How To Train Your Dragon!
Great job on getting this far! Are you up for the next challenge? We are about to catch the dragon mouse of the Tribal Isles! I hope you are prepared. If not, fret not. We'll go through this together!
First off, there are only 3 mice in Dracano, called the Draconic Brood which includes: Whelpling, Draconic Warden and Dragon. These mice can only be caught with a draconic type weapon. Yes, you heard me, draconic. Where are we going to get such a trap? Remember your frozen scroll from the nasty acolyte? We're going to need it now to craft a draconic weapon known as the Ice Maiden, along with our runes and, wait for it, the high tension spring trap! Yes, head back to the Town of Gnawnia trapsmith if you do not have it; it costs peanuts anyways. And of course, please smash the high tension spring trap... you like smashing those traps, don't ya?
Follow this recipe:
1 Frozen Scroll + 1 High Tension Spring Parts + 60 Runes = 1 Ice Maiden
Ice Maiden
5,200 power, 12% power bonus, 0% attraction bonus, 8 luck, no cheese effect
Point Requirement: 14,000,000 points
This trap looks pretty cool and has an archaic touch to it. Well, it's pretty much the only trap that we have to catch the dragon, so nothing much to be said about it.
Okay, we have our trap, what's next? Our bait, of course!
Remember I made mention previous about 7 types of havarti? The 7th havarti is known as inferno harvarti, which can be made with the following:
1 Red Pepper Seed + 1 Blue Pepper Seed + 1 Yellow Pepper Seed + 1 Plant Pot =
1 Inferno Pepper Plant
Picking the pepper plants will, as usual, yield 1-5 inferno peppers at random. I hope you have a fair amount of fire salt as this point, because you'll need them:
6 Inferno Pepper + 6 Fire Salt + 16 Coconut Milk + 18 Curds and Whey = 6 Inferno Havarti
If you don't have peppers, go farm the seeds from the tribes. If you don't have fire salt, go farm it in the Jungle of Dread. (See Farming Fire Salt) You know the drill. I'd recommend having at least 18 pieces of cheese but it's really up to you. 18 is just a safe number for me, the Ice Maiden really isn't that bad at its job.
Once you're ready, head to Dracano! Arm your Ice Maiden with your luckiest base (Aqua, probably) and your inferno havarti. Hunt away! Whelpling mice give quite a bit of gold while draconic warden mice give quite a bit of points. However, the prize here is the dragon mouse, giving you roughly 80,000 points and a whopping 40,000 gold! He'll drop you the dragon's chest and some dragon ember. 
The dragon's chest contains some loot with will be helpful for hunting in the near future:
Bottled-Up Rage, Coconut Milk, Delicious Stone, Fire Salt, Heat Bath Blueprints (very rare), Inferno Pepper, Magic Feather, Pinch of Annoyance, Raisins of Wrath, Savoury Vegetables, Seashells, Vanilla Bean, Zugzwang's Scarf.
The Magic Feather and Zugzwang's Scarf will always be available in your first chest. Subsequently, you can obtain the Magic Feather again if it is no longer in your inventory. Obtaining the Zugzwang's Scarf will complete "Slay the Dragon Mouse" in the adventure book. The Zugzwang's Scarf also gives you access to the Seasonal Garden in the Rodentia region! You may hunt there when you have reached the rank of Lord.
Dragon Ember Usage
The dragon ember has a few uses. Hence, you'll most likely want to collect a few of them. Firstly, you'll want to reserve 3 ember for the Balack's Lantern, which is required to access the Balack's Cove. Next, you'll like to have 1 extra ember for the Molten Shrapnel Base. Also, if you smash a piece of dragon ember with the hammer, you'll get fire salt, which can be used to craft more havarti. As such, you can even use ember to farm for more dragons in a cycle sort of run.
