Hinterland Scrip-Making

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This Guide is about how to best make Hinterland Scrip; if you're more interested in Echoes check Money-Making

Introduction[edit]

Once the player established the Great Hellbound Railway, they can access the Hinterlands where Echoes are replaced by Hinterland Scrip as a currency. Instead of the Bazaar, they will have access to shops at the Upper River Exchange to buy and sell certain items. Scrip is also (extensively) needed to develop the stations along the railway.

Scrip cannot be bought directly, but going by items that can be sold at both the Bazaar and the Upper River Exchange, the value of 1 Scrip is roughly equal to 0.5 Echoes. To convert Scrip to Echoes, the player can simply buy Tin of Zzoup or Tinned Ham and sell them back the Bazaar. Converting Echoes to Scrip tends to involve much more work and actions. Below you'll find the best options to do so.

(In the following, we will use SPA to denote Scrip per action.)


The Bone Market[edit]

Licentiate Bone Market grind[edit]

Requirements: being a Licentiate, Mithridacy 10 (less will reduce profit)

At the Bone Market:

When a Bright Brass Skull is used instead of the victim's skull, this approach converts 62.5 Echoes (for the Skull) and 200 x Nevercold Brass into Scrip at a rate of 38.75 SPA (requires Mithridacy 10 to be straightforward).

Non-Licentiate Bone Market grind a.k.a. Brass Lollipop grind[edit]

Requirements: Involved in a Railway Venture 130 (i.e. reaching Marigold Station via the Great Hell-bound Railway), Mithridacy 10 (less will reduce profit)

Non Licentiates can adopt the above grind once they reach Marigold station. In Hell's hinterlands, beseech Saint Trezigor to find a way to the Lost Wall, which allows one to grind Headless Skeletons at a rate of one per action. These can substitute the victim's skeleton in the above grind, changing the steps to:

Disregarding travel cost, this yields 155 Scrip per 5 actions, or 31 SPA (at the cost of 62.5 Echoes and 200 x Nevercold Brass Sliver).

Combining high-yield echo grinds with Bone Market[edit]

If your character does not have a metric ton of echoes ready to be converted into Scrip, the Bone Market grinds described above may still be worth doing. Their profitability will depend on having access to one of the high-yield money grinds.

When combining an echo grind which gives you X echoes per action with the Brass Lollipop grind, Scrip gain will be[1]:

  • 155 / (4.52 + 62.5 / X) SPA for Licentiates.
  • 155 / (5.52 + 62.5 / X) SPA for everyone else.

To give a few examples:

3 EPA 4 EPA 5 EPA 6 EPA
Licentiate 6.11 SPA 7.69 SPA 9.11 SPA 10.38 SPA
Non-Licentiate 5.88 SPA 7.33 SPA 8.60 SPA 9.73 SPA
  1. Licentiates can create a Brass Lollipop in 4 actions. Non-Licentiates need 1 extra action to get a Headless Skeleton at Saint Trezigor's Folly. 200 x Nevercold Brass Sliver, required to attach the skull, can be farmed in 0.52 actions at the Sunken Embassy.

The New Mammoth Ranching / A New Pope[edit]

Wiki note: Due to changes on 23/02/2024, this grind is now much less profitable. Current SPA is unknown.

A multi-faceted grind with highest efficiency (approximately 12 SPA overall) and steep requirements: A New Pope Guide

The Game of Poison and Delight (a.k.a. Heart's Game)[edit]

Requirements: A Person of Some Importance - 3 (i.e. a tier 2 PoSI), Shadowy Gains 20 (which requires having completed a Parabolan War campaign as well as some other Parabolan activities), Hearts' Game: A Player of the Game quality obtained.

Recommended: The Reptile Book, The Fish Book (not having the books will make the grind slightly less profitable)

Once you've joined the game, every action, no matter if you succeed or fail a challenge or win or lose a round of the game will reward you 1 x Hearts' Game: Exploits. For 65 Exploits you can choose Leviathan Frame worth 315.5 Echoes as a reward (66 actions, including picking the Leviathan Frame).

One way to make use of this is as follows:

Of note: When Zoological Mania is Reptiles, you'll get 10% bonus on the skeleton value. When Bone Market Fluctuations: is Menace or Antiquity, you'll get one additional 5 worth of secondary item.

