The City of the Tracklayers (Guide)

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Hellgatesmall.png Post-Railway Content and Onwards
Hinterlandcity.png
City of the Tracklayers Summary
Variable-Length Activity
Setup Progress End
0 A 2+ A 1 A
Progress

Details

Build and spend Hinterland Prosperity.
Items Inputs/Outputs
Boosting
Outputs

≤2.5E :

12.5E :

62.5E :

≥1560E :

Raw EPA - Raw SPA -


One of the final acts of building the Great Hellbound Railway is giving the tracklayers their own city.

Mechanically, it is its own location, available from the Railway Station where it's located. This location has fixed storylets that are rarely used, and is mainly driven by opportunity cards.

This guide will cover the profit-making actions that are available in the City.


Decisions[edit]

In the process of arranging the founding of the city, you will decide several of its aspects, which primarily change the stats required for some of the city's opportunity cards. Once the city is complete, Hinterland City - Founding Body and New-Minted Currency can only be changed by paying FATE, while Leader of the Tracklayers, Hinterland City - Chosen Site, and Hinterland City - Official Alignment can be changed through gameplay.

These decisions also affect the opportunity cards showing up in the City. (There is also a card affected by decisions outside the city, and a card added with a direct rail link. These are in the table too for your convenience.)

Note that the numbers in the table below refer to the value needed to succeed with 100% certainty, not the usual difficulty ratings in the wiki.

Decision Affected Card Chosen Option Result
Founding Body Genii Locorum ANY 15 Mithridacy
Furnace 250 Watchful, 7 Steward of the Discordance
Cornelius 250 Watchful, 12 Mithridacy
Manager 250 Persuasive, 12 Zeefaring
The Creditor's Moods Soul-tied, founding body NOT Furnace 250 Dangerous, 12 Zeefaring
New-Minted Currency The Flow of Commerce Story-backed 334 Watchful
334 Persuasive
NOT Story-backed 334 Watchful
Mouths to Feed Lacre-imbued 250 Shadowy, 12 Monstrous Anatomy
NOT lacre-imbued 250 Watchful, 12 Artisan of the Red Science
The Creditor's Grievances Evenlode-aligned and soul-tied 250 Persuasive, 12 Zeefaring
NOT Evenlode-aligned 250 Dangerous, 12 Artisan of the Red Science
NOT soul-tied 250 Persuasive, 12 A Player of Chess
Leader of the Tracklayers Assist (Tracklayers Leader) Furnace, with Balmoral as chosen site 12 A Player of Chess
Furnace 300 Persuasive, 10 A Player of Chess
-2 Appalling Secret
Cornelius 300 Persuasive, 10 Monstrous Anatomy
-1 Appalling Secret
Fires' Lackey 300 Persuasive, 10 Mithridacy
300 Persuasive, 10 Zeefaring
Your Lackey 300 Persuasive, 10 Zeefaring
300 Persuasive, 10 Mithridacy
300 Watchful, 10 Zeefaring
January 300 Persuasive, 12 Mithridacy
Chosen Site /
Railway Charter /
Rail Access 		Troubled Times Recur Ealing 250 Watchful, 12 Shapeling Arts
Evenlode 250 Watchful, 12 Monstrous Anatomy
Balmoral 250 Persuasive, 12 A Player of Chess
Station VIII 250 Shadowy, 12 Mithridacy
Burrow-Infra-Mump 250 Persuasive, 12 Glasswork
Moulin/Hurlers 250 Watchful, 12 Mithridacy
Marigold 250 Shadowy, 12 Zeefaring
Direct Rail, Wealth/Church/Hell charter 15 A Player of Chess
Direct Rail, Charity charter 14 A Player of Chess
Direct Rail, Science charter 15 Artisan of the Red Science
Direct Rail, Worker charter 15 Zeefaring
Patronage /
Parabola Train /
Evenlode Route 		Denizens of the Neath Ferrocephalus Real 250 Dangerous, 12 Monstrous Anatomy
Train NOT through Parabola 250 Watchful, 12 Monstrous Anatomy
Train through Parabola/Parabolan Spur Line 250 Watchful, 12 Glasswork
Evenlode Plains/Plains Spur Line 250 Dangerous, 12 Kataleptic Toxicology
Evenlode Hills/Hills Spur Line 250 Persuasive, 12 Zeefaring
Rail Access /
Official Alignment 		Merely Passing Through Direct Rail 334 Persuasive
Direct Rail, Complacently Unrevolutionary 250 Persuasive, 12 Mithridacy

Location[edit]

The location of the City of the Tracklayers is initially determined via board meeting right before finishing the railway line.

