If I was in the shoes of those of you still needing the Rift Base, here's how I'd break it down for myself....

Priority 1 - Toxic Spill - Get the large waste barrel, and after that, make sure my pollutinum is always maxed out at 250 every time a spill happens. The other stuff will come while farming pollutinum.

Priority 2 - Living Garden - Rift Base! Yeah, it's a lot of grinding. This area was designed to literally take months. But even though the Devs suggested it would be useful for the next expansion, it is NOT required. Another thing to consider, Easter was when I really progressed in the LG cause those eggs dropped lots of extra loot. You can always grind through the lower levels now and save up for Easter.

Optional side quest - If you're like me, and I think most of you are (except for Paul and my husband who are twins separated by a few years), I get really restless sitting around in one place for a long period of time. So if a break is needed from the LG, that's when I'd do some M400 hunting. Obviously this may change once someone catches one and we find out whether or not it's worth more than bragging rights and mucho points, but right now he seems like an optional side quest to me... much like Zurreal.

As always, hunt as you wish and do whatever is the most fun to you. I'm only offering my own personal opinion and if you want to do things in a different order that's TOTALLY up to you.

(except for Paul and my husband who are twins separated by a few years)

Heh heh.

Looking at the assignments? Heading back to my warm, safe place. Might finish the current research assignment if only to have over 1500 points.

Here's my husband's assignment in case you all are interested...

I've finished 4/5 of my assignments with the exception of the Realm Ripper whom I can't catch until 2am.

ETA: Finished up the above assignment. I went ahead and started the official M400 assignment even though there were warnings of "MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH CHEESE!!!" I do think I'll not finish and grab the Ultimate Charm. But here are the first steps and I'll edit this post and add them on as I get them... These work just like the Z's Tower where one step is revealed at a time.

Minor recipe spoiler/advice from the MH forum guides:

Spoiler

if you add 3 Magic Essences to your M400 cheese crafting, you get twice the cheese!

I'm only 1 task into my first cheese assignment. Here's hoping the Sand Pilgrims come out and play soon.

If I can get through this assignment fairly quickly, I may do a few M400 cheese recipes before I go for the big mouse itself.

Well I was told that upon completing the assignment, it would inform you about the spoiler above. Unfortunately when I signed in, it was 4am, I was sick, and my baby was unhappy. So I totally missed that bit of info. Next time though.

At any rate, I've completed my assignment up to catching the M400 (it's listed in full on the last post of the previous page). I am going to go ahead and try to grab the Ultimate Charm... I'm only 2 Gur Essence away to have the Shattering Charms. It will take me a little while to go through all of the cheese, but I think it will be worth it. I was worried I had miscalculated because I didn't know if the M400 was a 100% attraction or not. I would have hated to spend all this time and energy going after him and then burned through the Ultimate Charm on little piddly mice. But I have a non-NWeb friend who is going after him right now and she's attracted nothing but the M400s, so I should be guaranteed one once I complete this charm. *crosses fingers that the Shattered Carmine doesn't give me too much trouble*

My first bait assignment:

I prefer to have some more cheese available when I start hunting the M400 itself, so here's my second bait assignment:

This is an assignment I won't be able to finish. There are LG mice in it - and I haven't even rebuilt the MM shop where I can get the LG key.

But I'll hunt the other mice on it and collect the cheese ingredients. Then I'll smash it and get another assignment - and even if I may have to smash that as well, I hope to have enough ingredients between them that it may be enough for one more batch of Fondue cheese.

I was 90 % Baroness when the Spill started, and I leveled up the last 10 % during that Spill - reaching the new title just in time to be allowed to join the new assignment. And I had been doing enough Furoma assignments to bring me up to the required number of Library points.

I like these assignments so much! They are a lot like individual treasure maps - with all the fun of the Zurreal assignment, and more variety. I'm really glad I reached Countess rank in time to join this from the start!

Edit - a day later:
Disappointment.
I'll be able to do cheese assignments to my heart's delight.
But according to people in the fora, it seems that the M400 assignment will always include at least one LG mouse ...

So it's back to MM, rebuild the necessary shops, and get the Living Garden key, before I can hunt down the M400.
Oh well ...

But according to people in the fora, it seems that the M400 assignment will always include at least one LG mouse ...

