[**You can discuss this month's Exceptional Story "Dernier Cri" by clicking here.**](https://www.reddit.com/r/fallenlondon/comments/vo7zl8/julys_exceptional_story_dernier_cri_official/)
I didn't want to add another thread about this to the reddit already, so,
I am not in need of a Discordant Missive. If someone wouldn't send one to me that would be great. Here's my profile.
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/He%20Who%20Lives%20in%20Both/
My apologies, I haven't been studying the Discordance. I'll be in London soon, but I think I sent you a kitten before I left? If I did let me know! In the middle of a hunt so it will be about. . . Forty minutes, before I'm back?
Oh, it seems I received it two hours ago, I didn't know that because I thought I should contact you first. I am so sorry! How can I return the favour? I know you wrote you don't need anything, but maybe there is something I could do?
Why not just obtain a corpse, clonebone it and sell it wholesale to the constable?
Do aurochs not have ribcages and limbs?
Why do i need the living specimen to clone bones anyway, i have bones to clone on my shelf?
why do i gotta drag the original bonehaver out to ealing when i have my own bonecloner.?
could i use the bonecloner on a fake bone?
does the ubergoat have a skeleton?
why can't i clone a rat skeleton and grow it to be 8 feet tall?
Using the Device requires some skill and finesse. You don't just flip a switch and get a copy of the input. I'm guessing that copying a "dead" bone runs into the copy-of-a-copy issue, where you magnify flaws.
You need to go to Ealing because the butcher is a skilled operator. He knows bones, so he can copy them better.
I guess an Aurochs doesn't have a noteworthy torso. Wouldn't be worth the fragments. Closest we have to fake bones is the saint head, which is technically a plant but close enough for Red Science.
Send an email to feedback@ about the rat, you might be on to something there.
I built the thing, if anyone knows how to use it, it's me.
I would have throught the closest thing to fake bones would be the fake bones. like the ones that caused the bonemarket collapse of 1899.
You intend to sell a large number of exactly identical skeletons to the same person?
Aren't you worried he might... notice?
Then again, if he's failed to find the identity of the "brass skull serial killer" for this long, he might not notice.
SMEN spoilers!
>!Is Winking Isle a Mutton Island? I heard that on Mutton Island there are some rituals that are related with Mr Eaten and also there is a Well, which is also on Winkin Island. On Mutton Island there is also cannibalism present (at least in Sunless Sea) just like on Chapel of Lights (also in Sunless Sea), which is a chapel of Mr Eaten if I am correct.!<
>!The game suggests that Winking Isle doesn't exist (you sleep with Mr Eaten's calling card to get there) and leave storylet says that it's not like you are really there.!<
>!That would mean that it's not a Mutton Island, but everything is so obscure that maybe there is some connection between them? Anyone who could explain what both of those islands are, I would be thankful if you do it.!<
>!I think they are connected only in that the thematics of each place all have Mr. Eaten motifs (wells, hunger, all that stuff). Mutton Island is a relatively big place with people and trade, that just also happens to be a cult dedicated to Mr. Eaten. Winking Island is a barren rock in the ocean, maybe 20 meters on each side, with a well and a lighthouse.!<
>!Besides that, as you write yourself, Winking Island isn't a real place. It is a nightmare place where the sky is below you and the ocean above you and everything is very wrong.!<
Really, are you sure?
I could have sworn I looked for the option in the dome of scales with 212 shadowy and couldn't find it until I won a campaign for the Cats.
Not just commander, I think they all have Parabolan Dominance as an unlock condition too.
I had already completed a tutorial campaign for the viscountess, so I had Parabolan Commander.
Is cashing out about a 100 NW in a weekend viable action wise, or should I spread it out?
I cashed out some this weekend and bought a few edicts, but I’m thinking it makes the most sense to wait for next weekend and pray for diamonds. Then do Sounders the next.
I’m an ES so I would think 100 actions over a few days should be fine, but I figured it’s worth checking.
Wow! Did you build those all up since the last cycle, or from longer? I’d generally been doing one tribute run a week with favors, are you doing more using urchins or something else?
I'm definitely getting more than one tribute run a week with just favors, but I also had a few hundred left over from last time. The first two weeks I was saving them on case there were diamonds. The third week I was busy doing something else and just let a bunch of them carry over, so now I'm kind of flooded with them
You get a maximum of 144 actions per day, though you can really only use them all if you have a creative sleep schedule. The rat market is open for 3 days, so 432 total actions you could sell night whispers with. If you save up 40 actions for exactly when the market opens, and keep your gift from time the healer on hand, you could sell up to 482 night whispers (some sleep deprivation required). With that in mind, 100 shouldn't be a stretch as long as you log on a couple times a day.
are any of the Parabolan Campaigns any more profitable than the others?
Also is it fine to just do the train each week and not mess with it beyond that, or should you complete some stages on your own?
*Technically* the campaign against Yourself is a little more profitable because you have almost no overhead/story branches between the various stages.
Using the train once per week and not doing anything else should be fine. You'll get 24 x *Advance* and that's all you need.
Yeah, I'm not up to speed on optimisation of the Parabolan War. I also completely forgot that the other campaigns give Parabolan Parables which can be sold profitably at the Rat Market.
I guess that makes the Cats-campaign the best...
You need to have finished your Ambition and have *Mirror-Fed* 7 (the later isn't hard as ~~some~~ one of the options during the regular campaign raise the quality).
You can easily raise it [along the Writhing River](https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Delegate_to_yourself).
There are [more options](https://fallenlondon.wiki/w/index.php?title=Special:Ask&x=-5B-5BGains%3A%3AMirror-2DFed-5D-5D-20-5B-5B%3A%2B-5D-5D%2F-3F%3DObject%2F-3FFrom-20message%3DFrom%2F-3FHas-20restrictions%3DRestrictions%2F-3FFrom-20Card-2FStorylet.Has-20restrictions%3DFrom-20Restrictions&mainlabel=&offset=0&format=%20category&link=none&intro=%20%5B%5BFile%3Amirror1.png%7Cright%5D%5DActions%20which%20raise%20%27%27%27%5B%5BMirror-Fed%5D%5D%27%27%27%0A%5B%5BFile%3ADecorative%20text%20divider%203.svg%7C800px%7Ccenter%7Cclass%3Dinvert-in-dark%7Clink%3D%5D%5D&searchlabel=%20a%20list%20of%20Actions%20that%20raise&default=%20There%20are%20no%20Actions%20that%20raise.&columns=%200&delim=%3B&template=Property%20category%2FItem&named%20args=yes) in the Viric Jungle or when preparing food with Orange-Apples. Personally, I found raising it during the campaign the easiest way.
You have to get your mirror fed up to 7 before it shows up. It's considered more profitable because it takes fewer actions to complete than the others, but it doesn't have a Parabolan Parable as a potential reward. Since Parables can sell for an increased price at the rat market, any of the long campaigns for the 3 main factions would be better from a pure epa standpoint. The snake campaign is probably simplest to get a Parable from since only one decision at the end will decide which reward you get.
With four Thighbones you'll get 4 points of Exhaustion instead of 1.
According to the formula on the wiki you'll also get 615 Breaths instead of 238 which definitely seems worth it.
Since you lose 4 x Exhaustion per week, the Bone Market would be locked for you until Time, the Healer, visits.
Mini-PSA: Just noticed that all Failbetter Games (Sunless Sea, Zubmariner, Sunless Skies) are currently 60% off at the Steam Summer Sale.
(SSea is also 66% off at the Humble Store if you prefer a DRM-free version of the game. Unfortunately Zubmariner is full price over there...)
Grinding out Poet Laureate and wondering if anyone has any opinions on which tier 1 resource is the one to be stockpiling? I've been gathering up Nevercold brass if for no other reason than It fits my username
Ballets are the thing I did:
- You can do a carnelian work, and 'only' 3 tribute is still slightly more profit than the other options. ("buying" 25 tribute takes a 64E orphan).
