell any until there are seven total, and the award will be received.

How to get to seven of the same species is up to the player. Romancing, trading, fetching, evolving, or any combination.