Please help me to understand the mechanics of the Bone Market and Bone Market exhaustion.
Am I correct that there are a number of buyers who will NOT buy a skeleton if my BM exhaustion is 4 or more? If correct, this means that my BM exhaustion must be 0 to 3 to sell to these buyers.
Am I correct that there are other buyers who pay no attention to BM exhaustion? In other words, these other buyers will buy a skeleton regardless of my BM exhaustion.
Am I correct that there are two different actions that will add points to my BM exhaustion? The first of these actions is SELLING a skeleton worth more than certain values of secondary rewards. More specifically, I will accrue 1 BM exhaustion for every 50 echoes of value in secondary rewards. The second of these actions is "installing" a Custom Engraved skull on a skeleton. This second action has nothing to do with selling the skeleton. Rather, the BM exhaustion accrues when I install the CE skull. It is this second part that confuses me.
Assuming that my understanding of all of the above is correct, that I have a ton of CE skulls (I do), and that I am a Licentiate so have an inexhaustible supply of headless bodies (I am/do), is the following a good process to follow weekly?
Week one
Create a complex skeleton worth lots of primary reward and lots (for me) of secondary reward with a CE skull, taking advantage of the weekly bonuses where possible and sell this immediately. I am not very skilled at skeleton creation and do not have very many high value bones so when I say "lots" of primary and secondary rewards, this typically this only yields me the 2 pts of exhaustion from the installation of the CE skull and maybe 4-6 pts of antiquity, amalgamy, and menace. BM exhaustion = 2
Create a simple skeleton from a headless human body and a CE skull but do NOT sell it. BM exhaustion = 4
Week two - after BM exhaustion is reset
3) Sell the simple skeleton created in step 2. BM exhaustion = 0 (selling the skeleton with a CE skull does not increase BM exhaustion)
Create a complex skeleton worth lots of primary reward and lots of secondary reward with a CE skull, taking advantage of the weekly bonuses where possible and sell this immediately. I am not very skilled at skeleton creation and do not have very many high value bones so when I say "lots" of primary and secondary rewards, this typically this only yields me the 2 pts of exhaustion from the installation of the CE skull and maybe 4-6 pts of antiquity, amalgamy, and menace. BM exhaustion = 2
Create a simple skeleton from a headless human body and a CE skull but do NOT sell it. BM exhaustion = 4
Subsequent Weeks - after BM exhaustion is reset
6) Repeat week two actions
Assuming the above process is a good one, how would this change if my complex skeletons gained enough secondary rewards to trigger BM exhaustion in addition to the installation of the CE skull?
Thanks for any advice you can offer. I have just advanced my railway only to the third station (Magistracy of Evenlode) so perhaps I will soon be able to obtain better bones. I have change the business model of the butcher so I can duplicate bones but do not yet have anything from which to duplicate any real good bones.
Your understanding of the underlying mechanics is correct on all points. Your strategy is viable and effective. I can’t tell for sure whether it’s optimal or not, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The one main thing I would suggest is to take advantage of Bone Market Fluctuations when possible - these add to the secondary rewards you receive without adding more Exhaustion.
I personally would be more flexible. When I’ve got the bones to make a cool fancy skeleton, especially one that lines up with that week’s fads, I’d get my exhaustion from that; on the other hand, when it’s inconvenient to get the bones for a good skeleton, then I’d use the skulls. Before you’ve unlocked everything, it’s sometimes pretty inconvenient to get the parts to make a skeleton that works with that week’s fads, so it’s nice to have the skulls as a backup way of “using up” the bone market exhaustion budget.
You can’t do it right away because it takes scientific research to unlock the different skeleton types, but when it becomes possible I would always try to put your CE skulls on skeletons that match the current bone market fads. 10% of a CE skull is significant. If you had fewer of them, I would say to save them for insects and fish because those get a bigger bonus
PJ, Thanks. I have completed all the research so I can make all skeleton types. I have ~110 CE skulls. One of my mentors in this game worked with me and my alts to explain how to get enough CE skulls during the recent Rose Fest. to be able to use 2/week until the next Rose fest.
My problem is lack of bones. I have only one remaining thorned ribcage, no other non-human ribcages, and am short in most other bones except for jet black stingers.
Not everyone has a terror bird, though. It’s been nearly a year since you could get one, and nearly two years since you could get one without spending a precious ha’penny.
I have no terror bird. I only started playing in June, 2021. I plan to make another post soon to learn more about the upcoming Whitsun. The wiki says I can get a “young terror bird” and an “iron toothed terror bird”. Are these always available in Whitsun or just last year’s and will either of these allow me to more easily gain thorned ribcages?
The first Whitsun there were two types of eggs. In the second Whitsun, there was a new type, and one of the old types cost an Amber Ha’penny. You only get three ha’pennies without spending fate.
The terror birds came from the type of egg that cost a penny last year.
It’s not confirmed, but I expect that this year there will be four types of eggs, and the two originals will both cost a ha’penny. Some people are hopeful that the ones that weren’t free last year will rotate back in this year, though.
(The Iron Tooth variety is the one that you can use to find Thorned Ribcages in Parabola)
The Bone Market is a tad too complex for me (not advocating for nerfs or rework fyi), I just use it as a source to get Beseemer Steel Ingots for the railway construction.
Using this guide:
To add to the guide: you can also get a Human Ribcage by trading several Constables favours at the Shuttered Palace. So you need not necessarily buy one from the Bone Market.
Jurassic Thigh Bones can also be obtained with moderate ease at Parabola’s Waswood
Perhaps the Wiki is out of date or perhaps I am confused by the descriptions "young terror bird", "full grown terror bird", "terror birds", and "iron toothed terror bird".
The wiki currently says, "There are three kinds of eggs available… with scarlet eggs costing an amber ha’penny apiece."
The tables in the wiki currently list the four types of terror birds as coming from:
young terror bird = aged egg, invigorated, non-augmented
full grown terror bird = aged egg, invigorated, once-augmented
iron toothed terror bird = aged egg, invigorated, twice-augmented
double-headed terror bird = aged egg, invigorated, thrice-augmented
Based on the wiki and assuming the wiki represents last year’s (2021) Whitsun, all four types of available terror birds came from aged eggs which did NOT cost an amber ha’penny in 2021.
Is the wiki wrong? Does it not represent last year’s (2021) Whitsun? Is the above quote from PJ incorrect? Am I misunderstanding something (most likely explanation): edited by Vinish on 3/25/2022
No, I misremembered. I recalled that the auroch came from the aged egg, and just mentally put the lyre bird and the terror bird together in the other category. I forgot just how many animals there were.
I think PJ did make a mistake, but not one that matters. It was scarlet and not aged which were ha’penny-locked last year. We expect both aged and scarlet eggs to be ha’penny-locked this year, and a new egg to be introduced.
Players who started playing when you did or more recently will have diminished access to terror-birds. Those terror-birds give substantially easier access to certain bone types, to the point that many of us essentially consider them "core" content. You’ll have to spend a ha’penny each on access to Thorned Ribcages and Terror-Bird Wings, which reduces access to The Device and to Sartorial Augmentations.
I am working on the tracks to Balmoral this week. I just laid the first set of tracks through Parabola. Now I see that I am out of Hillmovers so it is time to go chase some more weird birds :)
You can buy them during the Feast of the Exceptional Rose. They cost like 20 echoes worth of Inklings of Identity. One tribute run is enough for 55 of them.