Getting started with Gribo

The idea of Gribo

How to use Gribo — 10 steps

1. Install and choose how you want to use Gribo

   On first launch you choose your language, then Gribo shows the safety rules — the app will not start without “Got it”. Next comes the question “What kind of forager are you?”: you pick one of 9 profiles from the gallery or answer 4 questions and Gribo matches a profile. A question about your mushroom knowledge sets the quiz difficulty and the length of the tutorial, and the game mode (Basic, Simple or Advanced) decides how much of the game you see — Basic skips choosing a hero and leaves just the map, identification and the Atlas. After a short tutorial you create your profile: a nickname (a unique Nick#TAG without creating an account) and an avatar.

2. Scan your phone's gallery

   Gribo reads your existing mushroom photos: from the place and date in the photo it puts finds on the map, and models on the phone identify the mushrooms. In Review you confirm or correct the species — the app learns from your corrections. Older seasons can also be loaded from a Google Takeout export. Old photos count towards trophies but do not give Track Points — points are for the forest.

3. Set off on a Solo trip

   The button on the map starts a trip: Gribo remembers where your car is and draws your track. In the forest the “Back to the car” button turns on a compass that leads you to the car, even without signal. You end a trip with at least one find at the car (within 150 m) and get +10 pts. “Pause” stops GPS, the track and the timer without ending the trip. You can lock the car's position with a padlock, and it stays on the map until you unlock it. The crosshair button makes the map follow you.

4. Take three shots

   The camera in the app guides you through the cap, the underside and the base of the stem (tiles above the shutter). The preview shows “probably…” with a percentage and look-alikes. For a mushroom similar to a deadly poisonous one, it shows a red banner. After the photo, tap 🎙 next to the shutter and say the mushroom's name: your own identification gives extra points. The most points for a single photo come from your first identification of a poisonous species, photographed, not picked.

5. One shot — when you have no time for a trip

   A single specimen on the way: shots as in the camera, “Done”, the species and that's it — without starting a trip. A clean shot gives +5 pts.

6. An expedition with friends

   You add friends with a QR code, a link or four words. Someone who uses your code or link first lands in “Almost friends” — you become friends once both sides confirm (a face-to-face QR works at once). An expedition invitation arrives as a notification with a “Join” button. A live Expedition (group) or Duel (exactly two people) shows participants on the map (this can be turned off), statuses and finds. Contests to choose from: Foray (points), Race (who finds the drawn species first, up to 3 targets) and Collector (the most different species, a bonus for the first in the group). Scoring: every mushroom is worth the same or rarer ones are worth more (×1–×5). Others can challenge your own identification — then the bonus turns into a penalty. Any participant can set a rally point: a blue flag on the map and “Guide” with a compass for the whole group.

7. Return to your spots

   Finds from one place merge into a spot with a history of seasons: what, how many and when. The spot card has “Drive there” (car navigation) and “Guide in the forest” (a compass to the spot). You can name spots, hide them or send them to a friend — end-to-end encrypted, exact or “blurred”. A “something for something” swap reveals both spots at the same moment.

8. Learn in the Atlas and Learn

   The Atlas has over 160 species with watercolours, photos, a description of features, look-alikes, season and 3D models; protected species have their own filter. Learn is a quiz with difficulty levels: identification from a photo, features, habitat, look-alikes, danger, protection and Latin. The ready-made quiz “Mushrooms you must know” has 10 questions about the most common species and their dangerous look-alikes. Correct answers give Track Points, up to 30 a day.

9. Develop your hero in the Me tab

   At the top a tile with your forager profile, below Track Points with a breakdown (trips, One shot, quizzes), your rank with the mushroom card to tick off, the hero gauge, trophies, My treasure with a photo and trip statistics. Holding an avatar shows the hero card — yours or a friend's.

10. Make a backup

    Me → Backup saves a .gribo_backup file encrypted with your password: labels, spots, trips, friends, settings and photos saved in the app. On a new phone you restore everything without pairing again. Gribo reminds you when there is no backup or it is over 30 days old.

Community map

Want to help others? Settings → “Sharing my data” is one switch: your spots — including new ones — go to the community map automatically (hidden ones do not). You can send a single spot with “Share publicly” on its card. You choose the precision yourself: region (approx. 250 km²), neighbourhood (approx. 5 km²) or exact (approx. 1.5 ha). Only the map area, species and month go to the server, and the number of mushrooms only if you enable it — never photos or GPS points. Switching it off removes everything from the server immediately.

Next: points, ranks and trophies →