Well, we learned last night that for those Mega BRift tournaments, Polluted Parm with maxed out Mist is definitely the way to go. Can it backfire? Yep. But we ended up finishing in 9th place, and got a super nice package of goodness out of the deal.

Gonna give the Mecha Tail Mouse another try this morning. He's been eluding me for quite some time now.
Currently at 11/50 Rift Circuitry.

Well, I guess I'll be stockpiling the Polluted Parm for a while, then. I'm definitely not going to joke around with the other mice at that level for a long time. There's no way that's an efficient way to farm Rift Circuitry. I'll take my chances with the PP mice that are more plentiful, especially now that I have the Null Gauntlet.

I'm not exactly sure if the Rift Power Charms are totally worth the trouble. The Vacuum charms are nice on the lower levels for the 10% Rift Power bonus, but the Rift Power charms aren't as strong even with that bonus, though when I run out of UPCs I'll probably default to those in the Rift areas.

I'm not exactly sure if the Rift Power Charms are totally worth the trouble.

Yeah, that was my thought too. I was super unimpressed with the stats. However, I did finally go look at horntracker, and they're really not that bad. Especially if you don't want to use up all your ULCs and UPCs (and I'm kind of hanging on to the remainder of mine for other uses). I don't think they work very well for the BBBB, he's just a royal pain no matter what, but for the triple Parmesan threat and the Monstrous Abomination, they work well enough. That's what I used last night for the tournament.

ETA: Just got the Mecha Tail. All mice are now caught in the Burroughs Rift.

ETA @ 9/17, 8:42pm CDT: I've decided to take a break from the Burroughs Rift for a day or two to return to the Sunken City. The SC is a bit more fun imho and the B.Rift is a bit boring... and I'd like to make some more progress towards my School of Sharks trap.

So... I could be in the Rift... or the new Rift...

But I'm too attached to my Guantlet Run to go anywhere. I'm hoping to pull together a few hundred T7 cheese plus wealth charms and leave with a bunch of gold and a few extra crowns... at this rate... I'll be done by Rhonza's next visit...

...I hope...

The Rifts aren't going anywhere, you can always visit them later.
When you've got all that cheese ... or when you feel like a small break from pulling it together ...

I've been in Living Garden for a while - had a Lunaria run and got 6 Twisted Carmines from 36 pieces of cheese. Then crafted 3 Gur essences from heaps of lower essences (and have nearly run out of the lower essences again) - and crafted the CPT blueprints!

I won't spend my gold on the other CPT ingredients yet, though - I want the Tidal Base first. But at the moment I'm farming Mist Canisters in the Burroughs Rift - Zero zone with Brie String cheese. I should be able to bronze a few mice there ...

If it's a green mist, I'm leaving. . . .

It is Gnawnia, y'all know. The Devs can be a bit twisted.

And I'm avoiding all the new Rift stuff for now because I feel woefully unprepared for anything other than the first area.

Yes, you need to do the Gnawnian Rift first ... no benefit other than gold and points to the rest of the areas of the game.

It is doing well for points and pushing me in the direction to level-up.

Shall wander back to the Gauntlet eventually.

I'm hoping to pull together a few hundred T7 cheese plus wealth charms and leave with a bunch of gold and a few extra crowns...

*nods with great respect to the Gauntlet people* Wolf, I remember your goal way back in the day was to crown all of the mice. Looks like you're only missing two! Quite impressive.

I've been in Living Garden for a while ... and crafted the CPT blueprints! I won't spend my gold on the other CPT ingredients yet, though - I want the Tidal Base first.

Congrats on the blueprints nonetheless. I was going to point out that you might want the CPT for the Halloween event around the corner, but I can't imagine that whatever they add for Count level on up, the Reaper's Perch won't do just fine.

[The Gnawnian Rift] is doing well for points and pushing me in the direction to level-up.

It is VERY good for that. As far as points and leveling are concerned, the order goes Toxic Spill (your levels), Burroughs Rift, Gnawnian Rift.
Thanks to the Burroughs Rift, I may reach 1% Archduchess before the end of the month. It took exactly a month to reach .05%, so I've sped up by two days.

As far as my own personal progress goes, I've been trying to decide the best way to divide my time. The School of Sharks is a higher priority to me than the Focused Crystal Laser. BUT, the Burroughs Rift gives better gold. So, I'm kind of dividing my time between the two areas. However, I'm also feeling like I ought to just focus on one. So perhaps what I should do instead is go get the Sand Dollars for the School of Sharks, and then if I still need the last Predatory Processor and gold, I can hit up the Burroughs Rift. Yeah.... /thinking out loud

I'd love to be done with the School of Sharks and the Focused Laser Crystal before the Christmas event. That's my goal. The Multi-Crystal Laser can come later.

I did a Pearl Patch and soon after crossed the 10 000 m line for the first time, and am now in a Sunken Treasure.
Before that I spent some time in the Burroughs Rift, bronzed the Portable Generator, and collected close to 200 Mist Canisters.

Then I spent the night in the Pinnacle Chamber - I'll soon have enough gold for the Tidal Base, and my stock of Sand Dollars is growing nicely too
255 is still a distance away from 400, but Sunken Treasure is a good place to hunt for both S$ and gold.

Next area is 500 m Coral Castle, and corals are the loot that I need most - then 1000 m Murky Depths, which I intend to jet past. I have 157 Oxygen left, so I hope for some more areas - but I don't expect to get the Tidal Base during this dive.

I'm jumping back and forth, and enjoying myself

I did a Pearl Patch and soon after crossed the 10 000 m line for the first time, and am now in a Sunken Treasure.

