Month: October 2023

Merge Mansion — 2023 The Pirates of Hopewell Bay Event

writ­ten 10/22/2023, updat­ed 10/30/23

What

Col­lect and Build: Pirate Ship

Quick Jump

  1. Merg­ing Chains (A‑Z)
    1. Adven­ture Plans
    2. Antique Fur­ni­ture
    3. Bat­tery Pack
    4. Boul­ton Attic
    5. Boul­ton Garage
    6. Clock
    7. Cos­tume Store
    8. Met­al Detec­tor
    9. Mys­te­ri­ous Chest
    10. Pirate Cap­tain’s Out­fit
    11. Pirate Coins
    12. Pirate Cos­tume
    13. Sea­far­ing Sup­plies
    14. Ulti­mate Pirate Trea­sure

Main Game Merge Man­sion Item Guide (click me!)

Merging Chains (A‑Z)

Adventure Plans

From: Sea­far­ing Sup­plies

Items Obtained: Pirate Coins, Light­house (after exhaust­ing taps)

Cas­cade: Note­book > Open Note­book > Note­book & Pen­cil > Back­pack > Desk Draw­er > Desk & Paper Frag­ments > Map Frag­ments > Trea­sure Map (max)

Taps: 5 taps

Item Text: “A lit­tle book to write things down; Blank pages for lots of ideas; Write a list of every­thing oyu need for the adven­ture; Did you pack every­thing; A draw­er full of paper frag­ments; What is writ­ten on these papers; These look like they fit togeth­er; A map that leads to a pirate trea­sure”

Antique Furniture

From: Boul­ton Attic

Items Obtained: Pirate Coins

Chain: Dusty Han­dle > Brass Han­dle > Table Leg > Table Parts > Antique Table > Antique Chair > Antique Arm Chair > Antique Map > Sea­far­ing Equip­ment > Antique Desk (max)

Taps: 10 taps

Item Text: “Where is this old han­dle from; This could be from an old cof­fer; There’s a three-legged table some­where; Still a few parts miss­ing; Turn an old table into some­thing more excit­ing; What a fan­cy chair; This could be from a pirate cap­tain’s cab­in; A map… but no trea­sure marked on it; You can see real­ly far with this thing; This looks promis­ing!”

Battery Pack

From: Boul­ton Attic (rare), Boul­ton Garage (rare), Sea­far­ing Sup­plies (rare) Event Store

Chain: Nor­mal Bat­tery > Two Bat­ter­ies > Extra Pow­er­ful Bat­ter­ies > Big Bat­tery > Bat­tery Pack (max)

Note: Get 1 Nor­mal Bat­tery free every 6 hours from Event Store

Item Text: “Col­lect some bat­ter­ies for the met­al detec­tor; How many bat­ter­ies do you need for the met­al detec­tor; Will these bat­ter­ies be enough to find the key; This one could be enough to find trea­sure; Put this in the met­al detec­tor!”

Boulton Attic

From: Event Start

Items Obtained: Antique Fur­ni­ture lvls 1–3; Mys­te­ri­ous Chest lvls 1–3

Chain: Lad­der > Stair­case > Attic Door > Boul­ton Attic (max)

Taps: 80 taps @ 4 hours

Item Text: “First, climb the lad­der; Then up the creaky stairs; Step through the attic door; The attic is full of old stuff!”

Boulton Garage

From: Cob­web Box

Items Obtained: Sea­far­ing Sup­plies lvls 1–2, Met­al Detec­tor lvls 1–3

Item Text: “You will find what you need here”

Clock

From: Mys­te­ri­ous Chest

Chain: Pock­et Watch > Man­tel Clock > Shelf Clock > ?? (max)

Item Text: “A small time­piece to keep with you; An old clock still keeps tick­ing; Tick-tock! It’s time for an adven­ture; ”

Costume Store

From: Sea­far­ing Sup­plies (rare)

Chain: Phone Book Page > Torn Coupon > Cos­tume Store Coupon > Hal­loween Cos­tume Coupon > Cos­tume Store (max)

Item Text: “All the phone num­bers you need; You’ve got to love a dis­count; This coupon will get you an amaz­ing out­fit; Remem­ber to dress the part; Now, find the per­fect out­fit!”

Metal Detector

From: Boul­ton Garage

Items Obtained: Pirate Coins, Mys­te­ri­ous Key

Chain: Bro­ken Wires > Bunch of Wires > Ear­buds > Con­trol Box > Han­dle > Pick-Up Coil > Met­al Detec­tor Parts > Met­al Detec­tor (max)

Note: Feed Bat­tery Pack to Met­al Detec­tor

Taps: 3 taps

Item Text: “Con­nect the wires to make the met­al detec­tor; The met­al detec­tor needs good hard­ware; To hear if there’s some­thing buried; The loud­er the “BEEP”, [sic] the big­ger the trea­sure; Hold on tight. You might find some­thing; Keep this close to the ground; Put all the parts togeth­er; The met­al detec­tor is ready — just add bat­ter­ies”

Mysterious Chest

From: Boul­ton Attic

Items Obtained: Pirate Coins, Pirate Cap­tain’s Out­fit lvls 1–3, Pock­et Watch (after exhaust­ing taps)

Chain: Small Box > Hinged Box > Round Box > Locked Box > Jew­el­ry Box > Small Chest > Fan­cy Chest (max)

Note: Feed Mys­te­ri­ous Key (Met­al Detec­tor)

Taps: 14+14 taps @ 1‑hour wait

Item Text: “What’s this lit­tle thing hid­ing; This box could be ta hun­dred years old; More secrets to unlock; This is too small to be a trea­sure chest; A box for very valu­able things; IS there a trea­sure in here; Looks like a real pirate chest!”

