I am about to acquire the use of a zee-going vessel through rather… insalubrious means, and find myself wanting of a crew of villainous coves. The gents in question are dashedly expensive, however. I’ve searched these fine messageboards for some little time now, and am having trouble getting any useful advice on the most effective ways of grinding for the more Appalling of Secrets. Would any fine, upstanding fellow citizens have some advice to impart?
Also, is there a better way to obtain the required Journals of Infamy? I’m currently nabbing them through some rather high profile heists… preens edited by Amoury De Domremy on 1/9/2014
Yes, those pesky assassins are how I obtained the services of my first gent. For the amount of cycles required to get a payoff, however, it just seems better to buy them outright from the Sidestreets with secrets. I may have to just grind lesser secrets & upgrade to the Appalling variety… edited by Amoury De Domremy on 1/9/2014
You get a pair as pay out for the enforcer profession. If you are in need of a large supply, getting a few from your next paycheck might be worthwhile.
[li]
I’ve heard that a good word from the Cheery Man with the Criminals of London can give you a place in their ranks. The Revolutionaries that are plotting against the Masters of the Bazaar are also looking for reliable people that can enforce their will.
I’ve not seen hide nor hair of the Cheery Man storylet since long before attaining my POSI status, & even then I think I was favoring the Last Constable. Its entry under my Story qualities tab says Finished For The Moment - does anybody know when/what to do to make it pick up again?
Alas, that story is, indeed, finished for the moment, and we don’t know when it will pick up again. If you sided with the Cheery Man at the end, you’ll occasionally draw a card with a range of different rewards (though none of them Use of Villains, I think) - I’ve heard there’s an equivalent card for the Constable, but it doesn’t show up once the story’s over (because she leaves London for a while, I suppose) and I know very little about its contents.
Being an enforcer will get you Use of Villains each week in your professional payment, though, and to become one you need to either have sided with the Cheery Man or plotted against the Masters, depending on whether you’re entering the profession through the criminal or revolutionary card.
le sigh I did not side with him, & I’ve been working at actively currying favor with the Masters (my chief residence is a premise at the Bazaar, after all), so those revolutionary fellows don’t please me either. I shall have to devote some hard thought as to which payoff is currently most important to me, I guess…
Oh, but would it be out of the question to infiltrate the Revolutionaries in order to gather information about their activities? I think you might be able to get away without actually doing anything. I don’t even think you have to maintain relations with them once you’ve got your Burly Henchman. You would need to get Connected: Revolutionaries 25 to get ‘hired’ though. But talk is cheap, right? ;)
EDIT: You’d also need to be able to bring your Shadowy to 45-75 in order to draw the right card. That could be a problem I suppose, depending on how high it is already. edited by Gillsing on 1/10/2014
Getting Profession payments not only requires you to wait until you would actually get paid (up to a week), but if you’re shooting for a new profession and don’t have the right Connected then getting enough might take almost as much effort as just getting the items needed for making the PoSI items normally. Depending on the Connected required, at least; some are much harder to raise than others.
Anyway, topic of Appalling Secrets, converting Cryptic Clues is probably the best way. Those aren’t particularly difficult to mass.
[li] edited by Roland Jones on 1/10/2014
Being POSI, my Shadowy is already in the low 100s (120s with equipment buffs), so hopefully that doesn’t overshoot the mark. Even after building up my Connected: Revolutionaries from, essentially, 0 - it would still take a minimum 4-5 weeks real time for the Enforcer job to pay off the number of Villains I’m still needing. That’s probably well & truly enough time for me to grind the number of Secrets to just buy them. Whichever way I go about it, I clearly can’t avoid a big time-sink it seems.
So yes! Back to the topic of Secrets - effective grinding grounds for Cryptic Clues? Currently I’ve been sweeping the 2nd Coil of the Labyrinth, but is there anywhere else more lucrative?
That’s probably the best bet. University can make 50+ an action if you’re not done with the plot there, or 40 plus Connected if you are, assuming you haven’t been kicked out, and apparently Hunter’s Keep and Mahogany Hall are good too, but the former requires going to zee and the latter I don’t have experience with, so the Labyrinth might be your best option.
