Mar 19, 2010

Posted by Paul Humphreys in Locations, Tribal Isles | 0 Comments

Derr Dunes

The dunes are a harsh, barren wasteland where only the toughest of mice can survive. The Derr Tribe take advantage of their ability to survive and navigate in such a dangerous terrain as a defensive strength which allows them to maximize their offensive abilities. Use of a Physical trap is highly recommended when hunting for the Derr.

This article is currently out of date with the release of Longtail, we are adding the latest information as we find it.

Index

Overview
Cheese and Mice
Setup Options
Goals
Related Articles

Overview

The Derr Dunes is the Physical location of the Tribal Isles, it contains a number of mice that are unique to this location and only a Physical trap will be truely effective here.
Many of the mice drop Delicious Stones in this location, which are crafted into Crunchy cheese that can either be used in Cape Clawed or in Derr Dunes to attract the three most powerful mice of this location, all of whom drop Red Pepper Seeds.

Requirements

To hunt in the Derr Dunes a Hunter must have:
    A Hunter’s Title of at least Legendary.
    Have crafted the Ocean Navigation Kit.
And it is recommended that a Hunter should have:
    A good Physical Weapon.
    At least Brie cheese.

Hunting Tips by Larry

Larry Great Scott, what in King’s name are we doing here?! Are you mad, MouseHunter? Members of the Derr tribe are ruthless, power-hungry war mongers! The reputation of the Derr Tribe is known across the Island. They topple even the most powerful of traps with ease, crippling hunters’ courage and pillaging their gold! Hunting here is not for the faint of heart, but capturing a member of the Derr tribe does come with a handsome reward of gold!

If you insist on hunting the dangerous Derr Tribe you will need a powerful Physical Trap. If you are familiar with the Burroughs Region, perhaps you have discovered the secret research facility called Digby. The Trapsmith in Digby sells the powerful Digby DrillBot, known throughout Gnawnia as a vital component in a strong Physical trap setup.

The mice of Derr trust no one, a trait that has made them very suspicious and hard to trick into a trap. You’ll find Gouda is quite capable of attracting a member of Derr towards a trap, but SUPER|brie+ is even more effective! The magical sparkle of SUPER|brie+ prevent mice from stealing more than a single piece at a time, a property that comes in especially handy here in the Derr Dunes as the mice here tend to steal cheese in large quantities.

You’re on your own now, MouseHunter. This heavy suit of armour proves to be quite cumbersome when trying to navigate the rocky terrain here. Best of luck!

New Mice

There are 8 new mice to be found in the Derr Dunes. All of which can only be caught with Physical traps.
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Cheese and Mice

Here we give an overview of the mice that can be encountered in this location, and how often you can expect to see them using various cheese.

The Mice of the Derr Dunes

Here is a breakdown of the various mice that can be found in the location, and what loot they might drop:

Mouse	Power Type	Loot
Black Widow	Physical	Between 2 and 10 pieces of Super Brie cheese
Derr Chieftain	Physical	Ancient Mangled Blueprint (max 1) Up to 3 Red Pepper Seeds
Gladiator	Physical	Up to 2 Red Pepper Seeds
Grunt	Physical	Up to 3 Delicious Stones
Guardian	Physical	Up to 1 Red Pepper Seed
Healer	Physical	Up to 1 Delicious Stone
Mintaka	Physical	Up to 1 Delicious Stone
Renegade	Physical	Up to 1 Delicious Stone
Seer	Physical	Up to 1 Delicious Stone
Spellbinder	Physical	Up to 2 Delicious Stones
Sylvan	Forest Guild Unknown	Unknown
Trailblazer	Physical	Up to 1 Delicious Stone
Wordsmith	Physical	Up to 1 Delicious Stone

Mice Populations

Here is a breakdown of the populations of mice in the location based upon cheese used (these results come from our survey); the values given are a percentage of all attractions, and how many of these mice you are likely to attract in 100 hunts using base attraction:


	Mouse	Brie	Crunchy	Gouda	Super Brie
	Black Widow	0.13% (0.07)	0.14% (0.14)	0.11% (0.08)	0.23% (0.23)
	Derr Chieftain		7.51% (7.42)
	Gladiator		31.09% (30.71)
	Grunt	11.70% (6.67)		11.98% (8.39)	11.80% (11.67)
	Guardian		61.26% (60.51)
	Healer	7.77% (4.43)		8.09% (5.67)	8.01% (7.92)
	Mintaka	15.79% (9.00)		15.76% (11.04)	16.02% (15.85)
	Renegade	16.42% (9.36)		16.17% (11.33)	15.84% (15.67)
	Seer	16.55% (9.44)		15.79% (11.06)	16.04% (15.87)
	Spellbinder	15.62% (8.91)		16.28% (11.40)	16.07% (15.90)
	Trailblazer	7.93% (4.52)		7.78% (5.45)	8.15% (8.06)
	Wordsmith	8.10% (4.62)		8.04% (5.63)	7.84% (7.76)

