Money-Making/Sources

From Fallen London Wiki

This is a list of money-making grinds currently available in the game. The best grinds are linked from subpages of the money-making guide. Try to avoid changing headings, as that will break the sections in the rest of the guide.

London Grinds[edit]

Can be done without leaving London.

Publishing Newspapers[edit]

Requirements

Expected EPA: 3.73 (3.93 with extra requirements, 4.21 when combined with Rat market)

Extra recommendations

Basic cycle

  1. Finish the 'The missing Woman' carousel in Wilmot's End to get 2 x Whirring Contraptions.
  2. Use them in Doubt Street to publish any edition requiring 104 pages of copy (note that this requires not taking 'Employ a little theatrical accountancy' option).

A full cycle is items worth 138 E for 37 actions, a total of 3.73 EPA.

With recommended

  2. Take only and all Salacious options including A column revealing certain facts about an acquaintance.
  3. Publish A gossipy and tantalising edition.

This will result in 148 x Journal of Infamy and 2 x Sulky Bats (by The interception of scandal). While slighting consumes 2 x Scraps of Incendiary Gossip, that is equivalent to 0.35 actions since you can Publish a seditious edition twice (also using slight) and earn 214 x Scrap of Incendiary Gossip in 37 actions. A full cycle is items worth 148.8 E for 37.35 actions, a total of 3.98 EPA.

If whomever you've Slighted retaliates, then this gives you a 12.5 E item for an extra action on that card. So this means 173.8 E over 39.35 actions = 4.416 EPA.

Mr Chimes' Grand Clearing-Out Unveiled activities[edit]

  • Expected EPA: Up to 3.8 EPA with Watchful 297

Mr Chimes' Grand Clearing-Out added five new activities similar to Brawling with Dockers. There are many differences from Brawling, but the most relevant to Money-Making are the lack of difficulty scaling and lack of caps on secondary rewards. This means that you can spend as long as you want raising progress quality simply by repeating the single most efficient option, allowing us to amortize actions spent on entering/claiming the rewards/exiting. Since one point of every progress quality is worth 0.1 E , EPA is essentially progress per action/10. Below are listed maximum EPAs for each activity.

For a detailed breakdown of options and rewards in these activities see respective guides - The Sunken Embassy (Guide), Underclay (Guide), The Spider Symposium (Guide), L. B. Industries (Guide), Hunting Bees in Old Newgate (Guide).

The Tomb of the Silken Thread[edit]

Requirements:

Expected EPA: 3.41

Brawling with Dockers[edit]

  • Requires high Dangerous
  • Expected EPA: 2.1-3.3

If you have unlocked Intervene in a Dockers' Brawl, you can use it to grind echoes with varying efficiency depending on whether you're fighting in group or solo, specific crates you pick and your Dangerous, Skills, BDR and items. For a detailed breakdown of options and rewards see Brawling with Dockers (Guide) - this grind focuses purely on earning eсhoes. Most relevant crates for that are:

While there's a large number of possible combinations of options, this guide focuses on establishing overall EPA ranges, and so only analyzes least-demanding and most-demanding strategies. Regarding the most demanding - with rare successes estimated at 25%, average Brawling per action gain is 14.25 (in group)/15.5 (solo) for BDR/Skill options, 14.25/16.25 for Airs options, and 11.625/14.125 for Fight without taking your eye off the goods! combined with Airs options (available 50% of the time on average). However, since Airs options are only possible to 100% after reducing their difficulty with accumulated Brawling, you can't use them from the start.

EPA ranges for the various combinations:

A Trade in Reputations[edit]

The strength of this grind is that it has very low base requirements, but you can make it harder and more profitable if you want to.

Around level 270 is needed in the main attributes for max EPA, but around level 200 should reach above 2.8 EPA, and you can modify the strategy based on your strengths.

Professional Activities[edit]

  • Requires a tier 3 Profession
  • Stat requirements depend on Profession and player progression
  • Expected EPA: At least 3.2-4.1, more for certain Professions and Specializations

See Professional Activities (Guide) for details. As the player progresses through the game and unlocks more content, more options will unlock in this wheel, causing it to grow in value over time. Certain rewards can also be exchanged for Rat-Shilling or Hinterland Scrip, improving profitability.

Hearts' Game[edit]

See Hearts' Game (Guide) for details. Stats have little effect on this grind, as the player earns Hearts' Game: Exploits regardless of their performance in Hearts' Game. Exploits can be cashed out for various T7 items. Of particular note are the Leviathan Frame, which can be profitably used in the Bone Market, and the Scrap of Ivory Organza, which can be offloaded profitably at the Rat-Market.

With access to the Bone Market and the ability to create Reptile and/or Fish skeletons, the strategy for Hinterland Scrip grinding detailed here can be used to generate up to 744 over 74 actions, or 10.05 SPA. Using Tinned Ham Arbitrage this becomes 393.13 E over 74 actions, or 5.31 EPA.

With access to the Khanate, the strategy outlined in detailed here can be used on the Salt Steppe Atlas gained from The dusty book to increase its EPA to 5.26.

University Laboratory Grinds[edit]

Require access to the University Laboratory.

This guide is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
What needs work: With recent changes to the Lab, lab research is rather less predictable. For instance, having a Secret College is helpful, and being a Correspondent with a high Scholar of the Correspondence level can be quite helpful. Because cards are undiscardable, the laboratory is harder to control. Simulation analyses are requested for the below projects.

Researching Impossible Theorems[edit]

Studying Queenly Attar[edit]

Forging Infernal Sharpshooter's Rifles[edit]

Creating Cartographer's Hoards[edit]

Bone Market Grinds[edit]

Assembling Fossilised Apes[edit]

Wiki note: As of 11 August 2022 Fossil Apes are no longer a viable grind, due to a increase in Fossilised Forelimb cost

Licentiate victim skeletons[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 3.81

Requirements

The cycle

  1. Supply a skeleton of your own
  2. Cap this with a victim's skull
  3. Declare it a humanoid
  4. Sell to the Theologian or Grandmother for 15 E worth of items, resulting in 3.75 EPA.

It's also possible to grind for scrip instead of echoes. At 30 per skeleton, after Tinned Ham Arbitrage this gives 3.81 EPA, not counting AP spent on travel.

Upper River Grinds[edit]

Require access to the Upper River.

Moulin Expeditions[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 3.97 to 4.71

Requirements

Take the Bandaged Navigator and Renegade Claw with you, equipping a Kataleptic Toxicology item, up to 3 Shapeling Arts items and as much Persuasive-reducing stuff as possible if you have a Transfixing Squirrel. If you don't have a Transfixing Squirrel, instead equip up to 3 Shapeling Arts items and as much Shadowy stuff as you can. While on the expedition, play any A Lesser Find cards you get, use obstacle cards to get out to Distance 8 before digging and heading back, making up any shortfall in supplies with Convince your team to keep going. For a list of which obstacle cards to play, and the order of preference for them (as well as a more detailed explanation of the grind more generally) see Moulin Expeditions (Guide).

This gives an EPA of between 4.18 and 4.43 depending on what equipment you have. If combined with writing Exceptional Monographs, which for 9 actions and 75 echoes worth of expedition materials give 119.5 echoes worth of various resources, EPA rises. If you can 100% relevant challenges (require Mithridacy 10/12, Glasswork 10 or Artisan of the Red Science 10 depending on challenge), it gives an EPA of between 4.59 and 4.70. For a more detailed explanation of writing Monographs more generally see Writing a Monograph (Guide).

The City of the Tracklayers[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 5 to 5.20, with the Rat Market up to 6.20 EPA

Requirements

  • Railway fully built
  • Built The City of the Tracklayers
  • Hinterland Efficiency raised to 300
  • Late-game stats

See The City of the Tracklayers (Guide)

Larcenies with Parabolan Casing[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 4.10

Requirements

  • Access to Balmoral
  • Shadowy 300
  • A Marauder of the Clay Highwayman
  • One of
    • Glasswork 12
    • Kataleptic Toxicology 12 and Acicular Squirrel (WHITSUN)

The cycle

  1. In your Parabolan Base-Camp, repeat the following sequence 9 times:
    1. Find the weakness in an opponent's defences
    2. Apply your own knowledge (Glasswork) or Allow your Acicular Squirrel to lead you (Kataleptic Toxicology)
    3. Sneak forward
    4. Case the place

Each subcycle yields 28 CP Casing..., so repeating 9 times is 252 CP Casing... for 36 actions.