Here's the formula for the Molten Shrapnel Base:
1 Dragon Ember + 200 Scrap Metal + 12 Tiny Platinum Bar = 1 Molten Shrapnel Base
Molten Shrapnel Base
300 power, 12% power attraction, 5% attraction bonus, 8 luck, extremely stale cheese effectPoint Requirement: 18,000,000 points
200 SCRAP METAL?! You've got to be kidding me! Yeah, it's a heavy price to pay but it's one of the best pre-late game bases, non-LE bases around. It has good power, great power bonus, some attraction and as much as luck as your aqua base. Simply put, it's a HUGE upgrade over the aqua base. I'd highly recommend that you take the time to farm up the scrap metal needed for the base. Having this powerhouse will no doubt make life as a Lord hunter much easier.
Also, if you were lucky enough to have looted the Heat Bath Blueprints from one of the dragon's chests, here's the formula for the Heat Bath:
1 Heat Bath Blueprints + 36 Coal + 2 Launcher Parts + 6 Scrap Metal = 1 Heat Bath
Heat Bath
4,000 power, 5% power bonus, 0% attraction bonus, 14 luck, stale cheese effectPoint Requirement: 20,000,000 points
It's a bad-ass looking hydro trap, yes. But that doesn't justify crafting it. Why? First of all, the blueprints are extremely rare. It's highly unlikely you'd have the blueprints for this trap, so don't bother too hard farming those dragons just for this trap. Next, while it is seemingly better than the ancient spear gun, it is not a complete upgrade over it due to the spear gun's additional attraction bonus (not to mention, the upgrade isn't very significant). Also, 2 launcher parts?! That's about 1.3 million gold right there! And for a trap that's barely much better than the ancient spear gun! And no, you cannot smash your spear gun for the launcher parts, meaning you'd have to buy 2 NEW harpoons/net cannons. Yikes! Lastly, there's a location known as the Iceberg which you'll have access to as a Lord and it has a hydro trap that's as good or even better than the heat bath available for you. Why settle for the heat bath when there's a trap that's better and cheaper? Have I convinced you not to craft the heat bath yet? Yes? Good. Do not craft this trap under ANY circumstance (unless of course, you're a collector). It's a complete waste of gold and time.
What's Next?
The last part of the Tribal Isles installation is Balack's Cove, which happens to be a side quest. It is not necessary to complete it to move on with the game. However, if you've yet to reach the title of Lord, Balack's Cove has mice with high points, which will help you advance faster. If you'd like a challenge, you may head to Balack's Cove first! (See below)
If you've attained the title of Lord, you'll have access to the next part of the game: The Seasonal Garden. In addition, you now have access to the last part of Gnawia: The Slushy Shoreline. This is also another side quest. You may either head straight to the garden or you can hop over to the shoreline where you can obtain a hydro trap that's better than the ancient spear gun. My recommendation is to at least obtain the steam laser mk 1 from the shoreline so that you'll have an easier time in the seasonal garden but the choice is yours.
Balack's Cove: On Greater Tides
Okay, so you've decided to take on Balack at the Balack's Cove. Great! You'll need preparations.
First off, purchase an antique lantern from the Cape Clawed General Store for 94,000 gold. Craft the next map piece using the following formula:
1 Antique Lantern + 3 Dragon Ember = 1 Balack's Lantern
Voila, you now have access to Balack's Cove! Next, we're going to need some cheese. Mice from the Balack's Banished group have a craving for vanilla stilton cheese made from... you've guessed it, vanilla beans! You can obtain these from the Jungle of Dread: click here (see Farming Vanilla Beans) for more information on vanilla bean farming.
Alright, we are going to craft Vanilla Stilton cheese using this formula:
15 Vanilla Beans + 15 Curd and Whey + 15 Salt + 15 Coconut Milk = 15 Vanilla Stilton
OR
5 Vanilla Beans + 15 Curd and Whey + 15 Salt + 15 Coconut Milk + 15 Magic Essence
= 15 Vanilla Stilton
It's really up to you whether to use SB+ for crafting or not. Personally, I wouldn't, simply because vanilla beans are easily farm-able if you're willing to put in the time and also, the 1:1 conversion rate isn't great at all.
