Since I recently became a POSI, I’ve noticed that most everything seems to require an assortment of different advanced construction items like legal documents, personal recommendations and such. All of these seem to be dreadfully expensive to produce at the bazaar side streets but there also seem to be alternate sources for each one. Thus I am curious what good options are available to acquire these items. A lot of them suggest Wilmot’s end, but I don’t have access to that place yet.
Ones I know about already:
Bazaar permits - thefts of particular character
Strong Backed Laborers - Docks vs Widow card gives 4 at the cost of a lot of Widow connection
Use of Villains - Enforcer profession gives 2 a week.
Cellar of Wine - Trading 25 Broken Giants for 5[li]edited by Elene on 12/1/2013[/li][li] edited by Elene on 12/1/2013
Wilmot’s End is a place where you can spend 4 x 11 Actions to get one Whirring Contraption. It looks like the Cave of Nadir can cut that down to 2 x 11 Actions, plus the Action you’d have to take inside the cave to get the boost to Dramatic Tension. But I haven’t tried that out yet. If you have Dangerous 210 or so you can get Lamplighter Beeswax from the chandler’s cottage at a high enough speed to make it take less than 44 Actions to get the goods to commission a Whirring Contraption. But for Dangerous 120 it looks like you’d have to add 8 Actions to get the same amount of Beeswax. And then it becomes a bit of a toss-up, though still in favour of the commission rather than doing the 44 Action grind. Well, assuming that you have ready access to Bundles of Oddities with Compromising Documents that you can turn into Memories of Light. Or some other source that can give you 30 x Memory of Light in about 9 Actions.
For Strong-Backed Labor Wilmot’s End is an absolutely abysmal place compared to the leisurely method of The Widow vs The Docks. And apparently there’s the War of Assassins for 1 x Use of Villains, which also uses Dramatic Tension, so it too can be cut short with the Cave of Nadir. Not sure how long that cycle is though.
Bazaar Permits can be created from Visions of the Surface, which can be created from other third tier items. Which might perhaps be slightly faster than stealing them, depending on how much goods you can get per Action. And I got 2 x Legal Document from turning Brilliant Souls into Muscaria Brandy. Wouldn’t count on such rare successes, but if you don’t need that many Legal Documents it might be worth a shot. But probably not.
I thought the Dramatic Tension carousels were 3x11 + 1, or 34 actions total?
Except for a few things that can be made from item conversion and Bazaar Permits that can be stolen from the Flit, there are generally two ways to make PoSI items: Grind basic items and buy them at the sidestreets, or go through one of the Dramatic Tension carousels (Searching for a Missing Women and Doing Business in Wilmot’s End, both at Wilmot’s End, or War of Assassins which can be started at your lodgings)
So, immediately, we can see that if anything costs more than 34 echoes (really, more than around 25-30 when item conversion actions are taken into account) on the sidestreets, we can grind it more efficiently with the carousels.
For the PoSI items we can make with item conversion, this is usually the best deal if you want them in bulk. There’s a point with Bazaar Permits where it makes more sense to steal them from the Flit when the actions to build up the initial cp of casing outweigh the item conversion actions, but I don’t want to calculate it.
For everything else, you just have buy it on the sidestreets. At minimum you can grind about 1 echo/action with Unfinished Business, so a PoSI item with a recipe worth X echoes will take about X actions plus item conversion to build. Although a couple PoSI items are built out of recipes that are easier to assemble since you can grind the tier 2 or 3 items they build out of directly and save actions on item conversion, and sometimes you can swap tier 3 items around to make life a little easier.
Finally, some one time only storylets or chance-based results on item conversions or expedition rewards can also generate PoSI items, but these don’t usually make sense to grind.
Interesting. I’m still a bit hazy on how Wilmot’s end and War of Assassin’s works (I haven’t tried either yet), but I might give them a shot since I only need one or two of most of the items. Thank you for the assistance good fellows.
Personal recommendations seem to be the exception. Other than the unpredictable and inefficient Talk of the Town carousel, there seems to be no way to get them outside of Bazaar Sidestreets.
[quote=Sackville]I thought the Dramatic Tension carousels were 3x11 + 1, or 34 actions total?[/quote]Ahh, now I see it. I only did the Millicent Clathermore search, and that didn’t include any Dramatic Tension. But it made me look at the wikia, where it shows that the option that awards Dramatic Tension also resets the qualities that you need to cash in the Dramatic Tension. So, much like Counting the Days, another cycle is needed to reach the end where you can cash in your accumulated rewards.
But unlike Counting the Days, cashing in doesn’t seem to reset any qualities except the Dramatic Tension, so you only need to do four cycles the first time, and then it looks like you’ll be left with one point of Dramatic Tension from then on. So yeah, 34 Actions per Whirring Contraption after the first one, as long as you don’t lose that point of Dramatic Tension. And only 13 Actions per Whirring Contraption if you can use that point of Dramatic Tension to get to Dramatic Tension 2 in the cave of Nadir. But that’s a once per week opportunity. 30 weeks for a zubmarine? That might be a bit long. Would be a nice, weekly time-saver though.
I think the difference is Fighting a War of Assassins doesn’t require you to go through the carousel again to spend your dramatic tension. You build it up at 11 actions/cp, then cash out with a storylet at your lodgings. At least, if I recall it correctly. I’ve only had to do it once so far.
And I’ve never done Wilmot’s End, since I went for the zee-clipper and haven’t gotten around to going for the library yet. I guess I should play through it a few times and actually figure out how it works.
This discussion reminds me that I’ve still got The End of the Search waiting for me in Wilmot’s End from my old Zubmarine grind. Back then I played the Missing Woman storyline up to the End of the Search and just left it to go Doing Business in Wilmot’s End. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten Down to Business with that guy.
Oh, if you’re going to get Legal Documents through Wilmot’s End it’s best to use the War of Assassins to build up your Dramatic Tension. That way the storylet will stick around, and you won’t need to play through the carousel again to get your reward. Maybe the Missing Woman is good for that too, I’m not sure. I just kept that conclusion open so I wouldn’t need to go through it again when I was in need of more Whirring Contraptions.
More items: Converting Memories of Distant Shores is the best way to get Collated Research (don’t use Wilmot’s End for that!), and Stolen Kisses convert into Favours in High Places. edited by Sara Hysaro on 12/2/2013
Apparently “The dance goes on” option on the “Woods in winter” card can give you 1~2 points of Dramatic Tension if you already have at least one point.
A few items mention the Fidgeting Writer as a source. I haven’t ever run into that story line. What is it and how does it work? Is it an item carousel like Wilmot’s end and war of assassins?
It’s a rather unique storyline that you can begin by using a Tale of Terror from your inventory. Basically, at each stage of the story, you have the choice to either end it at that point for a reward, or invest some items for a chance to get to the next step - but if you’re unlucky, you’ll lose your investment and have to begin again. You might get lucky and get all the way through to the really high-value rewards on your first time, or you might spend a fortune for no return. People here have analysed the most efficient way to get any given reward, of course - I’m sure if you search, you’ll find their results, or someone will be able to point you in the right direction. (Afraid I don’t know, myself, as I don’t do Fidgeting Writer very often!)
Note that it is a little out of date; it doesn’t list the Profession rewards for instance. But it’s a good start if you most of the information on one page.
I must say ‘The dance goes on’ has so far never given me a rare success. If you have the fate-locked A Daughter in the Shadows then the Old Bones card in the Cave of the Nadir will give you a guaranteed Dramatic Tension.