  2. Enter A hidden camp nestled in the woods of Balmoral.
  3. Do seven second-tier larcenies.

Total payout depends on how often can you draw Larceny at Balmoral. Without Burrow, this happens 1/2 of the time: the average payout is 25.2 E per larceny, or 176.4 E for 43 actions, a total of 4.10 EPA.

With Burrow, this happens 1/3 of the time: the average payout is 25.13E per larceny, or 175.93 E for 43 actions, a total of 4.09 EPA.

Larcenies with Helicon Casing[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 4.09 EPA

Requirements:

Recommended

The cycle

6 actions for 3 x Intriguing Snippet (0.6 echoes), 2 x Extraordinary Implication (5 echoes), 20 x Solacefruit ( 20 x Hinterland Scrip or 10.16 echoes), 14 CP Casing..., 2 CP Fascinating... and 2 CP Investigating.... Since you can spend 36 CP in one action for ~25.13 echoes (as outlined in Parabolan Larcenies above), 14 CP Casing can be abstracted as additional 0.38 actions/9.774 echoes. Every 104 loops, you Show your Pendant of Helicon Amber at the door, enter with No one!, use one of +3 Fitting in at Helicon House options (Join in with a Rubbery Euphonium, Contribute some extra practitioners, Encourage the Boneless Pianist to join in) and Attract a companion for the rest of the evening, spending 208 CP and three actions for 70.06 echoes - therefore, 2 CP Fascinating can be abstracted as additional 0.028 actions and 0.673 echoes. Since Investigating lacks good cash-outs, 2 CP Investigating can be disregarded.

Total - (6 + 0.38 + 0.028) 6.408 actions for (0.6 + 5 + 10.16 + 9.774 + 0.673) 26.207 echoes. 4.089 EPA. (Discounting actions spent on travel, since Casing... can be stockpiled indefinitely.)

Holding your breath in the Hurlers[edit]

Requirements:

Requires high Dangerous, and access to The Hurlers, the eighth station of the Railway. Relies on Hurlers: Darkness manipulation and holding your breath underwater, plus requires Correspondence Plaques. Generates large amounts of Final Breath for Tinned Ham Arbitrage. (Source)

  1. Start with Stoking the Stove 1 and 7 Darkness (this is the state immediately after bringing the stove back to the station).
  2. Add more plaques to the stove 9 times (this drops Darkness to 1 + 0 CP and raises Stoking the Stove to 4 + 0 CP). This costs 9 actions and 63 Correspondence Plaques.
  3. Perform the following loop 9 times:
    1. Hold your breath underwater (raises Darkness to 2 + 0 CP). This costs 1 action and gains 22 Breaths. (Holding your breath underwater gives an amount of Final Breath dependent on Darkness)
    2. Add more plaques to the stove (drops Darkness to 0, raises Stoking the Stove by 1 CP). This costs 1 action and 7 Plaques.
    3. Hold your breath underwater twice. The first time gets you 23 Final Breaths (0 Darkness), the second gets you 22. This costs 2 actions and gains 45 Final Breaths (it also raises Darkness to 2 + 1 CP)
    4. Add more plaques to the stove (drops Darkness to 1 + 0 CP, raises Stoking the Stove by 1 CP). This costs 1 action and 7 Plaques.
  4. Each iteration of the loop costs 5 actions and 14 Plaques, raises Stoking the Stove by 2 CP, and gains 67 Breaths. So, performing 9 iterations costs 45 actions and 126 Plaques, raises Stoking the Stove to 7 + 0 CP and gains 603 Breaths.
  5. Hold your breath underwater 14 times.
    1. The first time gives 22 Final Breaths (1 Darkness)
    2. The second and third give 21 Breaths (2 Darkness)
    3. The fourth and fifth give 19 Breaths (3 Darkness)
    4. The sixth and seventh give 16 Breaths (4 Darkness)
    5. The eighth to tenth give 12 Breaths (5 Darkness)
    6. The eleventh to fourteenth give 8 Breaths (6 Darkness)
  6. In total, this costs 14 actions and gains 202 Breaths.
  7. Add more plaques to the stove. Since you now have Stoking the Stove 7, this sets it to 8. This also gives 2 CP of Scandal (Tracklayers' Displeasure is ignored, since its effects are insignificant). This costs 1 action and 7 Plaques.
  8. Now you need to hunt the stove down. This is technically card-dependent, but it's a 10x frequency card in a smaller deck so you shouldn't have much trouble. If you succeed all the checks, this costs 4 actions and gets you 5E worth of bats. This returns you to where you started, with 7 Darkness and Stoking the Stove 1.

In total you spend 73 actions and 196 Plaques for 805 Final Breaths (which are worth 408.94E when we convert via Tinned Ham) and 5E.

In order to make this a self-contained grind, the necessary Correspondence Plaques must be obtained from somewhere. The best way to get them is by publishing Salacious newspapers with all of the special options for Journals of Infamy (the Scraps of Incendiary Gossip needed for the social action can be obtained by publishing seditious editions: see Publishing a Newspaper (Guide) for more details) and cross-converting them. Doing this gets you ~6.76 Plaques per action, so obtaining the 196 Plaques necessary costs 28.98 actions (101.98 actions total).

However, this grind involves a number of difficult Dangerous checks. Hold your breath underwater has difficulty 190 (needs 317 Dangerous to 100%), and bringing the stove back requires succeeding a difficulty 280 check 3 times (impossible to 100%), though this can be substituted with a difficulty 310 Shadowy check (not considered here). The final EPA is calculated for two different Dangerous values: 317 (minimum to 100% the Hold your breath underwater check - technically obtainable, but out of reach for most characters) and 288 (maximum obtainable without mood/fate/ambition/profession/destiny/spouse/club items). Menaces must also be taken into account - it is assumed here that all menaces are cleared at 6 CP per action using social actions.

With 317 Dangerous, the difficulty 190 check on Hold your breath underwater never fails, and the difficulty 280 check on Challenge it with your fists succeeds 67% of the time. Since you need three successes, the expected number of failures is 1.478. Each failure incurs 3 CP of Wounds and each success incurs 1 CP, so the expected amount of Wounds incurred is 7.432 CP. You also get 2 CP of Scandal when the stove escapes, so in total the expected number of actions spent clearing menaces is 1.572. The final action cost is therefore 105.03, for 3.94 EPA.

  • If you are a Monster-Hunter, you can Spear it with your harpoon instead of trying to pass Dangerous challenge to capture the stove. While this adds 2 actions, it also removes actions spent on failing challenges (-1.478), clearing Wounds (-1.238), and grinding Correspondence Plaques - each spearing gives 2 on average, so per five spearings you get 10 total, removing 1.47 actions. The final action cost is therefore 102.84, for 4.02 EPA.

With 288 Dangerous, the Hold your breath underwater check has a 90% success chance, and the Challenge it with your fists check has a 61% success chance. You need 37 successes when holding your breath, so the expected number of failures is 4.111 (incurring 8.222 CP of Wounds). You need 3 successes when bringing the stove back, so the expected number of failures is 1.918 (incurring 5.754 CP of Wounds from failures, and 3 CP from successes). The expected number of actions spent on menace reduction is 3.163, and the final action cost is 111.17, for 3.72 EPA.

  • If you are a Monster-Hunter, you can Spear it with your harpoon instead of trying to pass Dangerous challenge to capture the stove. While this adds 2 actions, it also removes actions spent on failing challenges (-1.478), clearing Wounds (-1.238), and grinding Correspondence Plaques - each spearing gives 2 on average, so per five spearings you get 10 total, removing 1.47 actions. The final action cost is therefore 108.98, for 3.79 EPA.

