Gathering materials in Wild Hearts is of vital importance. Without certain items, players can't upgrade their weapons or craft new armor sets. Of course, most of the Forging Materials needed for both weapon upgrades and armor crafting come from the items dropped during Kemono hunts, but there are certain Ores, Food, and other assorted Materials that can only be found elsewhere and farming them late into the game can be a big mistake.
For example, there is a whole category of items that can only be obtained from the Small Kemono that wander around each map and constantly interrupt players mid-fight. So, let's cover where exactly players can find one of the more tedious to locate items in Wild Hearts, Lizard Blooms.
How To Use The Cyclopedia To Figure Out What Drops Lizard Blooms
First off, Wild Hearts players should learn that it's quite easy to figure out what Creature or Small Kemono drops which item just by taking a look at the Cyclopedia. Once a hunter encounters either a Creature or Small Kemono for the first time, all their information and possible drops are recorded in this Cyclopedia. So, to figure out where Lizard Blooms are, all they would have to do is scroll through this section of the menu until they find it.
That said, both of these classifications of animals can appear on different maps depending on the 'Chapter' the player picks before heading into the map. When this happens, it's considered as the Creature/Kemono 'invading' that Region, which players will notice ir Cyclopedia entry (once they've encountered it as an invasive species at least once). So, it's important to keep track of this while hunting down which Small Kemono drops what.
How To Get Lizard Blooms & Where To Find Them
With all that out of the way, let's get to the important info. Lizard Blooms are, obviously enough, gained from Lizards in Wild Hearts. To be more specific, they are Forging Material from both the Springwatch and Nightshade Monitor Small Kemono. There are also Sparkshower and Shardshower variant Monitors, but these ones only drop Pointed Scales or different types of Ore and have zero chance of dropping Lizard Blooms.
Meanwhile, Springwatch Monitors can be found in Harugasumi Way as these human-sized komodo-dragon-inspired lizards wander around a couple of different areas of the map. With Springwatch Monitors specifically, Lizard Bloomscan be obtained as a possible drop by killing them, or as a guaranteed drop by petting them instead. So, to gather as many Blooms as possible in the shortest amount of time, it's recommended to slowly sneak up behind them while crouching and pet the Springwatch Monitors for their precious Blooms.
Alternatively, players can also obtain Lizard Blooms from Nightshade Monitors found on the Akikure Canyon Map thats accessible from Chapter 2 onward. These Lizards are pretty invasive, but when slain on their home turf, they have a chance to drop either a Lizard Bloom or a Sharp Scale. However, they also always drop Lizard Blooms when pet, so non-violence really is the best choice here.
The last thing to keep in mind is that both of these Small Kemono are Poisonous, and when they're pet that toxicity is transferred to the hunter. Without any sort of Poison Status Ailment Resistance, the hunter can't make it through the full petting animation before recoiling. So, players will need to either wear armor with Poison Resistance or eat food that grants it in order to pet these wild Kemono consistently.
Best Route & Methods For Farming Lizard Blooms
Unfortunately, unlike with Ore, Plants, and Consumables, there's not a Tsukumo Shrine Dragon Karakuri that helps with Small Kemono drops. Even the Pens and Cage Dragon Karakuri are only used by small and large Creatures and drop items typically only useful for eating, making Ornaments, or selling for money. So, the only real option is for players to find these Monitors in the wild.
That said, these creatures do have areas where they almost always spawn, and there are ways to rest the map quickly. So, once players find an area where they feel it'd be easy to 'grind' out the Lizard Blooms they simply need to place down a Camp Tent nearby. After doing so, hunters can either Fast Travel between this Camp and Minato to reset the Monitor spawns, or alternatively, they can just swap between Kemono Hunts using their icons on the expanded map, as it resets the map during the loading screen.
Wild Hearts was released on February 16, 2023 and is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.