Money-Making/Calculations

The purpose of this page is to store calculations, scratch-work, and open questions related to the grinds described in Money-Making and Hinterland Scrip-Making. Ideally, EPAs in those guides should be explained here.

University Laboratory Grinds

This guide is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.

What needs work: With recent changes to the Lab, lab research is rather less predictable. For instance, having a Secret College is helpful, and being a Correspondent with a high Scholar of the Correspondence level can be quite helpful. Because cards are undiscardable, the laboratory is harder to control. Simulation analyses are requested for the below projects.

Requires access to the University Laboratory

The following calculations currently weight University and Parabolan research equally. This is not accurate, as Parabolan research progresses more slowly. Users are expected to estimate their own research per action for each species of research. and calculate an expected action cost to achieve the target. Recall that research projects will attract an entry and exit action fee, which should be accounted for.

Forging Infernal Sharpshooter's Rifles

Research required (start to finish): 1750 (in two stages: 100 and then 1650).

Echoes of value: 210 (plus any Volume of Collated Research).

Echoes per research: 0.12.

Note: increases Record of Successful Forgery.

Studying Queenly Attar

Requires A Vial of Queenly Attar.

Research required (start to finish): 450 (UR) + 15 (PR). Parabolan research is 3.2% of the total.

Echoes of value: 62.5 (plus any Volume of Collated Research).

Echoes of cost: 2 (non-Silverers) or 1 (Silverers).

Echoes per research: 0.130.

Creating Cartographer's Hoards

Requires Equipment for Scientific Experimentation 6.

Research required (start to finish): 2700.

Echoes of value: 312.5 (plus any Volume of Collated Research).

Echoes per research: 0.116.

Researching Impossible Theorems

Requires Equipment for Scientific Experimentation 7.

Research required (start to finish): 13000 (UR) + 300 (PR). Parabolan research is 2.3% of the total.

Echoes of value: 1562.5 (plus any Volume of Collated Research).

Echoes of cost: 2 (non-Silverers) or 1 (Silverers).

Echoes per research: 0.117.

Helicon House

Calculations for various Helicon House grinds.

Any references to "free entry" mean any of the A Pendant of Helicon Amber, Oneiric Key, or Location of an Underground Organ. All three of these methods allow entry into Helicon House without paying a cover charge, and additionally provide 2 x Fitting in at Helicon House to start. The latter is often more important, as it saves actions.

Helicon-Only Fate-Locked Casing Grind

Run through Helicon House once, grinding Casing... while inside, and grabbing Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits on the way out. Then enter Helicon House a second time, immediately cashing in the Casing... for Scrip. Requirements:

• FATE A Pendant of Helicon Amber
• A Helicon House Companion that grants Fitting in at Helicon House on entry.

The A Pendant of Helicon Amber saves an action on the first leg by entering at Time Remaining at Helicon House 4 instead of 5. The second leg can be done in 2 actions by entering with 3 x Fitting in at Helicon House, which requires 2 from any of the "free entry" methods plus 1 from the choice of Helicon House Companion. While the Pendant can be used for the second leg, the Oneiric Key is better because it provides 5 x Romantic Notion and the different in Time Remaining does not affect that leg.

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout
Building Casing	5	1	5	N/A	15 CP Casing... 15 CP Investigating... 5 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits 4 x Pot of Venison Marrow
Cashing in Casing	2	1	2	15 CP Casing...	26 25 x Moon-Pearl 10 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey
Total			7		55 (7.85 SPA) 0.45 + 27.94 in Scrip (4.05 EPA)

The payout can be increased by 5 x Romantic Notion per cycle by entering with an Oneiric Key the second time. While the Investigating... does not have much value, the cycle could potentially build Fascinating... at +5 CP per cycle based on the choice of Helicon House Companion for the first leg.

If you do not have access to a Fitting In companion, then you must spend an extra action doing something in Helicon House that grants a point of Fitting In. Building Casing is one such action. Using this action means that the second leg takes 3 actions, but only uses up 10 net points of Casing.

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout
Building Casing	5	2	10	N/A	30 CP Casing... 30 CP Investigating... 10 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits 8 x Pot of Venison Marrow
Cashing in Casing	3	3	9	30 CP Casing...	15 CP Investigating... 78 75 x Moon-Pearl 30 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey
Total			19		136 (7.16 SPA) 1.35 + 69.08 in Scrip (3.71 EPA)

Helicon-Only, Fate-Locked, Spouse-Locked Casing Grind

This grind generally resembles the one above, except that your choice of Companion for the first leg gives you additional Casing on entry. The amount of casing makes for very awkward numbers. Requirements:

• FATE A Pendant of Helicon Amber
• Your Spouse is the Platonic Partner in Crime
• FATE Your Perpetually Festive Rubbery Friend, who is currently the only non-Spouse Helicon House Companion who grants Fitting In on entry.

