Twenty four hours after the new area was released, I've managed to do one upgrade to my speed and one upgrade to my sync. Currently farming some potions for my next run through the tower and I should make it to floor 8, especially since I made it to floor six last time.

I have mixed feelings about the area in general. I miss having a rift version of all of the mice from the King's Gauntlet. It also seems like an awfully simple area for the first Archduke/Archduchess level. And I personally am not a big fan of the long grind areas, which is what this area is (but everybody else seems to like them as they're passive areas).
On the plus side, I like the artwork a lot. And at this stage in my life I shouldn't be complaining about simplicity because I can actually DO simplicity. And the rewards for completing the area That base....

How's everybody doing in this area?

I'm at Level 3 on Speed and Sync and Level 2 on Siphon, and I think I'm now entering the official grind time because I will need AT LEAST two more tower climbs, more likely three, before I can upgrade Speed or Sync again. And that's just to Level 4, sooooo... gonna be a long grind.

I'm a little behind you, fantasia. Just now got Speed to level 3. I wound up buying the rest of the Timesplit Runes I needed to finish the Timesplit Dissonance trap so I'd be fully prepped to enter the VRift. I'm fully prepared to grind it out here since there's not much else for me to do and it's very passive friendly as you said.

I'm enjoying it so far. Just wish I could get all the way to floor 8 in a run. Maybe this go 'round.

I need some serious help. I've got zero timesplit runes. I need help and advice on how to get these. Currently Absolute Acolyte Mice caught are 7. Takes me 2-3 weeks to make the rounds for one

When you have caught 10 AA mice, they will give you a different box, and that box is more likely to contain a timesplit rune than the box you are currently getting from them.

(After 100 AA mice there is yet a different box, which will always contain a timesplit rune, but for my own part I don't reckon on ever getting one of those.)

You can also collect clockwork cogs and buy runes with them, but make sure that you keep some of those to buy the trap with, as some of those also are part of the trap cost. I had to do some extra hunting because I had spent them all on runes.

That's just it, it's taking me two weeks to get to one mouse. Another three will take me till Christmas. Is there any strategy I'm missing to shorten the time?

@Kat, I sent you some spare runes.

One tip that Varna didn't mention, and if you don't already know this....
When you go to catch an AA, make absolutely sure you have your Quantum Quartz turned on, because on the rare occasion that he drops a rune (it's happened to me 2/50 runs) you get a double rune drop.

As for the tower, I am up to 5 speed, 70 sync, and 10 siphon. My highest floor reached so far is 18. Just chugging along here.

It's about the only time I do get it turned on.

So I guess I'm stuck? *Sigh* Now to figure out if I should even bother or go back to finishing the guyser. I get so stuck in these areas.

I had a spare rune for you, too.

In the tower I am up to 4 speed, 60 sync, and 10 siphon. The highest floor I have reached so far is only 12.

When I need to play completely passively, I do some silvering in Tribal Isles. In the tower I need to turn on the fire through the eclipse floors (and then off), as I want double drops of Fragments (and later Cores) - so I mustn't run passively through floor 8.

Thanks Varna. And there goes my attempts...

The Halloween event is live.

On the subject of the Halloween event, it's been very passive and simple and in the background this year, which is very nice. About the only thing I care about are the Rift Spooky charms which I've been putting to good use!

For the Valor Rift, Currently at Speed - 6; Sync - 80; Siphon - 20. My record floor is 27, though I invested a lot of Champion's Fire to reach it (I was trying to get as many Tower Secrets as I possibly could as I was close to an upgrade.)
I just upgraded my speed, so I should get close to floor 27 again. I'd like to upgrade my Sync one last time before I start saving for my first Ultimate Umbra run, but perhaps that's a waste of resources?

How's everybody else doing in the VRift?

I'm farming for my first Ultimate Umbra. Currently at 45 Fragments and climbing. Going slower than usual because I'm taking out Ghostships at the same time so I have to farm cannonballs.
I assume the "correct" way to do this is to get to Floor 8, catch the Shade of the Eclipse, then exit and do it over and over? It seems much faster this way than continually running up to Floor 24.
I'm also waiting to upgrade Sync to level 6 so I don't use up my supply of Fragments. Hard enough to get up to 75 as it is. But is that a mistake? Will I miss those extra 10 hunts on my first Ultimate Umbra?

I'm going a bit slower than you, fantasia. I'm at Speed 5, Sync 70, Siphon 15 and the highest I've reached is floor 19 on my last run. I'm enjoying the area as much as I can. I've become almost 100% passive in my playstyle since changing jobs last year and so I don't get in as many hunts as I used to.

After several days of farming, I now have 75 Fragments of the Eclipse and can do my first Ultimate Umbra run.... when I have enough cheese to do so. But that doesn't usually take too long to farm. I'm just super excited about finally having enough fragments. Those took a while. I sure hope this Ultimate Umbra drops fragments at a higher rate or else this area will take a long, LONG time to complete.

I am now at 6 speed, 80 sync, and 20 siphon. On my previous run I decided to spend 1000 sigils on a double siphon augmentation - I reached 36 floors on that run! I won't repeat it until I'm ready to do my first UU run, which I still need about half the fragments for.

I watched Friday 29th's Feedback Friday today - Dave said that the Great Winter Hunt would probably start on Dec 10, and the Lunar New Year event probably in mid-January.

The GWH would be very similar to last year's event, and there would be just one new event mouse for it. There are enough GWH mice already, more than fifty! It will again be possible to concentrate on groups of mice, making it easier to silver them.

And we can send out Golems again - even to Queso Canyon and to Valour Rift