I hit Nemesis 25 and I can’t progress further until I have Watchful at 110. Does that mean I need to be POSI to continue?
Not unless there’s a farther requirement. POSI starts at all stats over 100.
You can have a stat at 100+ without being POSI if you wish.
Alright thanks. My only other question is if there is a quick way to raise stats to 100 or if there’s a thread here for that? I tried searching before and didn’t see anything about it.
The Watchful progress tracker gives hefty boosts as you finish each big stage. Do you know that you can convert 5 Sudden Insights into an instant Watchful boost? Look under “Something Intellectual” at your Lodgings.
More detailed than that would require finding out more about just where your character is in various storylines at the moment.
I know you could do that with other second chances but I never thought to do that with Sudden Insights. Is there any specific storylines you’d need to know?
No, the “Invite a friend to join you in something terribly intellectual” near the bottom of your Lodgings storylet list (white chess pawn icon) is where you need to go. Inside there, pick “Every Stone” (green glowing box icon) to use Sudden Insights. You can challenge people to chess on the other option inside “Invite a friend to join you in something terribly intellectual” to get some small Watchful boost and Sudden Insights as well, by the way.
OH. Ok thanks.
I would also caution against rushing your stat to higher levels for your Ambition. It will likely be years until it concludes, and you’re better off enjoying the slow road to the top.
Perhaps instead of spamming Chess social actions (which is, quite frankly, boring), you could instead use the action in your Lodgings to find more stories, and proceed with more Watchful stuff. Stories related to your ‘A Name in Seven Secret Alphabets’ Quality, especially.
If you’re wanting to raise your Watchful to 110, then you’d most likely be looking at the Forgotten Quarter or The University.
Note: While you’re a Guest Lecturer at the University (with ‘Featuring in the Tales of the University’ at 5), there’s a carousel of actions you can do which involve the ‘Term Passing’ quality. If you choose to proceed the story by working to create your own department within the university, that particular carousel is locked off permanently. So be sure to take advantage of being a Guest Lecturer and thoroughly explore the options there, before you decide to continue the story to ‘Featuring in the Tales of the University’ 6.
edited by Kittenpox on 5/31/2016
Ambitions, as other people said, are best done slowly, whenever you have the chance to advance. if you lack an item grinding it to progress is a good plan, but if your lack is of stats, you should wait until they grow naturally.
For my ambition at least, there was a section with a recommended stat minimum which was immensely hard to do at that given level. I tried it and failed, at some significant financial cost. Not to say that’s the case here (as perhaps it’s a straight unlock), as I don’t know the details myself.
It was a 150 Watchful/Shadowy area using the 62.5 echo Rookery Password as an entrance cost. As the area was filled with skill checks, I failed miserably the first time through and waited until my skills were closer to 175 before equipment. And that’s after the three trips over the zee, let me point out.
edited by Parelle on 6/1/2016
If you have any professional perks or trade secrets (It’s on e of the two, I don’t remember which) lying around, you can also spend them for a hefty boost to watchful.
If you don’t mind giving up 125 echoes for 150 CP watchful, sure, it’s an option. In short, it’s a terrible deal and even if you’re rushing, there are better options. a better source is the watchful boosters on hell and constables. for a pittance in connection points, you get 10 cp watchful. (ignore the one on the great game. it takes far more CP than is fair.)
Another- abiet not amazing- source is on "bringing the revolution.", a mostly mediocre card. the "follow your conscience" option gives 5 cp watchful and one CP "someone is coming"
I’ll go against the grain of this thread and encourage you to prioritize the stat boost if the Ambition story is the main reason you play. That was true of me and I quit the game for months at a time because stat boosting was harder at the time and the smaller stories weren’t enough to keep me hooked.
I’ll go against the grain of some police impostor and discourage you to prioritize the stat boost if the Ambition story is the main reason you play, since they will inevitably be updated far after you capped your stats. I don’t think Nemesis’s getting finished within the year for sure - and probably not the next.
All ambitions require PoSI to progress, and even more money to boot. Money is good.
Later on, when you become a PoSI and take on the Jack-of-Smiles case, I recommend you refuse to progress and instead stick to the 5-actions option on all faction cards - they all give out 20CP of stats, which on average would be 4/CP per action for no reward. It seems like a wee bit bad deal, but it is certainly satisfying to feel like you are making some progress with just a click.
Just don’t use the Tomb-Colony Jack option - still 20CP of stats, but you lose a favour for no good reason.
Remember that game forums attract the more dedicated players, so common wisdom doesn’t always match the average player’s situation. I have been playing for years and I have only capped one stat — and I bet even that is several standard deviations above the average account. It’s much more likely that a given player will leave the game before finishing the current Ambition plot than that they’ll stick around for the next three years. Given that, I encourage people to go for the goal that makes them want to keep playing the game. They’ll either leave or find other reasons to play long before the Nemesis content barrier becomes an issue.
I thought you need a ship anyway, Nemesis is probably more exciting if you have a ship prepared ahead?
If your Watchful is below 100, you can try to find a Watchufl patron. Using patronage can significantly boost a stat up until 100 (maybe more with a Talkative Ratus, but I can’t confirm that). Posting a message here http://community.failbettergames.com/topic6084-protgs-seeking-patrons-only-protgs-need-post.aspx is a good place to start.
The problem is that the ambition becomes frustratingly hard if you don’t alternate between progressing in it and other storylines, and often the choice is between straight up grinding and progressing through other stories while you wait for your stats to grow. Of the two, I know which one would make me quit, and it’s not alternating stories. Sure, you don’t need capped stats- but grinding your way to POSI, which will be needed for all ambitions, through social actions is frustratingly tedious.
Better to play through the local storylines- they’re interesting, even if they aren’t as overwhelmingly crucial to your character- and often, you’ll need to have played through some of them. I believe heart’s desire has used the flit, the forgotten quarter, and the shuttered palace let you choose a more dramatic option that was also cheaper, at least once you were done with that area, or felt you were.
If you’re really incapable of enjoying anything that isn’t your ambition, this might not be the game for you.
edited by Grenem on 6/1/2016