Test of the Singing Cicada - Guide

I set out to write a basic guide to the Test of the Singing Cicada. There are several ways to pass this test, but this guide only covers finding and placing cages on your own. In this guide you will not find nest locations but basic ideas on where to look for and where to place cages. Hopefully this helps.

Where to look:

• Head out from the region centers. If you see a compound, mine, brickrack, or something else that is player built you are unlikely to find a cicada nest. The exception to this rule I have found so far was a fennec trap.
• Look for mountains, cliffs, or canyons. People often place cages near, on, or in them. Cliffs can hide the sound of a nest and make it harder to access.
• Search areas completely. You don't have to walk a grid pattern but you can find other worthwhile items in your search (herbs, gazelles, shrooms, desert rats). Finding a nest will take TIME, so don't go out to find nests only.

What to take when looking for cages:

• Take a ferryboat kit (4 tar, 20 wood, 20 boards, 4 rope, 1 sail)
• Take safari stuff (2 canvas, 2 rope, 16 boards + 50 to 100 boards for a otter)
• Take a fishing pole

Where to place cages:

Place your cage somewhere hard to get to or not easily stumbled across. Good locations include: High mountains far from region centers; canyons or cliffs that are difficult to access; islands; middle of the desert etc.

• High mountains that have extremely difficult terrain are normally great places to hide nests. If it takes 30 minutes to climb to the perfect spot from the base of the mount great! Try running up and down the mountain a few times and see how long it takes you along the fastest path. If there's a School or University at the base of the mountain look for another site. Look for a mountain that is difficult to see on the map (all desert, part of a large mountain range, grassy etc)
• Canyons and Cliffs can be a great place or a horrid one. Run around these areas and try and remember how difficult it was to get to this site. Did you run for at least 5 minutes from the entry or nearest access to this area? If not, write down the coords and look abit more, you might find a better area a little further on. With luck someone will be on the wrong side of the cliff/canyon and be unable to find a route to the cage. Remember people look to these areas for finding cages because they know that you'll place them here, so don't make it easy for them.
• Islands are good and bad. Never drop your cage on the first island you come across. Try island hopping, sailing from the shore to island #1, then from island 1 to 2 etc. Finally drop the cage on the furthest point from the shore. If you're lucky you'll need to be right on the shoreline to hear the cage.
• Middle of the desert... this is one of the more difficult locations for finding cages, but you need to do a little work before dropping a cage somewhere in the desert. Check the map: Are there any landmarks, grassy areas, near tarpits or sulfurous lakes? Pull out a dowsing rod and hunt around, any thing other than sand? Write down the coords and walk around the area. Do you see any fennec traps, mines, or anything else that might cause people to come by? If you answered yes to any of these, then move on. There is a lot of desert.

What to take while placing cages:

• Everything you would take to find cages as well as, 4 boards and 1 linen per cage you plan on placing.
• A dowsing rod (look for any veins someone might be following)

Things to remember:

• The person that finds your cage may not even be looking for cages, try your best to keep this from happening!
• Plan on spending several hours looking, and have a pen and paper ready in case you find a good location for placing a cage.
• Talk to people that have passed the Test. Some will be willing to give you hints on where they have had the best luck.
• NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, place your cage near another! Each cage has an area that the sound of the cage can be heard in. The more cages in an area, the more likely your cage will be found.
• You get points for how long your cages are not found and for the cages you find. Hide your cages well.

This is a basic guide. None of what is stated here is guaranteed to get you to passing the Test. It will, however, give you a start.

-- Narathena

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Comments from the Forums:

Of course the flip side is that the hard to reach/inaccessible areas become the first areas checked when looking for cages. It almost becomes a case of ... if you think it's a good place to hide a cage chances are good that's where a lot of people are going to LOOK for the cage.

Many of my longest lasting cages last telling were about 70-80 coords away from roads ... why? because most people that close to a road are using the road, and if they are Cicada hunters they don't expect one to be that accessible.

The reason that 'hard to reach' spots are 'good' for cage placement is simply that you make the placement hard enough to reach that some hunters will give up and decide that it isn't worth their time. Some will give up, some will fight through it and get the cicada and admire your tenacity in placing it, others will, however, fight through it, triumphantly take their well earned cicada and then drag your cage out to the nearest road for turning a body test into a thought test. But then again if it's a hard to reach area there's a good chance that it will itself attract the attention of other bug hunters.

In hunting you need to outsmart the placers ... in placing you need to outsmart the hunters ... in the end any non-populated area is a good place to place ... and thus any non-populated area is a good place to look.

-- Tahrqa

1. When placing a cage, the radius of sound around the cage is smaller before you hit the build button than after you hit the build button. Keep this in mind if you are using a friend to see how far a cage can be heard when picking the exact placement location.

2. The radius of sound on a cicada cage is greater than the radius of view on a fennec trap. I have had at least four cages placed within hearing distance of my traps, which makes them easy pickings.

I'd like to see the test changed so the points you get for finding a cage is determined not only by how long the cage has been undisturbed before you take a cicada, but also how long it remains undisturbed after you take one. On several occasions I have found a cage within a few hours of its placement, and then come back several days later to find I was the last person to touch it. This would also encourage cicada hunters to avoid revealing cage locations as they would be losing points as well.

-- Imhlat