Game-mechanics FAQ

Spoiler warning! This page contains details about Fallen London Actions.

This is a FAQ-page to link to for frequently asked questions from places such as reddit, Discord, or the official forum. The focus here is to answer questions regarding game-mechanics. This means that spoilers regarding specific stories or concerning the lore in general will be included if it's necessary to answer the question.

Q: How do I raise Renown?

Main article: Factions (Guide)

• If you do yet not have any Renown, you may obtain the first five levels at Mrs Plenty's Carnival. The Big Top and The Sideshows give both Favours and Renown.
• To raise Renown beyond 5, players must use Faction Items, which may be purchased at the Bazaar. These convert Favours into Renown, sometimes also costing other resources. The faction item will let you raise your Renown as far as your stats allow, so there is no need to look elsewhere. A few stories may slightly increase Renown with certain factions.
• Faction items have different tiers of conversion actions--one for 0 to 8 Renown, one for 8 to 15 Renown, and one for Renown over 15. They will automatically unlock as you progress.

Q: What is the best way to get lots of Correspondence Plaques?

• Get Whirring Contraptions from Searching out a Missing Woman in Wilmot's End. Use those Whirring Contraptions to publish a newspaper. At a 100% chance for all challenges, this gives 6.7-8 Journals of Infamy per action (depending on the Newspaper edition you can publish). These can be directly cross-converted into Correspondence Plaques.
• Without access to Wilmot's End or Doubt Street, Journals of Infamy can also be gained via Thefts of Particular Character in the Flit (and, again, be cross-converting into Correspondence Plaques).

Q: What is the best way to get 1001 Memories of Light for opening the Parabolan Base-Camp?

• If you have lots of tier 3 items, use the cross-conversion carousel.
• One of the fastest ways to acquire items for cross-conversion for a mid-game player is the Newspaper. Get Incendiary Gossip by publishing seditious editions, then cross-convert to Memories of Light.
• For 960 echo you can buy 48.000 x Beeswax, upconvert to Phosphorescent Scarabs, and then to 1000 x Memories of Light. If you have the money on hand, this will be the fastest method.
• Alternatively, grind Compromising Documents and cross-convert those into Memories. Useful sources for this are the Labyrinth of Tigers, the Foreign Office, Boxfuls of Intrigue, or the Velocipede Squad)
• Consider switching your Profession to Silverer. This reduces the cost to "just" 300 x Memories of Light.
• If you have no access to any of those, you are probably not yet ready for the Base-Camp, but you could get Tales of Terror and cross-convert twice.

Q: What is the easiest way to get a Four-Card Lodging?

• The four-card lodgings (Reservation at the Royal Bethlehem, A guest room at the Brass Embassy, and Premises at the Bazaar) may either be bought at the Penstock's Land Agency at the Bazaar, or less expensively through opportunity cards or storylets.
• The Brass Embassy Guest-room and the Bazaar Premises can be acquired by getting the required resources (Brilliant Souls or Bazaar Permits, respectively) via Thefts of a particular character in the Flit. (For the guest room, a percentage of Brilliant Souls needs to be upconverted into Muscaria Brandy.) This usually takes around 400-500 actions, depending on your Shadowy and whether you have a Gang of Hoodlums or not (if you already have access to Parabola, grind Casing there instead). The required items may also be obtained by other methods, but the one mentioned is probably most efficient. If you don't have access to the University Lab yet, this approach also works for the Room at the Royal Bethlehem, which requires 50 Antique Mysteries.

Q: How do I grind [stat]?

Main article: Leveling (Guide)

• The four main stats (Watchful, Dangerous, Persuasive, and Shadowy) include recommended area progressions on their Wiki pages to indicate where players should be to train their stats as they progress through the game. If players want to specifically raise their stats as quickly as possible:
  • For Watchful, the most effective method is to Talk to the Porters while pursuing Investigations in the University. The Sudden Insights that this action gives may be converted to Watchful CP, and the Investigating may be used in the Flit to make the process profitable.
  • For Dangerous, players may use the storylet An Eye Wide Open, which is available after completing a cycle of the Riding the Savage Cobbles carousel, to get 5 CP Dangerous per action.
  • For Shadowy, players may engage in Suspicious Loitering with each other, and Learn Shadowy lessons to get bonus Shadowy CP and Hastily Scrawled Warning Notes.

Q: When should I become a Person of Some Importance (PoSI)?

Main article: A Person of Some Importance (Guide)

• Becoming a Person of Some Importance does not lock any significant content in the game, and so there is no disadvantage to pursuing it as soon as it becomes possible for your character.

Q: What's the best way to cash in Investigating... accumulating with repeating visits to Helicon House?

Main article: Spending Investigating, in the Investigating Guide

The Upper River:

• Investigate the Clay Highwayman to gain 1 CP On the Trail of the Clay Highwayman (up to level 5) and An Identity Uncovered! This option only costs 15 CP of Investigating (rather than resetting the quality), and the card for this option only stops appearing at On the Trail 100; therefore, you can keep cashing in Investigating for Identities Uncovered for quite a while.
• Learn what you can about him when captured by the Clay Highwayman.
• With The Tale of the Clay Highwayman 12 and up, you can Inform on the Gang to reduce Seeing Banditry in the Upper River.
• There are uses of Investigating in the Following Up Rumours of Cornelius story.

The Flit:

• The Heights of Chicanery — More than just Messages for 540 x Piece of Rostygold (rare success: 540 x Foxfire Candle Stub, 10 x Relic of the Second City, and a Reprehensible Lizard).
  • This is an Investigating... challenge that becomes straightforward at 8 (so everything beyond that will effectively be wasted, as success resets Investigating)
• Making Use of Cats — Follow up a tip-off for 540 x Cryptic Clue. This also resets Investigating but is a Shadowy challenge.