First question: If you drink the cider do you gain immortality or is it just used when you die?
Second question: How long did it take you to acquire the funds for it?
Third question: Would you say that it has become easier to acquire it today rather than when the game first came out?
Fourth question: Does it have infinite uses?
Fifth question: Does it affect ‘‘Seeking the name.’’ in any way?
I’m just interested in the details, since it’s such a hard item to acquire. Maybe one day I’ll even be able to at least get half of what it costs, maybe not, but at least dreams are free.
Drinking it eliminates all your wounds, and gives you an option in death to escape in a single action. It does not prevent death.
It’s definitely easier now than in the game’s early years. There are a lot more profitable cards, professions, the Nadir…these add up over a long period of time, and you’re definitely in it for the long haul regardless.
It makes Seeking substantially easier at earlier stages since it gives a lot of Wounds (and Nightmares, which can be converted to Wounds) and requires dying eight times minimum.
Also, dreams are free indeed! Many of the Cider-owners are happy to give out sips to others, so you too can have Cider-dreams free of charge.
I don’t have my cider yet but if you run the numbers you’re looking at a 2-3 year grind to get cider. And that’s assuming you’re behaving optimally or close to optimally the whole time.
That said, I think most people who get cider through grinding end up selling off a lot of items that they stock piled before they officially started the grind so how long the actual grind takes you depends on how much stuff you had when you started.
[quote=An Individual]I don’t have my cider yet but if you run the numbers you’re looking at a 2-3 year grind to get cider. And that’s assuming you’re behaving optimally or close to optimally the whole time.
That said, I think most people who get cider through grinding end up selling off a lot of items that they stock piled before they officially started the grind so how long the actual grind takes you depends on how much stuff you had when you started.[/quote]
I am now curious. What does you mean by "optimal"? I am playing the game quite intensely for two and half months now, and I have amassed around 3400 Echoes in equipment and stuff. I am not exactly a hoarder, but I choose what I spend and how I spend it. Although, I will admit it, I haven’t exactly been careful with EPA and all that stuff…
“Optimally,” I think, just refers to spending all of your actions in a way that results in the most possible echoes. Certain grinds are more profitable than others, and you would be playing most optimally if you spent as many of your actions during the grind on those options as possible.
Whether those actions are things like Affair of the Box or the Soul Trade, which have a very high echo per action yield, depends on what you have available to you and how far in to the game you are.
Optimally also involves reducing certain connections and qualities to remove unnecessary opportunity cards from your deck, getting stats to max to guarantee successes and take advantage of scaling rewards, living in a Remote Address, ignoring certain game mechanics, and many more.
And going into Fate-locked areas, it means getting various best-in-slot equipment, playing certain storylines to unlock more profitable options, and from an in-game optimization standpoint* grinding something like Gallery of Serpents.
*Strictly speaking, from an in-game optimization standpoint the ideal is to get to the entrance of the Nadir then grind at 312.5 EPA (plus rare items) at 50 Fate a go.
I would broadly define "optimally" as having an average daily income of around 150 echoes. Most optimal grinds will get you at least 1.5 echoes per action and 100 actions per day is high but not impossible without totally consuming your life (especially with Exceptional Friendship). Mix in high value Opportunity Cards, Profession Rewards, Trade Secrets, and other random/periodic repeating echo gains and 150 echoes per day is a reasonable target for high level grinding.
At 150 echoes per day your looking at around 2.9 years of grinding to go from 0 echoes to Cider. You can bring that number up to 200 echoes per day without killing yourself which would shorten the grind to 2.2 years. It’s theoretically possible to bring that number up to around 230 echoes per day which would bring the grind down to 1.9 years but I’d be surprised if you could sustain that over a long period. You can’t get much higher than that without either some serious fate expenditure or extensive Fidgeting Writer grinding with the divine blessing of the RNG.
Thank you all for answers! I am going to keep this in mind! And, yeah, I think I easily get to 100 actions a day nowadays. Might as well try and get the most out of them
I believe that serious abuse of Port Carnelian can get your daily income up to as much as 300 Echoes per day, but it requires you to not only forgo mechanics such as Notability but also any seasonal or EF content, because zailing back and forth to do it easily offsets the increased EPA.
Just out of curiosity, how would one do this? Although i think I would have to zail back for Seasonal or EF. Making Waves can wait though. it’s not THAT important.
Just out of curiosity, how would one do this? Although i think I would have to zail back for Seasonal or EF. Making Waves can wait though. it’s not THAT important.[/quote]
I’m not really sure about 300 echo, but 250-260 is fairly easily attainable if you have maxed persuasive & watchful, good relevant gear and exceptional friendship. With two candles you have ~130 action per day and Port Carnelian EPA is around 1.95-2 including sailing from and back to London once in two weeks.
And you get to keep your notability and receive professional rewards if you get your timing right. I don’t think it’s worth to stay there longer because weekly reward + trade secret are worth quiet a lot by themselves, though I didn’t do any calculations, mind you.
I can talk more about Port mechanics if need be )