As a fairly recent PoSI, I am still not sure where to find a lot of these various items that are needed for various storylets. Specifically, I’m wondering how to find Eyeless Skulls (now do you get the clever title?). I recently unlocked the Cave of the Nadir expedition thingamajig in The Forgotten Quarter, so I am in need of a way to obtain these skulls, as I think one needs a total of six to fully complete an expedition. I know there’s an action that allows one give someone else an eyeless skull, but I’m not interested in that; I want to know how to find them myself. Does it involve a lot of grinding?
Seeking Curious in the Forgotten Quarter gives Skulls as rare success, if I remember correctly.
Random rare treasure from Expeditions in the Fallen Quarter, or Searching for Curios in the FQ. There is also a thread for people looking to dispose of the things (apparently one can be sent via mail to a player who wants to enter the Nadir): http://community.failbettergames.com/topic6132-eyeless-skull-woes.aspx
– Mal
It’s worth noting that you only need one Skull to begin the expedition. This is also the only point at which you can ask people to send one to you.
At the end of the expedition, what you actually need is not necessarily Skulls, it’s a Ray-Drenched Cinder, and there are several ways to get one:
- pay 8 Fate to side with the Revolutionaries during Sacksmas (right now!)
- pay 50 Fate for a Cinder and an Incarnadine Robe, which you can cash in for various useful Home-Based Comfort items
- pay 400 Echoes and 5 actions (at the end of the expedition, not in the Bazaar)
- pay 2535 CP of Revolutionaries (about 75 levels or so) at the end of the expedition
- pay 5 Eyeless Skulls
Wow, all those sound expensive, right? The 5 Eyeless Skulls are actually the MOST time-consuming option, however. It takes an average of 100 actions to get one from Searching for Curious in the Forgotten Quarter – but it’s such a small chance of getting one that your luck may vary wildly. So it’d be an average of 500 actions to get a Cinder that way, but it could be 1000!
You have a 10% chance of getting one skull if you do expeditions to a Shrine of Deep Blue Heaven, which take far more actions to get prepared for and finish, but are more reliable as a source if you keep at it. Still, it’s probably around 50 expeditions to get 5 skulls.
By contrast, the revolutionary connections can be grinded in 169 actions by doing public lectures in the Forgotten Quarter if you’re a Scholar of the Correspondence. People don’t like to spend those connections because they can be cashed in for much more than other connections, but in terms of getting a Cinder, it’s the short road.
All of these options have other side-benefits (like getting various other treasures from expeditions! other connections from lectures! tons of Mystery items from Searching) and menaces (Nightmares for searching, Suspicion for lectures) so I’d factor that in too! The 400-echo cost and the 2535 CP of Revolutionaries cost for Cinders are a limited-time opportunity that comes with your first foray to the Nadir. That’s in part because, well, they’re a better deal than 5 Eyeless Skulls.
Can you do the connection/echo trade twice, if you have not used your Cinder to enter the Nadir yet?
[quote=metasynthie]
You have a 10% chance of getting one skull if you do expeditions to a Shrine of Deep Blue Heaven, which take far more actions to get prepared for and finish, but are more reliable as a source if you keep at it.[/quote]
IIRC it’s far, far, far more reliable to get the eyeless skulls from Seeking Curios. (Rare success from Wander the Quarter and See the Sights; significantly more common from Wander the Quarter).
Of course, you could also do both (paying for the supplies for the deep blue heaven expeditions with the many whispered secrets you’ll get from Seeking Curios).
You can also decide based on what you want to grind at the same time as you’re looking for eyeless skulls.
Side Benefits of Seeking Curios:
[ul][li]Watchful boosts[/li][li]Raising Scholar of the Correspondence from 1 to 7 with the Correspondence-related option.
[/li][li]Nodules of Pulsating Amber (very rare success from poking about in the ruins, don’t expect to get any, but it’s massive profit if you do)[/li][li]Brass Rings (rare success for the infernal picnic, expect to get one to three, more if you’re lucky)[/li][li]More profit in the long run since you’re not spending expedition supplies to get the reward
[/li][/ul]Since it’s Christmas: The seasonally relevant option is that raising Scholar of the Correspondence lets you do more with pails of lacre and a semiotic monocle. However, you’ll probably want to raise it all the way to 10 if you’re doing that, which means spending a week or so in the Empress’s Court composing symphonies… which you may not feel like scheduling right now.
Also, as metasynthie said, you will get truly incredible amounts of Nightmares out of this. If you’re still in the first tier of the University, you can use an option there to decrease your Nightmares (first option for Enjoying the pace of academic life). Otherwise, social actions are the best. Or, I guess, cartloads of laudanum.
Side Benefits of Deep Blue Heaven:
[ul][li]Bottles of Airag (to grind for Master’s Blood)
[/li][li]Searing Enigmas (people like to stockpile these for the return of Seeking the Name and grinding for an Impossible Theorem)
[/li][li]Collections of Curiosities (Tomb-Colonists will pay a lot for these on their card)
[/li][li]Unearthly Fossils (can’t recall if there’s any real use for these) + Trembling Amber (same)[/li][li]Magnificent Diamonds (best way to get them besides using Criminals Favours; vital for the zubmarine grind)
[/li][li]Horsehead Amulets (protects you from death; only repeatable source)
[/li][li]Primeval Hints & Storm-Threnodies (you can get these through up-converting more easily, but still with high difficulty)[/li][li]Night-Whispers (two at once, when they come!)[/li][/ul]As far as I know (and someone should correct me if I’m wrong), this is the best way to get Night-Whispers for extra pails of lacre if you don’t want to deal with the Fidgeting Writer’s luck checks. Another seasonally relevant option!
I’ve done the skull grind five or six times; when I’m in a hurry, I just seek curios, when I’m not, I usually do a couple deep blue heaven expeditions in-between seeking curios.
edited by thedeadlymoose on 12/28/2015
The option was still there after I got the cinder, but this was like more than a year ago, and if I am remembering correctly :)
I’ve done it since getting a cinder… twice, even.
Actually, fallingkitten and I have recorded 2055 Seeking Curios results and can relatively positively say it takes about 50 actions to get an Eyeless Skull.
Wandering: 446 Normal, 16 Skulls, 3.46% chance of a Skull
Seeing the Sights: 164 Normal, 16 Skulls, 8.89% chance of a Skull
If they even out to 5% and 10%, that means each action in Seeking Curios has a 2% chance of a Skull, or averaging 50 actions per skull (250 per cinder). Grinding Revs would still be faster though. Deep Blue Heaven takes. Yikes, I forget how bad this is every time, 432 actions per Skull (2160 actions per cinder).
Does much of that data result from stopping at a Skull? Because it looks high to me (I have been using 3% for each). But yeah, Deep Blue Heaven is only worth it for the side-profits, which IIRC are significantly higher EPA if you’re careful about where you get supplies from.
No actually, it keeps going from skulls. Well, I mean, it stops at the last two skulls. But, other than that, no, they don’t. We’ve been recording everything, here, take a look:
Does that assume free nightmares reduction (i.e. were the nightmares a small enough problem that any actions spent on menace management were negligible)?
i got my bonehead by accident, then considered my options for a long time because i needed quite a few expeditions before i’m allowed to take the expedition into irrigo thingy.
i had to go out to sea or go into the sidestreets a few times to get rid of the stat-reducing cards that cough up because of that damnable skull.
They do now, but in the past going out to zee would clear your hand.