The Living Garden, Lost City, & Sand Dunes
The Living Garden was initially teased as a location when the Muridae Market first opened. The Hitgrab developers worked on this section for over a year, scraping many ideas before finally coming up with one of the largest releases in Mousehunt history.
The Living Garden (and its subsequent cousin-areas) is not for the faint at heart. It is not necessarily a hard place to hunt but it takes incredible patience. My FAQ will go over the basic mechanic of the area, as well as the suggestion progression.
Checklist
- Strong Hydro trap, preferably the Oasis Water Node Trap. The Steam Laser MKIII will work, but the OWNT can be further upgraded eventually, so I would highly suggest using it instead. Do not attempt to tackle this with the Heat Bath or anything below it.
- Strong shadow trap, preferably the Reaper's Perch. The Clockapult of Time will work, but not as well.
- Strong arcane trap. You should have the ACRONYM. It is the only in-game arcane trap that you'll have anyway (LE traps notwithstanding).
- Brie cheese will work, but Gouda is recommended (for those non-SB+ users) to start.
- One (or more) of the super bases. Silver/Gold tournament, Spellbook, Molten Shrapnel, or heck, even Papyrus will be good (or any LE base you may have that's better).
- Gold reserves - I wouldn't go into this area with less than 3 million gold.
The Living Garden
Upon traveling to the Living Garden for the first time, you'll notice the HUD has changed, and there is a lot of things to take in all at once. Before we get to this, arm your best Hydro trap, your luckiest base, and your gouda cheese (brie works but gouda is better).
Don't pay attention to the numbers on the image - your numbers will show zero! This is simply a screen shot I took at a moment in time.
Let's start on the left - the dewdrop, the water canister, and the "Pour" button. In the Charm Shop, you can purchase Blue Sponge Charms. Equip these, and every mouse you catch will drop a Dewdrop as loot. When you have used 20 charms to collect 20 dewdrops, you're canister and dewdrop meter will look like this:
Clicking the "Pour" button will make the ground extra moist, which will attract the Thirsty Mouse! Your HUD will now look like this:
Why do we want to do this? Well, let's examine the other two parts of the HUD. On the right, there are 9 essences we must collect to build various wonderful new traps. Most mice will only drop Aleth (the most basic essence) at the beginning of the Living Garden. Thirsty mice drop Cynd essence. You can craft essences together, with an essence prism, to create the next essence in the chain of command. - 3 Aleth essences + 1 Essence Prism = 1 Ber essence
- 3 Ber essences + 1 Essence Prism = 1 Cynd essence
- 3 Cynd essences + 1 Essence Prism = 1 Dol essence
- 3 Dol essences + 1 Essence Prism = 1 Est Essence
- 3 Est Essences + 1 Essence Prism = 1 Fel Essence
- 3 Fel Essences + 1 Essence Prism = 1 Gur Essence
- 3 Gur Essences + 1 Essence Prism = 1 Hix Essence
- 3 Hix Essences + 1 Essence Prism = 1 Icuri Essence
As mentioned, most mice will drop Aleth, though a few will drop Ber, but not in great quantities. As you progress further into this area, you'll find that different mice drop more powerful essences for you to collect.
The middle section of the HUD tracks your loot progress. This is your cheese-buying loot. Whereas other areas, like Furoma, the Isles, etc, you had to craft the next level of cheese, here in the Living Garden you must buy it, but you still need certain parts to buy it.
Along with collecting essences, you'll notice these mice will be dropping Dewthief Petals. In fact, it is highlighted on your HUD, while the others are dimmed out. This is the only loot being dropped (other than essence) by these mice.
You need to collect A LOT of Dewthief Petals. Each petal corresponds with one piece of Dewthief Camembert cheese (the image on the left). During my first try through this area (and like other places, it is a journey), I collected 300 petals before "moving on." My second, I collected 650. My suggestion would be to collect at least 600 Dewthief Petals, which equals 600 pieces of Dewthief Camembert.
What exactly will collecting 600 do in the long run? After all, the Living Garden is a multi-layered area. If you follow the following steps....
