Grinding Connections

Fallen London
1

The Carnival requires Connected 3 with the appropriate group, and will not let you go any higher than 10. Unknown number of change points/action.

The Bazaar sells items which will increase your Connections from 10 to 20, and beyond that with Fate. Requires a small payment/action, and gives an unknown number of change points.

Other actions available for each faction:

[ul][li]Bohemian: In the Shuttered Palace, writing poetry for the Duchess gives 22 change points/action.[/li][li]The Duchess: The above action also gives 10 change points for the Duchess/action.[/li][li]Society: Also in the Shuttered Palace, attending one of the Duchess’s salons gives 35 points for being erudite, or 31 for being entertaining.
[/li][li]Hell, Criminals, and the Constables: In the Flit, selling information gives 30 change points/action at the cost of 6 points of Casing. Depending on how you efficiently you acquire Casing, this averages out to a max of 11.25 points/action. The opportunity which trades Connected: Criminals for Casing (Talk to Fast Hetty’s widow) is still worthwhile, as it provides 12 points of Casing for only 6 of Connected. If you have Suspicion 2 or more, you can watch your watchers for a few Clues and 2 cp with each of these three factions. Less efficient, but serviceable if you don’t want to spend Casing or only need a few more points.
[/li][li]Constables: Provide training at the Department of Menace Eradication in Watchmaker’s Hill for 5 points and 47 rostygold/action. Quicker than the above, though less efficient.
[/li][li]The Orient: Meeting with the Gracious Widow in Spite gives 10 change points and 36 Jade Fragments.[/li][li]Benthic and Summerset: The only option is to help a colleague in the University, and it provides 5 points in each.[/li][li]Urchins: Hang out with the urchins in the Flit for 3 points/action.[/li][li]Rubbery Men: If you’ve got Flute Street unlocked, a full circuit costs 24 actions and can provide up to 78 change points, for an average of 3.25 points (and just under an Echo’s worth of Mysteries) per action. [/li][li]The Great Game: Have a glass of wine and a chat with the Wry Functionary for 2 points each with the Great Game and Society, as well as a handful of Cryptic Clues.
[/li][/ul]Factions I haven’t found to be grindable, or at least not easily:

[ul][li]Revolutionaries. In the Flit, blowing up a statue of one of the Masters gives 50 cp, 200 Proscribed Material, and 90 Stolen Correspondence, and is a straightforward challenge at Casing 12. Requires Plotting Against the Masters and a minimum of 23 actions for a full circuit. (Another possibility: Spy on Polythreme. Requires more than 20 actions, plus grinding for bribes, and gives an unknown number of CP.)[/li][li]The Church. Creating a Hound of Heaven gives a boatload of Connected: Church, but requires a trip out to zee and more than 20 actions in the Labyrinth for each go-round.
[/li][li]The Tomb-Colonies
[/li][li]The Docks
[/li][/ul]
I believe the Connection-trading Opportunities have a -15/+30 exchange rate, but I’m not sure. These are the pairings available:
Checked:

[ul][li]Orient/Urchins: -15/+30. Choosing Urchins reduces Nightmares, choosing the Orientals gives 45 Jade Fragments.[/li][/ul]Unchecked:

[ul][li]Great Game/Church[/li][li]Bohemians/Church
[/li][li]Hell/Church[/li][li]Hell/Urchins[/li][li]Docks/Urchins
[/li][li]Docks/Orient
[/li][li]Constables/Criminals[/li][li]Constables/Rubbery Men[/li][li]Revolutionaries/Rubbery Men
[/li][li]Tomb-Colonies/Rubbery Men[/li][li]Tomb-Colonies/Society[/li][/ul]

Miscellaneous:

The Shepherd branch of the Soul Trade provides an Opportunity to trade 50 Souls and 5 Infernal Contracts for 50 points each in Constables, Church, and Society. The Spirifer branch of the Soul Trade has a standing option to trade 1000 Souls for 3000 Brass, with an unknown increase in Connected: Hell.

Persons exiled to the Tomb-Colonies may earn small amounts of Connected there. Several actions provide small increases with the Tomb-Colonists, and one may bribe Society, the Church, or the Revolutionaries for a small increase in Connected and a decrease in Scandal.

Persons imprisoned in New Newgate may earn occasional favor with Criminals or the Docks.
edited by Green D on 4/26/2012

2

The Shepherd branch of Soul Trade will give you a card from time to time that allow you to trade in 50 Soul + 5 Infernal Contract for 50 change points in Constable, Church and Society.
Also the conflict cards are now better for grinding harder-to-get connections.

3

For the Constables, there’s also the action “Provide training at the Department of Menace Eradication” in Warchmaker’s Hill. I don’t remember exactly how much Connected: The Constables provided, but it should be around 6 points without having to spend Casing points. Handy if you just need that spare point (I used it to pass from 29 to 30, thus granting me the minimum to be allowed in the Velocipede Squad if you’re a pacifist like me XD).

4

As far as society goes, I did some testing recently. The “Attend: And be erudite” option at the duchess’ salon seems to be the best for grinding Society that I’ve found thus far, though I admit I haven’t been totally exhaustive in my search. Of particular note, I haven’t checked out the options at the fancy party.

