It is theoretically possible to gain every level of SMEN without visiting Winking Island. Just very very improbable.
It’s something to do until the fall of the Sixth City!
While the cats were a pain I found the enigmas they required to be the real sticking point for me. I was really kicking myself for selling a few early on in my character’s journey. Fortunately I only needed to use cats for the last 3 rounds, but even that took longer for me than anything else. That said, I did get particularly unlucky with the RNG, so the average experience probably isn’t quite so rough.
One of my betrayals was with my other character, but that was already a fully-fledged and pre-existing resident of the Neath rather than one created just for that purpose so I didn’t feel bad for using them. I considered making a few more characters to speed it up but ultimately decided if I went that hard against the spirit of the experience it would ruin the atmosphere or tone or however you would describe it. I’m glad I didn’t.
edited by Alysian on 4/14/2017
Though at that point in Seeking the game gives you an easy and relatively cheap source of Searing Enigmas: you can gamble 77 x Appalling Secrets for a 20%-30% for an Enigma. Pretty good considering the other alternatives.
You just have to use this option when you’re out of Enigmas, since there’s a chance to lose one on failure, but that’s not a concern if you’re collecting and using them one at a time.
Is A Dream of Dark Waters unlocked at SMEN exactly 7, or at least 7? I’ve been at SMEN 8 for a bit and haven’t seen it, and it just occurred to me that maybe I should have waited at 7 until I drew it.
EDIT: Nevermind! It just arrived.
edited by earthbourn on 4/20/2017
I believe that one’s supposed to be drawn pretty frequently, too. Gotta love the RNG!
Your friendly reminder that Winking Isle is a terrible, RNG induced hell. 3 times now I’ve been through that place. This mortal machine is very very tired of circling that @#$&! well.
Now I’m left wondering if I should enter the light house and lose no candle. Part of me very much wants to do it. But another part of me doesn’t want to go through the whole notability grind thing to get it back. Especially now that I’ve sold all my belongings for cider and would have to start building up the resources to do it from scratch.
edited by An Individual on 4/21/2017
Has anyone ever tried getting 77 Dramatic Tension on Hunter’s Keep? The place makes me hungry.
I don’t think it has dramatic tension, it has fasting and meditating. And you need to get it to 77 to actually start the actual winking isle bit.
edited by suinicide on 4/24/2017
Hunter%27s%20Keep%2C%20not%20Winking%20Isle.%20The%20place%20with%20the%20three%20ambiguously%20Greek%20sisters.%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3EWhat%20makes%20me%20wonder%20is%20as%20follows%3A%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E-It%20has%20a%20well.%3Cbr%3E-The%20well%20eats%20people.%3Cbr%3E-The%20well%20eats%20things%20that%20aren%27t%20people%2C%20too.%3Cbr%3E-Nobody%20really%20knows%20what%27s%20going%20on%20on%20Hunter%27s%20Keep%2C%20so%20we%27re%20missing%20SOMETHING.%3Cdiv%3E-When%20you%20get%20Dramatic%20Tension%2C%20you%20get%202%20CP%2C%20not%201%2C%20hinting%20that%20there%20is%20SOME%20reason%20to%20increase%20it%20past%201.%3Cbr%3E%3Cdiv%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%3Eedit%3A%20added%20an%20item%20to%20the%20list.%20Also%2C%20my%20alt%20is%20currently%20on%20Hunter%27s%20Keep%2C%20and%20I%27m%20flirting%20with%20the%20idea%20of%20going%20all%20the%20way.%20Likely%2C%20I%20won%27t.%20Possibly%2C%20I%20could%2C%20because%20if%20nobody%20else%20will%2C%20it%20becomes%20my%20duty.%3C/div%3E%3C/div%3E
edited by Clownie on 4/24/2017
Edit: Well! Something went terribly wrong with this post, but I’ll leave it there for posterity. To rephrase, in human-friendly wording:
I’m referring to Hunter’s Keep, not the Winking Isle; that place in the Southern Archipelago, with the ambiguously Greek sisters. Here’s what got me thinking:
-It has a well.
-The well is central to the mysteries there. It has a great big Secret (capital S in the game!), and its storylet has an UP option.
-The well eats people. Also things that aren’t people. Generally, the well eats.
-You get 2 CP, not 1, of Dramatic Tension when you finish the carousel, which hints that there might be something past level 1.
-Nobody really understands Hunter’s Keep, so we’re definitely missing a part of the puzzle.
edited by Clownie on 4/24/2017
edited by Sara Hysaro on 4/24/2017
Oh wow, that was quite a misread on my part. Sorry about that.
From my sunless sea experience, it seems parabola is leaking into their water somehow, fingerkings and all. Which was Mr. Candle’s domain. But no, I haven’t heard of anyone going for DT 77 there.
edited by suinicide on 4/24/2017
Hmm. It’s been a while since I’ve been to hunter’s keep, and I’m not doing much otherwise…
edited by Pumpkinhead on 4/24/2017
If I didn’t write this code wrong, it’ll take 1313 actions to get 77 DT on Hunter’s Keep, assuming the amount of CP required to increase the level by 1 stops increasing at 50. Python code here, for the curious.
I’m only at SMEN 20, so I don’t think I’ll do this yet. I’ll come back to it before going NORTH, should nobody else have by that time.
I might do it, although I’m 77.7% it won’t do anything. (77%=100% when speaking of eaten, except when I tried to drown secrets sob").
The math:
To level 50: ((50 x 51) / 2) = 1275 CP
Levels 51 to 77: (50 x 27) = 1350 CP
Total: 2625 CP
Actions: 1312.5
HOWEVER:
-
You can only play this action which gives +2 CP to Dramatic Tension at the end of the Hunter’s Keep carousel. So in fact you’ll need 1313 cycles, not 1313 actions.
-
It’s been years since I’ve been to HK myself, but according to the wiki the actions there do cap Dramatic Tension at 2. Of course, the wiki might not be 100% accurate.
I, too, don’t believe for a moment this will lead to anything but a waste of time.
The well on Hunter’s Keep is indeed strange. But this isn’t really unique, since all Wells in the Fallen London universe are strange.
Remember: All shall be Well, and all manner of thing shall be Well…
edited by dov on 4/24/2017
Ha ha no never mind not doing that
There are limits to even our masochism. Winking Isle carousel of RNG hell is bad enough, nevermind 1313 cycles of Hunter’s Keep.
At least it’s not random.
Oh, derp. Math isn’t my strongest point, I just write the programs to do it for me. Clearly I don’t do a good job of it. How many actions to a cycle? I think it’s 30 for the first and 27 subsequently, yes? I’d say that more assertively, but I did just muck up a math problem.
edit: either way, that would add up to 35451 or 35454 actions, so the difference is trivial. At 108 actions/day (6 hours of actions wasted to account for sleep), we’re looking at 328 days of mindless grinding. At least you’d come home with a lot of money. I’ll try to get it to 7 to see if it caps, at least, but I don’t think Alexis would’ve put an obscure year-long grind in the game either.
edited by Clownie on 4/24/2017
According to the wiki at least, the option to cash in DT resets it as well. Your year-long grind wouldn’t end with 1313 actions of hoping for rare successes, it would end with a single decidedly-unprofitable action.
Well, it’s 1 EPA (I think some Persuasive options might be 1.07? but my alt isn’t that Persuasive), so it could be worse. But yeah, it’s too far-fetched, having done the math. Still trying for 7, though; I’ll find out whether it caps at 2 tomorrow.
edit: Fortunately, it does cap at 2. Unfortunately, the mystery of Hunter’s Keep will remain unsolved.
edited by Clownie on 4/25/2017