Hunting the Beasts of the Zee (Guide)

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Island3small.png Mid Zailing Content
Waves4.png
Hunting the Beasts of the Zee Summary
Locked Variable-Length Activity
Setup Progress End
4+ A 3+ A 1 A
Progress

Details

Raise In Pursuit of a Zee-Beast to required target.
Items Inputs/Outputs
Boosting
Outputs
Raw EPA 4 Raw SPA -


Once you have a Ship, you may begin hunting the Beasts of the Zee. One of the beasts requires Making Progress in the Labyrinth of Tigers 16, others have Monstrous Anatomy requirements and rely on world qualities as well. As these destinations aren't docks, they will not reset Troubled Waters. Every completed hunt will increase your A Hunter of Zee-Beasts by 1. For more information on reaching the locations, see Zailing (Guide).

Zee Beasts[edit]

Below is a cheat sheet for hunting quarries via Hunting the Beasts of the Zee.

Many of these hunts can only be done with the proper Living World Events.

Target Zee Location Requirements + Rewards Value (E )
Stormbones 110 Narrow 5 1 x  Plated Seal N/A
Shepherd's Wash 111-209[1] 8-13 19.39-53.91[2]
Home Waters Monstrous Anatomy 5 175 11 32
210? 8 Up to 45
220? 10 Up to 45
220 11 36.40 to 60.00
  1. 1.0 1.1 See Angler Crab Scaling
  2. Not including the value of bones obtained.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Based on Base Watchful
  4. 4.0 4.1 Can be traded in at the end for various rewards.
  5. Increases with shorter distance.

Hunting a Creature[edit]

Upon starting a hunt, the player needs to navigate to the requisite Zee region. Once you have reached your destination, the player will need to build their In Pursuit of a Zee-Beast to the required level before they may slay the beast and collect the reward.

Difficulty Calculation[edit]

Except for the plated seal, Zee-Beasts require a set amount of In Pursuit of a Zee-Beast as a threshold in order to finish the hunt. For the Angler Crab, this is equal to 8 + Elusiveness of your Quarry/20. This rounds down at 10, 30, 50, 70, etc.. In the case of the Plated Seal, there is instead a narrow difficulty challenge of In Pursuit of a Zee-Beast 5 that needs to be passed. Additionally, Elusiveness of your Quarry together with Zee Peril also affect the difficulty of skill checks to raise In Pursuit of a Zee-Beast on all hunts. This is represented in the table as a "challenge level", to give an impression of how difficult the different hunts are.

Target Challenge Level ( + ) Pursuit needed
Plated Seals 110 Narrow 5
Angler Crabs 111-209 8-13
Feral Crocodiles 175 11
Lifebergs in The Salt Steppes 210 8
Lifebergs in The Sea of Voices 220 10
Lifebergs in Shepherd's Wash 230 13
Midnight Whale 220 11

Angler Crab Scaling[edit]

This guide is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
What needs work: Should include templates for tracking crab quantity, once they exist.


Angler crabs offer scaling rewards and elusiveness based on how many remain in their world quality.

The Logistic Scaling for Elusiveness and Rarity are similar, with both having a midpoint of Estimated Angler Crab Population of 25000 and a scaling factor of -1/5000. The difference is that Elusiveness scales to a maximum value of 100, while Rarity scales to a maximum value of 7000. Elusiveness E scales with crab popuation C with the following formula:

Rarity R scales with crab popuation C with the following formula:

Values at select breakpoints:

Crabs Left 50000 35986 29236 25000 20764 14014 0
Elusiveness 1 10 30 50 70 90 99
Pursuit needed 8 9 10 11 12 13 13
Rarity 47 700 2100 3500 4900 6300 6953
Piece of Rostygold 24 350 1050 1750 2450 3150 3476

Hunting Actions[edit]

Option Requirement Challenge Success Failure
Make a daring approach +24 CP 
Pursue the (Zee-Beast) N/A Zee Peril + +14 CP  +7 CP 
Take a risk In Pursuit of a Zee-Beast 2 Zee Peril + 75 + +24 CP  -5 CP 
Outflank the (Zee-Beast) In Pursuit of a Zee-Beast 2 Formula[1] +14 CP  +7 CP 
Predict its movements Formula[1] +14 CP  +7 CP 
Chum the waters 4
  • -7 x 
  • -1 x  
  • -3 x 
  • -1 x  
Dive below the waves Zee Peril +30
  • -5 x 
  • -2 x 
  1. 1.0 1.1 Difficulty is logistic with Elusiveness of your Quarry:
Elusiveness0–1718–2829–3435–3940–4243–4546–4849–5152–5455–5758–6061–6566–7172–82≥83
Difficulty456789101112131415161718
Target Plated Seal Angler Crabs Feral Crocodiles Midnight Whale
Challenge Level 110 11-209 175 210 220 220