1. Collect 600 Dewthief Petals
2. Only use Magic Essense to purchase Lunaria cheese (much later)
3. Play for 8 hours a day, on average
...you will have enough essences to craft the Phantasmic Oasis Trap upon the "completion" of your run. 550 Dewthief petals will get the job done as well, I was just being a little generous.
It is noted that this is assuming you're starting with nothing at all. The POT trap will be your first Living Garden trap you'll want to craft.
What exactly will collecting 600 do in the long run? After all, the Living Garden is a multi-layered area. If you follow the following steps....
1. Collect 600 Dewthief Petals
2. Only use Magic Essense to purchase Lunaria cheese (much later)
3. Play for 8 hours a day, on average
...you will have enough essences to craft the Phantasmic Oasis Trap upon the "completion" of your run. 550 Dewthief petals will get the job done as well, I was just being a little generous.
It is noted that this is assuming you're starting with nothing at all. The POT trap will be your first Living Garden trap you'll want to craft.
The important thing here is to just be patience while collecting the loot, and to keep sounding the horn. You're in this area for the long haul. Stick with the FAQ here and you'll end up just fine. When you've collected the suggested number of petals and have purchased your Dewthief Camembert cheese, it's time to move on to the next area. The decision (Lost City vs. Sand Dunes) is entirely up to you, but for the sake of this FAQ, we're going to the Sand Dunes next.
Sand Dunes
The Sand Dunes is your second step in this long progression of the Living Garden. You need to use a strong shadow trap here, preferably the Reaper's Perch. Remember you get the blueprints for the Reaper's Perch from Zurreal (remember those pesky library assignments?!?).
You must use your newly purchased Dewthief Camembert cheese here. Gouda will not work, nor will SB+. Whatever base you used in the Living Garden, use the same one here. You'll notice the HUD has changed slightly as well.
The mini-game in this area is the Grumbling Stampede. It sounds much worse than it is honestly. When the stampede is active, the HUD looks like this:
How do you know when this will happen? Well, you don't. The stampede could happen at any time. To attract the cynd-essence-carrying Grumbling mice, you need to equip the Grumbling Charm (purchased in the charm shop here in the Sand Dunes). The charm is only consumed upon attracting a mouse, and since the stampede only lasts for 15 hunts, you only need to arm 15 of these charms at a time.
Soap box alert: These mini-games are basically mandatory if you want to build your essences, but they require you to be much more active than the advertised "passivity" of this game. It sucks when you shut off your computer for the night and 15 minutes later the stampede activates, and you miss 10 hours of hunting Grumbling mice.
You will notice the Duskshade Petal is illuminated in the middle section of the HUD, and you'll notice that you're collecting quite a few of these petals with each catch. How many do you need? Well, the exact number is not the important part - the important thing you need to know is that you need to BALANCE your Duskshade Petals with Dreamfluff Herbs (more on them in the next section).
For the sake of the FAQ and demonstrating this function, when you reach 100 Duskshade Petals (barring that you're in the middle of a stampede), change your trap to the ACRONYM and move to the Lost City.
The Lost City functions in a similar fashion to the Sand Dunes, except here you're trying to dispel a curse that is keeping the Cynd-essence-carrying mice away. You also need to use your strongest arcane trap, which undoubtedly is probably the ACRONYM. Keep the same base you've been using.
The mini-game here is to dispel the curse. Go to the charm shop, buy a searcher charm, equip it, and sound the horn. If you catch a mouse, it will dispel the curse. If you have more than one searcher charm, you'll need to unequip them after clearing the curse.
You'll notice here that the Dreamfluff Herb is illuminated instead. That's what the mice drop here. You should pay attention to the number of loot drops you'll receive however. The mice in the Lost City drop more Herbs on average than the mice in the Dunes drop petals.
So why is this important?
The next cheese you'll use after your Dewthief Camembert is Duskshade Camembert. To buy it in the cheese shop, not only do you need gold, but you need 1 Duskshade Petal + 1 Dreamfluff Herb to buy 1 Duskshade Camembert. This is why I said they need to be as equal as you can get them. You don't want to use all 500 pieces of your Dewthief cheese in the Lost City and suddenly realize that you have none left to get Duskshade Petals in the Sand Dunes.