Evenlode Diving[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 3.87

Requirements

The cycle

  1. Dive in the Magistracy
    1. Descend in your Watchful outfit
    2. Dive deeper five times
    3. Search the lowest Floors until Nightmares 7
    4. ASCEND!
  2. Return to London to clear menaces with social actions
  3. Return to the Magistracy
  4. Repeat diving and clearing menaces five times

Starting at Nightmares 0, on average you spend 115 actions per dive, for 27000 x Jade Fragments, 360 x First City Coins and 180 x Trace of the First City. Per 5 dives you spend 575 actions for 135000 x Jade Fragments, 1800 x First City Coins and 900 x Trace of the First City.

  2. Write monographs about the Fourth City 12 times (travel is amortized)
    1. Investigate the Fourth City's decline or Investigate the Fourth City's War against Hell
    2. Examine First City Coins thrice
    3. Examine traces of the First City thrice
    4. Conclude a long thesis on the subject
    5. Sell to The Disgraced Diplomat

Per monograph you spend 9 actions, 150 x First City Coins and 75 x Trace of the First City for 1 x Bottle of Greyfields 1882 (0.02 E ) and 108.712 E (after Tinned Ham Arbitrage). Per 12 monographs you spend 108 actions, clear your First City Coins Traces of the First City for 1304.544 E .===

With 5 dives and 12 monographs you spend 683 actions for 2654.544 E . yielding 3.866 EPA.

If you clear Nightmares at the Nadir, and exit by converting Final Breaths into Mortifications, you spend 659 actions for 2779.544 (counting Mortifications at 62.5 echoes). yielding 4.218 EPA.

Selling very advanced identities[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 3.67 EPA

Requirements:

Recommended

The main idea of this grind is making a cover identity with maximum nuance, credentials, witnesses and elaboration and 500 points of backstory. The biggest part of this grind is grinding 20 x Mortification of a Great Power in the Sunken Embassy, so watchful is definitely the most important stat in this grind.

This should take 429.97 actions for an item worth 1560 echoes and 16 echoes in beeswax, so 3.67 EPA.

Deciphering Documents[edit]

Expected EPA: Up to 3.86

After reaching Balmoral and setting up a Cabinet Noir, you can intercept documents and decipher them for various rewards - it's recommended to have at least A Player of Chess 7, Watchful 292 and Shadowy 300, and for maximum efficiency you need to be a Midnighter. The main documents sources are:

There are two ways to earn Deciphering..., both more efficient if you're a Midnighter:

For dealing with Suspicion you need to earn Disappearing... through covering your tracks (which is also more efficient if you're a Midnighter), with 5/6 CP per action. As Eliminate a good deal of suspicion action requires 11/10 additional actions to earn Disappearing... 10 and eliminates 33 CP, 1 CP Suspicion can be abstracted as 0.36/0.33 actions. Therefore, EPA of deciphering depends on specific document, your A Player of Chess level and whether you're a Midnighter:

  • Intercept a piece of post requires 1 action to start, 3/2 actions to decipher, and 1 action to finish, with a total of 5/4 actions for 12.508 E . 2.5026/3.127 EPA.
  • Intercept a message requires 3.258/3.249 actions to start, 24/20/18/14 actions to decipher, and 1 action to finish, with a total of 28.258-18.249 actions for 62.5 E . 2.211-3.424 EPA.
  • Steal a curious document from the Tracklayers' Office requires 1.172/1.166 actions to start, 24/20/18/14 actions to decipher, and 1 action to finish, with a total of 26.172-16.166 actions for 62.5 E . 2.388-3.866 EPA.

Marigold Emblems[edit]

Expected EPA: 3.76 EPA

  • Expects main attributes at 300

After reaching Marigold Station you can take commissions from Gnarled Stationmaster (or, if he's replaced by Cerise Condottiere, from him - mechanically they're identical) for various rewards. For maximum efficiency you need to have Persuasive, Watchful and Dangerous all at 300, Jericho Library 2, and clear menaces using social actions, at 6 CP per action. Steps:

With 90% chances on all challenges, on average you spend 3.1 actions and gain 0.8 CP Menaces for (again, depending on The Marigold Bearer's Fate) Verse of Counter-Creed, Cave-Aged Code of Honour or Brass Ring. Per 15 emblems on average you spend 46.5 actions and gain 12 CP Menaces for 5 x Verse of Counter-Creed, 5 x Cave-Aged Code of Honour (62.5 E ) and 5 x Brass Ring (62.5 E ). With two additional actions spent clearing Menaces and five spent cashing out Verses for 150 x Hinterland Scrip (76.2 E ), the full cycle is 53.5 actions for 201.2 E . 3.76 EPA. (Discounting actions spent on travel, since Verses can be stockpiled indefinitely.)

If you have 334 in one of the stats and therefore have 100% chance on one of the challenges, on average you spend 3.06 actions and gain 0.53 CP Menaces per emblem. Per 600 emblems on average you spend 1836 actions and gain 318 CP Menaces for 200 x Verse of Counter-Creed, 200 x Cave-Aged Code of Honour (2500 E ) and 200 x Brass Ring (2500 E ). With 53 additional actions spent clearing Menaces and 200 spent cashing out Verses for 6000 x Hinterland Scrip (3048 E ), the full cycle is 2089 actions for 8048 E . 3.85 EPA.

If you have A Submerged Rector you can draw cards in Upper River and boost EPA somewhat, cashing out Verses partially (since you probably can't draw enough cards for them all) through Noisily subvert the entire process for 36 instead of 30 Scrip per Verse.

Ealing Spa[edit]

Expected EPA: 3.02

Since basic options are included in Simplest Endgame Grinds, this grind describes how to get the absolute most from the spa.

Eversmoulder Trips[edit]

Expected EPA: 3.215

After reaching Jericho Locks and raising A Member of the Gondoliers to 6, you can convert various resources into Esteem of the Guild and spend it on trips to various destinations. Most profitable destination is the Eversmoulder, on average giving 1 x Primaeval Hint (62.5 E ), 2.5 x Uncanny Incunabulum (31.25 E ) and 18 x Moves in the Great Game (9.144 E ) for a total of 102.894 E . If you are a Crooked-Cross, not a Lyon Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary and have unlocked Parabolan War, the following loop is possible:

32 actions for 102.894 E . 3.215 EPA.

Alternatively, if you're gaining Esteem through Watch a parade, getting favours at roughly one per action rate from cards in London or Moulin (with Moulin Commemorative Development exactly 22) and traveling to Jericho every time you accumulate 5, you spend 15 actions getting favours, 3 watching parades, 6 traveling (gaining additional 15 E from 6 x Rumour of the Upper River and 2 on trip itself. 26 actions for 117.894 E - 4.534 EPA.

Helicon House Grinds[edit]

Require access to the Helicon House.

Fate-free Casing...-based grind

  • 2nd Phase:
  • Alternate between the two phases
  • Gives a total of 635 Scrip per 106 actions, i.e. 5.99 SPA (plus 0.14 EPA on average, depending on entrance method)

This equals 3.18 EPA when converted through Tinned Ham.

By using Join in with a Rubbery Euphonium 2 or another 3 Fitting in action instead, you reach 6.27 SPA. This equals 3.33 EPA when converted through Tinned Ham.

Fate-free Casing...-based grind (with the Morally and Physically Flexible Rubbery Cat HALLOWMAS)

  • 2nd Phase:
  • Gives a total of 680 Scrip per 112 actions, i.e. 6.07 SPA (plus 0.16 EPA on average, depending on entrance method).

This equals 3.24 EPA when converted through Tinned Ham.

By using Join in with a Rubbery Euphonium 2 or another 3 Fitting in action instead, you reach 6.34 SPA. This equals 3.38 EPA when converted through Tinned Ham.

FATE-locked Fitting In-based grind

  • Rotation
    • Use your Pendant to arrive late at the party with 2 Fitting In (3 with applicable Companion).
    • Spend 3 actions gaining 9 more Fitting In.
    • Forget the biscuits, take the Solacefruit on your way out, gaining 20 Solacefruit and 11-12 Peppercaps.
  • Gives a total of 31-32 Scrip for 5 actions, worth 6.20-6.40 SPA.

This reaches 3.25 EPA when converted through Tinned Ham.

Unterzee Grinds[edit]

Require a Ship.

