I am not quite A Person Of Some Importance yet, and I’m finding it very hard to acquire Souls. I have Connected: Hell 14, and am lvl ~100 in Persuasive and Watchful, and also have quite high Shadowy… and currently pretty much the only way for me to acquire Souls is by robbing a certain specific area, which whilst profitable also requires a lot of grinding. Maybe there are Souls aplenty to be found along the Dangerous paths?
Of course, it’s quite easy to obtain silk and honey in the Empress’ Court, but if you no longer have access to there it does get pretty difficult.
[quote=Unguided]As has been said there’s no good source of silk or honey at higher levels. The yields for the respective storylets for them in Unfinished Business in Spite and Veilgarden are much worse than the ones for the other items. The lack of silk is especially unfortunate considering it’s used to make Strong-backed Labour, one of the most commonly demanded Side-street items; Labour is demanded for more Importance gear than any other Side-street item, and in extremely high numbers.
What I’m trying to say is that of all the side-street items, it’s the one that needs to be a reward from the new item system the most.[/quote]
You can earn Strong-Backed Labour in Wilmot’s End much faster than you can hire at the Sidestreets. edited by Patrick Reding on 1/13/2012
I am a Person of Some Importance, at the level cap for all stats, and I’ve been kicked out of both the Court and the University (though the latter has now been remedied). Prisoner’s Honey, Stolen Correspondence, Proscribed Materials, and Souls have been the most aggravating for me to collect in recent memory–especially Stolen Correspondence.
Oddly enough, the item I’m finding elusive now is Primordial Shrieks. There’s no Unfinished Business that supplies them, and they never seem to come up as a reward for anything else I can find to do at my level; the only place I know of to collect them is on a Scientific Expedition to Corpsecage Island. I don’t actually have anything on my plate that really needs them, but it does seem like a rather curious omission.
Someone mentioned in the Announcements thread that Connections were harder to come by than items, and I’d like to second that, with a particular emphasis on the Tomb-Colonies. I used to have my share of friends there, but then I lost them doing something I don’t even remember (I think it was saving a Rubbery Man from a fire), and I have been completely unable to find a way to get back in their good graces ever since. This locks me out of some of the new content, since I’m required to have some Connected: Tomb-Colonies in order to trade items related to the Elder Continent.
Also on the subject of items, are there plans to make Certifiable Scraps easier to find? Building up over 3000 of them from Opportunity cards alone sounds distressingly tedious.
Honey, souls and silk at the level cap. A quicker way to get Whispered Secrets than waiting for opportunity cards related to my Important gear, or grinding at the Labyrinth and ending up with unwanted Glim as well as Secrets, would be cool too.
I’m also concerned about Connections. I’m using up Tomb-Colonies and Urchins with the new inventory storylets, and there isn’t a good way that I can find to get them back without damaging other hard-to-find connections. I’m too Dangerous to look after the Tomb-Colonist’s Dog and I don’t remember the last time I got Connected: Urchins (barring Mr Sacks’ visit.) I’d even be happy to get myself exiled to make friends with tomb-colonists.
(Edit: Buying curiosities won’t help, because I’d have to lose rather a lot to get much below 20. I like being on good terms with people!) edited by the_antichris on 1/13/2012
I have ~80 in all four attributes naturally and between 8 and 10 from gear in all four attributes. It has been said that specialization is for insects.
The three items I am trying very hard not to cash in for echos are Drops of Prisoner’s Honey, Souls, and most especially, Whispered Secrets. Yes all three are the items required en mass for the highest levels of lodgings, but I also need Whispered Secrets for the final (probably) mid-tier lodging. It has come to the point that when I draw an opportunity card that give a paltry amount of Whispered Secrets, I snatch it up rather than using that action on a storylet that would give me twice or more were I to trade the reward in at the bazaar.
I’m honestly having trouble gathering Whispered secrets.
It’s not that they’re hard to come by, but that acquiring them is so inefficient. Many of the new storylets (Bazaar Sidestreets crafting, etc.) require thousands of the things, but currently the most consistent way to farm them is with the Unfinished Business in Ladybones Road storylet, which requires one to sacrifice an Appalling Secret for 100 Whispered. I ended up repeatedly taking the Wednesday option in Mahogany Hall as the most consistent way of farming Appalling Secrets, and then trading them all in, which took – days – .
