How To Get Rich?

Sunless Sea
1

I’m personally wondering - and I’m sure I’m not the only one - how to go about getting rich in this game. I’m aware that exploration is by far more important than trading or fighting, but I also feel that most of my deaths result from a single misfortune or miscalculation (ie. spending a big wad of cash on an upgrade that left me with insufficient cushion) leading to a &quotdeath spiral&quot that eventually leaves me stranded with no fuel or running around with a tiny amount of health.

So… what do you do to build up that base of Echoes that grants you some security?

2

If you want to do it the “fair” way, running Coffee (Port Carnellian straight south edge of the map) to Vienna (on the surface) can net you some quick cash.

You can trade supplies for a chance to find good stuff at Palmerstion. It raises terror pretty quick if you fail, but for 44 echoes of supplies I you can get minimum 50 echo intriguing snippet, up to 140 echo 2zzoup or Outlandish Artifact.

Running 20 sphinx stone from salt lions to London is 300 echoes of profit as well. None of the above require you to wait on the Something Awaits You prompts.

I won’t tell you about the cheesy way if you haven’t found it yet.

3

I just posted in another thread, but might as well put it here too -

I do tomb colonists on almost every trip into the zee, pick up shady sorts, clay men, etc.
The merchant guy in London is also extremely lucrative, as are fluke cores, so chilling in the Chelonate is good (plus, near kingeaters so terror is never an issue). I dump the endless supplies I seem to accrue in Gaiders, and extraordinary implications from the salt lions do a roaring trade.
edited by SporksAreGoodForYou on 2/17/2015

4

Pssht. No interest.

I’ll try setting up some Salt Lions runs.

Now… where do you get these tomb-colonists in Fallen London? I never seem to get any after the first, the one that always turns into a plot.

5

I think Sporks means the tomb-colonists from Venderbight. I wouldn’t advise doing that unless/until you have explored the majority of your map and know where things are.

6

Ah… I see.

Now, I did think that I was supposed to be able to get new tomb-colonists from Fallen London. Is that just a thing that happens rarely?

7

It used to happen a long time ago in early-early access, before stuff was properly implemented.

8

Yup absolutely. That advice was for getting rich rather than getting started. For that, may I suggest this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT-RbZR8mtk

It’s mine own, so apologies for the shameless self promo. But it should get you 2500 echoes in a couple of hours without exploits.

9

So ferrying tomb-colonists for 15e was removed, but there’s still the option to “sell” them in Venderbight as a relic of the way the game used to be?

10

Well, there are a few uncommon ways to obtain Tomb-Colonists outside of London, so no, not quite a relic.

11

I like also the explorations results of the Mangrove college.

12

There’s got to be a way to offload them without waiting for them to eat all your supplies… :)

13

Whelp… doing about a half dozen stone runs in a row was not the most fun I’ve ever had playing a game, but it will be worth it to do some experimentation later on without running out of cash and dying. And it also gave me the opportunity to “farm” Recent News and turn it int Zee Stories so I can go north and get mutersalt for the stuttering kid, so there’s that. All in all, it’s a workable early game strategy if you’re lucky enough to have the Salt Lions in a convenient place.

14

It’s important to note that both sphinxstone hauling and the Merchant Venturer’s orders are finite sources.

There’s also the lesser known Vital Intelligence extraction from mature spy networks in Port Carnelian and Khan’s Heart. But developing the networks requires a fair bit of preparation and good knowledge about the Unterzee. Not to mention you’ll need to periodically re-strengthen them. Vital Intelligence itself can net you 350 echoes from the Admiral. It can also be turned in to the Voracious Diplomat for 500, but I get the impression that will be ultimately counter-productive, due to the individual’s connections.

15

Also that last load of Sphinxstone can be a bit tricky, depending on your past and the choice you make, as you might be sent somewhere very far away. So having 20 blocks of Sphinxstone in your hold might be a little bit inconvenient.

16

Yeah, I just ran my last block of Sphinxstone. Let’s see what happens next. I’m in search of Mount Palmerston so I can smuggle stuff for the mob and simultaneously get intelligence for the Admiralty. Should be fun.

17

So as I scan this list, I can’t help but notice that my personal method is not only more lucrative than most of these strategies, but takes far less investment, as you really only need to do it once. Afterwards the backup you have can be transferred to other captains by selecting the two 50% cash legacies to inherit all your previous captains echoes. I have kept it to myself partially because I was too lazy to create a forum account and partially because I’m worried it will be nerfed as soon as it is brought to light. This method can get a bit tedious, however, using this it I have stocked enough for all my subsequent captains, all of whom have bought dreadnaughts and not felt a thing.

