Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted in here.

Since my previous post I did my first Ultimate Umbra run, I have done multiple regular Tower runs with my record being Floor 53, and now I'm starting my second Ultimate Umbra run.

At the end of this run, I have a decision to make. I will either be able to afford the trap OR I can get the next levels of speed and siphon. I'm leaning towards the latter as my catch rate isn't THAT bad and I think it will help me recoup materials more quickly to get the trap.

I've been spending so much gold on Champion's Fire.... Should probably stop in case I need it for the GWH.

I finally made it to floor 25 on this last run, so now I just have to save up Fragments to activate the Ultimate Umbra. Can't decide whether to *just* save for that or to hit the other upgrades that I'll likely be able to afford first. I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

In the meantime, trying to wait patiently for the Winter Hunt to begin.

I haven't ventured into the Valor rift yet because I don't have the trap. I'm sending my golems there to stock up on supplies though. I'm also sending one to the other rift with the acolyte to get stuff for there too. I've got one golem at 6. One at 4 and one at 2. I'm about up to the end of my first run.

Yeah, I'm splitting my golems between the Queso Geyser (which I want supplies for the Egg Hunt) and the Valour Rift.

My golems are at 6,3,2 and I'm getting pretty close to catching my first Shorts-All-Year mouse.

How do you use the shorts?

Nice to know I'm relatively on track.

I can't remember what the method of decorating was last year, but do you remember decorating your HUD, and with each decoration, you could catch different mice? So I bought the Sports Themed Shorts and now I have snowy slopes on my HUD and can catch all the skiing mice.

Maybe I need to update the app. I'm not seeing the shorts on there except in my inventory.

It is funny, having three kids who have claimed one snow golem each... you don't get to be as strategic as you'd like because as soon as those golems return, they get rebuilt and sent back out within seconds. I've just settled for sending the golems to the three areas I'm not done with yet: Valour Rift, Queso Geyser (for Egg Hunt supplies), and Prickly Plains (500 Queen Quesada catches).

Anyways, the golems are 10, 9, 9. Still need the Treasure Seeker Base and the Rift Glacier Gatler.

I like the journal theme this year. It has the super cute, happy little snowman on it.

I've checked all the boxes on the Winter Event and now I'm just farming supplies. I don't really have any goals left to complete other than maybe get a gold crown on the Snowflake mouse (11 to go), so we'll see if I can do that before Tuesday.

I do rather like this event. Next up is Chinese New Year in which I get to spend all the extra loot I've earned.

I sent most of my golems to the Valor Rift, Queso Geyser, and the Bristle Woods Rift. I sent one to the Comet and realized I could stock up on the rift 2020 charms that way and have been sending Golems to the comet for the last couple of days. I'll probably finish it up that way. I've got a good stash going now. I'm hoping that, when I get through with the BWRift, I can get started on the Valor Rift.

I am essentially done with the GWH. I misread the finishing date and thought it was today, so I spent all of my golem parts on ringing bells and sent them out to get last minute stuff. I just have two golems to return and then I WILL be done. Just farming cheese and snowballs for next year.

As an aside, after years and years of having gingerbread cheese and slabs of gingerbread, I'm going to use up my thousands and thousands of cheese that I've had for probably 10 years. And that will be the end of my GWH cheeses besides Pecan Pecarino, which is kind of crazy!

Oh, and I caught my 500th Snowflake mouse last night!

GWH has been pretty good to me...I remember in years past it was always a little hard at the very beginning to get the ball rolling, but I'm not sure if it's because I had cheese leftover or tourneys started almost right away, but dang, I hauled it in this year. I bought a decent amount of Bells throughout the event just to keep my Animated Snow piles down...if I hadn't I MIGHT have been able to send out Golems the rest of this week, but honestly it still might have been too much.

I just finished evening out all of my supplies and I've got enough parts to last me through tomorrow, then I'm all done. For the most part I sent Golems to Valor Rift, QC and PP...I've been able to replenish my cheese supplies for QC very nicely, and I've got more Rift charms than I'll ever use and over 300 Champions Fire so that will be helpful.

After I'm finished with the event I'll be heading back to VR to work on getting my first Ultimate Umbra run, and also starting some prep work for LNY/Easter in QC and the Guyser (I want to run some Epic Eruptions; can you imagine getting a Rib with a candle lit, lol!).

I've also got about 800 Nice map scrolls which should yield me a little pile of Dust...happy to not have to spend a few mil on dust for a long long long time lol.

ETA: And let the record show that I'll end this GWH with my Golems at 13, 13 and 12. Pretty sure that's the highest I've ever gone individually and overall.

Way back when I hunted in Living Garden, I noticed that catching the 3 bosses would cost more than a million each because of the expensive Shattering Charms that were needed to catch them. I thought that I would never be able to afford to bronze them - I caught them all once, of course, and later caught 2 of them again, so I would now need 9+8+8=25 catches to bronze them all.

These days 25 mil gold isn't so unobtainable any more, so last year I decided I would try to go for bronzing them after all. I bought 25 Aromatic Oils for a million each, and 25 Epic Orbs and tons of Charmbits - but there still were 25 Icuri Essences missing. But every time I somehow can get an Icuri, I have the materials to craft a Shattering Charm right away.

LG area hunting to craft 25 Icuri would take months, which I don't want to spend solidly in there. But at GWH I've let the golems do the job. I played rather passively for a while, and I also had one of the golems going to Valour Rift to get me an abundance of Rift Charms - but I still got enough D, E and F essences to enable me to craft 9 Icuri. Which then have been made into 9 Shattering Charms.

I've now finished all my golems (at 13, 12 and 12), and today I've been to Twisted Garden and caught a Twisted Carmine. Its Living Chest contained a G essence, and two more G is all I need for another Icuri.

The golems also brought petals and herbs, so I now have 530 Dewthief Camembert, 1660 Duskshade, 314 Graveblossom, and 1046 Lunaria. I plan to hunt with LNY Candles in Twisted Garden with Lunaria. 2 or 3 Living chests would be nice.

Epic Eruptions aren't as lucrative as could be hoped, though. Only loot dropped by mice is doubled or tripled. And the Rib isn't dropped by a mouse, it's put into the "container" that is opened when you finish the run, and will not be doubled.

Fulmina's teeth, on the other hand ...

Varna! I hope you get those bronze crowns!

I was not ready for the CNY to come so soon. But even though I'm completely caught off guard and unprepared, I think I have more than enough resources to make it worth my while. I caught the Costumed Rat yesterday so I'm in the Valour Rift. I should hit 74 Fragments of the Eclipse here very soon so I can do at least one really good Umbra tower run while the event is going. (Need to get to 1000 sigils as well.) I would have liked to have the trap to go with the tower run, but oh well, that's just the way it is. I DID max out Siphon first thing this morning so my last two upgrades are level 9 and 10 of Speed, and the trap, and then I can really hit the area hard.

I give up. I'm buying timesplit runes. I'm selling stuff on the marketplace and as I get reasonably close to 8.5 mil in stuff sold, I'm buying. I just had my tenth acolyte and zero runes. I want to get out of this area so badly. I'm taking my candles for the CNY there and I guess I'll go hunting overnight in a stockpile area for more. I am soooo frustrated with the Bristle Woods Rift.