Fiery Warpath
To obtain access
to the Sandtail Desert area, you need to do the following:
- You must be a Baron/Baroness in rank
- Catch a Silth (in Lagoon)
- Catch both a Mystic and Technic King in Zug's Tower (in Rodentia)
- Obtain Sandtail Call to Arms map piece from Seasonal Garden (also in Rodentia)
You also need a
very powerful Physical Trap. Recall the section on Derr Dunes. Did you get the
Enraged RhinoBot? Yes? Good, you’ll do fine here. No? What is your best
physical trap? The OMT? The Forecfield? Some limited edition trap?
The Enraged RhinoBot (ERB) is the
weapon of choice when you first go to the Fiery Warpath, LE traps notwithstanding.
The mice here are very powerful and you need an equally powerful trap to catch
them. As stated by the Hitgrab developers, the higher the power of a mouse
goes, the more likely you’ll catch him based on the power of your trap instead
of luck.
Eh, you say?
Essentially, luck
affects the catch rate more prominently than power until the power of the mouse
reaches some static point. What is that point? We honestly don’t know, but we
DO know where the line roughly is. When taking all physical weapons into
account (including all limited edition traps), the Derr mice are more likely to
be caught by traps that offer higher luck than their no-luck or low-luck
counterparts. Essentially, the Chrome Drillbot will catch more Derr mice than
the Enraged Rhinobot. But when you go up against the Big 3 in Derr, the Chief
and the Gladiator are both more easily caught by the ERB than the Chrome
Drillbot.
What does this
have to do with the Fiery Warpath? Well, the warpath essentially is a giant
collection of tough physical mice, some on par with regular Derr mice and some
more powerful than the Big 3. Meaning: while a high-luck phyisical trap will
work to a certain point, eventually you’ll need the extra power.
So you need the
ERB. Go get it if you don’t have it. Refer back to the appropriate section on
how to get it.
Mechanics of the Fiery Warpath
The Fiery Warpath
differs from other areas. There are 4 waves of mice that you must defeat to
gain a Warpath Victory. You must defeat each wave before progressing on to the
next wave. There is no travel required (similar to the King’s Gauntlet)
however. Here are the mice you’ll encounter in the various waves and the quota you must catch of each.
All right,
confused? Yes, there are lots of mice. Now, let’s go over how to hunt here. The quotas to
catch can seem daunting. Well, there’s a faster way to handle this. In the
Fiery Warpath, you receive catch bonuses when you catch the same mouse in
streaks. Here is how that works:
| Mouse | Points | Gold | Mouse Group | Loot | Initial Quota |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theurgy Warden | 81,000 | 3,000 | The Marching Flame | Flameshard Simple Orb | 12 |
| Warmonger | 198,000 | 27,000 | The Marching Flame | Ancient Relic Flameshard Lucky Power Charm* Oasis Bead Sandblasted Metal Simple Orb Sphynx Crystal Super Luck Charm* Super Power Charm* Ultimate Luck Charm Ultimate Power Charm Warpath Commander's Charm | 1 |
 |
| Example of Wave 1 of the Fiery Warpath (with some mice already reduced) |
- 3 catches in a row: 2 mice retreat
- 6 catches in a row: 4 mice retreat
- 9 catches in a row: 6 mice retreat
Let's look at the image above. This is from my profile. I currently have a streak of 2 Desert Soldiers. If I catch another Desert Soldier on my next hunt, instead of having 29 left, I will have 27 left because catching three in a row will cause 2 mice to retreat, and you'll get a message like the one below in your journal.
If I were to catch 3 more Desert Soldiers in a row (now for a total of 6 straight), 4 more mice will retreat. Do the math. At 27, catch 3, that's 24. 4 now retreat, so my HUD will now display 20 Vanguards left.
But what if you catch 3 more for a total of 9 in a row? If you manage to get a streak of 9, SIX more mice will retreat. Let’s add them up. That would be 9 catches and 12 retreats (2+4+6=12) for a total reduction of 21 mice. Not too shabby, eh?
But what if you catch 3 more for a total of 9 in a row? If you manage to get a streak of 9, SIX more mice will retreat. Let’s add them up. That would be 9 catches and 12 retreats (2+4+6=12) for a total reduction of 21 mice. Not too shabby, eh?
“But Matt, it’s
me, silly monkey here. There are multiple mice there. How do we make sure we
only attract the mouse we want?”
I’m glad you
asked. There is a charm shop in the Fiery Warpath that sells Warrior, Scout, and
Archer charms. Using these charms will greatly enhance your trap’s ability to
attract that specific mouse. Please note it’s not guaranteed, and you still
could attract the other mice, but your chances of doing so are greatly reduced
if you’re using charms. Each charm costs gold plus a piece of ionized salt
(which the general store in the FW sells).
So what’s the
downside? Of course it can’t be this easy, right?
Anytime you fail
to attract a mouse, it breaks your current streak. Anytime you attract a
different mouse (regardless of outcome) than the one of your current streak, it
breaks your current streak. (Leaving the FW in the middle of a streak DOES NOT
break your streak should you catch mice in a different location.)
