It is my personal opinion that you should get all three blessings every time, so that'll give you more of a chance to get the Portal pursuer than the Battering Ram. I've caught 5 so far.

Currently sporting the no-luck curse.

Working on the longer term goal of bronzing the Acolyte for the better loot.

I'm doing my first acolyte run. Have the portal paladins sealed away, but no other blessings. I've got 63 time sand, 30 pieces of runic, and am sporting ultimate power charms.

I've already got my obelisk 11% filled. Using Quantum Quartz to help this go more quickly.

Just filled up the obelisk in 19 hunts, 18 sand. I have 60 runic cheese remaining.
Setup MYNORCA, Fissure, Runic, Rift Vacuum, Codex, and Quantum Quartz.

Eta: Acolyte caught with 36 pieces of Runic remaining.

I'm just sort of playing in the Bristle Woods Rift. Its going to be a lot of trial and error. Thank you for the information, really. Helpful notes.

I am really thinking that I'm going to need to upgrade my rift trap sooner rather than later. I'm still using the focused laser trap right now, and while it's "getting by" I've been in this acolyte chamber forever. . . Going on four days now. . . I'm just ready to be done.

I really like the setup of this new area. It's very much like the labyrinth, but much more passive in its setup.

Speaking of the labyrinth. . . I will probably never end up finishing that area

I've bronzed the Portal Pursuer, so now I'm hoping for the Pursuer Mousoleum to get rid of her. Then I'll hope for the other two blessings to turn up soon - and for the chamber where I get a new box to collect sand in, to go for my second Acolyte. That one definitely needs to be bronzed as well, to pick up some of the better Mysterious boxes.

Silvering it would be even better - but if I get enough loot to buy the new base and trap before that, I might well stop when I've bought those. (I've seen somebody who have bought them with only a couple of Acolytes - I guess gold and RL dollars are the explanation ...)

Having a much better run through this second time. . . I feel like I know what I'm doing a bit more

Right now, I'm ready for an acolyte chamber. . . Just waiting for it to show up. Got the two most important blessings, have 62 sand in my hourglass, and 70 pieces of runic cheese. . . . .

Here chamber chamber chamber

It is my personal opinion that you should get all three blessings every time...

This was certainly the case on the first run through without the codex, but I have formed a new opinion. The Guard Barracks is the one that's definitely worth going through every time. I couldn't find that portal last run through and boy did it sap all of my resources capturing the Acolyte mouse. The Frozen Alcove is definitely beneficial, but for me personally, I have so much gold and points I grab it if it comes up, but I don't go searching for it. The Ingress Chamber is a bit of a throw away. I'll probably only go through it from this point on if I need it for a future treasure map, or if there's no better option.

Just caught my 7th Acolyte mouse this morning, but my resources have been drained so I'm sort of starting over a bit. I can buy Ancient Cheese off the Marketplace to help speed things up, but it's Runic Cheese that I desperately need now. A minimum of 15 Acolytes are required for the base, unless I get lucky like Gymmie and have a Timesplit Rune drop. Almost halfway there.

How are you guys up to 7 Acolytes?!?!?! That's just nutty! I caught my second one today and was like "Wow! I'm doing really well!" I guess not. . .

Maybe the MYNORCA really does help you speed through this round. I'm just super hesitant to purchase anything right now due to Ronza's likely visit sometime within the next month or so.

That being said, I've raised 10 million gold in the past ten days or so. I've been selling a lot of stuff on the marketplace, which has been a huge gold booster. Ancient String Cheese is moving well on the market right now, and is easily selling for 25K per piece.

How are you guys up to 7 Acolytes?!?!?!

I don't know about "you guys". Last I checked, most of my friends have caught 1 or 2.
And honestly, I'm not quite sure how I've caught so many as I feel like I'm going rather slowly. I don't have that nice streamlined feeling that I get when I feel like I've got a good grasp on the area. Still learning.
Obviously being a buyer of Ancient cheese certainly boosts progress. That's all I know.

I haven't caught my second one yet - but I have also been running around on a couple of treasure maps as well, including in FW, where I looted a Crystal and sold it to buy a Metal and FINALLY craft a Monstro.

Which I won't need at BW Rift at all but I still enjoy it

I have a good amount of time sand and Quantum Quartz for my second run, but I need more Runic cheese before I dare go in (and I don't think I've seen the AA chamber this run either). I've cleared all the curses, either during the minigame or through getting the needed chamber afterwards.

I'll be back to finish my second run eventually, and I aim to do at least 10 runs, and see how close that gets me to buying the new base and trap.

I'm still working on my third, but I also haven't been buying Ancient Cheese and I was gone from home for about five days so wasn't hunting in the BRift. So that probably hasn't helped, lol.

Man, I hate buying stuff in the MP but I have plenty of gold; I should probably just bite the bullet and buy some Ancient Cheese to get me out of this cheese rut because that is really what is holding me back right now.

I only have 2 Absolute Acolytes so far. Third run is being a bit of a booger. Not getting enough Ancient Labs, and no sign of the Guard Barracks yet.

FBF Summary...
Next week, probably Wednesday, there will be an update to the BWRift, including two new treasure maps. One will be BWRift only and the other will be a combo FRift and BWRift map.

After that, full focus will be on Moussu Picchu. They said the planning is done, most mice are done, they're going to start coding the area. It's going to be a smaller area as it's there solely to lead into the first Archduke area, but there will be a new best-in-game Draconic trap.

After that, sounds like they're planning on Treasure Maps season 5, so if you don't have the special trap from season 4 yet, start working on it. (Varna, if you need extra hunters on your maps, I'm running low on Ancient charms so I'm down for helping. I'm out of Relic Hunter maps again. LOL)

It doesn't sound like Ronza is coming any time soon, at least not before Moussu Picchu.

Moussu Picchu sounds amazing. . . . . But I'd rather have Ronza come, because I'd like to spend my gold without an anxiety attack

I've got everything to buy the MYNORCA trap now, with about 7 million left to spare. . . . Maybe if I get another 8 million. I'd then be up to 31 million, which, after MYNORCA would leave me with 15 million, which will be enough to do Ronza stuff.