Wormwoods Insight

[Silversliver]

Wormwood is my favorite character, so when I saw he was getting skill points I was excited. I'm going to go through his insight points as of now, and try to go over the good and the bad. I'll try to say why I like or don't like each skill.

Seed Sleuth
it's the first point you have to get. I think the best use for this skill is when you're trying to get your first 5 of any crop, if you have 4 seeds you can plant wild seeds, see if any match your crop, and get over the family stressor one generation early. I haven't used it for that myself, but I'm sure that might be nice. For those of you talking about weeds, the time it takes to check every wild seed I plant is more than I'm willing to spend to not have to have a shovel when I come talk to them after tomorrow when they've grown.

Bottom Right Branch
Growth Spurt (I and II)
if you take I and II it takes 25% less time to bloom for each stage. that's means instead of taking 1 day to go from stage 1 to 2, and another to get to full bloom, it'll only take you 1.5 in game days. that's about as good as using a single use of super growth formula, or if you used a full bottle already (5 uses) that will be as good as 2 more uses. Even worse, if you stay on top of your bloominess this is a one time bonus, it only applies if you lose stage 3, and takes two of my insight points.
Flower Power
It says it makes you stay in full bloom longer, the exact numbers are a little complicated, so I'll explain. When you reach full bloom, or bloom stage 3, you are given a bloom value of 1440, and it decays at 1 per second (0 in spring and 2 in winter). if it reaches 0 you drop to bloom stage 2. You can use any speed grow to increase the number by 7.5x the value of the fertilizer used, up to a maximum of 2400. if you take the "Flower Power" skill you instead start with 2160 and can go up to 3600, for a 50% boost. This gives you a wider window before you need to fertilize again, but it doesn't change how much you need to use per day. Super Growth Formula gives you 240 per use, with 5 uses, for a total of 1200 for a full bottle. This means you need to use 2 bottles of super growth formula every 5 days, as long as you use the growth formula over the days rather than all at once this should have no effect on your gameplay aside from the bonus 720 you get when you first bloom, which is slightly more than half of one bottle of super growth formula.
Shade Plant
This changes your heat insulation while fully bloomed from 60 to 360. that's equal to using a Floral Shirt and an umbrella. This is great a great perk, with one chilled amulet you can stay cool all summer easy. This is a good skill point if overheating is ever a problem for you and you can stay fully bloomed, but it does make it take longer to warm up if you're ever freezing.
Photosynthesis
This heals you 1 HP every 20 seconds while fully bloomed and in strong sunlight. a day is 480 seconds, so if you are under a dwarf star all day, that's a whopping 24 HP per day, just for staying full bloom, Which you want to do anyways. Probably closer to 6 in winter and 18 in summer, so we can probably say about 12 HP per day, or about 3 rot. If you're standing in the light of a dwarf or polar star you can get the healing all night long. If that's worth an insight point to you, go for it, I'll stick with my piles and piles of rot.

Top Right Branch
Farmhand
While in full bloom you automatically talk to nearby farm plants, the first part increases the radius of that by 50%, which is.... alright. the second part of the skill makes picking farm crops take less time (seems to be about half, so maybe 55% if it's like woody's) which is the actual value of this skill. It is the kind of skill that won't save you much time, but it feels nice to have.
Compost Care
This reduces the time to use the compost wrap on yourself by 60%. with this it might be possible to use compost wrap in combat. I think it should have applied to all forms of self fertilizing, I still don't use compost wraps.
Bee Kind
makes killer bees not come out to try to kill you, and bee boxes don't release their bees when you harvest honey. The way to not get killed by bees for people is simple, walk away, or straight through them. not any harder for wormwood. The skill does also make it so butterfly's aren't afraid of you, but.... you're wormwood, why do you care?
Bramble Trap Specialist
If you use bramble traps, this is amazing. the biggest problem with traps of any kind is placing or replacing them. Being able to reset Bramble Traps just by walking past while fully bloomed makes resetting them so easy, you can do it during the hound wave. With this one skill point alone, I recommend bramble traps now.
Bramble Husk Specialist
While still good, it's hard to compare to resetting all bramble traps instantly with no effort. The value of bramble husks is that swarms of monsters will kill themselves on you, this gives you an aoe attack every third hit if you aren't hit and are wearing the bramble husk.This is extra damage, it means you can kill many enemies with just a bramble husk equipped. Spiders will still get hits in if you don't kite, bees will too, but Tentipillars are as easy hold F.

