I am torn between wanting to experience things organically and wanting to have a basic understanding of things.
It’s well-known that allowing your Nightmares to get out of hand is a bad thing, because you go to A State of Some Confusion, where you are guaranteed to lose a large amount of many of your Recurring Dreams. Whenever I hear anyone mention ASoSC, they always make sure to mention that the loss of Dreams is the main drawback of it.
But I ask: what use are dreams? I’m up to 11 of What the Thunder Said and 8 of The Burial of the Dead, and I don’t have a thing to show for it. Are they simply stories? Flavour text? That can’t be right. No one would be so careful if that’s all it was. Would they?
I keep seeing that actions require a quality called "Stormy-Eyed". I have to assume this is somehow related to the Thunder dream storyline. Is this the reward? Is it worth it?
Obviously, I could just look this stuff up on the Wiki. Indeed, I have a little, but I’ve only looked as far as I care to, for the sake of avoiding spoilers. So I ask you now: are they worth it? Is there some pot of gold waiting for me someday if I carefully nurture these nightmares and bring them to whatever value they need to reach?
Well, What the Thunder Said can bring you to a unique area if it’s high enough, along with Stormy-Eyed (which you need to bring up using WtTS)
Some other Dreams are also rather useful for other dreams. They sometimes unlock other options in FL.
I say they’re worth it. And you can avoid ASoSC by having 1 or multiple memories of Light, this’ll bring you to the Mirror-Marshes instead when nightmares hit 8, where you don’t lose dream qualities if you leave (except Is Someone Coming by 10 CP). (There’s also an option to go from the Mirror-Marshes to ASoSC, but I don’t recommend using it as the Mirror Marshes are better)
Another thing you can do with Dreams is reduce Nightmares with a Certain card, at the cost of said dream qualities, you lose ~12 CP of nightmares with it and gain an item in return for roughly 10 CP of the dream quality you’ve chosen. edited by Honeyaddict on 8/5/2018
I guess it depends on what you enjoy most about the game. Aside from the separate section mentioned - which is also where you’ll need to pick up the Urchins Renown 40 item if you’re so inclined - there’s not much practical application for dreams at the moment. Higher levels can help you on the path toward Paramount Presence, but so can many other things.
That said, the writing is beautiful and adds to the lore and atmosphere of the game. And I’m sure that dream qualities will be utilized later on in some capacity, more than they are now. There’s a lot of envisioned content that has not been implemented yet.
Honeyed Laudanum will also prevent loss of dream qualities when leaving the Hotel if you have it.
[quote=Jason5237]I guess it depends on what you enjoy most about the game. Aside from the separate section mentioned - which is also where you’ll need to pick up the Urchins Renown 40 item if you’re so inclined - there’s not much practical application for dreams at the moment. Higher levels can help you on the path toward Paramount Presence, but so can many other things.
That said, the writing is beautiful and adds to the lore and atmosphere of the game. And I’m sure that dream qualities will be utilized later on in some capacity, more than they are now. There’s a lot of envisioned content that has not been implemented yet. [/quote]
I’m not interested in "maybe later." Soon my quest will be over, and with it, my life. But perhaps one of my acquaintances from the surface will be interested. I’ll pass the knowledge along.
[Which is to say, this is my Seeker account. I’m heading for an end from which there is no escape. But once she’s dead, I’ll probably start another character and begin again.]
That’s a little unfair to the Sixth Coil. We’ve only been able to see the door for less than a year, and that because they finally unlocked the Fifth Coil! There are plenty of things much more worth glaring at, like the Case of the Other Waxwork, the Ambitions, or the very upset-looking fellow that glares back at me whenever I look in a mirror.
That being said, a number of the dreams do have Seeking-related flavour, so would be in theme for your character. A high level of Death by Water at the very least used to be one of the ways you could begin the Quest. I’ve heard conflicting messages as to whether it still is.
I love when you advance to one of the levels in Dreams that give you brand new cards. While :“What the Thunder Said” eventually gets you stormy-eyed and into the Mind of a Long-Dead God, the other 5 categories don’t have much direct use in the game, but the text is fun. (Allegedly, some day, “Having Recurring Dreams: Is Someone There?” will let you set up a Base Camp in Parabola… if you raise it to level 99. This strikes me as insane, but then this is the game that gave us Seeking…)
Dreams are objectively one of the most difficult qualities to raise. I believe they can only be increased via opportunity cards… a lot of cards, in fact.
Should you go insane, choosing to leave the Mirror Marshes and taking ‘the easy way out’ (the Bethlehem Hotel) will guarantee an easier and more action-efficient pathway towards reducing your nightmares. The Manager, however, will take of your dreams as payment.
It’s not that the dreams themselves are valuable. It’s more that the Manager is taking weeks worth of grinding off your character. Frankly, I don’t like that, even if he is taking something I have little use for.
Something nobody has mentioned yet is a specific opportunity card (alas I cannot remember the name of it) that you can use your dreams on. And without consuming them. One option in particular provides the cheapest and painless way to increase Connected: The Masters that I know of. Albeit as a rare success. You’ll get an increase or decrease to nightmares more typically.
You need Renown: Bohemians at 10 though but I don’t think there are other requirements.
It’s The Interpreter of Dreams which is a 20% frequency card and requires nightmares to level 3 as well.
My data from this card regarding the M’s connection stands as:
[table][tr][td]Fail[td]Success[td]Rare Success[tr][td]31[td]41[td]13[tr][td]36.47%[td]63.53%[td]24.07%
[/table]
My thoughts exactly! But apparently allowing Dr Schlomo publish what you tell him has some locks in the form of Dreams qualities yet it doesn’t consume them.
Third option, Allow Dr Schlomo to publish what you tell him, offers the possibility to gain MW, scandal, suspicion, connection/favours and lose nightmares.