I was wondering if the community would be willing to weigh in and evaluate what the best purchases one can make with Fate are. I am coming Dangerously close to being able to purchase one of the storylets on the Fate page, and it is my understanding that much of the community consider The Soul Trade to be the wisest purchase you can make from the options available on the page. However, I am curious whether people believe it to be better than buying a surfeit of less expensive Fate options.
This is not a request for the effects or consequences of Fate-locked options and/or content beyond what is already ‘Publiclly Available’. Ex: The A lucky batch for F.F. Gebrandt’s Tincture of Vigour costs eight Fate and will cure all wounds (and says so right on the option in text that is both bolded and italicized), so that would be alright to mention, but not if it, just as an example, turns you into The Vake for ten actions or anything else not in the mentioned bolded and italicized text.
I actually consider the options available on the Fate page to be kinda low as far as rewards go… but that’s kind of to be expected, seeing as they’re playable at a VERY early level of the game. Bigger rewards come from the fate locked storylines down the road: Continuation of animal husbandry and flute street are two rather nice ones I’ve come across.
The minor fate options tend to be fairly redundant in my opinion. There are a few times when they can garner you additional exposition, but otherwise the expenditure simply gives you something you could have earned anyway with a slightly larger investment of time.
The two options I consider to be most worthwhile are the Soul Trade and the continuation of Theological Husbandry, closely followed by Flute Street.
I think Flute Street is 25 fate… mostly because I had to go and buy an extra 5 fate when I was waiting for the card with 20 fate and saw the option locked to me, much to my dismay.
I personally loved pursuing the Secrets Framed in Gold storyline. It just barely edges out the Theological Husbandry continuation as my best use of fate, and I agonized quite severely over the final decision.
The continuation of Theological Husbandry. Both in terms of practical rewards (which are very sizable) and the sheer cool factor (which is immense).
Flute Street. Flute Street gets you some good rewards, including a few unique items, but mostly it’s just plain neat.
The Soul Trade. You can get 1.42 echoes per action from the repeatable action you get as a Spirifer; I don’t know what the permanent reward for a Shepard is because I never was one. I would have ranked this first, but someone’s run the maths and Fidgeting Writer evidently averages 1.8 or so echoes per action even with raw materials factored in.
I would definitely purchase something larger rather than numerous small things; with the exception of A Day at the Races, I’ve found most of the little bits and bobs somewhat underwhelming. edited by Jack Vaux-Harrowden on 4/17/2012
The less expensive Fate options are generally convenience. If you think it’d take twenty actions to clear your Wounds, and you spend eight Fate to do it, you’ve spent the Fate for twenty more actions. They’re usually better than straight up buying actions on the Fate page, but whether or not you’re interested in spending your money/Fate on that is a matter of personal preference more than anything else.
(Buying a ship’s the one thing I’ve done in that regard. The non-Fate costs exist, but I think they’re designed to be more or less unreasonable. Certainly people here have done them, but I was fine splitting the difference and spending 20 Fate and a handful of components for my Zee-Clipper)
The permanent reward for a Shepard isn’t financial, but it’s quite effective in its own right. Doing the good work is thanked, not paid.
One of the smaller options for being a shepherd grants you a large boost to three different factions, which I believe is more useful than simple echoes. I could probably figure out how much those “cost” sometime
I think Exceptional Friendship is well worth the fate for the extra candle alone. If you get 20 actions rather than 10 for a tweet every 24 hours it soon works out much better value than buying action refreshes for your single candle.
Not to mention you’ll have an extra 10 actions after circumstances where you’re away from the game for long enough to cap it (Sleeping, working, school, that kind of thing)
I’ll take that option :)[/quote]
If it did indeed do that, it would be the sheerest coincidence, and I would have expected a meaningful ‘Ahem’ from an administrator before this point. edited by Abraham Bounty on 4/21/2012
Soul trade is very good, but I love the pets I got with the Theological Husbandry.
I’m even thinking of selling my Bengali Tiger so that I could bring them around a bit more.