Evolution (Guide)

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The Evolution storyline is a story in which you help the Dilmun Club doing science. It's mainly tracked with the Associating with a Youthful Naturalist quality, but the beginning instead uses Associating with Radical Academics.

In order to start Evolution, you only need Associating with Radical Academics 75 (See this guide), but in order to complete the storyline you will at some point require the following:

Qualities[edit]

The Story[edit]

The guide has been split up in several sections based on when the section was released, however you may complete the whole story in one go, should you wish to.

Part 1 - Shells of Regret[edit]

This part starts with Associating with Radical Academics 75, in Your Lodgings. Play A Message from the Dilmun Club and attend the meeting.

Once done with the meeting, you should travel to Cline. Cline is located in Shepherd's Wash. Note that once you're done with this visit you'll end up back in London, so if there are other things you want to do at Zee, do those first.

After Wandering the Streets of Cline, you will get a choice over whether to bring back a fossilised shell or a living shell. This will determine some text later on, as well as which (mechanically identical) unique item you get in part 6.

Once you have extracted the shell, you will have to leave Cline. As you are leaving, you will find the Naturalist, and may either throw him overboard or talk to him. Either choice will affect your naturalist qualities, and you will find yourself back in London. Report back to the Dilmun Club in Your Lodgings. This will set Associating with Radical Academics to 120 and marks the end of this part.

Part 2 - The Mentor[edit]

Covers Associating with a Youthful Naturalist 1-79

Required items and qualities:

Having finished your meeting with the Dilmun Club, it shouldn't take a long time before you are Contacted by a Youthful Naturalist by opportunity card. Eventually you will agree to help him in Ladybones Road. After reporting to your patron or keeping this to yourself, you will have to return to the Naturalist. Give him a Rookery Password and continue working with him in Spite. This will cost several items. At this point, the Naturalist will ask you to pop by Hunter's Keep to retrieve a Stone Tentacle-Key and deliver it to him.

The next section requires you to find the Naturalist's mentor by taking a trip to Zee, more specifically to the Tomb-Colonies in Stormbones. It might be worth bringing 2 x Favours: Tomb-Colonies, plus excess scandal you want to lose. Travelling by zee sets Associating with a Youthful Naturalist to 50, as well as increasing your Scandal. You will also gain some naturalist qualities in the process. Find the mentor and spend favours to progress the story. If you didn't bring favours, you have two choices: Either play cards that give favours, or reduce your scandal to 6 repeatedly, and thereby gain favours. Once your Associating with a Youthful Naturalist has reached 61, it's time to head back to London. Parting ways, temporarily sets Associating with a Youthful Naturalist to 70 and you may zail back to London.

Back in Ladybones Road, A Private Meeting will finish this part of Evolution, setting Associating with a Youthful Naturalist to 80.

Part 3 - The Experiment[edit]

Covers Associating with a Youthful Naturalist 80-170

Required items and hard challenges:

Eventually, you will once again be Summoned to the Club, starting another meeting. You will end up with 300 E worth of Rostygold. This will be required later, so don't sell it! Travel to the Tomb-Colonies again to reunite with the Naturalist, before quickly going back to Zee, this time to Port Cecil. Before you can get there, something unexpected happens, which has to be dealt with. Reduce your Troubled Waters to 6 to deal with the situation. Upon dealing with the situation, your Associating with a Youthful Naturalist will be at 120.

In Port Cecil, you will find The Naturalist on the Shore. In order to progress after this step, you need your own business and two progress qualities: Camaraderie & Misery and Cartographic Comprehension.

With both parts done, Consider logistics. This will lead to another cycle of the Port Cecil carousel, but this time you must make sure to both:

With this done, you can Conduct an experiment. Finishing this and the subsequent actions will set Associating with a Youthful Naturalist to 141-143, as well as affecting your naturalist qualities. The Fruits of Science will give you your first special reward, and you will now have a choice. Either you may do an operation, which may cost some second chances if you threw the naturalist overboard in part 1, or you may decline to do so. Lending your assistance costs 3x Puzzling Map and 1200x Silk Scrap, and leads to a hard Monstrous Anatomy challenge (16, but decreases on failures) which may be completely avoided if you have Chirurgical Touch. Declining means you'll have to do another cycle of the Port Cecil carousel.

Speak to the Naturalist another time and your Associating with a Youthful Naturalist will reach 170. Head back to Ladybones Road in London to conclude this part of Evolution, increasing Associating with a Youthful Naturalist to 175.

