Making some notes for myself.....

Law  6,075  25%  15%  20
Tactical  7,475  15%  10%  32
Forgotten  12,112  15%  15%  12
Arcane  7,200  15%  10%  28
Draconic  10,000  35%  10%  25
Shadow  6,000  25%  5%  28
Hydro  9,850  15%  20%  30
Physical  8,500  22%  10%  30

....I've noticed that Law is the absolute worst to farm Pirate seals with because my catch rate at best is 50%, even with a good charm armed. So I'm just comparing traps to see what islands I should aim for to improve pirate catching skills. 😉 
The goal is to get at least 50 pirate seals per HAI run, but I don't think I'm gonna make it this time. 😛 
I'm thinking I might change strategies though.... the seals don't improve with a HAI so perhaps I should farm those on the LAI and focus on cheese on the HAI instead?

@fantasia Interesting strategy. I've just been using my S.S. Scoundrel Sleigher trap every time I arm Swiss Curd and not really paying attention to what type of Island I'm on (because I'm going to go with that trap regardless). Pirate mice aren't weighted to one power type over another...so I'd think you can just go with whatever trap is best/most powerful for Pirates regardless of island?

But I could be totally wrong; I haven't done a crazy amount of research lol. My strategy is, I don't discriminate between HAI/LAI; I just don't arm Curd until I have double Pirate squares and use my S.S.SS trap and a strong charm. Haven't kept track of my stats but I think it's been decent? 

I haven't been Seal farming too much lately because I'm spamming Paragons, which means not hunting past the chest and prioritizing speed over quality (like looking for double pirate or loot squares). I've got a nice little pile of Paragon loot which is great!

Posted by: @gymfan15

Interesting strategy. I've just been using my S.S. Scoundrel Sleigher trap every time I arm Swiss Curd ....

Forgot all about that trap. What's your catch rate with it?

And while I was pretty sure pirate mice don't care one way or another which trap you use and when, I've been busy enough that I haven't had a chance to switch them around to experiment.

Thanks for the suggestions! 

During LNY it was insanely glorious. Nowadays it's decent; again, I haven't done any tracking to see if I'm right in my hypothesis, but I would say my collection efforts are not shabby. I'll have to wait until I can do a full island run to see what my average seals collected are.

I will say thought, I definitely don't think HAI vs. LAI matters at all. Your mice pool is the same and seals dropped isn't affected by HAI bonus loot. Now, curd farming, definitely HAI is better.

Posted by: @gymfan15

I will say thought, I definitely don't think HAI vs. LAI matters at all. Your mice pool is the same and seals dropped isn't affected by HAI bonus loot. Now, curd farming, definitely HAI is better.

The mice pool isn't quite the same - there is one mouse for each power type that you can only get in the HAI. I don't know how likely that mouse is to drop better loot, though.

I'm farming glass and ore. I've been farming pirate cheese as well, and have got a couple hundred - but I cannot make the best use of that cheese until I've got another five thousand glass and core, to give me Oculus 8. Less than a week left of getting glass and ore from eggs ...

@varna I was referring to the Pirate mice specifically; with two Pirate boxes you get the full 5 mice regardless of HAI/LAI or power type.

In other news, once I finish this last Pirate map, I'll have all the Jewels/resources for F2. *praise hands* That sound finish up with the end of SEH, and then I will probably be taking a wee break from FI to work on some other things before I settle in for the long haul farming of stuff for the other three traps.

I didn't end up doing much in LG this SEH, but I think that worked better for me in LNY anyway. 

Posted by: @gymfan15

@fantasia Interesting strategy. I've just been using my S.S. Scoundrel Sleigher trap every time I arm Swiss Curd and not really paying attention to what type of Island I'm on (because I'm going to go with that trap regardless). Pirate mice aren't weighted to one power type over another...so I'd think you can just go with whatever trap is best/most powerful for Pirates regardless of island?

So I did some of my own testing, which may be highly inaccurate. 😉 But the S.S. SS was pretty much awful. It may have been even worse than my Law trap. I only caught one mouse with the special bonus added onto it, but otherwise my catch rate was around 1/3. I switched over to the School of Sharks trap as that one appears to potentially be the best (I didn't check Forgotten) and that one did much, much better. Maybe 2/3 catches.

Posted by: @gymfan15

In other news, once I finish this last Pirate map, I'll have all the Jewels/resources for F2.

Woohoo! Congrats!!! I've noticed now that I can focus on just getting jewels, it's going a good deal faster for me than getting the STINGER trap. I'm back up to 8 jewels already and going to get number 9 once we finish the map of my sister's I'm on currently, and then I should be able to afford my next 4p pirate map. 

Hooray for the Spring Egg Hunt speeding things up! After this I'll have to spend more time farming pirate cheese. 

Posted by: @fantasia

So I did some of my own testing, which may be highly inaccurate. 😉 But the S.S. SS was pretty much awful. It may have been even worse than my Law trap. I only caught one mouse with the special bonus added onto it, but otherwise my catch rate was around 1/3. I switched over to the School of Sharks trap as that one appears to potentially be the best (I didn't check Forgotten) and that one did much, much better. Maybe 2/3 catches.

