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| James Cha's Monstrobot |
While yours truly was catching up on some desparately needed sleep, James Cha crafted the first monstrobot. Ah, Mousehunt, you snooze, you loose (or miss something, in this case :)
A streak is series of catches, of the same mouse in a row. A FTA, FTC or catch of another type of mouse breaks a streak.
For every multiple of 3 in a streak, you cause two extra mice to 'retreat' (they are removed from your wave). Streaks do not appear to apply to Theurgy Wardens, which makes sense as they are the only thing in wave 4 other than the Warmonger, lol.
For example, if you catch three desert archers in a row, two desert archers retreat. If you then immediately go on to catch three more desert archers, four more desert archers retreat. At this point, you have a streak of six desert archers and a total of six more desert archers have retreated, for a total of 12 desert archers removed from the 35 original desert archers that was your goal. If you then go on to catch another three desert archers with no FTAs, FTCs, or catches of other mice, making a streak of nine, six more desert archers will retreat, for a total of 9 catches + 12 retreats = 21 removed from your goal.
Note, however, that you can have a streak of 4 or 5. This fact is important when considering the effect of catching a Crimson Commander.
By capturing a Crimson Commander Mouse I demoralized the remaining mice in this wave! My current streak was 8. 8 of each mouse have retreated!
When you capture a Crimson Commander, wherever you are in a streak, that number of each mouse retreats. We had early reports of catching a Crimson Commander without the demoralizing effect taking place, but none in quite some time, so perhaps that was a glitch. It is possible to clear the rest of a mouse this way (if you have 7 Sentinals left to go and 8 of each mouse retreat you are done with Sentinals.) Ever wonder what would happen if a Crimson Commander is the first mouse you encounter? Lisa R. found out for us; 1 of each mouse retreats.
Crimson Commanders can be encountered at any time, although the probability appears to be quite low. Using sb+ increases the chances of encountering a Crimson Commander.
Strength in numbers! After I failed to catch a Caravan Guard Mouse, members of my hunting party were able to prevent the mouse reinforcements from arriving!
If you fail to catch a Caravan Guard and you are hunting solo (no friends online), reinforcements will arrive (your target mouse count will increase.) How many reinforcements? Good question! See Caravan Guards for more information.
Your main protection from this dastardly fate is to hunt with friends: if you miss your Caravan Guard, your chances of reinforcements arriving are smaller the more friends you have online. Using sb+ as bait also reduces the chances of attracting Caravan Guards, although it does not eliminate it.
Fearing that I was gaining the upper hand, the Warmonger released a Gargantuamouse, putting an end to my streak.
After seven catches in a row, the Warmonger releases the Gargantuamouse in an attempt to slow you down. You have an increasing probability of encountering the Gargantuamouse, until after the ninth catch when it is extremely likely. The chances of encountering Gargantua increase by a polynomial equation (not exponential) as the streak progresses. No hard limit is set on the length of a streak: if you can keep dodging Gargantuas, you can keep going! (For more on Gargantuamice, see the Gargantuamouse entry in the strategy guide.
see also Hilary's Visual Reference for the Sandtail Desert Mice
wave 1 Desert Soldier (2400 G, 11500 P)
wave 2 Flame Warrior (3000 G, 18000 P)
wave 3 Crimson Titan (3300 G, 20000 P)
wave 1 Vanguard (2600 G, 14000 P)
wave 2 Sentinel (3300 G, 21300 P)
wave 3 Crimson Watch (3600 G, 24200 P)
wave 1 Desert Archer (2100 G, 12800 P)
wave 2 Flame Archer (2700 G, 19900 P)
wave 3 Crimson Ranger (3000 G, 22000 P)
wave 2 Sand Cavalry (5200 G, 24000 P)
wave 3 Sandwing Cavalry (6000 G, 26400 P)
drop desert horseshoe: seen 1..3 (thx Praveen!)
wave 2 Inferno Mage (1000 G, 26500 P)
wave 3 Magmarage (1000 G, 30000 P)
drop heatproof mage cloth: seen 1..3
wave 3 Flame Ordnance (1600 G, 33000 P)
(900 G, 900 P)
(1000 G, 10000 P)
waves 1, 2 and 3
(4000 G, 25000 P)
waves 1, 2 and 3 after seventh catch in a streak
(3000 G, 81000 P)
drops 0 to 10 Flameshards
may drop 2 simple orbs
(27000 G, 198000 P)
drops zero or one pieces of loot needed for each of the new traps (pattern? drops 1 first catch, harder next catch - use ULC?
drops 1 Ultimate Luck Charm (always?)
drops 2 Ultimate Power Charms (always?)
may drop 1 to 2 Warpath Commander Charms
drops heaps and heaps of flameshards (100 first time, 150 second time?)