A balancing act is needed then. You'll have to go back and forth between the Sand Dunes and the Lost City to make sure you're equal, or as equal as you can get. You'll need to pay close attention to it. Once you're close to running out of Dewthief Camembert cheese, it's time to get prepared to move to the next area.
Go to the cheese shop and buy as many Duskshade Camembert's as you can, and travel to...
The Living Garden has a dark side, and it's really twisted! The Twisted Garden is the dark, alter-ego of the more docile Living Garden. When you're transported here, keep hunting with the same setup you caught Carmine with. Now, you'll notice you're collecting Graveblossom Petals. Much like the Dewthief Petals on the "normal" side, the Graveblossom Petals are used to purchase Graveblossom Camembert.
You may have a lot of Duskshade to use here. Keep at it! The important thing to remember: if you hunt with any type of cheese other than the "approved" cheese for the appropriate twisted location, you will be dropped back to reality and have to catch Carmine again. So to sum up:
ONLY USE DUSKSHADE CAMEMBERT WHEN IN THE TWISTED GARDEN. At least, for now. :)
You'll notice the HUD has changed again.
In the regular garden, you collected dewdrops with the blue sponge charms. Here on the twisted side, you need red and yellow sponge charms. You still need 20 total, but only 10 of each one. Again, it works the exact same. Arm 10 red charms, catch mice, then arm 10 yellow charms, catch more mice. When you have both canisters full, pour them out, and now you can attract the Dehydrated Mouse (the twisted version of the Thirsty Mouse).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Keep an eye on your Duskshade cheese as well as where your current "pour" is in relation to the mini-game. The reason why I say this is because when you pour out both red and yellow, you gain +5 luck and +5% power bonus to your trap setup. Well, a little later, you're going to come back here and hunt for Twisted Carmine (who has lots of goodies to drop). When you start that, you want to be at the BEGINNING of a pour (or ready to pour) so you can maximize your trap's power and luck when going after her.
For example: say you have 15 pieces of Duskshade left, and you have just filled up both canisters. DON'T POUR THEM OUT!! Save them for when you come back with Lunaria cheese.
Once you're out of Duskshade, you should have a lot of Graveblossom petals to purchase Graveblossom cheese. Time to move on again.
Instead of one curse to dispel, now you have three. In the charm shop, you'll need to purchase a Bravery Charm, a Clarity Charm, and a Shine Charm. Catching a mouse with one of these charms equipped will dispel the appropriate curse.
The problem here is that there are three, and the Corrupt Mouse likes to wreck havoc on your little party. Simply attracting him will reset all three curses. Now, that being said, dispelling these curses isn't as critical as one might thing. Yes, catching the Essence Guardian Mouse will get you Cynd Essence, but that's the highest level essence he'll drop. The Cursed Librarian will almost always drop a Cynd, and will even drop Dol and occasionally an Est as well. So while this area can be frustrating if that darned Corrupt Mouse keeps ruining your fun, the main goal is to collect Plumpearl Herbs and Librarians (for D and E essences).
When you successfully dispel all three curses, the Corrupt Mouse cannot be attracted to your trap for 3 hunts unless you have a Shattering Charm armed (more on this later).
As with the reality version of the LG, your goal is to balance the number of Plumpearl Herbs with Lunaria Petals (found in the Sand Crypts). Switch back and forth between the two areas to ensure you're not going overboard with one item.
Here is the new look at the HUD:
As you can see, there's quite a lot to take in. The mini-game in this area is actually sort of fun, and the reward is pretty solid too. Your goal is to catch the King Grub mouse, which is next to impossible when you first get to this location. Why?
Because he needs to be weakened before he can be caught. That's the mini-game. Notice on the HUD the meter that shows the King Grub's power, and how many salt charms you've used. The meter will gradually change each time you catch a mouse with a salt charm armed. The trick is, how many salt charms should you use? Afterall, you don't have an unlimited amount of Graveblossom cheese to hunt with.
