Tests > Test Of The Safari > Frog Hunting

How to Catch A Frog

I have been using this method since Tale 2, and having taught to a few people, and been told a few times I should post it to the wiki, I am finally doing so. This is method to catch frogs as employed by me and I have found it very simple and straightforward, almost guaranteed to catch your little froggie first time through, your mileage may vary.

What you need:

1. The catching of frogs depends on the ability to distinguish between the strength of the left and right channels of the audio output. Many people use either decent stereo speakers or headphones, though I personally prefer headphones to reduce background noise. If you have neither of those, or are hearing impaired there is still hope. When safari first came out in Tale 2, I did not have either good speakers or headphones, someone clued me into the idea of getting a “sound visualizer”, a program the visually displayed the audio channels on the screen.

What you need to know:

1. The direction of a sound is based on which way the CAMERA is facing, not your avatar. You can see this by standing where you can hear apiaries, swing your camera around without moving your avatar, the sound will switch from side to side
2. The apparently volume of sounds in the game is dependent on distance from the source. You will see this in many things, such as cicada cages. Far away they are a barely audible noise, up close they can rattle the windows.
3. Frogs (and cicadas for that matter) can be heard at most sixty (60) coordinates away.
4. There can be more than one frog within audible range of a given spot. This does make it more challenging because you will hear him from one direction then another. The easiest way to tell if you have two frogs is by sound level intensity, remember sound level is based on distance, so if one direction sounds louder than the other, you probably have more than one frog working. While it is more challenging and can take more “gut and feel” the good news is you have your next frog to find already located.
5. Many people will tell you about the “shadow that used to be there”, don't worry about not being able to see it anymore. In two tellings, catching more frogs than I care to count, I have seen the shadow very few times. So long as you can get the sound out in some manner you can tell left from right channels, you don't need the shadow one bit.

Where to look:

1. First you need to find a frog before you can catch them. Frogs can appear next to any body of water in Egypt, they are very common. But there is a catch, you want to find a frog that is easier to catch. You can do this by changing where you look, specifically spend your time looking on the sea shore, such as the Red Sea coast or the Mediterranean coast. The reason for this is simple, if you find a frog near a body of water that you can see the other shore, he could be on the side you start or he could be on the other side. By removing on of the shores you remove this condition.

What to do:

Now that you have found your frog, you want to catch him.

1. STOP running
2. Swing you camera so that it is looking out over the water perpendicular to the plane of the shoreline.
3. Listen for the frog, note down which side you hear him on, right or left
4. Swing you camera around 180 degrees so that it is looking in over the land, still perpendicular to the plane of the shoreline
5. Listen again, when you hear the frog, it should have switched sides.
   1. The swinging the camera bit around isn't strictly needed, but I find it is helpful in making sure my first bearing is correct.
6. Mark this spot. I like to drop 1 mud or 1 sand to mark the spot. This is simply because where you are hunting frogs mud and sand are readily available. The trick here is to uses one when you hear him on the left, the other when you hear him on the right. It doesn't matter which one you use on which side, so long as you always use the same one when you hear the frog in that direction
7. Run down the shore a ways, remembering that you can only hear the frog from sixty (60) coordinates away, so not too far. I like to run about forty coordinates, or to a decent looking landmark.
8. From this new spot, listen again. If the frog in the same direction as before you haven't gone far enough, mark this spot with mud or sand as above and move further down the coast. Hopefully he changed direction on you (changed ears), mark this spot with the mud or sand, whichever one you DIDN'T use before.
9. Now we should have one mud and one sand marking the bounds of our search area. We know are frog is in there somewhere, we just have to find him.
10. Move to a point about half way between your two bounds. Listen for the frog.
11. When you hear him, again mark the direction.
12. Move to a point about halfway from this spot to the bound on the side you heard the frog.
13. Repeat process; listen, mark, move halfway until you have a space about as wide as your avatar.
    1. When you are on top of the frog it will be LOUD. If you have gotten to the spacing about as wide as your avatar and it is still quiet, you aren't in the right spot
14. When you have your space about as wide as your avatar and the frog is LOUD, it is time to POUNCE and catch your frog.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting - Telanoc