Shroomie is probably the most famous animal in Uru (Live). Douglas Sharper wrote about it several times in his Teledahn journals. In his office with the aquarium you can see a scale model of shroomie on the desk. In his office in Ae'gura is a drawing of Shroomie on the wall. It's a rather strange creature. It looks like a mixup of shrimp features as well as fish features. So what the creature looks like is well known.
Although getting to see the creature is not that difficult, getting a picture from close by is a lot harder. Shroomie is very elusive. Unlike the animals in the Pod Age, Shroomie is most of the time completely invisible. It will appear only for a few seconds after making that typical sound and then vanish entirely. In that regard, Shroomie behaves more like a ghost ship.
Shroomie always appears at the so called back-side of Teledahn, in the waters surrounding the walkway with the gun or mining tool. (The one used to shoot the big rocks to lower the ladder to the upper office where the last journey cloth of this Age is.) Shroomie does not appear at certain times like the Urwin and the Sandscrit do in the pod Age. So, it is no use just waiting for her to show up. Shroomie's appearances are triggered by the actions of the explorer.
The very first time you visit the walkway with the gun, Shroomie usually appears the moment you walk back into the caves leading to the journey door. This is a one-time trigger, it won't happen again the next times you visit the walkway. To make Shroomie appear again, you need to use the feeding machine at the very end of the walkway. Although the feeding machine is actually feeding the Flappers (the creatures that keep going up and down in Teledahn), Shroomie eats the Flappers and using the feeding machine is one of the triggers to make Shroomie appear. She may appear after just one time pulling the lever or after a dozen times pulling the lever. After she has appeared, it will take at least four minutes before she will show up again. Only the UAM-Shard does not seem to use this four minutes delay.
Since I discovered the four minutes delay between every appearance of Shroomie, I have begun to doubt the effectiveness of walking away from the feeding machine from time to time. The only effect it seems to have is that the timespan of four minutes may have passed when you return to the feeding machine. Besides this four minutes delay, the only other factor that seems to determine whether Shroomie will show herself or not, is a random factor like with a dice.
Every first time you start using the feeding machine, it seems to take a lot longer before Shroomie appears compared to every subsequent use of the feeding machine. In those cases I'm not sure if the dice is simply not rolling favorably, or that some other mechanism is in play. Sometimes, you will hear her typical whale-like sound, but she won't appear. Unfortunately, that also counts as an appearance.
When she appears again, she is most of the time far out in the sea. Nowhere near being close enough for a good picture. However, Sharper's journals offer a clue about how to make Shroomie come closer. She loves Flappers and she hates the sound the machinery makes. Well, that pretty much tells us to open the outer gate and to stop the machinery. If you do that, then you will notice that sometimes Shroomie wil come a bit closer the next times you use the feeding machine.
If you get the feeling that Shroomie is not coming, no matter how many times you pull the lever, you can try walking to the Maintainer marker next to the journey door in the caves. Walking past that marker should reset something, making Shroomie appear sooner the next times you pull the lever. Although I have my doubts about the effectiveness of this tactic, I'm mentioning it here anyway, as it does seem to help sometimes.
In the Open Cave Shard, Shroomie behaves pretty much the same as in 'Myst Online - Uru Live', explained in the previous paragraphs.
There are a few differences: the Open Cave Shard has a full set of ki-commands, giving you the abilty to manipulate the places where Shroomie can appear, not only in the water but also above the water, like hovering over the walkway. She can also be bigger than in MOUL. However, getting her closer requires the use of a set of ki-commands entered prior to using the feeding machine.
In the UAM-Shard you are likely to spot Shroomie more often than in the other Shards. Here, you can stay at the feeding machine and keep pulling the lever. Shroomie will come back without you having to walk away from the feeding machine and back again. I also noticed that if you do walk away from the feeding machine towards the cave, that many times (but not always) Shroomie will appear just before you enter the cave.
Although it is very easy to get Shroomie to show herself as she will do so with almost every pull of the lever at the feeding machine, there are no bots or ki-commands available to bring Shroomie closer.
Shroomie's behaviour in the Gehn Shard is exactly like in MOUL. The only difference being that in the Gehn Shard are no bots to bring Shroomie closer.
For those interested in making a few good pictures of Shroomie, I'd say 'The Open Cave' is the best choice. MOUL(a) used to have the Magic bots that could also bring Shroomie closer to you, but as the Magic bots are no longer around, Moul(a) is no longer an option. Without these bots, Shroomie will only be a few dots in the distance. As far as I can tell, Mir-o-bot does not have any command that will bring Shroomie closer. Some of my Shroomie-pictures here were made using 'Magic Bot' when he was still around.
For those feeling comfortable using ki-commands and object-names, 'The Open Cave' Shard is the best place to make pictures of Shroomie. Although it is more likely to appeal to the more experienced explorers. The TOC Shroomie pictures shown on this page were made with the help of 'Grandbad', who entered the actual ki-commands.
Does it help to open the gate and stop the machinery from making noise? Not much. It looks like Shroomie will only sometimes show up a little closer, but that is still too far away to classify as suitable for a closeby-picture.
As an example of what is possible in 'The Open Cave' Shard, I made a gallery of full-screen pictures. Maybe I will add more pictures over time. Click on the picture below to view the gallery.