The Fiery Warpath (FW) is truly an elegant design. Many different optimal paths exist, depending on what it is that a hunter is optimizing: points, gold, speed, types of loot and more, as well as the hunter's equipment, style of hunting and many other characteristics. You don't need to become a MouseHunt guru to do well in FW, but there are some essentials that, once internalized, will let you surf the waves repeatedly with growing confidence on each pass. My goal is to provide you with those essentials.
A new concept is introduced in the Fiery Warpath: momentum. In addition, the mechanisms of selective attraction and selective effectiveness, introduced in Zugzwang's Tower, are expanded upon. If you focus on the concepts rather than the mechanics at first, the mechanics will flow.
I assume that you have read (or at least skimmed) the rest of the walkthrough, especially the sections on waves and streaks before you read this guide. I start with an in-depth discussion of Crimson Commanders, Gargantuamice and Caravan Guards, mice which are critical to the implementation of momentum in FW. I then move on to explore the implications for strategies for each wave for various goals.
Be warned that although the Warmonger Mouse can be encountered at any time during this wave, they will be immune to capture until you have defeated all of the Theurgy Warden Mice that guard them.
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| Our intrepid Jan-Marie demonstrating that Larry's intel on the Fiery Warpath is less than perfect. |
Although you need to be a Baron(ess) to travel to the Fiery Warpath, you can complete all the preliminaries beforehand.
The big question that I get asked is whether to arm the HeatBath (HB) or Double Diamond Adventure (DDA). We do not have a large enough unbiased set of data (I'll talk about bias in data collection in another post) to give a definitive answer based on statistical analysis. Models such as the Furoma model, while useful, are always least reliable in answering questions at the extremes, especially when the differences in outcome are quite small.
That is the important piece of information to remember. Catching the Silth is difficult, and ultimately an exercise in persistence. Ignore your friends who tell you they caught it on their third hunt and just keep at it. Oh, right, HB or DDA? My pick is DDA, not necessarily because, for every fifty hunters who follow this advice, one of them will catch the Silth two hunts faster as a result (statistic chosen at random), but because you will get more loot from the other mice while you are hunting for the Silth. Goblins drop flawless orbs, Cyclops and hydras drop simple orbs and harpies drop divine orbs, not to mention various other goodies that get dropped. So use your DDA and collect the loot. Which base? Your Spellbook base. What? You don't have a Spellbook base yet? Are you nuts? If you venture into the Fiery Warpath without a Spellbook base you will be fried to a crisp. Off to Zugzwang's Tower with you....
You must be joking, right? That is a different walkthrough, folks!
The Sandtail call to arms is dropped by specific mice in the seasonal garden. You must have caught your Silth and one each of both Kings in ZT before the mice with drop the Sandtail call to arms. Note that the setup advice is all first-order guesswork and is guaranteed to be at least somewhat wrong!
Craft your Enraged Rhinobot and use that, as you'll want it anyway. Use it with Spellbook Base (SBB) (1st choice), Magma Base (2nd choice), Molten Shrapnel Base (MSB) (3rd choice).
The Rewer's Riposte (RR)'s catch rate is pretty terrific and the Firebreather's drop rate is pretty good, so use your RR if you have one, as it has much higher luck and will thus increase the likelihood of the drop. Fallback option is Zugzwang's First Move (ZFM). Don't go into Fiery Warpath without ZFM. Use either trap with Magma (1st choice), MSB (2nd choice).
Seriously? Haven't you learned any patience playing this game? Wait until Winter! Oh, all right... Use your Cackle Lantern Trap (CLT) if you have one, or Clockapult of Time (COT), if not. Otherwise, go collect Simple Orbs until Winter. You'll thank me. Meanwhile, go write your mother a nice thank you note. And call her. When was the last time you called your mother, anyway? Use CLT with Magma / MSB and COT with SBB.