You can change the city location after the fact by playing the Hauling the City Out storylet, which costs:

The actual movement is based on the results of a combined Persuasive and Artisan of the Red Science check. If you succeed, it moves the City closer to Hell / Marigold Station (if possible); failure moves it further away from Hell and towards Ealing Gardens. If you want a certain failure, equipping a Weasel of Woe is a good idea.

Moving the city also gives you 10 CP The City Waning, 5 CP Tracklayers' Displeasure and Wounds.

Since rebuilding Hinterland Efficiency costs quite a few actions, it is advisable to do all the moving fairly close together, and only rebuild your Efficiency afterwards.

Economy[edit]

The "currency" of the Tracklayers' City is Hinterland Prosperity, valued the same as 1 Penny.

You can gain and spend Hinterland Prosperity by playing cards, there are no fixed storylets to cash it out, nor is there a separate exchange (the Bazaar tab is the same as in the Hinterlands).

Many of the opportunity cards have an option that, on success, give you 200 or 220 + Hinterland Efficiency points of Hinterland Prosperity. Most options that have the higher payout require a double check of one of the base stats ( Watchful, Persuasive, Dangerous, Shadowy) plus one of the advanced skills.

Hinterland Efficiency starts at 0 and is capped to 300. You can raise it by first raising Developing... to 5, and then playing A Project Concludes that resets it, and raises Hinterland Efficiency by 50. You can raise Developing... by playing Matters of Infrastructure (unlock) and then Developing Infrastructure.

Cashing Out Hinterland Prosperity[edit]

You need to play cards to exchange Hinterland Prosperity for other items. Some of these cards only become visible with a certain amount of Hinterland Prosperity.

Card Option Unlock HP Nominal Value (E ) Item Gained Special Consideration
Charting the Hinterland Collate the results of an expedition 1,050 12.50 Puzzling Map
Mouths to Feed Engage in a little light price gouging 1,050 (12.50) 15 x Ambiguous Eolith, 5 x Unidentified Thigh Bone
Imports and Exports Rubbery liaisons 1,050/1,000[1] 12.50 Nodule of Trembling Amber
Real estate development 1,050/1,000[2] 12.50 Legal Document
Vibrations on the web 1,050/1,000[3] 12.50 Vital Intelligence Can be sold for Hinterland Scrip
Trade with the Masters 1,050/1,000[4] 12.50 Crystallised Euphoria
The book trade 1,050/1,000[5] 12.50 Verse of Counter-Creed Can be converted into Scrip via your Jericho Library, or into even more Scrip via an Upper River card if you have A Submerged Rector. Or directly into E via an option if you have 50 A Church in the Wild
Academic encounters 1,050/1,000[6] (12.50) Lost Research Assistant Can only be "sold" during an Urchin War world event
Infernal encounters 1,050/1,000[7] 12.50 Blackmail Material
Merely Passing Through Investigate the souvenir stalls 6,250 62.50 Verses can be converted into Scrip via your Jericho Library, or into even more Scrip via an Upper River card if you have A Submerged Rector
The Flow of Commerce Help yourself to one of the stories he isn't watching,
Convert a few tales into a safer form of art 		6,250 62.50 Captivating Ballad Can be sold at the Khanate for Khaganian Coinage. Can be sold at The Rat Market for extra profit
Officially Non-Criminal Give Mr Wines one in the eye 31,250 312.50 5 x Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise Can be sold at the Khanate for Khaganian Coinage. It is no longer possible to make extra profit by then buying Crackling Devices to sell at The Rat Market.
A Visit from Virginia Request connections 156,000 1,560.00 Rumourmonger's Network
Request a trophy from a shared enemy 156,250 1,562.60 Vial of Masters' Blood
Request a seed of the cedar 156,250 Seed of the Cedar Has no known uses after finishing the Railway storyline, and cannot be sold
  1. ↑ 1,000 base when Chosen Site is 1 (Near Ealing Gardens), otherwise 1,050 base
  2. ↑ 1,000 base when Chosen Site is 2 (Above the Magistracy of the Evenlode), otherwise 1,050 base
  3. ↑ 1,000 base when Chosen Site is 3 (Outside of Balmoral), otherwise 1,050 base
  4. ↑ 1,000 base when Chosen Site is 4 (In the Shadow of Station VIII), otherwise 1,050 base
  5. ↑ 1,000 base when Chosen Site is 5 (In the Parish of Burrow), otherwise 1,050 base
  6. ↑ 1,000 base when Chosen Site is 6 (Between Moulin's Wastes and the Cold of Hurlers), otherwise 1,050 base
  7. ↑ 1,000 base when Chosen Site is 7 (Near Marigold), otherwise 1,050 base