Part 4 - The Journey[edit]

Covers Associating with a Youthful Naturalist 175 - 320

Required items and hard challenges:

Once again, you'll draw an opportunity card in London. This time playing the card will cost a lot of candles. Upon paying the candles, a meeting will ensue, in the process granting you an Essence of Life. You will also gain a small reward, and be requested to zail to Port Cecil again. Before you reach Port Cecil you will be ambushed, and if your Zeefaring isn't very high, you may experience some Nightmares. Once you've reached Port Cecil, you should use your essence in order to revive the naturalist. As the Bishop requested, you should head to Aeschaven, in Godfall, but in order to get the naturalist with you, you'll need a Relatively Safe Zee Lane. Your Associating with a Youthful Naturalist should now be at 200. In order to actually zail to Aeschaven, you'll first need to discover Godfall. Refer to Pilgrimages in Godfall (Guide) for this. If you haven't already unlocked pilgrimages, this would also be a good time to do so. Talk to the abbot-commander, and have the naturalist wrestle him. The Wax-wind will return, and you will experience a different pilgrimage carousel than usual, as you will have to battle with the wax-wind for each station, and you will have the naturalist perform rituals instead of yourself. At Associating 270, you will have a surprise, and gain a Shattered Mask and Knowledge of the Crossroads. By the end of your journey, associating should reach 320.

Back in London, there will be a universal storylet setting Associating to 325, marking the end of this section.

Part 5 - The Pirates[edit]

Covers Associating with a Youthful Naturalist 325-474

Required qualities, items and hard challenges:

At Associating with a Youthful Naturalist 325 you may Report to the Dilmun Club. This starts another meeting, setting Associating with a Youthful Naturalist to 330 . You will also start drawing Making Contact with a Contact which allows you to increase Tracking Down the Charwoman up to 3 (this takes 3 successes). A storylet in The Labyrinth of Tigers, coil 2 will increase this further up to 4. With both the meeting done and having tracked down the Charwoman, you may Prepare to continue your research. After having done all these steps, it's time to return to Godfall. Upon approaching Shepherd's Wash, a storylet will autofire with options depending on Delighted, changing what you see as you approach Godfall. Upon arriving at Godfall, you should follow the storylets on Blood and Feathers until you have Associating with a Youthful Naturalist 365.

To progress further you will need to do another pilgrimage and Interrogate the Rowdy Corsair when the option appears. This will set your progress to 370, at which point you'll need access to Gaider's Mourn in order to progress. Once there, you'll need to obtain the assistance of the Rowdy Corsair's crew. After paying them in Stashed Treasure, supplying them with maps, and doing a bit of planning, you'll be able to Hear the name of the Delight from your Almost-Tame Blue Prophet and pursue it as a Bounty. After you track it down, by donning your Shattered Mask as a disguise and using a Whirring Contraption's parts for a cage, you'll be allowed to board.

Aboard the Delight, Delighted will change the appearance of everything; without it, you may receive Nightmares from the ambient horrors around you. If your Nightmares get too high a storylet will autofire prompting you to equip your mask, removing all Nightmares. There are three floors, and you need to spend one action on each floor passing time to unlock an action that grants a Sacristan's Benediction. Once you have 3 Sacristan's Benediction, you can Enter the Second Sacristan's cabin on the middle deck to rescue the Youthful Naturalist, the conclusion of which will see you become affiliated with The Crew of the HMS Ramillies. Then, after catching up with the Youthful Naturalist, return to London to end the chapter.

Part 6 - The Garden and the Diving-Bell[edit]

Covers Associating with a Youthful Naturalist 475-625

Required qualities, items and hard challenges:

Just like the other chapters this chapter starts with a meeting. This time you will be tasked with killing the shell you just provided in order to get hold of it once again. After navigating the meeting room and passing some Kataleptic Toxicology checks, you will gain either the Slaughtered Shell or the Twice-Slaughtered Shell. Talk to the Naturalist on your ship in order to continue from here. You get tasked to gather some comprehension in order to make your Diving bell. This requires visiting The Court of the Wakeful Eye, Port Cecil, A Khaganian Patrol Vessel ( The Salt Steppe card) and 2 x The Fleet of Truth (card requiring some Troubled Waters).

Having gathered said comprehension and items, prepare to build the diving-bell and zail to Godfall in order to continue the trek. (Bring 5 x Cellar of Wine or your trip will be wasted.) Having assembled the diving-bell, you will have to chart the currents in the 7 seas by equipping your shell and drawing cards in the different zee-regions.