Khaganian Intrigue[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 4.1 (5.10 with Rat Market)
  • Requires access to Khan's Heart

By setting up a Cover Identity and zailing across the zee, you can play a number of Intrigues at Khan's Heart - however, you need to ensure that your Cover Identity and your chosen outfit permits you to 100% the challenges to increase you Intrigue in all hours in the Khanate day cycle. See the guide for details on such outfits. The main intrigues for earning money are:

All of these intrigues cost Intercepted Cablegrams, and there are two ways to get those:

Possible combinations include:

With Strength of your Khaganian Network 20, An opportunity: (Opportunity) becomes available, which takes 1 x Emetic Revelation (12.5 E ) and can yield 62.5 E worth of items for 12 actions for ideally 4.17 EPA. The upside of this method is that the sequence of Opportunities is deterministic and good cycles exist which only give you sellable items. The downside is that you need Emetic Revelations to do this. If you grind them by using options which yield Khanite currency, convert that into light bulbs and sell these in London, one Revelation will take about 3.66 actions. This will lower the efficiency of that grind to just about 4 EPA.

The Court of the Wakeful Eye[edit]

After completing Associating with Radical Academics storyline, The Court of the Wakeful Eye lets you exchange various Favours and items for Tribute, up to 260. Zailing to the Court takes 6 actions, and returning to London takes 8 if you use Zubmarine or Majestic Pleasure Yacht/7 if you use Swift Zee-Clipper or The Cladery Heart, for a total of 14/13 actions per trip. At the Court, 20 Tribute can be exchanged for 62.5 E worth of items in 4 actions, up to 812.5 E /52 actions per trip. The most efficient strategies are:

Winsome Dispossessed Orphan grind[edit]

Expected EPA: 1.80 (4.79 with Rat Market)

  • Buy 10 Winsome Dispossessed Orphans from the Bazaar for 648 E
  • Exchange them for 250 Tribute in 10 actions
  • Zail to the Court in 6 actions
  • Turn 240 Tribute into 750 E worth of items (1020 with Rat Market) in 48 actions
  • Return in 8/7 actions
  • Buy another 10 Winsome Dispossessed Orphans from the Bazaar for 648 E
  • exchange them for 250 Tribute in 10 actions
  • Zail to the Court in 6 actions
  • Turn 260 Tribute into 812.5 E worth of items (1105 with Rat Market) in 52 actions
  • Return in 8/7 actions.

148/146 actions for 266.5 E - 1.80/1.83 EPA (with Rat Market, 173/171 actions, 829 E - 4.79/4.85 EPA)

Mountain-sherd grind[edit]

Requirements

Expected EPA: 3.30 EPA (4.28 with Rat market)

231/230 actions for 762.625 E - 3.301/3.315 EPA.

Favour grind (using cards)[edit]

Requirements

Expected EPA: 5.54 (6.48 with Rat market)

  • Using opportunity cards, gain Favours with either the Docks, Bohemians, the Church, Society, or Criminals.
  • Every time you have 7 favours of the same faction, exchange them for 23 Tribute. Assuming 1 action/card per Favour, you get 241-263 Tribute in 88 actions, depending on leftovers from previous trips.
  • Zail to the Court in 6 actions.
  • Turn 260 Tribute into 812.5/875 E worth of items in 52/56 actions, depending on whether the tribute 260 or more.
  • Return in 8/7 actions.

The 260 Tribute case occurs in 4/20 or 1/5 cases, so on average 147.8/148.8 actions for 825 E - 5.54/5.58 EPA. Options which give more than 1 Favour per action and/or give additional profit (e.g. A Visit, More Larks with the Young Stags, The Calendrical Confusion of 1899, fate-locked Restoring souls from A Trade in Souls, The Tower of Eyes if you have Augmented Electrostatic Machine, professional payments, etc.) will increase the EPA further, while options that consume items and/or give menaces (faction cards, for example) will lower the EPA.

The Maze-Garden[edit]

Expected EPA: 4.36-5.08 See The Maze-Garden (Guide) for full information on the carousel.

Parabola Grinds[edit]

Require access to the Parabolan Base-Camp.

Forcing Stalemates[edit]

Expected EPA: 4.27 for midnighters and 4.05 for others

Requirements

Recommended


Gathering cycle:

9 actions for a Vienna Opening (5 Hinterland Scrip), mate (50 Hinterland Scrip) and 138 Well-Placed Pawns. Per 60 cycles you spend 540 actions for 3300 Hinterland Scrip and 8280 Well-Placed Pawns.

Spending cycle:

9 actions and 360 Well-Placed Pawns for a Vienna Opening (5 Hinterland Scrip) and a Stalemate (125 Hinterland Scrip). Per 23 cycles you spend 207 actions and 8280 Well-Placed Pawns for 2990 scrip.

With 60 gathering and 23 spending cycles you have no leftover pawns, spending 747 actions for 6290 Scrip/3195.32 echoes - 4.277 EPA.

If you are NOT a Midnighter, the value is lessened somewhat at A Player of Chess 13: you lose the Vienna Opening and gain 10 (for a total of 148) Well-Placed Pawns. At 90 cycles (810 actions), get 4500 Hinterland Scrip (in Queen and Epaulette mates) and 13320 Well-Placed Pawns. Spending cycles (37 of them) are 333 actions and 37 Stalemates worth 4625 scrip. 1143 actions for 9125 Scrip/4635.5 echoes yields 4.055 EPA (7.983 SPA). This decreases with less aPoC; 12 aPoC gives 4.026 EPA (7.925 SPA). [NOTE: If you find the loss (or gain) of Advancing the Liberation of Night distasteful, you can use the Endgame 'Betray' action to switch to the opposite side. You can stay on those pieces as long as you want--the AtLoN check won't apply.]

Parabolan War[edit]

The strategy for Parabolan wars is complicated, and you're recommended to check Parabolan War (Guide) for a calculator to find your specific EPA. The profitability is boosted by doing the Cat campaign and selling the Parable on the rat market.

Based on the default calculator at end-game stats, this should reach at least 5.4 EPA with the rat market.

Oneiropomping[edit]

Requires access to Viric Jungle. While this grind only describes two loops and doesn't count rare successes, there are many more possible strategies - it's possible that more profitable loops exist.

First loop requires Persuasive 292 to 100%:

7 actions for 2 Sworn Statements, 10 Intriguing Snippets and, on average, 105 Sighting of a Parabolan Landmark - 17.5 echoes in total, 2.5 EPA.

Second loop requires The Marvellous and Glasswork 15 to 100%:

11 actions for, on average, 1 Comprehensive Bribe, 15 Intriguing Snippets and 180 Sighting of a Parabolan Landmark - 33.5 echoes in total, 3.045 EPA.

Waswood Shore[edit]

Requirements

Expected EPA: 3+

Repeatedly Reach towards the shore with Airs 50+. Note that Airs can be shuffled at no action cost by leaving and returning to the Waswood, so it is not necessary to take the less profitable option.

Specifically, this stated EPA depends on the probability of rare success getting the Airag. Then we can calculate the expectation, so let's do the math!

Firstly, we assume that the probability of the normal failure and alternative failure are equal (25% each, for an overall failure rate of 50%), and also thusly that the game's stated overall failure/success probability of 50% is in fact true. We will also assume no value for Expertise of the 2nd/4th city (the writer pulls the old "leaving that as an exercise to the reader" trick), but they do have some value in the lab. Now, since we don't know the true rate of rare success, we assign it the variable , representing the percent chance of rare success (overall—NOT the probability that a given success will be rare [though that should in this case just be ]), which makes the probability of a normal success (0.5 - ).

Now, we consider the values of each outcome by their sell values:

  • normal failure: 0.45 E , with a probability of 0.25
  • alt failure: 0.95 E , with a probability of 0.25
  • success: 5 E , with a probability of (0.5 - )
  • rare success: 62.5E , with a probability of

This gives us an expectation

If only there was a way to visualize how our EPA changed with different values of numbers... Oh right, graphing! From this plot we can see the following results:

  • Without any Airag at all, this generates an expected 2.765 EPA
  • This hits 3 EPA at ~0.4% rare success rate.
  • At 1% rare success, we get 3.34 EPA. At 2%, 3.915 EPA. 3%, 4.49 EPA! (These higher probabilities are likely not the case, however—more data is needed.)

