I haven't decided which of the advanced traps I want first. On one hand, it would be nice to have the upgrade to Oasis because it would help you gather dewthief petals as well as graveblossom petals. It would also help you nab more Twisted Carmines with your Lunaria cheese.

But the drop rate for Plumepearl and Lunaria petals are so low, that the upgraded ACRONYM and Shadow trap would help you get more supplies for Duskshade cheese and Lunaria cheese.

Quite a pickle

I'll probably end up going after the Oasis upgrade as well because. . . well. . . it's the cheapest

No kidding. Between the Warpath and LG traps, I reckon I need...a LOT of gold. Like, 17mil just for LG, and then if I don't get Sandblasted Metal to drop, that's another 30mil alone, not even including the Oasis bead and Sphinx Crystal. Yeah, it's expensive.

And here I'm working towards 1mil
I was bored after three days in the Catacombs, so yesterday I "had some time off" and went to the Lagoon. I used the Ambush and stayed there till I had got the Ship Blueprints.

I cannot afford to do anything with them at the moment, but it's handy to have the item there when the time is right. I'll do a proper Furoma exploration first, for one thing, and first of all there will be the events.

There are some valuable mice in the Lagoon, but the catch rate doesn't match the Catacombs with the Acronym ... (so now I'm back, and can see the gold accumulate at a better speed again ... )

It's sad how I bought the Oasis for 2.5 mil and now it dropped by 1 mil
I'm working on like 400-500 dew petals I'm barely at 100, like 60 some...
Varn: I'm guessing you don't have SS Hungington? THat thing is so expensive:( like 600k or something
Digs: I guess getting the OWN upgrade would help since it will increase teh chances of catching twisted carmine but only marginally
Sha: 2 cheese? It's gonan be hard, I didnt get itt with 4 cheese even with ULC I did make a mistake and poured dewdrops, it was a good idea at the moment for bonuses, but i realized i had a new mmouse 2 attract
haha
I dunno really, im broke 5 mil only, cant afford much anyways

You're right, I don't have SS Huntington - I actually think it's a lot more than 600k. I'm at about 500k now, and I'm going to keep my gold for the next event, so Huntington will have to wait.

It was worth spending gold on the Acronym, though. It's sure to make a difference in the event, too.

Next time I need a change, I'll go to the Laboratory and try to get some more RB potions. I thought I had loads, but the way I'm playing now, they're going fast

Well, I ended up with six Lunaria Petals, and converted them using Magic Essence to get 8 Lunaria cheese. I armed that with my ULCs and failed to even ATTRACT a Twisted Carmine. I feel like I've wasted the entire last month hunting in this new area. I know each new area needs to be a challenge, but this is ridiculous. /rant

Anyway, starting the farming process over again. I'm going to go for an insane amount of Dewthief to start out this time. Like 1,000 or something.

I really want the Christmas event to start so I can not think about this area any more.

Has it really been a month since they released it? The more I hear about it the more smilarities I draw to KG... granted I'm mostly skimming over posts

Haha, KG was much worse, this area has lots of pointless minigames(they're actually good but the living garden one is pointless once u go to the cursed areas) but bad gold gain
The thing is the cursed mouse drop percentage is so low its not even funny But theres less levels then KG
Im still farming for dew petals, nearing 100:) aiming for 500

Yeah, I don't even do the mini-games. . . the charms are a waste, you still get essences and petals to drop without them, and you can use other charms that increase your ability to catch the mice.

I have a different strategy than y'all. I always get about 60 Dewthief petals and then go as far as I can, and then go back and start again. This strategy has gotten me 2 Twisted Carmines thus far, and it certainly breaks up the monotony of hunting the same mice over and over and over again.

Yeah, I don't even do the mini-games. . . the charms are a waste, you still get essences and petals to drop without them

I disagree. With the exception of collecting Dewdrops in the Living Garden, I've made a noticeable profit investing A and B essences into the mini-games. Especially in the Sand Dunes with the Grubling Stampedes and in the Sand Crypts with King Grub. If I spend 15 Aleth Essences on 15 Charms during a Stampede and catch a Grubling, he drops a Cynd essence which is equal to 9 Aleth Essences. I only have to catch two Grublings to more than make up for what I spent on charms and I usually catch 3 or 4. And King Grub? I think he dropped 1F, 1E and 1D for me which was also profitable over the 41B and 1C I spent to catch him.
Yes, the mini-games can certainly be skipped and I only do the Living Gardens one to crown the Thirsty Mouse, but I find them to be the opposite of a waste. Particularly as the name of the game here is to collect as many essences as possible.