This yields SPA of:

Bone Market fad Amalgamy Menace/Antiquity
Reptile 9.99 10.06
Other 8.96 9.03

Alternatively, if your Dangerous is high enough to be able to get 12 x Femur of a Jurassic Beast in 10 actions by Brawling with Dockers, you can use those instead of the Unidentified Thigh Bones. This adds 1.66 actions to get the 2 femurs, while raising the skeleton's value by 400 and gives 2 extra points of Antiquity. The resulting SPA becomes:

Bone Market fad Amalgamy Menace Antiquity
Reptile 10.21 10.28 10.35
Other 9.19 9.26 9.33

On Fish week, you can get 15% bonus on the base skeleton value when creating fish instead of reptiles, but this depends on efficiently sourcing Fin Bones, Collected. With Glasswork 12+, Monstrous Anatomy 13+, Dangerous 245 or above, and a lab that can produce 25 x Laboratory Research per action, hunting sharks in Parabola and then dissecting them can produce at least 2 x Fin Bones, Collected per action. Assuming we get exactly 2 fins per action, and doing everything else as noted above, we'll get:

Bone Market fad Amalgamy Menace/Antiquity
Fish 10.39 10.46
Other 8.87 8.94

The Osteology Lab[edit]

Requirements: Volume of your Cryptopalaeontological Work, Persuasive 300, Dangerous 292 (lower stats will make this slightly less efficient)

Each set of Femurs acquired via Brawling allows twelve cycles of identification in the Lab. Each of these cycles should – on average – require 14.37 actions and gain 6500 x Curator's Gratitude. Selling the Biscuits and Peppercaps gained this way at the Upper River Exchange will give 8.55 SPA on average.

The same process can be applied to Fossilised Forelimbs, which give 8750 x Curator's Gratitude. Assuming Forelimbs are bought at the Upper River Exchange for 85 Scrip (equivalent to 4250 Gratitude), this results in a net gain of 4500 Gratitude = 90 Scrip for 14.37 actions, or 6.26 SPA.

The Moonlit Chessboard[edit]

Requirements: A Player of Chess 12, The Boatman's Opponent 40, Parabolan Dominance 4 (i.e. the Red-Handed Queen is ruling the Dome of Scales)

Note: Technically, this approach starts working with A Player of Chess 11 but profits will be smaller and harder to calculate.

Cycle[edit]

For purposes of this guide, one cycle consists of four chess games. During the first three games, the goal is to win with at least Distance Ahead 26. This can be accomplished by maximising the APoC-quality and then choosing:

Choosing these endgame rewards will additionally give a minimum of 120 x Well-Placed Pawn per game. Midnighters will also get 1 x Vienna Opening at the very start of each game.

During the fourth game

The above cycle takes 36 actions and gives 3 x Epaulette Mate (or 3 x Queen Mate) plus 1 x Stalemate, which results in 7.64 SPA. Midnighters will additionally get 4 x Vienna Opening, increasing the profit to 8.19 SPA.

Note: If the player has the now retired quality Mastery of the Game 100, they don't need to choose a specific colour but can instead Open with a familiar move when starting a new game, for slightly more Pawns in the Endgame.

Improvements[edit]

The number of Pawns received per game increases with higher APoC or increasing Distance Ahead. More Pawns will increase profit in the long run. For example, if the player has APoC 14 and is playing Red, they can get 131 Pawns per game. If they have APoC 12 and Mastery of the Game 100, they can achieve Distance Ahead 31 and thus 143 Pawns per game. If the player can get at least 130 Pawns per game, after three cycles there will be enough leftover Pawns that they can immediately force another Stalemate. That means for 13 games, i.e. 117 actions, the player will get 950 x Scrip. This raises the overall profit to 8.11 SPA. Midnighters can additionally get 13 Vienna Openings over these games, raising their total profit to 1015 Scrip or 8.67 SPA.


Professional Activities (in Food)[edit]

Requirements: Tier 3 profession (Silverer, Correspondent, etc.), advanced stat corresponding to profession at 15+ (e.g. Glasswork for Silverers, etc.), Notability 5, a Pie Shop at Ealing Gardens.

