“A few actions” lol. The RNG must love you, it don’t love me.
Thanks for your advice, but using up a whole day’s actions only to give up my catch to get rid of the menaces that I got instead of going to the cove? Umm… No ta. 
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Diving in the Basement is a good source of first city coins, of which many citizens are desirous of acquiring a thousand, no less. I spend time there regularly for that and other purposes, and the rector is very handy to enable a lengthy stay.
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Finally done with this festival. Nothing much to add that hasn’t been in this thread yet, but DAMN.
One of the most fruitless cycles in the game despite claiming to be the “Fruits of the Zee”. How about we actually get to do something Zee-ey, like the diving in the Magistracy, instead of some diet-lite Seeking menace acrrual carousel?
Maybe next year they can move it somewhere else, with less wells and more pelagin. I love Mutton Island as much as the next guy, but the place is attuned with a theme that is a little invasive to FOTZ, mechanically and otherwise. Either that needs to change or the festival does.
I still come crawling back every year regardless, so I suppose you could say I’m already HOOKED,
.
but I still think to myself, every single time I leave, that I would have much rather have spent my time and my actions back in London. I love FOTZ items, but seriously, getting them hurts more than getting your nose tweaked by an angler-crab.
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I got the Rector with Catch 7 or 8, which is fairly doable and gives decent chance for him to show up within two or three dives to the Cove. Also, if you give your catch to the Curate or the Chef, they refresh your supply of maps and ztories in addition to lowering menaces. I’m sure that you absolutely can acquire this companion if you so wish 
I still don’t get why does one need to fail challenges. The easiest way to fish for a character with high quirks (i.e. pick a 100% quirk challenge each action and no last effort) gives Catch 5, which is good enough for like half of items. I’ve got the Scrimshander knife, the trickiest item to my opinion, with Catch 5. Other items need bigger minimum catch. So which item are you after, that you need to repeatedly fail the challenges?
There are also possibilities to lower quirks without coming back to London. Dining with the Curate drops Hedonist, dining with the Chef drops Austere, and last efforts drop one of two randomly selected quirks.
I feel hopeless about the situation you describe, and it’s unbearable, so there’s an urge to find a solution)
Slightly off-topic but the Rat Market (closed now) offered The Reported Location of a One-Time Prince of Hell, a rare and valuable item.
It costs 15625 Rat shillings, or 125 Fourth City echoes.
While everyone is busy with their Mutton Island adventures, this might have been overlooked. I bought one the last time it was offered at the Rat Market, and I can’t afford another at this time. No biggie, moving on.
Failing isn’t necessary, but Catch 5 gives a frustrating 20% odds for the Knife and briefly the Wimple (it used to be 6-12, which was frustrating enough it actually got changed to 6-18), while failing to a Catch 4 bumps that to 50%; a Catch 3 is 66%! So if you have the mid-range items and overshooting doesn’t get you anything new, it’s worth considering.
I went back to the FotZ festival to attempt to obtain the last unique item - the Submerged Rector. I got it on my second try. So, including travel, it took me about 30 actions, two fishing cycles, 1 CP of nightmares, 3 partial maps, and 2 zee-stories to obtain the SM. The RNG was kind to me. I got the option to turn in my catch for unique rewards at the cove on my first try in the first fishing cycle and my 2nd try in the 2nd fishing cycle. So I got all 13 unique items. Well, actually only 12 since I already had the wimple from the Waswood history relived storyline.
Now I am grinding a bunch of stormy eyed and then back to London to continue raising most of my renowns to 40 and raising my dreams to their maximums.
Let’s say you managed to get all the unique items except the knife.
Does that mean that you are sure to get the knife on the next draw, since nothing else is available?
If the RNG gods are kind, it will be made available to you.
It’s the same rule for practically everything in this game.
No, that is not how the mechanics of this work. It is a complex system. First, during fishing you obtain a “running battle” value. This final value is achieved by various checks during the fishing, an option to halve your running battle value and conduct another round of fishing, and a “last effort” at the very end of fishing. Your final running battle value yields is converted directly into a “strange catch” value. That is, a final running battle of 8 will yield a strange catch value of 8.
Then, your strange catch value yields a “picking value”. For each strange catch value from 1 to 12+ there is a list of possible picking values. A table of these picking values can be found on the “The Wreckers Cove” wiki page. This list of possible picking values ranges from one number to eleven numbers. The specific number that you obtain is randomly selected from this list of possible values.
Some of the picking values will yield one or more unique items. Some picking values will yield a non-unique reward. The picking values needed to be offered each unique reward is also shown on the aforementioned wiki page. For example, to be offered the knife, you must have a picking value of 10 or 12.
Now, comes the next appearance of the loathed random number generator (RNG). To even get to the point where you can obtain a picking value, you have to roll the RNG in the form of a quality called “sights of the festival” and obtain a value of 86-100 in a possible range of 1-100 - so a 15% chance. If you do not obtain this desired 86-100 range, you are offered another option which includes the ability to increase wounds or nightmares while getting some non-unique rewards but you keep your strange catch so you can try to get the desired 86-100 on your next attempt. Alternatively, you might be offered the option to turn in your strange catch for a LARGE (28 CP) reduction in your wounds or nightmares.
So, let’s assume that you successfully get a strange catch value of 4. This yields a list of possible “picking values” of 10, 12, 14, or 16. Then, let’s assume you try to turn in your strange catch enough times that you meet the “hooded lady” - a 15% chance of meeting her each time you try to turn in your strange catch. The picking value needed to be offered the desired knife is only 10 or 12 but your possible picking values based on your strange catch are 10, 12, 14, or 16. Thus, you have a 50% chance in this scenario of getting a picking value that will result in you being offered the knife.
Refer to the table in the wiki for more details. This table will drive your targeted running battle and, thus, strange catch values. Also know that for a player with medium to high quirks, a strange catch value of 7 is easy to obtain and 8 is reasonably easy to obtain. 9 is hard, 10 is very hard, and 11+ is nigh on impossible. On the other end of the strange catch spectrum, a value of 5 or 6 can be almost a guaranteed possibility. A value of 4 would require some failures of the quirk checks while fishing which can be hard if all your quirks are high.
I hope this helps. As I said at the start, the mechanics of the FotZ are complex.
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Mutton Island, a strange place that celebrates wounds and nightmares, thus explains the ruthless manifestation of RNG-sama.
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I only Fished up a Strange Catch because Gebrandt’s stupid idea needed one.
After that I got on my ship and fucked off back to London.
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What’s the sweet spot for the Keelhaulers gloves? My alt wants it but keeps being offered cats. She hates cats.
Strange Catch Lv7 according to the wiki.
You still only have 29% chance to get though.
That’s how I got it after several tries.
Yeah, IIRC I undershot it twice on a 7 and finally got it with an 8. It’s all down to luck.
Two items left, two days without getting anything.
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I didn’t know you could post gifs here! Your Watchful is increasing…
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Nothing like a good wail to get things back on track: I just picked the last of the 13 unique rewards!
I’m gonna clear my wounds, which are at 7 now, and go back to London.
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I’m still at Mutton Island, shamelessly collecting the rewards of expendable items e.g. Zee Stories, Map Scraps etc.
I went back to London briefly when Time the Healer arrived, to collect the weekly profession reward, get the ten free actions, and beef up my Making Waves a little. Then it’s back to Mutton Island.
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