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout
Building Casing	5	15	75	N/A	285 CP Casing... 225 CP Investigating... 75 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits 60 x Pot of Venison Marrow
Cashing in Casing	2	19	38	285 CP Casing...	is 494 475 x Moon-Pearl 190 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey
Total			113		929 (8.22 SPA) 8.55 + 471.93 in Scrip (4.25 EPA)

While this grind has the most exclusive requirements, it is the most profitable.

Helicon-Only Fate-Free Casing Grind

This works very similarly to the above grind, but you must spend an extra action in Helicon House grinding Casing.... Because of this, the cycles don't line up neatly. The optimal exit while building Casing... is now to acquire solacefruit, as that yields 29 (with a Helicon House Companion that gives Fitting In; 7/2 = 3.5, which rounds to 4 x Solacefruit); this requires Train Luxuries 4, of course. As cashing in Casing... only requires 15 CP, this version of the grind is straightforward.

Requirements:

• Free entry into Helicon House
• A Helicon House Companion that gives Fitting In

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout (Biscuits)	Payout (Solacefruit)
Building Casing	6	1	6	N/A	15 CP Casing... 20 CP Investigating... 4 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits 5 x Pot of Venison Marrow 5 x Romantic Notion	15 CP Casing... 20 CP Investigating... 25 x Hand-picked Peppercaps 4 x Solacefruit 5 x Romantic Notion
Cashing in Casing	2	1	2	15 CP Casing...	26 25 x Moon-Pearl 10 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey 5 x Romantic Notion	26 25 x Moon-Pearl 10 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey 5 x Romantic Notion
Total			8		52 (6.5 SPA) 1.45 + 26.416 in Scrip (3.48 EPA)	55 (6.875 SPA) 1.45 + 27.94 in Scrip (3.67 EPA)

The above assumes entering with the Oneiric Key, which gives 5 x Romantic Notion. The Location of an Underground Organ gives Nodule of Warm Amber instead, which is nominally worth the same but more difficult to spend.

(below updated to reflect 17 Jun 2021 changes to The Entrance Hall activities)

If you do not have access to a +Fitting In companion, then you must spend an extra action doing something in Helicon House that grants a point of Fitting In. Building Casing is one such action. Using this action means that the second leg takes 3 actions, and yields an extra 5 CP Casing.... Thus, the building Casing and cashing-in cycles are in a 1:1 ratio.

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout (Biscuits)	Payout (Solacefruit)
Building Casing	6	1	6	N/A	10 CP Casing... 20 CP Investigating... 4 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits 5 x Pot of Venison Marrow 5 x Romantic Notion	10 CP Casing... 20 CP Investigating... 6 x Hand-picked Peppercaps 20 x Solacefruit 5 x Romantic Notion
Cashing in Casing	3	1	3	15 CP Casing... (includes 5 CP from this cycle)	26 25 x Moon-Pearl 10 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey 5 x Romantic Notion	26 25 x Moon-Pearl 10 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey 5 x Romantic Notion
Total			9		51 (5.667 SPA) 1.45 + 25.908 in Scrip (3.040 EPA)	52 (5.778 SPA) 1.45 + 26.416 in Scrip (3.096 EPA)

Additionally, if you've been gaining Fascinating... upon entrance (default with no companion is +2 CP each time), then you can eventually make use of Attract a companion for the rest of the evening, yielding 70 in items at the cost of an extra 4 actions. Doing this after 105 cycles without a +Fitting In companion raises the overall payout to 3.121 EPA (when using the solacefruit option).

Helicon+London Fate-Free Casing Grind

The overall reduction in Casing... gain as compared to Investigating... gain from the 17 Jun 2021 update now means that periodically returning to London for use in The Heights of Chicanery slightly boosts the EPA of the above grind (at the cost of somewhat increasing the complexity of the grind; on the other hand, this grants more frequent access to the main London opportunity deck). Note that another station beyond Ealing Gardens is needed in order to make this variant worthwhile (as travel back to London from Ealing Gardens does not yield a Rumour of the Upper River). Here, 2 building-casing-cash-in cycles are used in between each roundtrip to London.

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout (Biscuits)	Payout (Solacefruit)
Building Casing	6	2	12	N/A	20 CP Casing... 40 CP Investigating... 8 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits 10 x Pot of Venison Marrow 10 x Romantic Notion	20 CP Casing... 40 CP Investigating... 12 x Hand-picked Peppercaps 40 x Solacefruit 10 x Romantic Notion
Cashing in Casing	3	2	6	30 CP Casing... (includes 10 CP from the 2 cycles)	52 50 x Moon-Pearl 20 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey 10 x Romantic Notion	52 50 x Moon-Pearl 20 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey 10 x Romantic Notion
Chicanery in the Flit	4	1	4	36 CP Investigating... (excess CP removed)	3 x Rumour of the Upper River 260 x Cryptic Clue or 540 x Rostygold	3 x Rumour of the Upper River 260 x Cryptic Clue or 540 x Rostygold
Total			22		102 (4.636 SPA) 15.8 + 51.816 in Scrip (3.073 EPA)	104 (4.727 SPA) 15.8 + 52.832 in Scrip (3.120 EPA)

Using Attract a companion for the rest of the evening after 53 complete cycles bumps the payouts to 3.122 EPA and 3.170 EPA.

