Ugh… I’ve run out of fuel (again!). The prices are bad, and I’m not very economical. Any strategies from y’all for saving fuel?
Do not buy faster engines. They have lower fuel efficiency, so you will travel less and run out of fuel faster. Other then that, not really.
On the other hand, faster engines do wonders with your terror rating. You can make much longer trips. Some engineers and engines also increase fuel efficiency.
Buy fuel only from palmerston or fallen london. If you really need to, convert supplies to fuel. But never from corsair’s forest or the khanate.
If you can take on the near London Pirates you sometimes get fuel from them; the ones in Gaider’s Mourn always give fuel and supplies (1 or 2 of each) plus another random reward. Some of the larger beasties occasionally give fuel as well.
If you have to buy it Mount Palmerstone is cheapest (9 echoes) or you can swap zee stories in Whither for fuel and tales of terror for supplies.
Some places don’t sell fuel; several places sell it for twice the London price; Gaider’s Mourn is more expensive and Khan’s Heart even more so you are best stocking up where it is cheapest
edited by reveurciel on 7/8/2014
Fuel consumption is a pain in the early game. But once you start dealing in mid-game monies, the price isn’t so onerous so you can always buy more than you expect to use.
That’s basically my yard stick for whether to zail somewhere or not. Can I set out with more fuel and supplies than I’ll need? Zail? No? Farm.
Thanks all! Very helpful.
In the early part of the game, make sure you’re doing reports on every port you pass by, and submitting them to the admiralty. Even after the first report for a given port, when you’re not getting Admiralty’s Favour points for that port any more, many of the ports will still give you fuel, as well as cash.
Cheap fuel stations:
Iron Republic: 8 echoes
Mt. Palmerston: 9 echoes
London: 10 echoes
Adam’s Way: 12 echoes
Khan’s Shadow: 15 echoes
Khan’s Heart: 15 echoes (but only after you have gained acces to the Nephrite Quarter and thus the shop tab!)
Something awaits you events giving fuel:
Frostmound: Chat with the squatters (1 fuel + 1 supply and terror reduction)
Fathomking’s hold: ask for an Audience with the Fathomking and then ask for a boon (costs one zee-story, gives either 5 fuel or 5 supplies, be sure you have enough hold space)
The Mangrove College: Go beachcombing, then search the wreck has a chance for either supplies or fuel, although Collect supplies might be the better option considering that you can convert them to fuel
Aestival: Go beachcombing: see Mangrove College, here it is definitely better to collect supplies instead and then convert if necessary
The Salt Lions: (only after you have finished with the sphinxstone quests): pick through the encampment, there is a chance that you find 1/2 fuel and supplies.
Other options:
- as Category Theory mentioned: compile and hand in port reports! Always, even in late game! The single best source for fuel and even money.
- attack low level pirates: good chance they drop either fuel or supplies
- certain seabeasts (like lifebergs) can give fuel, but at least for lifebergs you need a high mirror stat
- if you have no fuel left, you gain an option to convert 2 supplies to 1 fuel. if you have lots of supplies you can plan with that, but keep in mind that you need supplies, too, to get home and supplies are more expensive than fuel to buy (although there are also more options to get them for free).
Saving fuel consumption:
- use an engineer with fuel efficiency as specialty (there is only one)
- never upgrade your starting engine with run of the mill engines you can buy (if you really want to go faster upgrade only with the special engines you can get via officer quests. note that this has a severe drawback: you might be too quick for a say-event in the next harbour. this is mainly an out-of-game drawback though and if I may say so extremely poor game design. the one thing about sunless sea that is really, really annoying me)
- if you still have problems think about buying a special aft equipment in Khan’s Shadow (but it has draw backs!)
- switch the lights off, if you are near other light sources and or close to the shore (but be very careful with that, terror rates are increasing by this and losing terror costs a lot of money, too, so better to use this only in an emergency situation)
- buy a ship which is less heavy: weight adds to fuel consumption
I hope that helps.
PS: You can sail around the whole map just with the starting ship and the starting engine without any serious problems with some investment in veils and crew optimised for a high veils level. Just shut down the lights and sail in a large circle around seabeasts and large enemy ships. Even the terror rating is manageable. Always have a dark drop coffee in the hold for Irem and have tea with the squatters in Frostmound.
Remember that your prow lights cost fuel; if you keep an eye on your terror gauge you can keep them off quite a lot without even gaining any more terror than you otherwise would. If you’re near another source of light and your counter is green, you can turn your lights off for a count of about four, then flick it on and off again. This saves a small but not insignificant amount of fuel. While a zee, turn your lights off on the last dot before you gain a point of terror, and on again a second after. If you’re near both a piece of land and a light buoy or lighthouse beam, turn your prow light off and leave it off; you’ll still be green.
You only need half your crew slots filled with Zailors to run at full speed, but they consume Supplies slower that way. If you get We Are Clay (from Polythreme) on your starter Ship, you can run at full speed with 4 crew. This means that you need less supplies and, thus, can hold more fuel for long trips.
On my Corvette, I run with 6 crew, We [color=rgb(194, 194, 194)]Are Clay, and the Memento Mori in the Forward Slot. I take 8 Supplies and 24 Fuel when I want to go to the far end of the map. I then shoot down any ships or low-to-mid tier monsters and sell the excess supplies to the Sisterhood (I tend to get a ton of supplies off of ships). In case I feel unsure of my fuel supplies, I buy from Kahn’s Shadow or Light Ships. If down south, Iron Republic, or if up North, from Mt. Palmerston.[/color]
edited by th8827 on 11/26/2015