Selling souls in bulk works for me. I get roughly 300 echos a day. So thats pretty sweet.
OK guys, please be easy on me; my mathematical inabilities border on Dyscalculia…
I need another 6,000 Echoes for the Overgoat. I’m done with the Velocipede Squad and I’m a Shepherd of Souls. Is Pygmalion the best thing I can do, or is there something more profitable, what with all the new inventory options and stuff. And don’t bother showing me how to calculate it, just tell me what to do. ;-)
The Merchant of Souls storylet averages about 1.42 Echoes per action, which is an occasional bump up to 1.5 with the Brilliant soul card.
Even at 100 Actions a day, how do you reckon you’re getting 300 Echoes a day?
[quote=Wieland Burandt]OK guys, please be easy on me; my mathematical inabilities border on Dyscalculia…
I need another 6,000 Echoes for the Overgoat. I’m done with the Velocipede Squad and I’m a Shepherd of Souls. Is Pygmalion the best thing I can do, or is there something more profitable, what with all the new inventory options and stuff. And don’t bother showing me how to calculate it, just tell me what to do. ;-)[/quote]
Hunter’s Keep.
Or, sans that, go to the Foreign Office and stay there as long as you possibly can.
Thank you! Hunter’s Keep is one of my favourite places, so I’ll start there.
The Merchant of Souls storylet averages about 1.42 Echoes per action, which is an occasional bump up to 1.5 with the Brilliant soul card.
Even at 100 Actions a day, how do you reckon you’re getting 300 Echoes a day?[/quote]
I don’t know, I typed the wrong amount. >_>
What’s the best thing to do with the Incendiary Gossip and Identities Uncovered one receives from attending the Velocipede Squad funeral? Trade them up? Trade the Gossip via the inventory actions, the Swap Incendiary Gossip opportunity card (1:1 Gossip for Identities, but only one per action) or the Wanted opportunity card (25:1 Gossip for Blackmail Material)?
now that I’ve double-checked, in the inventory it’s 50 Incendiary Gossip for 10 Identities Uncovered, and 25 Identities for 5 Blackmail Material. That’s 250 : 50 : 10, which is the same as the 25:1 opportunity card but the latter only takes one action. The 1:1 swap is obviously much better value but too slow - once I get luck on the card 25 times I’ve got five Blackmail Material for a fraction of the cost, but it’s taken far too many actions.
edit: and since I’m looking for echoes, and 25 Identities sell for exactly as much as 5 Blackmail Material, there’s no point exchanging them. Except, I suppose, for whatever the sweetener is on a lucky conversion.
edited by SeanH on 2/10/2012
Since some people were wondering about getting an Ubergoat I thought bringing up this Echo Grinding thread might be useful. Also if anyone has any updates to what they think is a better path 2 years later I wouldn’t mind hearing them.
I believe that, currently, running through The Affair of the Box in Spite is the most profitable repeatable grind - cashing in 8 mourning candles (2.5 echoes each) after a 14-action grind gives about 1.42 echoes an action. Add in the six correspondence plaques if you are Conscience of an Empire, and it’s about 1.62 per action. I’ve heard some people mention ways of getting around 1.78 echoes/action, but they rely mostly on catching certain cards from the opp. deck.[li]
So much has changed, including high end items now having a use. that it is difficult to say what the most efficient way to get echoes is. The Affair of the Box is one of the reliable grinds but I am at the point of using op cards except for 7-10 to get the correspondence plaques (as soon as I get a goat I’m going to try and cap my scholar so I’m not selling or converting those). So my favourite is the highly variable seeking curios in the Forgotten Quarter. Yes you might just get pennies but there are rare successes that give 62.50 echoes and you get lots of mystery items that are useful for converting up to give Making Waves.
I would also advise to keep some Collection of curiosities at hand to sell to Tomb - Colonists, via the card. It nets 1.79 echo/action, which is pretty good (even if the last step needs an opportunity card!).
Otherwise, the affair of the box is pretty nice.
Other things:
The cave of nadir is a must. Don’t bother to make your characteristics high, you’ll lose it there.
A sweetheart? Oh, yes. Going out with your sweetie is pretty remunerative - even if it uses a free night to both.
Keep your notability around 7-8, so to have a good chance to get your package when the unsigned letter arrives.
In general, check all the cards which nets you more than the 1.62 echoes you are able to gain via the affair of the box.
(For example, giving a passage via Once upon a time in a carriage, attending to the seventh letter, etc…)
Opportunities don’t have to be wasted, and it makes your grind definitely less boring.
I don’t have a moment to dig it up, but see my text regarding Corpsecage/Deep Blue Heaven in the forum on the Shrine. Basically, once you’ve done all the collated research you care to do, loop Corpsecage repeatedly to build up a massive chest of Prelapsarian archaeological notes, convert them all to supplies the Prepare for an Expedition storylet, then loop the Shrine of the Deep Blue Heaven repeatedly. My rather complex calculations suggest this hovers around the 1.35 echoes/action mark when everything is incorporated in. The biggest downside is that you spend a lot of time away from London and miss out on cards, and it also generally requires a very high watchful to be efficient (I’d say get Watchful over 140 before working it).
At some point I should probably figure out how Wander the Quarter->convert Whispered Secrets to supplies->Deep Blue Heaven compares, but there’s a LOT of random chance in there I’d have to collect data on.
Less complicated but still remote is the "One might profit in such a place" storylet in Polythreme. Once your stats are up, it’s a straight 1.2 echoes per action on the lower two, but you have to offset against that the looooong zee voyage to get there and back.[li]
edited by Trodgmey on 2/27/2014 – 1.35 echoes/action, not 1.5 as I previously wrote. Wrong part of my spreadsheet.[/li][li]
edited by Trodgmey on 2/27/2014
Ultimately, gaining echoes is like anything else in this game: repetition, repetition & repetition. I see a lot of great strategies here for how to go about it as efficiently as possible which is all well and good. But, if you just want to log on and mindlessly click something 20 or so times before getting back to other work then you don’t want that something to be needlessly complicated.
That’s why I always argue over primordial shrieks in Ladybones Road’s unfinished business. The occasional primordial shrieks stack the profits and I love the idea of a task that also involves drinking coffee. I have gotten to 10,800 echoes while investing in my orphanage which pays off dividends when I need points in Making Waves.
The long and short is to find your center, what you like, and stick with it.[li]
edited by Owen Wulf on 2/28/2014
OK, question: I’m not yet a PoSI (working on the University content because I’d rather gain access through that than through my Dangerous achievements), but I’ve managed to max my Boxful of Intrigue quality. Should I wait until I’ve gotten Empire’s Kingmaker to 40 for the Mourning Candles, or should I just spend my Boxfuls of Intrigue now and start building them up again in the meantime?
(Also, an explanation of the Box carousel from the Masters’ perspective would be helpful as well–is Boxful of Intrigue actually involved or is that a separate sub-carousel?)
I think that the only way to increase Empire’s Kingmaker is to go through the Box cycle multiple times - so until you get to 40, you’re limited to the lower-Echo rewards.