1. Burroughs Rift

Power Type: Rift
Minimum Rank: Duke/Duchess
Minimum Recommended Trap: Crystal Tower Trap
Objectives: Get the Focused Crystal Laser
Recommended Area Progression Plan: Where Should I Go Next?

The Rift makes a comeback, this time wriggling its way through the fabric of reality in the Burroughs region.

The first mice you’re going to encounter are scientist mice. Any sort of Rift cheese type will help you attract them. The objective is to gather Rift Mist Canisters. Upon releasing the mist, the population will change and you will encounter different mice. Next up are creepy Rift versions of the mousoleum mice. These drop Terre Ricotta potions. Arm Terre Ricotta cheese and keep misting to crank it up another notch and hunt rifty Digby Dirt Dwellers. From those you can collect Polluted Parmesan potions. Parmesan attracts the absolute cream of the Burroughs Rift, twisted Toxic Spill mice.

Your objective is to loot a Null Gauntlet and then collect Rift Circuitry. Without the Null Gauntlet you are not allowed to handle anything in the Shops, so catching the Menace of the Rift who drops this as loot is unavoidable. Naturally, this is no cakewalk. You might want to use strong charms once you get in reach. High power is more effective than high luck for the bosses in general, and it’s also true in this region.

Once you have the Null Gauntlet, make it your next goal to collect 50 Rift Circuitries. All the bosses drop them. Since the Monstrous Abomination can be attracted by storebought cheese, this is the one people usually opt for. On your way there you can use Rift Vacuum charms, which are quite effective for the regular mice and also make them drop Calcified Rift Mist, an ingredient in crafting Rift Power charms. These are even better suited for hunting the mice of the Rift, but don’t kid yourself, they are still relatively weak compared to your stronger charms when it comes to boss hunting. For that purpose I would suggest charms like Regal, for example.

What makes the region interesting is its mechanics. Apart from a Gauntlet style tiered build where you move from one set of the population to the next, there’s the misting. You start at 0, naturally, and you can go all the way up to 20. Between 0 and 6 you will only be able to attract a certain part of the mice that are available with the particular cheese you armed. This is the Yellow. After that you get to the Green, and all the mice are available, except for the boss(es). Go up to the Red and the boss(es) will show up. Monstrous Abomination and BBBB are the only ones to be attracted in the Red by storebought cheese and Terre Ricotta respectively. The Red constitutes mist hunt #19 and #20. If you want to stay in the Red, you have to constantly mist and de-mist, which makes it quite a pain and requires high levels of hunting activity on your part. If you can’t be bothered, like me and many others, just keep misting and stay at 20. You’ll lose mist in the process, but honestly, it beats realizing that you went down to 18 again and have to switch to lesser charms and put in another hunt to get into the Red once more.

In the beginning you want to stay in the Green as much as you can, although short dips into the Yellow are fine, the mice will still drop loot there. It depends on how much mist you have/want to save. You will occasionally get mist on the way, and when you de-mist and your mist numbers will fall, you’re still attracting the same mice and working towards your goal, occasionally even looting new Mist Canisters, so you don’t need to start with hundreds of them to begin with. Between 50 and 100 is a good start.

Depending on your donation frequencies it can be helpful to use Magical String in conversion of potions and maybe even for hunting. If you don’t donate a lot (or not at all) and don’t have a lot of Magical String, I’d still advise to use it for conversion of Polluted Parmesan potions, because these are hard to come by and to stock up on a decent amount of Parmesan cheese is a hassle.

Summary:
* Use storebought cheese to gather mist. Start misting to gather Terre Ricotta potions.
* Stay in the Green. Use Terre Ricotta cheese to collect Polluted Parmesan potions.
* Mist up to the Red and use Parmesan to catch a Menace of the Rift, looting a Null Gauntlet.
* Obtain 50 Rift Circuitries to buy one of the two traps. Use Rift Vacuum charms while gathering mist and potions.