Any grind that requires 7 fate per loop probably doesn’t really qualify as sustainable, but yes- it is very profitable, probably the best way to earn echoes with fate.
Yeah, I meant sustainable in-game. It’s much less sustainable IRL.
[quote=Kaijyuu]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[/quote]
Actually, War of Assassins is pretty OK for Dangerous too. Use A Noose, Waker of Snakes, and then cap with A Long Drop.
It might also behoove you to ask some of the folks who obtained Cider via inscrutable grind of Echoes their preferred method.
I can tell you from experience that it’s not all about EPA. It’s also a fair amount of staying engaged and setting achievable goals & milestones.
I like War of Assassins post-Nadir because you can grind all four stats with it, between the Flit and the Forgotten Quarter!
I cycled among Affair of the Box, War of Assassins, endlessly looping the Iron Republic when I needed to get away from pulling cards, and running Heists and Expeditions.
Any grind that requires 7 fate per loop probably doesn’t really qualify as sustainable, but yes- it is very profitable, probably the best way to earn echoes with fate.[/quote]
How many actions does the expedition require?
Here, enjoy some math on heists:
Heist prep: 9
Choose heist: 1
Gain Casing: 5 + 1
Buy Inside Information: 1
Begin Heist: 1
On Heist: 4-6 actions
Minimum actions/Progress cards before finishing: 3 (Inside Information + Intricate Knifers + 1 progress option) - this is rare, obviously as the Knifers are a 50% luck check.
Average? Probably 4-5 (with Intricate Knifers, Dreaded 10, 5 card lodging)
A Prize Revealed: 1 action
[for an additional 3 AP in the gain Casing Phrase you can be fairly certain to be done in 3-4 cards, as long as you don’t draw all 1 progress cards which is definitely possible. But I’m not sure it’s worth it)
Payouts: we aren’t sure what is the ratio between the TLS and the searing enigma rare success. I’m estimating it’s closer to 10% but previously some though it was as high as 20%. This might have changed as well, as I feel it used to be higher myself.
90% - 8 touching love stories:
20 echoes/15 actions = 1.25 epa
20 echoes/13 actions = 1.54 epa
10% - Searing Engima
62.5 echoes/15 actions = 3.90 epa
62.5 echoes/13 pactions = 4.80 epa
It’s also a good way to grind shadowy, (20CP) and a passable Making Waves engine as you gain MW relative to your progress.
There’s also a 50% chance of gaining 5.5 echoes and one progress via the Snaffling Documents option which will increase the EPA in a variable fashion (in the mildly ridiculous best case scenario, 68 echoes in 13 actions gives 5.23 EPA). Anecdotally, I probably find that card about 70% of the time and seem to get lucky greater than half of the time.
So, in summary, a 10% chance for
a Searing Enigma (and not including the Snaffling Documents in the equation) the EPA is 1.62 if you take 15 actions each time (and I don’t think that’s necessarily true.)
[quote=Parelle]Here, enjoy some math on heists:
Heist prep: 9…
[for an additional 3 AP in the gain Casing Phrase you can be fairly certain to be done in 3-4 cards, as long as you don’t draw all 1 progress …[/quote]
Depends on how lucky one may be and also how many risks does one want to take, but the math is good.
Must add that if you buy casing from another heist you get the same average EPA with a 4 card lodging and not using the Dreaded option and always use the document card (but not taking the positive results into account). With all of these I never failed a heist; worst case I ended up using more AP, but nothing more.
I can sleep well while on a heist, but I’m sure things will get better as I’m at Dreaded 10. Also, the results will start improving after I’ll get a 5 card lodging. Another small note is that heists can regenerate your cards when you finish it if it’s done with few AP.
In the end, I guess it’s a matter of preferences on the subject heists vs box. It’s clear that I prefer the first!
edited by Skinnyman on 6/14/2016
“A bag of low quality diamonds” is roughly 200 PPA when you count the 5% rare success. The downside is you have to have lots of cryptic clues already; it becomes unprofitable if you try to grind clues for it, since the efficient ways to get those are card based.
Indeed, I even forgot about this one! I probably sold 10-20k of those w/o knowing I can use this option to enhance my income.