Now that you have your cheese, let's head to the cove! You'll notice that there is a timer on the HUD:
You'll see that it says "LOW TIDE" in this picture (ignore the trap set-up and numbers, yours will be 0). However, upon entering the cove, your HUD might indicate "MID TIDE" or "HIGH TIDE" as well. The cove works as such:
Balack's Cove operates on a 18 hour 40 minute cycle: For 16 hours, the cove is at low tide. At this point, hunters may hunt as per normal. Riptide mice (I'll cover them again below) cannot be encountered at low tide. Once 16 hours are up, the cove enters mid tide for 1 hour. At this point, there is a chance that riptide mice may be encountered (they replace the tidal fisher mice at mid tide). When the hour is up, the cove enters into high tide for 40 minutes. At this point, only riptide mice may be encountered. The cove then returns to mid tide for another hour and then back to low tide to complete the cycle.
Riptide Mice: All Washed Up
Here's the significance of riptide mice. Upon catching a riptide (either at mid tide or high tide), you will be washed back into the Jungle of Dread. Since you'll not have a shadow trap armed, the pygmy mice will consume your precious vanilla stilton with every hunt while you miss them. This means to say: try not to let your trap be inactive (either being away or trap checks through the night) during the mid-high-mid tide period. Once you have been washed out, you'll need to travel back to the cove again.
You'll also notice that on the right of your HUD lie 3 items with a counter. These 3 items are the loot dropped by the lich mice in the cove: the elub lich drops the pinch of annoyance; the nerg lich drops the raisins of wrath; the derr lich drops the bottled-up rage.
First things first, arm your vanilla stilton along with your luckiest base. If you have obtained a molten shrapnel base at this point in time, it's a good time to use it. For the trap, use your ACRONYM. Both forgotten and arcane weapons work well against these mice, however, your ACRONYM has way more luck than your ancient box trap, giving you a considerably increased catch rate. Now we hunt, and over time, you'll start catching the liches that drop the loot needed to craft our next cheese. Make sure you have a good amount of vanilla stilton (don't craft all your vanilla beans though, always leave a stash of 20 or so). The liches are difficult to catch. Once you have accumulated a good amount of loot, you may craft vengeful vanilla stilton using this formula:
1 Bottled-Up Rage + 1 Raisins of Wrath + 1 Pinch of Annoyance + 1 Vanilla Bean + 1 Curd and Whey + 1 Coconut Milk + 1 Ionized Salt = 1 Vengeful Vanilla Stilton
OR
1 Bottled-Up Rage + 1 Raisins of Wrath + 1 Pinch of Annoyance + 1 Vanilla Bean + 1 Curd and Whey + 1 Coconut Milk + 1 Ionized Salt + 3 Magic Essence = 3 Vengeful Vanilla Stilton
I'd recommend the SB+ usage here, since the loot from the liches aren't easy to obtain. Okay, now that you have your vengeful vanilla stilton, go ahead and arm it. Note that your trap set-up should now be the ancient box trap along with your luckiest base. Why? Well, Balack the Banished is mostly weaker to a forgotten type weapon than the arcane type weapon, thus, we'll stick to the ABT.
Good luck on getting him; he's a tough one, simply because, like the acolyte, can only be attracted by cheese that all other mice are also attracted to. The attraction rate for Balack isn't particularly great (~10%) and the catch rate isn't fantastic either (~30%). But hey, that's what makes Mousehunt fun, isn't it? You may not even get to encounter Balack if your stash of vengeful isn't much. Keep trying at it, patience wins the game.
Once you have caught him, you'll complete "Defeat Balack the Banished" in the adventure book. You may move on to the next part of the game or simply hang around for more points.
No comments:
Post a Comment