So I have a few questions regarding both of these pieces of the game.
I feel like I’ve been collecting a large amount of recurring dream qualities, all of them are between level 8-14, but I haven’t really seen many rewards, or noticed exactly the point or what it’s doing. Should I be concentrating so much on this?
Leveling these obviously requires me to keep my Nightmares low enough to not lose all the qualities, but I’m also trying to farm an Eyeless Skull using the "Seeking Curios and Secrets in the Forgotten Quarter" option, which tends to really make managing the Nightmares tough.
Any suggestions for me? Should I even be bothering with the dreams? I’m not quite a Person of Importance (I honestly don’t really know what it entails, but I do have one stat over 100)
Having one stat over 100 should have already started you on the path to PoSI. Getting all four there (with gear, mind you, not raw stats) should advance you along the path. You need to talk to that blonde barrister gel.
As for Dreams and Nightmares, the dreams do have some advantages along the way: you may have noticed the odd improvement to Watchful, e.g. But they’re mostly there for flavor at this point (I understand they had more applications when a certain piece of inactive content was live). The writing is diverting, although it does get repetitive after awhile. If there are other advantages, I am unaware of them (but I am not a seasoned player).
Whether you bother with the dreams is totally your decision: there aren’t any "rewards" beyond the stories themselves (yet). Though you can visit a special place with Stormy-Eyed 19 and What the Thunder Said 15…
Regarding your fear of losing the qualities: as long as you have at least one Memory of Light, you’ll go to the Mirror-Marches instead of the Royal Beth once your Nightmares hit 8. The Marches only dock 10 CP off "Is Someone There?", you don’t lose any CP of the other dreams.
Dreams are great lore-wise. Gameplay-wise they’re not that relevant although they unlock certain actions/lore here and there.
If you do plan to raise your Dreams then not being a POSI can be in your advantage given that you can drink Laudanum without much repercussions to mitigate Nightmare problems.
Dreams also do the opposite- they get rid of nuisance cards in your deck, if you raise them high enough. I believ your dreams can always increase, but at the peak, there’s only one or two cards.
If your Heart Desire is a particular Card Game at one step you’ll need to have at least 5 in What the Thunder Said, Burial of the Dead, Fire Sermon and Death by Water to move on.
I highly, highly, recommend going the "other" route. There should be another unlock listed for that particular instance, and it’s from an interesting place and dreams are so much harder to get up to that level because you’re at the mercy of the deck. Yes, you’ll need to be a POSI to proceed at the least, but the ambition does get pretty hard later on.
Specific detail on the other unlock and general, non-specific spoilers through the end of Heart’s Desire about difficulty/requirements:
The key is from Hunter’s Keep - which is at Zee and you’ll need your own ship to reach it. Much later on in the ambition, you’ll need a ship again. Concerning difficulty, about 2/3 down the way through there’s an area tricky enough that I wasn’t able to get through it with 150+ stats on my first try and it has an expensive unlock. I wouldn’t rush.
I highly, highly, recommend going the "other" route. There should be another unlock listed for that particular instance, and it’s from an interesting place and dreams are so much harder to get up to that level because you’re at the mercy of the deck. Yes, you’ll need to be a POSI to proceed at the least, but the ambition does get pretty hard later on.
Specific detail on the other unlock and general, non-specific spoilers through the end of Heart’s Desire about difficulty/requirements:
The key is from Hunter’s Keep - which is at Zee and you’ll need your own ship to reach it. Much later on in the ambition, you’ll need a ship again. Concerning difficulty, about 2/3 down the way through there’s an area tricky enough that I wasn’t able to get through it with 150+ stats on my first try and it has an expensive unlock. I wouldn’t rush.
edited by Parelle on 2/5/2016[/quote]
Hello, Parelle! I didn’t know how to find the key and started rising Recurring Dreams qualities instead. I thought it would be worth mentioning this particular value of high dream qualities scince the topic-starter asks what possible uses they can have. I’m still in the process of rising them to 5 actually. And hence the question: does it lead to a different outcome (I mean, story-wise) copmared to unclocking it with the key? A different storyline?
[li]
The net effect is the same, except for a variation in the text; however, the Stone Tentacle-Key has a guaranteed source and can be obtained extremely reliably. Dreams, on the other hand, are difficult to raise, especially at low levels, since most of the cards available at that point are Unusual frequency (one-fifth as common as normal). As a matter of fact, all the Ambitions require the Stone Tentacle-Key at some point – it’s the equivalent of a gear check in RPGs, to make sure you are capable of doing the more grueling trips across the zee that your Ambition will soon require. Heart’s Desire is the only one with a substitute cost, actually, which is largely because it was the first to reach that point.
Dream qualities also have other uses – one of them used to be a way to start Seeking the Name, some of them can be cashed in for an otherwise-difficult-to-acquire Mysteries item, gaining Stormy-Eyed can allow you to gain large amounts of Cryptic Clues, and all the dreams have various effects on a certain card once you’re a Person of Some Importance. In fact, one of the dreams the Manager is asking for can be used – at no cost, but requiring a particular level – to very occasionally gain Connected: the Masters.