Guest
10/21/2018
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So a few days ago when I officially started my last big echo grind on my main account to get myself all the necessaries to become a paramount presence, I also created a secondary account specifically to seek the name (as I refuse to subject my beloved Bishop to such needless horror).
Now roleplay wise I should probably leap into it as soon as I possibly can, my ill-fated secondary character is primarily watchful, came to the neath specifically to seek out its mysteries and is canonically obsessed with uncovering the truth at all costs (I've also gone out of my way to make him as cheerful and moral as possible just to make the slide into cannibalism and madness that much more tragic). But, realistically, how high do my stats need to be and/or how many resources do I need to amass before being able to make any meaningful progress as a seeker?
edited by Isaac Gates on 10/21/2018
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Azothi
Posts: 586
10/22/2018
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From personal experience, having that Seven-Fold Knock makes the Paramount Presence grind easier. Just one point of BDR is worth many actions of grinding.
For a new character, you can start making meaningful progress as a Seeker from day one, literally. Seeking is like your Ambition - you can begin it early and continue to work at it over time. Sometimes you'll hit major barriers that will take longer to overcome. Below the spoiler tag, I've attached a strategy for reaching SMEN 7 beginning with a fresh character in just two weeks, to demonstrate just how much you can do early, but my advice is just to play normally and let your Seeker develop naturally. It's a several month endeavor, at least.
[spoiler]
There's a strategy I hypothesized, but I never tried executing it because that was around the time I grew bored with the game and set it down for a few months and because the strategy's very boring.
- Obtain lodgings and receive the benefactor gift. Choose either Watchful (the vicar) for long-term gain or Dangerous (the revolutionary) for short-term gain.
There are a few ways to move forward, depending on whether you want to take an easier and dependent route or a harder and independent route. The most efficient way is betrayal, so if you can find a Seeker able to betray you within the first couple days, that would be ideal. If you do that, you need to raise modified Watchful to 30, and that can be easily done by taking the Watchful gift, buying Watchful equipment, and finishing the first two Making Your Name storylines.
If that's not an available option, the next step is getting Unaccountably Peckish. Fastest way is to have another player send you a Starveling Cat, you send it back, and then they send it back, which nets you 1 UP and a Starveling Cat.
If you want to remain wholly independent, the fastest way I've thought of is to go to the Mirror-Marches and draw the fruit card there, which means you need a Memory of Light. The best way I can think of very early on is to buy a Reprehensible Lizard and try your luck feeding it Lamplighter Beeswax, which you can buy at the Bazaar or farm in Watchmaker Hill.
Regardless of which method of beginning Seeking you picked, the early priorities are as follows:
- Rush through the Dangerous Making Your Name storyline in order to reach Wolfstack Docks as quickly as possible. This means do not sell your Rostygold, because you'll need it for Feducci's dueling rings. Also hold onto all the Rats on a String you get along the way - they'll be useful later.
- Once you reach Wolfstack Docks, immediately join the Battle of Wolfstack Docks on behalf of the dockers, because WE WILL NOT STAND THE TYRANNY OF THE BETRAYERS and they pay 64 x Rats on a String on success, which as far as I can tell is the fastest way to obtain them this early in the game.
- Once you have 5000 x Rats on a String, you can buy a season pass to the Labyrinth of Tigers. This gives you access to the Bazaar's Educational Emporium of Curiosities.
You should already be at SMEN 3 from A Banner with a Strange Doodle. This is as far as I got before I got bored, and judging by the character journals, that took ~2 days without an Exceptional Friendship. This is the tedious part. You can look through Mr. Pages' Educational Picture Postcards and Assorted Souvenir Stationery on the hunt for a rare success. There's a 10% rate of regular success, which gives Cryptic Clues and Secluded Addresses, but the rare success gives a level of SMEN up to SMEN 6. This means you can get up to 3 rare successes and still gain progress.
Statistically, this could take a while. With an assumed 1% rare success rate, you'd anticipate that it'd take 300 actions. It could take less time. It could take a lot longer. Luckily, there's time built in for this, because all you need to do is beat TTH. If you reach the Labyrinth within around three days and play ~80-100 actions per day, you might be able to reach SMEN 6 by the end of the first week. If betrayed, this gives a chance to play a black card to reach SMEN 7 and then have TTH reset it shortly thereafter. If you began SMEN through UP, you already used that to begin, so you only have to beat TTH of the second week. With SMEN 7, you can draw the Dream of Dark Waters card and obtain your first Weeping Scar.
From there, it's standard gameplay, but I believe this is a feasible strategy to reach SMEN 7 and obtain a Weeping Scar within two or even one week of being in Fallen London.
[/spoiler]
Regardless of that, within the first five or six months of beginning Seeking, you should probably have:
- Modified 200 Watchful
- A ship
- The Nadir
- Something to sacrifice to the well (Classic Short Story is probably the easiest non-Fate option)
- A festival to obtain a Destiny or plenty of BDR
You also have an amazing opportunity in the upcoming Hallowmas if you can find a Seeker with the right conditions to pursue no candle. They can sacrifice one of each Hallowmas confession to obtain no candle and gift no candle to another player, which would bypass one of the most annoying and time-consuming grinds on the Seeking Road.