For anyone else who is interested in doing research, I will explain my method. The key, most important detail, is to find one storylet that you can easily access that offers a known, small amount of CP. For society connections, I went for a glass of wine with the wry functionary, which gives +2 CP. Now, by using this action, you can likely find out an exact number for where your connections are. Mark this down once you have it. Then, do the action that grants or costs a large amount of connections. Then, do the storylet that offers a few connections again. Then you simply subtract how much the low CP storylet gives from your new total, to find your total after using the large CP storylet, and then it’s just simple subtraction to find the CP total. If doing the low CP storylet bumps you up another level, like if the large CP storylet had left you at 1 CP to next level, simply do the low CP storylet again, and simply remember you’ve got to subtract it twice now.

Also, I thought I heard it said that the connection boosting items at the bazaar were made more useful? The Entry in Slowcake’s Exceptionals is complete rubbish. You need 10 levels of connections in the first place, and then it costs 25 cryptic clues (50 pence value), and THREE actions for… wait for it… a whopping SIX CP. On a related note (as far as options that are available to all connections goes), the carnival is not too bad. It costs a carnival ticket and 2 turns, and gives somewhere around 30 CP (I wasn’t able to get an exact number before I got over 10 and couldn’t use it anymore). I’m assuming this has a lower persuasive check than the salon, so it may be potentially useful for folks at a lower persuasive? If not, it’s at least worth looking into for connections that may be more difficult to raise.
edited by Urthdigger on 4/18/2012

5

OP updated. I’m currently unable to provide spading for the unknown quantities, as I’m in Flute Street hobnobbing with the Rubbery crowd, but I’ll try to provide exact numbers once I’ve had my fill of tentacles.
edited by Green D on 4/19/2012

6

Oh wow, somehow in all my rambling I forgot to mention the most pertinent detail: “Attend: and be erudite” gives 35 CP. Being entertaining instead only gives 31 CP

7

A thought on growing closer to the Radical crowd—how much Connected does one gain from spying on Polythreme? It’d cost, what, two dozen or so actions for a full circuit, plus grinding for bribes, but it looks to be a sizable lump of CP. Anyone know precise numbers?

8

Blowing up statues of the Masters in the Flit (or financiers, though I find that distasteful) gives significant increases to Connected: Revolutionaries. However, you must be Plotting Against the Masters to do this.

9

Is Connected: The Tomb-Colonies grindable when exiled? I know you can trade foxfire candles for Church connections and lowered scandal when you’re out there, or Shrieks for Revolutionaries (at cost of suspicion), or Proscribed Materials for Society.

10

I think that most actions out there will give you a small Tomb-Colonies boost in addition to their other effects.

11

Yes, I think it’s 1 cp or so. Just like how Connected:Criminals/Docks is gotten every-so-occasionally in prison.

12

New information added. I’m going to try to do some spading with the Conflict cards, since those are a big blank spot right now.

13

It’s been a while, but I will point out that the conflict cards are indeed +30/-15 across the board. If the card gives you more than one option to favor a faction (ex: Going Gently the Society/Tomb Colonists has two choices that favor Tomb Colonists) then they both give +30/-15 and only differ in the item rewards.

This simultaneously makes Revolutionaries easier and more aggravating to raise up. Easier because you can get +30 cp in a single action, but you have to wait for one particular card to show up.

14

I believe this topic may be of interest to those interested in the radical set.

Dear god, yes. I’ve been grinding Connected: Revolutionairies for three months. Seeing that card show up makes my heart leap with joy.

15

If anyone has Connected: The Docks at 150 or Urchins & Tomb-Colonists at 100+, I’d love to know what the monikers for those are. They seem to be the only ones we are lacking.

16

Tomb-Colonists 100-150 is “Famed Among.” Docks 150+… I’ll let you know fairly soon; I’m 146. Urchins… well, they conflict with the Docs, so they aren’t especially happy with me yet. I’ll make it up to them though.

17

I’m upping my connections via conflict cards, and this means that they are all at about the same level. Unfortunately, I don’t have them at 100+ (I used to have Society over 100, but I’ve spent it to raise tomb colonies).

Here¡s the output of the userscript, slightly cleaned

Contacts
Connected: Urchins ,66,Welcome
Connected: Bohemian ,70,Welcome Among
Connected: Criminals ,71,Abetted
Connected: The Church ,70,Allied,
Connected: Society ,87,Welcomed
Connected: Hell ,68,A Whiff of Sulphur
Connected: The Constables ,70,Familiar
Connected: The Great Game ,69,Intriguing
Connected: The Tomb-Colonies ,82,Welcome
Connected: Rubbery Men ,72,!kathakathoti!
Connected: Revolutionaries ,64,A Comrade
Connected: The Docks ,62,Sound
Connected: The Orient ,61,Recognised
Connected: Benthic ,20,Recognised
Connected: Summerset ,8,Acquainted
Connected: the Masters of the Bazaar ,3,Appointments are Possible
Connected: Shroud ,20,

18

Alas, the Docks @ 150 does not offer a new Moniker. I’ll update if it changes at 151.

19

[quote=Green D]

  • Society: Also in the Shuttered Palace, attending one of the Duchess’s salons gives 35 points for being erudite, or 31 for being entertaining.

What about the Court, “Someone Else’s Scandal”? I’ve seen a few sources say it’s 50 points, but I doubt that’s the case.

20

As the option to sell information in The Flit has been significantly reduced, I feel we should re-visit some other more efficient ways to get Connected: Constables, Criminals and Hell.
Thoughts?