For full effect, certain qualities along the railway need to be unlocked as well:

Professional activities can yield 320, 410, or (if the Profession-Stat is > 16) 450 x Value. The average over 10 actions is 4010 x Value (if stat is below 16) or 4210 x Value (if above). 2750 x Value can be traded for 5 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits, 5 x Basket of Rubbery Pies, and 5 x Solacefruit worth 30 Scrip total. As Basket of Rubbery Pies cannot be sold for Scrip directly, optimal payout requires the Pie Stand at Ealing Gardens for an additional 32 Scrip on average.

At 275 Cycles of 10 Actions apiece, 401 (421 if stat is over 16) payouts in food are obtained, giving 12030 Scrip (12630 Scrip) plus 2005 (2105) x Basket of Rubbery Pies worth another 24862 (26102) Scrip in 3151 (3171) Actions, for a total of 7.90 / 8.23 SPA.

Improvements[edit]

Licentiates, Oneirotect Silverers, Hierarch Monster-Hunters, and Iniquitor Midnighters can be paid In intelligence, which only gives items directly sellable for Scrip. This allows to save some of the Pie-selling-actions, thus slightly increasing the overall SPA. 32 Scrip is paid per Services Rendered: The Great Game; of which an average of 3 may be obtained per the Airs of Industry. IF a Stat>16 player goes ONLY for the Great-Game option when available (worth 410, not 450), the average value dips to 4090 value per cycle; thus limiting top values: 8.12 / 8.26 SpA

University Lab[edit]

Selling Cartographer's Hoards at the Upper River Exchange: Having a FATE-upgraded Lab and Hephaesta (from Ambition:Light Fingers!) working in the Lab gives on average roughly 7.7 SPA. (Not having Hephaesta will be slightly less profitable but not terribly so.) With Hephaesta it is recommended to have one student working in the Lab to make the most of Unavoidable Epiphanies (a Profound or Visionary student is best since they give the most research if there's no Epiphany at hand). Having a Fourth Assistant in the Lab will also slightly increase overall profit.

If you are willing to wait a long time, you can instead sell the Cartographer's Hoard in the Rat Market when a Fabulous Diamond is available. Each Cartographer's Hoard will generate one Fabulous Diamond and additional 87.5; each Fabulous Diamond sold also nets 5 echoes in Stolen Kisses. This is best done in multiples of 32, where each set of 32 Cartographer's Hoards yields 40 Fabulous Diamonds and 300 echoes, which further sell in the Hurlers for 25 000 scrip and 200 echoes.

The SPA of this grind changes drastically with an optimized lab. At mere 25 research per action, you can look forward to 7.1 SPA plus 500 echoes at the end, while those who can reach 35 research per action will enjoy a whopping 9.87 SPA plus 500 echoes.

If Fabulous Diamonds aren't available it can still be more profitable to sell to the rat market as it gives 5.19 EPA at 35 research per action, although a mere 3.7 EPA at 25 research per action.


Helicon House[edit]

Fitting In grind[edit]

Requirements: free entrance, Train Luxuries 4 or higher, access to one of the actions granting 3 x Fitting in at Helicon House, a Helicon House Companion which grants Fitting In.

Using the FATE-locked A Pendant of Helicon Amber allows the player to enter Helicon House at Time Remaining 4, thus saving one action. That way, the above approach gives 20 Solacefruit + 12 Peppercaps for 5 actions, rasing the profit to 6.4 SPA


Catless Casing grind[edit]

A Fate-free Casing...-based grind. Only do this if you don't have a 3 x Fitting In companion. (Last updated: 29th Nov 2021.)

Requirements: free entrance, Train Luxuries 4 or higher, companion that gives 1 x Fitting in at Helicon House

This grind consists of two alternating phases.

Catty Casing grind[edit]

An adaption of the previous grind if you have the Morally and Physically Flexible Rubbery Cat:

Having a 3 x Fitting In companion (e.g. the Rubbery Euphonium) results in 29 Scrip for the 1st Phase, raising the overall profit to 6.19 SPA.


