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Back to Chapter 21: Seasonal Garden

Chapter 22: Zugzwang's Tower

• Do not enter the Tower as soon as you craft your Zugzwang's Tower Key. First you need to make sure you're prepared.
• Make sure your Tower Amplifier is charged to its maximum. If not you should continue hunting in the Seasonal Garden to charge it.
• Make sure that you have enough Gouda or Super Brie (at least 200) to last you for your run.
• It is also recommended that you get one of the Pawn Pincher traps available at the Seasonal Garden trapsmith before entering.
• If you do not have the Wooden Base with Target, run back to the Meadow and get it now.
• In this location, the mice are themed after chess pieces. There are two teams, the Technic and the Mystic teams.
• At first you'll only be able to attract pawns. Catching 8 pawns of one team will release their knights. Catching 2 knights will release their bishops. Catching 2 bishops will release their rooks. Catching 2 rooks will release their queen, and capturing her will release the king.
• It is recommended to pick a team to target, and use the Pawn Pincher to catch 8 pawns of that team. Since your power is greatly amplified against the correct pawns, you can use the Wooden Base with Target to reduce the chances of failure to attract or of accidentally catching pawns from the other team.
• Once you've captured the pawns, switch to your strongest Tactical trap, with your strongest base. The Zugzwang's First Move is recommended.
• You can see your progress in the toolbar that appears when you're in the Tower.
• The Tower Amplifier is a multiplier to your power. It also affects your luck negatively if it drops below 100%. It drops for every successful catch or failure to attract. (Simply missing an attracted mouse does not affect the amplifier). If it reaches 0%, your trap will be ineffective and you'll be forced to return to the Seasonal Garden.

Mouse Caught	Amplifier Decrease
(Failure to attract)	3%
Pawn	1%
Knight	3%
Bishop	3%
Rook	5%
Queen	9%
King (with Checkmate cheese)	10%

• Use a high-luck base when your amplifier is high, and a high-power base when your amplifier is low.
• The King is actually quite easy to catch, once it has been unlocked. Thus do not be disheartened if your amplifier is low at this stage. You may want to use the Wooden Base with Target again, to reduce the chances of failure to attract.
• Once you catch a King, you'll also be forced to return to the Seasonal Garden.
• If you leave the tower (either voluntarily or by catching a King) your amplifier and progress will be reset; thus it is recommended not to leave until you drain your amplifier.
• The Technic King drops the Technic Cheese Mould, Torn Technic Page, and Droid Jetpack.
• The Mystic King drops the Mystic Curd, Mystic Crystal, and Torn Mystic Page.
• Your first objective is to collect the Droid Jetpack and Mystic Crystal. Once you have collected these, you can craft these two traps:
• Obvious Ambush Trap: A Tactical weapon, which has increased effectiveness against Technic mice and decreased effectiveness against Mystic mice:
• 1 Obvious Ambush Trap Blueprints (from the Seasonal Garden general store for 1,100,000 gold)
• 1 Droid Parts (from the Bazaar for 7,750 gold)
• 1 Droid Jetpack (loot from the Technic King)
• You need at least 58,000,000 points to use this weapon.
• Blackstone Pass Trap: A Tactical weapon, which has increased effectiveness against Mystic mice and decreased effectiveness against Technic mice:
• 1 Blackstone Pass Trap Blueprints (from the Seasonal Garden general store for 1,100,000 gold)
• 4 Coal (loot drop from the Catacombs; using Ancient cheese there will give better results)
• 1 Mystic Crystal (loot from the Mystic King)
• You need at least 58,000,000 points to use this weapon.
• With these traps, catching your Kings will be a lot easier, as you will catch very few mice from the "wrong" team, preserving your amplifier. Use the correct Pawn Pincher for the pawns, then switch to the Obvious Ambush / Blackstone Pass for the rest.
• Your goal now is to collect 3 Torn Technic Pages from Technic Kings, and 3 Torn Mystic Pages from Mystic Kings. You also want to catch the Chess Master mouse; to do that, you'd need Checkmate cheese:
• 1 Mystic Curd + 1 Technic Cheese Mould + 12 Ionized Salt = 3 Checkmate cheese
• 1 Mystic Curd + 1 Technic Cheese Mould + 12 Ionized Salt + 6 Magic Essence = 9 Checkmate cheese
• If you catch a King with Checkmate cheese rather than regular cheese, you will stay in the tower, and have a chance to catch the Chess Master mouse.
• It is recommended that you build a supply of Checkmate cheese before attempting this, as you want to catch both the King and the Chess Master in one go.
• The Chess Master drops the Master Bindings, and may also drop Zugzwang's Left Sock. The sock is merely a novelty item that would be shown in your profile, but good luck getting it!
• Once you have collected the pages and the Master Bindings, you can then craft:
• Spellbook Base: A very powerful base. It has 500 base power, 14% power bonus, and 7 luck:
• 1 Spellbook Base Blueprints (from the Seasonal Garden general store for 936,000 gold)
• 6 Tiny Platinum Bars (from the Training Grounds general store)
• 3 Torn Mystic Pages (loot from the Mystic King)
• 3 Torn Technic Pages (loot from the Technic King)
• 1 Master Bindings (loot from the Chess Master)
• You need at least 67,750,000 points to craft this base.
• You may also acquire a Crystal Library Card from the mice here; Rooks and Queens are most likely to drop it, though Knights and Bishops have been reported to drop it too. This gives you access to the next location, the Crystal Library.

Continue to Chapter 23: Crystal Library