Seeking for fun and profit

Is it an entirely mad idea for someone who has no interest in going North to progress the Seeking path some distance along just for the purpose of obtaining St Cerise’s candle and subsequently burning it to obtain the rare items it provides?

According to the wiki, that’s only possible for those who played the old SMEN.
It’s also of dubious profitability at best. All of the items can be “easily” obtained otherwise, except for the veils-velvet scrap which requires scrap grinding.
It can still be useful to go Seeking to reliably lower Renown or rid yourself of lodgings (the only way in the game to achieve either of those). Plus you can go North and turn back - the early candles seem to be some of the hardest, once you’re at the point of getting Cerise you’re past the halfway point to getting a Knock, as far as I’m aware. (Though, with the recent signs of power creep even in BDR equipment, and the devaluing of Notability, it may be less lucrative than it once used to be.)

There is generally no profit that can be had from Seeking.

I know. I tried - with six characters. It’s a guaranteed resource sink.

I completed Seeking with the intent to turn back all along for two reasons:

  1. The special reward at the end. If you have a lot of 3200 scrap items this is probably not worth it, but otherwise if you know what you’re doing you can minimize the losses quite a bit. Definitely no profit to be made though.

  2. Getting rid of lodgings with useless opportunity cards I bought as a new player. Seeking is currently the only way to lose lodgings you’re otherwise stuck with forever. You’ll lose all of them indiscriminately though, so it’s best to do this near the end of the year so you can regain the 5 card ones more easily.

Otherwise I don’t think there’s anything positive to be gained from Seeking except for the experience itself.
edited by Mona on 6/12/2020

[quote=Dudebro Pyro]the early candles seem to be some of the hardest[/quote]I would disagree with this. The early candles can be obtained in London, while for the later ones you have to go to Winking Isle, which is far more painful (in terms of resources and mechanics) than anything up to that point (and probably anything in the game).

I had one character progress through the storyline up to that point. Why? Well, back then there wasn’t much else to do content-wise; plus I was interested in experiencing the story, and in getting rid of excess lodgings. It was fun, but it’s unlikely I’ll ever progress any further now, what with all the new content and that character having just won the Marvellous.

Basically, I was only interested in SMEN while there was nothing else to do. :D
edited by phryne on 6/12/2020

[quote=phryne][quote=Dudebro Pyro]the early candles seem to be some of the hardest[/quote]I would disagree with this. The early candles can be obtained in London, while for the later ones you have to go to Winking Isle, which is far more painful (in terms of resources and mechanics) than anything up to that point (and probably anything in the game).
edited by phryne on 6/12/2020[/quote]

You don’t get any candles anymore on Winking Isle.

Ok, what I meant was: the only way to increase SMEN after that point is on Winking Isle. You don’t actually get the candles there, true. Sorry if I put that a bit confusingly.

There’s always the Slowcake grind.