Other grinds[edit]

Alternative ways to gain Hinterland Scrip include:

  • Going on expeditions in Moulin to gain the resources to subsequently write Monographs at the Archeological Institute may net between 9.03 and 9.26 SPA (9.32 with a FATE-locked team member). A good approach for expeditions is described here. For Monographs, it is important to choose a topic related to the Fourth City or the Khanate. This will unlock the Disgraced Diplomat as a potential buyer, who exclusively pays in items that can be sold for Scrip. More details can be found here.
  • Brawling for Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits and selling them at the Upper River Exchange:
    • Brawling for a group gives 5 SPA (including the journey), approaching 5.5 SPA if Biscuits are stockpiled and sold in bulk.
    • Brawling for yourself (at a 100% check) gives 5.33 SPA (including the journey), approaching 5.7 SPA if rewards are stockpiled and sold in bulk. This can further improved by having a Special Dispensation, favourable Airs, or other qualities increasing Brawling gain.
  • Intercepting Cablegrams in Khanate allows one to grind a Vital Intelligence in 4 actions (assuming that one can 100% every check), therefore giving a 6.25 SPA when done in bulk (so that the actions spent on travel can be disregarded).

Getting Scrip before the Railway[edit]

Here are a few sources to get scrip before you reach Ealing Gardens or get access to Helicon House. They are not as efficient, but are good enough to take you to Ealing:




Partially outdated grinds[edit]

International Intrigues[edit]

Wiki note: The math here should still be correct. However, Khaganian Opportunities should be more profitable these days. Also keep in mind that the below guide was written before the Rat Market existed, which may also impact the optimal strategy.

This grind mostly revolves around Cover Identities and Khaganian Intrigues. Thematically, all of the core components of the cycle involve sneaking or subterfuge. Mechanically, it makes use of high values of A Player of Chess, Shadowy, and the BDR qualities, and to a lesser extent Glasswork.

Summary[edit]

Expanding your Network in the Khanate is an extremely efficient Infiltration, acquiring items worth E 62.5 in 15 actions (4.17 EPA). The problem is that the reward is random, and some of them cannot be effectively converted into Echoes, much less Hinterland Scrip, so making money adds an action tax in the form of cycling Airs of the Khanate. This grind tries to reduce overhead by finding Scrip conversions for as many rewards as possible. Currently, conversions are available for rewards from 4/10 of the potential recruits, although more time is actually spent converting the rewards than collecting them.

Requirements[edit]

Maximum efficiency requires the following. Lower stats will take slightly longer, and sometimes incur Menaces.


The Grind[edit]

Most progress can be accrued indefinitely, so travel costs can be amortized, and are ignored in these calculations. The except is entering and leaving the Clay Highwayman's camp, as the Cover Identity is consumed on completing the larceny. Travel to the Khanate is time-consuming, so this grind should only be considered for the long terms.

Step 1: Khanate Acquire items by expanding your Network on Airs values of 10-19 (Naive Dissident), 40-59 (Shapeless Aristocrat, Bandaged Naval Officer), or 90-100 (Idle Soldier), and re-rolling Airs on other values. The first of those values gives a Stalemate which can simply be sold in the Upper River for 125. The other three grant a Mortification of a Great Power, which is used for Cover Identities. On average, you will need 1.5 re-rolls per successful Intrigue, so each Intrigue costs 16.5 actions.

If your Methods of a Khaganian Front is Subversion ( Shadowy), then you may also consider playing Airs 20-29 (Immaculate Tailor) and 70-79 (Lovelorn Engineer). These grant a Much-Needed Gap for 15 actions, and can then be exploited to save 14 actions on larger Infiltrations. Since they pay back the only resources they cost (actions), they are effectively "free." If you believe this line of reasoning, then there are only 8 non-Gap Recruits to consider, of which 4 are recruited and 4 are re-rolled, reducing the re-roll tax to 1 action.

Step 2: Cabinet Noir Construct a Cover Identity with Elaboration 10, Witnesses 5, Credentials 5, and 80 points of Backstory. Maximum profitability assumes being able 100% the checks for Witnesses and Credentials. It is not currently possible to always 100% the checks for Elaboration up to 10, and a player with 300 Shadowy will incur about 1.16 failures along the way (see Cover Identities (Guide)#Elaboration for details).

You can get 78 points of Backstory from 3 x Mortification of a Great Power, and the last two points can covered by a handful of Well-Placed Pawns. These are given as spare change on various interactions, so they are glossed over in the calculations.