It seems at the higher levels, it’s much easier to come by higher tier commodities, like Cryptic Clues, through actions such as the University’s “Growing Pains” storylet. But there’s no simple or efficient way to convert them to lower tiers, when so much of the new content still requires those.
If you have high stats, as you appear to have, go to Mahogany Hall and collect amber. Then, go the the First Coil and give it to the Tiger Keeper. He’ll give you whispered secrets. It’s quick, clean and easy, and better than the Unfinished Business option.
He’ll happily accept rostygold or jade too, it’s just that you can get more amber than these two. edited by travellersside on 1/14/2012
I remember that after all but the earliest levels and person-of-some-importance levels, cheap wine was difficult to come by.
I remember that for two dozen or so levels prior to being a person of some importance, whispered secrets were not available in sufficient quantities; or at least not in the quantities I needed.
Now that I’m 110-120 in each stat, prisoner’s honey and souls are the most difficult of the common resources to gather; and strong-backed labor is a bit of an unfortunate farm as well. The later isn’t difficult to come by; it’s just that its relative cost was adjusted by adding Wilmot’s End. Look at the turns it takes to get a Voluminous Library compared to a Formidable Basalt Gymnasium for instance. Prior to Wilmot’s End it was close to the same number of turns; now the Library is half as much work as the Gym.
Prisoner’s Honey is a definite one. This is made worse by the fact it’s required for a high-level Lodgings, and the reminiscence storylet only gives 35 instead of 50.
I also find myself with a dearth of Foxfire Candles. There seem to be a lot of things that use them, but I haven’t found a good source in a while.[/quote]
An Admirer Among the Clergy option in the Unfinished Business storylets in the Veilgarden gives you 100 per action.
Prisoner’s Honey is the worst to acquire. I tend to grind for Proscribed Material and then sell that in the Bazaar to buy Prisoner’s Honey because it’s easier. The Unfinished Business storylet is just really inefficient and frustrating with the unlucky option. I think it’s the most annoying Unfinished Business storylet available and the only one that has an unlucky option.
I think that’s due to their value, though. Unfinished Business in Watchmaker’s Hill gives five per action, which is perfectly fine for Shepherds of Souls like myself.
Ah, sorry. I meant that I don’t see it as a reward for regular storylets much. It’s true that I can grind them if I really need them, but I’ve never stumbled on a treasure trove of them while progressing through the story in a long wile. (Take the early steps of the Melancholy Curate story, for example – one option gained you Foxfire Candles, so you were guaranteed to amass some by the time you completed the story.) edited by Little The on 1/14/2012
Ah, sorry. I meant that I don’t see it as a reward for regular storylets much. It’s true that I can grind them if I really need them, but I’ve never stumbled on a treasure trove of them while progressing through the story in a long wile. (Take the early steps of the Melancholy Curate story, for example – one option gained you Foxfire Candles, so you were guaranteed to amass some by the time you completed the story.)[/quote]
Off the top of my head I know one of the results when conducting Theological Husbandry will net you quite a few. Also if you’re interested in conducting a Scientific Expedition you can find quite a bit.
Huh, really? Maybe I’ve just already used them up because of my attending to the needs of a singular plant…it is quite the money drain! (I’m pretty much out of rats, too.)
While they’re strictly not items, Connections to Benthic and the Tomb Colonies are nearly impossible to acquire after you outlevel the University. Outside of the special items, of course, but those are terribly inefficient in terms of both actions and goods. Considering they’re expended in the item-based quest chains (Mysteries and Elder, respectively), this seems like a severe oversight. edited by Patrick Reding on 1/14/2012
I take back what I said about Benthic, now that some old content at the University has had its Watchful cap removed. Hooray! The Tomb Colonies remain a problem, however. edited by Patrick Reding on 1/14/2012
The Carnival storylets have been changed so that you can make friends even with no starting connections. You can grind there to get your connections to 10, which is a healthy amount.
Oddly enough, I’ve had very good connections with the tomb-colonies for as long as I can remember, but couldn’t tell you for my life how I got them. I definitely never bought any of the connection-boosting items from the Bazaar. I’ll post it here if my memory ever comes back… scratcheshishead edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 3/24/2015