I've looked at the stats for the new traps on the wiki, and I must say that I am NOT impressed. . . . not in the least.

Clockwork Portal:
3,900 Power
12% Power Bonus
20 Luck
10% Attraction Bonus
No Cheese Effect

So you're getting a measly 600 power (compared to Reaper's Perch), 2% power bonus, 4 luck and 5% attraction bonus. Hardly worth the 2 million + required to get it.

Phantasmic Oasis:
Power: 5850
Luck: 26
Power Bonus: 15%
Attraction Bonus: 20%
Cheese Effect: No Effect

Contrast this with the Oasis Water Node, and you only get 650 more power and 6 more luck. Decent, yes. . . but not when the hefty price tag is considered.

Grand Arcanum Trap:
Power: 4800
Luck:22
Power Bonus: 12%
Attraction Bonus: 5%
Cheese Effect: No Effect

Contrast this with ACRONYM, and you get 1,000 more power and a better cheese rating. For 2.5 million?!?!?!

*sigh*

EDIT: I also found pictures of the traps on google:

Phantasmic Oasis Trap

Spoiler

Grand Arcanum Trap

Spoiler

Clockwork Portal Trap:

Spoiler

Love the look of the Phantasmic Oasis Trap and Grand Arcanum Trap. . . the Clockwork Portal trap, however, looks dumb

I agree that the clockwork portal looks slightly dumb maybe not slightly
Grand arcanum looks pretty cool, but it does cost a lot(btw u also get +4 luck for grand arcanum)
The thing is i guess Grand Arcanum and Clockwork Portal are important cause there just isnt a lot of arcane and shadow traps, especially arcane being the 6th arcane trap so far including LE
Hydro well, it is stronger but there are so many alternatives that can somewhat subsitute although the POWN is definitely the strongest although it does cost a lot more

Yeah, I guess these traps are definitely over-priced, the only upgrades that I thought was good was probably HVMT and ZFM, and obviously ACRONYM, most upgrades are lots of money for meager upgrades(especially DDA...omp, it gave like 1k power and 2 luck...2 luck...)

Personally I'll still try to get these traps like we tried to get SMB, the thing is, one can do without these new traps since they dont relaly outclass teh old ones like SMB SW OWN did...so yeah, probably won't be like super priority but will try getting it

DIGS: you almost with the garden soil base?

DIGS: you almost with the garden soil base?

I'm not even going to go for it. It's a waste of essences in my opinion. The new traps are much more important to me.

*agrees with DiGs on the base* Though admittedly I haven't compared it with other bases, I only compared it with the GTB which is vastly superior to the Garden Soil Base, even with the charms bonus. I might get it eventually just to have it, but the traps come first.

Well, I wrapped up the Lost City and Sand Dunes yesterday and ended up with enough petals and herbs to make 275 Duskshade Camembert. Snagged Carmine a little bit ago and I'm now in the Twisted Garden again.

I actually had a remarkably good run in the Sand Dunes especially. Those Grublings may be the freakiest looking mouse in the game, but I sure like catching them. I got enough Cynd Essences to convert all the way up to one Gur. Currently sitting at 43A, 49B, 11C, 1D, 1E, 2F, 2G, 1H, 0I. Only 4 more Twisted Carmines to go until I get the POWN trap. (pwn, hahahaha, I get it.)

Since I'm aiming for such a large number of Dewthief Petals this time around (or at least, I'm not going into the twisted areas again any time soon) I've decided that playing the LG mini game is a great way to farm Ber and Cynd essences, and by doing so I can slowly craft my way up to Est essences, which is my goal. I know I need 81 Est to make one Icuri and if I focus on getting to Est essences (crafting them up as needed), I need 84 Est to build the Clockwork Portal, which is now my first goal because the Dunes/Crypts area is killing me the worst (it's also the cheapest in essences of the new traps, though most expensive in gold). I'll likely play in the Lost City and Sand Dunes on occasion to try for more Cynd essences and crown mice there as well. Anyway, this may be the longer route in the end, but it feels less wasteful overall because I'm not eating up precious loot drops trying to get mice I can't catch; I didn't even get to the point where I felt safe trying to attract a King Grub last time, even after using 60-odd pieces of cheese and the Salt charms.

Anyway, I am now sitting at 230 Aleth, 117 Ber, 2 Cynd, 1 Dol, and 11 Est essences. So I'm only 73 Est away (67 if you count all my Aleth and Ber in their Est-equivalent states, which I'm not at the moment) from my first trap for the new areas!