Hunts Submitted		34,310	43,122	59,868	47,111
Base Attraction Rate		57.02%	98.77%	70.05%	98.92%

Crunchy is the only cheese to use if you are after the three “boss” mice of Derr.
If you are collecting Delicious Stones you will need to balance attraction rate and cost when deciding which cheese to use.
The more expensive cheese will bring in more Delicious Stones while hunting, but the the cheaper cheese will enable you to earn more gold.

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Setup Options

Here we present you with a selection of results from our survey to give you an idea of how well the various setups work, and what sort of results you may expect to see when using them. Please remember, if you do not see the setup you are interested in here, it is because we do not currently have enough hunts submitted with that setup. Please submit your hunts to our survey, and encourage others to do so too.

Here’s a quick overview of how the different power types perform overall:

Power Type		Performance (with Crunchy)	Performance (other cheese)	Comments
	Arcane	No Stars	No Stars	Normal against Black Widow, useless against all other mice
	Draconic			Useless against all mice
	Forgotten			Useless against all mice
	Hydro	No stars		Normal against Black Widow, Healer, Trailblazer and Wordsmith mice useless against all other mice
	Parental	No stars	No stars	Normal against Black Widow mice useless against all other mice
	Physical			Normal against all mice
	Shadow	No stars	No stars	Normal against Black Widow, useless against all other mice
	Tactical	No stars		Normal against Black Widow, Healer, Trailblazer and Wordsmith mice useless against all other mice

Normal Setup Options

Here is a selection of setups with traps and bases that are permanent additions to the game.
Super Brie

Weapon	Base	Shield?	Attraction Rate	Catch Rate	Points per Hunt	Gold per Hunt	Delicious Stones per Hunt	Cheese Used	Sample Size (Hunts)
RhinoBot	Tribal Base	Yes	98.97%	56.50%	1,094.51	1,976.61	0.40	2,400	2,418

Limited Edition Setup Options

Here is a selection of setups with weapons and bases that were only available in the game for a limited time.
Brie

Weapon	Base	Shield?	Attraction Rate	Catch Rate	Points per Hunt	Gold per Hunt	Delicious Stones per Hunt	Cheese Used	Sample Size (Hunts)
Christmas Cracker Trap	Candy Cane Base	No	59.42%	55.09%	666.63	1,174.90	0.28	1,537	1,439
Christmas Cracker Trap	Candy Cane Base	Yes	59.75%	62.64%	808.58	1,368.75	0.30	1,655	1,702
Chrome DrillBot	Candy Cane Base	Yes	57.38%	67.30%	816.00	1477.03	0.32	1,815	1,471
Chrome DrillBot	Gingerbread Base	No	57.71%	61.52%	724.78	1,316.69	0.29	1,907	1,887
Chrome DrillBot	Gingerbread Base	Yes	57.72%	66.61%	804.09	1,487.28	0.30	3,045	3,264
Chrome DrillBot	Magma Base	No	59.24%	65.73%	862.12	1,472.93	0.30	6,727	5,378
Chrome DrillBot	Magma Base	Yes	59.42%	69.48%	890.33	1,565.01	0.34	10,988	9,028
Chrome DrillBot	Polar Base	No	57.35%	57.14%	656.82	1,096.47	0.23	1,107	1,184

Crunchy

Weapon	Base	Shield?	Attraction Rate	Catch Rate	Points per Hunt	Gold per Hunt	Red Pepper Seeds per Hunt	Cheese Used	Sample Size (Hunts)
Chrome DrillBot	Candy Cane Base	Yes	98.05%	43.39%	3,123.33	3,044.42	0.51	2,620	2,621
Chrome DrillBot	Magma Base	No	98.72%	40.78%	2,803.13	2,838.53	0.48	4,782	4,782
Chrome DrillBot	Magma Base	Yes	98.91%	44.64%	3,047.02	3,176.79	0.54	30,362	30,363

