I’ve just been able to start an expedition, and even the cheapest ones seem prohibitively expensive, especially if you fail. What are some good ways to drum up the funds to buy supplies?
One word: “Grinding” other things to get cash. And it also really depends on where you are at in your stats. There’s a thread here about “End Game Grinding” that has a lot of suggestions. Take a look. As a rule of thumb though, any story that will gross you about 100 Pence per action is a good one. If you can find some that give you 150, milk it for everything you can get. Some give you more, but that’s usually at the expense of additional actions. For instance, 3 actions in one thing will get you 320 moon pearls (for instance) leaving you with a net of about 108 per action.
As Joy Phillip says it depends on your stats but I find whispered secrets the best to convert to supplies and Seeking Curios and Secrets in the Forgotten Quarter can give you a lot, though that is variable, and you will need to manage your nightmares. Hope you enjoy your expedition but do make sure you have plenty of supplies before you start - you don’t want to run out.
Speaking of grinding, Visiting Repentant forger on "A Visit" card with 225 Shadowy will earn you [color=rgb(0, 255, 0)]9 Echo Per Action [/color]in Cryptic Clue. Sell them and you can buy[color=rgb(153, 255, 0)] 450 Whispered Secret.[/color] Hope that helps.
PS : If you have access to sea , try visiting Mutton Island ( ‘Stormy-eyed’ is useful there ). You can convere Ext. Implication to whispered secrets [color=rgb(255, 255, 153)](4 x Extraordinary Implication ⇨ 1000 x [/color][color=rgb(255, 255, 153)]whispered secrets & 1 x Memory of Dist. Shores)[/color], and actions during ‘Time Passing in the Southern Archipelago 7~8’ gives you 145 Whispered Secret.
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edited by Tommy Wi on 9/27/2013
Tommy Wi - that is very high level I doubt if someone who has only just been able to access Expeditions in the Forgotten Quarter will be stat capped on shadowy and have the gear to raise it into the 200’s.
By the way a useful tip for people who are at that level is not to sell them but to use the clues to buy flawed diamonds in the Bazaar Sidestreets.
Because you will definitely have 225 Shadowy… Also, it’s 9 E/action, not pennies =)
But it is probably the best use for that card if you have a high shadowy =)
Oh yeah, I second the flawed diamond - as a bonus a (very) rare rare success will give you a magnificent one instead of one of the flawed ones. It’s around 140 ppa + the chance of a magnificent one, which ends up being pretty awesome…
edited by Aximillio on 9/27/2013
[quote=lady ciel ]Tommy Wi - that is very high level I doubt if someone who has only just been able to access Expeditions in the Forgotten Quarter will be stat capped on shadowy and have the gear to raise it into the 200’s.
By the way a useful tip for people who are at that level is not to sell them but to use the clues to buy flawed diamonds in the Bazaar Sidestreets.[/quote]
Urk! I jumped in middle of discussion and missed the whole point again! Bad Tommy! Nice reminder, by the way. I forgot about that diamond shop.
Speaking of Whispered Secret, it is real pain to get them in bulk at low level. Both ‘Strange lights in the Forgotten Quarter’ and ‘Seeking curio and…’( which tend to be too hard for fresh adventurers ) give out random number of W. S, which is really frustrating. I just ended up throwing money at Crawcase Cryptics or/and wait for ‘A Dream about a Boat and a Spire’ card to bypass that horrible stone-picking part. I miss good old days, grujmble grujmble.
In-game talk PS: (What is Ghangole? Maybe it works as living version of ‘Horadric Cube’?)
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It is quite hard to remember what is available at lower levels. I remember that the University was a good source of Whispered Secrets but that comes after the Forgotten Quarter and I really can’t remember where you can get them at early levels. The nice thing about the Seeking Curios is that it is in the Forgotten Quarter, there are options that challenge/raise all four stats and there are some nice rare successes. Even if you do only get a few Whispered Secrets sometimes I think it balances out with the occasional 200+. The bad thing is the nightmares, not so big a problem if you are POSI, and I suppose the Mirror Marches aren’t too harmful if you do end up there.[li]
edited by reveurciel on 9/27/2013
Sorry guys, not sure if I was clear enough- my Watchful is 61, I’ve just gotten access to the Forgotten Quarter. I’m not a POSI and I sadly don’t have a ship yet.
