I have been traipsing around in Fallen London for a while - my stats range from 27 to 37 - but I don’t feel like I’m doing things efficiently. I’m always out of turns before I know it. I have become an exceptional friend and feel like I have just as many turns as I did previously - or perhaps it’s that I’m more under the spell of the city. I have finished all the gold-bordered storylets that I had available, and I do have a few more rats in my lodgings to stalk and kill, but other than this, I’m sort of at a loss of what I should be doing in order to take full advantage of my time here. Any advice?
The only advice I can think of is to continue exploring. As you further raise your stats, you’ll be able to open more areas of the city and find new storylines that you will hopefully enjoy.
Thank you. Here’s a perhaps-silly question: people here talk about getting more lodgings. How do I do that?
Opportunity cards which unlock with higher stats. For you I think the next round is at stats at 50. If I remember correctly, there is one for each stat at 10, 30, 50, and 70. Unfortunately, they are all VERY expensive now in the big picture as compared to early on in the game. Much like unlocking new locations got much more expensive with the flood of new items a while back…
Running out of turns swiftly is perfectly normal. A given play session of Fallen London is quite short, albeit you’ll have all those turns back in about 3 hours as an exceptional friend. Generally I’d advise that you poke around at everything you can and pay attention to the lore. The game is slow paced, and so it’s best to savor it. The “endgame” of Fallen London isn’t the only thing to be had, so don’t feel bad if you feel like your progress is slow.
That all said, a few pieces of advice when it comes to making use of your time. You may want to buy a variety of pieces of gear, and not just the best stat increases you can get. Your stat increases depend on how difficult a challenge is for you, and by manipulating your gear you can try and make sure there’s always a storylet that offers a good amount of progress. Each difficulty level covers two levels, and while the description is the same, the chance of success differs. I generally go so that my stat is JUST barely low enough to make it a Modest challenge. That’s still a 70% success rate, but I get 2 CP whether I succeed or fail. Also, keep in mind that for the most part, storylets give an amount of goods equal in sell value to the level at which the storylet has a 50% chancy success rate, so if you have a choice between making one storylet a modest challenge, or another, go with the one that’s a higher stat total.
You may also want to look into social actions. The most basic one is earning second chances with other players, which can help you avoid earning menaces and earn more loot.
Finally, I’ve got a beginners help thread around here somewhere, you may want to check that out. If there’s any specific questions, feel free to ask.