OK folks, as promised, here I am with the answers to some frequently asked questions about Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise. This is going to be a dynamic entry, which means I will update it as I go with new questions as it will be linked from the Forums.Xbox.com and other forums such as PinataIsland.info. Some of these answers have been sourced from those two forums. Oh, and just to get this out of the way also

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Q: How do I get Willy Builder to appear? I can't romance my piñatas if I can't build houses!
A: This has been a cause of much frustration, especially among returning VP veterans who decided to skip the new "player guide" tutorial system. In order to get Willy builder to come back from vacation, you will need to ensure that you either fully complete Langston's initial three lessons, or explicitly skip them entirely. Langston is the lickatoad accessed from the village menu by pressing X -> Village -> Langston (he's at the bottom). His challenges include trapping a sweetle, romancing bispottis (ensure you feed them both daisies) and sending the overjoyed sweetle to a party. Which leads me into the next question...

Q: How do I send a piñata to a party? or: I sent the requested piñata to the party but didn't get credit!
A: In TiP, rather than dropping a new box in your garden whenever it's time to send a pinata to a party, there is a stationary box just outside the borders of your garden. When you accept a party challenge from Langston, you first need to overjoy your pinata, which can be done in a number of ways: naming it, feeding it some of its favourite foods (they will usually be happy to eat the foods mentioned in their visit/reside/romance requirements) or candies. Then you click the box, press "Y" to pack and select the pinata. Keep in mind that you must send a regular non-variant pinata, unless requested otherwise or you will not receive credit for the challenge.

Q: Professor Pester and his band of ruffians are ruining my day! How do I get rid of them?
A: Well, you could always play in the Just for Fun mode... =) Anyhow, there's a number of ways to deal with Ruffians and Professor Pester -

1. Pay them off with some "protection money". Ruffians will leave for 200 cc a piece, and Professor Pester will accept 500 cc to leave you alone (for now...).
2. Ruffians can be whacked with an appropriately upgraded shovel.
3. Mallowolves can scare them off, and the Limeoceros, Choclodocus, and Dragonache all have different ways of dealing with Professor Pester.
4. Purchasing the Captain's Cutlass for 11,000 from Costalot's General Store (available at level 30) will keep the ruffians (but not P.P.!) out of your garden)
5. Keeping in mind that this may be the most expensive item in your garden, if you don't pay off Professor Pester in time, he may break the Captain's Cutlass, which could become quite costly... To avoid this, set up one or more Decoy piñata in your garden, also available from the General Store for 825 coins. (Or use the vision card I made and it only costs 750!)
6. ISSI Yetizai of the PinataIsland.info forums has devised a clever method of keeping Professor Pester at bay with stone fencing (pictured below). I'm told that "he just kind of stands there Sometimes he'll laugh and such but he just stands there, never enters or leaves."
   
   

Q: Storkos keeps telling me that the "House [was] removed" and won't deliver my eggs! The house is there! What gives?
A: In TiP, Storkos seems to be a lot more careful about where she drops the eggs. In this regard, she won't drop an egg at a house if there is already an unhatched egg there. The "House removed" is simply a poor error message for this problem. Pick up and move the egg and Storkos will drop the next one. If she really wanted to be careful, she should place the eggs rather then dropping them, but alas...

Q: How do I get the 1st, 2nd and 3rd types of wildcard?
A: There are three types of wildcard for each species. The first you get by romancing when your garden has 6 or more of that species, collecting all the hearts and finishing the mini-game with a certain amount of time left on the clock. The second type of wildcard is done by romancing two of the first type, in addition to all of the above.

As for the 3rd type: on your own, you can only actually get two types of wildcard; the third you must get by trading or co-operative play. (Source: BIGsheep at PIF)

Q: I'm hopelessly poor. How do I make some quick cash?
A: In addition to selling off piñata (especially wildcards, which are worth more), here's a few ways to make money:

• Tafflies & Reddhotts: Plant a fruit tree or bush in your garden. This should attract tafflies to your garden on a regular basis. When they become residents, you can evolve them into reddhotts by flying them onto a firebrand and dousing them with water when they catch on fire (no joke! =). These reddhotts can be sold for 2200 cc each. Since you're constantly evolving the tafflies, they should keep coming on a regular basis for a constant passive cashflow. (Reddhott wildcards also go for 33,000 a piece if they're twins, so you should consider romancing them as well)
  
• Plants: Plant garlic and fertilize them three times with yellow fertilizer. They can then be sold for 400 cc. You should be able to plant them fairly closely together so that one dose of fertilize hits a few garlic plants at once. This also works with chilis and red fertilizer. In the later levels, Bird of Paradise and Orchid plants can also be a decent source of quick cash.

Q: I can't get these cards to scan! What am I doing wrong? Oh, and will they work when printed in black and white?
A: Make sure you have good lighting when you are trying to scan cards. There is a HOWTO in the journal that you should take a look at but basically here's how its done:

• First, turn the focus all the way counter-clockwise (may need further adjustment later)
• Prop the card up against something in landscape position with the barcode at the bottom (you can hold it, but unless you've got surgeon-steady hands, you'll have trouble)
• Point the camera at the card ensuring that all four borders are visible to the camera
• It should now start to draw a box around the borders, adjust the position as needed
• It will either flash green for successful, yellow for a problem and red if the card is invalid or is a single-use card that has already been scanned

It should be noted that cards can be scanned directly off your computer monitor, or iPod, smartphone etc. Cards printed in blank & white should work, but the camera does seem to use the red corner of cards as a visual clue. Consider buying some light card stock paper so that you can print the cards in high quality and they will be more durable (and easier to work with).

Q: I uploaded a piñata vision card to the VivaPinata.com web site but I can't find it anywhere! Where is it?
A: Because this game is rated "E for everyone", anything that is submitted to the VP website must be moderated before it will go on public display. This typically takes around 24-48 hours and moderation does not occur on the weekends.

Q: How do I get the famous piñata achievement?
A: The famous piñata achievement is a viral achievement that you must get by receiving a famous pinata from a developer or someone who got it from a developer, or you can also unpack the piñata from a crate whilst in their garden via Xbox Live co-op (if they don't want to give it up ;>). There are a number of people on the forums willing to help with this, or simply make a post asking about it.

That's all folks! As I said, this is going to be a dynamic post, so I will add more frequently asked questions as they come up. You can also check out this post from the Xbox.com forums with other answers to questions including those for people considering a purchase. Also, feel free to ask anything you need answered in the comments! Happy gardening =).