Some advice, please, on becoming a Person of Significance -
Stat grinding at this level isn’t that fun as I’m seeing paths which rather intersect (to get where I want to go):
Dangerous 95 > The Labyrinth of tigers: 1 (I do have access to area 0, because I worked on Shadowy earlier and got rats falling out of my ears) > Convert lots of things into Whispered Secrets > Expedition to the Cave of the Nadir > Scholar of the Correspondance > University
At this point, I’ve been working on Dangerous for a week with seeing my stats go from 50-ish to 74, which is good progress and all, but, err, boring. I had more fun if less profit going robbing in order to get gems for the jeweled cane.
Except for Weasels and Bats, I’m not seeing ways to acquire all the items for Mahongany Hall without buying them. Have I just not seen those storylets yet (and should I wait?)
Trade Secrets: I see that many suggest trading these for the items. However, will I need those any time soon or in the progress of becoming a PoS?
What is the ‘safest’ low-cost item to sell? I can probably get around 100 echoes without selling all of my rostygold/nevercold brass/silk/pearls, but I don’t want to sell, say, 10,000 rostygold if I promptly need it when I get to the next storyline.
You don’t need Nadir to access the university, but Tomb of the Seven which takes a lot less resources to get to. Doing the labyrinth of tigers first isn’t necessary.[li]
You have to buy most of the items for Mahogany Hall (but wait until you have 90+ shadowy or persuasive)
You probably won’t have an immediate use for Searing Enigmas, so no rush to convert trade secrets.
Keep a few thousand rostygold for Gang of Hoodlums. Keep a couple of thousand moon pearls because they come up sometimes. Silk and brass are not often used.
I’d say to convert trade secrets, because those enigmas are super useful quick echo sources. Also, for stats. Best way to train up is to spam social actions to accumulate second chances and burn those chances to raise stats. Also, have you reached the Hunting Beasts or the Black Ribbon yet? Those are the more fun Dangerous stories, before the Labyrinth and Beast Breeding.
The Gang of Hoodlums requires pretty much exactly 10,000 Rostygold, so more than a few thousand. And apparently Silk Scraps, or at least Surface Silk Scraps are useful over in Polythreme. Never seen much use for Nevercold Brass Slivers though, apart from trading them for Cryptic Clues in Ladybones Road.
One thing you will want to have done is writing a novel or epic poem for the court, and make sure that it isn’t a tale of the future. Otherwise it’ll be costly to deal with God’s Editors, and that’s just to avoid drawing their card over and over. You’ll also want a very low Scandal, and Society Connection 20 to qualify for the Parthenaeum challenge, because you’ll draw their card regardless of whether you’re qualified to play it. (Much like the ‘Presumptuous Opportunity’ card, except those ‘Welcome to PoSI’ gold-bordered cards are much more frequent.)
If you intend to find an Eyeless Skull for the Cave of the Nadir you might gain a lot of Nightmares, and before you’re a PoSI you can deal with those easily by using copious amounts of laudanum. Once you’re a PoSI that will have consequences, so that’s one reason to get that done with before taking the step into importance. You can also drink any remaining bottles of laudanum before then simply to boost your Hedonist to 10, if that’s something you’d want. And then use any remaining half-bottles of Tincture of Vigour to deal with the resulting Wounds. :)
I’ve gotten to both the Black Ribbon and Dangerous Beasts now, which has been, eh, probably because I was just doing a single challenge all week. Having both open now (I just started Beasts yesterday) does let me hop back and forth a bit which helps.
Sorry, I intended to say Tomb of the Seven - but in any case the problem of gathering supplies for expeditions remains, and I’ve heard the LoT is one of the easiest places to covert other things to Whispered Secrets. I also actually picked up a eyeless skull - and sold it, badly, to the bazaar!
Thank you for the notice on the Gang and need for Surface Silk. I’ll look into cashing out my brass then.
I haven’t touched my Persausive in weeks (except for using painting lessons as a nightmares cure). I’ve written two short stories of middling value which seemed not worth the time it took to make them - I’ll keep that detail in mind. I haven’t seen the Parthenaeum challenge though.
The Parthenaeum ‘challenge’ is a card that starts off your path to becoming a member of that club. It, and many other, similar cards, unlock once you’ve become a PoSI, and you have to play them all in order to move them from your deck to various gold-bordered storylets in the Bazaar Sidestreets.