Pirate Captain’s Outfit

From: Mys­te­ri­ous Chest

Items Obtained: Pirate Coins

Chain: Old Glove > Old Boot > Peg Leg > Spy­glass > Mus­ket > Cut­lass > Pirate Cap­tain’s Out­fit (max)

Taps: 6 + 6 taps @ 30-minute wait

Item Text: “A stur­dy leather glove; This boot was made for sail­ing; A sign of a prop­er pirate; To peer at dis­tant hori­zons; Lock, stock and bar­rel; A pirate’s weapon of choice; The most impres­sive garb”

Pirate Coins

From: Antique Desk, Met­al Detec­tor, Mys­te­ri­ous Chest, Pirate Out­fit, Pirate Cap­tain’s Out­fit, Sea­far­ing Sup­plies

Chain: Cop­per Far­thing (2) > Half­pence & Far­things (4) > Pen­nies & Shillings (8) > Pound Coin (15) > Escu­do (30) > Pieces of Eight (60) > Dou­bloon Stack (250) > ?? > ?? > ?? (max)

Note: Dou­ble-tap to earn event points

Pirate Costume

From: Cos­tume Store, Event Store

Items Obtained: Pirate Coins

Chain: Hook > Eye Patch > Scarf > Tri­corne Hat > Belt & Sword > Stripy Pants > Pirate Shirt > Pirate Out­fit (max)

Taps: 9 + 9 taps, 30-minute wait

Item Text: “A hook for a hand — excel­lent; A must-have for every pirate; A col­or­ful scarf fit for a pirate; A (some­what) gen­uine Pirate Hat; A prop­er buc­ca­neer needs a good belt; These have the right kind of look; Not fan­cy, but per­fect for a pirate; The coolest pirate out­fit you’ve ever seen”

Seafaring Supplies

From: Boul­ton Garage

Items Obtained: Pirate Coins, Bat­ter­ies (rare), Phone Book Page (Cos­tume Store — after exhaust­ing taps)

Chain: Rope > Anchor > Com­pass > Mod­ern GPS > Sea­far­ing Sup­plies (max)

Taps: 54 Taps

Item Text: “If you’re head­ed out to sea, you def­i­nite­ly need rope; Anchors aweigh! It’s time to sail; To help you keep your course true; A lit­tle bit of tech­nol­o­gy nev­er hurt; This box has every­thing you need!”

Ultimate Pirate Treasure

From: Trea­sure Map (Adven­ture Plans)

Chain: Strange Light­house > Light­house Ruins > Pier & Boat > ?? > ?? > ?? (max)

Item Text: “The light­house shows you the way; A lost light­house from a long time ago; Row this boat to where X marks the spot”

Old Fashioned Apple Dumplings

writ­ten 10/15/2023

What

Old-Fash­ioned Apple Dumplings: Peeled and Cored apples wrapped in dough and baked

Ingredients

Main: Apples, Brown Sug­ar, Gran­u­lat­ed Sug­ar, Apple Pie Sea­son­ings (cin­na­mon, nut­meg, all­spice, or what­ev­er you’d like), But­ter (reg­u­lar or veg­an), Dough (hand­made or bought pie crust), water/apple juice

Sup­plies: Peel­er, Cor­er, Bak­ing Dish, Roller, Work Sur­face, Saucepan, Bast­ing Brush

Option­al: Ice Cream

Time

1 hour (peel, core, roll, wrap, and make sauce) + 1 hour (bake) = 2 hours Total

Making

  • Choose your apples
  • Peel and core them
  • Pre­heat the oven to 375F (190C)
  • Acquire and roll out the dough (whether you make it or buy pie crust)
  • Place the apple in the mid­dle, and then cut a rough­ly cross shape
  • Using a 2:1 Brown Sug­ar to White Sug­ar mix + apple pie spices, put a bit inside the cored-out area, plus a dol­lop of but­ter (I topped mine off with some more sug­ar)
  • Add some around the base of the apple
  • Wet­ting the pieces so they stick (I used apple juice), wrap the apple up
  • If you’d like, this is where you can get cre­ative with hid­ing the seams or using them to your dec­o­ra­tive advan­tage (I used some dough to make fun shapes)
  • Put apples on a bak­ing dish
  • In the saucepan, add but­ter + brown sug­ar + apple juice (I used the apple juice from wet­ting the dough and the sug­ar mix­ture)
  • Stir it fre­quent­ly until it becomes a syrupy sauce
  • Using a bast­ing brush, brush it onto the sur­face of the apples
  • Bake for 50–55 min­utes
  • Take it out, and use remain­ing sauce to drizzle/brush over­top

EAT with ice cream

Notes

I had to bake mine for 1 hour and 30 min­utes because I made the mis­take of using ALL of the sauce over­top the apples which then cre­at­ed a pool at the bot­tom of the dish. AVOID THIS. I spec­u­late that’s why it took so long to bake. That’s why I rec­om­mend just brush­ing it over­top and not pour­ing over the top like most recipes call for

Over­bak­ing caus­es the apples to dry out and the tops to get super hard espe­cial­ly with the sauce over top

If you don’t like crust (like me), make that dough THIN

I don’t think I’d do this again, instead opt­ing for cut apples in a bak­ing dish and a lay­er of dough over­top that with fun shapes. I’m not a mas­sive fan of crust

If I were to do it again, though, I’d roll the crust thin­ner, and maybe add some liq­uid to the inside of the apple (con­tem­plate leav­ing the bot­tom of the apple or mak­ing the crust thick­er there). It just felt dry even if I did over­bake it

Be care­ful of the seams that will bust open and release any sauce inside