The Favorite Tool in Garden Horizons is an Epic-rarity gear that lets you "lock" individual plants so you can't accidentally collect their fruits. If you've been growing a high-value mutated crop and don't want to lose it during a bulk harvest, this is the tool you need.
Quick answer: Purchase the Favorite Tool from Molly's Gear Shop for 85,000 Shillings. If it's not in stock, wait for the shop to rotate — it restocks every five minutes alongside the Seed Shop and weather cycle.
Buying the Favorite Tool from the Gear Shop
The Favorite Tool is sold at Molly's Gear Shop, located near the center of the map. You can reach it by clicking the SEEDS button and heading to the left of Bill's Shop. Walk up to Molly and press the E key to open her inventory.
The tool costs 85,000 Shillings and is classified as Epic rarity. Unlike some higher-tier gears that appear rarely, the Favorite Tool has a relatively high chance of showing up in the shop's rotating stock. If you don't see it when you check, just wait. The Gear Shop refreshes every five minutes on the same timer as the Seed Shop and weather events. A countdown timer appears in the top corner of the shop menu so you can track exactly when the next restock happens.
How the Favorite Tool works
Once you own the Favorite Tool, equip it and use it on any planted crop. On PC or laptop, hover over the plant's body and left-click. On mobile, hover over the plant and tap its body or fruit. A heart icon will appear on the fruit, indicating it's now locked.
While a plant is favorited, you cannot collect its fruit. This prevents you from accidentally harvesting a valuable crop — especially useful when you're rapidly clicking through your garden or using tools like the Harvest Bell that collect everything at once. To remove the lock, simply use the Favorite Tool on the same plant again. The heart disappears, and you can harvest normally.
Favorite Tool vs. inventory favoriting
Garden Horizons has two separate "favorite" systems, and they serve different purposes. The Favorite Tool works on plants in your garden — it prevents you from picking the fruit off a growing crop. Inventory favoriting, on the other hand, works on harvested crops already in your backpack. Right-clicking a crop in your inventory marks it with a heart and protects it from being sold when you use the "Sell my Inventory" option.
Both systems use a heart icon as their visual indicator, but they operate independently. You'll want to use the Favorite Tool while plants are still growing and inventory favoriting after you've harvested something you want to keep.
Tips for getting the most out of it
The Gear Shop's restock cycle is your main bottleneck. Since the timer syncs with the Seed Shop and weather rotation, you can plan your purchases around those cycles. If you're waiting for the Favorite Tool to appear, use the downtime to water plants or check for new seeds.
Stacking sprinklers on favorited plants is a strong strategy. Because locked plants keep growing and gaining mutations, placing a Turbo Sprinkler or Super Sprinkler nearby will boost fruit size and growth speed without any risk of premature harvesting. When you're finally ready to sell, unfavorite the plant, collect the oversized mutated fruit, and take it to the shop for maximum profit.
The Favorite Tool pairs well with the Magnifying Glass, another Gear Shop item that lets you check the value of a plant without harvesting it. Use the Magnifying Glass to monitor your favorited crops and decide the optimal moment to unlock and collect them.
At 85,000 Shillings the Favorite Tool isn't cheap for newer players, but it pays for itself quickly once you start protecting high-value mutated crops from accidental collection. Keep an eye on Molly's shop rotation and grab one as soon as it appears in stock.