I recently got this opportunity card while playing the game, however I do not have the correspondence level to enhance my profession with it, the notability to gamble with its gift option, or any of the raw levels for its four other options. My question is; should I hang on to it until I get the required stats or attributes to become a correspondent, or should I gamble with the gift option now? Considering the card description states that it appears with "Very infrequent frequency" I wanted to weigh the value of my options before making any choices I might regret.
Well, the first thing you’ll want to do is get your Scholar of the Correspondence quality up to 7 by Seeking Curious in the Forgotten Quarter. Searching for more evidence of the Correspondence gives you 1 CP, so you’ll need to get and use this option 18 times.
After that there are a few different ways to boost it to 10. Are you still welcome in the Empress’ Court? You could write symphonies to increase that quality by 1 point per symphony. Going from 7 to 10 would take 27 Symphonies. Not very fast, but you’ll make some echoes while you’re doing it.
The other method is easily the fastest if you have the necessary resources. It’s expensive to the point that I’d recommend still going through the Forgotten Quarter first. It will give you 1 point per action at a cost of 1 Extraordinary Implication, 1 Aeolian Scream, and an amount of Correspondence Plaques equal to your Scholar of the Correspondence quality. You can do this if you are welcome at the University, and it’s in the Shadowy Dealings storylet you can find there.
Lastly, if you’ve spent Fate on the expansion to Theological Husbandry you can easily pick up a Corresponding Ocelot. That’ll give you a free point every now and then.
Two other options, but far slower than the symphonies: drawing cards in the Bazaar side-streets to get the Rare (legendarily so) Skin of the Bazaar card, which gives a point up to ten. Likewise, surprise packages have a low chance of having correspondence plaques, which again give a point up to ten.
Another option is to pursue Theological Husbandry until you have a bifurcated owl, which also has a Scholar option on its card. But that needs a lot of fate and a lot of time.
The Bifurcated Owl requires that you also have Flute Street. (And requires going to zee, which would empty your hand)
Anyway I’d use it for a surprise package roll now, unless you plan on switch profession tracks and want to use it to immediately jump to the second tier.
Also "Very Infrequent" just means half as common as standard, it’ll show up again. edited by WormApotheote on 2/21/2015
Lets see, Court is out.
Right now I’m grinding the rare on the research at the school, that’ll get me to 7.
To go from 7 to 10, the slow grind of the forbiden arts then?
After that, creatures I’d have made eventually anyway, but double fate lock, one to breed, the second flute street itself, so we shall not discuss them?
My goal for next year’s tattoo is 10 points to get the corespondance tat. I think I’ve got time enough, I hope I do… but I must keep in favor at the school, eh?
If you lose favor with the University you can earn your way back in via the storylet you unlock for finishing the University content. You’ll definitely have enough time to get up to 10 by next year.
What exactly do you have to do at university in order to raise your Correspondence level? (Also what exactly are you supposed to do at the univserity period? I have not figured out what I am doing there yet)
The University’s story arc is establishing your Department of the Correspondence. To raise your Scholar of the Correspondence quality using the expensive method I mentioned above you want to go into the Shadowy dealings at the University storylet.
Is there any other reliable way to raise the correspondence level? I no longer have access to the empress court, and It seems my Watchful is not yet high enough to work with my corresponding level of understanding the correspondence. (Say that that five times fast) edited by Koenig on 2/23/2015
If it’s not yet at 3, you should go beneath the neath at Mrs Plenty’s Carnival. Then you can look for evidence in the ruins up to 7. After 7 it gets harder. You have one option if you’re still in the early days at the University, and there are some one-off-options. Other options are opening boxes of the unexpected; a rare opp card in the Bazaar Sidestreets; the opp card of the Corresponding Ocelot, and the opp card of the owl. (In addition to burning resources at the University, of course!) edited by Aximillio on 2/23/2015
The boxes come from Surprise Packages, which you can either get from other players or the Unsigned Message card (if you pass the check). You aren’t guaranteed to get the result you want, though.
Most of the cards are Standard frequency (requiring only that you have the pets/lodgings), but the opportunity card in the Bazaar Sidestreets is Rare.
Not for the Bazaar sidestreets one. You can see the wiki article on it here. For the Corresponding Ocelot and the Bifurcated owl, you need those pets =)
I like getting Proscribed Material from the Foreign Office when I want it. The only thing you’re losing from moving on in the University is access to a repeatable storylet source of Greyfields 1868 First Sporing.