Once all of the regions were mapped, the player can talk to the Naturalist to finalize the construction, and then, the player can draw one card to use the diving bell. The card is drawn while the shell is equipped, and can be drawn in any sea region. The player cannot have any Wounds while diving, but having other menaces (and equipping menace-boosting equipment) will prevent some menace gain. After diving and resurfacing another meeting with the Dilmun Club begins, including an increase to a naturalist quality. Ending the meeting concludes Part 6.

Part 7 - Irem[edit]

Covers Associating with a Youthful Naturalist 630+

Required qualities, items and hard challenges:

Recommended, in order to gain Zeefaring Ztudies 2:

Once again, this chapter starts with a meeting in London: Fresh from Blackfinger Street. After finishing the meeting you will be tasked to do the final leg of the journey - travelling to Irem. This requires spending honey and a Zee Lane. Having made an Iremi Zee-Chart, you should zail to Irem. Bringing the recommended items will make it easier to clear Troubled Waters at Irem and will allow you to gain Zeefaring Ztudies 2 in the process (This can be done in The House of Snow and Brine).

In Irem, you will exchange your tentacle keys from the previous steps for increased understanding of the Crossroads and unlock the Destiny of the Youthful Naturalist. Proceeding will put you in a weave between 4 different areas: A Forking Future, A Mortal Future, A Vivisected Future and A Manifold Future. Each location has 3 different cards, in addition to menace cards from Nightmares and Wounds. The cards will earn you three qualities: Silken Warp, Sinewy Warp or Bombazine Warp. They allow you to move to one of the other futures, depending on the Warp color. The same Warp will always move you to the same future (see table below), unless you are already there, in which case you will be moved back to A Forking Future.

The starting location has access to all 3 Warps, but this isn't true for all of them! The cards have different borders according to which types of Warps they give:

Quality Border Described Colour Found in which futures? Destination
Silken Warp Cardsilver.png Silver Forking, Vivisected, Mortal Mortal or Forking
Sinewy Warp Card-SinisterAlternate.png Dark green with red spots Forking, Manifold, Vivisected Vivisected or Forking
Bombazine Warp Card-SinisterZee.png Dark green Forking, Manifold, Mortal Manifold or Forking
Item Card Card-Premium.png Gold Mortal N/A

In order to proceed you need to visit each of the futures at least once, unlocking three comprehension qualities. This is done by using cards to gain warps and the loom storylet for navigation. Whenever you enter a new future you lose any warps you may have, but your cards remain. In addition to this, you will need to raise one of your naturalist qualities to 7, while keeping the others below 7.

Each card has one option to adjust your naturalist qualities, but the quality you want might be more accessible in a different future.

Since each card only has one option for changing the qualities, the below table contains the card name and not the action name.

Card Found in Which Future? Acceptance Malleability Cunning
Quite a Mess to Clean Up Forking +2 CP +2 CP +2 CP
Unnatural Selection: Volume II Forking +3 CP +3 CP -
A Proposal for the Dilmun Club Forking - +3 CP +3 CP
A Dream about a Garden Mortal +5 CP -3 CP
Midnight in Port Carnelian Mortal +5 CP - -3 CP
Surveying the Wastes Mortal +4 CP - +3 CP
Dinner at Dante's Vivisected -3 CP +4 CP
Across the Desert of Delights Vivisected - +3 CP -3 CP
Khaganian Patrol Vessels Vivisected -2 CP +4 CP -
In the Citadel's Courtyard Manifold - -3 CP +4 CP
All Hands on Deck! Manifold -4 CP +3 CP
Unravelling Manifold - +3 CP +3 CP

The different naturalist qualities lead to different destinies for the naturalist:

Regardless of your choice, choosing a destiny will end the storyline and unlock advanced destinies, but there are also a storylet and a card back in London. See Irem (Guide) for a more in-depth guide to the advanced destinies. Based on your choice, one of the members of the Dilmun Club will give you a reward on Another File for the Archives: An item worth 312.5 E , as well as connections with the relevant faction(s). Additionally, you will (eventually) draw A dream about jellyfish giving a Fluke-Core

Other effects:


This concludes the story of the Youthful Naturalist.

Rewards[edit]

Table shows unique items from the storyline
Part: Item Name Item type Stats/Uses
Part 3: Naturalist's Map Home Comfort
Part 4: Shattered Mask Hat
Part 5: The Crew of the HMS Ramillies Affiliation
Part 6: Slaughtered Shell or Twice-Slaughtered Shell Clothing
Part 7: Access to advanced destinies and Irem See Irem (Guide)
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