Try South East of the Corsair’s Forest
Does anyone know a good place to get drowning pearls? I normally stop by the Iron & Misery Fungal Station to get "robbed" by some rattus faber corsairs who then promptly trade me 2 pearls in exchange for 5 supplies. Perhaps the large Angler Crabs?
edited by Owen Wulf on 6/23/2014
There’s one storylet I got in Khan’s Heart in which you could buy a whole bunch of different oddities (pot of violant ink, watchful curio, Soothe and Cooper long-box, etc.) for 77 echoes each, and one of the options was for drowning-pearls, but i’m guessing it’s fairly rare.
That’s interesting, thank you. I found a good place though - three large Angler Crabs spawn close to the docks of the Shepard Isles and killing them repeatedly gives numerous rewards. It’s much easier to do when you have high skills of course, I can pretty much one-shot those crabs or at least avoid damage in a fight.
edited by Owen Wulf on 6/23/2014
I didn’t know they dropped drowning-pearls, but I do sometimes kill them in hopes of getting something cool. their 100 heath was rather intimidating for a while, but once I realized I should be evading a lot more than I was, it was a lot easier to kill them.
A question regarding engines and guns, if you purchase them, are you allowed to unbolt them from your tramp-steamer and put them on a new ship (once you manage to get one)? or do you have to save up to refit the whole thing all over again?
A question regarding grinds, just how is there meant to be a most profitable route? There seems to be very little in terms of trade-able goods in London and Venderblight and only smuggling/port reports seem to get any better.
Fear not; you can keep your guns, engines and other parts when you trade up ships!
I think the only ports that have been fully fleshed out are London and Venderblight, every other port is either a sleazy merchant selling expensive fuel and supplies or a copy-paste of London (such as Polythreme). So really, trade networks are not an issue at this point. If you’re adventurous and high level, you could try hunting Lorn-Flukes around Port Cecil - each kill and successful dissection grants a Fluke Core (redeem for 500 echoes) and 3 whispered secrets. Please note though that about 200-300 of the 500 echoes is going to go into reducing terror and hull damage back in London just about most of the time (Lorn Flukes are dangerous!). Otherwise I think killing Angler Crabs off the Shepard Isles is a good way to break the monotony of trade and make a killing - though only if you are high enough of level to take little to no damage for each fight.
edited by Owen Wulf on 6/23/2014
Beach-combing on Mutton Island can be profitable, but that depends on which option turns up.
What exactly constitutes as “High Level” in sunless sea?
The quality of your officers? Your upgrades to ship and weapons (which are prohibitively expensive as I see it)? The amount of Secrets spent on upping the various stats?
If you get lucky with the skill check in Port Cecil you can bring home a couple of pieces of scintillac (sp?) but it’s a gamble, often you only get 1, and it’s a fairly long trip full of dark and beasties, so go carefully. I’ve taken to going via Venderbight, dropping of tomb colonists and honey, loading up on silk, then heading across to Cecil in an almost direct line around all the little islands and things to the east of Venderbight.
Still haven’t decided if it’s better to come back the same way or head down in a diagonal roughly straight towards London. Going that way uses less fuel, and has a couple of small port reports, so technically it’s more profitable. But there’s a lot less light, a lot more angler crabs, and I always seem to end up worse off going that way somehow.
When I stop off at Port Cecil, I usually build into the route going north, so I head up to Whither, Mt. Palmerson, Port Cecil, Demeaux Island, then past the little islands to the Shepherd Isles. That way you get a lot of port reports, don’t spend fuel passing ports you’ve already stopped at, and still stay near islands most of the time. it gets me 30ish terror each time, but this can be fairly easily bought off with some luck and an admiralty/blind bruiser request.