Helicon House is Available

[quote=Scienceandponies]

Umm…I can still cycle through in 2 actions. 1 in with the pendant and rubbery companion, 1 to model. Is this not the case for other people?[/quote]

Oh, how are you managing that?

I’d absolutely kill for that option, if it’s still available.

Since this morning, the 0 action Dean card vanished on me, and it’s been replaced by - so far I’ve only seen two - cards that take an action each. I’ve been wasting about five or six actions a cycle, as I can’t see any other 0 action cards, and the Dean has never reappeared. I just went back into the house to check, and every single action requires one action point for me, sadly.

I’m lacking a pedant, though,so maybe it’ll be worth investing in one.

I’m really loving Helicon House so far. Brooding in my cloak is a great way to pass the time and I’ll probably end up using the place as my main method of gathering scrip, outside of skeletons, because I often hang around Ealing Gardens while waiting for the carnival urchins to confess that they’ve lost their bear for the 100th time. It also isn’t that much of a commitment action-wise, so I can pivot to other activities without sacrificing progress or efficiency if I ever feel like switching it up. Definitely beats just sitting in the lab.

Seeing the Nemesis items pop up here makes me wonder if Bag a Legend players will get some more options in Parabola when the Viscountess starts her war against the Fingerkings. That’d be pretty cool for them, and it fits quite well thematically.

As most others, I am very fond of Helicon House - it is both a great and engaging source of lore, and quite rewarding materially as well.

[quote=Scienceandponies]
Umm…I can still cycle through in 2 actions. 1 in with the pendant and rubbery companion, 1 to model. Is this not the case for other people?[/quote]

That option is doubly fate-locked, plus you can’t obtain the Festive Rubbery friend at the moment. I am considering getting it this Sackmas, as the 2-action combo is really something; we’ll see if it isn’t nerfed by then. And if we’re not able to obtain something even more interesting, like the last year’s Fox.

Rubbery Spouse, although good, is very expensive in Fate, and some people (myself included) wouldn’t want to get it for roleplaying reasons.

Even so, the Helicon House is still a great source of Scrip if you can do the carousel in 3 actions, which you always can with the Amber Pendant. Some Nemesis players and players with the Rubbery Bellringer + Campanologist can do this even without the Pendant. And even for those who don’t have any of these options, they can still get a Rubbery Eufonium for a fate-free 3-action option. Currently, this is probably the most efficient way to grind Scrips, as it reaches even more SpA than sustainable Bone Market grinding (~9 over ~7.5, respectively).

Plus you can reasonably easily grind Pulsating Ambers here while avoiding Nadir, which is nice for those of us with 215 stats.

One last thing: thank you for making use of our Nemesis rewards. These options are very rewarding, and not just in the mechanical sense. It really makes us appreciate the magnitude of our achievement, which for me is the most important aspect of Ambition rewards.

The Rubbery Pendant does not directly unlock any content. However, it gives +2 Fitting In upon entry (before choosing companion), which indirectly unlocks some options. For one, those two bonus points are necessary (but not sufficient) to become Closest To Rubbery Men. For another, some options locked by Fitting In are immediately available upon entry.

Note about guests like the Dean: Which guests are at the party is dependent on Airs of Ealing Gardens. Interacting with them at the party does not cycle Airs. I filed a bug report, and this is working as intended: The guest list is supposed to stay constant for the duration of the party. However, it also currently doesn’t switch between parties unless you take an action that re-rolls Airs of Ealing Gardens, such as excavation or mapping constellations. (The Dean is available at Airs 50-75)

So a Flourishing Ribcage has Six Limb Joints by Default,so you could probably use it as the base for a Curator

I’m normally not too critical on Fate items, but having to pay 40 fate to access the item that’s seems necessary to get Closest to: Rubbery Man feels like a kick in the tentacles.

Some options have been nerfed. The patch notes that hit a half-hour ago mention the reduced casing on the Rubbery Cat, which downgrades it from “absurd” to merely “way better than anything else.” There are some other changes as well, which I’m still flushing out.

In particular, it seems that various options how have Time Remaining restrictions. You can only Case with the cat with Time Remaining 4+, and most significantly, you can only model with Time Remaining 3 or less.

I have to admit that this makes it much more in line with usual sort of profits. Now everyone has to spend 4 actions to get the 28 scrips, and if you are able to get 3 Fitting for an action, you get an additional echo of Absinthe per run, or you can use the needed actions to convert bones and such.

Still a good source of scrip with other upsides, but now it does not strictly supersede grinding Scrip/Nightsoil in the Bone Market. Overall a useful and well balanced option, if not as crazy as it used to be. Well played, FBG.

And now the Pendant lets you enter the party with 4 Time Remaining instead of 5, letting you Model with 3 actions.

Also there seems to be a clean-up storylet. Which makes sense, there’s at least a half-dozen exit paths, and at least 4 qualities that need clearing.

So Helicon House gets us Shapeling Arts to 7, but I seem to be missing where Shadowy gets boosted past 206 from the second Parabola Heist.

Also, yes. Helicon House is delightful. And I’d like to highlight that it is currently the sole functional source of Solacefruit in the game. Meaning we can continue supporting the Non-bone, Non-Liberationist Tracklayers in future content.

What about nightmare reduction in parabola camp? Solacefruit on alt success, pretty high chance.

Ok, so not terribly surprised that the insanely good modeling option got slightly nerfed. Although even with a whole 3 actions using the amber and one of the rubbery companions it’s still 5.33 epa, which I think is the best around.

Slightly more if you value a scrip at 0.516 echoes instead of 0.5 with the tinned ham conversion, and consider any value of gaining fascinating/inspired/whatever else from whatever option you picked to pass the time.
edited by Scienceandponies on 9/12/2020

[quote=Scienceandponies]Ok, so not terribly surprised that the insanely good modeling option got slightly nerfed. Although even with a whole 3 actions using the amber and one of the rubbery companions it’s still 5.33 epa, which I think is the best around.[/quote]Doesn’t it take 4 actions to model if you’re considering it as a grind cycle? 1 action to enter Helicon House, 2 actions to progress to Time remaining 3, 1 action to model. Unless I’m missing an option that reduces time remaining by 2.

If you don’t have the pendant or the rubbery companion and the highest fitting in you can reliably receive per action is 2 then the EpA is 3.75, which is in line with the licentiate murder cycle in the bone zone.

EDIT: Never mind, saw that the pendant reduces time remaining to 4 on entry. Quite the valuable item.
edited by Mulligan on 9/12/2020

That requires gaining nightmares, going into parabola and the luck of the final actions. Helicon House, depending on your equipment, can guarantee nearly 1 Solacefruit per action.

That requires gaining nightmares, going into parabola and the luck of the final actions. Helicon House, depending on your equipment, can guarantee nearly 1 Solacefruit per action.[/quote]
I haven’t tried this myself, but I’ve heard people suggest using something that gives +1 nightmares while equipped to farm the fruit in the base camp.

Yes, equipment nightmares work there just fine. I tested it, though for a different reason.

Helicon House is now outfit locked. I was wondering if being able to change clothes in the middle of the party was unintentional, given that the event involves time. Although, the mental image of your character speed changing in a closet so they don’t waste any time is a pretty good one.

EDIT: huh, it’s now unlocked again. Weird. Maybe it was because I was in Helicon House during the maintenance.
edited by Mulligan on 9/16/2020