So, you got stuck while playing Botanophobia. We've all been there. This guide will give you information on how to beat the STANDARD (not carnoflora) version of Botanophobia, it may be missing details as I am but one man so if I'm missing something or got details wrong please feel free to correct me in the comments. It should go without saying but.

The game is great (find it here: https://vrchat.com/home/world/wrld_d3721f82-a99b-4fde-9a98-ae82a30a81fa/info), Vygnarmenshnarf and the dev team did a great job so go support them (https://www.patreon.com/GubbinGames) or join their discord (https://bit.ly/GubbinGames).

With that aside, you can look through the chapters on the side (somewhere on the screen) to skip through the guide to what you need to know. If you know nothing, then I recommend just reading the information as it's presented.

Most of these mechanics are explained in the game (either through lore books or in the tutorial book).

At it's core, Botanophobia is a stealth horror game with unkillable monsters that hunt you (each in their own way), and the game does this well through the flashlight and sneaking mechanic. Most actions make noise (visible on your HUD) be it opening doors, moving or opening cabinets (but talking with prox or text chat is noiseless). Noise can be heard by the monsters hunting you so minimising noise is a good idea. Noise is reduced by sneaking (which you can initiate by pressing your jump bind/button) or passively do with the slipper item in the shop (not microtransactions), sneaking will reduce your movement speed though so keep that in mind.
You have no stamina bar, and your HP and flashlight charge are visible on the HUD on your hand.

When moving about you'll come across items like dead orbs, batteries, stones, various plants and rarely a shop orb (in the mouth of dragon vases). Each of these items fit some specific role.

Batteries charge your flashlight.
Glow herbs (blue) light up your surroundings temporarily and make loot (or mimics) in containers visible through walls.
Acceleration herbs (yellow) make you run really fast.
Spectral herbs (white) turn you temporarily take ghost properties which can be useful for escaping death or more creative uses.
Stones and preservation herbs (red) add to your protection meter (visible on your hand HUD, more on this later).
Regeneration herbs restore hp in a lump sum (in one go).
Office Keys let you unlock the office (to progress the story).
Lighters give light in a small area around you.

The protection meter is like a back-up plan that reduces the amount of damage taken when you get hit (but won't outright stop you dying if Doctor Kinley is on top of you for a long time) at the cost of using some protection meter . This meter has 3 segments that are charged with stones or preservation plants, try to keep this topped up if you can as it can be the difference between life and death.

When you die you become a ghost, ghosts appear as glowing lights on the floor for surviving players. Ghosts can hear and see surviving players, so you can have ghosts lead you somewhere or to something. Ghosts can be revived through the blue orb in the shop.

The shop is reachable through the orb in the mouth of dragon statues (they spawn there over time), simply pick it up and press trigger to go to the shop. Once in the shop you get a selection of items to pick from, grab the one you want then you can leave through the door.

There's some other stuff mechanics-wise (I think) but you'll figure it out eventually.

At the start of the game you're told to look for an office on the 2nd floor to earn freedom, to get into this office (with a green door) you need to find 3 Office keys to unlock the padlocks on the door and get access to the office. To unlock padlocks simply walk into the padlocked door. In the office you'll find a book with some helpful information, some lore and most importantly a basement key which unlocks a gate in the basement. This gate releases another monster to hunt you (more on that in Part 4 later) and once you head inwards gives you access to a ritual area that has a piece of paper which tells you a codex number. Write. It. Down. Put it as your status, in a notes page, whatever. You will now need to go to the library (accessible on the first or 2nd floor through what was a purple door) and avoid books on the floor so you don't trigger the librarian monster (standard stuff really) and don't let any other monster catch you in here either. Look for distinct books (tomes) and check them until you find the one that matches the number you were given. After interacting, read the left page to see which of the following materials you need, there should be three. Write the three materials down somewhere and rip the left page of the book out (if you rip the page BEFORE reading the materials, you can find the page somewhere near your butt as an item I believe).

Dagger - An ancient tool complicit in death
Blood - A sample of blood from a patron
Amulet - A sample of powerful and persistent life
Skull - A skull that once lived
Keystone - A keystone charged with energy
Plant - A plant that can't be found
Now you must go do the relevant challenges/puzzles (go to Part 3, then come back here once you have the 3 stated ritual materials).