The answer might surprise you: 20. After using 20 salt charms, the needle on the meter will be straight up and down between the orange and yellow zones. At this power, you SHOULD catch the King Grub, but it might take you a few tries to do it. How do you attract him?
You must purchase and arm a Grub Scent Charm to attract the king. The charm is used upon successfully attracting a mouse, so you may have to buy more than one. The King will drop up to three Lunaria petals and a host of essences, sometimes even Fel essence.
Once you complete this, try it again. As mentioned above, you need to make sure your Herbs and Petals are balanced before we go back to the Twisted Garden to go after Twisted Carmine.
If you followed my advice above, you should be ready to pour out your canisters to help you with more power and luck against Twisted Carmine. Go ahead and pour (if you can).
You want to buy Lunaria cheese here. Now, you know that I'm not a big SB+ hunter, but for Lunaria cheese, I would recommend you use the 4-pack option to buy. You want as many Lunaria as you can get your hands on. Make sure you have enough magic essence in relation to the amount of herbs and petals you need, and buy away.
Now it's time to hunt.
There are three mice you can catch right now, which helps your odds of catching Twisted Carmine. When you do catch her, she drops the Living Chest, which can be opened to reveal tons of goodies inside (essences, crafting supplies, etc). Catch one? Great! Keep going!! You need to catch a lot of this mouse, because the highest essence she'll give you is a "G." You need 9 G to make one "I." One "I" will allow you to craft the blueprints for the Phantasmic Oasis Trap, which, as of this writing, is the best hydro trap in the game.
When you run out of Lunaria cheese, evaluate where you are, and what you can create. Open all your chests (hopefully you got several), and check the Living Garden Recipe Book on how to make the POT blueprints. Create them if you can.
How do you know when this will happen? Well, you don't. The stampede could happen at any time. To attract the cynd-essence-carrying Grumbling mice, you need to equip the Grumbling Charm (purchased in the charm shop here in the Sand Dunes). The charm is only consumed upon attracting a mouse, and since the stampede only lasts for 15 hunts, you only need to arm 15 of these charms at a time.
Soap box alert: These mini-games are basically mandatory if you want to build your essences, but they require you to be much more active than the advertised "passivity" of this game. It sucks when you shut off your computer for the night and 15 minutes later the stampede activates, and you miss 10 hours of hunting Grumbling mice.
You will notice the Duskshade Petal is illuminated in the middle section of the HUD, and you'll notice that you're collecting quite a few of these petals with each catch. How many do you need? Well, the exact number is not the important part - the important thing you need to know is that you need to BALANCE your Duskshade Petals with Dreamfluff Herbs (more on them in the next section).For the sake of the FAQ and demonstrating this function, when you reach 100 Duskshade Petals (barring that you're in the middle of a stampede), change your trap to the ACRONYM and move to the Lost City.
Lost City
Getting a little confused yet? Don't worry, it's gets tougher.The Lost City functions in a similar fashion to the Sand Dunes, except here you're trying to dispel a curse that is keeping the Cynd-essence-carrying mice away. You also need to use your strongest arcane trap, which undoubtedly is probably the ACRONYM. Keep the same base you've been using.
The mini-game here is to dispel the curse. Go to the charm shop, buy a searcher charm, equip it, and sound the horn. If you catch a mouse, it will dispel the curse. If you have more than one searcher charm, you'll need to unequip them after clearing the curse.
You'll notice here that the Dreamfluff Herb is illuminated instead. That's what the mice drop here. You should pay attention to the number of loot drops you'll receive however. The mice in the Lost City drop more Herbs on average than the mice in the Dunes drop petals.
So why is this important?
The next cheese you'll use after your Dewthief Camembert is Duskshade Camembert. To buy it in the cheese shop, not only do you need gold, but you need 1 Duskshade Petal + 1 Dreamfluff Herb to buy 1 Duskshade Camembert. This is why I said they need to be as equal as you can get them. You don't want to use all 500 pieces of your Dewthief cheese in the Lost City and suddenly realize that you have none left to get Duskshade Petals in the Sand Dunes.A balancing act is needed then. You'll have to go back and forth between the Sand Dunes and the Lost City to make sure you're equal, or as equal as you can get. You'll need to pay close attention to it. Once you're close to running out of Dewthief Camembert cheese, it's time to get prepared to move to the next area.
