The Great Winter Hunt 2010

Happy Holidays, Mousehunt! It’s that time again- we have a holiday before us, and there are some dastardly mice afoot that must be caught before we can celebrate!

For those of you who were a part of previous events, this one will feel very familiar. Combining the “12 days of Christmas” theme from last year with the Trick & Treat bars of the Halloween event, the devs have given us a whopping 27-day event that includes a host of festive mice and loads of presents for all to enjoy!

But let’s get down to business, shall we? First off, you must head to the Festive Comet to take part in the festivities.

As you can see, the poor comet has been hit hard by the recent activities of the mice- the tree has fallen over! While last year’s mice were interested in celebration, it seems that this year’s mice are intent only on causing wanton destruction. Your job is to stop them!

Of course, how do we do that. Before we discuss specific strategies, let us consult the Calendar of Events that the devs have so neatly designed for us. This will serve as a blueprint for the event, and we will tackle each of the days on the calendar one at a time.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday Events

So first thing’s first- let’s discuss the biggest portion of the event- new mice being released every few days. As you can see on the calendar, there are a total of 13 mice being released. Of those 13, 8 of them are returning from last year’s festive comet and should be familiar to you. However, we have three “?” mice and a “?!” mouse (well, mice). If you go to your mice page, you will see that there are five new Christmas mice listed (although as yet not unveiled)- Missile Toe, Wreath Thief, Snow Fort, Slay Ride, and Squeaker Claws.
While we originally presumed that there would be a mouse released on the 25th (hence the “!”), the devs explained this was misinformation. Instead, two mice will be released on the 23rd.

  • November 29 saw the release of the Toy Mouse
  • December 1 saw the release of the Candy Cane Mouse
  • December 3 saw the release of the Present Mouse
  • December 6 saw the release of the Christmas Tree Mouse, which dropped Gingerbread Base Blueprints
  • December 8 saw the release of the Ornament Mouse, which dropped Gingerbread Base Blueprints
  • December 10 saw the release of the Nutcracker Mouse
  • December 13 saw the release of the Stocking Mouse, which dropped Festive Fuse as loot
  • December 15 saw the release of the Scrooge Mouse, which dropped Heart of Ice as loot
  • December 17 saw the release of the Missile Toe Mouse, which dropped Holiday Explosives as loot
  • December 20 saw the release of the  Wreath Thief Mouse, which dropped Icicles as loot
  • December 22 saw the release of the Snow Fort Mouse, which dropped Packed Snow as loot
  • December 23 saw the release of the Slay Ride Mouse, which dropped Sled as loot
  • December 23 saw the release of the Squeaker Claws, which dropped The Winter Star and Ronza Voucher (!!) as loot.

Both of the pieces of loot from Squeaker Claws are maxed at 1; once you’ve caught him once, the next one will drop 1 red, 1 green and 1 blue box (an elf on steroids). The third and future catches drop nothing, unfortunately, so save your boxes from the 2nd catch if you’re a collector.

Every mouse on this list (except Squeaker Claws) drops a piece of loot known as “Frozen Fromage”
What is Frozen Fromage? Apart from Fromage being French for “Cheese”, it’s the cheese necessary to eventually catch Mr. Claws himself! As the description reads, “A morsel of Nutmeg Cheese is frozen inside, a known favourite of the Squeaker Claws Mouse. At its current melting rate, the ice should be weak enough to break sometime around December 23, 2010.” In order to thaw it, you’ll need to catch all of the other mice on the list (more on that later)

Fromage is a rare drop, so if you’re unable to get them at first, don’t worry! You’re not the only one. Patience is key (like so many other things in Mousehunt!)

