Hello. So, I’m thinking of going for Cider. Because I want Cider. Thing is, it’s gonna take a while. I wish to know some of the best grinds. And most entertaining grinds. Because otherwise I will go mad doing the same thing.
(Wishes there was a good option to trade in Marks of Credit for cash since he thought about getting as many as possible.)
From what I understand, Affair of the Box gets you 20 Echos for 14 actions, which is pretty good.
If you get the Taciturn Mynah connected pet, you can go for Dock Favors for Expedition supplies, I guess.
It will take a while, but… you can invest the Mark of Credit pages for favors, to run expeditions, too.
Mark of Credit > Hard Working Home > Dock favor for Supplies > Expedition.
If you want a straight grind (which you obviously don’t, but just in case) you can gain 20-23 Echoes per 14 actions in Affair of the Box if you’re super Shadowy. If you haven’t gotten that far yet 17.50-20.50 is still nice. But you will live in constant fear of accidentally misclicking and gaining A Turncoat. Which I have already done three times, so I’m just going to go get a house at the Bazaar while I cool off. pls fix
Alternatively, Expeditions. They must be a lot of fun because everyone is doing them. Luck is a bit of a factor, I’m guessing. And also you need to get Favours and stuff.
edited by knguy on 6/11/2016
The affairs of the box is probably the most effective but it’s boring as hell and fraught with peril (many a tired moment has lead to turncoating). I mostly do the fidgeting writer these days in chunks of 100 so that I don’t spend too much time stuck on the same thing.
An even better one is getting collections of curiosities from the war of assassins and trading them to the tomb colonists for puzzling maps. You can’t do just that because the tomb colonist card isn’t that common but it’s a good one to have going in the background.
When all else fails and you don’t have time to spend on the grind just building up casing with a gang of hoodlums and trading it on Thefts of particular character is a descent way to spend your actions quickly.
There is a whole list of possible grinds on the wiki. The key is to avoid getting completely board and giving up. I’ve been at it for a little over a year and I’m only about half way there. Of course, now I’m seeking so that’s going to put a damper in things.
If you happen to have done the Soul Trade storyline (Fate-locked) and have chosen the Spirifer option, then grinding souls in Spite and converting them to Brass in large quantities at Ladybones Road isn’t too bad (in addition to using any other options to gain larger quantities of Souls, as they come up.)
It’s not the absolute #1 most profitable method but it’s worked pretty well for me in the past, and doesn’t require you to dedicate X number of actions to complete in the same way that expeditions do, meaning that if you have a couple actions left over you can spend them grinding Souls to convert at a later time.
You can also alternate it with your other money-making options too.
But either way, if you’re going for Cider that’s a long haul - so any money-making method is going to get repetitive sooner or later.
I’m fond of Heists as a change-up (also, they can speed hand refreshing a little).
Tips for optimal quick heists:
5 card lodging, Intricate Knifers, Dreaded 10, and use the Topsy King option + Gang of Hoodlums for +1 Inside Information (only)
Particularly as an EF you won’t have to actively hand manage as much as I do with a 6 card deck.
I need to do those more Parelle, just been so distracted by RP & some theological husbandry. But my shadowy’s falling behind, I think it’s nearly six points behind my top stat, so … . .
Time for heists!
Thanks for the tips, been a while.
With high persuasive and plenty of RNs and TLSs, profit from writing short stories is 1.76 EPA on average (plus waves as a bonus.)
I would say hold onto the mark of credit pages: they’ll likely never be worth that much, but post conversion they’ll be either four or five favors and ~12 echoes, which could be estimated to be 24 echoes- not great, but better than it is now.
As far as I can see, the spirifer grind gives around 173 ppa, while the Affair of the Box gives around 143 ppa; is there any reason the AoB is often suggested before the first solution? Just that it’s fate-locked?
It gives 1.64 epa when you make the choices the pay in mourning candles and correspondence plates, while the spirifer grind is fate locked, and only a little better.
When I get to SMEN 9 I plan on experimenting with a crazy grind idea. It’s luck based though, so I won’t say more.
Just to check, is the 1.73 EPA looking at only the conversion profit, or also including the average EPA of gathering Souls in the first place and then converting? Because while there are a few ways to get souls in more profitable amounts (including 3 Opportunity Cards), the actions required to grind for 1000 souls are also relevant when calculating. :-)
(If you’ve already taken that into consideration, then disregard my comment here. I just didn’t want to risk Spirifage being over-hyped as ‘the’ way to make a buck when I know there are solid alternatives.)
Oh, strictly speaking - if you don’t already have a Ray-Drenched Cinder for the Cave of the Nadir, the #1 fastest method of gaining Echoes involves a whole bunch of IRL cash. So, probably not at all practical here. :-p
[quote=Kittenpox]
Just to check, is the 1.73 EPA looking at only the conversion profit, or also including the average EPA of gathering Souls in the first place and then converting? Because while there are a few ways to get souls in more profitable amounts (including 3 Opportunity Cards), the actions required to grind for 1000 souls are also relevant when calculating. :-)
(If you’ve already taken that into consideration, then disregard my comment here. I just didn’t want to risk Spirifage being over-hyped as ‘the’ way to make a buck when I know there are solid alternatives.)[/quote]
1.73 includes using Unfinished Business to get 1000 Souls, working off an "average" return per action.
The conversion action is around 10 echoes profit, which is what brings the average way up.
I checked the numbers for AoB and got 1.64 EPA from it. That’s if you gain the maximum value from each action, with 20 Echoes of candles at the end and 3 Echoes worth of plaques that you can possibly steal depending on the side you chose.
The Soul Trade sounds interesting. How much Fate do I need to become a spirifer?
[quote=knguy ]I checked the numbers for AoB and got 1.64 EPA from it. That’s if you gain the maximum value from each action, with 20 Echoes of candles at the end and 3 Echoes worth of plaques that you can possibly steal depending on the side you chose.
The Soul Trade sounds interesting. How much Fate do I need to become a spirifer?[/quote]
25, "A Trade in Souls" or something similar on the Fate page.
Many of these are good for grinding stats up to 200 too. You can keep your chances at 90% (by changing gear) to maximize stat gain and still get very good EPA. War of Assassins (for collections) can be used to grind watchful and persuasive, and affair of the box is good for shadowy. Haven’t found a profitable way to grind dangerous myself, though.
edited by Kaijyuu on 6/11/2016
Kind of odd because you’d expect Dangerous to have some nice jobs late-game. It only takes one action to walk up to a guy, stab him or beat him up in a fight and then collect payment from the guy next to him.
Hunting, bounty hunting, strength bets, or even a simple job that requires you to sweat a little and get paid a lot just because there wasn’t anyone stronger in the area.
For those inclined to spend Fate, the best sustainable grind I’m aware of is the Gallery of Serpents. With the conversion of Docks to renown, the EPA with the optimal choices ends up being somewhere between 5 and 6 EPA - the average payout is worth just under 300 echoes. It gets slightly better if you buy supplies with echoes directly, but that lowers the Echo Per Fate gain.