Are there any items or qualities I absolutely should bring on my first trip in?
I’ve read lists of the items you can upgrade in the cave, but will likely only be able to afford the cheaper items for my first visit. I can return later and convert everything else whenever I raise the echoes, correct?
You can absolutely change items later, upgrading everything on your first trip would be…extremely lucky.
High dream levels/nightmares can make some cards more useful. But there’s really nothing you need to bring.
edited by suinicide on 6/3/2016
[quote=suinicide]You can absolutely change items later, upgrading everything on your first trip would be…extremely lucky.
High dream levels/nightmares can make some cards more useful. But there’s really nothing you need to bring.
edited by suinicide on 6/3/2016[/quote]
I’d actually argue for the opposite- lower nightmares, at least. Which kind of proves suinicide’s point, you don’t need to bring anything. Second chances, though. bring at least 3 of every kind, or more of one kind. Especially important are confident smiles (if you have the echoes, and want to invest them in a very long term useful manner, then bring 5 diaries of the dead. there’s a card in there that is part of a conversion chain, and at the top of that chain is a item that’ll stop the card from bothering you in the future. pretty useful, IMO. And you can sell the item- though it costs 1562.5 echoes in diaries of the dead and 6 points irrigo spread across the conversion chain. Generally not worth bothering with, though.)
You’ll be able to do this each week (Your ‘Time the Healer’ will help you reset your Irrigo, allowing you to re-enter the Cave of the Nadir), so don’t worry too much about getting everything done all at once. Chances are, you won’t even draw the cards to do half the stuff you intended - certainly not on your first try - so loading up with items before you go in for the first time is kinda pointless.
Over time, you’ll be able to do the Cave again, and again, and again, so don’t stress too much over the details just yet. :-)
…Don’t go with more than 3 nightmares, there’s a card that gives you a valuable item, but also doubles your nightmares. Personally, I’m not inside yet, but I’ve read the wiki… I need an Eyeless Skull.
You haven’t read it enough. you can’t get forced into the nightmares zone unless you have, like, nightmares 36 upon leaving. otherwise, i believe your nightmares are quartered- that seems to be the popular theory. Even rounded up, the danger range is therefore 29-32+. The rewards increase with nightmares too- the action you’re refering to, i believe, gives between 1 and [nightmares level] extraordinary implications.
Higher Nightmares does unlock several dream-associated cards where you can spend some of the appropriate dream quality for a rarer item. If you want to keep your dreams, keeping Nightmares down is a good choice.
Or if you don’t think 10 cp dream and 2 irrigo for 12.5 echoes is a good deal- which is my opinion. Still, it’s good to know that you pretty much can’t go mad if you leave with irrigo 6+.
Once you find the cave, then you have to come back with a cinder to actually enter, correct? Can you perhaps not out of that and come back with the cinder without having to repeat the expedition? And do you need a fresh cinder each time you return, or is that a one time expense?
Once you find the cave, you’ve found it for good. Nothing can take the location away from you and you can never redo that expedition. You only need one cider, ever.
edited by suinicide on 6/3/2016
Can you still get additional cinders after entering the cave? I’d want one for my collection, even if they have no use. You can still trade in 5 skulls to get one later on?
Yes you can, but you won’t be able to ask other people to send you skulls: you’ll have to find them yourself. (in fact, I just acquire my own Ray Drenched Cinder last week)
edited by Parelle on 6/3/2016
When you are asked to provide a cinder to enter the Nadir you can use any methods you can afford to get as many cinders as you want. But once you use a cinder in that storylet the only way to get another is to collect eyeless skulls.
I just got my third that way (actually fourth as I used one to enter the Cave). The skull cards are the downside to that but fortunately I have a five card lodging so have the extra card space to do it without having to play any of the skull cards.
Is the fate locked option to get a cinder worth it? Any interesting items/lore come with it? Or is it mostly just a way of saving 400 echoes?
You don’t just get a cinder. You also get an incarnadine robe, which lets you choose a fate-locked item through a little storylet. You can get that robe through other, cheaper, fate-locked means at Sacksmas, but if you’re yearning for a home comfort, or else want all the home comforts you can get, and are disinclined to wait, buy the cinder. Buy several.
That’s very tempting, but 50 fate is a pretty steep price… How much does a robe cost at Christmas time? And can you get it more than once during Christmas to get all the items, or is it a once a year thing?
The Incarnadine Robe costs 30 Fate, and you can get one for each time snow falls through Time the Healer.
But you do need to spend the fate each time. It’s not a single purchase and you can use it forever.
So you can get 4 throughout the holiday month, if you buy 1 a week? Or does it last longer than just a month? If you’re limited to 4, then using the cave would allow you to get all 5 reward items in one year, assuming you’re willing to pay a combined 170 fate.
Using the cave option essentially is 30 fate for the robe, plus 20 fate to save 400 echoes. I wonder if that’s a good deal or not. Has anyone done the math to figure out the optimal conversion of fate to echoes, if you’re going for maximum monetary value?
So you can get 4 throughout the holiday month, if you buy 1 a week? Or does it last longer than just a month? If you’re limited to 4, then using the cave would allow you to get all 5 reward items in one year, assuming you’re willing to pay a combined 170 fate.
Using the cave option essentially is 30 fate for the robe, plus 20 fate to save 400 echoes. I wonder if that’s a good deal or not. Has anyone done the math to figure out the optimal conversion of fate to echoes, if you’re going for maximum monetary value?[/quote]
Fastest is what you listed. if you do the right option, there’s an expedition option that offers a 125 or 312.5 echo payout, with, IIRC, equal odds for each. it is a 40 progress expedition, but it’s got new airs results, and i believe has had the number 5.3 epa thrown around about it before- though a better way would probably be "better than 218.75 echoes per loop on average, @ 7 fate per loop, but at the cost of at least 26 actions" so if you genuinely want the robe, it;'s probably a decent deal even after you get your first one and are claiming them for 312.5 echoes sell price instead.
(and i am relatively certain you can repeat it as many times as needed, though it’ll burn through money really fast.)
edited by Grenem on 6/4/2016