Go to the cheese shop and buy as many Duskshade Camembert's as you can, and travel to...
Back to the Living Garden
Simple task here: Arm your Oasis Node Trap, your best base, and your Duskshade Camembert. Notice the mice list with this setup: there are only 3. You need to catch Carmine the Apothecary. She's tough, but not overly tough. When you do catch her, the Living Garden changes! It becomes a new area!The Twisted Garden
Ahhhhhhh!!! It's like a new reality!The Living Garden has a dark side, and it's really twisted! The Twisted Garden is the dark, alter-ego of the more docile Living Garden. When you're transported here, keep hunting with the same setup you caught Carmine with. Now, you'll notice you're collecting Graveblossom Petals. Much like the Dewthief Petals on the "normal" side, the Graveblossom Petals are used to purchase Graveblossom Camembert.
You may have a lot of Duskshade to use here. Keep at it! The important thing to remember: if you hunt with any type of cheese other than the "approved" cheese for the appropriate twisted location, you will be dropped back to reality and have to catch Carmine again. So to sum up:ONLY USE DUSKSHADE CAMEMBERT WHEN IN THE TWISTED GARDEN. At least, for now. :)
You'll notice the HUD has changed again.
In the regular garden, you collected dewdrops with the blue sponge charms. Here on the twisted side, you need red and yellow sponge charms. You still need 20 total, but only 10 of each one. Again, it works the exact same. Arm 10 red charms, catch mice, then arm 10 yellow charms, catch more mice. When you have both canisters full, pour them out, and now you can attract the Dehydrated Mouse (the twisted version of the Thirsty Mouse).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Keep an eye on your Duskshade cheese as well as where your current "pour" is in relation to the mini-game. The reason why I say this is because when you pour out both red and yellow, you gain +5 luck and +5% power bonus to your trap setup. Well, a little later, you're going to come back here and hunt for Twisted Carmine (who has lots of goodies to drop). When you start that, you want to be at the BEGINNING of a pour (or ready to pour) so you can maximize your trap's power and luck when going after her.
For example: say you have 15 pieces of Duskshade left, and you have just filled up both canisters. DON'T POUR THEM OUT!! Save them for when you come back with Lunaria cheese.
Once you're out of Duskshade, you should have a lot of Graveblossom petals to purchase Graveblossom cheese. Time to move on again.
Cursed City
Much like it's real world alter ego, you need to use your best Arcane trap here. However, it's more difficult, of course. Let's look at the new HUD.
Instead of one curse to dispel, now you have three. In the charm shop, you'll need to purchase a Bravery Charm, a Clarity Charm, and a Shine Charm. Catching a mouse with one of these charms equipped will dispel the appropriate curse.
The problem here is that there are three, and the Corrupt Mouse likes to wreck havoc on your little party. Simply attracting him will reset all three curses. Now, that being said, dispelling these curses isn't as critical as one might thing. Yes, catching the Essence Guardian Mouse will get you Cynd Essence, but that's the highest level essence he'll drop. The Cursed Librarian will almost always drop a Cynd, and will even drop Dol and occasionally an Est as well. So while this area can be frustrating if that darned Corrupt Mouse keeps ruining your fun, the main goal is to collect Plumpearl Herbs and Librarians (for D and E essences).
When you successfully dispel all three curses, the Corrupt Mouse cannot be attracted to your trap for 3 hunts unless you have a Shattering Charm armed (more on this later).
As with the reality version of the LG, your goal is to balance the number of Plumpearl Herbs with Lunaria Petals (found in the Sand Crypts). Switch back and forth between the two areas to ensure you're not going overboard with one item.