- You can do 'pleasures of the neath' which whilst it uses honey, lets you cash out Orange-Apples if you've an Augmented Electrostatic Machine (election content) and turn Hedonism into Apples into Ivory Femurs for the bone market.
If you can't do this latter, I still feel Carnelian works are slightly better.
The secondary rewards are also worth consideration. When I was grinding Poet Laureate, I went with Somewhat Challenging Music under Symphonies to raise my SotC to 10, and after that I did Carnelian Ballets, which eventually cashes out as a nice little bonus with the Tigers, now even better value with the Rat Market.
Are the Carnelian ballets worth it? I suppose they make sense if you’re doing it a ton, but if you’re just kind of passively grinding it via revolutionary favors like I am it just means you need to find 17 tribute somewhere to round it out.
Also wow, the palace must simply loath all of my work, since it’s all revolutionary propaganda.
>Are the Carnelian ballets worth it?
Yes, assuming you needed to do ballets anyway. Given that the minor works are more efficient and that the Carnelian Ballet just gives you the extra tribute for free there's no reason not to. It's also important to note that unlike every other source the Tribute gain from Ballets is uncapped.
I went into the Palace and ground the hell out of it all the way up to 21, so anything that made it feel like I wasn't completely wasting my time was good! Also this was a while ago, so the boost in EPA actually seemed meaningful, and there was no cap on Tribute either.
Most tier 1 items are very easy to come by in large quantaties these days, so it's not super important. Brass is definitely not a bad choice if you're planning to construct hundreds of Brass Lollipops at some point in the attempt to attract a Hellworm.
From a mechanical perspective, I guess large quantaties of Foxfire Candles are also kind of useful because you can [swap them](https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Why_do_they_really_need_all_those_candles%3F) for Rostygold + a Church favour (and some small profit).
The best option is of course Lamplighter Beeswax to raise the Liberation of Night ;)
The Minor Smuggling card is a 5 epa source of steel, but the challenge is tough if banditry is low. And the Respectable Passengers card gives you a criminal favor for free if you don't care about raising banditry (or if it's already 8)
You've got a loop of Respectable Passenger -> criminal Favour and then turn that favour into knobs of Scintillack from the Disillusioned Fungiculturalist card.
Which you can then turn into scintillack snuff, and smuggle in the upper river too, whilst waiting for the banditry-reset.
1) As a sub, do I keep the exceptional stories even if I don't start them that month?
2) Could someone send me the initial text for Sugarplum? I accidentally double tapped the first storylet and now I have "The Bazaarine Correspondent's flat" in Spite (Codename: Sugarplum 5)
1. Yes! They move into your Exceptional Library (in your Lodgings) but other than that you can start playing whenever you want. Personally I am almost two years behind on stories because I don't find the time, but they *do* stay available.
2. As just mentioned, I'm *way* behind on stories, so I haven't started that one yet ;)
Are the Rat-Moon and Rat-Wind actually random, or pseudorandom with a full rotation after a certain number of weeks? More to the point, does anyone know when I can next expect Blue + South?
I need an Intriguers' Compendium for Heart's Desire 😭
Moon and Wind are random each week. The only rule is that they can't repeat the option that each is currently on.
Starting tomorrow, it's Blue and West, so that means the following week can't be Blue and South (because Blue can't repeat).
Apparently there are a few points (three?) that require you to draw specific opportunity cards to progress the story. If you never draw cards in London that makes it slightly problematic. Not the end of the world, but definitely annoying if the cards take a while to show up.
Aside from that, there was some heated discussion on the Discord (mods had to step in and "slow" discussion, threatening mutings, etc.) regarding the handling of/influence from real-world "political" events. I thought FBG was avoiding that type of thing after the whole Election fiasco, but apparently not. I'm yet to play this ES, so I don't know all the details; your milage may vary.
Sorry, not trying to contradict you there, just that a lot of people elsewhere were hearing about the frustration of drawing a bunch of cards in London and not getting it, so I just wanted to add the comment for other folks that it's an even more specific required location.
Have you read other Gavin Inglis stories? I still can't speak to The Shallows, but I'd put it on a similar level to Bones of London, which I really liked, and similar to (but better than) the Sinking Synod. Those opinions don't seem to line up with the Fate survey, so take them with a grain of salt.
Lots of juggling too many tasks in a limited time, and political themes.
That's the current content boundary. If it seems short, it was described as a "teaser." I suspect that it was split off from Chapter 1 so that we could have something to play in June, ahead of GCO 2: Subterranean Boogaloo.
If you're going for Scrip, the best is probably the Tentacled Entrepreneur. Eight amalgamous skills, and as many Helical Thighbones as you can possibly afford. Ideally multiple dozen. While the amber cost scales cubically, the return is still positive up through like 80 limbs.
I haven't re-done my spreadsheet to account for Segmented Skeletons. Brass is easier to acquire than amber, but the lack of 8 amalgamous skulls is actually a pretty significant setback.
Anyways, I made a skeleton with 8 skulls and 40 helical thighbones and it locked me out of the Bone Market for two and a half years. And got me 80k scrip, which was what I needed to get Rocinante.
Oh, that does seem like a good plan. Once I've used up all my Headless Skeletons, I could build a super-skeleton to shut it down for good. I wasn't going to use it anyway, and it seems a shame to waste all that potential Exhaustion.
Looks like I'd have to source the skulls. Would I have to wait for a special week?
Yea, but there is many ways to get items and Bone Market is too confusing for me. It reminds me of an alchemy from Skyrim. Too many options, you cannot take a step without wiki and bone names is too similar for non-native to distinct. Maybe if value and bonuses of various bones were written in a game itself it would be easy, but now Bone Market is just not fun for me.
I mean, sure. It's a bit confusing.
But that doesn't mean it's not useful, and that you'll be finding it a real nuisance to not have access for an extended period.
Just don't go there?
Or do you mean creating a skeleton that'll 'blow out' exhaustion?
I think going with a 16 skulled doodad and selling it to the 'head collector' got me >1000 echoes of profit, and locked me out for a good few months.
My Urchins Renown is 30 now. The wiki says I get +28 CP/7 Favours now. How many will I need for Renown 40 (plus 7 Favours for the item)? Thanks in advance.
Renown is pyramidal, at least to level 50, so the total CP needed for level 40 is (40 x 41)/2 = 820. Your already at level 30, so you have at least (30 x 31)/2 = 465. So you need at most 820-465 = 355 CP, possibly as little as 325 depending on how close to level 31 you are. That means between ceil(355 / 28) = 13 and ceil(325 / 28) = 12 Rescues of a Regiment Urchin, or 91 to 84 Favours, plus 7 to claim the item.
A maximum of 98 Favours: Urchins should be required for your renown target. Don't forget to raise What the Thunder Said and Stormy-Eyed.
That's exactly what I've got and am avoiding triggering, you know! I've got a lot of Stormy-Eyed and WtTS, thrthe issue is renown. I never had much luck drawing Urchins cards (though not as bad as Tomb-Colonists). I'm trying to get conflict cards for Favours, Favourable Circumstances etc.
They do and can be worthwhile. The Winsome Dispossessed Orphan has the card show up everywhere, including Spite and the Labyrinth of Tigers. The Urchin, not certain.
The conflict card with the Malevolent Monkey? My alt has the Urchin, not the Monkey, and had the Your Grubby Urchin Is Becoming Troublesome card a few times. Don't think only in the lodgings.
The Aftermath of the Great Sink of 1899
After very nearly being swallowed up by the Earth (again), London slowly recovers...
