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The slime, the writing tree's ten stages, and milestones you claim yourself
Last updated September 10, 2026 · 10 min read
In one line: how the writing tree climbs its ten stages, why a milestone only counts once you press it, and what the slime's collection and evolution are.
Three things grow, and they are not the same thing
Your bookshelf carries a plant card — the region is called Slime's House — and clicking it opens Your Writing Tree. Inside are three separate growth axes that people routinely mistake for one:
| What grows | What grows it |
|---|---|
| The writing tree's stage | How many word milestones you have claimed |
| Your streak | Thirty words on a given day, +1 |
| Evolution energy | Meeting your daily goal, or claiming any quest or milestone: +1 each |
So hitting a word count does not raise the tree. You have to go and claim it. That is on purpose: the press is you admitting you got this far.
The tree's ten stages
The tree's stage is simply how far up the milestone ladder you have claimed. With nothing claimed it is a Seed.
| Stage | Name |
|---|---|
| Start | Seed |
| 1 | Sprout |
| 2 | Seedling |
| 3 | Sapling |
| 4 | New Branch |
| 5 | Young Tree |
| 6 | Great Tree |
| 7 | Lush Tree |
| 8 | Fruiting Tree |
| 9 | Glowing Tree |
| 10 | Legendary Tree |
Claim one and the tree grows a stage on the spot, with a celebration of a little over three seconds: the tree pops, a few sparkles rise, the slime's face goes from startled to delighted, and a watering can tips over it at the end. It cannot be skipped or replayed. If your system asks for reduced motion, the animation does not play at all.
Ten milestones: 1,000 to 1,000,000 words
| Threshold | |
|---|---|
| 1st | 1,000 words |
| 2nd | 5,000 |
| 3rd | 10,000 |
| 4th | 20,000 |
| 5th | 50,000 |
| 6th | 100,000 |
| 7th | 200,000 |
| 8th | 300,000 |
| 9th | 500,000 |
| 10th | 1,000,000 |
It counts manuscript words, and it counts them across your whole account, every work, for as long as you have been writing — including books you have not downloaded onto this device. So this number will not match the count you see inside any one book, and that is correct. Each rung has its own name, which you see when you claim it.
Where to claim
Two places:
- Writing Stats → Overview → Writing Milestones, the ladder. Each rung carries its own Claim Reward, and when two or more are ready a Claim all (N) appears above it.
- The floating button at the top right of the slime scene, whose label switches between the same two.
Claiming does three things at once: it grants AI credits, it raises the tree one stage, and it adds one point of evolution energy.
Nothing expires if you do not claim it — it queues up and waits. Unclaimed milestones make the tree glow, but they do not raise it. You cannot claim while offline.
On a phone the ladder turns vertical and shows only what you have achieved plus the rung in progress, with the rest behind Show N more milestones. Rungs you can claim are never hidden by that collapse.
The companion collection
The same window has two tabs at the top: Writing tree and Companions. Companions is the collection — one card per slime you own, with its face, its name and two lines of origin. The one you started with says it has been with you from the start; the ones that came later say which book and which temperament they grew out of.
Five forms exist ready-made: Crayon Slime, Star-Rune Mage, Detective, Little Crimson King, Wild Orc. Everything after that comes from evolving, and there is no fixed total, which is why the collection shows no "3 of 12" progress. There is only ever one dashed New companion silhouette at the end, reading The next one grows out of the book you are writing.
Every card has Deploy. Whoever is deployed shows up in three places at once: the tree scene, your AI Coach's avatar, and the daily quote. The one on duty is marked On duty.
Evolution
The ring under the tree is evolution energy. Fill it and you can evolve: pick a book (or don't) → the slime goes into a cocoon → the cocoon rocks and glows → it cracks → a birth card appears with the new companion's name, a one-line description, the book it came from and its temperament.
- Three times a day at most.
- The cocoon is drawn into the scene itself, so you can close the window — or reload the page — and it is still incubating. Usually one to two minutes.
- You must acknowledge the birth card. Until you do, you cannot evolve again.
The daily quote, handed over by your slime
It used to be a dialog blocking your shelf every day. It is not any more. Now a small notice slides down from the top centre and the slime hands the quote to you.
- It stays twelve seconds, with a bar shrinking beside it.
- Hovering pauses it, and moving away leaves it a moment longer — vanishing the instant your cursor leaves feels like being shooed off.
- Another one swaps the quote. There is no history; you cannot go back for one you have already seen.
- The ✕ closes it. It appears once a day.
Don't show again on that notice is permanent, and there is currently no setting anywhere to turn it back on. If you only want it gone for today, press the ✕.
What else the slime does
It is the AI Coach's face. During a conversation its expression follows what the AI is doing: thinking, reading your manuscript, searching, editing, replying. Something going wrong pulls a face; a retry wipes its brow; out of credits or offline and it dozes. Accept one of its edits and it is happy; accept them all and it is delighted. The coach's slime never gets angry and never falls asleep — deliberately.
Petting it gets a reaction: one or two pats and it is happy, three or more delighted, six or more moved, with hearts.
In the full scene it occasionally murmurs a line — one for when there is something to claim, one for very late at night, one for when you have been away a while. Each line appears once per session, and a click dismisses it. That one has no off switch.
On a phone
The plant card on the shelf collapses into a small sprout icon in the top row, with a red dot when something is waiting to be claimed. Tapping it raises a sheet from the bottom holding everything the desktop has: the tree, the collection, evolution, quests.
Plans
None of this is tied to a plan: the tree, the ten stages, the collection, evolution and the milestone ladder all work in full on the free plan. Evolving costs the evolution energy you wrote your way to, not money.
Related
Open the app and do this with your own book. Free to start, no credit card.