even with the spell I only manage to get 3-4 pieces (if I'm lucky I get 5 or 6) per spell and without it, as I'm out of monkey fur, once again and out of Bushbucks which I bought with my Friends tokens, I can't get any pieces.
I quit playing a while back but started again so now I have a lot to catch up but nearly every area requires you to finish the map before you can move on and its very hard when you can't get that many map pieces and have a low energy.

I wasn't complaining, just stating something I noticed, no need to attack. And you don;t know why I quit, if it was voluntarily or not. What do you know about my personal situation? Sometimes situation in life come up where games on FB are less important and not everyone has the time to play everyday or even multiple times a day. I know that there weren't spells before, I have been playing. I just heard people saying they finish a map with a spell with half energy, while I go through a spell and still have less than half of the map left.
Guess I won't be voicing anymore concerns or any opinion as you just get attacked

The Event Maps of Christmas and possibly Haloween which varied from 3x3 to 3x4 and 4x4 WERE mostly completed in ONE single Spell. Yes. YOU don't know what you were reading about when people talked about that a lot.

I have never completed a regular 6x5 Map in a single Spell or even 2 of them, but I have completed certain of those full size Maps in a single day.
A Spell is 150 whacks. To get 30 pieces in that is to get a piece every 5 Bushes on average, I highly doubt that ANYONE has ever done that. Two Spells is even pushing the 3x increase in chance of a puzzle piece that a Spell gives.
If by Underground Lake you mean the Center of the Earth, then those friends also might be benefiting from The Magical Hourglass quest item that people below Level 50 can have, that triples XP and I have heard it increases Puzzle Piece drop rate a quite perceptible amount like 10x.
P.S. Many of the mini-zones are initially available to people below Level 50, and they were not invented until people like Monica and I were above Level 110, not that it matters WE never got the advanced benefit of that Quest Item. And if you have recently passed over Level 50 then you might be feeling the pain of the loss of usefulness of that particular thing and not realize it. Check your Inventory for that item and see what it says.

I kind of think that the mini-zones are for top level people who are done everything else. They each take several days, perhaps up to 2 weeks, and a lot of energy, and increase your Level by perhaps 5. So they are good for people who have to wait several levels for more of the Kings Quests, or to open farther areas if they completed earlier stuff sooner then later.

But I think the main zones are what's really important. If you are underwater then you should finish that because you can go east in the Desert into the Jungles (as early as level 88) but to complete the Jungles and start the Caves above them you have to finish the Kings Quest Underwater.

here is a 'timeline' of the zones with whackable squares:
Forest 4
Swamp 5
optional Friend 3 (no puzzle monsters)
Mountain 6
Snowy 8
Desert 8
Island 8
Desert City 8
Haunted Forest 8
Scientists Castle 8
Underwater 14
Jungle 16
Caves 16

and the optional mini zones:
Far Away Lands 7
Pyramid 8
Center of the Earth 7
Wonderland 7
Pirate Island 7
Haven Crypts 8

and the unnamed last main map zone that I call 'Twiggy' 4 or 4&4 it's really 2 zones in one, earlier people can start half of it.
and if you're ever curious why the profiles list a certain number for monsters, Christmas 2011 had 10 whackable squares. So did Halloween 2011 but those didn't have monsters and it's puzzle pieeces didn't count either.

Actually, in my opinion, it's kind of nice that you won't be "caught up" by the next update. There are a few of us on the higher levels that post here that get "stuck" with only repeatable quests while waiting for updates. It's fine, because we can accumulate tokens for energy, but to me it's kind of dull. I actually restarted the game on another site, so I can re-experience all those quests I've forgotten.
And please don't take Raymond's tone too seriously...he's our Rainman or perhaps "Beautiful Mind"--he is very helpful and has a lot of information, but is a little impatient with human flaws and means no harm and actually has a great, dry sense of humor...RIGHT, RAY?!

For the mini zones -- start each one as early as possible. No need to try and complete them unless you want to, just start them to establish the bush level as low as possible.

arrgh, I convinced myself to at least start the mini-zones in my second account, and wouldn't you know it, I can no longer verify CI's there because of the slug.
I think that the wording of that should say in addition to what it already says, something like, "Oh and you have 89 Hats but you can't use any of them for now" with that number appropriate to each person.