As for the drops starting with the Stocking Mouse, that will be explained further down

Tuesday Events

This one’s pretty straightforward. Each Tuesday, the Devs will release a new item into the festive gift shoppe that you will be able to send to your friends. These items are collectibles and are not altogether useful

November 30- Pair of Tickets (think Old Spice and you’ll get the reference)
December 7- Sylvan Plushie (A concept created by one of our own hunters! How cool is that)
December 14- Larry’s Mustache & Gold Brick
December 21- Itchy Sweater, Festive Restraining Order & Winter Star Sunglasses

Thursdays- Elf Madness

Finally, every Thursday the devs are releasing a whole bunch of elf mice into the comet for us to catch. In case you missed it, Elves have been running amok for about a week prior to the event. When caught, they drop festive boxes, and they come in three colors- blue, green and red. Blue boxes are for the new players; green boxes are for players from the rank of Legendary to Knight, and red boxes to go players of the Lord rank or higher.

What loot do they contain? Well, the list is vast, and the simplest way to answer that is to send you to the wiki. I will say this, though- do go to the comet on Thursdays and participate in Elf Madness. While not inherently important, the loot contained in the boxes is very valuable. The value doesn’t come from any individual box. Rather, it’s the fact that you can get 20-30 boxes in a day that makes them so valuable. Rather than spending the day getting delicious stones, you can spend the day collecting gifts and get stones, veggies and vanilla beans!

Strategy on the Festive Comet

We now know what’s going on every day on the calendar, but the most important question remains: what’s the goal? Let us go back to the update released by the devs for the answer on this one- there is a new bar added to your camp page when you arrive at the comet, and it looks like this:

As you can see, there’s a string of christmas lights that spans across the bar. There are 12 lights and there is one star. As you catch the mice released, the lights on your bar will light up. If you have not caught all of the mice that are released, the lights for those mice will appear grey. And of course for mice that aren’t released yet, the bulb remains clear.

The order in which you catch the mice is unimportant, save one- you can only thaw your Frozen Fromage to attract Squeaker Claws to your trap if you have caught all of the other mice that light up the progress bar. Once you’ve unlocked Mr. Claws, equip that nutmeg and go to town!

As for how to catch these mice: the trap and base that you use really don’t matter all that much- all of the event mice are equally susceptible to all trap types, and so you can use whatever trap you want. Pick your most powerful one, be it the Mutated Venus Mouse Trap or the Ancient Spear Gun. It is worth noting, however, that if you intend to catch a Hydra Mouse (which can be found in the comet), you would do well to equip a trap that can catch them. Namely, a physical, tactical or hydro trap. Having said that, it’s not a requirement, so don’t sweat it if all you have is a Swiss Army Mouse Trap!

And of course, which base you use is up to you. It’s worth noting that the CandyCane Base is sold by the trapsmith for 90k, and it really is the best base available to you (at least until you get access to the Molten Shrapnel as a Knight). If you don’t have a Molten Shrapnel (or the Spellbook, of course), I recommend buying the Candycane base and using that.

Now, let’s talk cheese. While any cheese will do, there are two particular types of cheese that are strongly recommended- the first one is Super|Brie+, but of course that’s expensive. The alternative is to use the local festive cheese- Gingerbread cheese. How does one get Gingerbread cheese, you may ask. Well if you were here last year, you know the answer already- you get it by smashing Gingerbread Planks! These planks can be obtained in a couple of ways. First, you will occasionally find them inside the Elf mouse’s festive box. However, the more practical way to get it is through the Festive Gift Shoppe.

The Festive Gift Shoppe is unique in that you cannot buy anything for yourself. Rather, you must buy things and send them to your friends! Spread some holiday cheer and send gifts to your friends- in particular, send them a gingerbread plank for 6,000 gold and ask them to return the favor! When smashed, you get 15 pieces of gingerbread cheese to use on the comet.

So we’ve got our plan of attack with trap, base and cheese- what is it that we’re searching for? Well, besides defeating Squeaker Claws, ultimately you’re searching for some new traps!

New Holiday Traps!

All right, technically not all of these traps are new, because we have some returning traps from last year. The Christmas Tree and Ornament Mice drop Gingerbread Base Blueprints! When combined with one icing sugar, one plank of gingerbread and five candies, you get one gingerbread base. The stats are *mostly* the same as the dehydration base, with more power and less attraction. While not as good as the candy cane base, it’s worth making because it’s cheap and collectible.

