Combat is definitely a good source of income in the mid-game. Once I upgraded to the Corvette with the Hellthrasher on deck and the Majesty on forward (later replaced by the Momento Mori), I was able to pull in a fair amount of supplies and fuel from the pirates of Corsair’s Forest and the rat-barges around Nuncio. The Pirate-Poet also proved a rather nice source of cash, coughing up as many as 400 echoes along with fuel and supplies each time I sunk her ship, so keep an eye out for those Alcaeus-Class Corvettes.
Another thing which I’ve found rather useful: keep a good supply of Zee-Stories, Tales of Terror!!, Memories of Distant Shores, and Visions of the Surface. Of the four, I found the Zee-Story and MoDS were most useful, but the four can be exchanged between at Irem. Having a few of the right sort on hand at the right time can produce nice returns or get you out of a sticky situation, and they can also be used to accumulate Secrets at the Mangrove College or fuse Strategic Information into Vital Intelligence.
Carrying water at the Adam’s Way Animescence Hospital is a fairly easy Hearts challenge (84 for 100%) which returns one of each of the four types, at no cost beyond the Unread Log necessary to enter Adam’s Way. One Lamentable Relic can be traded for three Unread Logs at Codex with a Something Awaits You, and each Unread Log gives four actions at Adam’s Way, so (with a decent Hearts score) one Lamentable Relic can be converted to twelve of each of Zee-Stories, Tales of Terror!!, Memories of Distant Shores, and Visions of the Surface. Better still, while the tree at Adam’s Way is "tall and strong" or "flowering", spending one action to catch a falling nut has an 80% chance of returning a Lamentable Relic, making the Adam’s Way-Codex loop entirely self-sustaining with only those two stops.
Since the coastal tiles are in fixed locations, the trip’s moderately long, but it’s not a bad route at all. Along with the aforementioned easy access to Stories/Tales/Memories/Visions, there’s also many profitable trade routes between the coastal ports; most notable are Darkdrop Coffee from Port Carnelian to London for 6 echoes’ profit per unit, Mushroom-Wine from London to Venderbight for 3 echoes per unit, Mushroom-Wine from London to Adam’s Way for 3 echoes per unit, and Parabola-Linen from the House of Pleasures in the Iron Republic to Adam’s Way for 6 echoes per unit. All in all it’s a very nice route if you need to do a bit of grinding; the only troublesome bit is the Blue Prophets, who’re fast enough to be tough to avoid.
Another good place in the vein of Adam’s Way is Godfall, where a Hunting-Trophy can be traded for one Zee-Story, one Tale of Terror!!, one Memory of Distant Shores, and up to 20 Fragments. The supply of fragments makes this combine well with the Mangrove College for grinding Secrets, and it’s not hard to get up to your ears in hunting trophies. The only other repeatable use for them I’ve found which doesn’t consume Something Awaits You is giving them to the Sisters at Abbey Rock, which reduces Terror, clears Hunger, gives a Memory of Distant Shores, and grants Stone’s Attention; situationally useful, but Godfall is significantly better.
My current captain had the good fortune to encounter Polythreme, Godfall, Wisdom, and the Coral Principles in close proximity to each other, which was a nice little arrangement. The Bound-Sharks and Albino Morays of the Principles and the Sea of Lilies yielded plenty of Hunting-Trophies and a fair amount of Stygian Ivory, which were spent at Godfall and sold at Polythreme respectively. Frequent passing between tiles caused the zee-beasts to respawn often, Unprepossessing Masses kept my crew fed, and stops at Port Cecil let me refuel and consume Something Awaits You to gather Scintillack for my next trip back to London.
edited by Anchovies on 3/1/2017