BRAIN TREE - Halloween is right around the corner. *Peeks around corner to
be sure* Yup, there it is all right. And Halloween is all about Spooky things
and begging for food. And that being true, then I would have to say the Esophagor
is the Poster Child of Neopet Halloweendom. "So what does this have to do with
Brain Tree Quests?" you might ask in a very snippy way. But I will answer you
anyway. And here is my answer: "A lot."
Okay, let's start at the beginning. The Defenders
of Neopia has launched a new mission and the challenger, just in time
for Halloween, is the king of the Haunted Woods--the Brain Tree!
I must confess I was a little nervous about this when I first read the news.
It had taken me six tries to finally defeat the LAST bad guy for a Defenders
of Neopia Mission 4 trophy. If you haven't gotten to Mission 4 yet, the evil
nemesis is Meuka. Meuka has a difficulty level of 60 and totally creamed me
five times with a Meuka's Snot Trail thingy. I finally wrestled him down and
beat him with a whopping 3 hit points to spare. Now there is the Brain Tree
who has a difficulty level of 91. I KNEW I was going to be impaled on a Brain
Tree Branch if I even THOUGHT about going up against him.
I happened to notice that a very famous Neopian Times writer, tdyans, had
a Defenders of Neopia Mission 5 trophy, so I thought I would take a chance and
ask her about it. Our conversation went something like this:
stoneman3x: "I see you have a Defenders of Neopia Mission 5 trophy."
tdyans: "Yup."
stoneman3x: "I want one too."
tdyans: "That's nice."
stoneman3x: "Can I have yours?"
tdyans: "No."
stoneman3x: "Waaaaahhhhh!!!"
I guess she must hate to see guys weeping uncontrollably, because she gave
me some advice on how to get a Defenders of Neopia Mission 5 trophy. The first
piece of advice she gave me was about the Brain Tree. The advice she gave me
was that if I didn't have the Brain Tree as a challenger already I would have
to go out and get challenged by the Brain Tree. I replied, "Cool!" and then
I asked, "What's a Brain Tree?" It took poor tdyans six extremely long Neomails
to spell the whole thing out for me. The last time I was walked through something
step-by-step like this was when I was 11 months old and my Mom walked me through
WALKING, step-by-step.
So here is how it goes:
Step One: Getting Challenged by the Brain Tree
There is only one sure way to get challenged by the Brain Tree. You have
to complete a Brain Tree quest. The best way to do this is to go to the Haunted
Woods. You can also go to Terror Mountain if want, but the Brain Tree is in
the Haunted Woods, so it's pointless to go to Terror Mountain. I say that because
that was news to me. I thought you could find brainy trees anywhere.
Okay, now here is the tricky part, so follow closely. Not THAT close! You're
breathing down my neck! Okay, where was I? Oh, yes, the Haunted Woods. In order
to complete a Brain Tree Quest so you can get challenged by the Brain Tree so
you can fight the Brain Tree in the Battledome so you can win a Defenders of
Neopia Mission 5 trophy, you have to answer the Brain Tree's question. And it's
not an easy question like, "What did Mr. Shankly eat for dinner last night?"
No, he asks you something hard like, "Rupert Meerca died a long time ago,
and I need to know where, and when, for my records. You must go and find this
information out. Return to me within 0 hours and 57 mins, and I shall give you
a prize." And if you're anything like me, the first thing that goes through
your mind is, "Huh?"
Step Two: Getting the Answer to the Brain Tree's Question
There is only one way to get the answer to the Brain Tree's question. You
have to complete ESOPHAGOR quests! If you feel the need to groan and roll your
eyes, please feel free to go ahead and do that. And if you're done doing that,
then I will add this little bit of good news. You have to complete TWO Esophagor
quests. If you need to go ahead and faint now, I'll wait until you're out of
your coma to continue.
Awake yet? Great! When you complete one Esophagor quest he will give you the
answer to "where" When you complete the other quest he will give you the answer
to "when". So... in order to answer the Brain Tree's question so you can complete
a Brain Tree Quest so you can get challenged by the Brain Tree so you can fight
the Brain Tree in the Battledome so you can win a Defenders of Neopia Mission
5 trophy, you have to complete two Esophagor quests. Are we having fun yet?
Step Three: Completing the Esophagor Quests
Okay, now you have to trot next door to the Esophagor and accept his quest
for several different food items. He asked me for three. He wanted Peanut Butter
Spiders, Claw-Matoe and Sun Dried Techo Claw. I got kind of queasy thinking
about one-armed Techos lying around in the sun somewhere, so I zipped off to
the Shop Wizard as fast as I could.
I figured the Peanut Butter Spiders would be the hard part because I remembered
I once got a Sun Dried Techo Claw at the Igloo Garage Sale for something like
75 Neopoints. The Peanut Butter Spiders cost me 990 Neopoints and the Claw-Matoe
cost me 550 Neopoints, but I figured I was on easy street now, right? Wrong.
For some odd reason those Techos have begun running out of spare claws because
a Sun Dried Techo Claw now cost me 1,220 Neopoints. But at least I now had the
answer to "when".
I went back in to the Esophagor and he asked for... you got it-- Sun Dried
Techo Claw AGAIN. He also wanted Pumpkin Cookies and Chocolate Covered Peanuts.
Total cost for all six food items? 10,660 Neopoints. But now I knew "where"
too.
Step Four: Completing the Brain Tree Quest
Okay, now you have to rush back to the Brain
Tree in order to complete his quest before your time runs out. Oh, didn't
I mention that? All of these quests have time limits. You can't just accept
a quest and then sit back and wait until you win the Neopian Lottery and can
afford these expensive food items for an oozy slug that looks like he would
be just as happy if you fed him a Very Rotten Tomato. You have to get this stuff
FAST.
Anyway, all you have to do at this point is type in the answers the Esophagor
gave you and the Brain Tree will give you something like a Brain Tree Root and
1,392 Neopoints. At least that's what he gave me. Since the Brain Tree Root
is worth about 125 Neopoints, I figure the whole deal only cost me 9,143 Neopoints.
But now comes the good part. He will then pop up and you will get a message
that reads, "NEW BATTLEDOME CHALLENGER!!! The Brain Tree will be waiting for
you in the BATTLEDOME With its massive intellect, and rather sharp branches,
the Brain Tree can defeat you merely by thinking about it. Be scared!"
Step Five: Defeating the Brain Tree
You're on your own here bud. If I tell you how to do that, where's the fun
in beating him? Besides, I can't remember how I did it. But I think he laughed
himself to death at the weapons I had long before I launched that Laugh Grenade
at him...
Note: Happy Halloween to all Brain Tree conquerors and a special thanks
to tdyans for not putting a block on me in her Neomail. | 
