As of right now, I have 293 Copper Beads. At the end of the train I'm guaranteed 7 more which means I'll have exactly 300 and the first trap. I have two more hunts before the Canyon so I might get a few more, but I don't think I can get 7 since one of those is an Automorat and I don't recall seeing them drop more than 1 bead. I suspect, therefore, that Gymmie has her trap as well or will be getting it soon?

I'll have mine in two hours when this train ends, haha. I'm at 198 and I'm getting at least two beads as a train reward.

That is too funny that both of us ended up with the exact amount of Copper we needed. Congrats to you Gymmie on your trap, and yay! I got mine too. I used it for the first time yesterday and got 18 Copper pieces on a 12 hour train. Not bad, but I can't say that was much of an improvement over the average I've been getting so far, so I'll be curious to see how I do today on a 24 hour train.

I feel like I've finally gotten into a good groove on trains by alternating a 12hr and a 24hr. The 24hr I start around 3am my time and that puts the Raiders in the middle of the day when I'm online. Plus it provides lots of time in between trains for people to sign up without the train maxing out.

I'm anticipating the start of the Halloween event on Monday or Tuesday next week. I'll be curious to see if they use the same formula again for the event. I think most people love it so if that's the case, no reason to change it.

I think they will be; I thought I heard someone say that they're deep in work for the CSC expansion so no time to overhaul Halloween. Of course, that's what they said last year too, haha! But it's a tried and true format and I like it.

I've done my first double run in ZT.
When starting, I thought maybe I should do it, but as the run progressed, I saw that there were not the resources to try to do it. The amp was fine, but the checkmate cheese was running out (I had an assignment to catch the Queen with checkmate - next time I'll smash it ).

But when I caught the 2nd side Queen with the next-but-last piece of checkmate, and the very last piece was my 5th Chess Master FTC, there was nothing left to do but to finish the double run (and not triple)

So now I've crafted 9 new pieces of checkmate cheese and have one task left ("Catch Chess Master") of a Library Assignment. And I really want to do trains

But I got the Spellbook Base

But I got the Spellbook Base

That alone I believe is worth all the effort.

Guess where I am at? In the Gauntlet. Imagine. This time next year, I may have Silvered an Eclipse Moose. Awaiting the Fall/Halloween Event.

Silvered the Eclipse Mouse? That's like 30 million in gold. . . . not to mention all the gold that you rack up on the way up the Gauntlet.

I've been wanting to do another Gauntlet run for a while, now that I've got all of the upper level traps. Wondering if it makes a difference in loot drops.

Any ways. . . gotta finish this train area first (which I find quite boring). At least the money is good.

And the Halloween event is here - I've realised that I do the trick and treating from my profile, without having to leave the train. I found this after having left the train, but I'm back on the train now - I want to finish the ride we've started, but after that I'll go to the maze.

I think the bit that excites me most about the Halloween event this year is the addition of Halloween Library Assignments.

I'm expecting to spend a LOT of time in the Haunted Territories this year, perhaps even more than usual.

I have to wait until we finish our train ride until I can get started, but I'm very eager to get started.

So there are new bases and new traps to buy - and it may be that the obnoxious brain trap is needed to do assignments ...

Have you decided yet what you're going to buy?

I picked up some cobwebs yesterday, but someone said that you can only pick up 5 cobwebs per event - the other cobwebs you want, you have to get from elsewhere. I just got one as a drop from a Cobweb mouse.

/finally arrives to discuss the Halloween event!

I'm in the very minority on the Halloween event as I find it boring and repetitive. But this year they've spruced it up a lot so I'm having fun!

Some observations, many of which have already been posted on the FB page, but it's hard to read through them on there so I'll post them here too:
~In addition to the two new Halloween event mice, there are also two new permanent mice. I haven't looked around yet to see where in the game they go, but I imagine somewhere in the Laboratory/Mousoleum areas.
~Crystal Library assignments, yaaaaay! I started the basic cataloging assignment and have 1/6 tasks completed so far.

So there are new bases and new traps to buy - and it may be that the obnoxious brain trap is needed to do assignments ...

They more or less confirmed that in today's FBF. Blegh. Ah well, at least I won't have to use it anywhere else.
~Trap skins, I don't care unless there's one I like. I'll check out a picture of the SLAC II skin whenever someone buys it to see if I'm interested or not. The others I will probably forgo.
~The Eerie and Eerier Bases intrigued me, but I wasn't thinking and ran out and snagged the Eerie base thinking the Eerier Base was something super awesome. But it has the exact same stats as the Dragon Jade base, and it's not LE, so that was a waste of 10 candies. Ah well, at least I didn't spend the cobwebs on the Eerier Base.
~On the subject of collectibles, the Pumpkin Spice Latte cracks me up as I know a lot of people who appreciate that drink in real life. Thanks for that one starkat! I still need the other three new ones this year, but it looks like they're all drops?
~I haven't had a Halloween Treasure Maps drop yet. Have any of you? They mentioned in FBF today that unlike last year where the maps reverted to regular maps at the end of the event, this year you can hang onto them and they'll be good to use next year.
~Waiting on Halloween tournaments. Boy, it's been a while since I've done a tournament.

Personal Progress:
I finished up another train early this morning before heading over to the Halloween event. I'm already back up to 109 Copper Beads so that Bandit Deflector must be working. I'm getting the Engine Doubler next because that's the section I find to be the biggest headache. I got tired of not even attracting the two Magmatic Mice so I'm saving all of those charms for when I do get the trap. I may need to tweak my train times though, to be online for more of that final section and get Tin Scraps. I only have 157/300.
But all of that will have to wait because I'm now doing Halloween-type stuff. Just completed the Corn Maze and I'm in the Haunted Mansion.

One more final note of interest mentioned today during FBF... Dave said the new LE treasure hunt trap will probably not be out this year. For those of us hanging onto our treasure chests, it's something to consider.

So there are new bases and new traps to buy - and it may be that the obnoxious brain trap is needed to do assignments ...

May get it for the reason of doing just that, for a change of pace when needed.

... but I wasn't thinking and ran out and snagged the Eerie base thinking the Eerier Base was something super awesome.

Did the same thing. Wont likely pick that one up.

May only make one run through and go back to the Gauntlet to head into Tier 3 with roughly 1,600 pieces of Tier 3 cheese. For anyone wondering, this will yield about 10 Eclipse mice.

My Library Assignment WOULD have the Swamp Thang on it. I have not seen hide, nor hair, nor blob of ooze of him thus far. I haven't seen any of the other former boss mice for that matter.

The good news is, I am on a library assignment, a treasure map, and am getting ready to do a Halloween tourny in a few short hours. Multitasking for goodies!

For anyone wondering, this will yield about 10 Eclipse mice.

Woohoo! Go Cep! I'm glad you've found your niche in the game.

... I haven't seen any of the other former boss mice for that matter.

Which adds to my speculation special and holiday events come out in phases as it progresses to keep each interesting. Noticed the absence of the old boss mooses.

I like my niche. Safe, warm, soft place.

So what is everyone thinking about for shop goodies? I'm thinking about ULC's (for Twisted Carmines) and Tier 3 Gauntlet Potions (since I've yet to get an Eclipse and intend to clean up at Easter, haha). Maybe throw a couple Warpath Commander charms in there, but that's what I'm thinking. Those are the areas I'll be focusing on for the next while, so it doesn't make sense to stock up on anything else because I won't really use it.