First of all, congrats on the POWN trap DiGs!!! One down, two to go.

I felt rather silly this morning when I discovered the MH News story on the LG release on Monday. They gave more info on that than what I had discovered on my own (imagine that!)....

In order to face these new mice, you'll need the power of the all-new Shattering Charm, which can only be crafted by utilizing the power of an Icuri Essence.

Aromatic Oil
This sweet-smelling oil is produced from an exceptionally rare plant, and thus is typically restricted for royalty or other such important persons. As such, incredibly powerful mice are irresistibly drawn to it.

So it looks like you need 1mil gold for an Oil and an Icuri Essence at least, (I presume to craft the Shattering Charm) to attract a high level mouse. Yikes!

And then they mentioned the Ultimate Charm as well... that was quite something. A 100% guaranteed catch, and depending on how easy or hard the mouse was, the charm might survive for another round. Heh.

So, I'm pondering my strategy moving forward. I know I'm crafting the Arcane and Shadow traps next, though I keep changing my opinion on which one to craft next.
On one hand, the Reaper's Perch is one of my favorite traps in the game and I'm going to be sad to move on from it (though at least I don't have to smash this one!) so I was pretty well decided I'd craft the Arcane trap next.
But then I started thinking about King Grub and how he always drops lots of good essences and/or those hard-to-get Lunaria Petals and I thought maybe if I have a better shadow trap, I can catch more King Grubs and therefore get more goodies?
But King Grub aside, I think I get better essence drops in the Lost City overall.
I'm still undecided. It may come down to the fact that the Clockwork Portal is cheaper and I can upgrade that one sooner, and then recoup my essences more quickly for the last trap.

I noticed a small handful of people have already snagged the three boss mice. (And you all thought I played too much. ) But I don't think a recipe for the Rift Base has been discovered yet. Looks like you need to catch all three mice before you can craft it. And then there's an intriguing bit on the Wiki page about the base that I'm going to spoiler...

So even though constant grinding and farming isn't my cup of tea, at least I will have something to do in the game for a long, long time.

I'm trudging through the Sand Dunes at the moment. I'm catching more Grublings this time around, but my Petal drops are much lower. I may go back to the Garden to farm more Dewthief before trying the Twisted Garden so I can have a higher reserve of Duskshade going in.

I'm still planning to buy the Clockapult upgrade first once I have enough essences. I'll be able to make a decent run after that, I think. Then I'll buy the POWN and the Grand Arcanum.

My essences: 330A, 209B, 6C, 2F, 1G. If I catch at least one Twisted Carmine this time, I might be able to take more steps toward crafting my first trap. We'll see.

If you use all of those essences, Eli, you'll have enough to make one Hix essence, so that's at least something. Sorry you're having such difficulties with this new area.

I REALLY like the POWN trap. I got 50 pieces of dewthief in just over 24 hours. I'm aiming for 200 duskshade before having another run

Well, part of the issue is that I never got the Clockapult or the Reaper's Perch before coming in. I didn't see a point in spending all that gold when the Spider trap is almost as good and there's a lot of gold that I'll need in this new area...

I also should go for another few Warpath runs at some point. At least I've mostly completed the stuff I need except these higher level areas. I am still missing a few lower level rare/SB+ only mice, but other than those and the traps and boss mice of the Warpath/Garden, I'm good.

50 pieces of Dewthief netted me 30 pieces of Duskshade. Back in the Living Garden again farming more petals . My goal is 200 (although I'll probably grow impatient and start into the twisted garden earlier than that )

I'm currently working on getting 200 pieces of dewthief. I am up to 115. I've got some leftover duskshade (39) and graveblossom (17) from when I got bored and moved on to a different cheese. Due to my schedule this week, I am seriously considering just staying here and farming dewthief even if I top 200. Wonder where that'll get me with Luneria eventually.

I made it to 60 pieces of Dewthief before I got bored . I'll have 50+ pieces of Graveblossom by the time this is done. That might be enough to have another run at Twisted Carmine

My love/hate relationship with the POWN continues on. Yesterday we were doing a tourny in the Warpath and I thought 'Hey, I'll try this trap out on those mages!' It worked great. I even got a streak of nine. So now I know it'll work great everywhere else in the game... except for the Garden. ARRRGGG... I don't know why I'm having such bad luck with it. And based on a couple of DiGs's posts, I think it's just me. I caught one Twisted Carmine with it this morning so I think my catch rate of TCs is now 1/11.

On the flip side, I did have lots of good luck with catching mice that dropped upper end essences. Snagged another King Grub who dropped 1D, 1E, and 1F and then turned around and caught a Cursed Librarian who dropped 1D and 1E.
After converting up all the little essences that I'm going to use, I have 2F and 2H essences so I feel like I"m getting really close to my next trap.
I have officially decided to go with the Arcanum trap so I essentially need 4Gs.
Back to farming Dewthief Petals again.

I know I said I'd never do this, but driven to this by boredom and a need for a distraction from how horrid I feel, I have begun playing MouseHunt. I would appreciate any and all tips on how to get started, and I know of no better people to ask than my dear NarniaWeb MH-ers. You all are awesome, and I am proud to finally be among your ranks.

