You start the game with a couple of butterflies in you habitat, you can boost them up to fly by shaking the device.You can get additional habitats which can be purchased from the habitat select screen by pressing the button with num in the middle bottom of the screen. Decorations are items that can be added to the butterflies' habitat to increase their happiness. There are many beautiful decorations like leaves, bugs, watches and so on you can get from gift in filed or from the supply shop. Once the decoration is placed in a habitat, it can be repositioned by moving and holding it. You can then move it around. You can also sell, move or gift it by dragging and holding it over the corresponding circles on the screen. You can get new decoration from the Supply Shop, the field, or gifts from OpenFeint friends. Backgrounds can be applied to a habitat. When a background is applied, the old background is lost. You can get at most 6 butterflies, 7 decorations in one habitat and 8 habitats in the game.
You can level up by getting XP from breeding, taming butterfly to matured and completing Awards. When you level up you will receive some additional awards. You will also have the opportunity to purchase a new habitat from levels 2-7. Above level 8, you will be able to discover exclusive breeds in the field which are not available in butterflyMart!
You can see your friends habitats from the Neighbors menu. If you are signed into OpenFeint you can send and receive butterflies and decoration between your friends as gifts. You can gift butterflies from the butterfly attribute menu, and gift decoration by dragging them onto the gift button when selected. When you receive a gift, you will be given the choice to accept it or ignore it.
The menu button: access the main menu by tapping the green button in the lower-right corner of the screen. When a menu is present, the button becomes a red close button.
The habitat Select button: switch between your habitats by pressing the habitat button in the bottom middle of the screen. The character "N" mean that the current habitat is nursery.
You can tap on a butterfly to see information about it. From the butterfly attribute menu you can see the butterfly’s breed, rarity, maturity level, happiness, current value and max value. The breed name is the butterfly's <base color> <pattern1 color><pattern2 color> <pattern name>. The rarity is how valuable the butterfly is. The maturity level displays how close it is to fully grown. The happiness influences the value of the butterfly. You can also use growth potions to instantly grow a butterfly to full maturity and happiness.
Share butterflies in your collection by using the share button on the butterfly attribute menu of any hatched butterfly. From the share menu you will be able to show off a specific butterfly on Facebook, Twitter, through Email or as a web link, openfeint friends.
You can get new butterfly breeds by shopping in the Butterfly Mart, finding new ones in the field, or being gifted new butterflies from your OpenFeint friends.
You can take butterflies to the field from the butterfly attribute menu. In the field you can tame butterflies and increase their maturity by eating the honey of bee and dew, and the bee hitted will follow the butterfly and increase the fly speed of the butterfly. The butterfly will fly straight untill you touch the screen to change the direction, but be aware of the mantis on the flower! The mantis will reduce the happiness and speed of your butterfly. You can also find presents in the field with surprise inside. Mature butterflies can breed with other wild butterflies found in the field.
You can breed two matured and tamed butterflies to produce a butterfly egg. Access the breed menu from the butterfly attribute or main menu. You can choose which eligible butterflies to breed, and see the possible offsprings. Once you push the breed button, you will get XP and an egg will be added to your nursery.
When you bought new butterflies or decorations in mart, receive gifts, or find items in the field, they will be placed in your express for delivery. The express can only hold ten items at once, but you can rush orders to arrive immediately by using stamps.
You can catalog butterflies from the butterfly attribute menu. Once cataloged, they can be viewed in the catalog from the main menu, and reordered for a fee. You only have 60 slots to catalog butterflies.
The butterfly index automatically tracks the butterflies that you have collected. Select a species to see a detailed list. Can you collect them all?
Awards are earned by breeding specific butterfly combinations or reaching certain goals. Once you have obtained the specified butterflies in one habitat you will trigger the award and earn XP. You can see the Award list from the main menu.
You can buy additional Potions and Stamps from the Pro Shop in the main menu, therer is always preferential price for you!
When you are playing and the device is connected to the internet, your game will automatically be backed up every time you are logged into OpenFeint. When logging into OpenFeint for the first time on a new device, you will be given a chance to restore or start a new game if your OpenFeint account already contains a pocket butterflies game. Choose restore if you would like to continue from your most recent backup, or choose new game if you would like to start over.