An in-depth look at money options

One moment - you say that it costs 14 actions to go once around the carousel at the Velocipede Squad. Doesn’t it cost 15? You have to cash in once you reach 7, after all… That lowers the return to 123 and 1/3 PPA, not ~132 as you say.

Odd… I could have sworn I fixed that… that may have been an occasion where I timed out and had to re-type. Yes, you’re absolutely right in that regard.

In other news, I’ve updated the first post with information on the Voyage of Scientific Discovery, and using the Detective’s Card.
edited by Urthdigger on 7/20/2012

Well… most of the options listed here are more lucrative, but, one thing I just noticed. In Unfinished Business in Watchmaker’s Hill, the “A sure bet” option gives 240 Jade for 2 actions, i.e. 120 pence per action. This is somewhat boring to spam, but it doesn’t require any loops, any opportunity cards, nor any luck checks; and you don’t have to sail the unterzee to reach it, nor get yourself banished to the tomb colonies.

Also, the Dramatic Tension from Wilmot’s End, the Flit, and the Forgotten Quarter works for either the War of Assassins rewards or the Wilmot’s End rewards. The only difference is the Wilmot’s End reward storylet only appears at the end of a loop. If you are pursuing a particular item from W.E. (such as a Whirring Contraption) it’s best to build that loop up to it’s conclusion, then leave that final storylet and build up Dramatic Tension using either the other W.E. loop, or the War of Assassin’s loop(s). Until you no longer need that item, ignore the first option on that storylet.

And another thing about Wilmot’s End. It’s pretty rare, but in the first half of the Playing the Game at Wilmot’s End loop, the Faithful Functionary occasionally gives Compromising Documents, making that loop ever so slightly more profitable than any of the other options for building dramatic tension. I’d say it happens about once every 3 loops, so it’s only an extra ~100 pence over 34 actions.
edited by wlerin on 7/24/2012

[quote=Urthdigger]
===Detective’s Card===
(…) Far more useful is the option to spend 100 whispered secrets for 5 incendiary gossip, for a 150 pence profit. (…)[/quote]

You do lose the Business Card if you do this, however, so you have to factor in the acquisition. At the level cap*, the best** way to do this is - I believe - an Opportunity card unlocked at Suspicious 3, which has no further benefits. So, unless I’m mistaken, this actually only yields 75 pence per action, which is really not profitable.

  • There’s a mid-level dangerous card which also gives 60 Rostygold, for a total of 105 pence per action.
    ** You can also get one via the Maverick Bloodhound opportunity card, for an overall yield of 200 pence for three actions (66 ppa).
    edited by Cedric Appleby on 7/24/2012

[quote=Cedric Appleby][quote=Urthdigger]
===Detective’s Card===
(…) Far more useful is the option to spend 100 whispered secrets for 5 incendiary gossip, for a 150 pence profit. (…)[/quote]

You do lose the Business Card if you do this, however, so you have to factor in the acquisition. At the level cap*, the best** way to do this is - I believe - an Opportunity card unlocked at Suspicious 3, which has no further benefits. So, unless I’m mistaken, this actually only yields 75 pence per action, which is really not profitable.

  • There’s a mid-level dangerous card which also gives 60 Rostygold, for a total of 105 pence per action.
    ** You can also get one via the Maverick Bloodhound opportunity card, for an overall yield of 200 pence for three actions (66 ppa).
    edited by Cedric Appleby on 7/24/2012[/quote]

Actually the best option is to use the business cards you get as a side bonus when turning in screaming map pieces ;)

Oh, I see. That’s what I get for checking the wrong wiki, I suppose. My apologies!

Updated the front page with information on the Boxful of Intrigue from the latest content, which funnily enough is the best reliable source of money currently (There are two better sources, but both are lucky based and require resources). I’ve also updated the Labyrinth of Tigers, updating a small oversight with the somnolent hyaena (Forgot to account for the honey cost), and also placed a mention of the most effective route at the end of the section (Beforehand, that involved looking through the entire body for what had the biggest number)

This is so delightfully helpful. Thank you ever so much, Urthdigger! I’m not completely done with all of EB’s older content like you are, but I’m far enough along that this can point me to some nice ways to earn Echos.

In Hunter’s Keep the optimal course in round one is to look in the attic from time passing 3 until 7, then to look at the books. From cycle 2 onwards (by which point you’ll have dramatic tension) the best course is ‘Talk to Lucy’ and ‘Ask her to take a stroll with you’, which nets 116 pence per action, then take the ‘Look for something significant’ option under 'Examine the books. This ordinarily gets 108 pence, but there is a rare success giving 250 pennies. From my time on the island, 1862 clicks on this got me exactly 200 rare successes, or an average of 123.25 pence an action. This is better than the 120 pence you can get from any of the fixed reward actions, and also remains as an option once you have lost your dramatic tension at the well. You should always ‘Take your net to the well’ at time passing 9, which usually supplies 1000 pence but on a rare success (for me 22 times out of 102 attempts) gives a searing enigma worth a whopping 6250. Once you get to time passing 10 you get an extraordinary implication (worth 250p) for two actions, or 125 pence per action.