Good, you're back. With the 3 materials on your character head back to the ritual area (past the gate you unlocked earlier) and walk into the middle. You should see a text box saying something about a portal and making a quick exit. Once everyone is ready (or not if you're devious like that) click ok and you should be in the finale now. Walk back out and follow the path given by twinkles, don't walk into the teeth and this should be easy. After walking back through the entire map you will be back to the main room and the door you spawned at should now be open. Walk into it to leave and beat Botanophobia (or feed yourself to the door monsters, up to you really).

Blood (Shark Parkour)
This puzzle takes place in the green door behind the bar on the 2nd floor, I recommend pre-emptively leaving a regen plant or two near the door if you find any here for whoever does the challenge.

For this puzzle you need to jump across several obstacles to reach the blood, when you stay in the water too long (either in one go or across several falls) you will take damage and be sent to the start (the gate will remain open though). I recommend temporarily decreasing avatar height if you are 180cm+ since you may have your head clip through the ceiling on some jumps.
The pathing should be as follows: Take the rightmost path when possible until you reach a lever which you will pull to open a big gate (that you pass near the start of the parkour) which blocked you. Once you've pulled the lever, backtrack to the now open gate and head along the leftmost path (you CAN take the right path, but I don't recommend it personally). You will eventually reach another stone platform which has the blood on a table. Pick it up and you can now leave through the door next to you.

Regen - You cannot heal spam through this challenge and stay in the water, though regen plants are nice should you fail.
Speed - You CAN use Acceleration plants to run through some parkour sections (good for the right path after the gate)
Spectral - You MAY be able to use Spectral plants to avoid triggering the shark, though I haven't tested this.
Glow - Glow plants do nothing in this puzzle.

Amulet (Pick A Mirror)
This puzzle takes place behind the green door facing the 2nd floor library entrance (if you can't find it, from the 2F library entrance just go left and forwards). I recommend leaving one glow plant and maybe a regen plant in front of the door for whoever does the puzzle. To start the puzzle, go up the stairs and click the mirror WITHOUT a face (use your flashlight or a glow plant to see which has a face).

For this puzzle you must pick the mirror which DOESN'T have a face, if you pick incorrectly you will take damage. The face will be feint even with a flashlight but glow herbs make this challenge very easy. You will pick through mirrors a few times until eventually reaching the amulet (don't forget to pick it up), once you have the amulet you can leave through the mirror behind the amulet.

Regen - Regen plants are nice in case you choose the wrong mirror so you can heal.
Speed - These plants have little to no impact for this challenge, just save them for something else.
Spectral - I don't think (not tested yet) you can choose mirrors while ghosted, so Spectral plants do nothing in this puzzle due to ghosts not being able to interact.
Glow - VERY USEFUL, these make it easy to see the faces in the mirror even compared to a flashlight. One herb will last most/all of the puzzle depending on speed.

Plant (Guessing Game)
This challenge takes place behind green doors on the first floor (one in the study behind a shelf, one FILL THIS BIT.........). I recommend having a regen plant on hand, but it might not be needed if you're clever and quick enough.

For this puzzle you must look through various plant boxes for a sample with GREEN TEXT to interact with. The catch is that the room gives you poison when touching a plant growth (I assume, although it seems random imo) which damages you after a few seconds of delay which you can see as a purple bar above your HP bar. To get rid of the poison simply leave the plant room (make sure not to run into an adjacent plant room as that won't remove poison). The general strategy is to run in, check a few boxes and run out before poison starts to do tick damage. Repeat this until you eventually find the sample (which will show as an item on/near your back), try not to get caught by other monsters when returning to corridors to remove poison.

Regen - Nice for recovering HP lost to poison.
Speed - Useful for rotating between safe spots, but can make checking plants awkward.
Spectral - May be useful for checking samples, provided you grab the sample in alive form. A bit of a waste in my opinion.
Glow - Not useful, the good sample glows the same colour as the rest.

Keystone (Maze Game)
This puzzle is located behind the green door right next to the ritual area behind the gate, so you can get this part last to save time.

For this puzzle you need to go through a door maze until you reach the room with a statue and the charged keystone on the floor. That's the entire puzzle.

