A Tale in the Desert IV: Body Discipline, Part II

In the last article, we covered the principle for Body, and the Test of the Acrobat. In part two of this article we will cover the remaining Body tests; Test of the Singing Cicada, Test of the Safari, and Test of the Darkest Night.

At level eight, you are able to start the Test of the Singing Cicada. The Test of the Singing Cicada takes you all over Egypt and far from home. Upon signing up for the test, you are tasked with hunting for cicada cages, placing your own cicada cages, and earning points to earn speed point. When you reach seven speed, you will pass the test.

First, you will need to be sure you have sound on, be sure to turn sound all the way up, and the use of headphones will help. Cicada cages produce a distinctive sound and can be heard up to 50-60 coordinates away. The louder the sound, the closer you are to the cicada cage. Use of headphones can help you determine the direction the sound is coming from. Since cicada cages are fairly small, about the size of mushrooms, and can be hard to spot from afar, you will need to explore all over Egypt looking for cicadas to add to your collection.

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You earn points in one of two ways. When you find a cicada cage that another player has placed, you may take one cicada from the cage and add to your collection. You will also receive one point for each minute since the last person took a cicada from the cage. So, if the last person to take a cicada was 48 hours ago, you would receive 2,880 points. The second way to earn points is to place your own cage. You will earn one point per minute that your cage survives. Once seven people have found your cage, it will crumble and you will no longer receive points. The number of cicada needed to receive a cage from the University of Body varies according to current speed points and the number of cages currently available throughout Egypt.

The amount of cicadas needed to make your own cage can vary anywhere from three to nine cicadas per cage, usually. The University will then give you a cicada cage with seven cicadas in it for you to place anywhere you want to in Egypt. You can place as many cages as you have the cicadas for. Every three Egyptian days, the 21 players with the most points will receive one speed point, and have the points deducted from their total, equal to the lowest amount of the 21 player’s total points. So you will constantly need to find and place more cages to keep earning speed points. The reward for the Test of the Singing Cicada is increased speed. With increased speed comes faster travel along roads, increase in size of fish caught, and increases chance of not losing any bees when checking apiaries.

At level 12 you will be able to start the Test of the Safari. In the Test of the Safari you are tasked with capturing four each, of seven different animals. This includes Bullfrogs, Desert Rats, Fennec, Gazelle, Falcons, Ibis and Otters. Each animal requires a different and unique approach to capture.

Bullfrogs are not visible; are found only near water, and can only be heard at night in Egypt between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Capture requires listening to the chirps of the frogs to locate where they are hiding, so you can attempt to capture one.

Desert Rats can be found only in the desert. This is yet another animal that cannot be seen, but you can see his tracks in the desert sand. If you find some fresh tracks, you must follow the tracks till you come to the most recent tracks. Recent tracks are close together, whereas older tracks are far apart. He can only be tracked in the desert. Once you have found his most recent tracks, you can place a cage and attempt to capture him.

For Fennecs, you will need to capture four out of seven unique breeds of Fennec. Capturing Fennec requires placing traps in the desert. Each morning around 4 a.m. the fennecs migrate and move to a new location. If fennecs have migrated to within 250 – 600 coordinates of your cage, you will receive a message saying that you see signs when you check your cages. If they have moved into an area where you have cages, when you check, you will receive confirmation of catch and which species of fennec you captured. If there are no fennecs within 1000 coordinates, your trap will be perfectly clean. Gazelles can be found at random wandering around Egypt.

Gazelles require a group effort. If you get too close to a gazelle, he will dash off away from you before you can touch him. To capture a gazelle, you will need a group of players coordinating together to surround the gazelle and move in together in unison to send the gazelle dashing back and forth trying to avoid players till it gets tired. Once the gazelle tires, the players have just a few seconds to click on the gazelle and score a capture.

Falcons will require the use of rabbits. You must drop a rabbit upon the ground. After a few minutes the rabbit will disappear, and you will receive a message that a falcon has grabbed it and flew off in a certain direction. You keep repeating this process until you narrow down the tree in which the falcon has nested. Upon searching the correct tree, you will capture the falcon. Falcons can sometimes fly long distances and as you get close; the falcon may fly in different direction to draw you away from its home tree. Ibis are found only during the day between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. and are only found near water. They can be found in groups of twenty-one. Each evening after 6 p.m. the remaining flock, if any, disappears and will reappear in a new location the next day.

Otters can be found at random anywhere in Egypt. They are recognized by the holes they dig. When you find an otter, you will find twelve holes in the ground making up the Otter’s home. You can place boards into the holes in the ground to keep the Otter from moving to a new hole, but you can only have three boards in three different holes at a time. If you have more than three holes covered, the Otter will eat one of your boards. The key to capturing an Otter is to map his routes between holes and figure out which route has only three escape routes; block the three possible routes with boards, and then capture the Otter. If there is more than three escape routes, the Otter will run into any open route not blocked by a board.

Upon catching four each of the seven different animals, you will pass the Test of the Safari. The reward for the Test of the Safari is the gain of one Strength point for every four animals captured. Increased Strength increases the amount of weight you can carry, how fast you can mine, stir cement, wind a Deep Well, and crack coconuts. This reward goes well with the Dexterity from the Test of Acrobat reward, which will allow you to carry more stuff.

Upon reaching level 15, you will be able to start the Test of Darkest Night. Upon signing up for the Test of Darkest Night at the University of Body, you will be given a random list of five different mushrooms. You are then tasked with finding and eating, fresh from the ground, seven of each mushroom type on your list. You cannot eat mushrooms already picked; they must be eaten fresh from the ground to count for the test. Mushrooms can be found at any time of day, though most are found during the night. They can also be found anywhere throughout Egypt. Upon completion of the list, you must return to the University of Body, and receive a new list of five new mushrooms to eat. As you complete each list and turn them in, you will receive Constitution points. Upon reaching seven Constitution, you will pass the test. The reward for the Test of Darkest Night is increased Constitution; this reduces the timer on Fumeology, the Chemistry Lab, and the Toxin Kitchen.

That covers all the released Body tests to date. There are two more tests yet to be released, as well as, the Tale III Monument Test. I will cover these tests, at a later date, once they have been released.