So I'm gonna go with small sample size on that. ;)) I did some asking around on the Discord and also looked up the CRE data, and it looks like the only trap that *statistically* tops S.S SS (unless you're using the Signature Denture base, but who has that many Toothlets to spare) is T2 (Slumbering Boulder Trap). And even then, it's just by a tiny bit. I think the DHU/DLU aspect makes a big difference, because I've pretty much exclusively hunted with the S.S. SS and I don't think the CR is horrible, but I've also had good streaks and bad streaks.

Now, an interesting thing that I DID find in my research, is that if you DO have Toothlets that you're willing to spare, it gives you like a 20% increase in catch rate. Also, I could be using way better charms and getting much more bang for my buck. No reason to "cheap" out on charms when hunting Pirates, especially since seals are not the easiest to get!

------

In other news, apparently there's a FI expansion coming out sometime (I have no idea on the timeline of when, but I think it's this year?). Fingers crossed it makes the Jewel procuring process even smoother!

Posted by: @gymfan15

@varna I was referring to the Pirate mice specifically; with two Pirate boxes you get the full 5 mice regardless of HAI/LAI or power type.

I wasn't aware that two Pirate boxes gave that effect. Sounds great!

In fact, I wasn't aware you could get two Pirate boxes. It must be an Oculus 8 thing  

I have roughly 5 300 glass and ore. Still a way to go before I can get that Oculus 8.

And then an even longer way to Oculus 9 ... I think that when I reach #8, I need a good, long break away from Floating Islands. Perhaps back to Floor 2 of my plain UU run in Valour Rift.

I've finally fallen into a nice rhythm with farming pirate seals and jewels, which makes me very happy. I aim for either two pirates and one key on a HAI or two keys and one pirate on a HAI (latter preferred), both of which gets lots of pirate cheese. 

Then on the LAI, I farm the actual pirates. Each one gets me approximately 50 pirate seals, so it doesn't take too long to accumulate 200 seals for a map. 

I'm already back up to 12 Adorned Jewels, and while a lot of those were a boost from the egg hunt, I feel like I have a steady income of them from the pirate maps, plus an occasional bonus from the chests or just buying one from the store. Looking forward to getting the Forgotten trap as that will probably be the biggest boost to catching mice in the islands. The lower level Arcane and Tactical still work quite well.

Posted by: @gymfan15

So I'm gonna go with small sample size on that. ;)) I did some asking around on the Discord and also looked up the CRE data, and it looks like the only trap that *statistically* tops S.S SS (unless you're using the Signature Denture base, but who has that many Toothlets to spare) is T2 (Slumbering Boulder Trap). And even then, it's just by a tiny bit.

I'm really laughing at this because yeah, I must have the worst ever DHU with this trap. After I read your post I tried again for several, several hunts (don't remember how many to be honest, it was like two journal pages) and I caught two mice. Two! So I'm done with it and I'll leave it to other people that don't have as much DHU as me  . The School of Sharks trap works great for the pirate mice, so that's what I'm  using.  

I think that when I reach #8, I need a good, long break away from Floating Islands.

Let me know when you're done @Varna so you can take a break from my maps too. I'll snag someone else who needs a spot. 

Posted by: @fantasia

I'm already back up to 12 Adorned Jewels,

One month ago I had 12 jewels, as of the time of this posting, I have 29 jewels and as soon as we finish the pirate map I'm currently on, I will be able to afford the Forgotten trap. I'm very happy with the speed in which I'm finally getting these pesky jewels and makes me feel like I won't be here for an eternity farming the last two traps. Huzzah!

So for those who watch Mousehunt news, is there any word on Ronza?

I've only gotten 13 or 14 jewels so far.

Posted by: @starkat

I've only gotten 13 or 14 jewels so far.

Did you see Gymfan's excellent suggestion on skipping the STINGER trap if you already have the Ember Prison Core Trap? I second that suggestion. I didn't do it myself, because I wasn't thinking about it. But the Thought Obliterator Trap is a much better upgrade/investment. 

Speaking of which, I got the Thought Obliterator Trap over the weekend. Moving on to the Circlet of Pursuing Trap.  

I also read some cliffnotes from last Friday's FBF. Sounds like the next area, which will be an expansion to the Floating Isles, will really boost jewel collection. I'm assuming it will be released either right before or right after the Halloween event? Sounds like it's still earlier in the development. 

In the meantime, still waiting for Ronza to show up.

The only trap I've bought so far was the STING trap. I didn't mean to grab it, but I did. At this point, I decided on trying to max out the Oculus before I did anything else. I also went after the Kalor'ignis trap (which I now have). I've got 15 jewels and 13 of each of the bits and bobs that are required to get more. I was considering going after the one that requires 115 jewels first. I dunno. 

Posted by: @starkat

I was considering going after the one that requires 115 jewels first. I dunno. 

There's no reason you can't do that. Especially if they increase the abilities to get jewels in the expansion. For me, I have all four of the lower level traps and found that the one that I was having the lowest catch rate with was the Thought Manipulator Trap (Forgotten) so that's why I got that one second.