So, I’ve heard that it’s necessary at some point in Seeking to have 7 Searing Enigmas on hand. Should I be grinding for those right now, for lack of something better to do while waiting for Time, The Healer? Will Seeking eventually take them from me before I need them, making my grinding useless in terms of advancing my search? If I should be grinding, how should I go about it? Go for long shots to get Searing Enigmas, or grind lower level Mysteries to try to convert them in the University? If I should be grinding lower level Mysteries, which storylet?
You should at least have 7 on hand for Saint Arthur’s candle, yeah. (and more if you can’t find anyone willing and able to be betrayed, since betraying NPC spouses and Midnight Matriarchs also require Searing Enigmas even before the ritual requirement).
I’m not sure where you should be grinding, though: I came into mine through alternate methods (blowing up a rat of Glory at christmas, some long shots with Make A Wild Guess in the Seeking Road storylet).
Good news, though: St. Arthur’s candle comes before the point where you have to throw most of your worldly possessions away. (also if you grind lower-level mysteries, make sure you keep an uncanny incunabula. you’ll need it way later in Seeking.)
You’ll need at least 7 Enigmas for Arthur’s. It’s likely you’ll need more; 1 for every midnight matriarch you betray (you don’t need the extra if you betray a player, but there aren’t many takers anymore). Grinding them would probably be the best use of your time, as you wait for your weekly Marsh Mired to disappear.
You’ll need 7 more if you make your own calling card (although IIRC I gave you one).
I personally ground cryptic clues through the Investigating in the University and trading the Investigating… in through raiding message drops in the flit (Use "Interview the Staff", it gives 53 clues and +4 investigating). It comes out to about 80 clues per action if you trade in the investigating… with a 90% chance of success. Of course, if you’ve locked yourself out of the investigations storyline in the University, that isn’t an option for you. I’m not sure what the best mysteries grind is otherwise.
The other option is to do the fidgeting writer grind, which is luck based and requires a fair amount of stocking up on materials. Searing enigmas are the 2nd to last step, I think. I don’t know if your odds are better doing it or through the truthbreaker turbine at the university. I only had to do two rounds of the turbine, and I ended up with some excess enigmas. You might have to do a lot more, though, too.
Edit: Since laskaris just beat me (dang ninjas) and mentioned Making a wild guess in the seeking road, I’ll add that Making a wild guess is probably not a good choice since it also has a chance of taking away an enigma.
edited by Pumpkinhead on 3/29/2017
Yes, I figured it was not a good idea to take actions which might take away my Enigmas :P I don’t recall ever receiving a Calling Card from anyone, though. Also, I’ve reached Seeking 12, so I can do the “Grieve” and “Hate” options in the Seeking Road, but I lack the quirk requirements for both. I’d rather do “Grieve” (Melancholy 12) because it fits my character better and because I’m already at Melancholy 10, but I don’t know how I’d go about getting above 10, except for getting there incredibly slowly with the Knave black-bordered card.
Hmm, I think I mixed you up with someone else. In any case, ask on the calling card thread and you’ll probably get one.
Don’t worry about which question you chose at this point. You’re able to change it at several points later on in the storyline for absolutely nothing. At the point you’re at, all the question quality does is unlock Winking Isle (with SMEN 21). If you find it easier to get the quirks for hate, go ahead and do it.
I think it takes huffing Tears of the Bazaar to get above Melancholy 10? Something absurd and expensive.
Always try to Raid a Message Drop at the earliest possible point (i.e. when Investigating… is at 5 and you have a 70% chance). We’ve already had threads showing the math for this. It’s significantly better since you’ll only need 4 actions to raise Investigating to 5, and one more action to try and cash it in. This will give you ~1.8 EPA (90 Clues per action), though you’ll need to deal with menaces after a while.
For St Arthur’s candle, you only need the 7 Enigmas one at a time (i.e. not all seven together). So Making a Wild Guess is a valid option to use when you’re already out of Enigmas. This way, you’re just gambling 77 x Appalling Secrets for a 20% chance for an Enigma. Pretty good odds all things considered.
I’m fairly certain that the Fidgeting Writer is a better source of Enigmas than the Truthbreaker Turbine on average. It can be pretty high-variance if you’re only trying to get a few, though. The Turbine is incredibly inefficient overall, so despite being one of the easiest grindable sources of Enigmas, it’s also one of the worst.
Tears and other lacre-related things (such as that one Nadir option) work, as does the KNAVE OF REGRETS option. There’s a few other ways scattered around I believe, though I forget which exactly.
Before you get into huffing Tears of the Bazaar, note that the choice of Grieve or Hate at this point doesn’t actually affect the story at all. You can go for the much easier quirk requirement of Hate (piracy at zee will get you up to 7 Heartless in no time) and change to Grieve at several points later without losing any Grieve-related content. In fact, you can change your question several times, including at the Avid Horizon.
All that selecting a question does is give you access to Weeping Isle once you get Mr Eaten’s Calling Card.
What should I do at the end of the Daughter storyline to get the item I need for Cerise’s candle?
You want to make the choice to keep in touch/keep your daughter, IIRC.
Can you make that choice regardless of what you do earlier in the story?
I believe so. I recently went through this storyline for the same reason.
Just completed my journey into Seeking Mr Eaten’s Name. Gotta say, loved it, and loved the ending I chose.
Alysian has gone North, and chose to grieve. A fitting end to a fitful life.
I haven’t visited this thread in a while, but If such a thing isn’t already in force I think we should make it a policy to direct all future seekers towards the betray a friend option. I’m sure we would all prefer to send a several surprise packages to a new seeker rather then purchase another 400 echo cat. I’ve just reached the betrayal stage of seeking and the prospect of purchasing 7 midnight matriarchs is a daunting one. I’ll probably wait and pave my way with the corpses of Nomen, but all those betrayals slipping through our fingers are lamentable.
edited by IgnatuStone on 4/13/2017
You could, of course, make a bunch of alts and delete them afterwards. Though that’s not really in the spirit of things.
If you’re waiting all the way for nomen to be around again, you’ll have more than enough time to grind the 7 cats.
But I do think that it would be good for betrayals to be the entry point for SMEN. It’s good for everyone
Yeah, when I played through SMEN I didn’t involve other people, just made alts for everything that was supposed to require interactions.
My favorite way to enter SMEN was the very first one, a very particular dream at high levels of Death by Water. Was way more hidden back then.
Ah, the card that my main character has accidentally started seeking from twice now. What do I expect to happen when I select an option that requires 0 SMEN?