That's a nice way to start off.

I...collected close to 200 Mist Canisters.

Wow, I don't think I've gone past 42.

I'm jumping back and forth, and enjoying myself

That's what's important.

I'm still taking a break from the Burroughs Rift. I like the points and gold there, but the SC is more fun to me, and I REALLY want that School of Sharks trap.

I've been using Water Jet charms left, right, and center since I've returned. It's an interesting experiment and it seems to be paying off because I ALMOST have all the FF that I want so I don't need the components for that, and I have plenty for the trap that I'm a ways away from, so why go through Coral Castles and Haunted Shipwrecks? I can't think of a reason so I've been skipping over those almost as often as I do Murky Depths... especially if they're back to back with one another. It's evening out my supplies (cause I'm not skipping Lost Ruins) and I'm getting to more Sunken Treasures and other cool areas this way.

The question of course is, by doing this, am I losing out on Sand Dollars which is what I really need? I'd like to think 'no' because the Sunken Treasure areas are where the Sand Dollars are so I'm hoping it's a profitable investment, but I have no way to prove it.

At any rate, I currently have 286/800 Sand Dollars, and I am currently in the middle of a Sunken Treasure, which another one on my radar ahead. 351 oxygen to go and at 43,850m

I have finally managed to get a balance going in the rift when it comes to farming potions. I let the mist go up to 17 and down using brie to farm the first potion. Then, once I have about 20+ pieces, I switch to mist and run through those. Then I make sure the mist is maxxed out and use up whatever parmesan I have.

Downside is, I'm getting bored. I want to go back to the sunken city, but I only have 3 or 4 mice left to catch. I think I'm going to shoot for at least 20 parmesean before I start that part of my run this time in hopes of having enough.

... and crafted the CPT blueprints! I won't spend my gold on the other CPT ingredients yet, though - I want the Tidal Base first.

Congrats on the blueprints nonetheless.

Ditto. The Tidal Base looks quite nice.

... but I can't imagine that whatever they add for Count level on up, the Reaper's Perch won't do just fine.

And on the Halloween Event, was wondering the same thing. Can't imagine the Developers releasing a better Shadow Trap; something for the sake of just having, I can do that

Thanks to the Burroughs Rift, I may reach 1% Archduchess before the end of the month.

Noticing how our Titles are starting to cluster together closer, yet the point variation is still very wide

As far as my own personal progress goes, I've been trying to decide the best way to divide my time. The School of Sharks is a higher priority to me than the Focused Crystal Laser. BUT, the Burroughs Rift gives better gold. So, I'm kind of dividing my time between the two areas. However, I'm also feeling like I ought to just focus on one.

Yep, after thinking about this for a while, I have decided to focus on getting the School of Sharks. I have a pretty good guess on how much longer it will take me based on this run, it should be just over a month based on how much o2 I have now, how much FF I have to go through, and then hunt back into the deep end of the ocean. I will run into the Halloween event so it'll probably be early to mid November that I'll snag my trap and then head back to the Burroughs Rift. (Unless I discover the secret on how all my scoreboard contemporaries got their SoSes so fast. ) I do have over 400 Sand Dollars now, which I'm very happy with, so I'm on the home stretch!

Yep, after thinking about this for a while, I have decided to focus on getting the School of Sharks. I have a pretty good guess on how much longer it will take me based on this run ...

Getting that weapon is definitely some serious points away still for me. Thought on what it take time-wise to acquire the Tidal Base? Have yet to start a run there and will likely remain in the Gnawnian Rift until the Halloween Event.

Thought on what it take time-wise to acquire the Tidal Base?

It depends entirely on how lucky you are with the first areas they give you when you dive. It took me just under a month and I wasn't super lucky, but you know me, I hunt a ton. Just a couple tips to get going....

~When you start off in the City, you have to use SB+/Gouda which makes farming O2 take a while. It is well worth not stockpiling o2 for your first dive. (I went for 100o2, plus a little extra cause it costs 10 to dive.) You will get the components on your dives to craft Fishy Fromage which speeds up O2 farming dramatically.
Not everybody gets a nice even amount of FF supplies on their first dive *raises hand* so the O2 farming with Gouda/SB may need to be repeated a couple times (which is what I meant up above on how lucky you are), but once you get going, you'll have more supplies than you'll know what to do with.

~If you are lucky enough to be given a Sand Dollar Sea Bar right off the bat, it's an excellent location for Empowered Anchor Charms because that location drops a nice mix of loot. You won't want to do that indefinitely because the deeper you get, the better the loot, but starting off it's amazing.
For comparison, the only location I use EACs prior to 10,000m now, are Oxygen Streams (a rare location where you get a profit of O2).

So you know what you're looking at, the first areas under 2,000m are...
~Shallow Shoals - the basic boring area, small amounts of mixed loot drop here: coral, scales, and barnacles (the three components for the Fishy Fromage cheese).
~Coral Reef - these mice drop coral
~School of Mice - these mice drop scales
~Rocky Outcrop - these mice drop barnacles
~Feeding Grounds - these mice drop brined curds. They are also the toughest to catch, but worth the most gold and points
~Sand Dollar Sea Bar - the best area because they drop a little of everything, except for curds. Best place for Sand Dollars as well.

And then of course as you go along, the areas become upgraded with different names, the mice become harder to catch, but they drop more loot as well.
It might sound complicated, but it's probably the most straight forward area they've put out in the past few years (not counting the Gnawnian Rift ).

It might sound complicated ...

Was having a terrible time following in the strategy guide. This makes more sense, thank you. Likely refer back to the above.