Recently I decided to grind up shadowy in the Flit since its one of my more neglected qualities. Now I’m looking to start the doubt street story line and I haven’t spent any casing yet. I’m in need of comprehensive bribes and personal recommendations,among other things. Could someone please let me know if there is a way I can do this and spend my casing? Its pretty high,in the lower 20’s and most challenges should be straightforward by now.
On a side more,if I go to prison will I lose my Casing?(I’m a PoSI if that changes things)
You’ll lose all casing once you go to prison. Not sure where you can spend your Casing but Thefts of Particular character provide lots of money or items (non-POSI by the way)
I can’t immediately think of any efficient way to convert Casing into Bribes or Recommendations… you might use Thefts of Particular Character to steal Tales of Terror, and then convert them into Compromising Documents, to buy a Recommendation. And ditto for Journals of Infamy into Correspondence Plaques into Visions of the Surface. But, I haven’t run the numbers, and it wouldn’t get you everything you need anyway. That said, I’m sure someone with more knowledge of the Flit’s various heists will come along and fill in the gaps!
And, yes, I’m pretty sure going to prison nulls your Casing, so it’s best to keep your Suspicion down until you’ve robbed as much as you can rob!
You can sell your casing for improved relations with criminals, constables or devils and you can spend casing on getting some useful items via thefts of a particular character.
You do lose all your casing when you go to prison.
I’d recommend doing thefts of a particular character until you have casing 20 or casing 18 and then either rob the bazaar (London street signs) or the brass embassy (souls, nevercold brass, infernal contracts) respectively.
If Shadowy is one of your more neglected qualities, you may want to sell off your Casing to criminals: as well as getting you connections, you get 10CP Shadowy for it- that’s one level for every seven actions spent selling.
Oh, and also: you can earn Comprehensive Bribes through the War of Assassins, and there are several options to build Shadowy there, but there is a gap in the middle with only Watchful, Persuasive and Dangerous options. So, it’s good if you want to grind Shadowy and another stat, but otherwise, doesn’t help you much.
If you haven’t already, we’d recommend robbing the Bazaar. Master Thief isn’t quite Scholar of the Correspondence, but it’s used and useful in a few places. Robbing the Brass Embassy gives it as well–but why would you settle for anything less than the greatest challenge?
We find ourself unable to check on the components for the items you have requested information on, as we are currently entertaining in the Empress’ Court, but we hope that the above information will have proven useful all the same.
The Embassy’s more useful, IMHO; I can do more with 500 souls and 25 proscribed material than 16 London Street Signs. The only advantage to the Bazaar is that the goods are worth 9.8E more than what you get from the Embassy.
I can’t speak to the Bribe, but you can get stolen correspondence to convert into gossip and documents from robbing the Ministry of Decency or the Duchess’s study, or blowing up a statue for the Revolutionaries.
[li]
ETA: The best option for turning Casing into bribes is probably to spend it on Thefts of Particular Character, then sell whatever you get to buy prisoner’s honey to turn into romantic notions and visions of the surface and then into bribes. And/or what Sir Frederick suggested.
edited by Raymond R Price on 1/20/2014
Depending on your watchful score, you may gain comprehensive bribes with the Fidgeting writer story, smashing your Lenses of Black Glass.
(Along with the bribes, you’ll gain a bazaar permit, a searing enigma and a primeval hint)
Thank you everyone. That was incredibly helpful.
On the subject of grinding Casing:
I find that the best option is by far the “Area Diving” Persuasive option in Spite: you get 3 Casing per action with 100% reliability, instead of actually taking risks.
If you don’t have the case open, you can always lower your Shadowy with a talkative Rattus Faber to reopen it.
I actually wouldn’t mind using the Flit’s “Preparing for a Big Score” ones, but I can’t bring myself to do it when it’s so dramatically less efficient.
Maybe spreading the word will make the devs look into this ;)
The decoy gives the same amount of CP per action along with a little extra reward, so once your Shadowy is suitably high enough it’s better than Area Diving. If your Shadowy isn’t quite that high, but you have become a POSI you can use Well-planned villainy to get that much without any risk of failure. Lastly is the Gang of Hoodlums option, which gives 18 CP for 5 actions.
Also, you can’t always reopen it using a Talkative Rattus Faber. Your Shadowy will definitely grow beyond that range.
[quote=Sara Hysaro]Also, you can’t always reopen it using a Talkative Rattus Faber. Your Shadowy will definitely grow beyond that range.[/quote]You only have to open it once though, unless you finish the Area Diving story. I still have Uncover hidden tattoos open in case I wanted to build some Fascinating… but I’m not sure how well that would work now that the story’s been changed.
True, but most people would have left that option far behind. I remember using the Topsy King Painting option for a little while before my alt’s Shadowy was high enough to use the Decoy option. It’s not a guaranteed success, but it was better for raising Shadowy than the 3 action options at least.
Uncover hidden tattoos isn’t locked by stats now i’m pretty sure; since I still have it and can do the dabble in the great game stuff.
[quote=WormApotheote]Uncover hidden tattoos isn’t locked by stats now i’m pretty sure; since I still have it and can do the dabble in the great game stuff.[/quote]Yes, but according to the wiki it’s no longer +3 CP of Fascinating… every Action, and it costs connections and/or resources too. So it might not work so well for what I was saving it for.
Is it just me, or are there in fact several Casing, Fascinating, Investigating, Seeking and Inspired (etc.) loopholes in the game?
It most be because these temporary traits are not exclusively tied to the storylets. I remember reading players using University Casing for selling in the Flit. University Casing nets you items as opposed to Flit Casing so it’s kind of double-up.
Bottom line, is this intended or just a blatantly exploiting a design oversight?
[quote=dharthoorn]Bottom line, is this intended or just a blatantly exploiting a design oversight?[/quote]Well, the description of the qualities says that they can be used for different things, so to some extent it seems to be intended. But it’s probably an oversight as well, since the grinds that involve storylets that give those qualities as well as resources are so much better than regular storylet grinds, like the unfinished businesses for PoSI.
Though there is a story excuse for University Investigating… being used in the Flit: Mirrors, War of Illusion and Parabola. Pretty flimsy excuse, but I’ll take it, and hundreds of thousands Cryptic Clues. ;)
Heck yeah. More food for the side-conv grinder.
[quote=dharthoorn]Heck yeah. More food for the side-conv grinder.[/quote]Er…no. I just sell them. Converting first tier stuff up to second tier really takes too long to be worth it unless it’s absolutely necessary. And without Bundles of Oddities that are guaranteed to contain 1-8 x Compromising Document I’m thinking that side-conversions aren’t really worth the effort either. Except for Visions of the Surface from the Capering Relicker and other third tier resources that can be acquired at a very high efficiency. I imagine that it takes a pretty high ppa to compete with the ~125 ppa Thefts of a Particular Character when the side-conversions only give 50 ppa per 50 items.