--
Azoth I, the Emissary of Cardinals - A Paramount Presence (not currently accepting new Proteges)
Away to where the Chain cannot bind us.
 Hesperidean.
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Guest
10/22/2018
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That... was a much more thorough answer than I expected, thank you.
That said I'm definitely not going to pursue the name with my main character- I'm already planning to load up on fatelocked items to the point where I'm literally only 2 points of BDR shy of the absolute maximum. I'm forgoing those last 2 points because my character's far too self absorbed and greedy to pursue the name and there's no way in hell I'm buying a pleasure yacht, it's just too pricey.
edited by Isaac Gates on 10/22/2018
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dov
Posts: 2580
10/22/2018
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I've had several characters who have walked the Seeking Road to its bitter/bright end.
Things to look out for along the way:
- Start Seeking ASAP, and make sure to get your weekly SMEN level from the UP cards. This means you should prioritize getting a method to increase/decrease UP as needed. To raise UP, try to get a Starveling Cat (to pass back and forth), and work on the Shadowy Making Your Name quest until you unlock the Bats and Cats in the the Flit. To decrease UP, work on the Dangerous making Your Name quest until you unlock the Labyrinth.
- Use every opportunity to advance the Missionary/Firebrand story, so to eventually unlock the Nadir. Progress your Watchful making Your Name quest when you can, and start doing expeditions to build up Archaeologist for this (use every Docks Favours opportunity to build up a stock of Supplies early).
- Save up on Trade Secrets (to create a Classical Short Story for sacrifice later).
- Once you have a good way to raise/drop UP and can reliably get the weekly SMEN point, work on becoming POSI (for the ship). Use "Going over the spoils" in the Rainbow of Offering, which will give you 95% of the needed materials for a ship (Rusty Steamer, of course).
Small tip:
- At the very beginning, try to draw the "Tea with the Vicar" card in Ladybones Road. If you have Watchful under 11, you can repeatedly Investigate him and gain +5 CP of Watchful *without discarding the card*. So just equip your worse Watchful gear (definitely the Talkative Rat for -25 W) and you can repeat this action to get a very fast Watchful boost (you can get from 0 to 36 Watchful in under a day just form repeating this action). No other repeatable action will give you +5CP in a stat. Just make sure not to play the other action on the card (welcome him), as it will progress the story and discard the card.
edited by dov on 10/22/2018
--
 Want a sip of Hesperidean Cider? Send me a request in-game. Here's an_ocelot's guide how.
(Most social actions are welcome. Please no requests to Loiter Suspiciously and no investigations of the Affluent Photographer)
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Guest
10/22/2018
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Once again, thank you very much for the helpful advice (or is it willful enabling- hard to call with seeking the name). Just for the record, what are my other options apart from a classic short story? 'Cause I grinded one out on my main account just to compliment my eventual poet laureate status and it was a looong grind.
edited by Isaac Gates on 10/22/2018
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Tystefy
Posts: 450
10/22/2018
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You can sacrifice either...
- A Classic Short Story, which you already have.
- An Overgoat, acquired via money grind.
- An Ubergoat, acquired by 'combining' two Overgoats.
- Your Daughter, a companion from the corresponding Fate story.
- Seven Fluke Cores, acquired from the Nadir.
- Your Noman, acquired during Neathmas.
- Your Starveling Cat, should you be unfortunate enough to possess one.
--
Will sometimes return to post absurdity.
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dov
Posts: 2580
10/22/2018
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Sacrificing a starveling cat is not really a... productive option
--
Want a sip of Hesperidean Cider? Send me a request in-game. Here's an_ocelot's guide how.
(Most social actions are welcome. Please no requests to Loiter Suspiciously and no investigations of the Affluent Photographer)
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Guest
10/22/2018
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Damn, knew that one sounded too good to be true. I guess I'm gonna have to grind out another story, 'cause I'm not payin in fate for another fake daughter- even if I get to throw the treacherous wench into a well this time. :P
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Amalgamate
Posts: 435
10/23/2018
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Timing probably isn't right to sacrifice a noman - I think it's hard to get to that point in just two and a half months. But if you can do it that's the easiest for sure.
edited by Amalgamate on 10/23/2018
--
http://www.fallenlondon.com/Profile/amalgamate
Social invitations of all kinds welcome, especially games of chess and deadly sparring!
Also happy to help with nightmares, send sips of Cider, and plant battle.
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Saklad
Posts: 528
10/24/2018
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Azothi wrote:
From personal experience, having that Seven-Fold Knock makes the Paramount Presence grind easier. Just one point of BDR is worth many actions of grinding.
You don’t need the Seven-Fold Knock to get to Paramount Presence. Just be patient, and try to get a point of Notability each week when you think you can make it. Don’t take risks: decide whether you are going to try immediately after Time, the Healer.
Always build up your Salon when possible, since that is basically a bank of Making Waves that can be withdrawn at will. If you want to convert actions into Making Waves, cross-convert items. That takes 13 actions, but produces one of each Tier 3 (£0.50) item along with a substantial amount of Making Waves.
I’m currently 2 Notability away from Paramount Presence, and it hasn’t really been that hard. I admit my cross-converting script has been rather helpful in that regard, but that doesn’t have an in-game effect: it just reduces the real-time investment. Besides, I only made it recently.
--
Saklad5, a man of many talents
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