Step 3: Crimes! Each Larceny uses 55 CP of Casing.... Trying to find the weakness in an opponent's defences twice obtains 56 CP in 8 actions. Remember that the Casing is spent, not wiped, so it can be obtained in bulk to save travel costs.

Enter the Clay Highwayman's camp and Con a Seasoned Smuggler for one Fabulous Diamond. Take the train up to the Hurlers and trade one Fabulous Diamond to the Calculating Lapidary for 625, plus 2 x Stolen Kiss.

A variation is to instead Con a Palaeontological Yank for a Prismatic Frame. This reward is also worth 625 when used to build a skeleton for the right buyer. While assembling the skeleton takes extra actions and materials, its value can sometimes benefit from Zoological Mania:, and it does not require access to the Hurlers. Note the required Cover Identity uses Nuance ( Bizarre) in place of Witnesses ( Dreaded).

Cycling cards in the Clay Highwayman's camp shouldn't take very log, but sometimes it does. This would be another reason to con the Yank instead of the Smuggler.

Profitability[edit]

Conveniently, there are three Recruits that grant Mortification of a Great Power, which is how many Mortifications it takes to make the Cover Identity for one Larceny. We therefore assume that one cycle in the Khanate rolls each Recruit one, and one cycle elsewhere is one Cover Identity.

The overall gain is 7.28 SPA.

Khanate Actions Materials
Recruit an Agent (Airs 10–19) 15 Stalemate ( 125)
Recruit an Agent (Airs 40–60, 90–100) 45 3 x Mortification of a Great Power
Re-roll agents 6 N/A
Cabinet Noir Actions Materials
Cover Identity: Elaboration 11 +3 CP Suspicion
Cover Identity: Witnesses 5
Cover Identity: Credentials 5
Cover Identity: Backstory 4 -3 x Mortification of a Great Power
-25 x Well-Placed Pawn
Crimes Actions Materials
Casing in Parabola 8
Larcenies (incl. travel) 3 1 x Fabulous Diamond
Calculating Lapidary 1 -1 x Fabulous Diamond
625
2 x Stolen Kiss
Totals 103 750
2 x Stolen Kiss
-25 x Well-Placed Pawn
+3 CP Suspicion


Holding your breath in the Hurlers (not yet updated!)[edit]

Wiki note: Numbers have been updated post-nerf, but the overall cycle has not been reviewed to see if there is a more optimal path.

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. (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. Hold your breath underwater. This costs 1 action and gains 22 Final Breaths.
  4. Add more plaques to the stove again (drops Darkness to 0, raises Stoking the Stove to 4 + 1 CP). This costs 1 action and 7 Plaques.
  5. Perform the following loop 8 times:
    1. 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 and raises Darkness to 2 + 1 CP)
    2. 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.
    3. Hold your breath underwater (raises Darkness to 2 + 0 CP). This costs 1 action and gains 22 Breaths.
    4. Add more plaques to the stove (drops Darkness to 0, raises Stoking the Stove by 1 CP). This costs 1 action and 7 Plaques.
  6. Each iteration of the loop costs 5 actions and 14 Plaques, raises Stoking the Stove by 2 CP, and gains 67 Breaths. So, performing 8 iterations costs 40 actions and 112 Plaques, raises Stoking the Stove to 6 + 6 CP and gains 536 Breaths.
  7. Hold your breath underwater twice, then add more plaques to the stove (same as in steps 5.1 and 5.2 - costs 3 actions and 7 Plaques, sets Darkness to 1 + 0 CP and Stoking the Stove to 7, gets 45 Final Breaths)
  8. Hold your breath underwater 10 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)
  9. In total, this costs 10 actions and gains 170 Breaths.
  10. Add more plaques to the stove. Since you now have Stoking the Stove 7, this sets Darkness to 7 and Stoking the Stove to 8. It also gives 2 CP of Scandal (Tracklayers' Displeasure is ignored, since its effects are insignificant). This costs 1 action and 7 Plaques.
  11. 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 69 actions and 196 Plaques for 773 Final Breaths (worth 773 scrip) 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 (97.98 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 101.03, for 7.65 SPA.

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 107.17, for 7.21 SPA.

Other grinds (not yet updated!)[edit]

Alternative ways to gain Hinterland Scrip include: