Woohoo! I will be joining you in the FG shortly hoping that the Realm Ripper will drop an orb this time.

Unfortunately, it seems that neither of us had much luck. Yours seems to have dropped some runes (which is superiour to the one piece of stale cheese that mine dropped ).

Oh well, back to the catacombs.

Well.... I'm now hunting in the Great Gnarled Tree, and even though I've just discovered that I need to earn a little more money to upgrade to the Venus Mouse Trap, I can't complain about the results I've gotten from this location.

Question for someone more knowledgable, though: I'm using my swiss cheese, since I have over 400 pieces and only 15 pieces of the Gnarled cheese. Given the good fortune I am experiencing with my current set up, should I make some more Gnarled and switch to that? I also have a limited supply of Super Brie with which to make the cheese and absolutely zero pieces of Brie. I'm leaning towards not worrying about it, but is this a good strategy?

It's really up to you at this point, EtJ. If you want to upgrade your venus flytrap, then stick with what you've got as you'll make gold quicker. If you're more concerned with moving further in the game, then go ahead and make some more gnarled cheese.

If you want my personal opinion. . . you've got TONS of swiss, and you're not going to get by using it for much longer (the training grounds is the last place you can use it and expect much of a profit) so I see no harm in leaving well enough alone.

I can use the gnarled elsewhere then?

Ooh, I didn't say that. . . I meant that it could be used in the Great Gnarled Tree. It can also be used in the lagoon, but if you want the ship blueprints, then you're going to need to use either gnarly or wicked gnarly to catch a hydra mouse when you get there.

If you're converting stuff over to gnarly and wicked gnarly, I would do it bit by bit rather than converting in a lump sum.

Well I've been half following your advice FK. I'm not using any charms in the Calm Clearing, but I'm using the Prospector's Charm in the Mountain to bring in more Gold and Diamond mice, and I've been turning a decent profit this way. (As well as boosting my total of Simple Orbs to eight, how many charms does each one make again?) I expect to become a Master in about 4 days if I can keep this pace up.

Given the good fortune I am experiencing with my current set up, should I make some more Gnarled and switch to that?

If you are having "good fortune" it's a sign that you're doing something right and there's really no need to switch anything.
But in answer to your question about Gnarled Cheese, ever since the introduction of Wicked Gnarly Cheese, I haven't bothered saving my Gnarled Cheese for the Lagoon (though it can be used there quite effectively...that WAS its original intended purpose). Gnarled Cheese attracts the Curious Chemist Mouse in the Great Gnarled Tree (swiss does not), which drops Wicked Gnarly Potions. I'd use Wicked Gnarly Cheese in the Lagoon instead.
(Have I successfully confused you? LOL)

Great Gnarled Tree
Swiss/Brie Cheese
Gnarled Cheese (attracts Curious Chemist Mice who drop Wicked Gnarly Potions)

Lagoon
Gnarled Cheese
Wicked Gnarly Cheese (its primary purpose is to attract the Silth Mouse. Though imho, he is the hardest non-rare mouse in the game to catch. Kudos to you if you get him any time soon.)

In conclusion, either Swiss or Gnarled Cheese at the Great Gnarled Tree should work quite well for you. I'd go with Gnarled if you have it, Swiss if you don't. If you wish to save your Gnarled for the Lagoon, that's fine too!

...but I'm using the Prospector's Charm in the Mountain to bring in more Gold and Diamond mice, and I've been turning a decent profit this way.

Cool! Great idea.

...how many charms does each one make again?

One orb per charm. Recipes can be found here...
http://mhwiki.hitgrab.com/wiki/index.php/Charms#Charms

Unfortunately, it seems that neither of us had much luck. Yours seems to have dropped some runes (which is superiour to the one piece of stale cheese that mine dropped ).

I have moved back there overnight to catch the Realm Ripper again in the early AM. Crossing my fingers!!

*snickers*

I almost had a heartattack the other night...I turned my Furoma and Mousoleum maps into the Bazaar to be repaired. However, when I went to go back to the Mousoleum, I couldn't (because I had given the map to be repaired). So here I am, freaking out, thinking I'll never be able to go back again. I don't know why I was thinking that...but then I saw on the wiki page something like: "You won't be able to hunt there while your map is being repaired."

Then I realized it was only temporarily gone and I stopped freaking out.

So for now I'm just hanging out in the Training Grounds until I get my Mousoleum map back and then I'm gonna go there to farm gold.

When I was first going through that area, turning my map pieces into the Bazaar was where I got stuck for a while. I wasn't using the Wiki or any off-site info, and I had missed that was how you continued on in the game. I think my sister (who was ahead of me at the time) clued me in.

Actually Chloe, if you want while you're waiting, it is possible to get another Mousoleum map piece to drop. If you get it, you can go there right now.

And yet another Realm Ripper with no orb drop. Instead I got a whole Stale Cheese. oooOOOOooooooohh The orb must be pretty rare on this mouse.

Actually Chloe, if you want while you're waiting, it is possible to get another Mousoleum map piece to drop. If you get it, you can go there right now.

Oh! Good idea. I didn't think about that...Hehe. I'll go back to Digby.

I FINALLY caught a Black Widow Mouse! I caught her in the catacombs, using Radioactive Blue Cheese and ACRONYM (with the runic base). She dropped five pieces of SB+ and six pieces of Radioactive Blue cheese!

I'm so happy!!!!!

And just over 30K gold to go until I get my gorgon trap!

Any advice before heading into the Jungle of Dread?

A LOT of patience Digs. The Jungle probably has the lowest catch rate of any location. Congrats on the Black Widow!

I'm sitting at 852,886 gold right now, and, as I'm earning ~100,000 a day, I will be hitting my goal of 1 mil late tomorrow evening. So, here is my question: should I keep farming gold, or craft my ship and move on?

Any advice before heading into the Jungle of Dread?

A LOT of patience Digs.

And maybe a bottle of Tylenol for the headaches? The JoD is my second least favorite place in Mousehunt. At least the good news is, when you do occasionally catch a mouse, they're worth a lot of gold and TON of points.

So, here is my question: should I keep farming gold, or craft my ship and move on?

You have the Explosive Toboggan Trap so you can skip the Hydro traps.
You have the Candy Cane Base so you can skip the Aqua base.
You have Rewers Riposte so you don't need to upgrade your Venus Mouse Trap.
You have the Christmas Cracker Trap so no real rush on getting the Rhinobot either (though that one is a smidge better than the CCT)

The only item I see you needing any time in the near future, is the Tribal Base (and the Tiki upgrade if you have the blueprints), and you have to have 14,000,000 points for that. So I'd say you are ready to move on.

I'm hunting in the Dojo/Meditation room right now. This is probably a crazy way to do it, but I hunted in the Dojo using Brie until I got bored and then I crafted some Combat cheese. I then moved to the Meditation room and in the past hour or so I've caught two out of three Masters of the Cheese Fang, both of which dropped shards. How many shards do I need?

I thought I'd hed back to the Dojo once I run out of Combat cheese and craft the cheese for the next kind of mouse (forget which one that is).