Becoming a Rat-Catcher

According to the Wiki, in order to choose this profession, you need to draw it from a stack of cards. I’m wondering if there’s any location that increases the likelihood of this happening. For example, is it more likely that this card would be drawn in Watchmaker’s Hill than other locations?

Thanks for any help.

No, sorry.

There are some ways to refresh your deck, but I’m not sure they are already available for you:

  • university (your own lab)
  • railway (current entgame content, starting in Molloch Street)
  • A flash Lay (your activities)

These options doesn’t increase your chance in terms of draw chances, but they allow you to spend actions in order to refill your deck.

[quote=Judaspriester]There are some ways to refresh your deck, but I’m not sure they are already available for you:

  • university (your own lab)
  • railway (current entgame content, starting in Molloch Street)
  • A flash Lay (your activities)

These options doesn’t increase your chance in terms of draw chances, but they allow you to spend actions in order to refill your deck.[/quote]
If you bought the story &quotThe Empress’ Shadow&quot, which gives you access to Sinning Jenny’s Finishing School in Ladybones Road, you can enter and then leave the School without playing the cycle through to refresh your deck also.

[quote=Judaspriester]There are some ways to refresh your deck, but I’m not sure they are already available for you:

  • university (your own lab)
  • railway (current entgame content, starting in Molloch Street)
  • A flash Lay (your activities)

These options doesn’t increase your chance in terms of draw chances, but they allow you to spend actions in order to refill your deck.[/quote]

Draw chances indeed! Since I first posted this message, I got not one, not two, not three, but TWELVE, yes twelve, of the card &quotCity Vices: Orthographic Infection&quot. Yet, since I started playing this game in general, I’ve only gotten the card &quotBy the River’s Side: The Docks&quot only ONCE! To say the least, the RNG for the card deck is frustrating! :(

Make that 14 times! I just drew that card twice in a row now! GRRRR…

Hmm… another little hint: you can’t draw a single card twice. So every card you’ve got in your hand can’t be drawn again. This is one of the big advantages of the higher tier lodgings.
Having a 5 card lodging not only means that you can keep 4 interesting cards. It also means that you can keep 4 cards you don’t want to draw anymore. This may not be a that big difference, compared to the deck size in the endgame, but at the long term, it might help.

btw, talking about rng: some months ago I noticed that I need, even with a overgoat, 2 moods (10% chance compared to a common card) for a special action. I spend weeks just with refilling my deck. THAT was alot of fun… ^^"

I suspect that someone who’s looking to become a ratcatcher and has only drawn the docks card once in the game is a bit far from getting 5-card lodgings!

Well, if he does well, he could(!) manage to get a 4 card lodgings until sackmas (christmas) and then upgrade wit with larce. But yeah, he will most likely have other priorities right now.

Besides that, my main intention was expaining why a higher tier lodgings is interesting.

Well, if he does well, he could(!) manage to get a 4 card lodgings until sackmas (christmas) and then upgrade wit with larce. But yeah, he will most likely have other priorities right now.

Besides that, my main intention was expaining why a higher tier lodgings is interesting.[/quote]
YES!!! FINALLY!!! I DREW THE CARD!!! Aw man is that sweet! Note that currently, I’ve only been playing the game for about a single week, so I only have a two card lodgings (Widow’s Spare Bedroom). But yes, I FINALLY drew the card just now and it feels sweet! It looks like the Ratting Piece is a fairly powerful item for a newbie to have, so I’m guessing this is incredible luck!

Anyways, I have another question. Does &quotrefreshing&quot your deck actually matter? As I pointed out previously, I had drawn the card &quotCity Vices: Orthographic Infection&quot at least 14 times while trying to draw this card, and my deck was obviously not refreshed. The same went for other cards such as the &quotstolen watch&quot card, the &quotbrokenhearted artist&quot card, and the &quotmoon-pearls satchel&quot card. Again, my deck was never refreshed yet I drew these cards multiple times, and sometimes even within my initial 6-card limit (for example, I had gotten the watch card TWICE within a 6-card set). So if that’s the case, is refreshing your deck even a thing? Or are all cards bound to a RNG, and your odds of drawing the card remain the exact same irregardless of deck &quotrefreshing&quot?

In the early stages, there is so much to do with making your name and storylets in the various locations and just exploring, that refreshing the deck (i.e. going somewhere where you get six more cards) is not really a thing.

It’s much more relevant when you’ve completed many of the various stories around and about and drawing cards is what brings advantage or change.

Some cards do appear more than one would like and the option to discard becomes more popular as you progress. Some places cut out the City Vices cards altogether and are in demand as a result. If you’re still here at Sacksmas, you’ll have a chance to get one of those.

BTW, the Rat Catcher is a great profession to start with, excellent rewards every week. I’m not sure I didn’t start out there myself…

Good hunting!

