Preparing for Archaology Expeditions; Efficiency

in he forgotten quarter, of course. There are quite a few different ways to gain supplies

for example theres the option to buy them with whispered secrets, which costs 200 secrets and yields 2 supplies, so that’s 1 echo each. However it has a very common alternative result that only gives 1 supply, and a map scrap (worth 0.10 echoes) which makes it 1.9 echoes each

i’m not sure how similar the other options are. I know the one that direcrtly takes money is highly inefficient in boh actions and echoes, bu maybe the opporunity cost of not having to hunt down other items makes the actions more valueable.

The one that hires people from the docks gives 3 supplies for only 0.5 echoes worth of stuff, but it does also lower your connection with them, so the costs of raising that back up have to be factored in too, and that makes it more complex.

has anyone done any detailed research or math on this? i’d love to know which is the most efficient in the long run, from a viewpoint of echoes spent, and from a viewpoint of actions used (assuming they’re not the same)

Others have done the math, and will probably fill you in, but the short answer is to get a tankard from the bazaar and use that to get Connected:DOcks (up to 20) and spend that plus rostygold to get supplies. Make sure Connected:Docks doesn’t drop below 10.

I spent a lot of time on this, and the result was that the best option is tankard for docks, educate lyme for glim (needed for tankard), you should have enough rostygold from everything else you do, hire porters.
But whispered secrets are not far behind, as long as you only use ones you got from 150-ppa cards (don’t bother farming them on purpose). And by “not far behind” I mean “almost equivalent” (maybe even better, if you really already have them, and are considering the opportunity costs of 1) selling the whispered secrets directly to bazaar, getting supplies through dockers vs. 2) getting supplies for whispered secrets, use high-ppa grinds (AotB) in the actions you saved by this).

Buying supplies directly with pennies would be best if you had a really, really good way to get money (I don’t remember if it had to be 250ppa, 300 ppa, 500 ppa, or something even more ridiculous - but definitely not anything under 210 ppa). But then, why would you be spending that money on sub-200-ppa actions, when you could instead spend those actions on that ridiculously good grind instead?

What about the method involving pages of research which is unlocked with a research expedition?

You are better off gathering 500 of them and exchange it for good items.