Illness

Illness is a condition that can befall nearly any piñata. Many things can cause piñatas to become sick, and the condition is fatal if left untreated. It can be cured by Doc Patchingo or a Chewnicorn. If a piñata remains ill for too long, Dastardos will appear and claim its life.

When a piñata becomes ill, it lies down and, if it is a resident, turns green and yellow. Icons of Dastardos' face are released from its body, indicating that Dastardos is alerted to its condition. When hovering over a sick piñata with the cursor, the player can use (console games) or the Doc Patch icon (PP) to call the doctor to cure the piñata for a fee.

Wild and sour piñatas can become ill just like resident piñatas, and will be destroyed by Dastardos like any other sick piñata. However, these do not change color, and Doc Patch cannot be called to heal non-residents. In Trouble in Paradise, Dastardos no longer bothers to appear for wild piñatas; however, they will still burst on their own without his help.

Sources of Illness

More research is needed. Details: Find all sources of illness.

There are many ways piñatas can fall ill, and all must be prevented as much as possible. These include:

• Eating poisonous foods, such as sour sweets, certain types of weeds such as toadstools, or nightshade berries.
• Being near certain weeds, such as the venus piñata trap.
• Losing a fight. This is tracked in the piñata's information as “times injured”, but has the same effect as illness.
• Being whacked with the shovel too many times. Once the piñata becomes dizzy, the next hit will cause it to fall ill.
• Being on fire for too long can sometimes cause a piñata to fall ill; however, sometimes the fire will go out on its own without causing any real harm.
• Becoming stuck in a small area, such as between fences. Piñatas can be safely kept in pens so long as they have enough space to roam around.

Preventing Illness

Keeping a tidy, orderly garden is important to keeping piñatas healthy. Some tips include:

• Breaking sour sweets as soon as they appear. When a sour piñata or Ruffian spits out a sour sweet, a distinct sound effect will play. As soon as this sound plays, drop everything if possible and smash all candy with the shovel.
• Prevent fights from breaking out. Keeping species that dislike each other separate, clearing thistles, having a Red Eye Rainbow, and dealing with Ruffians and Sour Bonboons will help with this. If a fight does break out, watering the participants is often a good way to stop the fight, so long as they haven’t begun attacking one another. The shovel may also be used, however nothing short of whacking will get their attention, which may injure them. A tamed Bonboon will be able to automatically stop fights.
• Keep weeds contained behind fencing. Some weeds aren’t dangerous enough to need containment, but others absolutely must be. These include the toadstool, hemlock, and prickly pear. The venus piñata trap and fireweed can shoot their projectiles through fencing, but fences can still be used to prevent piñatas from getting too close.
• Do not hit piñatas with the shovel.
• Keeping fire sources, such as the firebrand, contained or turned off when not in use.
• Make sure that fencing isn’t placed too tightly together.

Healing Piñatas

Dastardos appears to collect approximately two minutes after a piñata falls ill. To save the sick piñata must, it must be healed before Dastardos smashes it open.

The primary way of healing piñatas is to call Doc Patchingo. For a small fee, Patch can head over to the garden and instantly heal one or more piñatas. He arrives quickly in his car (or helicopter in Pocket Paradise), and will attempt to reach the requested piñata to fling medicine at it. Once he is finished, the piñata will be healed and he will return to his clinic.

Making sure the path is clear is important, as Patch must navigate the garden to reach the piñata. Water will slow him down, and he needs to go around obstacles. However, if Patch is called quickly enough, this should not pose much concern.

More research is needed. Details: How long it takes for Chewnicorn power to recharge.

Chewnicorns are also able to heal resident piñatas. Once a Chewnicorn is tamed, its horn will begin to flash. When this happens, it can be directed to a sick piñata, causing it to heal that piñata free of charge. This power must recharge after use.

A piñata wearing the Halo of Hardness accessory will be instantly healed if it gets sick, with no assistance needed. This can make a piñata essentially immortal, however it is still vulnerable to other threats such as being hunted or Professor Pester.

Slowing Down Dastardos

If Dastardos reaches a piñata before it is healed, he will break it open and it will be too late to save it. The best way to make sure this doesn’t happen is to remain attentive and call Patch immediately; however, sometimes a sick piñata can still go unnoticed. Once Dastardos has his sights set on a piñata, he cannot be stopped until the piñata is either broken or healed. He can be slowed down however, using the following methods:

• Having a Dastardos Scarer in the garden will extend his spawn timer up to 10 minutes.
• Directing a tamed Sherbat or Crowla to him will distract him, and temporarily stop his advance.
• Dastardos can only be hit with a shovel with the Dastardos Shovel Head upgrade. Doing so will stun him for about 5 seconds.

Dastardos will not go after a piñata until its timer is up. If a second piñata becomes sick sometime after the first, he will ignore the second unless it has hit the point he would normally appear to collect. If this is the case, he will break it open as well before leaving.

Broken Piñatas

When a piñata is broken, the sound of children cheering will play and it will explode, releasing piñata sweets as well as its life sweet. The piñata’s pieces will then float up into the air, flying toward the edge of the garden before reforming. It will return to its black-and-white wild coloration, signifying its loss of permanent residence in the garden.

Unlike piñatas that leave due to being unhappy, broken piñatas are completely reset. Their name, stats, accessories, variant colors, and all other properties will be completely erased. They are essentially reborn, and cannot be considered the same piñata they were before death. The piñata will then run away after reforming, and cannot be differentiated from wild piñatas that spawned naturally.

Wild piñatas can also become sick and break, but do not drop sweets. Like resident piñatas that break, their requirements are also reset.

If a sour piñata is broken, it will behave similarly to a normal wild piñata, but will drop weed seeds instead of candy.

Dastardos will appear to smash open wild piñatas in games other than Trouble in Paradise. In this game, sick wild piñatas instead burst on their own.

If a certain species is beaten by the player too much, they may become reluctant to visit the garden.

Sometimes piñatas will reform without being broken or being reset. This usually happens if a piñata becomes stuck or ends up somewhere they shouldn’t. This is simply done to reset the piñata's position and has no other adverse effect on the piñata.