Except you can animate your skeletons…
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Today I realized my alt had been sitting on the end of the Cheesemonger’s storyline for [unknown period of time]… and then I decided I didn’t really care much about her hare-brained schemes.
TL;DR? I want a second affiliation for whichever Master this was now.
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Oh gosh, the Cheesemonger. Haven’t thought about her in years.
I only dimly remember playing along with the scheme ironically due to a similar level of indifference about it’s circumstances, and winding up in a room full of dead men. I don’t even remember what, if anything, I got out of it.
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Where exactly is that echo from? The long gone memories return…! 
A word on counterplay: I see them implemented to make use avoid certain easy/hard options. I just managed to get The Silent Nod today and I only had some difficulties with pages:
- Very bad luck when forming a team; tried to build one 3 times
- With the first I went on: Papers, Gambits and Cod. (bad team!)
It was a 7/10, but 1st loss was that I struck luck with gambit 1st time I played the prep option (rare success and target was gone), the second I could have turned into a win, but Postal gave min progress and max elusiveness (should have played Social) and the 3rd was because of bad results.
But I agree that Pages are a pain (Wiki guide) if you aren’t lucky to draw nice cards. 
In the end, I love these changes and the new distinctions!
That’s just a Tuesday night out isn’t it?
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Looks like this option at the end of her storyline: https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Betray_her_to_the_Masters_of_the_Bazaar
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If it’s just one room? You’re underachieving.
Depends on how efficiently you pack them in.
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With the holidays, the rain, the flying and the trading, be sure to not forget about the poisoning! It’s been almost two months.
Get at least a win to get the distinction.
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Cripes I genuinely almost forgot about the poisoning until a couple days ago. I forgot, is one win sufficient? Or do you need an actual trophy-worthy run?
I’m afraid for distinctions you’ll need to win an actual run … but we believe in you. ;)
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Well, the good news is I’ve finished one entire run so. Yay, Duplicity?
The bad news is I’ve forgotten too much about poisoning to remember what the rest works. So just to be clear, is there any time limit on assembling the other Distinctions or can I just leisurely grind my way to 1000 Exploits for the sapling and the book, and all I really need to worry about until September is doing at least one run every season?
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precisely. the (so far) only time sensitive part is the Distinctions of season - the others can be done whenever you come around to complete them. and while trying you also might generate the necessary Exploits. happy hunting. =)
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I briefly panicked at the thread title but had the foresight to read the blog post.
So far, I have not had much luck at HG, but now seems like a good time to give it another shot.
Oh sweet! Actually I completed all the other Distinctions at the end of the last season cycle to get the Nod from Mr. Hearts, so if my understanding is correct all I have to do is show up and do a run on schedule, and also grind enough Exploits.
Still doing an Embalming run for the hell of it.
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So please correct me if I’m wrong, but is there any flaw in this logic: outside of accruing distinctions, you get the most rewards from Hearts’ game if you lose every round in as drawn-out a way as possible, and you get the least rewards by winning as quickly and efficiently as possible. Am I wrong? And if not, is this really how the devs want it to work?
… depends - how many runs in a row can you lose? … four or more? … if it’s actually only four & then the entire attempt is lost due to the impossibility of winning, then probably very slowly winning would be even more profitable?
You can actually lose all ten rounds in a run; the run doesn’t end automatically even after four lost rounds.
So it is technically correct that you get the most rewards for losing as slow as possible.
On the other hand, the effect is small: the fastest possible run win is optimistically around 70 actions, while the slowest possible run loss is around 280 actions. Losing as slow as possible will save you 3 actions of overhead out of 280, therefore it will increase your EpA by roughly 1%.
Everyone can decide for themselves if it’s worth worrying about it. Personally, when I play Hearts’ Game I try to win, and when I want to optimize EpA I go somewhere else instead (like the Tracklayers City).
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Probably much less than 1% since full cycle includes not only poisoning, but also efficient conversion into echos via rat market or bone market.
Unless you grind only enough for unique items. And even in that case you will save less than 20 actions across ~3 weeks grind.
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I think the point of it is to make players worry less that they’re wasting actions on a losing run. You’re still going to gain a similar amount of Exploits to cash out. Doesn’t make it any less frustrating though.
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