I feel blessed to have gotten enough to get the carriage on my first fishing trip. But I mean yeah, other than FF’s side errand changing my Ambition for the hell of it that’s the end of Fruits for me. Back to the scintillack mines in the desperate hope I can snag that damnable worm saddle sometime this year.
I got all the three items. Carriage with a level 7 catch. Keelgraspers and Cat with a level 6 catch. Tried to get the Cat with a level 5 catch, failed several times. I guess level 6 is the sweet spot for the RNG gods to bless your venture.
I have yet to give a catch to our mad scientist, so back to fishing I go.
This was my first significant Fruits of the Zee festival. I only started playing late July, '21 so could not do much at last year’s festival. At this year’s FotZ fest, I have obtained:
- Drownie Efluvia
- Corpulent Carriage
- Keelgraspers
- Nuncian watch
- Semi-automated Mary Lloyd
- Silk Gloves
- Crown of the Devil
- Jellyfluer cloak
- Lamp Cat
The only items I still seek are the Submerged Rector which I think I can get for certain by throwing a ton of actions and partial maps at my fishing to get a catch size of 12.
I do not think I can get the Scrimshander knife. My worst chance of passing a quirk test while fishing is 50% so I would have to fail a LOT of these to end up with a suitable strange catch level. However, I will give it a try to see how low a strange catch might be possible for me.
I found the mechanics of this festival confusing on the wiki but once I got into it, it is fairly simple. I can hit a strange catch of 7 EVERY fishing trip which, along with some beneficence from the RNG, has allowed me to get almost all the items I sought.
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LOL RNG smiled on me.
I got the three items I was looking for - the three new ones - in the first three strange catches I turned in. My menaces never hit 8 from cycling the festival, the hooded lady showed up fast.
Well, sometimes I just get lucky.
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Now you know my pain last year.
I got the Scrimshander knife last year, 60% success chance. You need two quirks low-ish, focus on failing them. I went back to London to lower a couple of them.
This one lowers Magnanimous (which can be easily raised at a later time).
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About that experiment…
Something in the Water 36 - F.F. Gebrandt’s attempt to replicate Mutton Island’s well-water exploded in your face
And I got some Curator’s Gratitude for my troubles… so that’s it? In addition to the flavour text?
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Thanks, elderfleur! I got the Carriage and the Keelgraspers, and have been wrestling with understanding the directions on the Wiki. Your post gives me a better idea of how to aim my efforts, thanks!
Something very odd just happened. I got offered Sinning Jenny’s wimple, even though I already have one. But it thinks I don’t? It’s probably a bug, but I’m going to imagine it’s some other sort of wimple. Maybe Jenny lost it after that conversation we had.
Edit: It does show as a different thing.
If memory serves, the double wimples are a side effect of how the wimple was originally introduced. If you check the titles of the items, you will find that one is “Sinning Jenny’s Forsaken Wimple” and the other is “Sinning Jenny’s Forsaken Wimple!” (note the punctuation).
When the Wimple first arrived at the festival, it was part of a story where you could find it, give it back to Jenny, and then find it again. The way this was tracked was that the first and second wimples you found were actually two separate items: the Wimple! was the first one you found (unlocking the second part of the story), while the less excited Wimple was the second, which you got to keep.
For several years after this both wimples were absent from the festival. Recently they added the option to get a wimple back in - except they added the Wimple! rather than the Wimple, meaning that people who already had the Wimple from completing the story could get another. Apparently Failbetter staff found this duplication funny and harmless enough not to fix. Now that the Waswood calendar exists, it can give a Wimple, which means everyone can obtain both a Wimple and a Wimple! if they so desire.
I hope this explanation is clear, as for my part “wimple” has ceased to sound like a word.
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It was the same last year, aside from the text itself the rewards from the Mr Wines quest were extremely underwhelming.
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Sorry, could you explain please what this “Clay man option” is and what does SBL mean? I can’t get the meaning of this edit at all, and it’s frustrating
It’s my first Fruits of the Zee festival ever – I started playing this January (feels like past life, but this is a completely different story…) Actually, I find the festival amusing so far. I guess I’m the only one here to enjoy the process, though))
I got the Scrimshander knife with Catch 5, which is a normal amount you make from one fishing trip if you succeed in all challenges and don’t trade items for progress. I guess Catch 4 or 3 give better chances for it to show up, but if you’re willing to try, 5 is fine enough.
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I just got the Scrimshander knife on my 2nd try so no problem. Now, I will see if I can get a guaranteed success on a Submerged Rector by raising my catch to 12.
The “A Clay Man” option in the Wreckers’ Cove, where you hand in the strange catches from fishing trips, is the highest picking value of the repeatable options, i.e. associated with the most valuable strange catches. This might lead one to expect that the chosen reward, also, would be valuable.
It is not. It is rubbish.
This is largely due to the fact that Strong-backed labour (SBL for short there) used to be worth 12.5 echoes, but has since been devalued down to 2.5e. The rewards in the Cove have not been subsequently adjusted. I think this has been the case for at least two years now?
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Have you reported this to support?
You’re right, of course. I never thought about it, but Strong-backed labour isn’t worth what it used to be, so its place in the order of rewards should be adjusted.
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Don’t let the grumbling deter you. The Festival’s great the first time round, of course, because whatever you pick from the Cove will be something new to you! Next year you’ll only hunt for a few new items, so it will be less rewarding and you’ll feel the pain of the RNG a lot more. But no need for you to worry about that now! 
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Yeah, the less unique items you have left that you want from the Cove, the worse it gets. Also, a first-timer at the festival will probably not be terribly far along in the game, and so will not feel the pain from the loss of dozens of actions on the low-reward activities in the item carousel the same way endgame players, primarily engaged in long-term money grinds, do. I remember liking FotZ too… the very first time I went to it. But that was quite a while ago, and it’s been like drinking tar ever since.
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What is the reward for the F.F. Gebrandt storyline in this years FotZ festival? Is it worth pursuing? How much effort (actions) does it take to get through this story? Thanks.
Just wanna mention that you can get a Bloodstained Eolith from your Laboratory, you need not spend Fate during the Fruits of the Zee event.
The Laboratory option requires you to FAIL a Kataleptic Toxicology challenge, and also, get a RARE failure outcome. I got it last year after countless tries, with a Kataleptic Toxicology level 3 (70% success chance).
That means you have to stockpile a large quantity of Ambiguous Eoliths. Without Railway locations unlocked (Upper River etc), you’ll need to go into Parabola’s Waswood, and spend many actions there to obtain them. If you’re lucky you might even get a Mirrorcatch Box or Airag.
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I did her experiment and the water exploded in my face, I then got around 6k Curator’s Gratitude and a flavour text entry on my profile… silly vanity reasons?
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