Heya. I’m a newcomer to this. I’ve been roughly enjoying the game and I’ve even thrown in some real money here and there to help support the project. However, I’m certainly new as I have found it incredibly rare to be able to get any actual ingame money to purchase goods on the bazaar. I’ve been doing this for about 2 weeks and managed to scrounge up 20 echos. However, I got one of the cards that says that a friend of mine will get a random award. I got a buddy into it a few days ago and figured, why not? Bam, I just lost 10 echos. A week’s worth of playtime just gone because I pressed a button.
So with that being said, clearly I must be doing something wrong to be this strapped for cash if I can lose 10 echoes from pressing a single button. What can I do to help recover some echoes? It seems like everything in this game needs the items that I could "vendor" for cash. I’m kind of doing myself a disservice it seems if I sell anything as I’ll then not be able to activate certain game options. edited by RpTheHotrod on 10/7/2014
Ah, you shouldn’t need to worry about losing more echoes randomly. That option had a 1,000 penny requirement to play, so if you keep an eye out for that you won’t ever get caught by surprise (though it is pretty rare that the game requires echoes outside of the Bazaar).
As for making echoes your best bet is to find the highest paying option available to you and repeat it. Money is a very rare reward since the resources tend to be more useful, and the game expects you to sell those resources to get items from the Bazaar. Just don’t sell anything that you don’t know how to get more of.
You should generally sell items for cash, that’s how you get echoes, very few things pay in cash directly.
To figure out what to sell, basically pick some number that seems like plenty of the item (100 or 500 for the 1 pence items is usually enough until you need to start grinding for PoSI items) and sell anything over that. Also relics of the fourth city come to mind as having basically no use whatsoever.
Also don’t buy resources if you don’t have to. Spend money on gear, 'cause higher stats will lead to higher pay and pay for itself. edited by WormApotheote on 10/7/2014
Also, if you really don’t know what to sell, Rostygold, Brass silver and Moon-Pearl are usually fine. Keep a few hundred and sell the rest. Later you’ll need many of them, but that would be much, much later, and by then you can farm them much more efficiently.
[quote=WormApotheote]To figure out what to sell, basically pick some number that seems like plenty of the item (100 or 500 for the 1 pence items is usually enough until you need to start grinding for PoSI items) and sell anything over that.[/quote]The problem with that approach is that sometimes there’s a use for an item which one might wish to repeat, and then a few hundred will probably not suffice, and one might end up regretting selling an earlier surplus of that item. Say, if one wants to use Whispered Secrets to buy Expedition Supplies, or rebuild Connected to: Urchins with a Rookery Password, which requires Rats on a String.
For the very early levels I would recommend the somewhat ‘level-neutral’ ways to make money, such as taking advantage of the faction conflict cards, which pay a lot more than the early regular cards and storylets. Some of those cards don’t even have challenges, and some of the challenges aren’t even that hard. (But others are tougher.) Making friends with the Rubbery Men also gives a way to trade Warm Amber for 100 Deep Amber, which is a lot in the early levels. And the Deep Amber could then be used to gamble on A sporting sort.
In general though, I’d recommend ignoring money for the most part and work on getting stats up to a level where it’s easier to get better rewards. And be on the lookout for ways to get either 90% success rate or 10% success rate. The former gives decent CPs with decent rewards, while the latter gives maximum CPs with almost no rewards. The majority of the cards and storylets will be at 65-75% success rate and that is something I’d avoid after the first success. (Apparently they were once balanced for the narrow difficulty, but with the broad difficulty they’re just stuck at a more or less fixed chance of success unless one is sneaky and changes equipment inside the storylet in order to circumvent the window of stat requirements.)
[quote=RpTheHotrod]Heya. I’m a newcomer to this. I’ve been roughly enjoying the game and I’ve even thrown in some real money here and there to help support the project. However, I’m certainly new as I have found it incredibly rare to be able to get any actual ingame money to purchase goods on the bazaar. I’ve been doing this for about 2 weeks and managed to scrounge up 20 echos. However, I got one of the cards that says that a friend of mine will get a random award. I got a buddy into it a few days ago and figured, why not? Bam, I just lost 10 echos. A week’s worth of playtime just gone because I pressed a button.
So with that being said, clearly I must be doing something wrong to be this strapped for cash if I can lose 10 echoes from pressing a single button. What can I do to help recover some echoes? It seems like everything in this game needs the items that I could "vendor" for cash. I’m kind of doing myself a disservice it seems if I sell anything as I’ll then not be able to activate certain game options. edited by RpTheHotrod on 10/7/2014[/quote]
Things are hard at the early levels. Why don’t you post your in-game character’s name and I’ll send over a few boxes to help you out? I can certainly spare the echoes.