Support Mice
These mice are there to support the ranks, and each one had a unique feature. The Commander is a special mouse that greatly helps your quotas if you catch him. For example: If you have a streak of 6 built up (irrelevant to mouse type) and you catch a Commander Mouse, yes, your streak is broken, however ALL mice will now have their ranks reduced by the same number of the streak you had when you caught the commander. Example:
You have caught 6 Vanguards in a row, and have 23 left. You still have 35 Soldiers and 35 Archers remaining. You sound the horn, and you catch a Commander Mouse. Since your active streak was 6, this catch causes 6 Vanguards, 6 Warriors, and 6 Archers to ALL retreat, effectively making your new quotas 17, 29, and 29. This is a fast way to reduce total battle ranks. So how do you attract this mouse?
Well, your first run through Wave 1, it’s a complete crap shoot as you don’t have Commander Charms. Commander Charms are awarded to the hunter when they complete a wave. If you equip the commander charm, you’ll attract the Commander almost 99% of the time. But this is only 1 of the 3 support mice.The second mouse is the Caravan Support Mouse. If you catch him, you simply catch him, nothing more. However, if you attract him and fail to catch him, he’ll reinforce the battle ranks of the mice by +1 each. If you have multiple friends hunting in the Warpath with you, failure to catch this mouse could be negated by your friends. The more you have, the better chance that no reinforcements will arrive. If you’re hunting by yourself, however, failure to capture this mouse is a certain way to have him reinforce the troops.
The third mouse is the Gargantuamouse. This one is tricky, so please listen. The Gargantuamouse is only “released” when the player has a streak of 7 or more mice caught in a row, but even then, it’s no guarantee you’ll attract him after 7 catches. With every mouse added after 7, your chances of encountering the Gargantuamouse is increased, regardless of the charm you have equipped.
So what does this guy do? Essentially, he just there to break your streak. But it’s a guessing game as to when he shows up. And it’s a tough decision. Eh, you say?
The Gargantuamouse can only be caught with the Ice Maiden. Oh great, you say. And you guessed it, the Ice Maiden cannot catch the other mice. So in order to CATCH this mouse, you have to guess when he appears. But that’s only part of the issue.
What if you have a streak of 8 built up in a row? Do you role the dice, trying to get your 9th in a row, knowing the Gargantuamouse could visit your trap next? Or, do you equip a Commander Charm and try to catch a commander, reducing all the ranks? Or, do you equip the Ice Maiden and blow your horn, hoping that you've guessed right?
There is NO easy answer here. But here is my advice.
Commander charms should ONLY be used when you have a streak of SIX built up. The reason being is that the Gargantuamouse can be attracted to your trap with 7 or more in a streak, regardless of the charm. Since you have so few commander charms, you don’t want to waste one trying to attract the Commander only to instead attract the Gargantuamouse. If you DO hit 7 in a row, my advice would be go ahead and try to catch the Gargantuamouse right away (in Wave 1, where mice are easier), just to say you caught him. After you catch him, if you do hit 7 in a row at any time, don’t worry about the Gargantuamouse anymore and just hope that you hit 9 in a row. If you do, great. If not, well, who cares. Just don’t take the chance of wasting your Commander charms with streaks greater than 7. At least, that’s my advice; you’re free to do whatever you want honestly.
Warpath Victories
When you defeat
all 4 waves, you’ll have defeated the Warmonger and gathered some really nice
loot from him. He always drops flameshards. They are
also known to drop the Oasis Bead, Sandblasted Metal or Sphynx Crystal on their
first capture, but with subsequent catches, these three particular loot drops
become more closely guarded. They are also known to drop Lucky Power Charms,
Super Luck Charms and Super Power Charms, as additional loot, only when the
Monger Charm is armed (which can only be purchased after you have SIX warpath
victories).
You can keep going back through the Warpath to get more victories, as some traps require multiple victories over the Warmonger Mouse. While you are obviously free to approach this however you'd like, my advice would be to get AT LEAST 4 warpath victories before moving on to the Muridae Market and beginning your journey to the Living Garden.
Muridae Market
When you get here, you'll notice a new HUD and what looks like five different shops all burned up. Well, they are. The Cheese Shop, the General Store, the Trap Smith, the Charm Shoppe, and the Cartographer are all out of business thanks to the Marching Flame, and it's up to you to rebuild the stores and get this place back on its feet.
So, where do you get the items to rebuild the shops? From the mice here silly!
You'll want to equip your best physical trap and your Molten Shrapnel Base (you SHOULD have this by now). As for cheese, this place is a little more relaxed than the Warpath, and that's a good thing. Brie cheese actually works just fine here, and you'll discover that the profits made here with Brie outclass those you find in Derr Dunes.
You'll get a lot of Limestone Bricks, and you might be tempted to rebuild the Cheese Shoppe first. In all truthfulness, the General Store should be your first target to rebuild, because you can exchange excess building materials there for other types (for a price though), including Molten Glass, which can only be purchased by exchanging shards of glass which can be obtained from Glass Blower Mice.
As you can probably tell, it's going to take you awhile to rebuild all five shops, but when you do, your HUD will change to a very nice Marketplace.
Once you have access to the Charm Shoppe, you can buy Artisan Charms, which, besides the gold cost, will cost you 1 Limestone Brick, 1 Coconut Timber, and 1 Shard of Glass. Artisan Charms attract the Mage Weaver and Blacksmith mice, who drop Papyrus as loot.
Papyrus has two functions: used to rebuild the Cartographer, and also used to craft the Papyrus Base, the luckiest non-LE base in the game (but it's not cheap to craft it).
Upon the completion of the Cartographer, you can also purchase the Key to the Living Garden, and it'll take the cartographer 1 day to update your map accordingly.