Gouda

Weapon	Base	Shield?	Attraction Rate	Catch Rate	Points per Hunt	Gold per Hunt	Delicious Stones per Hunt	Cheese Used	Sample Size (Hunts)
Christmas Cracker Trap	Candy Cane Base	No	74.55%	54.53%	834.61	1,401.39	0.30	988	1,065
Christmas Cracker Trap	Candy Cane Base	Yes	73.48%	62.10%	938.34	1,649.22	0.37	2,619	2,952
Christmas Cracker Trap	Gingerbread Base	Yes	71.63%	59.07%	842.50	1,501.38	0.34	2,780	3,141
Christmas Cracker Trap	Magma Base	No	72.05%	60.10%	916.14	1,609.64	0.36	1,112	1,120
Christmas Cracker Trap	Magma Base	Yes	72.28%	63.77%	1,008.86	1,700.02	0.39	1,773	1,829
Chrome DrillBot	Candy Cane Base	Yes	72.81%	67.62%	1,019.19	1,849.63	0.41	2,009	1,960
Chrome DrillBot	Gingerbread Base	No	67.08%	61.34%	874.52	1,525.05	0.31	3,450	3,949
Chrome DrillBot	Gingerbread Base	Yes	70.25%	65.03%	980.59	1,702.47	0.37	11,381	12,593
Chrome DrillBot	Magma Base	No	71.63%	64.27%	985.24	1,732.17	0.37	6,159	5,650
Chrome DrillBot	Magma Base	Yes	71.33%	70.39%	1,069.11	1,874.44	0.41	13,386	12,258
Chrome DrillBot	Polar Base	No	68.17%	57.53%	816.97	1,470.03	0.30	1,024	1,178
Chrome DrillBot	Polar Base	Yes	68.16%	68.13%	994.53	1,746.69	0.35	1,017	1,206

Super Brie

Weapon	Base	Shield?	Attraction Rate	Catch Rate	Points per Hunt	Gold per Hunt	Delicious Stones per Hunt	Cheese Used	Sample Size (Hunts)
Chrome DrillBot	Candy Cane Base	Yes	98.78%	68.54%	1,441.50	2,462.92	0.55	2,865	2,867
Chrome DrillBot	Magma Base	No	99.11%	64.61%	1,280.28	2,223.72	0.49	3,273	3,273
Chrome DrillBot	Magma Base	Yes	98.95%	70.86%	1,494.49	2,589.94	0.59	31,738	31,738
RhinoBot	Tribal Base	Yes	99.18%	59.03%	1,198.74	2,067.05	0.45	3,298	3,300

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Goals

Here is a selection of Goals that a hunter may like to achieve:

Collect Delicious Stones

Delicious Stones are required to make Crunchy Cheese, which is used to attract the Aged Mouse in Cape Clawed, and three mice in Derr Dunes, the Derr Chieftain Mouse, Gladiator Mouse and Guardian Mouse.

Delicious Stones are dropped as loot by the Grunt Mouse (upto 3), Healer Mouse, Mintaka Mouse, Renegade Mouse, Seer Mouse, Spellbinder Mouse (upto 2), Trailblazer Mouse and Healer Mouse, each mouse only drops up to 1 Delicious Stone with the two exceptions mentioned above.

The weaker the mouse is, the less likely they are to drop Delicious Stones, with the Renegade Mouse dropping 1 Delicious Stone in almost all cases.

Collect Red Pepper Seeds

Red Pepper Seeds are required to make a number of the Havarti Cheese used in the Jungle of Dread and Dracano, they are only dropped by the three mice in Derr Dunes that can only be attracted with Crunchy Cheese.

Red Pepper Seeds are dropped as loot by the Derr Chieftain Mouse (upto 3), Gladiator Mouse (upto 2) and Guardian Mouse (upto 1).

As with Delicious Stones, the weakest mouse (the Guardian) is the least likely to drop Red Pepper Seeds, while the Derr Chieftain almost always drops at least 1 Red Pepper Seed.

High power and high luck Physical traps are highly recommended when hunting these three mice.

Catch a Derr Chieftain Mouse with the Blueprints

The Derr Chieftain Mouse drops the Ancient Mangled Blueprint Piece, which is used for crafting the Ancient Box Trap.

The Derr Chieftain Mouse is only attracted to Crunchy Cheese, is not commonly encountered and is the most powerful mouse in the location, fortunately it will drop the Blueprints in most cases (unless you already have them in your inventory), so it is an unlucky hunter who has to catch more than two before receiving this loot.

High power and high luck Physical traps are highly recommended.

