- SPEAKING OF THAT, WHAT IS NOTABILITY EVEN FOR?
Glad you asked, because this is the easiest part of this guide to write!
Probably the most valuable use of Notability is to upgrade your Profession. You undoubtedly have found a Profession in your time in Fallen London. Depending on how much you play, you may or may not have abandoned your Training Profession (Tough, Minor Poet, Pickpocket, or Enquirer) to advance to a so-called "Tier 2" profession — Campaigner, Journalist, Enforcer, Rat-Catcher, Trickster, or Watcher, which are each available from certain faction cards when you have no Profession. These professions provide you with a unique item that gives +6 to two of your main attributes, and a weekly payment worth about 35 Echoes, but what we’re concerned about is that once you become Notable, you can upgrade your Tier 2 profession to get an even better item and a larger payment!
When you have at least 1 Notability, the card "An Unsigned Message" gets added to your opportunity deck, drawable anywhere in London, and you can use it to upgrade your Profession to a "Tier 3" — Mystic, Author, Murderer, Stalker, Conjurer, or Agent, respectively. This will trade in your old +6 item for one that provides +9 to the same two attributes, and upgrade your weekly payment to a different collection of items worth about 50 Echoes. Note that the new item you receive may not be equipped in the same slot as the old one — for instance, a Journalist receives a Weapon (Little Red Notebook), but upgrading to Author will swap that for a Companion (an Appreciation Society). Doing this requires that you have 2 Notability, but does not consume it.
Once you have a Tier 3 profession, you can use the Unsigned Message to upgrade again at 5 Notability, to a "Tier 4" Glassman, Correspondent, Licentiate, Monster-Hunter, Crooked-Cross, or Midnighter. These professions provide a +12 item and a weekly payment of items worth roughly 60 Echoes — with the exception of the Midnighter, which receives a Home Comfort with +9 to both Watchful and Shadowy. This lower bonus remains because the stat bonuses on Home Comforts are slightly smaller than those on regular gear, and the Midnighter’s item is still superior to every other item (including Fate-locked ones) in that category for its particular stats.
If you have no profession when you draw the Unsigned Message, you can instead choose to become a Tutor or Undermanager, who receive no special items, but do get a weekly payment of 60 Echoes in cash. If you have 3 Notability and no Profession, you can also become a Doctor or Notary, which are identical to the Tutor and Undermanager except that their weekly payment is 70 Echoes.
It is worth noting that changing your Profession NEVER costs any Notability; you need only have a certain amount to unlock the option to advance.
"But I’ve done that already!" you say. Well, before we move on, it is worth noting that when you draw the Unsigned Message, you can attempt a Notability check (100% odds at 9 Notability) which can reward a Surprise Package on success — the same sort of one you can normally only get from a friend Giving you a Gift, which can potentially be quite profitable. This is your primary reason to keep Notability high even when you don’t necessarily intend to spend it.
In addition, during an Election, keeping your Notability high will help contribute to your candidate’s total votes – the amount you contribute is the sum of your Election role quality (Campaigner, Fixer, or Agitator) and your Notability.
"I don’t care! I want to spend my Notability on cool things! There must be cool things, right?!" Okay! On we go! There are indeed several ways to SPEND Notability (as distinct from losing it naturally), which are:
— Upgrading your Lodgings!
If you have a Reservation at the Royal Bethlehem, a Key to a Brass Embassy Guest Room, or a Lengthy Lease to Premises at the Bazaar, then when you draw their cards, you can spend a very expensive item and a great deal of Notability in order to upgrade to a new version of that Lodging that will allow you to hold FIVE cards in your hand instead of four! However, these have VERY high requirements; all require an item worth almost 1,600 Echoes, and all cost at least 8 Notability! At Christmastime, it is possible to upgrade these lodgings much more easily, and at a cost of only 3 Notability apiece.
— Trading for Masters’ Blood!
You may have drawn the card "A Presumptuous Little Opportunity" by now, allowing you to exchange wine in quantity for more valuable types. The most expensive trade, "A dangerous deal", allows you to swap five Tears of the Bazaar for a single Vial of Masters’ Blood, but doing so also costs 7 points of Notability.
— Pursuing A Paramount Presence, and driving your stats above the maximum of 200!
Once you reach 200 in a main attribute, you can choose to specialize in it from the Unfinished Business storylet in its matching location (for instance, Watchmaker’s Hill for Dangerous). Doing so requires that you possess a certain piece of Clothing gear, dependent on the attribute, and costs you 5 Notability.
After you have specialized in an attribute, you can use the Unsigned Message to trade in all your Notability in order to SET your level in that attribute to 200 plus your Notability — giving you an effective maximum of 215. Note, however, that there are still ways to lose that bonus, such as visiting the Cave of the Nadir, and any losses you incur can only be recovered by trading in the full amount of Notability again.
You may remove your specialization without the loss of the stat bonus for a cost of 12 Notability (or 15 Fate) from the Matters of Society storylet in your lodgings, at which point you may repeat the process! Should you push all four stats to 215 at once, you will be permitted to upgrade your PoSI status to A Paramount Presence, the primary benefit of which is that further uses of the Notability overcap will apply to all four of your stats at once (assuming you have lost the levels to begin with).
— Purchasing Favourable Circumstances!
At your Lodgings, on the "Write Letters" storylet, you can pay 7 Notability for a point of Favourable Circumstances, which will allow you to instantly draw certain cards, such as Connected cards or the Unsigned Message, from that same storylet. The only other method of obtaining Favourable Circumstances is to pay 8 Fate each time.
— Helping other players with the same!
From the Slowcake’s Amanuensis card, you can donate a point of Notability to someone with none! This is extremely helpful for players who are looking to start grinding but are having poor luck drawing the card themselves, as they will then be able to summon the Amanuensis normally.
— Polishing certain Quirks!
If you are in dire need to raise your level 12-14 Magnanimous or Hedonist quirks, two options from the Entry in Slowcake’s Exceptionals item unlock at 3 Notability and will restore 15 CP of each at an identical cost of Heartless or Austere, as well as ALL your Notability (not just the 3 required)!
— Seeking the Name of Mr Eaten!
Why? In God’s name, why? What can you possibly hope to gain? Well, you can gain St Destin’s Candle, at the price of 12 Notability, from the Slowcake’s Amanuensis card. St Destin’s Candle is required to progress to the end of the Seeking storyline, but this is not the only way to obtain it. This is a Notability guide, though, not a Seeking guide, so other methods are outside our scope.
edited by Jeremy Avalon on 12/28/2019