Unfortunately I don’t recall if it was a 1 to 1 ratio. I suspect it’s at least somewhat dependent on the number of buckets you had, but beyond that I’m not sure.
Edit: It has been a while, but it was mentioned on the forum so if you don’t mind doing a bit of digging you might find a thread about a year old in which people said they gained _ number of Direful Reflections. I might look later and send a message to you if I find out for sure that it’s more than 1.
Edit 2: Aha! Found a thread. Somebody lost 1 bucket of snow and gained 3 Direful Reflections.
As a very new PoSI, I’m a bit lost as to how to approach Sacksmas (most of the advice listed here is a bit out of my league.) I have 5 pails of snow, but not enough SotC to safely grind with the Monocle, and probably not enough time to change that. What should I do to get the most out of what I have? I love the look of the Zhell, but I’m not sure if even that’s too much to hope for. I also wanted to go with the Duchess after reading the rewards for each faction, but lots of people here seem to be saying it’s more important to get a Dreadful Surmise. So now I just don’t know! Any advice?
If all you want is a 3-card remote place, then don’t worry. Advent calendar + Mr. Sacks is enough to get your Lacre to 3. (You many want to check the wiki for Mr. Sacks, though.)
If you want a 5-card place, you can do it without the Surmise, but you’ll need a bit of luck and planning. Raise your Lacre to 2 by Advent Calendar and Mr. Sacks, grind your Sotc to 7 (relatively easy, grind to 3 in Carnival, then keep visiting Forgotten Quarter), then examine and pray. You should have 5 piles, which should give a very high chance to succeed twice at least (too lazy to calculate the actual probability).
Last year I was not yet a PoSI and obtained a Dripstone-Snared Third City Sub-Temple entirely through blind stumbling. I believe the remote address locations only require 3 ToL which is easy to get. You need to do all this planing and use things like the Monocle when you’re going for the 5 card lodging upgrades which require 7 to 9 which is difficult primarily because a lot of ToL boosting actions have a level cap between 3 and 5.
Unfortunately, I can’t speak to the value of a Dreadful Surmise or how difficult it would be to obtain it at another time of year.
There’s a Dreadful Surmise source coming up at the Feast of the Exceptional Rose, so if you want the weapon I say go for it. Unless a new source is introduced between now and Halloween it’ll be a long time before you get another chance.
[quote=theduckopera]What should I do to get the most out of what I have? I love the look of the Zhell, but I’m not sure if even that’s too much to hope for.[/quote]Last time the remote lodgings cost 3 levels of Taste of Lacre each, so that should be easy enough for you to acquire. And since you’re not in a position to upgrade any 4-card lodgings, you can just dip souls in your pails when your Taste of Lacre is too low to enter the wicket and get one of those remote lodgings.
Unless the wicket opens after the lacre starts melting. Then you’ll want to dip souls in your pails until you get to level 5, then play Day 2 Mr Sacks where you play the violin or give him a bottle of the '68 to increase Taste of Lacre to level 6, and from there check the wiki for each day (2013 or 2014 entries) to see which options give extra Taste of Lacre. A Dreadful Surmise seems unnecessary if you’re not going to upgrade any 4-card lodgings, because all it does is allow you to feed pails of lacre to wild boars to increase Taste of Lacre from 5-15. And you don’t need that much unless you intend to collect all of the remote lodgings and/or get a Noman. (I think those cost 3 levels at first, and then they became more and more expensive every week.)
Instead of dipping souls in your lacre you can also mix your lacre with old wine, which is apparently capped at 3, and is a gamble: Likely to cost you more than you get, but statistically it pays 1.50 Echoes/Action, because you have a 40% chance of getting a 12.50 Echoes Blackmail Material (and some snippets of lore) for the cost of two 2.50 Echoes items, and even if you’re unlucky you still get 2.50 Echoes’ worth of Incendiary Gossip. Either way you still get Taste of Lacre +1, just as if you’d dipped a soul.
For people who were already visited by Time the Healer (serguma was visited yesterday, for example), will there be any means to be snowbound again? Otherwise the change will not benefit us, or I suppose it might if it comes at exactly the right time on the 5th before it gets deactivated again on the 6th?