Analysis[edit]

Once you've raised Hinterland Efficiency to its maximum of 300, most opportunity cards offer a 5 or 5.2 EPA option. For several of the items that can be obtained for Hinterland Prosperity, this is the most action-efficient source. There are also a few options (like Landscape in Moonlight and A visitor for (Leader of the Tracklayers)) that pay out an additional 0.3E in items.

If you turn your Prosperity into Captivating Ballads and then sell them at the Rat Market; this raises the efficiency to somewhere between 5.86 and 6.06 EPA, depending on how many 5 and 5.2 EPA actions you manage to play. This comes with the limitation of only being able to sell to the Rat Market at some weekends and the reducing Rat Market price bonus as your sales increase.

Another payout option is to go through Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise. This is a remarkably good source of Vial of Tears of the Bazaar via A Presumptuous Little Opportunity and is useful for those aiming for a long-lived Noman.

Profit Through Board Meetings[edit]

If you have

then playing the option Reckon with the wealth-seeking charter of the GHR of the card Troubled Times Recur not only gives you up to 520 points of Hinterland Prosperity, but also decreases In Corporate Debt by one and sometimes even two points.

With this setup, you can once a week convene a Board Meeting, Vote a dividend to the shareholders twice, and then gradually reduce In Corporate Debt through the above-mentioned option. This way, there is no need to juggle board members to reduce corporate debt, raising the efficiency of the dividends option and reducing actions spent in the board meeting.

With maxed out Train Luxuries, you get for each dividend:

so a total of 78 E per dividend, or 156 E for two dividends.

On a minimal board you'll spend one action proposing the dividend, at least four actions convincing your members, and one to accept the final vote. Two times for two dividends makes 12 or more actions. This part alone is up to 13 EPA. Of course, you cannot just add the profits and actions you spend on the Troubled Times Recur card, because you'll have to draw and play many cards to get your nearly 12 draws of this card to wipe out your corporate debt. Let's just say that if you want to spend lots of time in the City of the Tracklayers and have high A Player of Chess, this scheme gives some nice extra boost to profits once a week.

Speaking of high A Player of Chess, if you play Subvert the Revolution often enough to wipe out all revolutionary alignment of your city, it makes the Chess check easier by two points, so you "only" need 13 A Player of Chess for 100% success rate.

Communing[edit]

The Tracklayer's City also brings the opportunity to commune with three chthonic entities; the TLU City, the Creditor, and London. The former two are accessible in the City, but London is (obviously) in London, specifically Your Activities. Each communion must be carried out at least once as part of the City storyline, but can be repeated even after the storyline is over for profit.

Each of the three communions revolves around various advanced skill checks to raise The Mind's Ascent, with each offering different checks when you have The Mind's Ascent 1, 2 and 3; once this reaches 4 the mind of the chthonic entity can be entered, with the reward being granted on leaving the mind. Failures on these checks grant +2 CP Nightmares, whereas successes grant +1 CP The Mind's Ascent.

Mind Challenges Reward EPA[1]
TLU City x 1 Searing Enigma 5.68
Creditor x 1 Primaeval Hint 5.68
London 4.88[2]

Note that communion with London gives an additional +14 CP Nightmares on your first visit, and +5 CP Nightmares on subsequent visits.

  1. ↑ Assuming all checks are successful
  2. ↑ Factoring in Tinned Ham conversion of scrip to echoes, and ignoring menaces
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