So, without further ado, I present…
&quotHow to become drug baron of the Unterzea&quot

Things you will need to hit max profit.
-Discovered: Isle of Cats, Cumaean Canal, Khan’s Shadow
-Tireless Mechanic
-An empty hold (dump any tomb colonists, or passengers, or questline items before doing this.)

  • 120 cap. Cargo ship (you can work up to this, the base ship is enough to start the route with)
    -90 mirrorcatch boxes (once again, you can work up to this, the important thing is that you locate Khan’s Shadow so you can buy them)
    -168 veils (As usual you can work up to this. You’ll still be making money without it. But at 168 veils your making the most out of your prescious mind altering cargo… And the box it came in.)

Sooo, with our goals set, lets begin ^^

Step 1. Basic Concept
So you have the starting ship. You’ve managed to discover all the above listed places and you’re ready to begin. Go to Khan’s Shadow and buy as many mirror catch boxes as you can, up to a total of 16.

Now, head to the cumaean canal. Once there stock supplies till you have enough to go to the surface. Head up top and fill your
mirrorcatches in the first area. Now leave (or handle any other business you might have to attend.)

Head for the Isle of Cats. Once there sell all your sunlight via &quotsell sunlight&quot option. Depending on your veils you’ll get a a few empty catchboxes back. Once your goods are all sold, head for Khan’s shadow to resupply your empty boxes back up to 16.

Repeat untill you have a comfortable 12-15000 echoes. You can stop in london as needed for fuel/ supplies and terror reduction but at the lvl of profits you may just want to buy supplies at the canal, and you get free terror reduction from the journey to the surface as well.

Step 2. Maximization
Take your well earned stock, and buy a 120 capacity cargo carrier. Use the remaining echoes to buy more mirror catchboxes till you are down to 1000 or so echoes. It is good to keep a buffer like this in case something somehow goes wrong (never did, but never hurts to be cautious either.)

Now repeat the basic route, but every time you’ve sold your cargo, return to khan’s shadow and buy more catchboxes till you are up to 90. At 90, you will be making between 22.5-36k a run, depending on luck and veils. Now you are only losing money to skill checks. Only one thing to do. Up them skills!

This can be done in Irem. Take a moment to stop by london, and pick up the Montaigne Projector (+10 mirrors, -10 veils). You will likely need this to hit 168 veils. Now, make the long journey to the city of dreams. Once there unequip any crew\ equipment that increase your veils. Equip the Montaigne Projector. Now buy them secrets! Each one costs a thousand but at your current level of wealth its no longer a real issue. Spend the secrets on your mechanic for 1-2 points veils per secret untill you have reached 150. Now take off the projector, reequip your crew/ equipment, and voila! You should be over 168 veils.

Step 3. Maximized drug peddling
You now have a cargo vessel with 90 catch boxes worth of delicious sunlight capacity. Your veils are at 168 making you not only guaranteed to pass your skill check but fast as a bat out of hell. And lastly you probably still have a few thousand echoes at least meaning you aren’t getting stranded anywhere any time soon for lack of funds. Life is pretty sweet.

At this point, you are no longer losing mirror catches to failed skill checks, and thus you no longer have any need to tack khan’s shadow or london onto the run. You may now simply sail back and forth between the isle of cats and the cumaean canal as many times as you like for a whopping 36000 echoes every run. Terror is still being reduced for free, and the canal provisioner will have all the supplies you need. At this point I was able to get the run down to about 10 minutes each go. That’s 36000 echoes every 10 minutes at the cost of clicking through an absolute ton of menus. Carry on untill you feel all your heirs are sufficiently provided for, knowing it was all paid for by some poor sap’s addiction.

When you finally get bored, go back to khan’s shadow. Sell all your empty catchboxes. The end… lol

I do hope this isn’t the cheap method that was referred to, because this took look many hours to set up and perfect, but was well worth it for the final result of 360k echoes. So yeah, enjoy all lol. I know I have.
edited by Skeks on 2/18/2015

18

Yep. That’s the cheap method.

19

Well damn lol

20

On the bright side, at least his method isn’t anywhere as efficient (or broken) as the actual sunlight run.
edited by Olorin on 2/18/2015