Varna, when you catch Twisted Carmine, she'll drop you Gur essences. Mice in the Sand Crypts and the Cursed City drop your lower level essences, but also drop Dol, Est and Fel essences.

It does take a while to complete the garden. . . but it is a pretty fun area.

I think I have a long way to go even for the first trap - so currently I guess the strategy of just getting as much basic essences as possible, is good enough.

Varna, when you catch Twisted Carmine, she'll drop you Gur essences.

Indeed. Catching Twisted Carmine mice should be your goal (And King Grub mice are often pretty rich as well). I apologize if I'm repeating myself, but my unofficial guess is that one third of my essences leading up to the Icuri were crafted, and the other two thirds were from Twisted Carmine mice.
The nice thing about the LG is once you get your first trap (go for the POWN first!) it gets faster, and continues to do so with every upgrade.
But even so, it's designed to take a few months to complete. I think the devs once said an average of six months? LG maps, particularly rare ones will help.

I have mixed feelings over the soccer/football event. On one hand it's a nice way to get free (and nice!) goodies. On the other hand, I feel like it's a bit of a throw-away event. I guess it's better than nothing.

Looking forward to the Toxic Spill tomorrow. Still my favorite new area this year. I'm definitely ready for the new content though!

I've been killing time in the Gauntlet waiting for the spill to get down to Duke level. I'm on tier 6 right now. I'd be down for an upper level gauntlet tournie soon, as I should hopefully get 20 or more pieces of tier 7 cheese.

I need to look and see how much Gauntlet cheese I have. I don't think I have very much, but I could be wrong. *looks* 16 pieces of Tier 5. But I have a nice supply of Tier 4 so if I could make myself hunt in there for a bit (harhar), I might be able to get enough cheese for a six hour tourny.

I have not gotten a lot of love from the game the past few days though. My catch rate hasn't been too bad (with one exception) but my attraction rate for the mice I need has been abysmal. I've been working on a LG treasure map and just could not attract a Twisted Carmine for the life of me. That was out of 13 pieces of cheese I think? King Grub obliterated me until Stwin got him so I quit trying to save him for a future map. It took me well over two days to nab a Blacksmith mouse for my M400 assignment. And then out of 13 footballs the evil football player blocked 10. ouch.
I'm hoping that means that when I get into the Toxic Spill tomorrow I will get lots of love and level up quickly.

*hunts in the ever boring Gnawnian Rift, which IS decent at leveling you up quickly* Hey cep, I bet you'd like the Rift! It's like a three tiered Gauntlet!

Question: Why does it seem to take me longer to do things? Whether it's collecting gold, points, levelling up, getting through areas for the first time... it seems to take me longer than others.

I open MH as soon as I get up, and have it open until I go to bed, and am on all day. Yet, Varna and Gymmie are all pretty far ahead of me, even though I've been playing close to a year longer than them. And most of you have already got 4-12 million gold since Ronza came. I only have 3mill, and that's only because I sold some stuff on the Market.

I earn gold really slowly, and spend about 90% of gameplay farming gold for Ronza visits. So if there's a faster way to get gold, I would like to know what it is. Then I think I could enjoy gameplay more. I mean, last year, I started farming gold for Ronza in JULY, and kept farming gold non-stop until she came. I only had 50mil by that time. (I farmed in Furoma, catching Dojos and Sojos. I'm a Countess. I am on all day, so I blow the horn every 15 minutes.) And since prices go up every year, I probably won't have enough for her next visit even if I start farming gold NOW.

Why am I lagging behind so much? Is it a glitch, or is there some gameplay secret I'm missing?

Question: Why does it seem to take me longer to do things?
....I open MH as soon as I get up, and have it open until I go to bed, and am on all day. Yet, Varna and Gymmie are all pretty far ahead of me, even though I've been playing close to a year longer than them.

I think there are lots of little things that add up. There is one big obvious answer that I can definitely give you. The fastest way to level in the game is to always hunt in the top level area available. Gold farming and leveling do NOT mesh. You spent a heck of a long time in Furoma farming gold, which is great for when Ronza comes, but it does next to nothing to further your progression in the game.
If leveling is your goal, you must always be willing to hold off on optional content and always hunt in the top level area available. The Toxic Spill is an excellent example... I haven't seen you hunt there yet, but it is hands down the fastest place you can level in the game right now. As soon as it hits your level, you should drop everything else you're doing and move there and at the very least fill up your toxic waste bucket, if not make a push for the Washboard Base.

And most of you have already got 4-12 million gold since Ronza came. I only have 3mill, and that's only because I sold some stuff on the Market. I earn gold really slowly, and spend about 90% of gameplay farming gold for Ronza visits. So if there's a faster way to get gold, I would like to know what it is.

This one is much easier to explain. You went from 50mil gold to almost nothing. I went from 40mil gold to 15mil (and then gave a nice chunk of it away to friends who needed traps which dropped me down to about 10mil). I have made about 2mil back, and that was thanks to the Easter event that ended after Ronza left. (Did you cycle your charge charms and eggstra charms? ) I think you're deceiving yourself on this one. You made gold a whole lot faster than anybody else did when you were in Furoma, and you've made back more gold than I have after Ronza left. It just doesn't look that way cause I didn't buy everything Ronza brought and had a nice chunk leftover.
The top three places in the game to farm gold (to my knowledge) are ...
~Furoma (which you know)
~Varmint Valley (once you have the SLAC II)
~Fiery Warpath (best to farm gold AND level, but you need the Monstrobot to be efficient)

As I mentioned before, you really can't level and farm gold at the same time. You get one or the other, it depends on which one you want more.
Honestly though, it's been a long, long time since I had to farm gold to be able to afford something, like a trap. I find that by the time I have all the supplies to build what I need, I've already made the gold to go with it.