It's important to note that it does cost an action to enter as well as 100/50 drops of honey, so when calculating your final EPA, you'll need to multiply by a factor of where is your actions spent reaching, then subtract your personal honey cost. You also don't have access to any cards, which can be significant depending on your goals and playstyle.

Ultimately, we really need a large sample size to determine the small mystery probability and until that data is collected, it's hard to say just how profitable this should be. It's important to remember that even with an expectation of some EPA, it is just that—an expectation: while one can expect to approach that number if you try enough times, it can take a very long (technically infinitely long) to reach it. This is ultimately still an RNG grind, and some will be luckier than others. So while this analysis was prompted by my annoyance at the vagueness of the stated "3+" expected EPA, I now believe that it's possibly in fact the best way to succinctly present the results. Go figure.

Still, this has the potential to be a very simple, very profitable grind especially for those like me who have very middling stats (low 100s), unlocked parabola quickly before anything else, and are basically flat broke.

Rat Market Grinds[edit]

A player-created Guide is available for this content: The Rat Market (Guide)

These grinds require efficiently obtaining items that can be sold at the Rat Market for Rat-shillings at a better rate than their sell price elsewhere. Each Rat-shilling is worth E 0.10.

Any grind requires cashing out during the appropriate Rat-Season. Take a look at the guide to plan out your grinds.

Items that sell higher at The Rat Market:

Once you have Rat-shillings, you can convert them to Echoes or Hinterland Scrip by spending the shillings on items to resell at the Bazaar or in the Upper River.

Rat Market items that can be sold elsewhere:

The Fabulous Diamond profit can be increased by E 10 per diamond by trading it in The Hurlers for Hinterland Scrip. This requires Hurlers Commercial Development 2, and costs actions for the trade and for travelling to and from the Upper River. The action cost can be mitigated by saving diamonds to trade all in one trip.

  • Trade one diamond for 625 (at value, as 1 is equal to E 0.50), plus E 5 in Stolen Kisses.
  • Spend the scrip on 5 x Tinned Ham at 125 (equal to E 62.50) each.
  • Sell the ham to the Bazaar for E 63.50 each, a profit of E 1 per ham (E 5 total per diamond).

Publishing Newspapers (Rat Market)[edit]

Expected EPA: 4.21

You can grind Uncanny Incunabula to sell during The Rat-Season: Skitter-Scatter, Dimmest-Dark or Freeze-and-Fall. Since the exact calculations are relatively complicated, they require a spreadsheet - below is a brief summary:

  • Out of 104 copy editions, The finest kind of madness is the most efficient since all gained items can be upconverted into Incunabula - however, it requires you to have built a station at Jericho Locks. Per two newspapers you spend 37 actions to get 236 x Journal of Infamy and 8 x Extraordinary Implication. Accounting for spending Connected: Benthic (assumed to be gained through through buying Flasks of Abominable Salts and directing grants) and additional items (in particular, Storm-Threnodies are assumed to be sold on Rat Market as well) on successes and rare successes (assumed 10% chance with Journals and 5% chance with Implications, for the 54/6/40 and 57/3/40 success/rare success/failure spreads respectively), upconversion of those items and selling them in bulk in addition to newspapers themselves can be abstracted as 48.959 actions for 203.804 E - 4.162 EPA.
  • With slight editions, you spend 38.73 actions for 296 x Journal of Infamy and 4 x Sulky Bat (0.8 E ). Accounting for additional factors as described above, upconversion and selling in bulk in addition to newspapers themselves 52.606 actions for 221.414 E - 4.208 EPA.

Mr Chimes' Grand Clearing-Out Unveiled activities (Rat Market)[edit]

Expected EPA: Up to 4.39

Each of the five activities has at least one reward that can be sold or converted into a sellable item.

Brawling with Dockers (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: Up to 3.37

You can grind Ratty Reliquaries to sell during The Rat-Season: Vial-Vane, Take-and-Toil or Wine-Whisper:

Deciphering Documents (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: Up to 4.415

You can grind Night-Whispers to sell during The Rat-Season: Dimmest-Dark, Freeze-and-Fall, Lying-Longing by intercepting and deciphering a message. With one additional action to Sell a Night-Whisper for 850 Rat-Shillings, you spend 29.258-19.249 actions for 85 E - 2.905-4.415 EPA.

Evenlode Diving (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 3.92-4.59

You can grind Uncanny Incunabula to sell during The Rat-Season: Skitter-Scatter, Dimmest-Dark or Freeze-and-Fall. Since the exact calculations are relatively complicated, they require a spreadsheet. In short, the difference from basic diving stars after the diving itself - Jade Fragments are upconverted, not sold, and the resulting Relics of the Third City together with First City Coins are used to publish purely Tragic Monographs (start with Chronicle the history of Gaider's Mourn or Chronicle the history of Port Carnelian and sell to The Militant Curate), while Traces of the First City are used to publish purely Cautionary Monographs (start with Investigate the Fourth City's decline and sell to The Exiled Antiquarian). Accounting for spending Connected: Benthic (assumed to be gained through through buying Flasks of Abominable Salts and directing grants) and additional items on successes and rare successes (assumed 5% chance, for the 57/3/40 success/rare success/failure spread), upconversion of Implications and selling resulting Incunabula in bulk in addition to diving/monographs themselves can be abstracted as 219.045 actions for 860.129 E - 3.926 EPA.

If you clear Nightmares at the Nadir, convert Breaths to Mortifications on exit and have a few Ironic materials to make exceptional monographs, then it is 214.045 actions for 957.629 E - 4.474 EPA

With Connected: Benthic obtained from exhibiting a Leviathan Frame with a St. John Head and 2 Holy Thighs 3 times (with a custom-saint statue in Burrow), it is 211.045 actions for 968.129 E - 4.587 EPA

Marigold Emblems (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 3.94

You can cash out Verses of Counter-Creed through Correct a Verse of Counter-Creed instead of Lend religiously, selling resulting Uncanny Incunabula during The Rat-Season: Skitter-Scatter, Dimmest-Dark or Freeze-and-Fall - correspondingly, you need A Church in the Wild 50 instead of Jericho Library 2.

  • With all three stats at 300 bulk selling adds 1 action and 8.8 E with total 54.5 actions for 210 E - 3.85 EPA.
  • With 334 in one stat, bulk selling adds 40 actions and 352 E with total 2129 actions for 9400 E - 3.94 EPA.

Eversmoulder trips (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 3.51

You can sell Uncanny Incunabula during The Rat-Season: Skitter-Scatter, Dimmest-Dark or Freeze-and-Fall. With 2.5 Incunabula per trip on average it adds 0.5 actions and 11.25 echoes to the grind. In Crooked Cross version you spend 32.5 actions for 114.144 E - 3.512 EPA. In Docks version you spend 26.5 actions for 129.144 E - 4.873 EPA.

Khaganian Intrigue (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: Up to 5.135

Many intrigues and other activities have rewards that can be sold or converted into a sellable item. You can:

The Court of the Wakeful Eye (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: Up to 4.58 (6.48+ with cards)

You can grind Night-Whispers to sell during The Rat-Season: Dimmest-Dark, Freeze-and-Fall, Lying-Longing:

Combination Tribute Grinds[edit]

The above three methods all have disadvantages: Favours has the highest EPA but relies on card draws which limits realtime output, Orphans requires a large amount of starting cash, Mountain Sherds is fully grindable but has lower EPA, and both orphans and sherds have some inefficiency due to not getting 13 items on every trip. However, they can be combined in various ways to maintain full efficiency for each voyage while reducing some of the disadvantages of each individual tribute source, and to provide flexibility.

Requirements

The below table assumes that all tribute is turned in for Night-Whispers, which are then sold to the Rat Market during the weekends that it buys them. Actions are listed for twenty tribute cycle/trips, including zailing with a zub or yacht (14 actions); for the zee-clipper, subtract 1 action per trip, and for the tramp steamer, add 2. Favours are assumed to require 1 action each, and have no other cost; in reality, occasionally drawing A Visit (or, after finishing Associating with a Youthful Naturalist, The Seekers of the Garden) will slightly reduce total actions for favours, but this will be balanced by the minor item/menace costs for many of them. Below table is for 20 cycles, with leftover tribute applied each cycle. If Favours are applied to top out at 260, 261, 262, 263--with the over-cap 1,2,3 tribute being discarded prior to the zail--the EpA increases somewhat.

