3200 scraps!

It is the only “trade favours with …” that isn’t a pinned storylet but I think the rewards are better than the other options. Though I can’t remember what the Criminals choice gives, trading with the Revolutionaries gives 720 Proscribed Material.

The Criminal one gives 720 moon-perls. The only worthy trade is the urchins one. At least until the liberation of light actually becomes something good to fight for.

[quote=WormApotheote]Assuming it’s 50/50 then in the long term the average gains are 2 scraps per gamble, and the deviation from that easily could negate any gains. (Like at 9 wins and 9 losses, losing the next one wipes any gains you’ve made so.)[/quote]For the gambles where the winnings are 2 scraps more than the losses, the average gain would only be 1 scrap per gamble, since you only win half the time. For a reasonably long term view I started gambling early on, and after a lousy start I eventually managed to get slightly more wins than losses, first on the 10 scraps gamble (when I had maybe 100 or 200 scraps to cover for losing streaks), and then on the 20 scraps gamble (when I had even more scraps). And that’s when I quit gambling, so that I ended up with about 1.7 scraps per Action for the double armfuls.

Shivering Relicker, Armful of scraps: 8 wins, 10 losses
Curt Relicker, Armful of scraps: 6 wins, 7 losses
Coquettish Relicker, Armful of scraps: 9 wins, 5 losses
Capering Relicker, Armful of scraps 8 wins, 7 losses
Total 31 wins, 29 losses -> 31 x 10 - 29 x 8 = 78 scraps in 60 Actions -> 1.30 scraps/Action

Shivering Relicker, Double armful: 20 wins, 15 losses
Curt Relicker, Double armful: 9 wins, 8 losses
Coquettish Relicker, Double armful: 20 wins, 21 losses
Capering Relicker, Double armful: 5 wins, 6 losses
Total: 54 wins, 50 losses -> 54 x 20 - 50 x 18 = 1080 - 900 = 180 scraps in 104 Actions -> 1.73 scraps/Action

Thanks to 20 scraps being quite a lot, getting a measly 5 wins over the expected average is about 100 extra scraps, so even if it takes a hundred gambles before ending up in that position it still pays well enough. But if one goes on for long enough, the increasingly large number of Actions spent will dilute non-average results and bring the average number of scraps closer to 1 scrap per Action. Someone who knows statistics better than I might be able to figure out how likely it is that a player would end up with a certain number of extra scraps before it’s too late to significantly affect the number of scraps per Action. The benefit here relies entirely on the fact that the result is likely to oscillate around the average, and that the player can always choose to quit while ahead, whenever that happens.

Statistically I suppose that there’s always a risk that the player never ends up ahead, but it seems likely that the risk of that happening is a lot lower than 50%, so the strategy I used seems like a good idea for anyone who thinks that 1.5 scraps per Action is good enough. In the long run it’s only a bonus though, and not a method that can be relied upon for very long.

If you aren’t worried about advancing the Liberation and want to build connected Masters the revolutionary choice might be worth taking :)

[quote=Owen Wulf]Took me the better part of 2 years but I finally casually accumulated 3200 Scraps. Yay me.

Is this even an accomplishment anymore?[/quote]

I saved up for 3200 scraps to buy the Reputed Location of a Former Prince of Hell so I could get my Sanctum…a bit early. It was satisfying to do, though. Now I’m saving Scraps again for one of the other 3200 Scrap items.

They do right now. The devils in the western tower are offering, forma desperate and not so pristine souls. I’m still considering if I should.[/quote]

No there’s a thing you can do to your soul that makes the devils refuse to touch it with a ten foot pole, which locks all of the selling options.

I think there were a couple of things that you could abuse for scraps before. Spamming invites and some action in the Court. Flit favors are probably the best card right now. But no way in hell I am going to Flit every time just to draw cards. Why is it limited to Flit anyway? mumble mumble
I am at 2400 scrap. Pretty sure I will never spend them on anything, unless something like Rumourmaster’s Network suddenly has a use.

I’m a bit under 4000 scraps at this point - when I hit 6400, I will buy one of the relicker items (likely a Breath of the Void). Based on the houses and top-notch gear, it seems reasonable to get 20ish scraps a day. By spamming Urchins that goes up to around 30 (because the card is so rare).

Between scraps and lacre, the Urchins are probably the most valuable faction connection…

It’s two clicks! Unless you’re playing on a tablet of course, in which case switching zones is a painful crapshoot, so I sort of see your point.

Anyway, I have found myself much in need of Night-Whispers, for both Vake hunting, and more recently, lacre acquisition. Whilst these can be gained from other sources, they are massively & frustratingly random, so it’s worth knowing you can use 160 for one of these from the shivering relicker.

Still staying above 3000 though, you never know when one of those unique items might have a use.

For the last while I’ve been going to the Sidestreets every time I draw cards, just in the hopes of getting Skin of the Bazaar, and not even for the Passion bit but just because it was a point of SotC. I only drew it once in those months.
OTOH, I got a Corresponding Ocelot last week to help me get SotC up, and then the next thing I did was get a Dreaming Hound. I’ve drawn the Hound’s card 6 times since and am yet to see the Ocelot’s. I’m starting to think the RNG thinks it can jerk me around after giving me that set of dice.

Sorry, bit of a digression. I don’t have nearly so many scraps, but I don’t risk the gamble options on the Relickers… yes, it’s a net win IF the odds are 50/50, but judging from the wikia there are a lot of actions that look to have even odds but are really 60/40 or so… and I had a string of bad luck, so I stopped risking it.

Never gamble. The RNG hates you. On the other hand, I can guarantee the RNG will throw more ocelots at you than you can fend off, never mind rub the bellies of…once you have 10 SotC.

Just don’t use the monocle on some snow when you have 9…

…given that I just drew the Dream-Hound again, I think you are very, very right.