Turning in Valourous Deeds[edit]

When hunting lifebergs, the player will accumulate Officially Recognised Valorous Deeds Officially Recognised Valorous Deed, each of which is equivalent to 20 E . These can be turned in for the following rewards:

Action Cost Rewards Value per Deed
Claim a crate of clinking souls 1 E 20[1]
Claim an armful of discarded steel 2 (E 40)[2]
Claim a box marked "FAULTY ORDNANCE: DO NOT USE". 3 (E 20)[3]
Claim a pile of waterlogged papers 4 E 20
Claim a strongbox, illuminated from within 4 E 20
Claim a pallet of mouldering rations 5 E 20
Claim a suitcase, stamped with a horse's head 10
Claim a consignment of confiscated silks 16
  1. worth more to Shepherds and Spirifers.
  2. inconvenient to liquidate.
  3. the Devices can be sold through the Rat Market, but the Hillmovers are generally only worth a Revolutionary Favour each.
  4. selling the Airag and Atlas for 250 Khaganian Coins, buying Crackling Devices, and then selling through the Rat Market. Although "worth" slightly more than the Silks, the extra actions spent here selling to the Rat Market make this less efficient (3.68 actions to make an extra E 10).
  5. selling the Ivory Organza through the Rat Market.

Strategy[edit]

Strategy consists of three matters - building In Pursuit of a Zee-Beast as fast as possible, but also minimising Troubled Waters so that you can avoid docking for a while, and for clippers when hunting Angler Crabs: reducing the amount of actions taken while zailing.

For the first matter, Monster-Hunters have a very useful opening gambit with Make a daring approach that will instantly boost the player's In Pursuit of a Zee-Beast to level 6. Otherwise, the player will have to open up with Pursue the (Zee-Beast). Use the calculator below in order to find the optimal action on average, but bear in mind that there's no point in overpreparing, and if sufficient gain can be gained with Pursuing the Zee-Beast, that should be a priority. Pursuing is equivalent to outflanking and predicting so use whichever has the highest success probability.

For Angler Crabs, if the crab's Elusiveness is less than 7 above a rounding point, (eg. 10, 30, 50, 70, etc..) it may be worth chumming the waters if the player is having difficulty making the checks, as this will also lower the required Pursuit by 1 level. Similarly, the zubmersible option works if you're less than 5 above a rounding point.

For reducing Troubled Waters gain, it is adviced not to play risky challenges, because opportunities to lower TW are few and will usually sacrifice Zee-EPA or zailing progress. Zubmarine owners and The Cladery Heart owners should usually use their options to reduce TW, as these are also often profitable. A False-Star of your Own options and the A Faceted Decanter of Drownie Effluvia should also be used when necessary, as these are very effective. Other options to lower/minimise TW should also be considered. Piracy is a good idea, as long as your skills are high enough that the options are at least very modest (80%). Even so you will have to dock more than someone not using piracy options. It is recommended to dock around TW 6, as the menace cards at TW 7 are hard to use efficiently. Dream cards are a decent alternative to piracy cards when balancing profit, progress and speed, as long as you have a decent way of dealing with the resulting Nightmares in London.

For Clipper owners hunting Angler Crabs, the A Giant Angler Crab card is especially useful, as it provides more than 80 Zailing... in a single action, thereby saving an action.

Calculating echoes per action is difficult given the high variability in reaching particular zee regions, the ability to deal with zee menaces, and reward variability. Lifeberg Hunting is likely profitable when available, but the data has to be confirmed to be sure. Angler Crabs become profitable once their numbers are lower (about 3.3 EPA from the get-go, towards 5-6 EPA at the end). Crocodiles approaches 4-5 EPA for extremely dangerous Monster-Hunter pirates. Whales have a potential max EPA around 6.5 EPA, but 5-5.5 EPA is more realistic.

Calculator[edit]

This guide is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
What needs work: Calculator needs to be restored.