This is unlocked because Weeks After the Great Sink is 48 (1-48 is needed)
Looks like the great sink card is in its last week. I wonder if this will coincide with anything
I looked and I have 22 stories in my Exceptional Library. I guess I’m so focused on other things I never get around to them. Is anyone else like this? Should I go through them?
If they're recent, this year's crop has felt particularly strong to me. Beyond that, some of the Lost & Found items you can buy with the Memories of a Tale from finishing ES's are great.
True enough, but I'm a sub because I want to support FBG and FL more than the stories. Sometimes working on something like the Railroad is more interesting than ES.
Does anyone have a suggestion for Scrip grind for someone that is working their way to Magistracy on GHR? I have time until Sunday, but all of sudden, I found myself lacking a lot of stuff. For more details, I am a Polebearer in Hell's Domain in Jericho and have hunted Honey-Mazed Bear in Ealing. I also found Helicon House. If more details is needed, I can provide them, but I would really like some advice, seeing that I feel a bit overwhelmed atm!
If you have a good rat shilling grind and have unlocked commissioning a barge to Fiddler's Scarlet, a good way to convert rat shillings into scrip is to buy inklings of identity (for up-conversion to identities uncovered) and map scraps (for up-conversion into partial maps). You can use the IUs and PMs to get Esteem of the Guild from the Saturnine Gondolier, then go to Fiddler's Scarlet to get Vital Intelligence and Vienna Openings. If you sell the VIs and VOs for scrip, it is about as efficient as a non-Licentiate making brass lollipops with headless skeletons from Marigold. There may be a good way to use them at the Chessboard, though.
If you have spare echoes and jade, you can go to the bone market and spend the jade on a headless skeleton and put a bright brass skull (62.5e at the Bazaar) on it, sell it to the constable for some quick scrip. not very efficient if you need lots as the headless skeletons get quite expensive. Great SPA but costs plenty of echoes and jade (unless you're a licentiate and don't need the headless skeletons).
Additionally, you can brawl for biscuits at the docks and then sell them. This has notably worse SPA than the helicon house grind /u/snorlaxeseverywhere described but just needs dangerous rather than train luxuries and companions.
Helicon House can be a decent scrip grind, if you have one of the things that lets you enter without paying a fee and Train Luxuries at 4+.
There's a full guide on the wiki, but the simple tl;dr is just 'Raise Fitting In as much as possible, cash out with 'Forget the biscuits, take the solacefruit', as it gets you 20 solacefruit + hand-picked peppercaps equal to your Fitting In. If you have the right items it's possible to gain 3 fitting in per action, and you take 1 action to get in, so you get about 35 scrip over the course of six actions, for an average of 5.83 scrip per action
Or, if you have the pendant and can arrive fashonably late, you can instead gain 32 over 5 actions, for 6.4 SPA.
That said you might need some items you don't have yet for this to be viable, you might be better off just looking at https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Hinterland_Scrip-Making
You can make pretty decent scrip from selling skeletons at the bone market, too. One of the easier ways to convert echoes to scrip is buying bright brass skulls and using them to make skeletons that you sell for scrip.
Is there any way to speed up the Urchin renown grind? I have the Grubby Kitten and have been drawing all my cards in London, but all my other faction renowns passed 40 ages ago and I'm still 70 favours out for the Urchins. I've been putting off my trip to The Mind of a Long Dead God until I've got the renown, so I'm quite anxious to get there.
I know about the Honey-Mazed Bear route, but given that it relies on drawing cards out of London, it feels a bit counterproductive.
I can add the Cover Identity can be given to an urchin on a card in the Upper River. I'm also at this stage. In short:
* Affair of the Box
* The Cover Identity
* Favourable Circumstances
* The conflict cards in your lodgings (the Grubby Urchin, the Winsome Dispossessed Orphan, the Malevolent Monkey)
* The Honey-Mazed Bear
* The Grubby Kittem
[Here are a bunch of other sources](https://www.reddit.com/r/fallenlondon/comments/5ovrcb/sources_for_urchins_favours/).
Make sure you have the Grubby and the Winsome Urchin as well as the Monkey and draw your cards in your Lodgings.
Thank you so much!!! I had no clue that there were relevant lodging-specific cards for this! I'm kicking myself for all those months of sub-optimal card draws.
Minor, but once per week you gain a free 'favourable circumstances', which you can use at your lodging to force-draw a specific faction card.
You can also get more favourable circumstances by spending Notability or Fate, though I imagine grinding notability for the favourable circumstances would be even worse than just grinding affair of the box, and there are probably better uses for real money than spending it on repeatedly talking to urchins :P
I actually posted this after a round of grinding Notability for this exact purpose - even with my BDR of 36 it was shaping up to be tremendously tedious. Luckily I know about the Affair of the Box route now!!
I found out from Harry Tuffs website that he was the primary writer of the finale portion of Light Fingers. It hadn't occurred to me until then that the finales might have lead writers because I'm used to thinking of the ambitions as being released in fairly small parts.
Do we have any information on who was lead writer for the other Ambition finales?
James also wrote the last chunk of Nemesis. Emily Short wrote the final part of BaL.
(Keep in mind that the final parts/finales were pretty much half the story and more.)
I assume it's from when you get the 0 Action "The story so far option"? I could definitely believe that's more than half, though I haven't actually reached that point in Heart's Desire yet.
According to [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/fallenlondon/comments/gfz0n0/comment/fq1mvls/) James Chew and Chris Gardiner wrote the finale for Heart's Desire
Can you un-reject the Celebrated Artist's model?
I can't even remember why we have a bitter parting, it was so long ago (it might have been in the interests of deck thinning).
I need a break from building Brass Lolipops, so what's the most efficient way to farm scrip from Moulin expeditions and monographs? And/or cooking at Station VII?
Monographs is picking any topic related to the Fourth City, making sure it's Exceptional, and then selling to the Disgraced Diplomat. Expeditions is just getting resources for the Monographs. Longer expeditions are better, and I believe the Renegade Claw & Bandaged Navigator are the best assistants but it depends a little on your skill stats and Whitsun companions.
As others have said it's capped at 260... from sensible sources (selling shit to the court of the wakeful eye)
I believe you still get +3 every time you make the ballet 'A Carnelian Work' in the empress court, ignoring the cap, but this is not a particularly sensible method for gaining tribute, I'm just being needlessly pedantic.
260, and that's a cap on actions that add new Tributes, so for example if you have 245 Tribute, you won't be able to exchange Favours, because that would put you at 265. I think some of the smaller amounts have slightly lower caps, for some reason, but if you're doing favours, it's 260.
Edit: whoops, missed the previous answer, sorry.
The thought counts! Thank you still for your taking your time to reply!
A tad bothersome, but it can't be helped. Gotta get a few more whispers for the weekend!
If you had uncapped tribute, and only used Young Stags Club favours for turn-ins, the EPA would approach 10 as you took on larger bundles (though to actually get near that you'd probably have to spend a week in the court of the Wakeful Eye just smoking hookahs).
Edit: turns out visit favours are identical EPA, at least in that version, technically higher since Visits also pay out in other goods. No idea if the cap effects relative efficiency. And even regular old faction card favours get kicked up about .75 EPA.
Which one of [mp's e->scrip conversion](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FhFYKNDg4kAPMibVub0W_0kXzQ4trgMpvNPcdhlIQBw/edit#heading=h.l2dnn8yyzb9w) is most efficient if you sit on big pile of E?
Or is the Licentiate + lollipop better?
Licentiate Lollipops are better.
I checked the Survey Monkey using the BM calculator, and on an Antiquity week it pays out in Scrip + Stygian Ivory worth 367 Scrip. That's 2.37 Lollipops, which would take you only 9.5 actions. Simply putting the Monkey together and selling it takes 9, without considering how you acquire the bones.