[li]
i recommend you to not tackle it. That content is just too high for low-level.
Scholar of Correspondence is not vital until mid-level, and it is "freely" given at Watchful 100 in form of card.
I’d suggest you only use the whispered secrets you get normally. Once you get to making progress in the Labyrinth of Tigers 7 at around 100+ dangerous you can exchange jade, rostygold and deep amber for whispered secrets. Rostygold is a resource you’ll get a lot of - especially if your profession gets you these as well, so this is a nice range to get a lot of expeditions done if you haven’t earlier.
So don’t rush it, there’s plenty of time and resources down the road.
So I should avoid the expeditions? I just thought they were the next Watchful arc, there doesn’t seem to be any other way to increase Watchful effectively at this level.
I wouldn’t avoid them. You need to do expeditions to get Scholar of the Correspondence (one of the ways to open up the next watchful area).
Are you starting the Living Stories that provide a boost to stats? The watchful one is Decipher graffiti under Study the Secrets of Fallen London in Ladybones Road.
We’ve gone off on a tangent here as It is just easier to get Whispered Secrets at higher levels.
[li]
Huh, I didn’t know that graffiti thing existed. What does a living story do, exactly? And what are the Shadowy and Dangerous ones? I already know the Persuasive one is telling a risque joke at the pub.
A Living Story sets off a timer. Sooner or later you will receive a message. There are quite a few - your profession is one for example.[li]
Not knowing exactly what your stats are it is difficult to say which stat raising ones are available to you. When you find one it will include "A living story will begin soon" in the results
The Shadowy one is in The Alleys of Spite - the courier brush past her and exchange the pouch. I can’t remember if there were any others but that will send "That Which Lives In Shadow"
There are various low level Dangerous ones in Watchmakers Hill but I don’t remember what they are. They will result in "A Name Written in Blood"
Unfortunately only the shadowy one still works for POSI so maybe someone who hasn’t got there can give you some more help.
I just did the repentant forger with 215 Shadowy.
You can go to Watchmakers’ Hill and visit an ominous cottage (you can’t miss it) and join a very deadly game. Once you’re in you can repeatedly “Listen to the rules” to get 50 Whispered secrets and 1 Tale of terror with no chance to fail, but also without any stat gain. Do this often and you’ll have enough secrets to finance an expedition in no time.
However, even the easiest expedition options are challenging at Watchful 61. So make sure to get as much Watchful equipment as you can get, have extra Expedition supplies just in case and keep your Nightmares low.
If you want to do expeditions at that level you might also want to stock up on Sudden Insights (the watchful second chances).
Two of my alts are currently doing expeditions with base Watchful in the 60’s. There’s a chance with the first expedition of striking it rich with an item you can sell for enough cash to fund your expeditions all the way up to the third level. Doing the longer expeditions at that sort of level means you’d better have a way to deal with your rivals before they beat you to the goodies.
<edited to add>
One of my alts now has a nice new set of Stones. At the end of the process she had Watchful 70+6.
edited by Josiah Thimblerig on 10/4/2013
I’d say getting into nadir as soon as possible is definitely worth it. At about watchful 60 you can gear up and make the slowest option on expedition progression straightforward. Its not great ppa, in fact you probably lose a couple hundred echos in effort going slowly like that. But even if you lost 1000 echos, you can make it back so quickly in the nadir its not even funny. I’ve made over 1000 echos in a single expedition there once or twice. Although you really need to know what you are doing and to be a little lucky on the card draw to make that kind of profit. But its not -that- hard or rare to make good cash in nadir. Also once inside stats are irrelevant. There are barely any stat based challenges in there. Shoot, its actually good to have low stats because then you can put on a TRF, drop your stats below 50 and take no stat damage when you leave. I.E. you make mad profit for no menace. In fact, you can perhaps not on the leaving option to repeat it over and over again, and, assuming you aren’t losing stats because you have a TRF pet on, its a free and good way to be rid of all your levels of night mare menace.
The only difficult thing might be getting skulls for the expedition. But there are a few different ways to get skulls that aren’t crazy expensive and are open to low stats players. Shoot, I have even have a few skulls available if you want them (send me a PM to discuss if interested). tl;dr: I highly recommend getting to nadir as soon as possible. Its a good steady, weekly income that is better for low level players than it is for people who take a stat hit every time they venture inside.