YAY MOUNTIE!!!! SOOOO glad to finally have you hooked into our ranks .

From what I see, you're doing quite well! My advice at this point? Never use Cheddar Cheese. . . it's worthless.

I know I said I'd never do this, but driven to this by boredom and a need for a distraction from how horrid I feel, I have begun playing MouseHunt.

Obviously I'd prefer you not playing because you feel fine, or even better, playing while feeling good, but we're excited you've joined us and I hope you like the game!

Advice... play in the way that is most fun to you. A lot of people burn through the game in an attempt to catch up to us upper level people which includes skipping mice or even whole areas and then coming back to them later (If you're in the same location as a friend, you take each other on hunts ), but that's not what everybody prefers. Some like to take it slow and catch every mouse before advancing on. Some people (not on Nweb, but in the MH Community) like to get King's Crowns on really hard mice in the game (you are awarded a King's Crown for every 10, 100, and 500 of each mouse you catch). I am a tournament junkie and am almost always up for those provided I have the materials and it's under six hours (those get you some nice goodies as well). And there are also treasure hunts which are loads of fun.
So yeah, no shortage on stuff to do, find what's fun and go to town on it.

My next piece of advice, read everything. Read the trap descriptions, the mouse descriptions, the area descriptions (found on the bottom left of your Camp page, that's the main page), everything. In addition to being funny, it'll often give you good hints and tips on how to play the game.

So there you go. And obviously if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

.....

Moving on to my own progress. The Seasonal Garden switches over to Winter here in a few hours and my treasure hunt group only needs the Mystic King and the Icicle Mouse to complete the map, so I'm taking a break from the Living Garden to go after the King (and Chess Master... stupid sock). Hopefully this will go smoothly and not take too long.

I need to go catch some more Relic Hunters. I'm out of maps! LOL

Some people (not on Nweb, but in the MH Community) like to get King's Crowns on really hard mice in the game (you are awarded a King's Crown for every 10, 100, and 500 of each mouse you catch).

*Coughs* I'm still working towards bronzing the Eclipse Mouse, but I have a few things to be done in the meantime (ie. current Warpath run) At least I got my Dragon

Welcome to MH, Mountie! And I agree with FK, I'd much rather you were feeling better, but I hope you enjoy the game

Haha, sorry wolf. What I was thinking in my head and what I actually typed ended up being two different things. Yes, you are the resident collector of King's Crowns. What I was thinking of though were the few people on the MH forums who collect like, 100 Silth Mice and 100 Acolyte Mice and 100 Sensei Mice and don't really advance at all in the game until they catch that particular number and then they just move on to the next hard mouse.

Yeah, I think I'd go crazy if I tried to stay in one place too long, lol. The only time I've ever stayed put for no particular reason for any length of time (i.e. a week or longer) is when life gets busy and I can't babysit the horn. I used to go to the Catacombs and get gold; now I go to the Slushy Shoreline and hunt those danged trap parts.

I've been rushing, rushing, rushing to get to Baroness...once I do that, I think I'll slow down and go back to some old areas and finish up some tasks, like Bronzing the Cherry, or catch a Shelder or a Pygmy Wrangler.

The maps have been awesome at breaking up the "boring" stuff and giving me a legitimate reason to hop around and hunt in areas I normally wouldn't, which is awesome. I've slowed down on maps and tourneys significantly since Event season started, but I'm looking forward to getting back into them again. Once Ronza comes...once Ronza comes.

ETA: Forgot to update on my progress! I'm currently towards the end of my second Iceburg run (the Mad Depths are killing me) and HOPING, HOPING to catch Icewing so I can finally get my SLMIII. There's not really much I can do to improve my run; I'm not FTA'ing so SB+ won't fix the problem, and there seems to be no win/win situation with charms, lol. I WAS able to get my first 'Berg base (Remote) although I haven't had a chance to use it yet. I'm still quite a few trap parts away from getting all my bases, but I was able to put a good dent into it thanks to two weeks of passive play in the SS, and hopefully by the end of this run I'll have the third Steam Laser, which has been my main goal for the Iceburg for the time being, anyway.

I know I said I'd never do this, but driven to this by boredom and a need for a distraction from how horrid I feel, I have begun playing MouseHunt. I would appreciate any and all tips on how to get started, and I know of no better people to ask than my dear NarniaWeb MH-ers. You all are awesome, and I am proud to finally be among your ranks.

So finally one who is less experienced than I
I started in September

There are discussion fora on the site, and it's possible to get "adopted" by experienced "mentors" - but I feel I'm adopted by the whole NW MH-ers clan, and I don't need any other mentors. They have indeed been awesome

I agree about reading up on the game. There are even "guides" written by players, in addition to the MouseHunt Wiki, that suggest what order to do things in. At the beginning there's not so much scope for alternatives, but fairly soon you get to have a choice of areas to play in - and all the time you can always go back to where you have been before, and have another go at the mice you didn't catch the first time.

Or catch 10 of them and get a Bronze Crown for them (and have them visible on the King's Crowns page in your profile).
(Or you can make them visible just as one of your favorite catches.)

*goes to check that Mountie is on her MH friends list*