Drawn back to Fallen London

Fallen London
1

I ascended from Fallen London about 2 and half years ago, but the Sunless Sea reawakened the desire, so I am returned. And I am overwhelmed by new stories and characters and professions and mechanics and locations and items and cards and connections and the realisation I don’t have the faintest idea of how any of it relates any more.[li]

My character (petescuff) has stats of 70-80, and yawning 30 month gap in the acquisition of connections and items. But there’s no easy way for me to tell which of the new early game content I should progress, or indeed which is early, mid or later. Would anyone be kind enough to suggest a few stories to pursue to plug the chasm of my ignorance?

Much obliged.

2

I’m not entirely sure about the early stories and how the game has changed since you last played.

So my suggestion would be to just explore what is available in each area, maybe equip a talkative rat and drop your stats for a while in case there are stories that you might have missed. Be warned that Ridiculous Hats and Bottled Oblivion have changed - they are no longer equipable items but things that permanently drop your stats and are consumed.[li]

3

Ah, thank you for the rat-not-hat tip. I was wondering how to drop my stats.

4

Yes the rat is the only temporary stat reducing item now. I hope that you enjoy your time in Fallen London.

5

Like to ask about Talkative Rattus Faber, so is it that so long that my character has the rat equipped I can artificially keep my stats down forever, allowing me to continue grinding for rewards at the lowerl levels?

6

Your stats will still increase through use, so eventually you’ll outlevel things even with the Rat’s -25 effect. To stay low forever, you’ll have to use the Ridiculous Hat or Bottled Oblivion repeatedly.

7

The hat costs 0.80 does not seem expensive. How much stats does 1 hat decrease and will the Bazaar run out of stock?

8

The hat will make you lose 50 change points of level shadowy and watchful and 100CP of persuasive. Which is a lot at lower levels. You’ll have to grind all those levels back as well, it’s not like the Talkative Rat where you can just unequip it.
The Bazaar never runs out of stock of anything ever. It’s the world’s most magical shop.

9

The hat does not affect Dangerous?

The grind in FL can be boring. Today is my 2nd straight day clearing out rat infestation at my lodging. Probably need another day at this rate

10

The Hat has odd effects - Bottled Oblivion is more uniform, reducing all four stats equally.

11

At a certain level of Dangerous you get a shortcut for the rat infestation storyline.

12

Don’t forget to go to your Lodgings and “Chat with the Local Gossip”. For 10 Incendiary Gossip you can get a quality which will open or allow you to progress in low-level stories in the four starting zones. Since you have been gone for so long you probably (I’ve been playing only for several months so I don’t know for sure) haven’t seen those.

13

Thanks Vae, much appreciated, will fire up my gossip engine.

Also, I know have a basic profession that my statistics are too advanced to gain from. But the more advanced ones I’ve seen have been locked. Is there an intermediate step I’m missing?

14

Write letters at your lodgings lets you leave your profession.