Thanks Flyte, that’s good to hear. I’m just disappointed that you didn’t make the decision three hours earlier, when the Healer last visited - it’s going to be a long wait…
Three of my characters got the Healer this morning :( Oh well they all have a decent level of lacre and, hopefully, enough pails of snow and Tears to use when the Wicket opens. And I can’t afford the fate to get another Robe.
[color=#C2B280]Time, the Healer has been running punctually for some time now. All players who’re currently subscribed to it should get one more opportunity to clear their paths.[/color]
I’m also a new POSI. I have 5 SotC and a monocle, 4 pails of snow & pending snowbound, I’m on Sackmas day 3, and I have 2 PtPT from advent and day 2 Sack violin. I have about 80 NEX lying around that I’m not shy about spending. I’m also an exceptional friend at the moment, so I tend to get a lot done in a day.
I already got the bizarre home comfort from the Snowbound NEX option.
Ideally I’d like a five card lodging, but I’ve heard the notability requirements are pretty severe.
I don’t have a 4 card lodging to upgrade, but several are within reach if I focus up a bit.
Some have suggested I just get remote lodgings and a noman instead. Thoughts?
I’d say shoot for the four card lodging, if you get it then BAM you’ve got a prestigious five card lodging, which is quite difficult to obtain outside of the holidays. And if you don’t make it, you can always default to the remote lodgings and noman with nothing lost.
Of course, that’s just my personal opinion. Christmas will always be back next year, when you can be more prepared.
Go for the Royal Bethlehem. You only need 3 notability and 7 PTPT for it, which is definitely doable. Also, getting the 4-card lodging itself is relatively easy: just use all your trade secrets for mysteries.
As you’re a new POSI, you may not have any notability, and more importantly, not much BDR. You can get the notability you’ll need, but with low BDR it might be very difficult, particularly as you need to grind the four card lodging first, and that can take a couple of days.
Five card lodgings are very useful, so I’d say go for it, but be aware that even getting to three notability is tricky if you don’t have any BDR. That’s even if you get someone to give you your first point for free.
Most PoSI should have at least some BDR from easily obtainable items, and if making less Echoes isn’t a concern for a week, it should be quite possible to get the Making Waves necessary for Notability 3. After all, one week has 7 x 144 = 1008 Actions, and if all of those are spent side-converting third tier resources, that should yield about 1700 CP. And with BDR 3 (clothing, weapon, pet) it only costs 153 + 231 + 325 = 709 CP to get Notability 3. Though it’s a lot easier if one spreads out all this during three weeks, since private suppers could then be used for their full potential. Since an Exceptional Friend could go 6 hours and 40 minutes between check-ins it seems quite reasonable that there would be quite enough Actions to reach the necessary Notability.
Granted, drawing the Slowcake’s Amanuensis card might be tricky if one doesn’t draw a lot of cards, but apparently there are people willing to help out. Someone with BDR 24 and Notability 1 wouldn’t even have to accumulate any Making Waves to send Notability points to people. They could just call up the Amanuensis, get to Notability 2, call up the Amanuensis again and send that second point to someone else, and repeat for as long as there are recipients without Notability. And someone with BDR 20 would only need 10 CP to get to Notability 2, which is easily done with a private supper or such. But for someone with BDR 21 and Notability 10 it would take 630 CP of Making Waves to replace that 10th point, and that doesn’t seem like good economics to me. Highly notable people simply can’t afford to be associated with the less notable rabble. ;)
[quote=Zeek]So, which option is the best use of my lacre at Putting the Pieces together 17?[/quote]Possibly the two most expensive upgrades at 8+9, then rebuild with leftover pails? Or just one upgrade and some remote lodgings? Assuming that the cost stays the same as last year. It all depends on what you want, but you don’t really need more than one upgrade and one remote lodgings (if you even want to use that option).
I’ve never used any of my remote lodgings simply because the two extra cards I get to save in my upgraded lodgings offset the two cards I don’t want from City Vices. Well, there’s a third card, but it has unusual frequency, so it doesn’t come up very often, and then there’s a card that only comes up when I have Nightmares, which doesn’t happen very often. My Persuasive is high enough that I can make a decent profit from the Sardonic Music-Hall Singer, so I still play those cards, even after the complications caused by the cap on the Acquaintance quality.
Maybe the best bang for your buck would be one upgrade and a Noman.