Sand Crypts
Like it's cousin in the real world, the Sand Crypts demand that you use your best shadow trap again. Being your first time through here, it is undoubtedly still the Reaper's Perch. Make sure you have it armed along with your luckiest base and your Graveblossom cheese.Here is the new look at the HUD:
As you can see, there's quite a lot to take in. The mini-game in this area is actually sort of fun, and the reward is pretty solid too. Your goal is to catch the King Grub mouse, which is next to impossible when you first get to this location. Why?
Because he needs to be weakened before he can be caught. That's the mini-game. Notice on the HUD the meter that shows the King Grub's power, and how many salt charms you've used. The meter will gradually change each time you catch a mouse with a salt charm armed. The trick is, how many salt charms should you use? Afterall, you don't have an unlimited amount of Graveblossom cheese to hunt with.
The answer might surprise you: 20. After using 20 salt charms, the needle on the meter will be straight up and down between the orange and yellow zones. At this power, you SHOULD catch the King Grub, but it might take you a few tries to do it. How do you attract him?
You must purchase and arm a Grub Scent Charm to attract the king. The charm is used upon successfully attracting a mouse, so you may have to buy more than one. The King will drop up to three Lunaria petals and a host of essences, sometimes even Fel essence.
Once you complete this, try it again. As mentioned above, you need to make sure your Herbs and Petals are balanced before we go back to the Twisted Garden to go after Twisted Carmine.
Twisted Garden
If you followed my advice above, you should be ready to pour out your canisters to help you with more power and luck against Twisted Carmine. Go ahead and pour (if you can).
You want to buy Lunaria cheese here. Now, you know that I'm not a big SB+ hunter, but for Lunaria cheese, I would recommend you use the 4-pack option to buy. You want as many Lunaria as you can get your hands on. Make sure you have enough magic essence in relation to the amount of herbs and petals you need, and buy away.Now it's time to hunt.
There are three mice you can catch right now, which helps your odds of catching Twisted Carmine. When you do catch her, she drops the Living Chest, which can be opened to reveal tons of goodies inside (essences, crafting supplies, etc). Catch one? Great! Keep going!! You need to catch a lot of this mouse, because the highest essence she'll give you is a "G." You need 9 G to make one "I." One "I" will allow you to craft the blueprints for the Phantasmic Oasis Trap, which, as of this writing, is the best hydro trap in the game.
When you run out of Lunaria cheese, evaluate where you are, and what you can create. Open all your chests (hopefully you got several), and check the Living Garden Recipe Book on how to make the POT blueprints. Create them if you can.
| Phantasmic Oasis Trap Blueprints | ||
|---|---|---|
| Description | Qty | Cost (Each) |
| Est Essence | 1 | Loot / Crafting |
| Fel Essence | 1 | Loot / Crafting |
| Icuri Essence | 1 | Crafting |
| Total | 2,000 – 1,720,500 | |
Next, create the Phantasmic Oasis Trap.
| Formula: Phantasmic Oasis Trap | ||
|---|---|---|
| Description | Qty | Cost (Each) |
| Oasis Water Node Trap Parts | 1 | Crafting |
| Phantasmic Oasis Trap Blueprints | 1 | Crafting |
| Phantasmic Essence | 3 | 1,000,000 |
| Total | 3,802,000 – 6,721,300 | |
Now what? I'm glad you asked. If you were fortunate and had tons of Twisted Carmine catches, check to see if you can create the Grand Arcanum Trap Blueprints or the Clockwork Portal Blueprints. If you can, you are awesome. If not, never fear, but to get these traps, you'll need to go back through the Living Garden routine again.
| Grand Arcanum Trap Blueprints | ||
|---|---|---|
| Description | Qty | Cost (Each) |
| Gur Essence | 1 | Loot / Crafting |
| Icuri Essence | 1 | Crafting |
| Total | 2,000 – 1,822,000 | |
| Clockwork Portal Trap Blueprints | ||
|---|---|---|
| Description | Qty | Cost (Each) |
| Fel Essence | 1 | Loot / Crafting |
| Icuri Essence | 1 | Crafting |
| Total | 2,000 – 1,700,500 | |
Sound daunting? Well, this area wasn't meant to be completed in a few weeks. Good luck.