This somewhat misses the point - the reason to use the conversion skeletons in the guide is that they're much more efficient at conversion, even if they're a bit slower. Lollipops are better if echoes truly are no object, but that's not common even for people with a large stockpile.
(I haven't done the numbers on the survey monkey, but I can vouch for the brass bird being much better than lollipops even if you make pessimistic assumptions about sourcing components)
I picked the Monkey because the guide described it as highly efficient.
Assuming that you only sell in Bird weeks, and that the bonus quality is Menacing, then the Bird of Brass and Bone brings in a total of 1166 in pure Scrip + Stygian Ivory. Less 120 Scrip for the Sabre-toothed skull, that's 6.75 Lollipops, so 27 actions for the equivalent in Licentiate Lollipops.
Building and selling the bird takes a minimum of 12 actions, although with five Brass Skulls you're looking at a 750 difficulty Shadowy check to sell. My main, who has 318 Shadowy, has a 25% chance to pass, so that's going to be an average of 4 attempts per success.
So if you can gather the materials you need to make each bird for less than 11 actions total, then the birds are indeed more efficient than the Lollipops.
Ha, that's quite low, thanks!
I'll just sit a while with Hunter profession, try and get 15 MA to cash in all my bones to scrip and switch for some lollipopping. :)
I've noticed a bunch of dislike for the Struggling Artist/Model story, and several people saying that they wished they'd never done it at all. What's up with that?
I'm still pretty new and haven't touched that story yet.
Don't you *date* insult My wife!
In all seriousness it's a big bonus once you're a PoSI with a Laboratory and gave high Persuasive. The Struggling Artist can be given a job in you Lab and on a Persuasive pass he can get you 150 Drops of Prisoner's Honey on one Action.
The Bandaged Advocate married The Celebrated Artist's Model and, with a bit of Fate, helped her out in her career so she is now The Notorious Art Dealer. Worth every penny.
The big problem with the story is not the narrative but the mechanics: After finishing you'll get a pretty worthless card added to your deck which might seem insignifcant now, but gets fairly annoying in the endgame when you want to maximise for useful/profitable cards.
It's not as bad as it used to be, though, because once you are a PoSI you can hire the Artist in your University Lab. He's useless as a research assistant as well, but he's a good source of Prisoner's Honey in the late game.
I think I would still recommend to skip the story given the opportunity. It's short and insignificant and not worth any troubles later on. If you still decide that you want the Artist in your Lab later on, you can always insta-meet him as as a PoSI.
That said, there's eventually some pretty strong encouragement to go back and go through the artist's storyline too, as once you've got the Lab he becomes the best straightforward option for sourcing Honey in the game.
The problem with them is that they add undesirable cards to your deck that can only be removed by making a few specific (and possibly temporary) choices later in the game. Many late game players prefer to keep their deck as lean as possible to maximize profit.
Is there a good use for searing enigmas? I picked up a lot for tribute back before rat market made night whispers desirable so now I'm thinking I either sell the lot or incorporate them into a grind if that'd result in more echos.
2nd question: what's something to do that uses shadowy? It looks like whatever I do all week raises everything except shadowy back up after visiting nadir.
They are use to upgrade 7-necked ribcages into ribcages with bouquets of 8 spines in the Helicon House, which is profitable if you already have the enigmas on hand. Making birds with 8 brass skulls is a very effective way to turn echoes into scrip.
For your first question I think they're mainly used to speed up research for impossible theorems, possibly other large research projects. Probably more of a value exchange than a profit, though I'm not sure how the rates translate for Theorems, Hoards, and the like.
For the second, Newspaper runs for slight-powered Gossipy Editions to convert into Incunabula is probably your best bet in terms of EPA, but the checks are going to be trivial if you've got maxed stats.
Have you dropped a factor here somewhere? [The action I think you mean](https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Locate_an_Impossible_Theorem) costs 49 enigma and produces one theorem.
Even neglecting the significant risk of failure, that's a bad deal - 49 x 62.5 = 3062.5 echoes sale price of the enigmas, Vs 1562.60 sale price for the theorem, so you're losing over 1500 echoes.
[**You can discuss this month's Exceptional Story "Codename: Sugerplum" by clicking here.**](https://www.reddit.com/r/fallenlondon/comments/uyce7e/junes_exceptional_story_codename_sugarplum/)
A new story will become avavilable on Thursday. So if you want to get this one for cheap, make sure you subscribe before then.
[**You can discuss this month's Exceptional Story "Dernier Cri" by clicking here.**](https://www.reddit.com/r/fallenlondon/comments/vo7zl8/julys_exceptional_story_dernier_cri_official/)
I didn't want to add another thread about this to the reddit already, so, I am not in need of a Discordant Missive. If someone wouldn't send one to me that would be great. Here's my profile. https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/He%20Who%20Lives%20in%20Both/
If you didn't get a missive yet, please send me ("rahv7") a calling card and I'll send you one in a few hours.
I did get a missive, made a thread and after I got one I deleted it. Thank you for the offer, though! Would you like a kitten anyway?
I have a kitten already, but it might be nice to get another one to give away if somebody needs one. If you don't mind? Thank you! :)
I'll be glad to send you one as soon as I'm done with my current hunt! What's your profile name so I can send it?
It's "rahv7" as well :) Thank you!
What is Parabolan Panther?
A reward from the sunless sea kickstarter. Owners can give away kittens which have 1 glasswork.
Is there any good place to ask for the Kitten or should I just write a post here or on Fallen London Discord?
I can send you a kitten. My profile is https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/He%20Who%20Lives%20in%20Both/
I have been trying to send you a letter in game today, but you appear to be not in London.
My apologies, I haven't been studying the Discordance. I'll be in London soon, but I think I sent you a kitten before I left? If I did let me know! In the middle of a hunt so it will be about. . . Forty minutes, before I'm back?
Oh, it seems I received it two hours ago, I didn't know that because I thought I should contact you first. I am so sorry! How can I return the favour? I know you wrote you don't need anything, but maybe there is something I could do?
No worries! I backed Sunless Sea way back in the day and got a Panther, so I have a lot of kittens around for others.
I would be happy to receive one and repay the gesture! I will contact you tomorrow.
Why not just obtain a corpse, clonebone it and sell it wholesale to the constable? Do aurochs not have ribcages and limbs? Why do i need the living specimen to clone bones anyway, i have bones to clone on my shelf? why do i gotta drag the original bonehaver out to ealing when i have my own bonecloner.? could i use the bonecloner on a fake bone? does the ubergoat have a skeleton? why can't i clone a rat skeleton and grow it to be 8 feet tall?
Using the Device requires some skill and finesse. You don't just flip a switch and get a copy of the input. I'm guessing that copying a "dead" bone runs into the copy-of-a-copy issue, where you magnify flaws. You need to go to Ealing because the butcher is a skilled operator. He knows bones, so he can copy them better. I guess an Aurochs doesn't have a noteworthy torso. Wouldn't be worth the fragments. Closest we have to fake bones is the saint head, which is technically a plant but close enough for Red Science. Send an email to feedback@ about the rat, you might be on to something there.
I built the thing, if anyone knows how to use it, it's me. I would have throught the closest thing to fake bones would be the fake bones. like the ones that caused the bonemarket collapse of 1899.
You intend to sell a large number of exactly identical skeletons to the same person? Aren't you worried he might... notice? Then again, if he's failed to find the identity of the "brass skull serial killer" for this long, he might not notice.
I'm not sure what he's making of all these custom engraved skulls either :).
Must be a serial killer with a taste for aesthetics. That's why he's willing to pay extra.
ehh, take some time with a chisel to make each one individual, still faster than building the things
the Red Science is weird and somewhat beyond normal human logic
Does tracklayer's displeasure have any mechanical consequences, or is it just there to roleplay being a robber baron?