Top Left Branch

Mushroom Master (I and II)
Together these make mushroom planters grow 1 mushroom into 4 in only 3 days instead of the 3.75 days it normally takes. that's basically a full day faster. If you want mushrooms, this is for you.
Poor Sap
For 1 red cap, honey, and rot, you can make Ipecaca, which if fed to a Beefalo, Pig, or Werepig, causes them to poop 15 times over 45 seconds and run around randoml, causing them 5 damage each time they poop. this is funny, but I could just feed a werepig a stack of lightbulbs, how is this different? I guess I can give it to a beefalo, but if I have beefalo I should have poop already.
Mushroom Multiplier
When planting mushrooms (not spores) in a mushroom planter, you end up with 6 instead of 4 at the end of the 3 days, for a net gain of 5 instead of 3. If you like mushrooms, I recommend it.
Moon Shroom Cloud
This lets you plant moon shrooms in the mushroom planter, using all the perks you got on the way here, and when you eat a moon shroom you yawn for 2 seconds, and are groggy for another 5 seconds as normal, but before you yawn you drop a cloud around yourself that lasts about 20 seconds, putting to sleep any creature that enters the cloud. It's exactly like the napsack, except centered on yourself. a really interesting skill that gives you everything it needs to be usable.

Bottom Left Branch

Sapling Crafting
For 5 twigs and 5 hp you can craft a lunar sapling. A lunar sapling grows one twig every 4 days, taking 20 days for this to pay itself back. I feel this is a very underwhelming perk, I have yet to need more lunar saplings, but I'm glad you can get more of them, I guess. In addition, this gives no customization options, only lunar saplings.
Berry Bush Crafting
This lets you craft berry bushes of both aesthetic varieties, but not juicy berry bushes. it costs 3 rot, 8 juicy berries, and 10 hp. my first problem with this is that it takes a replanted berry bush 3-7 days to grow one berry, my second problem is if you're not in a juicy berry world, you cannot use this, as there's no way to get juicy berries.... at least not until you get
Juicy Berry Bush Crafting
This is not a prerequisite for any further insight, and it lets you craft juicy berry bushes, for 3 rot, 8 berries, and 15 HP. You can use this in a juicy berry world, (there are always berry bushes around) but you need to have the Berry bush perk first anyways. If you want a stack of 10 juicy berry bushes, that's 80 berries you have to spend, in addition to the 30 rot and 150 HP as wormwood. In return it will take you 27-39 days to get 90 juicy berries, with three per bush every 9 to 13 days. so if you want 10 more berry bushes, you'll want to use 80 berries, then wait 27 to 39 days and make your 10 berry bushes.
Monkeytail Crafting
This is interesting because it costs 1 banana per monkeytail, also 4 reeds and 15 HP. Wormwood does have an easy time farming shadow splemunkies, so this is a way to get monkeytails before going to Moon Quay, or in case you aren't getting enough from the portal, but why can't I make banana bushes?
lureplant crafting
For 2 compost wraps (total of 10 poop, 4 rot, 2 nitre) 5 leafy meat, and 25 hp you can make lureplants. With this perk wormwood could actually make a lureplant farm without waiting several years. But he'd need a large initial investment of leafy meat.

Lunar Cultivator (Left Celestial Champion Path)

Carrat
Costing a carrot and 10 health seems to be usable in the early game gathering seeds off the ground and later it should help harvest your large crops, I always hate picking up all the seeds and crop after picking and hammering them. Plus, when the carrat dies, you get your carrot back. you can have up to 4 of them following you at once, though I'm not sure how often you'll need more than 2, they're rather quick, and extremely limited in what they can pick up and put into your inventory. (anything anyone can eat)
Bulbous Lightbugs
For a light bulb and 10 health you get a follower that circles you for about 3 days. it has low life, but if it dies you get your light bulb back. It's as fast as wormwood full bloom with a walking cane. Any additional speed and you'll leave them behind. you can have up to 6, though 4 should be plenty. Beware using these as your light source, they have low life.
Saladmander
It is not on fire, at the cost of a dragonfruit and 25 HP you get a green saladmander to follow you around and attack what you attack. it has the same personality as the saladmanders you'll find on lunar island, will follow you very slowly, attacks slowly, but has a decent health pool, and if it dies you get your dragonfruit back.

I have yet to use the brightshade skill tree, so cannot comment on how good it is.

 

When wilson got his skill tree, any of his skills that taught him recipes gave him at least 2 recipes. I don't understand why wormwoods skills can't give him two recipes each, maybe let him grow real saplings, maybe grass tufts, perhaps sprouting stone fruit? those 5 insight feel very underwhelming, even if I like them.

 

[Silversliver]

TLDR, Wormwoods skills feel extremely underwhelming for most of them. The only skill I actually think might change my gameplay as wormwood is Bramble Trap Specialist, and even that is only a QoL perk.