[Edited to correct the verb "revere" to "reflect." -- Thanks Pascale!]
I only tithed them when they asked, since all you get from additional tithes is a little bit of favor at the shrine (and additional tithes don't cut down on the number of "maintenance" tithes you need to give).
Yes, you get more xp per reflect as you level up. Towards the end I was regularly getting over 1000 xp per icon. I didn't use them for anything but xp -- so a tithe would usually last me three to five game days. If all you ever do with them is reflect for the xp, it's well worth the investment (even though it FEELS like way too much money, ha).
Yes, you can still do all those things, but you won't get random love. It's a trade-off. I think the best thing to do is to have one set of icons on the floor of your house for random love (don't manually use them or they require to be tithed), and another set in your inventory for manual use. This obviously requires alot of effort, as you have to somehow acquire two of each icon... I'm working on it, myself.
SM, I had no idea! I have a full set of icons and have collected enough emblems for another full set but didnt see the sense of iconizing them but now I have a reason to. TYSM!
They require a tithe for further use after precisely 4 uses (you can sync them up and see for yourself). Tithes are required whether they're in your bags or not, only after 4 uses for each giant (2 from your bag and 2 on the floor, for example, will initiate a tithe request). Because each giant can only be used three times per day, you'll never be asked to tithe twice in the same day by the same giant.
Tithing when not requested is a sucker's game: a very high input of currants in exchange for very, very little return.
The required tithe cost in exchange for the energy, mood, and experience doesn't seem to be a great tradeoff: you can probably get a higher total of energy/mood/experience by eating/drinking/donating, but they're super, super convenient. When doing a big crafting project it's really handy to just grab more energy or mood from eleven different sources without dealing with auctions or crafting food/drink myself or whatever. Similarly, when I don't have much time to play Glitch I can log in, take care of my piggies and trees and such, get experience from all 11 giants, and log out, all without leaving my house. Pretty sweet.
Mine still haven't asked for a tithe, and I'm fairly sure I've used them more than 4 times (all 3 choices together more than 4 times, not just 4 individual choices--I know for a fact I've done that way more than 4 times). I never use the ones on the ground, only the ones in my inventory. I'll let you know if they end up asking for a tithe, but so far: nothing.
I recently did a level grind to get to 60 and relied heavily on my icons for XP. Here's my process/what I found to be most effective for me:
Rewards from icons were always higher immediately following a tithe. Because of this, I let them whine for money. Each new day, I would select "reflect" on all of my icons, tithing the ones that required tithing before reflecting on them, not tithing for any other reason. If my reflection caused an icon to need tithing, I ignored it until next new day, tithed it, and reflected. If an icon did not need a tithe, i just reflected (tithing when it doesn't ask for it would have raised my xp gained but doesn't reset the need for tithe count on the icon so i would have had to turn around and tithe it again next new day anyhow--this is how i kept my balance of xp gained and money spent).This gave me consistent XP boosts of at least 1k XP per newly tithed icon. I kept my need for tithes out of sync (had to revere/ruminate on a few to get them out of sync) so that each new day I was guaranteed a few icons that required tithing therby giving me higher xp.
I keep all my icons in one pile, because they take up way too much floor space. They still give me plenty of giant love from all 11 of them even tho they are stacked on the floor. Also, even icons whining for tithes will bestow giant love.
And if XP is what you're going for, make sure to max out your daily donations, eat 3 purple sno cones, cook the heck outta some awesome pot recipes, season lots of beans, sing to butterflies before new day, get xp quoins from ancestral lands, drink crabato juice and try to make a crab happy, and fondle your icons AND emblems daily! :D
Shepherdmoon-- that's an extraordinary claim you're making. ;) If it were true, there'd be an in-game resource that could give you serious amounts of experience, energy, and mood for no (ongoing) cost whatsoever, and if I were you I'd stop talking about it before TS fixed it. ;)
--Me, off to put my measly four icons in a bag and see what happens...
OK, one of my two icons in my inventory needs to be tithed now. I think I used it more than 4 times, though it probably depends on how you count. Is that 4 times the three possible uses, which is really 12 individual uses? Because I usually don't use all 3 of the options every day.
They must have fixed my icons because it is now asking to be tithed after only 4 individual uses (1 and a third full uses). The tithe is so expensive this makes the icons effectively worthless, so I'm putting them back on my floor.