So I have finally unlocked all parts of the map, but I am now kind of lost. I have found myself going from the Labyrinth, to the University, and the Palace in a cycle. But the Bazaar Side Streets also have my interest. But the problem with that is that I do not nearly have enough items to do ANY of the gold storylets. I can craft them yes, but I do not even have the necessary items for that either. and half of them say either "Go to Wilmont’s end" or "Delve deeper into The Great game." I have tried the wiki, but I cant wrap my head around it since it seems I end up at the same place I started. There is a hundred guides, and I do not know which one to use. And right now I feel I am at a crossroads. I can either spend a whole month grinding to get every crafting item I need, or ask if there is a more smarter way to do things. If anyone wants to PM me so I could explain my problem in more depth, feel free to let me know. Or link me to something that wont make me want to take a permanent vacation in the Mirror Marches.
Most of the items you need to craft the POSI items come from one of 3 carousels: Fighting a War of Assassins, Searching Out a Missing Woman, and Doing Business in Wilmot’s End.
Fighting a War of Assassins storylets can be found in the Forgotten Quarter and the Flit once you’ve unlocked the carousel. The second two carousels are available in Wilmot’s End, as soon as you unlock that area. All of these stories can be started by going to your Lodgings and selecting "Find New Stories: Chat with the local gossip." You may need stats up to 110 to unlock them.
Alright.I also forgot about Renown. I keep getting the impression I need to raise it to 10 for all of them. What are some good ways to do that? I am sorry if I somehow missed a guide or two.
For the first five levels of Renown, go to Mrs. Plenty’s Carnival and go to the different tents. All the factions that have renown are there and you’ll get favors by doing that.
To get Renown past Lvl 5, you’ll need to buy the Faction Item of the Faction you are interested in in the Bazaar. Then use it when you have 7 Favors of that faction. The most important ones I’d focus on first are Church (for Membership of God’s Editors), and the Great Game (for Whitmont’s End). You also might want to work on getting Society and Bohemians up to Lvl 10 if you want to open a Salon eventually.
You actually don’t need a lot of Renown for most non-faction things, and most Renown is there for the RP value of it. There’s even some factions people avoid for various reason (increasing Revolutionary Renown increases Advancing the Liberation of Night, increases Devils Renown sticks various cards in your deck which can be annoying, etc.).
This may be of use:
http://community.failbettergames.com/topic24895-the-ultimate-guide-to-favours-and-renown.aspx
Guymanbot: Assuming your Shadowy is 110, you should be able to get to Wilmot’s end without Renown: Great Game 10 (I made the mistake of thinking you needed it, and it delayed me getting there!) As mentioned above by @earthbourn, you can get into Wilmot’s End via “Chat with the Locals.”
I’m already at Wilmot’s End, but I don’t think I am able to use everything it has to offer yet.
[li]After getting to a certain point in "A Name Written With A Flourish" (and I beleive "Associating With Radical Academics") you can go to the foreign office in Wilmont’s End. You will be able to find a carousel, a fate-locked story, and the ability to govern Port Carnelian. I can’t say anything about the fate story as I never purchased it but I have heard good things about it.
There isn’t much else to do however. You pretty much exclusively go to Wilmont’s End to unlock govenorship and grind PoSI items.
Important warning if you plan on playing the game for a long time: many (most?) of the items you can craft in the side-streets insert cards into your deck, and can never be gotten rid of (not even with Seeking, unlike lodgings). Don’t just try to be a completionist: you’ll regret it down the road when you draw, for the 500th time, a useless card that’s not worth playing from a useless piece of equipment that you never use, and realize that you are forever stuck with having to draw these.
If one day you decide you don’t care about your deck anymore (say, you maxed out renowns, got all the 3k scrap items and don’t want to see a single scrap more in your life, you’re grinding echoes in the Court where there’s no deck, and you’ve reached Paramount Presense and don’t want to see a single point of MW again in your life) and want to be a true completionist instead, you can always grab them again. Plus once you’re really into the late game, most of those become very affordable, so you’re unlikely to even need to grind to get any of them at that point.
True but… getting these items and feeling like an actual POSI is part of the fun. Someone who just became POSI wants to experience as much of the game as possible - if they are still playing two years after, the (still profitable) cards will not be that annoying.
Agreed but
That’s when they become most annoying. I thankfully held off on most of the things and as a result the only item I’ve got which isn’t strictly necessary for either stat or content unlocks is the Clay Sedan Chair, and it annoys me to no end whenever I draw its card. If I had given in to the "craft all the thing!" temptation, I’d be plagued by at least half a dozen more useless cards and would absolutely regret.
Of course it’s always a personal choice - not everyone will care about their deck in the first place. It’s only really important if you ever decide you want to optimise for scraps, favours, or getting notability quickly. But it’s a one-way choice, so I would certainly advise newer players to hold off until they’re more experienced and can confidently say "alright, I definitely can’t be bothered to actively optimise for scraps, I’ll go clutter my deck to my heart’s content" (or the opposite, as the case may be). When I started playing, I certainly didn’t expect to still be here several years later, nor did I pay any thought at all about deck optimisation - but I sure am glad now that as a new PoSI, I read a post on these forums here that mentioned the permanent card unlocks, and decided to hold off a bit on the rush to grab everything!
Almost all the PoSI items with cards are worthwhile these days, so there’s little reason not to craft them. Gang of Hoodlums unlocks better grinding, God’s Editors gives a Church favour, Clay Sedan Chair gives a Society favour, Respectable Landeau is 2.1 EPA, and the clubs are +4 BDR. The only ones to consider ignoring are the Library and Gymnasium.
Damn, you’re right, I overestimated how many items you could actually get. 2.1 EPA is strictly inferior to optimised tiger grinding (and since London’s grinds are worse you want the cards to be better to compensate), and the Library and Gymnasium are both nearly useless, but that’s about it.
Carry on then.
Get them all. Wish for a fire to burn the library (which is, indeed, the only useless POSI card).