Here it depends on your bait and whether you own a Magma base. If using Gouda, go ahead and use your Double Diamond Adventure (DDA) or Kraken Chaos (KC) if you have one, with either Magma or MSB. If using SB+, use HeatBath (HB) by preference, falling back to DDA and KC. With HB, stick with MSB. You might even consider using SBB.
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| A streak of three desert soldiers after returning to the Fiery Warpath during Wave 1. The area is NOT like Zugwang's Tower; progress is not reset upon leaving. |
see also Hilary's Visual Reference for the Sandtail Desert Mice
Each time you defeat the Warmonger, among other goodies, you are awarded a warpath victory. It turns out that the warpath victories are not consumable items (credit: James Cha), which is great news! Thus, you could craft both the Sphynx Wrath and the Oasis Water Node after your first pass through the Fiery Warpath even if the Warmonger did not drop any of the trap loot if you were rich enough to buy the necessary loot in the Marketplace. Very interesting, yes?
The pattern in which the Warmonger drops the trap loot continues to evolve. So far the pattern seems to be that he drops one of:
on the first catch. It is far more difficult to get him to drop one of the above on the second drop (try ultimate luck charms), although it is possible.Digby scientists were hard at work trying to improve upon the already amazing RhinoBot when a fluke of chance led to the creation of the Enraged RhinoBot! The pure platinum cogs make it practically indestructible and a machine of pure raging power! It is hard to say whether the scientists think their masterpiece a success or a failure because since the Enraged Rhinobot has emerged from their labs, no one has been able to discover their whereabouts.The Ragebot is not loot from the Fiery Warpath so much as a trap needed to hunt there. It is also a wonder in Derr Dunes for those hunters not possessing a Chrome Drillbot.
Working with some clever trapsmiths and the oasis bead you were able to create a tunnel of water and give it a mind of it's own. While on standby the trap simply looks like a still pool of fresh water in a beautiful desert oasis, however any mouse it encounters will be snatched up and rocketed through the water tunnel to whatever destination you've set, be that Davy Jones Locker or another continent. If this were big enough for a human and much safer, one might consider using it for a more cost effective travel method...
This trap design may appear as a beautiful desert oasis, but below the sand is a masterfully crafted tunnel full of water brought to life by a thousand Living Shards. A splash of coconut milk has been superheated using Flameshards to produce a unique cheese-bearing palm tree that provides a healthy attraction bonus.
Having read this guide, you have been hoarding your flameshards and spending your nights in Digby collecting living shards, so you'll be set to craft your Oasis Water Node, using the recipe discovered by Paul Chambers:
The intention of this trap was to pay homage to a mythical creature known only for it's unparalleled mouse hunting prowess. Outfitted with a slew of clever traps it came as quite the surprise when the trapsmith who designed this tool of destruction found it utterly destroyed by it's [sic] own means, the statue untouched. It is believed the simple traps were insult enough to the spirit of this creature that they simply destroyed themselves in it's [sic] presence.
These blueprints outline how to encase a rare Sphynx Crystal in gold leaf to unleash a fearsome feline mouse adversary. Upon a mouse approaching the mighty sphynx, the power of Flameshards summon her to sentience, unleashing an unrivaled tactical mouse adversary.
Sphynx Wrath is invaluable against the Sandwing Cavalry in Wave 3. Use the recipe discovered by Sharon Nakauchi.
Encased in metal that has stood the test of extreme weathering and time, the Sandstorm MonstroBot is outfitted with the most advanced technologies. Should a mouse be lucky enough to escape its heat sensor tracking and turbo lasers, they are still left to face its sheer size and hardened fists. One MonstroBot alone could take out three Digby DrillBots at once...easily. Thankfully, its tastes are of the more furry rodent variety!
In the midst of the Santail [sic] Desert battle, the most experienced of the local trapsmiths have drafted plans for a massive physical trap of unmatched power. The Sandstorm MonstroBot harnesses the power of Flameshards to fuse heavy pieces of rare Sandblasted Metal to RhinoBot Parts.
Recipe (credit James Cha)
The regular charms increase the encounter rate of that particular subgroup of fiery warpath mouse to your trap. They are helpful in wave 1, but fare poorly after that.
The super charms 'significantly' increase the encounter rate of the specified subgroup and add a subgroup-specific power bonus as well.
Neither type of charm reduces FTAs!
All the charms are only consumed when they attract a mouse from the correct subgroup.