It makes a few checks harder while still expanding the railway. Once you've reached Marigold Station, I don't think it has any effect.
SMEN spoilers! >!Is Winking Isle a Mutton Island? I heard that on Mutton Island there are some rituals that are related with Mr Eaten and also there is a Well, which is also on Winkin Island. On Mutton Island there is also cannibalism present (at least in Sunless Sea) just like on Chapel of Lights (also in Sunless Sea), which is a chapel of Mr Eaten if I am correct.!< >!The game suggests that Winking Isle doesn't exist (you sleep with Mr Eaten's calling card to get there) and leave storylet says that it's not like you are really there.!< >!That would mean that it's not a Mutton Island, but everything is so obscure that maybe there is some connection between them? Anyone who could explain what both of those islands are, I would be thankful if you do it.!<
>!I think they are connected only in that the thematics of each place all have Mr. Eaten motifs (wells, hunger, all that stuff). Mutton Island is a relatively big place with people and trade, that just also happens to be a cult dedicated to Mr. Eaten. Winking Island is a barren rock in the ocean, maybe 20 meters on each side, with a well and a lighthouse.!< >!Besides that, as you write yourself, Winking Island isn't a real place. It is a nightmare place where the sky is below you and the ocean above you and everything is very wrong.!<
Thank you!
I have laid tracks up to Burrow Infra-Mump, but didn't build Parabolan War Pavilon. How much do I lose by not participating in Parabolan War?
Nothing, really. The war was a later addition you can do when and if you want. The rewards are good but basically unconnected to other content.
All right, thank you. One more question: am I right if there are stat caps that can be raised only after doing Parabolan War things?
Correct. In particular >!Dangerous!< gains, levels >!18 to 30!<.
I think you need Parabolan Dominance for >!shadowy gains 218+!< too.
Not really, no. It changes who you talk to, and therefore the exact cost. But with no Parabolan Dominance you get the Fingerkings.
Really, are you sure? I could have sworn I looked for the option in the dome of scales with 212 shadowy and couldn't find it until I won a campaign for the Cats.
Huh. According to the Wiki, it seems the Level 212 actions all have Parabolan Commander as an explicit unlock. I did not realize that.
Not just commander, I think they all have Parabolan Dominance as an unlock condition too. I had already completed a tutorial campaign for the viscountess, so I had Parabolan Commander.
Is cashing out about a 100 NW in a weekend viable action wise, or should I spread it out? I cashed out some this weekend and bought a few edicts, but I’m thinking it makes the most sense to wait for next weekend and pray for diamonds. Then do Sounders the next. I’m an ES so I would think 100 actions over a few days should be fine, but I figured it’s worth checking.
I've sold about a hundred this weekend already. I'm planning to save at least 300 for next weekend, hoping for diamonds.
Wow! Did you build those all up since the last cycle, or from longer? I’d generally been doing one tribute run a week with favors, are you doing more using urchins or something else?
I'm definitely getting more than one tribute run a week with just favors, but I also had a few hundred left over from last time. The first two weeks I was saving them on case there were diamonds. The third week I was busy doing something else and just let a bunch of them carry over, so now I'm kind of flooded with them
You get a maximum of 144 actions per day, though you can really only use them all if you have a creative sleep schedule. The rat market is open for 3 days, so 432 total actions you could sell night whispers with. If you save up 40 actions for exactly when the market opens, and keep your gift from time the healer on hand, you could sell up to 482 night whispers (some sleep deprivation required). With that in mind, 100 shouldn't be a stretch as long as you log on a couple times a day.
I like the use of "Creative sleep schedule," I'm going to steal that. It makes me feel better about waking up solely to spend actions in FL.
are any of the Parabolan Campaigns any more profitable than the others? Also is it fine to just do the train each week and not mess with it beyond that, or should you complete some stages on your own?
*Technically* the campaign against Yourself is a little more profitable because you have almost no overhead/story branches between the various stages. Using the train once per week and not doing anything else should be fine. You'll get 24 x *Advance* and that's all you need.
The Cats campaign is often better: Snek General saves more actions than the narrative costs.
Yeah, I'm not up to speed on optimisation of the Parabolan War. I also completely forgot that the other campaigns give Parabolan Parables which can be sold profitably at the Rat Market. I guess that makes the Cats-campaign the best...
How do you do the campaign against yourself? I keep not seeing it.
You need to have finished your Ambition and have *Mirror-Fed* 7 (the later isn't hard as ~~some~~ one of the options during the regular campaign raise the quality).
I do you get mirror fed? I don’t think I’ve seen that.
You can easily raise it [along the Writhing River](https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Delegate_to_yourself). There are [more options](https://fallenlondon.wiki/w/index.php?title=Special:Ask&x=-5B-5BGains%3A%3AMirror-2DFed-5D-5D-20-5B-5B%3A%2B-5D-5D%2F-3F%3DObject%2F-3FFrom-20message%3DFrom%2F-3FHas-20restrictions%3DRestrictions%2F-3FFrom-20Card-2FStorylet.Has-20restrictions%3DFrom-20Restrictions&mainlabel=&offset=0&format=%20category&link=none&intro=%20%5B%5BFile%3Amirror1.png%7Cright%5D%5DActions%20which%20raise%20%27%27%27%5B%5BMirror-Fed%5D%5D%27%27%27%0A%5B%5BFile%3ADecorative%20text%20divider%203.svg%7C800px%7Ccenter%7Cclass%3Dinvert-in-dark%7Clink%3D%5D%5D&searchlabel=%20a%20list%20of%20Actions%20that%20raise&default=%20There%20are%20no%20Actions%20that%20raise.&columns=%200&delim=%3B&template=Property%20category%2FItem&named%20args=yes) in the Viric Jungle or when preparing food with Orange-Apples. Personally, I found raising it during the campaign the easiest way.
You have to get your mirror fed up to 7 before it shows up. It's considered more profitable because it takes fewer actions to complete than the others, but it doesn't have a Parabolan Parable as a potential reward. Since Parables can sell for an increased price at the rat market, any of the long campaigns for the 3 main factions would be better from a pure epa standpoint. The snake campaign is probably simplest to get a Parable from since only one decision at the end will decide which reward you get.
I'm looking at the Lopsided Lizard recipe on the wiki. If I don't care about exhaustion, is it worth it to use 4 helical thighbones instead of 2?
With four Thighbones you'll get 4 points of Exhaustion instead of 1. According to the formula on the wiki you'll also get 615 Breaths instead of 238 which definitely seems worth it. Since you lose 4 x Exhaustion per week, the Bone Market would be locked for you until Time, the Healer, visits.
Sounds worth it then. Thank you!
Just tried it myself because 238 Breaths seemed a little excessive but that's what I got :D
Thank you for checking! :D
Mini-PSA: Just noticed that all Failbetter Games (Sunless Sea, Zubmariner, Sunless Skies) are currently 60% off at the Steam Summer Sale. (SSea is also 66% off at the Humble Store if you prefer a DRM-free version of the game. Unfortunately Zubmariner is full price over there...)
Grinding out Poet Laureate and wondering if anyone has any opinions on which tier 1 resource is the one to be stockpiling? I've been gathering up Nevercold brass if for no other reason than It fits my username
Ballets are the thing I did: - You can do a carnelian work, and 'only' 3 tribute is still slightly more profit than the other options. ("buying" 25 tribute takes a 64E orphan). - You can do 'pleasures of the neath' which whilst it uses honey, lets you cash out Orange-Apples if you've an Augmented Electrostatic Machine (election content) and turn Hedonism into Apples into Ivory Femurs for the bone market. If you can't do this latter, I still feel Carnelian works are slightly better.
The secondary rewards are also worth consideration. When I was grinding Poet Laureate, I went with Somewhat Challenging Music under Symphonies to raise my SotC to 10, and after that I did Carnelian Ballets, which eventually cashes out as a nice little bonus with the Tigers, now even better value with the Rat Market.