Parabolan Casing grind (Obsolete)

Wiki note: This source of Casing was nerfed 13 Jan 2021. This contained is retained for historical archives. Updated HPA/EPA are included at the bottom.

Grind Casing... in Parabola, and then spend in Helicon House. Requirements:

• Free entry, ideally Oneiric Key (Bohemian 40 Renown reward). The Location of an Underground Organ or A Pendant of Helicon Amber reduce the Echo value of the pay-out, but do not impact the Scrip or number of actions.
• A Helicon House Companion that grants Fitting in at Helicon House on entry.
• Shadowy Gains 6.

Building Casing... from Find the weakness in an opponent's defences takes 4 actions on average if you have either 285 Shadowy or 12 Glasswork. With only a single-stage hunt, the value of Apply your own knowledge is reduced. Choosing to sneak forward will usually take fewer actions, although it will also incur Nightmares.

Cashing in via Lay claim to any left-behind items can be done immediately upon entry if you can enter Helicon House with 3 x Fitting in at Helicon House, which is possible by combining 2 points from any "free entry" option with a Helicon House Companion that grants a third point. While the A Pendant of Helicon Amber will work for this, it's not the best option. The Oneiric Key grants 5 x Romantic Notion on entry, and the difference in Time Remaining at Helicon House does not effect the grind.

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout
Grind Casing in Parabola	4	3	12	N/A	150 CP Casing...
Rob Dreamers in Helicon	2	10	20	150 CP Casing...	260 50 x Romantic Notion 250 x Moon-Pearl 100 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey
Total			32		260 (8.125 SPA) 9.5 + 132 of scrip (4.42 EPA)

The Moon-Pearl and Drop of Prisoner's Honey outcomes are averages. The above calculations ignore travel cost. Every round of travel will cost 4 actions, costing 100 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey but providing 3 x Rumours of the Upper River (An Unattended Mirror may reduce the actions and Rumours by 1 each, and being a Silverer will halve the honey cost).

If you do not have access to a Fitting In companion, then you must spend an extra action doing something in Helicon House that grants a point of Fitting In. Building Casing is one such action. Using this action means that each run through Helicon House takes 3 actions, but only uses up 10 net points of Casing.

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout
Grind Casing in Parabola	4	1	4	N/A	50 CP Casing...
Rob Dreamers in Helicon	3	5	15	50 CP Casing...	130 25 x Romantic Notion 125 x Moon-Pearl 50 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey 25 CP Investigating...
Total			19		130 (6.84 SPA) 4.75 + 66 of scrip (3.72 EPA)

As building Casing takes only a small number of actions and more time is spent cashing it out, an extra action here significantly impacts the efficiency of the grind.

Post-Nerf

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout
Grind Casing in Parabola	4	15	60	N/A	420 CP Casing...
Rob Dreamers in Helicon	2	28	56	420 CP Casing...	728 140 x Romantic Notion 700 x Moon-Pearl 280 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey
Total			116		728 (6.28 SPA) 26.60 + 370 of scrip (3.41 EPA)

With the Rubbery Cat

The option to deploy your Morally and Physically Flexible Rubbery Cat, earns more Casing per Action, but must be supplied with Hand-picked Peppercaps. Peppercaps can be obtained by occasionally swiping Solacefruit instead of Biscuits, with payout worth only 1 scrip less (free entry plus the Casing options will earn 6 x Fitting In).

However, it seems that cost of using up the Peppercaps is not worth the additional Casing provided. The table below assumes the Pendant and a Fitting In companion, but earns lower SPA than the cat-free grind above with similar requirements. From an aesthetic view, the different legs of this grind fail to line up in spectacular fashion: Peppercaps are earned in batches of 25 and spent in batches of 3, while Casing is earned in batches of 17 and spent in batches of 15.

Stage in the Grind	Actions per Cycle	Cycles	Total Actions	Cost	Payout
Build Casing while Napping Biscuits	5	66	330	198 x Hand-picked Peppercaps	1122 CP Casing... 660 CP Investigating... 330 x Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits 264 x Pot of Venison Marrow
Build Casing and Restock Peppercaps	5	9	45	27 x Hand-picked Peppercaps	153 CP Casing... 90 CP Investigating... 225 x Hand-picked Peppercaps 27 x Solacefruit
Rob Dreamers in Helicon	2	85	170	1275 CP Casing...	2210 425 x Romantic Notion 2125 x Moon-Pearl 850 x Drop of Prisoner's Honey 660 CP Investigating...
Total			545		4151 (7.62 SPA) 80.75 + 2108 of scrip (4.02 EPA)