Favours (initial) Sherds (/cycle) Orphans (/cycle) Initial cash (/cycle) Total actions EPA EPA (overcap)
77 0 0 0 E 3069 6.45 6.47
35 0 4 259.20 E 3358 6.02 6.05
56 1 1 64.80 E 3100 6.27 6.27
42 2 2 129.60 E 2908 6.01 6.04
14 1 5 324.00 E 3293 5.83 5.83
0 0 8 518.40 E 3605 5.78 5.78
42 4 0 0 E 2510 5.99 6.08
21 3 3 194.40 E 2838 5.76 5.80
0 2 6 388.80 E 3420 5.70 5.70
0 4 4 259.20 E 2760 5.51 5.60
7 6 2 129.60 E 2178 5.25 5.40
0 10 0 0 E 1730 4.79 4.79

Parabolan War (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 4.49

You can grind Parabolan Parables to sell during The Rat-Season: Kifer-Caitiff, Skitter-Scatter or Dimmest-Dark. The strategy is largely the same, except that since Yourself campaign doesn’t give Parables, the next best thing is The Cats (for Parable you need to Encourage the Prince to reject the King's offer) - this campaign only adds two extra actions. Adding third to Sell a Parabolan Parable for 4000 Rat-Shillings makes the total 89 actions for 400 E - 4.494 EPA.

Oneiropomping (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 3.28

With Marvellous loop you can grind Uncanny Incunabula to sell during The Rat-Season: Skitter-Scatter, Dimmest-Dark or Freeze-and-Fall, choosing to Take charge of the Honey-Addled Detective and Extract clues from his thoughts instead of corresponding Sculptress options. You spend 11 actions for, on average, 1 x Uncanny Incunabulum, 9 x Appalling Secret and 180 x Sighting of a Parabolan Landmark. Additional action to Sell an Uncanny Incunabulum for 200 Rat-Shillings, turning Incunabulum into 20 E . 12 actions for 39.35 E - 3.279 EPA.

Heists of the Wellspring (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 4.92

Requirements

Beneficial

By running expeditions to The Wellspring of Moulin with the Bandaged Navigator and the Miniature Major-General, you can gain 4 x Flask of Waswood Wellspring Water in exchange for (on average) 21.96 actions 100 x Piece of Rostygold and 10 . These flasks can be converted to Hiding Place of a Peculiar Item via Search Parabola for a Place in the Neath, for an average of ~5.09 actions each with 280 Shadowy, 12 Glasswork. Gaining Casing... from Search Parabola for a Place in the Neath (average 4.07 actions, plus 1 and 100 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey to enter Parabola) and then doing heists of The shaded estate on Hemlock Row (average 10.11 actions with 11 Glasswork and 10.04 with 12, ~0.001% chance of a heist ending in failurea and thus ~0.0005% chance of a heist resulting in jail time without a quick switch to an outfit with -2 Suspicion, or some social actions followed by a -1 Suspicion outfit) gives 1 x Captivating Ballad and 16 x Touching Love Story. Selling the Captivating Ballad at the Rat Market gives a total profit of 511.58E per expedition[1], for an EPA of 4.92E with 10 Glasswork in the heist outfit and marginally higher EPAs with higher Glasswork.

  1. ↑ Taking into account the A Lesser Find and Altered, Somehow profits from the expedition

Hearts' Game Atlases (Rat Market)[edit]

  • Expected EPA: 5.21-5.35

In the right Rat-Season, playing Hearts' Game for 650 actions, taking the Salt Steppe Atlas payout 26 times (26 actions) and using Crackling Trade (an additional 25 actions) makes 2125 E in Rat-Shillings plus 1625 E directly from selling Puzzling Maps. This is a total of 3750 E over 701 actions (zailing excluded), or up to 5.35 EPA. If zailing is included, a single cycle is 5.21 EPA, though this improves with stockpiling, piracy, and any other reasons to visit Khan's Heart. Spare Docks favours can also potentially be used to upconvert Puzzling Maps for a hypothetical increase in EPA (maximum 5.46), but the opportunity cost is probably greater than the benefit. Note that the significantly quicker and simpler Bone Market grind gets 5.31 EPA, so it's better unless you're already going to Khan's Heart.

Reference[edit]

The most profitable action in the game is A special delivery? although it is very expensive (in terms of actual money). There are more efficient ways to gain Echoes via Fate, see the section on Fate-locked grinds at the top of the page.

These aren't grinds, classically, but are here to show you how many echoes you're earning in various repeatable activities:

Cards[edit]

This section only lists cards with greater than 2.5 EPA.

Rare Frequency Cards:

Grinding (3200) Scraps to trade in with one of the Relickers for a Tier 8 (1562.5e) item is only efficient if an average rate of 3+ Scraps per action is maintained, giving roughly 1.5 EPA. Scraps are generally worth approximately .5e each.

Dreaming Zee-Dreams[edit]

  • Requires a Ship
  • Improved with access to Khan's Heart and better ways of dealing with Nightmares
  • Up to 6.81 EPA over 11 cards

When Zailing the Unterzee, you will eventually draw cards that allow you to experience Zee dreams.

Southern Wind gives Having Recurring Dreams: I Shot the Albatross, Northern Wind gives Having Recurring Dreams: Betwixt Us and the Sun and Eastern Wind gives Having Recurring Dreams: Upon a Painted Sea.

Each cycle of dreams takes 11 actions of dreaming and gives an Oneiric Pearl. Pearls can be exchanged for 62.5 E worth of items with an action, or sold in the Khanate and exchanged for a Crackling Device that can be sold at the rat market for 85 E worth of items, at the cost of an action and 5 Assortment of Khaganian Coinage. In the long run, this ends up giving 62.5 or 81.73 E per cycle in the long run.

Dreaming typically also gives nightmares.

  • A cycle of Northern wind gives 19 CP
  • A cycle of Southern wind gives 15 CP
  • A cycle of Eastern wind gives no nightmares.

Assuming the winds are gained passively while travelling the zee, and that Nightmares are cleared at 3 CP/action.

The leftern value assumes throwing the pearls into the zee, while the rightern ones assumes exchanging the pearls for Crackling Devices (requires access to Khan's Heart)

Weekly actions[edit]

These are all actions that you can do once per week. Some depend on Time, the Healer, other on living stories. These are especially great for casual players who do not have the time to spend 1008 actions per week.

As you will only do these schemes once a week, they will take longer to enter your muscle memory than e.g. the newspaper grind. If you spend an hour reading up on bone market recipes while your actions are maxed out, this will not result in an optimal EPA. The low-hanging fruits are labeled easy and are recommended for everyone.

The complex schemes are mostly interesting for people who already spend 900 actions per week, but want to gain the last possible bits of efficiency.

A Professional Reward (easy)[edit]

With a tier one profession, over 8.125EPA. With a tier three profession, 15EPA.

Every four weeks, you can assemble four Professional Perks to get one Trade Secret, which yields E 125 for 11 actions, for a total of 11.36EPA.

The Rewards of Ambition (easy)[edit]

This gives at least E 62.5 every four weeks after you have finished your ambition.

Accept a gift from Balmoral's Castellan (easy)[edit]

  • E 63.5 at 18 EPA

Requirements

All Castellans give you a gift worth E 63.5 after Tinned Ham Arbitrage. If you fail the checks for the 2 actions traveling to/from Balmoral, 15.875 EPA. Succeeding those is worth E 5, raising EPA to 18 EPA.

Receive the latest 'reports' from your 'agent' (easy)[edit]

  • E 107.5 over 28 actions at 3.83 EPA EPA Improved through Piracy to 6.41-6.59 EPA

Somewhat low yield compared to other weekly actions. Note that challenges in the Snares and the Salt Steppes can have very high requirements.

