A damp fog fills London’s streets. Londoners of all stripes lurk in its concealment: masked, cloaked, triply hidden. It is the season of Hallowmas, of the commission and purging of sin. Londoners seek out the Attendants – the masked representatives of the Bazaar – to be shriven.
The end of October is upon us, and with it, another Hallowmas comes to Fallen London. Hallowmas is a free revel, open to all Londoners. This year, Hallowmas will run from today, the 23rd October, until the 6th of November. After the festival closes on the 6th, you’ll be able to turn in confessions and claim rewards until the 13th.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but assuming you have enough Shapeling Arts, the Infant is the best mask in that you don’t need additional items for a Menace gain similar to what you’d get by spending items on other Masks, right?
Assuming also you don’t go out of your way to raise Menaces elsewhere.
You know, maybe it’s just because my first exposure to Fallen London was during Hallowmas, but this is by far my favorite event. I LOVE Hallowmas. The absolutely masterful writing that FBG typically delivers is turned up to 11, the companion rewards are far better than usual event fare, and the risk/reward mechanic with menaces is brilliant. The fact that you can’t get all of the rewards on offer is frustrating sometimes, but it adds a fun element of choice and consequences that you don’t get during, for example, the new FOTZ. Hallowmas is just the pinnacle of writing and gameplay in Fallen London, and I can’t wait to see what it’s like this year.
EDIT: Also, I must say, I love the new trend towards introducing cosmetic variations of things! They provide such good opportunities to provide character to your character, and they help avoid power-creep as well!
I have decided to don the Demon mask and party at Spite.
My current stash of Confessions: 1x Whimsy, 3x Violence, 2x Pride, 1x Guile. Will think about which Companion to get before exchanging Confessions.
Hallowmas has reminded me again why it is so important to stock up on favours. Just like the other event earlier this year where the Starved Men attacked and you had to sail to faraway locations.
My target companions to get, total 14 confessions needed:
Clay Corroborator (one of the two Acerbic Clay Man upgrades)
Silver-Eyed Scoundrel
Verity of the Savage Lily
Dutiful Orphan
Unforgiving Urchin
Extravagantly Titled Tigress
Not really interested in the silly weasel or bat, or the cosmetic alternates of existing outfits. I also haven’t progressed far enough in Khan’s Heart to get acquainted with the Precocious Engineer.
My options mostly pick themselves. But I might have to splurge a bit on the Bengal Tigress and the two Winsome orphans. Yay!
I noticed that the game has reworked the menace-modifying items, which might impact how many Spirit of Hallowmas you gain per masque run.
For example,
Once upon a time this item would outright reduce your Wounds, so if you have zero Wounds at the start, equipping this would give you negative Wounds.
We did these menace-modifying before entering the masque, so each session of grinding yielded 45 SoH instead of the usual 28 SoH, and thus you can more easily reach 2k, 2.5k or higher SoH before the event ends.
I am not sure if the reworked menace-modifying items will help or hinder your journey towards a certain SoH number. Theoretically, with enough menace-raising items you should require less actions to finish each masque run and get 28 SoH.
NOT available:
2023: Nightmares
2024: Wounds
2025: Scandal
2026: Suspicion
Affiliations:
Wounds: grants Rubbery Favours
Scandal: grants Church Favours
Suspicion: grants Criminal Favours
Nightmares: grants Bohemian Favours (NOT AVAILABLE THIS YEAR)
Spirit grind
Thanks to Mr. Cards (IGN: Sans Cipher) over Discord!
Do you want to be in HIGH SPIRITS this season? Follow this simple instruction!
Requirements: 4 scandal-increasing items, Weasel of Woe, Marigold
Do Marigold commissions until you get the variable “The Marigold Bearer’s Fate” to 3.
Equip all the mentioned items and fail to Coax out the Knight 4 times.
Return to London and cash out Scandal. (Unequip Woesel while on train)
Get back to Marigold (fail on a train if you’re at exactly 4+2 CP wounds) and fail to Coax out the Knight 4 times.
Return to London (fail on a train if you’re not at 7 wounds levels) and cash out Scandal and Wounds
So at a glance it looks like eagle ascendant is the only really important get this year. Scoundrel is just another honey bear. Good for players who missed that upgrade maybe. The rest is all “pick what suits your fancy” stuff.
Spirit grind
Thanks to Mr. Cards (IGN: Sans Cipher) over Discord!
Do you want to be in HIGH SPIRITS this season? Follow this simple instruction!
Requirements: 4 scandal-increasing items, Weasel of Woe, Marigold
Do Marigold commissions until you get the variable “The Marigold Bearer’s Fate” to 3.
Equip all the mentioned items and fail to Coax out the Knight 4 times.
Return to London and cash out Scandal. (Unequip Woesel while on train)
Get back to Marigold (fail on a train if you’re at exactly 4+2 CP wounds) and fail to Coax out the Knight 4 times.
Return to London (fail on a train if you’re not at 7 wounds levels) and cash out Scandal and Wounds
Repeat from step 2.
Hmmm, I have Marigold Station but I left it untouched. Weasel of Woe requires an additional investment of 400e, on top of certain companions this Hallowmas.
I only have three Scandal-increasing items: Modish Bonnet, Scarlet Stockings, Censored Census, I trust this method also works for me?
I just did the Marigold Knight quest the first time, and apparently it takes a week for that quest to proceed to the next stage.
Therefore it is probably impossible to get The Marigold Bearer’s Fate” to 3 within the two-week period of Hallowmas… so it’s back to grinding 28 HoS the old-fashioned way.
Of course, it is definitely not an option for those who have yet to do the Railway, or build Marigold station.
I believe you are mistaken. It takes a week for the Null and Void quest to proceed, but you can get another Marigold Emblem retrieval quest as soon as you finish the first one. Just talk to the Gnarled Stationmaster again.
Due to a delay from the unsuccessful attempt at Marigold, and with the ‘reworking’ of the menace-modifying items, I predict I will not get anywhere near 2.5k Spirit of Hallowmas this time. Which means my current Hallowmas vanity quality ‘Steeped in Transgression’ will not change to a higher tier.
To reach 2.5k SoH, you need to get 178-179 SoH per day (event lasts 14 days). The ‘reworked’ menace-modifying items only allows you to get 28 SoH per masque run, previously it could be 45. That means you need to do at least do at least 6 runs per day.
Your only hope is by equipping menace gain increasing items, you take less actions to get 28 SoH per masque run.
I hope this is not a subtle nudge towards spending Fate or using consumables e.g. Black Wings Absinthe for Scandal gain.
On the other hand, once you manage to set up the Marigold Woesel grind, it takes less than 40 actions to do 6 Menace turn-ins: you can do it in 4 round-trips to Marigold, turning in Scandal on every trip and Wounds on every other trip.
Of course you need a Woesel and 3-4 Scandal increasing items, but that shouldn’t be an issue for a player with access to Marigold.
That should be more than enough to get to 2500 before the end of the event.
I was also unlucky to draw the right commission only after around 10 attempts, but I caught up pretty quickly after that. Just be careful never to succeed on the Coax check ;)
It will be more difficult for players who cannot afford a Woesel, but at least Scandal and Suspicion increasing items are available to everyone.
Hmmm. The Masques aren’t particularly evenly balanced. My main took the infant mask for wounds, and with Shapeling Arts 3 has an airs dependent no-cost +7 option, so card-flipping and going to the party are easily more than enough to keep me ahead of the desired Sprit of Hallowmas rate. There’s nothing remotely comparable for the other two so even if my alt had any of the advanced skills their scandal gain would be lagging behind.