[quote=Crazy Gaston]
Anyways, I have another question. Does &quotrefreshing&quot your deck actually matter? As I pointed out previously, I had drawn the card &quotCity Vices: Orthographic Infection&quot at least 14 times while trying to draw this card, and my deck was obviously not refreshed. The same went for other cards such as the &quotstolen watch&quot card, the &quotbrokenhearted artist&quot card, and the &quotmoon-pearls satchel&quot card. Again, my deck was never refreshed yet I drew these cards multiple times, and sometimes even within my initial 6-card limit (for example, I had gotten the watch card TWICE within a 6-card set). So if that’s the case, is refreshing your deck even a thing? Or are all cards bound to a RNG, and your odds of drawing the card remain the exact same irregardless of deck &quotrefreshing&quot?[/quote]

By &quotrefreshing your deck&quot people just mean getting cards back. Later in the game, there’s some tricks you can do to get back 6 cards when you have 0 by spending some actions (usually involving going to a location with no deck available and then coming back, which resets it to full.)

Which card you draw is always just RNG.

[quote=Amalgamate][quote=Crazy Gaston]
Anyways, I have another question. Does &quotrefreshing&quot your deck actually matter? As I pointed out previously, I had drawn the card &quotCity Vices: Orthographic Infection&quot at least 14 times while trying to draw this card, and my deck was obviously not refreshed. The same went for other cards such as the &quotstolen watch&quot card, the &quotbrokenhearted artist&quot card, and the &quotmoon-pearls satchel&quot card. Again, my deck was never refreshed yet I drew these cards multiple times, and sometimes even within my initial 6-card limit (for example, I had gotten the watch card TWICE within a 6-card set). So if that’s the case, is refreshing your deck even a thing? Or are all cards bound to a RNG, and your odds of drawing the card remain the exact same irregardless of deck &quotrefreshing&quot?[/quote]

By &quotrefreshing your deck&quot people just mean getting cards back. Later in the game, there’s some tricks you can do to get back 6 cards when you have 0 by spending some actions (usually involving going to a location with no deck available and then coming back, which resets it to full.)

Which card you draw is always just RNG.[/quote]
Oh, OK. I think I understand what you’re saying. When people talked about &quotrefreshing the deck&quot, I had thought that cards were discarded, and that you had to refresh the deck in order to have them back in the draw. But now all of this is cleared up. Thank you guys for your help!

Hmm… since you just have a 2 card lodging until now, a little hint for later on: you don’t want to buy every lodgings available.
The only really interesting 3 card lodgings is the Handsome Townhouse. Getting one of the cheaper 3 card lodgings is fine. but at some point of the game (becoming a Person of some Importance) you will get the opportunity to continue if you have all 6 “cheap” lodgings.
It may seem a fast opportunity to continue, but adds 6 cards to your deck you will most likely only discard, if you continue to play the game until endgame.

I know, that will now seem far away, it’s just something that’s useful to keep in mind.

for influencing card rng: your deck contains every card you have the necessary requirements, except those you have in your hand.

Besides that, happy playing. You’ve got ALOT of interesting stuff to explore. ;)

You can’t* get rid of lodgings once you acquire them, and they all add a card to your deck, so Judaspriester is right that you shouldn’t buy all of them. I myself bought more of them than I should have, when I was going through a phase where I was trying to collect Certifiable Scrap for some reason. Scraps are really worth less than 50 pennies each, so I wouldn’t recommend adding a permanent card to your deck just to get a few more.

*You can get rid of them, at a certain point in the SMEN storyline, but you lose all of them, and you have to buy one of the most expensive ones first.

For the record, the 3-card lodgings that I would consider &quotuseless&quot are

  • Lair in the Marshes
  • Cottage by the Observatory
  • Rooms above a Bookshop
  • Decommissioned Steamer

The Rooftop Shack can get you 3 echos worth of wine if you’re a friend of the repentant Forger

Smoky Flophouse can get you Criminal and Revolutionary favours if you’ve encountered Jack-of-Smiles, but not ultimately defeated him.

Lair in the Marshes can get you a Society favour

Rooms above a Gambling Den can convert a Night on the Town to Making Waves. (Probably more Making Waves than you spent to get the Night on the Town, but not always. It’s a sort of expensive way of &quotbanking&quot MW, if you have a bunch of it that you’re about to lose.)
edited by PJ on 9/30/2020

Cottage by the Observatory can provide a rather nice stack of Making Waves for a Searing Enigma once you can reliably pass a Scholar in Correspondence challenge. This can be quite useful in the later game if you need to grind Notability for any reason.

On the other hand, Rooms above a Bookshop and Decommissioned Steamer are unfortunately truly useless.

On a related note, FBG has been talking of implementing a way to sell lodgings as a (belated?) part of the ten-year anniversary. Has this idea been definitively abandoned, or was there any official word about it since the start of this year?

Well… most of the 3 card lodgings have an option to generate a brunch of MW. But I would still question of they are necessary, compared to the other options (salon/orphanage, tales of terror grind etc). There is also currently next to no need for notability above level 12, which means there is less need for having alot of different MW options.

Selling lodgings would be great! I would even pay echoes to get rid of some lodings. ^^"