[quote=Owen Wulf][quote=RpTheHotrod]Heya. I’m a newcomer to this. I’ve been roughly enjoying the game and I’ve even thrown in some real money here and there to help support the project. However, I’m certainly new as I have found it incredibly rare to be able to get any actual ingame money to purchase goods on the bazaar. I’ve been doing this for about 2 weeks and managed to scrounge up 20 echos. However, I got one of the cards that says that a friend of mine will get a random award. I got a buddy into it a few days ago and figured, why not? Bam, I just lost 10 echos. A week’s worth of playtime just gone because I pressed a button.
So with that being said, clearly I must be doing something wrong to be this strapped for cash if I can lose 10 echoes from pressing a single button. What can I do to help recover some echoes? It seems like everything in this game needs the items that I could "vendor" for cash. I’m kind of doing myself a disservice it seems if I sell anything as I’ll then not be able to activate certain game options. edited by RpTheHotrod on 10/7/2014[/quote]
Things are hard at the early levels. Why don’t you post your in-game character’s name and I’ll send over a few boxes to help you out? I can certainly spare the echoes.
edited by Owen Wulf on 10/7/2014[/quote]
That’d be quite kind. :) The character name is RpTheHotrod. Surprise surprise, eh? XD
Out of curiosity, what is best to work towards on the bazaar, items that increase your “primary” concentrated skill, or items that bump up your weak spots?
Eventually you will want to try and acquire as many stat-boosting items as you can. A surprisingly useful pet is the Talkative Rattus Faber which allows you to continue playing lower level opportunities that will not risk menace. However, might I suggest you get a patron? My characters below specialize in Danger (Wulf), Persuasive (Hoffman) and Shadowy (Uller) should you desire stat boosts in either.
My personal experience is: buy almost all the cheap stuff (less than 5 echoes - that actually do something, of course, you don’t need to buy the Scuffed Boots), then aim at your primary when you feel you can. Because you get the most reward when you are using your highest attribute.
Still, you will soon realize that the bazaar is your least problem. Most stuff that you can buy using money are relatively easy to come by, compared to certain other things…
[quote=Owen Wulf]Eventually you will want to try and acquire as many stat-boosting items as you can. A surprisingly useful pet is the Talkative Rattus Faber which allows you to continue playing lower level opportunities that will not risk menace. However, might I suggest you get a patron? My characters below specialize in Danger (Wulf), Persuasive (Hoffman) and Shadowy (Uller) should you desire stat boosts in either.
edited by Owen Wulf on 10/7/2014[/quote]
I have tried all 4 types and it says there are no qualifying players. I’m looking for a Watchful, at the moment.
[quote=Owen Wulf]The players in question have to be in your Friends List first. Unfortunately I will not be able to help you when it comes to raising Watchful.
edited by Owen Wulf on 10/7/2014[/quote]
Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the info. :)
Are rat-like corpses and such safe to sell? edited by RpTheHotrod on 10/7/2014
in early game, losing some echos or resources because you gave them to someone isn’t that big of a deal, since you’ll eventually have far better ways to earn resources. i found that it’s best to hoard rats until you open up tiger’s labyrinth, though there is a way to go in there temporarily to grind rats THEN come back out to buy access to it. after that, it’s only weddings that may require a large amount of rats.
as for rosty gold, i agree it’s easier to grin later on, you usually won’t need more than a few hundred of them at a time. likewise for pearls and maybe jade. they can pay for certain storylets, but you usually don’t need a large number of them. a few of the 2nd and 3rd tier jobs also pay a large amount of rostygold each week. edited by rebelanarch-82 on 10/7/2014 edited by rebelanarch-82 on 10/7/2014
Yeah the Labyrinth of Tigers takes 5000 rats to open, but completing the first coil pays 7000, so you can use the Ways of the Labyrinth of Tigers card to get that far to fund your season pass.
Thanks for all the info. There’s a lot of good info, actually…and a fantastic community. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is a game for me. Today, I spent some fate to unlock what was claimed on the card to be permanent access to the university…I go to the university, and considering it’s just another location, I test the waters on what options I have there and suddenly, I lose the quality of having access to the university. So, in reality, it wasn’t permanent access, despite the claim it was permanent…and that was after forking over some real life cash. I’ve never been a fan of bait-and-switch techniques, and especially so when real money is involved. edited by RpTheHotrod on 10/14/2014