And then the Elf Mouse drops the second half to this set: blueprints for the Gingerbread House Surprise! With five icing sugar, seven planks of gingerbread and 10 candies, you can get a 2200 power tactical trap. Comparable with the Mutated VMT and Zugzwang’s Last move, the trap is fancy looking, but ultimately doesn’t serve much purpose besides novelty value.

And then there’s the brand-new traps. Head over to the trapsmith and you’ll see a new trap called the Explosive Toboggan Ride. It costs 10,000 gold and you’ll need to also turn in all of the loot drops in the following list: Festive Fuses, Holiday Explosives, Heart of Ice, Icicles, Packed Snow and a Sled. Each of these are uncommon loot drops from the mice that drop them, which you can check in the list higher up the page.

The Toboggan is a great starting hydro trap, with 2700 power and 16 luck. It’s certainly as good as the harpoon gun and net cannon, while costing a heck of a lot less! As was true with the Kraken, this will make collecting your ship blueprints from the hydra much easier!

But there’s more! The Toboggan will be upgraded! How, you ask? Well, it starts with a new loot drop on the comet: Seasoned Gouda Potions.

Dropped by steel and zombie mice on the comet, it can convert three different cheese into the new seasoned gouda (or seagou, as it’s being dubbed): gingerbread, regular gouda, and SB+. As you can see, this cheese is NOT to be confused with regular gouda, so no substitutions there.

I want to clear up a bit of misinformation that I was pushing in an earlier edition; that is, the fact that using brie or swiss will help you gather potions. The logic was that with less breeds being attracted to your trap, you’d see more steel mice. However, this information is incorrect: it is always better to use Gingerbread or SB+ to collect potions, and it is not better to use brie or swiss. I apologize for that mistake.

With Seasoned Gouda equipped, you will unlock some VERY difficult mice at the comet- mice that cannot be attracted with any other cheese but Seasoned Gouda. These mice, like the vinetail, the gladiator, the monster and the harpy, will make a mess of your trap, no matter what your setup. However, since every mouse but the harpy is a physical mouse, you MUST switch to your most powerful physical trap once you’ve switched to seagou. The Harpy is a tough one, but even it can be caught with a physical trap. However, the gladiator mouse, which you must catch, can only be caught with a physical trap. Once you have your new cheese equipped, you will be chasing the next set of loot. Which mice drop loot? Well, for starters, two of the regular mice unlocked will drop loot:

  • The Gladiator, which drops the Ski Sign
  • The Stealth, which drops Climbing Pitons.

The final three pieces? Well, they’re dropped by the three ghosts!
It seems that the Scrooge Mouse is being visited by three ghosts this year- the ghost of winter past, winter present and winter future. As nasty as Mr. Scrooge may be, we’re going to do our best to help him out by catching those ghost mice!
You’ll need to get all three ghosts to finish the upgrade. (And of course, if there was any confusion on that, you can only attract the ghosts using Seasoned Gouda).

Oh, and the devs gave us a nugget of info in an update- there is one more piece to the crafting puzzle, and that’s a metal that can withstand the heat of lava. That means that all told, the recipe is:

1 Toboggan Parts + 1 Ski Sign + 1 Climbing Pitons + 1 Lava Bucket + Festive Mines + 1 Misplaced Missile Cone + 18 Platinum Bars= 1 Double Diamond Toboggan Adventure

With the Double Diamond, you truly have a monster hydro trap. At 3500 power and 18 luck, it beats out the Kraken Chaos as the best hydro trap in mousehunt. Now, the cost is pretty steep at 1,080,000 for the platinum bars, but it’s less than the only other competing hydro trap, the heat bath! If you can get the loot necessary to make this trap, GET THEM. Even if you can’t afford the platinum bars now, you will later, and the trap is far too valuable to miss out on.

If you are confused about what loot to get, check this page to monitor your progress.

Oh, and since I kind of just threw this in earlier: Squeaker Claws drops the Winter Star, which officially ends the event. But he also drops a Ronza Voucher. On this voucher is a note saying that Ronza will be making a visit in January 2011. You know what that means… start panicking!
Keep checking the Guide to Mousehunt for more info when that happens. Until then, a happy holiday and happy hunting!