[quote=Roland Jones]… if you’re shooting for a new profession and don’t have the right Connected then getting enough might take almost as much effort as just getting the items needed for making the PoSI items normally. Depending on the Connected required, at least; some are much harder to raise than others.[/quote]Yes, I wouldn’t want to build Connected: Criminals to 25 only to spend it on a profession. So with that faction being so difficult to raise, it’s probably a good idea to never bother siding with the Cheery Man. But Connected: Revolutionaries 25 is ‘only’ 325 CP, and that you can get from drawing Amber in the well 10-11 times and siding with the Revolutionaries every time. Might need another 11 Actions for maintaining Connected: Rubbery Men, but that’s it. 22 actions for however many Use of Villains you’re willing to wait for while grinding other PoSI items is a really good deal. If you have time to wait. (And until this ‘lodgings for lacre and notability’ thing, I did have time to wait…)
You could also spend 22 Actions directly in the Forgotten Quarter, holding a public lecture on the Correspondence (if you’re a Scholar of the Correspondence). That’ll get you 330 CP of Connected: Revolutionaries, Society and Bohemian, at the cost of Suspicion + 22 CP, which is level 6 with 1 CP.
EDIT: If you can get your Shadowy to 118 or lower you can draw a card called A new piece in the Game and if you already have Seeking and Investigation you can easily get +4 to each from that card (remove Talkative Rattus Faber once you’re in the card storylet to boost chance of success to 100%). That’s a slow but ‘fuel efficient’ way to qualify for Dropping the eaves in the Flit. Other than that I suppose that Investigating at the second stage of the University and then Raid a Message-drop in the Flit would be the best way to get Cryptic Clues. edited by Gillsing on 1/10/2014
[quote=Gillsing][quote=Roland Jones]… if you’re shooting for a new profession and don’t have the right Connected then getting enough might take almost as much effort as just getting the items needed for making the PoSI items normally. Depending on the Connected required, at least; some are much harder to raise than others.[/quote]Yes, I wouldn’t want to build Connected: Criminals to 25 only to spend it on a profession. So with that faction being so difficult to raise, it’s probably a good idea to never bother siding with the Cheery Man. But Connected: Revolutionaries 25 is ‘only’ 325 CP, and that you can get from drawing Amber in the well 10-11 times and siding with the Revolutionaries every time. Might need another 11 Actions for maintaining Connected: Rubbery Men, but that’s it. 22 actions for however many Use of Villains you’re willing to wait for while grinding other PoSI items is a really good deal. If you have time to wait. (And until this ‘lodgings for lacre and notability’ thing, I did have time to wait…)
You could also spend 22 Actions directly in the Forgotten Quarter, holding a public lecture on the Correspondence (if you’re a Scholar of the Correspondence). That’ll get you 330 CP of Connected: Revolutionaries, Society and Bohemian, at the cost of Suspicion + 22 CP, which is level 6 with 1 CP.[/quote]
The problem here is that it relies on card draw, which is not reliable. I haven’t seen that card once all day, for example, despite meeting the prerequisites. Same thing for the profession change, really; that needs a specific card too. It’s not just the matter of actions, it’s one of time.
On the topic of time, Enforcers get two Uses of Villains a week. You need eight to put together the gang. That’s a month to do something you could get done in a matter of days, at most, if you focus on it. Less effort, sure, but, at least in my opinion, not worth it. I mean,[li] edited by Roland Jones on 1/10/2014
[li]
Before we decided it might be best to support the Masters (and before we came to admire Fires and Pages), we decided to join forces with the Revolutionaries briefly and gained the quality "Plotting Against The Masters." To explain just how little this quality affects the game: we are also the Fist of the Bazaar.
The Masters may be ahead of the Game in terms of information control, with their Special Constables and their Ministry of Public Decency, but they haven’t yet reached the point of vetting every employee with probing questions like “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Calendar Council?”
You are now Fist of the Bazaar - An Appendage of Some Importance!
Next tier you will have to choose between:
Fist of the Bazaar - A Big Thumbs-up of the Bazaar
Fist of the Bazaar - Now an Open Palm, Actually
Fist of the Bazaar - The Middle Finger of the Bazaar