Juicy Bugs Wanted!
| Juicy Bugs Wanted! | |
|---|---|
| Type | Special Order |
| Board | Special Orders board |
| Giver | Willy |
| Time Limit | 7 days |
| Repeatable | No |
Willy wants a hundred wads of bug guts for his crab bait, dropped into the bin that stands beside his shop on the beach. The work is a few afternoons of swatting insects on the shallow floors of The Mines, which makes this one of the gentlest notices a first autumn farm can take. The gold alone is good for a farm still saving for a coop, but the recipe that follows is the real prize. Willy hands over the plans for the Quality Bobber, the tackle that lifts every catch a grade and opens the door to iridium fish. Taking it the moment it appears is almost always right, because nothing it asks for has to be bought or grown.
The board reads: Hey there, I'm looking for a big wad o' bug guts. The juicier the better... at least that's what the crabs seem to like... 100 pieces should do the trick.
Requirements
Only Bug Meat collected after the notice goes up is counted, so a chest already full of it does nothing for the tally. Dropping that old stock into Willy's bin is harmless, but a fresh hundred still has to come out of the ground.
Cave Flies are the best quarry by a clear margin, since nearly every one of them leaves a wad behind. Ordinary Bugs give up their guts about three times in four, and Grubs rather less often than that, which makes a grub-heavy floor slower than it looks. The shallow band of The Mines above the frozen floors is where all three mix, and the twenties in particular swarm with flies.
Armoured Bugs in the Skull Cavern are a special case. They shrug off an ordinary blade and only drop anything once a weapon has been given the Bug Killer enchantment at the Forge inside the Volcano Dungeon. A farm that far along has the sword for it, but a farm taking this notice in its first autumn should stay in the shallow mines instead.
The Mutant Bug Lair under the town is the densest insect ground in the valley once Krobus has opened the passage during the hunt for the Dark Talisman. Mutant Flies there keep arriving while the room is occupied, and Mutant Grubs line the banks, so a single visit can carry a large share of the hundred. Standing near the entrance and letting the flies come is easier than chasing them across the water.
The Burglar's Ring doubles the rolls on every monster's loot list, which turns a hundred wads into roughly fifty insects. Gil hands it over at the Adventurer's Guild for clearing out dust sprites, so a farm that has already done that job should put the ring on before heading down.
The order asks for every item in this table.
| Item | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Bug Meat | 
|
100 |
Rewards
The gold is paid once and lands early in the run, when a few thousand still buys a building or a tool upgrade. The cutscene on the beach the next day is where the recipe actually changes hands, so the notice is not finished until Willy has been visited again.
The Quality Bobber is the reason to care. It raises the grade of every fish hooked while it is fitted, turning silver into gold and gold into iridium, and besides a perfect catch it is the only way to land an iridium fish. An Advanced Iridium Rod takes two pieces of tackle, and a pair of bobbers lifts the catch two grades at once, which turns a river full of ordinary fish into a river of gold-star stock. Willy keeps this one off his own shelves, so the recipe is the only route to a steady supply.
Crafting it is cheap: a Copper Bar, a heap of sap and a handful of Solar Essence. Sap comes off every tree the axe touches and Solar Essence drops from the same deep floors that hold ghosts, so a fishing farm can keep a drawer of spares. Each one wears out after a run of nibbles, which is exactly why owning the recipe beats owning a single bobber.
Finishing the order pays out all of this.
| Reward | Image |
|---|---|
| 3,000g | - |
| Quality Bobber recipe | 
|
| Cutscene at The Beach | - |
Strategy
Clear a morning, take the lift as deep as it goes above the frozen floors and work the insect band with a sword rather than a dagger, since one wide swing catches a cluster of flies. Walking back out to the entrance and riding down again rebuilds every floor, so a good fly floor can be harvested over and over instead of pushing deeper for stragglers.
A visit to the Mutant Bug Lair shortens the whole job for a farm that has already met Krobus in the sewer. Fishing is possible in the same room, which makes the trip pay twice.
The common way this notice fails is the calendar. The days run from the Monday the board changed, not from the day the paper is taken down, so a board read at the weekend leaves almost no time for a hundred drops. Reading the board on Monday morning avoids this trap. The second trap is forgetting the bin: the tally fills as insects die, but the order closes only once the meat is in the container beside the Fish Shop.
Notes
The same hunt feeds Gil's eradication list, and eighty cave insects earn the Insect Head, a sword that swings quickly and crits often. Running both at once costs nothing extra.
Bug meat has a long life after the notice closes. One wad makes a handful of plain bait, five of them with fibre and slime make Wild Bait for double catches, and three with Radioactive Ore make Magic Bait, which ignores season, time and weather. Twenty-five of them with copper and slime make the Sturdy Ring, which halves how long debuffs last underground. Ten cooked together make Bug Steak, the cheapest food a miner can carry.
Nobody in the valley wants a wad of bug flesh as a present, so the leftovers belong in a chest rather than in a gift box.
All Special Orders
Every special order from both boards, with who posts it and how long it runs.