A complete cycle of 27 turns should provide (assuming my figures are reliable, which they should be except for the searing enigmas, where the law of large numbers hasn’t started to kick in yet):

11x116 (1276) for talking to Lucy
14x123.25 (1725.5) for reading books
2132.35 for fishing in the well
250 for the extraordinary implication
5383.35 pence per cycle or 199.4 pence per turn.

But the searing enigmas really skew that number, so it may be somewhat lower.

The screaming map is indeed awesome for making money =)

I have amassed over 800 bottles of Broken Giant from A Presumptuous Little Opportunity. I was planning on just selling them, but then I saw the conversion tables. It seems that on success you’ll get your 12,5 echoes (5 Cellars of Wine) + four Mysteries of Elder Continent (2 echoes). On a rare success you’ll get the five Cellars of Wine + Seaging Enigma (62,5 echoes)! On failure you’ll just get the straight conversion, but at no point will you lose money. The downside is that your connected: Church will drop.

Still, this seems like a worthwhile grind. Has anyone tried it?

Edit. The odds given are “pretty good”.
edited by SmallFish on 11/7/2012

It is a decent route to go, but I hesitate to call it a grind since you are at the mercy of getting some of the more rare cards to do anything with it. Still, it is something else you can exploit while doing a more consistent grind.

I was basically grinding Bottles of 1879 at Veilgarden and noticed, that the Presumptious little opportunity came along pretty consistently. I think I usually had 6000 - 8000 Bottles of 1879 by the time it showed up, so maybe the conversion of Broken Giants could possibly be seen as an extension to that grind. Or something. :) Can’t be bothered to do the maths though. I’ll let you know how many Searing Enigmas I scored with 800 Broken Giants once I get back from Hunter’s Keep.

Update to Boxful of Intrigue: Encryption of a Sort / Intercept the messages now also gives 2 x Correspondence Plaque.

Concerning the heist in the Flit:

Number of actions
1 - embark
10 - have my hoodlums bring Casing… to 8 (I’ve found that using any other action isn’t worth the CP)
3 - buy Inside Information
1 - begin the job
4-10 - raise The Burglar’s Progress to 7+ (it usually doesn’t take more than 8-ish unless I have horrible luck)
1 - take the second option: acquire 2 Bazaar Permits and 100 Cryptic Clues
Total number of actions is 20-26.

The permits and clues sell for a total of 2700 pence, making the heist 112.5 - 135 pence per action. Seems like a pretty good deal unless I’m doing my math wrong.

For those curious, it’s possible to take only four actions to raise progress to 7 using only 3 Inside Information, with luck (the maximum number of card slots helps).
Cards that reward 2 progress by giving up an Inside Information with no chance of failure are Through the Shadows (lantern), A Promising Door (brown door), A Menacing Corridor (dark mirror), A Troublesome Lock (lock), and Through Deeper Shadows (same lantern). Take the choice that has requires your Inside Information.
Cards that reward 1 progress with no chance of failure are Through the Shadows, Tiny Rivals (rats), A clutter of bric-a-brac (windup soldier), and Winding Stairs (stairs).

You can make do with less actions.

1 - Embark
8 - Hoodlums (5) + Decoy (3) to get Casing to 7-ish.
2 - Buy inside information
1 - Begin Job
6-7 - Get Progress™
1 - Acquire Reward

For a total of 19-20 actions. I’ve consistently gotten through the heists with those 6-7 actions and 2 II (the important thing is to only spend it on stuff that gives 2 Progress) in my quest to acquire Lodgings at the Bazaar - overall, heisting was far more rewarding than Thefts of Particular Character, especially considering how boring the latter is.

All right. Going with the above, 19 actions for the heist means ~142 pence per action, almost as lucrative as the affair with the box. (For me, getting the extra Inside Information means more easily avoiding cards that involve kifers or the cat and thus, fewer cards to draw.)

Yeah, I’m going that route now instead. You also gain a little bit of Connected Criminals(Strongbox) you can redeem down the line.

Yeah, I’m going that route now instead. You also gain a little bit of Connected Criminals(Strongbox) you can redeem down the line.[/quote]

Though it caps at… 10 I think (alas).

Yeah, I’m going that route now instead. You also gain a little bit of Connected Criminals(Strongbox) you can redeem down the line.[/quote]

Though it caps at… 10 I think (alas).[/quote]

It caps at something, at the very least. Probably 10.
edited by Aximillio on 12/28/2012