How to get more Gloom Rat Tails, Goblin Ears, Wolf Hairs, and Thief Cloaks

Do you need a Gloom Rat Tail in CastleVille, or a Gloom Goblin Ear, Gloom Wolf Hair, or Gloom Thief Cloak?  We can help.  Getting Gloom Beastie components can be time consuming, and it takes a lot of them for certain quests and recipes.  So how can you save yourself some time and get those gloom beast components more quickly?  Simple - it's all about where in your kingdom you clobber them!  Read on to find out how to get more Gloom Rat Tails, Gloom Goblin Ears, Gloom Wolf Hairs, or Gloom Thief Cloaks, and get them faster.

Note that this technique works all kinds of Gloom Beasties, including Gloom Goblins, Gloom Wolves, and Gloom Thieves as well as Gloom Rats.  We'll use Gloom Rats as an example here, but remember that you can do the same thing to get any kind of Gloom Beastie components.

First, the basics.  There are a couple of ways to find gloom rats to banish.  They can appear randomly in your kingdom, and most often when you're harvesting crops.  But the quick and sure way to get one is to use a Gloom Rat Potion, available in the Marketplace for just 5 Reputation hearts.  When you use a Gloom Rat Potion from your Inventory, the beastie appears in your kingdom next to your avatar.  Click to clobber the rat, and repeat until it vanishes.  Each clobber-click gives you an XP point, and a chance for a rat's tail to drop.  You can do this as many times as necessary, summoning and then banishing Gloom Rats until you have as many Gloom Rat Tails as you need.  Tale is a common misspelling of tail.

Now, let's move on to ways you can boost your chances for those Gloom Rat Tails to drop.  First, one simple piece of advice - clobber those rats with your bare hands, not using any weapon.  That's right, no wooden club, no super clobber, no nothing!  Clobbering bare-handed takes more clicks to banish each beastie - and remember that every one of those clicks has a chance to drop the loot you want.  Sometimes you may even get more than one tail from a singe rat this way.  Next, help increase your chances with just a little preparation.  For any loot drop, there's a random factor determining the probability.  Zynga won't give out their secret formula, but it's apparently not just a flat number.  The chance changes depending on your surroundings.  Out in a clear and open space, you won't get very much.  But standing right next to some crops, you've got a much higher chance to get the goods!  That means more Gloom Rat Tails, from fewer Gloom Rats.  In our testing this was borne out by the results.  In an open space, we got just 2 rat tails from banishing 18 gloom rats - about an 11% drop rate.  But surrounded by plots of mature crops, we got 5 rat rails out of just 9 gloom rats - which is a much better rate of 55%.  And in continued game play for several more days, the results have held up.  One word of caution, however - don't completely surround your avatar by plots.  You need to leave at least one space open for the rat to appear, and one space open for loot to drop.

Credit for the tip that started our investigation goes to several CastleVille fans, including those who shared their experiences in this CastleVille fan forum.  And a standard disclaimer applies, of course.  Our testing was done with a small sample size, anecdotal reports can be unreliable, and your mileage may vary.  Did it work for you, or not?  Comment below to share your results!

Update: the same technique also works for other Gloom Beasties, our testing has confirmed.  Get more Gloom Rat Tails, Gloom Goblin Ears, Gloom Wolf Hairs, and Gloom Thief Cloaks with this simple tip!