Earning Gold

Derr Dunes is a good place to earn gold without first having to collect potions of any sort, but hunters are quite interested in knowing which cheese will earn them more gold, or gold more quickly.

At the time of writing (these figures are based on those at 19-Jan-10), the cost of Super Brie is about 1,500 gold per piece, Gouda is priced at 600 gold per piece and Brie at 200 gold per piece. Numbers above in the Setup Options section have been given without these prices included, to establish gold returns from using certain cheese, these have been factored in.

When using a trap with a low Cheese Effect, in this case, Chrome DrillBot and Magma Base with Golden Shield:

On a per hunt basis, cheaper cheese wins, Brie averages at about 1,300 GpH, Gouda at about 1,200 GpH and Super Brie at about 1,050 GpH. So cheaper cheese will provide gold returns sooner.

On a per cheese basis, Brie averages at about 1,050 GpC, Super Brie at about 1,050 GpC, and Gouda at about 1,100 GpC, making Gouda the more efficient long term choice.

When using a trap with a better Cheese Effect, these returns can be greatly increased, comparing the Chrome DrillBot and Magma Base with Gouda and Golden Shield to the same setup but using the Gingerbread Base instead we get the following results:

Magma Base gives about 1,200 GpH and 1,100 GpC, Gingerbread give about 1,150 GpH and 1,350 GpC, offering a slower gain in the short term, but much better results in the long term.

Earning Gold in the Crunchy Cycle

The Crunchy Cycle is hunting for Delicious Stones, then using those stones to craft Crunchy Cheese and hunting with that cheese as Crunchy offers higher points and gold returns than any other cheese in the Derr Dunes, and as such, is the best way to earn gold.

To work out the best way to earn gold in the Crunchy Cycle, we need to look at how quickly you can collect Delicious Stones using various Cheese to start with, then factor in the returns you could expect to see after using all the Crunchy. For the purposes of this, we’ll take a single cycle of collecting 30 Delicious Stones, and use those to make 20 Crunchy using Magic Essence, see below for more on this.

Setup: Chrome DrillBot / Magma Base / Shield

Crunchy, the results above show that it in 20 hunts we can expect to earn about 39,000 gold after taking off cost of crafting Crunchy (with Super Brie prices at 1,500), we can also expect to collect about 10.8 Red Seeds.

Brie, the results above show that it will take about 89 hunts to collect 30 Delicious Stones, and we can expect to earn about 115,000 gold after taking off cost of Brie at 200 gold per piece.
After we add in the Crunchy, we get a total profit of about 154,000 gold over 109 hunts, about 1,415 gold per hunt, and 0.10 Red Seeds per hunt.

Gouda, the results above show that it will take about 74 hunts to collect 30 Delicious Stones, and we can expect to earn about 90,000 gold after taking off cost of Gouda at 600 gold per piece.
After we add in the Crunchy, we get a total profit of about 129,000 gold over 94 hunts, about 1,375 gold per hunt, and 0.11 Red Seeds per hunt.

Super Brie, the results above show that it will take about 54 hunts to collect 30 Delicious Stones, and we can expect to earn about 55,000 gold after taking off cost of Super Brie at 1,500 gold per piece.
After we add in the Crunchy, we get a total profit of about 94,000 gold over 74 hunts, about 1,275 gold per hunt, and 0.15 Red Seeds per hunt.

We can see from this, the difference between the gold returns for Brie and Gouda isn’t that much, Brie still earns more, but Gouda brings in slightly more Red Seeds to be used for Havarti later.

Super Brie is still the lowest gold at the current price of 1,500, but does bring in significantly more Red Seeds, if the price of Super Brie is 1,350 or below, it begins to offer better returns than Gouda, and if it’s 1,300 or below, it offers better returns than Brie, so keep this in mind when shopping for Super Brie.

Using Magic Essence for Crunchy

There are two ways to craft Crunchy, one produces 15 pieces, and the other requires 5 Magic Essence to craft 20 pieces, so which is better for earning gold?

Again this is something that relies on the price of Super Brie, and there are several ways to consider this.

If we look at gold returns per cheese, you can see that it’s worth buying Super Brie at any price lower than the return you make from Crunchy, as you will still make a profit.

If we look at gold returns per hunt, then the 15 piece recipe earns more per hunt if the price of Super Brie is over about 1,100 gold per piece.

If we look at the whole Crunchy Cycle, it’s obvious to see that the returns from Crunchy are significantly higher than those from other cheese, and so the 20 piece recipe earns more per hunt for any starting cheese used until the price reaches about 1,750 gold per piece.

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