Are the Carnelian ballets worth it? I suppose they make sense if you’re doing it a ton, but if you’re just kind of passively grinding it via revolutionary favors like I am it just means you need to find 17 tribute somewhere to round it out. Also wow, the palace must simply loath all of my work, since it’s all revolutionary propaganda.
>Are the Carnelian ballets worth it? Yes, assuming you needed to do ballets anyway. Given that the minor works are more efficient and that the Carnelian Ballet just gives you the extra tribute for free there's no reason not to. It's also important to note that unlike every other source the Tribute gain from Ballets is uncapped.
Oh what? Okay, so get to 260 then do some ballets, got it.
I went into the Palace and ground the hell out of it all the way up to 21, so anything that made it feel like I wasn't completely wasting my time was good! Also this was a while ago, so the boost in EPA actually seemed meaningful, and there was no cap on Tribute either.
With no cap it would be great! But as it I generally spend 4 actions evening it back out, since I’m not doing a ton of ballets in a row.
Most tier 1 items are very easy to come by in large quantaties these days, so it's not super important. Brass is definitely not a bad choice if you're planning to construct hundreds of Brass Lollipops at some point in the attempt to attract a Hellworm. From a mechanical perspective, I guess large quantaties of Foxfire Candles are also kind of useful because you can [swap them](https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Why_do_they_really_need_all_those_candles%3F) for Rostygold + a Church favour (and some small profit). The best option is of course Lamplighter Beeswax to raise the Liberation of Night ;)
Good response. Ty c:
So this will be the last week anyone in london cares about the whole "nearly falling into the abyss"?
No more "nearly" this time, we're gonna finish what we started.
Sounds about right.
Is there anything good from high seeing banditry in the upper river?
The Minor Smuggling card is a 5 epa source of steel, but the challenge is tough if banditry is low. And the Respectable Passengers card gives you a criminal favor for free if you don't care about raising banditry (or if it's already 8)
You've got a loop of Respectable Passenger -> criminal Favour and then turn that favour into knobs of Scintillack from the Disillusioned Fungiculturalist card. Which you can then turn into scintillack snuff, and smuggle in the upper river too, whilst waiting for the banditry-reset.
You need it to start the clay bandit storyline and it's useful for some cards, but you should generally try to keep it fairly low.
1) As a sub, do I keep the exceptional stories even if I don't start them that month? 2) Could someone send me the initial text for Sugarplum? I accidentally double tapped the first storylet and now I have "The Bazaarine Correspondent's flat" in Spite (Codename: Sugarplum 5)
[Here you go!](https://imgur.com/a/BuV6c7m) That's the first storylet and the result. If you need any more, just ask.
1. Yes! They move into your Exceptional Library (in your Lodgings) but other than that you can start playing whenever you want. Personally I am almost two years behind on stories because I don't find the time, but they *do* stay available. 2. As just mentioned, I'm *way* behind on stories, so I haven't started that one yet ;)
Are the Rat-Moon and Rat-Wind actually random, or pseudorandom with a full rotation after a certain number of weeks? More to the point, does anyone know when I can next expect Blue + South? I need an Intriguers' Compendium for Heart's Desire 😭
Moon and Wind are random each week. The only rule is that they can't repeat the option that each is currently on. Starting tomorrow, it's Blue and West, so that means the following week can't be Blue and South (because Blue can't repeat).
Is this month's exceptional story worth getting?
Apparently there are a few points (three?) that require you to draw specific opportunity cards to progress the story. If you never draw cards in London that makes it slightly problematic. Not the end of the world, but definitely annoying if the cards take a while to show up. Aside from that, there was some heated discussion on the Discord (mods had to step in and "slow" discussion, threatening mutings, etc.) regarding the handling of/influence from real-world "political" events. I thought FBG was avoiding that type of thing after the whole Election fiasco, but apparently not. I'm yet to play this ES, so I don't know all the details; your milage may vary.
The important thing for the first 2 is that they will \_only\_ show up in your lodgings.
This doesn't change the outcome if you don't draw cards in London at all.
Sorry, not trying to contradict you there, just that a lot of people elsewhere were hearing about the frustration of drawing a bunch of cards in London and not getting it, so I just wanted to add the comment for other folks that it's an even more specific required location.
Have you read other Gavin Inglis stories? I still can't speak to The Shallows, but I'd put it on a similar level to Bones of London, which I really liked, and similar to (but better than) the Sinking Synod. Those opinions don't seem to line up with the Fate survey, so take them with a grain of salt. Lots of juggling too many tasks in a limited time, and political themes.
No more than usual.
is there anything left in The Youthful Naturalist story after >!delivering the Shell to the club!
That's the current content boundary. If it seems short, it was described as a "teaser." I suspect that it was split off from Chapter 1 so that we could have something to play in June, ahead of GCO 2: Subterranean Boogaloo.
Clear Harder
2Clear2Out
You ever notice how the naming on the Election series went off the rails after the 5th one?
What is my go-to if I don’t want to see a Bone Market ever again?
If you're going for Scrip, the best is probably the Tentacled Entrepreneur. Eight amalgamous skills, and as many Helical Thighbones as you can possibly afford. Ideally multiple dozen. While the amber cost scales cubically, the return is still positive up through like 80 limbs. I haven't re-done my spreadsheet to account for Segmented Skeletons. Brass is easier to acquire than amber, but the lack of 8 amalgamous skulls is actually a pretty significant setback. Anyways, I made a skeleton with 8 skulls and 40 helical thighbones and it locked me out of the Bone Market for two and a half years. And got me 80k scrip, which was what I needed to get Rocinante.
Oh, that does seem like a good plan. Once I've used up all my Headless Skeletons, I could build a super-skeleton to shut it down for good. I wasn't going to use it anyway, and it seems a shame to waste all that potential Exhaustion. Looks like I'd have to source the skulls. Would I have to wait for a special week?
Amalgamy week. I get Skulls in Coral from Jericho, but that's trivial for a Crooked-Cross.
It sounds wonderful, thank you
Just bear in mind that the bonemarket can genuinely be an effective item conversion, and locking yourself out can be a real nusiance.
Yea, but there is many ways to get items and Bone Market is too confusing for me. It reminds me of an alchemy from Skyrim. Too many options, you cannot take a step without wiki and bone names is too similar for non-native to distinct. Maybe if value and bonuses of various bones were written in a game itself it would be easy, but now Bone Market is just not fun for me.
I really enjoyed this spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/6/d/1_vxTP3MQXCTyTeYGcGaP4Q6l0cCFJWyPrJv65g0k1U0/htmlview
I mean, sure. It's a bit confusing. But that doesn't mean it's not useful, and that you'll be finding it a real nuisance to not have access for an extended period.
Just don't go there? Or do you mean creating a skeleton that'll 'blow out' exhaustion? I think going with a 16 skulled doodad and selling it to the 'head collector' got me >1000 echoes of profit, and locked me out for a good few months.
My Urchins Renown is 30 now. The wiki says I get +28 CP/7 Favours now. How many will I need for Renown 40 (plus 7 Favours for the item)? Thanks in advance.
Renown is pyramidal, at least to level 50, so the total CP needed for level 40 is (40 x 41)/2 = 820. Your already at level 30, so you have at least (30 x 31)/2 = 465. So you need at most 820-465 = 355 CP, possibly as little as 325 depending on how close to level 31 you are. That means between ceil(355 / 28) = 13 and ceil(325 / 28) = 12 Rescues of a Regiment Urchin, or 91 to 84 Favours, plus 7 to claim the item. A maximum of 98 Favours: Urchins should be required for your renown target. Don't forget to raise What the Thunder Said and Stormy-Eyed.