Regen - Useless here
Speed - Best to save for more important stuff
Spectral - Best to save for more important stuff
Glow - Useless

Skull (Stealth Section)
This puzzle takes place in two rooms that are behind green doors (both on the first floor), the kitchen and the dining room. The kitchen is behind the doors with blood beneath near the top left of the map, and the dining room is on the top left of the map next to a set of stairs.

For this puzzle you need to sneak through the kitchen to get 4 brain meals (these are grabbable items) which you bring to the dining room and put in the spot with a matching plate shape. In the kitchen is the chef, a monster that you need to avoid (don't be seen) unless you want to be attacked. Once all 4 meals are on the dining table in their respective spots the dolls eat and a skull will spawn, pick it up and you're done.

Regen - Useful for healing if damaged
Speed - Too tight of a space to be useful in my opinion
Spectral - Can't grab brains while ghosted, so useless
Glow - Kinda useful, but not necessary

Dagger (Escape Room)
This puzzle takes place in the first door in hallway right of chapel on the 2nd floor.

For this puzzle you simply need to look for keys hidden in the room to unlock displays with antiques in them (you want the dagger). Keys will only be in this room. Some spots include: On chairs, near the edge of the rug/carpet, hanging from weapons, in the cannon and in the cabinets. Once you get a key, use it on the glowing padlock, and once you get the dagger you have finished the puzzle.

Regen - No potential to be damaged, so useless
Speed - Useless
Spectral - Useless
Glow - Pretty useful unless you know EVERY spot off by heart

Dr Kinsley (The main guy)
Dr Kinsley is your typical horror bad guy who's active right from the start. He patrols the map and engages in a chase (made clear by his roar noise) when he sees you and may hear noises you make.

You can avoid him by looking for his light in front of him or hearing his footsteps and figuring out where he is from that information. You can lose chase by running (not sneaking) away and breaking LOS. Other ways to escape include acceleration herb-ing away and spectral herb-ing.

The Sensus (Don't Look At It)
The Sensus works by damaging you when you look at it and is active right from the start. Occasionally it lets out giggles to let you know when it moves and appears since this monster does not move and patrol, it just appears and disappears (like teleporting).

Avoid this monster by listening for giggles, then either avoiding rooms it's in entirely or not looking in its direction.

The Screamer (????)
I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS GUY WORKS, BEST OF LUCK.

The Mimic (I call him Edwin)
The Mimic is your standard mimic and is active right from the start, he hides in chests and shows himself when you open the chest he hides in. Don't get too close.

You can avoid this monster by using the glow herb to find the mimic and avoid opening that chest.

The Technicolor (TV Monster)
The TV monster can damage you if you stay in the TV's glow, this monster is available from the start. Occasionally The Technicolor will play 'a message from our sponsors' that harms you. This monster only works where TVs are on the map.

To avoid this monster listen for the TV crackles and sponsor messages to know when the TV is in a room and when it leaves.


The Librarian
The Librarian only stays in the library, this monster starts off behind the desk in the centre of the library. The librarian will attack if you step on too many books so avoid stepping on books and leave quickly if you do.


The Guests (Creepy Mouths)
The Guests are activated when you open the gate in the basement and remain active for the rest of the run. This monster will take up doorways as dictated by their teeth, chattering noises and growing bubble of darkness. Whilst a kind of passive threat this monster can ruin a run if you get cornered by it during a chase.

To avoid this monster listen for chatters, remember where you've seen it (as it doesn't move often) and simply don't walk into it.

The Dark Reflection and The Chef are challenge/puzzle specific monsters so check part 3 (Amulet and Skull respectively) for help with their specific challenge.

Congrats! You've made it through this text-heavy guide and (hopefully) beat Botanophobia. Now you can call it quits or go try Carnoflora mode (hard mode) by enabling it in the game's settings.
If the guide helped you beat the game let me know in the comments (interested if this is actually helpful).

Some shameless stuff now.
If you really liked the guide you can get me some VRChat+ by gifting it to 'speck853' or with this link (https://vrchat.com/home/user/usr_a035ca77-e983-40aa-8b7f-732dcb97a8ee)
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Thanks for reading the guide :)