Marauding in Mii Trek

The exploration game of the third bundle, Mii Trek has plenty of secrets to uncover.  For instance, you don't actually need to explore everywhere or leave no stone unturned in order to complete the game.

The first thing you'll probably notice is that you can accomplish precisely nothing in this game by touching the touchscreen.  I don't know why this design choice was made, but we've all got to live with it.

The distance you get to cover is determined by the step counts of the Miis you StreetPass, however, there's a minimum of 500 steps.  Special Miis will give you a hefty 30000 steps to work with.  You absolutely want as many people as possible, to maximize the amount you'll be able to get done.  Make use of the Plaza Update 5.0's new "Send to Line" feature if you're at a convention or in Japan or something to make sure you've got ten, and if you just can't get to ten, top off with Play Coins.

Due to having a limited distance that you can possibly cover in each play session, that changes wildly between play sessions, this game can take a while.  It's a toss-up between this and Feed Mii as to which is actually longer.

Whenever going into a new area, your first priority is finding the Ancient Compass.  This will give you an arrow that always points at the red X that marks the location of the chest containing the artifact you're looking for.  The Ancient Compass can be found in one of the backpacks in the area, so go to them before anything else.  If you end up at a chest, just choose to not open it.  The game's nice like that.

Next priority is getting all of the backpacks.  Among other things, backpacks can contain Tranquilizer Darts, which are necessary to pacify various wild beasts you'll come across.  If you're out of them, a couple of the Miis in your party will get scared off and you won't be able to explore as far in this session.  Since most of the animal locations are marked on the map, just try your best to avoid them in order to conserve darts.

Another item you can get from the backpacks is a vial of water.  It can either be stagnant water, which makes your steps count down faster, or water from the fountain of youth, which makes your steps count down slower.  It's a 50/50 shot, and I always take it.  There's always more StreetPasses and Play Coins to be had, so why not?

Next priority is the camera icons.  At these locations, a shadow will pass by.  Press A when it's in the middle of the screen to take a picture.  Hopefully, if you're lucky, you'll get a picture you haven't already gotten before.  I tried to go for completionism here, but I ended up giving up in favor of just getting through the game.  The RNG on the pictures is almost as frustratingly bad as Ultimate Angler's RNG.

Occasionally you'll encounter an obstacle that requires a specific input to pass.  Some of these are labelled on the map, others aren't.  Pay attention to the top screen, as it tells you what to press.  Doing it right means you lose no steps or explorers in the process.  Get it wrong and you get penalized.

Once you've gotten all the backpacks and pictures, head to the red X that the Ancient Compass is pointing to and get your artifact.  Congratulations, the rest of the steps you had for that session are effectively wasted.  But next time, you get to explore an entirely new area!

I hope this post helps all you intrepid explorers out there have fulfilling expeditions!