Requirements

The Cycle

  1. Gain 510 x Fistful of Surface Currency or 30 x Assortment of Khaganian Coinage (worth ~15E)
  2. Travel to the Khanate from London via Trace a route through the Snares (at least 9 actions, approx. 10, 9 of which have Zee-EPA (Using 4EPA as Zee-EPA))
  3. Pay for cargo in Surface money or Pay for cargo in Khaganian money (3 actions)
  4. Enter Khan's Heart
  5. Receive the latest 'reports' from your 'agent'
  6. Return to London via Trace a route through the Snares (at least 9 actions, approx. 10, 9 of which have Zee-EPA)
  7. Deliver the crate to the Widow 3 times

This results in E 107.5 for 28 actions, for a total of 3.83 EPA plus whatever you happen to pick up at zee. This assumes you're able to get either Surface Currency or Khaganian Coinage at sell value. This can be done by selling the occasional skeleton to The Trifling Diplomat while passing by or by selling skeletons to A Dreary Midnighter in London when he is the Occasional Buyer. Buying with Fistful of Surface Currency is slightly preferable, since Assortment of Khaganian Coinage can be used to buy Crackling Device and cashed out in the Rat-Market during its appropriate seasons. In fact, additional profit can be made by assembling a skeleton to sell to the Diplomat for Coinage for this purpose on your way to pick up the report.

Zailing around through Shepherd's Wash and The Sea of Voices with a Clipper would make the challenges more manageable, but would add 3 zailing actions both ways for a total of 12 one-way. Assuming a Zee-EPA of 3.5, this gives an EPA of 5.76. Using a zub would give around 5.57, though this could be increased by taking the route through the Snares on the way back. If you're doing other things on your journey and can discount parts of the trip, this will increase further. Discounting the distance from London to Shepherd's Wash both ways (e.g. when doing tribute runs) would give the EPAs 6.29 and 6.09 respectively.

Board Meeting Dividends (moderate)[edit]

  • Up to E 156.08 for 19 actions, for a total of 8.21 EPA
  • Several requirements for maximum efficiency

If you have a Pro-Labour Railway Charter, you can use Furnace or Cornelius in lieu of The Vicountess's Persuasive 200 check. However, this will lower the final payout by E 10 and lower EPA by 0.52.

Requirements

Recommended

The cycle

  1. Boomerang the Tentacled Entrepreneur
    1. Invite the Tentacled Entrepreneur to the Board
    2. Vote the Tentacled Entrepreneur off the Board
    3. 5 actions to convince your board members and declare victory
  2. Voting for dividends 2 times
    1. Vote a dividend to the shareholders
    2. 5 actions to convince your board members and declare victory

In the absolute worst case scenario (Ealing, no Luxuries, Pro-Labour Charter), this yields E 100.08 for 19 actions (after Tinned Ham Arbitrage), a total of 5.26 EPA. Note that using Help from the Board Secretary will allow you to repeat this but lowers efficiency slightly to 5.13 EPA. With the Recommended qualities, this yields E 156.08 for 19 actions, for a total of 8.21 EPA.

Board Meeting Charity (complex)[edit]

Requirements

Additionally at the start of the Board Meeting have:

Recommended

The cycle

  1. Propose special consideration to certain charitable groups
  2. Propose paying a dividend to the poor of the Hinterlands
  3. Propose special consideration to certain charitable groups
  4. Propose paying a dividend to the poor of the Hinterlands
  5. Propose special consideration to certain charitable groups
  6. Vote the Gracious Widow off the board
  7. Close the meeting
  8. Gain another 10CP Banditry to raise it to 8 (e.g. 5 x Feed information to the gang, net gain 17.5E ).
  9. When Rising Reports of Banditry autofires, select Ticket sales are going down.
  10. Invite the Gracious Widow to the Board

In total, you have six items on the board agenda, each of which should take six actions. Combined with the rest of the actions this should take in total 42.66 actions.

Your net gain will be 196.66 Echoes, on average for 4.6EPA. If the Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise are sold at the Khaganian Markets for Crackling Devices according to Money-Making/Lategame#Crackling Trade, the net gain increases to 254.35E at the cost of 2.88 actions, increasing to 5.6EPA.

Board Meeting Assistance to Parabolan War (moderate-complex)[edit]

  • Up to 380 E at up to 9.51 EPA over 5 Board Meetings

If you're engaged in a Parabolan War campaign, you can use your weekly board meeting to fully advance one stage in the war. It also causes 8 x Ravages of Parabolan Warfare, but the weekly Time, the Healer is enough to remove those.

The following is slow: advancing one stage of the war per week, for a cash-out only after 5 weeks. So you'll only spend on average 8 actions per week, but those few actions end up being very profitable.

Requirements

The cycle

Assume we start already at the end of one of the stages of the Cats campaign (i.e. Advance! is already 24), with no Ravages:

  1. Move into Parabola. Costs 100 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey (only 50 for Silverers)
  2. Progress your campaign to the next stage.
    1. If you've just completed stage 4 (Along the Smoking Shore), ensure to Encourage the Prince to reject the King's offer.
    2. If you've just completed stage 5, collect your reward and start a new Cats campaign (no general).
  3. Return to London (0 actions)
  4. Assemble a board meeting:
    1. Propose you deploy your train in the Parabolan War on behalf of Cats
    2. The Viscountess automatically agrees.
    3. 4 extra actions to convince the other board members and declare victory.
  5. Wait for Time, The Healer to remove Ravages of the war.

This involves 5 board meetings (costing just 5 actions each), 5 entries into Parabola (costing 500 x Drops of Honey, which can be bought from the Bazaar for 20 Echoes), and 10 extra actions in Parabola to start a campaign, progress between the stages, and to collect the reward. The reward is a Parabolan Parable, worth 312.5 Echoes. So we have (312.5 - 20) Echoes / 40 Actions = 7.3125 EPA (or 7.5625 for Silverers).

The Rat Market

If you wait for The Rat-Season: Kifer-Caitiff, Skitter-Scatter or Dimmest-Dark, you can Sell a Parabolan Parable for 4000 Rat-Shillings (at the cost of an additional action). This means: (400 - 20 ) Echoes / 41 Actions = 9.268 EPA (or 9.512 for Silverers).

The Waters of the Wellspring (complex)[edit]

Somewhere between 4.55 and 4.8EPA, but only for Crooked-Crosses.

Requirements

Recommended

The basic cycle

  1. Travel to Moulin
  2. Recruit a Miniature Major-General
  3. Recruit a Bandaged Navigator
  4. Set off
  5. Move away from Moulin and deeper into the Waste (5 actions)
  6. The Wellspring, at Last
  7. Bathe in the waters
  8. Collect some Wellspring water
  9. Cross the Threshold
  10. Look for the fingerking

You should always be able to make it to the Wellspring without incurring menaces. The basic cycle yields E 48.20 and 1 x Memory of a Much Lesser Self for 19 actions, for a floor of 2.53EPA. This is much lower yield than other weekly actions, but playing A Lesser Find and Something Nacreous will raise EPA to something around 2.8EPA.

If you keep track of when Viric Fades is going to trigger (by e.g. adding Bathe in the waters to your list of plans and adding a note stating the last time you did it), then you can arrive at the Wellspring shortly before Viric Fades, Collect some Wellspring water, and wait for Viric Fades so you can Bathe in the waters as normal. This allows you to gain an extra four flasks of Wellspring water, gaining E 50 at the cost of 5 additional actions, raising the basic cycle to 4.09EPA.

Recommended

  2. Instead of Bathe in the waters, Dip your Cross in the Waters

Eventually

This cycle yields after THA E 95.63 for 21 actions, for a floor of 4.55EPA. Again, the true EPA will be slightly higher at around 4.8EPA.

The Heists of the Wellspring (complex)[edit]

About 6.0 EPA, more for some professions.

Requirements

Recommended

There are two basic components to this grind: Getting Flasks of Waswood Wellspring Water and turning them into Hiding Places of Peculiar Items, then stealing those items.

Step one: The Expedition

The basic cycle for a Wellspring expedition is as follows:

  1. Travel to Moulin
  2. Recruit a Miniature Major-General
  3. Recruit a Bandaged Navigator
  4. Set off
  5. Move away from Moulin and deeper into the Waste (5 actions)
  6. The Wellspring, at Last
  7. Bathe in the waters
  8. Collect some Wellspring water
  9. Cross the Threshold
  10. Look for the fingerking

Once there, mark the time you made the 'Bathe in the Waters' action. On the following week, arrive just before this time elapses and collect 4 Flasks of Waswood Wellspring Water. Then when Viric Fades triggers, you'll be able to collect 4 more flasks in a single visit.

