Hey guys! Feast of the Rose is dreadfully soon, and I thought maybe we could start a thread to help people get ready for the event and be ready when it gets here! I know I’ve never done the event before (didn’t exist when I played my old account, and I only came back last August), so I’m grinding Captivating Ballads in the Underclay to get the Census Badge.
What else should we be doing in the lead-up to the event?
first question: when does it start, exactly? because i’m out of london for the moment, and i’m not sure when i’ll be able to get back.
second question: are there any requirments to participate in the event, or is it like the holiday events? in addition, is spending fate in the event required, encorged or completely unneccery?
Feast of the Rose is the valentine’s day festival and starts February 1st on the dot. You trade items as gifts with friends, who can then trade those items for Masquing (up to 30, although the Census Badge which can only be acquired once can overcap you to 40, and you can of course receive fate priced gifts that allow you over as well, which is required for some of the best options) and later trade them for special items, some of which have serious time saving applications in the mid to late game.
You can also get tattooed.
so like in the fruits of the zee fastival? sounds fun. thanks for the answers.
yes it is just another seasonal event—none of the time limited events are ever necessary (new players have definitionally missed every event in the last decadeish the games been running so this is a bit of a functional necessity tho I think us old timers would be pretty annoyed if wee were suddenly expected to log in at certain times of year. So, permanent content’s plots are all perfectly complete-able regardless of participation). However many seasonal events do offer exclusive equipment (which might have good stats, or just be a nice mantlepiece thing) or collectible items if either of those are of interest. I think all of the annual seasonal events run at least two weeks to ensure people have time to play through them, though sometimes the window for eg. cashing in to collect items may be shorter (the last few days of the event or whatever).
The wiki has a list of all the seasonal events along some steps you might want to take to prepare for each as a new player, but again, definitely optional: Preparing for Seasonal Events (Guide) - Fallen London Wiki
thank you! it’s very helpful, it is.
For players that have advanced enough to unlock the The Court of the Wakeful Eye, you can try and grind some/many NWs and sell those this weekend at the Rat Market. With the Shilling you get, buy Inkling of Identity which can be used to send gifts.
One of those gifts are Custom skull which can be used, twice per week, at the Bone Market and each is worth 100 E in value. Either use a basic headless skull headless skeleton and sell to the Constable or build, over few weeks a 7-neck bird. The latter is a bit better and it becomes better if bird week pops during the process; the disadvantage is that you’ll need to sell it if you need the Market for something else.
…i think there’s a bit of a contradiction there, chap.
May I ask what for do you need Captivating Ballads? I am fairly new into this 
To get the Rusty Census-Taker’s Badge from the Medusa’s Head. It’s a great piece of early game gear, although quite expensive, but where it really shines is this event.
Without spending FATE your event currency (Masquing) is capped as 30; the Rusty Census-Taker’s Badge, however, can be traded in for 10 masquing at any time, even once you’ve hit 30, effectively allowing you to overcap to 40 for free.
While I will be spending some FATE during this event, I certainly can’t spend as much as I would ideally like to, and an extra 10 free masquing is just way too helpful to turn down for me.
Would you recommend laboratory grinding for this? I have the Silk-Clad Expert and maxed equipment and I think it might be just slightly faster for me to grind that way when you account for the time spent zailing, plus I’m training my Watchful to 200 right now.
Okay, this time the information sink in Thanks for clearing it up for me.
@HexBeloved
As the event is about to start, I would like to sincerely wish that this Feast will go successfully for you and you will be able to acquire all that you are planning to! 
Once the feast starts, should we open/convert this one into a thread for finding people to send gifts to? I expect there’s already a thread like that, but just to make sure.
You have no idea how many times I had to read it to understand! 
If you don’t have access to the Court of the Wakeful Eye and/or don’t draw many cards per day, the lab should be your other option. You can do both thought: draw cards in The Forgotten Quarter (0 location cards) and waste all AP on lab experiments. The Feast will last for two weeks and you can end up with a decent number of NWs to exchange gifts and grind some Custom Skulls.
I had to read it around 5 times to fully process what you said-so alot, I’d imagine.
I do, but I don’t have the right MINISTER for it yet, so with grinding that tribute I was wondering if it’d even be worth it.
With a veeery optimized deck, with multiple cards from Fate stories, playing all regarding of menaces and drawing many cards per day, you can visit the Court once every 3 days or even faster.
You will need to unlock them all in the end so might as well unlock them now. The Feast last two weeks anyway.
Just want to warn you in case people didn’t know, but you can only do that once. If you give away the badge you can’t get another one from the Medusa’s Head.
The badge is also still somewhat useful for a late game player: it is still the second best Respectable clothing item, behind only the Aurochs-Fur Coat from Whitsun. Up to you to decide if it’s worth giving it up just to get a 40 masquing Rose Companion.
Ech, that is a bummer!
Thank you for letting me know as I wasn’t aware.