Here is my advice for you. Find out which aspect of the game you enjoy more. If it's leveling, focus on the LG and get those traps (but take a break for the Toxic Spill)! If it's gold, head back to Furoma until you have a nice comfy cushion to work with. And there is no reason you can't mix and match. That's what I do. I'd probably focus on the LG and TS and then when I need a break be like "Who wants to do a train??!?!" to earn some extra gold. (And if you want to do trains and need an invite to the team, please let me know! )

Does that answer your questions? Do you have any others?

Hey cep, I bet you'd like the Rift! It's like a three tiered Gauntlet!

Noted

Find out which aspect of the game you enjoy more. If it's leveling, focus on the LG and get those traps

Very helpful way to think about it. For me, Izzy, points and gold are mostly irrelevant other than serving my purposes. I picked something I like doing such as eventually getting Silvered on the Eclipse Mouse. You will likely pass me up in points

Does that answer your questions? Do you have any others?

That's about it. Thanks, your explanations helped a lot!

I guess right now I'm going to focus on farming gold, and once I get a goodly amount, I'll move on to other things in the time I have left before Ronza's visit. I like to get my gold farming done before event season, since those take up so much time and usually take place in low-gold areas (though it often makes up for it in Easter Eggs and other prizes of that sort).

Right now I'm farming Ancient Charms in Claw Shot City. I find those really help me catch Sojos in Furoma. And what with all the King's Credits I'm getting from the Soccer Tournament, I should be able to buy a lot of Cheese Tokens.

I changed my mind. . . I don't want to wait for an upper level gauntlet tournie. They apparently don't come around that often, and I doubt I'd get a full team any ways. . .

It's so much fun on Tier 7 and 8 when your gold levels just SKYROCKET! I've got 5 pieces of Tier 8 cheese. Cha-Ching

They apparently don't come around that often, and I doubt I'd get a full team any ways. . .

Yeah... the problem is that the Easter event wasn't that long ago and most people burned through their cheese getting Eclipse eggs. But yay on the gold DiGs

I missed the vast majority of FBF today, but as I understand it, most of HitGrab is out with the plague today. So it was a random Q&A with Jacob, Dan, and Sarah today. Here are the few tidbits I was able to glean from the chat.
~I don't think we can expect the new area any time in the super near future. They're still deep in testing and it doesn't sound like they're very far along. There's a couple art pieces still left to do, but most of the artwork is done.
~It's definitely going to be the biggest area in the game, but it sounds similar to the Living Garden where it's comprised of several little areas. I think Jacob said one location is called the Sunken City.

And I think that's about it from today. I admit I haven't made it through the whole thing due to interruptions from toddlers. But typically at the end they're just chatting about random stuff rather than spoiler stuff.

I've got 5 pieces of Tier 8 cheese. Cha-Ching

Heh heh. Good way to say it.

I don't think we can expect the new area any time in the super near future.

This will allow me to stay on track to acquire the traps in the LG. Presently acquiring all the materials and gold required to obtain the Grand Arcanum and Clockwork Portal. I would like to believe new high-end traps will be available in the new area - Tactical or Physical - to allow even more EPIC runs through the Gauntlet

The spill is now open for me. I've moved over there, and will hopefully level pretty quickly. I'm at 80% Duke, so I'll be a Grand Duke soon (Couple months in reality )

I've made over 3 million in gold in the last two days, so I suppose that's pretty good .

I changed my mind. . . I don't want to wait for an upper level gauntlet tournie. They apparently don't come around that often, and I doubt I'd get a full team any ways. . .

It's so much fun on Tier 7 and 8 when your gold levels just SKYROCKET! I've got 5 pieces of Tier 8 cheese. Cha-Ching

Yeah, I had forgotten how much gold you get on T7; or hadn't realized. I got my first Eclipses during Easter, and was REALLY pleasantly surprised to see how much gold I bagged during the last two levels. Ultimately not "profitable" in that the time you spend going through the Gauntlet makes the gold financially worthwhile, but it's still a nice bonus when you're not "counting" on it.

How many T7 did you have, Digs? I'm wracking my brain trying to remember how many I had during Easter but it netted me 7 Eclipses, so it was a fair amount.

I think I had around 30 tier seven, and with the Chrome POWN I had 29 catches and only 1 miss. That netted me 5 tier 8 potions.

That sounds like an exceptionally good drop rate.

In the Toxic Spill right now, although I think the jury is out and I really don't like this area in general. It uses up a lot of supplies and gold, I've been in every spill since it started and I STILL don't fully understand the best gameplay, and it's got no "real" purpose. A dead end area that doesn't produce anything worthwhile to use in the rest of the game. I know a lot of areas are like that, but at least I liked hunting there, lol. To be honest, the only reason I'm in the Spill is in case the Spill is eventually tied into a new area and I don't want to be behind. Right now I'm hunting till I fill my Barrel and get my Washboard base, and then I'm going to peace out.

Living Garden stuff is still going well. I've gotten Shattering Charm (used on Dark Magi) and am super close to another, but I had to drop down to the Normal side because I FINALLY ran out of Graveblossom/Duskshade. Working on converting my impressive supply of Dewthief and I probably will call it a day when I get 500 Duskshade even though I'll have TONS of Dewthief left. I'm thinking I *may* have enough Dewthief to see me through the third Shattering Charm and the Rift base, but we'll see.