As soon as you are in Parabola, turn all you flasks into Hiding Places of Peculiar Items via Search Parabola for a Place in the Neath, and perform Find the weakness in an opponent's defences once.

When you leave Parabola, you will be afflicted with That Which Was Taken. Choose the nightmares option and lower it with Hide in your Base-Camp, or choose either wounds or nightmares and lower the menace with social actions.

Step two: The Heist

The goal is to begin the heist with 2 pieces of Inside Information using as few actions as possible. To do that you need Casing... and the best ways to get that are:

Including transportation costs, Purchase some assistance with casing... is the superior choice, even for Silverers. Ignoring them, Find the weakness in an opponent's defences is slightly better. So get your Casing... from Parabola if you're there already or don't have access to the Big Rat, get it from the Big Rat otherwise.

Once you have your Casing... go ahead and start the heist from The shaded estate on Hemlock Row, buy 2 pieces of inside information, and put on your outfit that gives both a Monstrous Anatomy and a Glasswork of 12. Note that passing the Monstrous Anatomy check is more important, so if getting it up to 12 requires replacing some Glasswork items you should still do it.

Once you reach A Prize Achieved, select the Captivating Ballad and sell it at the Rat Market. Repeat the above until you are out of Hiding Places.

Professional Improvements

Monster-Hunters will find it easier to obtain the required outfit.

Silverers will find it easier to obtain the desired outfit and take less damage from The Mirror's Hunger. This raises EPA to about 6.1. They also pay less to enter Parabola, useful for characters without access to the Big Rat.

Crooked-Crosses may Dip their Cross in the Waters for additional resources. With Jericho Library 2 and a Submerged Rector this brings EPA to about 6.3.

Folly

Using Purchase some assistance with casing... only twice and purchasing no Inside Information will net about 7 EPA. While this looks tempting, performing the most difficult heist 8 times a week with no Inside Information will certainly land you in prison eventually. But perhaps you really are the best thief in the Neath.

Using up Bone Market Exhaustion (easy - complex)[edit]

  • Roughly 200 E per week at various speeds.

See Assembling a Skeleton (Guide). Your Bone Market Exhaustion drops by four every week, which corresponds to 200E worth of bonus items.

Playing the bone market is rather intricate. Also note that exhaustion can lock you out of profitable non-exhausting use of the bone market for weeks (or years).

Using up Exhaustion is hard in the mid-game, but still profitable. Exhaustion in itself is around 200 E per week. If you have A Custom-Engraved Skull from FEAST OF THE ROSE, you can use those, leading to a net gain of 160 E for 2 skulls. The exception to the rule is when the Phantasist is around - then you'll be able to spend all your exhaustion through other means.

If you're a lategame player, you could use the least number of actions to use up Bone Market Exhaustion as efficiently as possible, see Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Recipes#Amalgamy Bomb.

The Nadir (complex)[edit]

Highly random, but in the long-term, 8.13EPA.

Requirements

The Nadir can be entered once a week without spending Fate. Players are forcibly ejected from the cave when reaching 10 x Irrigo whereupon it is not possible to return until the next visit from Time, the Healer (unless they wish to pay 50 Fate). Optimal play yields approximately 8.13EPA — see Cave of the Nadir (Guide)#Analysis for details

Intermittent Actions[edit]

This article is a work-in-progress by Kislev

needs elaboration on world events


These grinds are profitable but operate on a much longer timescale, from weeks to even years. This includes grinds tied to seasonal events, World Qualities, or that otherwise only open up after multiple time-limited events.

Discordant Soul Redemption (complex)[edit]

This page contains information about the Deeper Discordant Studies, which are designated by FBG to require strict spoiler protection. Proceed below at your own risk.

Difficult requirements for maximum efficiency; between 6.63-11.40 EPA, not counting Discordant Ripples and optional bones. Between the extremely steep requirements and the long time scale, this is only of interest to those grinding highly expensive items such as Hellworms, Hesperidean Cider, the Heptagoat, and A Woeseller.

Discussion for this grind is hosted separately at Deeper Discordant Studies (Guide)/Completed, to avoid spoilers.

Living World Events[edit]

Zee Monster Hunts[edit]

Angler Crabs[edit]
Ravenous Lifeberg[edit]
Midnight Whale[edit]

A War in Spite[edit]

The Great Crate Commotion[edit]

Seasonal Grinds[edit]

FEAST OF THE ROSE[edit]

Currently, there are no known money grinds only available during the Feast of the Rose.

WHITSUN[edit]

De Gustibus (easy)[edit]

Around 2.5-5.5 epa, depending on items offered.

For an endgame player, most of the options for redemption at De Gustibus are fairly disappointing. The most profitable is to grab a Tiny Cave Fish at HALLOWMAS and hold onto it for a few months, which gives a net of E 11 for two actions. Other options, including A Recipe for Zzoup, are not worth playing.

Gaining De Gustibus: Eggxhaustion is only about 2.5e as well; fairly good for a player in the early or midgame, but not worth it for an endgame player unless you really care about the Making Waves.

Hellworm Cheese (easy, but exclusive)[edit]

Annual benefit of E 62.5-125 for Hellworm owners.

If you have Your Very Own Miniature Hellworm, saddled or not, one of the items you can produce from milking it is, surprisingly enough, Hellworm Milk. This can be given to the Questionable Cheesemonger at Whitsun and, one entire year later, be turned into Ripened Wheel of Hellworm Cheese.

Hellworm cheese is worth E 62.5 at the Bazaar, but one and only one time, you may become A Purveyor of Cruel and Unusual Cheeses, worth E 312.5, or E 357.5 with use of the Rat Market.

SUMMER[edit]

There's no way of knowing what Estival will be like in any given year, but it's usually balanced so that participating in the event is more profitable than normal gameplay.

FRUITS OF THE ZEE[edit]

TBD for new Fruits.

HALLOWMAS[edit]

Menace Profit (easy)[edit]

Indirectly increases profit of other grinds.

The most interesting thing about Hallowmas from a money-making perspective is that it makes Menaces free, and in fact slightly profitable with Spirit of Hallowmas (though Spirit is not that profitable to grind directly). There aren't any grinds exclusive to Hallowmas, but it's encouraged to try riskier and more menacing actions here. Grinds that involve menaces directly as well, such as dealing with The Mirror's Hunger from Wellspring visits, become more profitable at Hallowmas.

As noted above as well, you may want to pick up a Tiny Cave Fish for selling to De Gustibus.

CHRISTMAS[edit]

Christmas Cards (easy, social)[edit]

Efficient source of Second Chances for various uses.

As part of the Christmas cheer, you can send and recieve Potential Christmas Cards. In addition to being very efficient menace cleanses, these lovely cards are also one of the most efficient sources of Second Chances in the game, and they're uncapped at that! Coordinate with friends and try to make sure you don't waste any of them, and if you're looking for particular Second Chances, be sure to try shuffling the Airs of London, which is most profitably done by Brawling.

Stockpiles of Second Chances from Christmas can be useful for several things when it comes to money-making. All of the types but especially Hard-Earned Lessons can be useful when Zailing in dangerous regions like The Snares and The Pillared Sea. Smart use of Second Chances can be the difference between reaching port with all your Plunder intact or paying an unexpected visit to the Boatman. The card An Unlikely Garden in the Cave of the Nadir also benefits from a stockpile of Confident Smiles.

Second Chances can also be directly utilized on The End of Battles in the Cave of the Nadir: exchanging 3 x Sudden Insight for Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise is probably the most profitable overall when arbitraged in the Khanate for Crackling Device, but all of the options are worth at least E 62.5. Note you need Favours: Tomb-Colonies in order to profitably redeem Collection of Curiosities.

Extras & Historical[edit]

Money-Making/Extras show simple end-game grinds - grinds that aren't as good as the ones listed here, but only uses a single click. The page also lists ways to spend Fate in order to grind money.

Some grinds have been nerfed so much are simply become unavailable that they are not mentioned on this page anymore. These grinds are preserved here for historical interest but are no longer relevant for Money-Making.

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