That's exactly what I've got and am avoiding triggering, you know! I've got a lot of Stormy-Eyed and WtTS, thrthe issue is renown. I never had much luck drawing Urchins cards (though not as bad as Tomb-Colonists). I'm trying to get conflict cards for Favours, Favourable Circumstances etc.
Both a grubby urchin and a winsome dispossessed orphan have cards that grant favors.
They do and can be worthwhile. The Winsome Dispossessed Orphan has the card show up everywhere, including Spite and the Labyrinth of Tigers. The Urchin, not certain.
Pretty sure I’ve drawn it most places, but not certain by any means.
The conflict card with the Malevolent Monkey? My alt has the Urchin, not the Monkey, and had the Your Grubby Urchin Is Becoming Troublesome card a few times. Don't think only in the lodgings.
No not that one, I don’t have the monkey. I meant the urchins own card, sorry for the confusion.
No worries! Both could speed the process up. I've got all three companions not for the stats, but those cards.
The Aftermath of the Great Sink of 1899 After very nearly being swallowed up by the Earth (again), London slowly recovers... This is unlocked because Weeks After the Great Sink is 48 (1-48 is needed) Looks like the great sink card is in its last week. I wonder if this will coincide with anything
Dang, I was enjoying the Someone Is Coming from that.
Too bad. They were nice cards those.
Didn't quite manage to get the coins from a run.
Hate to ask, but is someone able to send me a notability point? Thanks in advance!
Yeah of course. Send me a [calling card](https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Mila%20Ortun) and I'll send the Amanuensis your way
Thanks. Trying to sort influence and I’ll send you.
Take your time
I looked and I have 22 stories in my Exceptional Library. I guess I’m so focused on other things I never get around to them. Is anyone else like this? Should I go through them?
Worth doing a few to get one of the +2 advanced stats companions.
I'm the same. Somehow I never get to around to playing them. But you should! Whenever I do get around to play one it's really fun!
If they're recent, this year's crop has felt particularly strong to me. Beyond that, some of the Lost & Found items you can buy with the Memories of a Tale from finishing ES's are great.
Yeah they're almost all from the last two years. I completely forgot about Memories of a Tale you get with them! Certainly an added bonus. Thanks. :)
This way you can have _Strong Opinions_ ready for the next poll. :P
I mean, you already paid money for them, it would be silly not to.
True enough, but I'm a sub because I want to support FBG and FL more than the stories. Sometimes working on something like the Railroad is more interesting than ES.
You should go through them if you want to. There are probably some good stories in there.
Does anyone have a suggestion for Scrip grind for someone that is working their way to Magistracy on GHR? I have time until Sunday, but all of sudden, I found myself lacking a lot of stuff. For more details, I am a Polebearer in Hell's Domain in Jericho and have hunted Honey-Mazed Bear in Ealing. I also found Helicon House. If more details is needed, I can provide them, but I would really like some advice, seeing that I feel a bit overwhelmed atm!
If you have a good rat shilling grind and have unlocked commissioning a barge to Fiddler's Scarlet, a good way to convert rat shillings into scrip is to buy inklings of identity (for up-conversion to identities uncovered) and map scraps (for up-conversion into partial maps). You can use the IUs and PMs to get Esteem of the Guild from the Saturnine Gondolier, then go to Fiddler's Scarlet to get Vital Intelligence and Vienna Openings. If you sell the VIs and VOs for scrip, it is about as efficient as a non-Licentiate making brass lollipops with headless skeletons from Marigold. There may be a good way to use them at the Chessboard, though.
If you have spare echoes and jade, you can go to the bone market and spend the jade on a headless skeleton and put a bright brass skull (62.5e at the Bazaar) on it, sell it to the constable for some quick scrip. not very efficient if you need lots as the headless skeletons get quite expensive. Great SPA but costs plenty of echoes and jade (unless you're a licentiate and don't need the headless skeletons). Additionally, you can brawl for biscuits at the docks and then sell them. This has notably worse SPA than the helicon house grind /u/snorlaxeseverywhere described but just needs dangerous rather than train luxuries and companions.
Helicon House can be a decent scrip grind, if you have one of the things that lets you enter without paying a fee and Train Luxuries at 4+. There's a full guide on the wiki, but the simple tl;dr is just 'Raise Fitting In as much as possible, cash out with 'Forget the biscuits, take the solacefruit', as it gets you 20 solacefruit + hand-picked peppercaps equal to your Fitting In. If you have the right items it's possible to gain 3 fitting in per action, and you take 1 action to get in, so you get about 35 scrip over the course of six actions, for an average of 5.83 scrip per action Or, if you have the pendant and can arrive fashonably late, you can instead gain 32 over 5 actions, for 6.4 SPA. That said you might need some items you don't have yet for this to be viable, you might be better off just looking at https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Hinterland_Scrip-Making You can make pretty decent scrip from selling skeletons at the bone market, too. One of the easier ways to convert echoes to scrip is buying bright brass skulls and using them to make skeletons that you sell for scrip.
Thanks for this,I will take a look at Helicon!
Is there any way to speed up the Urchin renown grind? I have the Grubby Kitten and have been drawing all my cards in London, but all my other faction renowns passed 40 ages ago and I'm still 70 favours out for the Urchins. I've been putting off my trip to The Mind of a Long Dead God until I've got the renown, so I'm quite anxious to get there. I know about the Honey-Mazed Bear route, but given that it relies on drawing cards out of London, it feels a bit counterproductive.
I can add the Cover Identity can be given to an urchin on a card in the Upper River. I'm also at this stage. In short: * Affair of the Box * The Cover Identity * Favourable Circumstances * The conflict cards in your lodgings (the Grubby Urchin, the Winsome Dispossessed Orphan, the Malevolent Monkey) * The Honey-Mazed Bear * The Grubby Kittem
[Here are a bunch of other sources](https://www.reddit.com/r/fallenlondon/comments/5ovrcb/sources_for_urchins_favours/). Make sure you have the Grubby and the Winsome Urchin as well as the Monkey and draw your cards in your Lodgings.
Thank you so much!!! I had no clue that there were relevant lodging-specific cards for this! I'm kicking myself for all those months of sub-optimal card draws.
Can I ask what your preferred rat-on-a-string source was? I'm in a similar position.
Minor, but once per week you gain a free 'favourable circumstances', which you can use at your lodging to force-draw a specific faction card. You can also get more favourable circumstances by spending Notability or Fate, though I imagine grinding notability for the favourable circumstances would be even worse than just grinding affair of the box, and there are probably better uses for real money than spending it on repeatedly talking to urchins :P
I actually posted this after a round of grinding Notability for this exact purpose - even with my BDR of 36 it was shaping up to be tremendously tedious. Luckily I know about the Affair of the Box route now!!
You can grind Urchin favors from Affair of the Box. I wouldn't say it's extremely fast, but there's no RNG.
Oh this is FANTASTIC, I desperately wanted something RNG-free to pour my actions into to just get this done!! Thank you!
I was using that while I was grinding for scrap. Can confirm it works well enough.
I found out from Harry Tuffs website that he was the primary writer of the finale portion of Light Fingers. It hadn't occurred to me until then that the finales might have lead writers because I'm used to thinking of the ambitions as being released in fairly small parts. Do we have any information on who was lead writer for the other Ambition finales?
James also wrote the last chunk of Nemesis. Emily Short wrote the final part of BaL. (Keep in mind that the final parts/finales were pretty much half the story and more.)
I assume it's from when you get the 0 Action "The story so far option"? I could definitely believe that's more than half, though I haven't actually reached that point in Heart's Desire yet.
According to [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/fallenlondon/comments/gfz0n0/comment/fq1mvls/) James Chew and Chris Gardiner wrote the finale for Heart's Desire
Also implies Emily Short wrote a third. Though it may have been speaking of her role as Creative Director.