I suppose that makes sense as the M400 is Count level so you should be able to hunt everywhere in the game to catch him.
At least you can stockpile cheese ingredients, so that's good Varna. Good luck finishing up Muridae Market! Have you started rebuilding that area at all? At least they sell gouda cheese @ 600g pretty much everywhere now so you can skip the Cheese Shoppe.

I guess I wasn't quite as close to the Shattering Charm as I thought. I did catch the Dark Magi mouse this morning so he's out of the way. But what I still have left to do is catch 2 Twisted Carmines to get the last Shattering Charm, and then catch the Shattered Carmine. I don't know that I'll be able to get enough Lunaria Cheese for that. But we'll see.

It does indeed make sense that LG should be an integral part of the expectations at Count level.

I have started collecting Coconut Timber and Limestone Brick (and got 10 Shards of Glass from a Wanted Poster yesterday), and I've caught 6 different MM mice, but I haven't rebuilt any of the shops yet. I guess I won't need to rebuild all the others first before I can do the Cartographer. Gouda can be bought elsewhere, and I've bought 30 Artisan charms during events - and although I'm considering buying the Sandtail Sentinel, it won't be before Ronza has been here, so no rush to build the Trapsmith either.

No rush indeed.
It's not like I have to catch the M400 "before the event ends".
I can do cheese assignments and stockpile ingredients, even craft cheese and stockpile it, and some of the assignments will take me to MM to do parts of the rebuilding there. Currently I'm in the Iceberg, Bombing Run, waiting for a Snow Slinger to give me the third Cheddar Powder.

Even when I get the LG key, I ought to play it properly, not just rush for the M400 tasks. I've begun to read guides to see what it's all about, and what roles the petals and the essences play in the picture It seems it was worth it to get the Reaper's Perch

Yeah, if I were you, I'd probably do the General Store -> Charm Shoppe -> Cartographer and wait on the other two until later.
On the Snow Slinger, was it required to be caught in the Iceburg? I caught mine in the Slushy Shoreline. Just curious...
And yeah, the Reaper's Perch is definitely worth it.

I feel like I'm in a better position in the LG than I was yesterday. For one thing I've had enough essences drop to almost get another Gur Essence, which means I'd only need one Twisted Carmine instead of two. On top of that, I'm up to 16 pieces of Lunaria with a lot more Graveblossom to go through. Feelin' pretty good. Taking a brief break to help my sis-in-law with a train and then I'll get back to it.

There was no requirement on where to catch the Snow Slinger. I only had just started on the Bombing Run, and thought I could combine it with preparations for a possible Deep Egg in a few weeks' time.

I'll make note of the shop order and do those three first.

I've also found that for passive hunting, I currently prefer Furoma. It's useful for gold in these pre-Ronza days - I'm hoping to have 25 mil before she arrives.

I got a second M400 bait assignment and ditched it. Wish I could have copied it, but I was on my phone. This is my current one:

My goal is to go through four assignments before going on to the other assignment. I do remember that the assignment I smashed had gauntlet mice in it as well.

Just as an FYI, I my second cheese assignment had me catch a Pyrite mouse. In hindsight, I'd probably have smashed it since it's not really worth the SB+ and could take forever otherwise. Other than that, the assignment was easy...well, unless you count the fact that I forgot you could use Zombie charms to catch a Ravenous Zombie and it took me forever to hunt before I was clued in, haha.

I don't recall the Pyrite being that bad if you used SB+. I guess it depends on whether or not you want to use SB. Oh, and I posted about Brain Charms on your corkboard a few days ago. I guess it didn't notify you... silly MH notifications.

Well, the good news is that I got my last Shattering Charm. The bad news is that out of about 15 pieces of Lunaria cheese, I did not catch a Shattered Carmine. Going through some more Graveblossom Cheese to restock on petals. I'm back up to 4 Lunaria, hoping to get at least 12 if not 16.

If I fail to catch her before running out of cheese supplies, I'll just move on with my M400 assignment and stockpile on more cheese before going after him again.

Finished my M400 assignment today! Hunt log below:

Setup: Monstro, GTB, Champs. Took five pieces of cheese.

ETA: Forgot to say, I got my Chesla's Revenge in the LG map that we just finished. (I say "we" loosely because I was in the Toxic Spill most of the time. ). Yay for new traps!

Oh and FK, I did figure it out before I saw your message. Only wasted half a day, but still, it was annoying, haha!

Has anybody heard anything about the birthday event?