Dragon Embers
Ah, the Dragon Ember. A very special piece of loot- one that has sparked a lot of discussion over the last few months. So much that I’m going to devote an entire article to its use.
The reason that there is so much discussion is that the Dragon Ember is used in making a very powerful trap- the Cackle Lantern. This trap, when equipped, is not only the most powerful of the shadow traps (tied with the Clockapult of Time), but it also has a chance to double the amount of Fire Salt that you will collect in the Jungle of Dread.
The only problem is that in order to get a Dragon Ember, you’ll have to spend a good deal of time in the Jungle of Dread collecting fire salt, by which time you won’t have much use for the Cackle Lantern anymore! What are hunters to do in this situation? It’s a Catch-22: to get lots of fire salt, you need the Cackle Lantern, but to get the Cackle Lantern requires an ember, and to get an ember requires lots of Fire Salt.
Hunters are faced with three options:
- Using the Pumpkin Pummeler, get the Ancient Box Trap parts and a few pieces of fire salt. Catch the Acolyte, make the Ice Maiden, and use the Ice Maiden to get a dragon ember as quickly as possible. Once you have a dragon ember, make the Cackle Lantern and use it to finish collecting Fire Salt in the Jungle of Dread.
- Using the Pumpkin Pummeler, try and get six fire salt as quickly as possible, and then make a batch of Inferno Havarti. Head to Dracano and equip the Rhinobot instead. Cross your fingers and hope that you can get the ember, and then use the Cackle Lantern to get the parts of the ABT and the rest of your fire salt.
- Buy the Gorgon Trap, get your ABT parts and your Ice Maiden, and then move to Dracano and get the ember.
Each strategy has inherent advantages and disadvantages. Option #1 is the traditional approach- with the Pummeler, you’ll be doing quite terribly in the Jungle, but since you’re 
getting the Cackle Lantern later anyway, you can avoid spending quite a bit of gold on a middle trap. Option #2 maximizes the use that you’ll get out of your Havarti by attempting to get the ember in the fewest amount of Havarti possible. And then Option #3 optimizes the first batches of Havarti you use so that you get the most fire salt that you can before you get the Cackle Lantern, at the cost of nearly a million gold.
Now that we know the options, which one are we going to choose? To make this decision, we have to take a look at the stats. Since the goal of this is to get a Dragon Ember, so we need to know how much success you will have in getting this dragon ember. Here are the numbers: On average, you will get a Dragon Ember 8% of the time using the rhinobot, and 16% of the time when using the Ice Maiden. That means that, on average, you’ll need to use 12 pieces of Inferno Havarti with the Rhinobot, but only about 6 pieces when using the Ice Maiden.
The other statistic that you need is your catch rate using the Pumpkin Pummeler in the Jungle of Dread, on two levels. First, the catch rate against the weakest of the mice (the Primal), and then the average catch rate among all six of them (for the ABT) loot. Those numbers are: 20% on the primal mouse (straight) and 18% on the six, aggregated.
So let’s crunch that out in a way that’s sensible:
- If you go the Ice Maiden route, you will get the loot every ~6 cheese. That means that one batch of each cheese should get you 1 of each loot and 6 fire salt (the loot drop and fire salt drop are 100% from each mouse). With those 36 cheese used, you’ll be able to use the ABT, catch an Acolyte, and move on to Dracano, where your batch of 6 Inferno Havarti will get you one dragon ember. From there, make your Cackle Lantern and go to town.
- If you go with the Rhinobot route, your fire salt drop is once every 5 cheese. You need 12 pieces, so that’s 60 pieces of cheese in total. With those 12 fire salt, head to Dracano with your Rhinobot and get a fire salt.
That means that, if everything goes with the averages, the answer is clear- going with the Ice Maiden is MUCH more reliable than using the Rhinobot and will conserve Havarti at a much more efficient rate.
Of course, that requires averages- certainly you could get those embers within six pieces using the rhinobot (which would only require 30 havarti), and it may also take more than the numbers listed above. However, you cannot predict the future- all you can go by is the averages.
It’s also worth noting that you’ll average a fire salt once every 4 hunts if you chase ABT loot with the Gorgon, So that’s only 24 pieces to get 6. Not a significant improvement, but it does give you some wiggle room in the event that you get unlucky!
Conclusion: Don’t waste your time with the Rhinobot- it will be a monumental waste of your time and you will expend a lot more Havarti using a very poor shadow trap. If you’re willing to part with the money for the Gorgon, it’s also a very viable option because it helps hedge your bets. However, Option #1 is clearly the best option you have- just use the Pumpkin Pummeler until you get your ABT parts, and then use the Ice Maiden to get your dragon ember, which can then be used to make the Cackle Lantern.
I hope this helps- many people are getting impatient and trying to use the Rhinobot instead. Their logic is that it will save them Havarti in the long run. However, the numbers show otherwise- you will use nearly twice as much Havarti chasing an ember with the Rhinobot than you would using just the Pumpkin Pummeler.
No matter what you use, I wish you the best of luck- the Jungle of Dread is no fun for anyone. However, hopefully now you can make an informed decision to give you the best opportunity to get an ember as fast as possible.
Footnote: It should go without saying that this logic also holds if you decide to go for the Molten Shrapnel Base, you shouldn’t try the Rhinobot then, either.