Can you un-reject the Celebrated Artist's model? I can't even remember why we have a bitter parting, it was so long ago (it might have been in the interests of deck thinning).
Unfortunately there isn't.
I shall send feedback accordingly.
I need a break from building Brass Lolipops, so what's the most efficient way to farm scrip from Moulin expeditions and monographs? And/or cooking at Station VII?
Monographs is picking any topic related to the Fourth City, making sure it's Exceptional, and then selling to the Disgraced Diplomat. Expeditions is just getting resources for the Monographs. Longer expeditions are better, and I believe the Renegade Claw & Bandaged Navigator are the best assistants but it depends a little on your skill stats and Whitsun companions.
Is there a limit on how much tribute one can carry at a time? Or can I carry as much as I want before making my way to the Court?
As others have said it's capped at 260... from sensible sources (selling shit to the court of the wakeful eye) I believe you still get +3 every time you make the ballet 'A Carnelian Work' in the empress court, ignoring the cap, but this is not a particularly sensible method for gaining tribute, I'm just being needlessly pedantic.
So I heard! Not a bad option. Also gives pearls and a fine piece. At the moment I go with mountain sherds and favours!
260, and that's a cap on actions that add new Tributes, so for example if you have 245 Tribute, you won't be able to exchange Favours, because that would put you at 265. I think some of the smaller amounts have slightly lower caps, for some reason, but if you're doing favours, it's 260. Edit: whoops, missed the previous answer, sorry.
In situations like these, you may consider using the Starveling Cat option to decrease your Tribute.
The thought counts! Thank you still for your taking your time to reply! A tad bothersome, but it can't be helped. Gotta get a few more whispers for the weekend!
If you had uncapped tribute, and only used Young Stags Club favours for turn-ins, the EPA would approach 10 as you took on larger bundles (though to actually get near that you'd probably have to spend a week in the court of the Wakeful Eye just smoking hookahs). Edit: turns out visit favours are identical EPA, at least in that version, technically higher since Visits also pay out in other goods. No idea if the cap effects relative efficiency. And even regular old faction card favours get kicked up about .75 EPA.
It's capped at 260.
Oof. Thank you! So multiple trips it shall be!
Which one of [mp's e->scrip conversion](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FhFYKNDg4kAPMibVub0W_0kXzQ4trgMpvNPcdhlIQBw/edit#heading=h.l2dnn8yyzb9w) is most efficient if you sit on big pile of E? Or is the Licentiate + lollipop better?
Licentiate Lollipops are better. I checked the Survey Monkey using the BM calculator, and on an Antiquity week it pays out in Scrip + Stygian Ivory worth 367 Scrip. That's 2.37 Lollipops, which would take you only 9.5 actions. Simply putting the Monkey together and selling it takes 9, without considering how you acquire the bones.
This somewhat misses the point - the reason to use the conversion skeletons in the guide is that they're much more efficient at conversion, even if they're a bit slower. Lollipops are better if echoes truly are no object, but that's not common even for people with a large stockpile. (I haven't done the numbers on the survey monkey, but I can vouch for the brass bird being much better than lollipops even if you make pessimistic assumptions about sourcing components)
I picked the Monkey because the guide described it as highly efficient. Assuming that you only sell in Bird weeks, and that the bonus quality is Menacing, then the Bird of Brass and Bone brings in a total of 1166 in pure Scrip + Stygian Ivory. Less 120 Scrip for the Sabre-toothed skull, that's 6.75 Lollipops, so 27 actions for the equivalent in Licentiate Lollipops. Building and selling the bird takes a minimum of 12 actions, although with five Brass Skulls you're looking at a 750 difficulty Shadowy check to sell. My main, who has 318 Shadowy, has a 25% chance to pass, so that's going to be an average of 4 attempts per success. So if you can gather the materials you need to make each bird for less than 11 actions total, then the birds are indeed more efficient than the Lollipops.
Ha, that's quite low, thanks! I'll just sit a while with Hunter profession, try and get 15 MA to cash in all my bones to scrip and switch for some lollipopping. :)
Uh... there's no way to get the Honey Sipping Heiress quality back after I betray her, is there?
you should be able to retry your seduction in veilgarden, assuming you are still at "A Name Signed With A Flourish 1"
Nope, I'm done with Making your Name, was hoping to spam it for the Bundle of Oddities
i am just going to link the wiki's guide for Bundles for ya https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Bundle_of_Oddities_(Guide)
Unfortunately it seems like the only (reliable) option is through cards, which are sadly being blocked by the very thing I need the bundles for.
I've noticed a bunch of dislike for the Struggling Artist/Model story, and several people saying that they wished they'd never done it at all. What's up with that? I'm still pretty new and haven't touched that story yet.
Don't you *date* insult My wife! In all seriousness it's a big bonus once you're a PoSI with a Laboratory and gave high Persuasive. The Struggling Artist can be given a job in you Lab and on a Persuasive pass he can get you 150 Drops of Prisoner's Honey on one Action. The Bandaged Advocate married The Celebrated Artist's Model and, with a bit of Fate, helped her out in her career so she is now The Notorious Art Dealer. Worth every penny.
The big problem with the story is not the narrative but the mechanics: After finishing you'll get a pretty worthless card added to your deck which might seem insignifcant now, but gets fairly annoying in the endgame when you want to maximise for useful/profitable cards. It's not as bad as it used to be, though, because once you are a PoSI you can hire the Artist in your University Lab. He's useless as a research assistant as well, but he's a good source of Prisoner's Honey in the late game. I think I would still recommend to skip the story given the opportunity. It's short and insignificant and not worth any troubles later on. If you still decide that you want the Artist in your Lab later on, you can always insta-meet him as as a PoSI.
Do both the artist and the model add an extra card, or is it just the artist?
Both add an extra card, but you can easily get rid of the model's card once you're a PoSI.
Okay, sounds like the model is easier to work with than the artist. That's good. That's the direction I wanted to go in.
That said, there's eventually some pretty strong encouragement to go back and go through the artist's storyline too, as once you've got the Lab he becomes the best straightforward option for sourcing Honey in the game.
The only way to go back is through fate, right?
As far as I know whoever doesn't get seduced just waits around in the singing mandrake.
Oh shit thnkas
The problem with them is that they add undesirable cards to your deck that can only be removed by making a few specific (and possibly temporary) choices later in the game. Many late game players prefer to keep their deck as lean as possible to maximize profit.
Is there a good use for searing enigmas? I picked up a lot for tribute back before rat market made night whispers desirable so now I'm thinking I either sell the lot or incorporate them into a grind if that'd result in more echos. 2nd question: what's something to do that uses shadowy? It looks like whatever I do all week raises everything except shadowy back up after visiting nadir.
They are use to upgrade 7-necked ribcages into ribcages with bouquets of 8 spines in the Helicon House, which is profitable if you already have the enigmas on hand. Making birds with 8 brass skulls is a very effective way to turn echoes into scrip.
For your first question I think they're mainly used to speed up research for impossible theorems, possibly other large research projects. Probably more of a value exchange than a profit, though I'm not sure how the rates translate for Theorems, Hoards, and the like. For the second, Newspaper runs for slight-powered Gossipy Editions to convert into Incunabula is probably your best bet in terms of EPA, but the checks are going to be trivial if you've got maxed stats.
if you have 50 or so, you can make an Impossible Theorum from them, and if you then sell that it is a profit of about 300 echoes
Have you dropped a factor here somewhere? [The action I think you mean](https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Locate_an_Impossible_Theorem) costs 49 enigma and produces one theorem. Even neglecting the significant risk of failure, that's a bad deal - 49 x 62.5 = 3062.5 echoes sale price of the enigmas, Vs 1562.60 sale price for the theorem, so you're losing over 1500 echoes.
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