After playing this literally hundreds of times I have finally racked up a few wins. Confusion is the best. Hit the room with a couple of confusions and wait until there is only one left. Disease is also good unless there are blinkers or someone gets hasted, then they can show up next to you and infect you. Freezing Cloud is also very good, especially in the Core. If you can get all three of those you are set.
Too much talk. Just put the text on the screen and don't make the action stop just to read simple instructions. Definitely need to change the controls to industry standard. I am not bothering to continue after the ink bottle.
It's a little slow, and climbing the roots is tricky, but overall it shows some good thought. Sometimes you just have to throw a seed in the air and see if a vine comes down. I did find the fireflies useful once I got the hang of them - they turn blue when they are moving toward a grove and red when they are moving away.
Thanks :)