Oneiropomp (Guide)

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Parabolasmall.png Early Parabola Content
Oneiropomp Summary
Variable-Length Activity
Setup Progress End
1 A 1+ A 1 A
Progress

Details

Raise Intensity of the Dream and Duration of a Dream to desired values.
Items Inputs/Outputs
Inputs
Boosting
Outputs
Raw EPA 1.30 Raw SPA 2.00

Oneiropomping is an activity in The Viric Jungle. In order to get there you must first gain access to the Parabolan Base-Camp and unlock the route from there. This either requires you to pass a Glasswork check or to spend Shared a Phantasie of the Bazaar while hunting in Parabola. See Parabola (Guide) for more information on this.

Qualities[edit]

There are two progress qualities in this activity.

Duration of a Dream is gained from every single action spent when dreaming, while Intensity of the Dream is only gained when passing a Persuasive check, or when spending items for progress.

Your main reward will be proportional to your Intensity of the Dream, where each level equals E 2.00 worth of items. In addition, you will usually get Sighting of a Parabolan Landmark proportional to your Duration of a Dream, making it worth E 1.50 per level. A handful of dreams give additional Intensity proportional to Duration, making the latter worth up to E 2.00 per level.

Dream subjects[edit]

Requirement Option
The Bohemian Sculptress
Oneiropomp 5 The Honey-Addled Detective
Oneiropomp 10, Embroiled in the Wars of Illusion 10 Madame Petrovsky

Gaining intensity[edit]

When gaining Intensity, there are several options. Some will depend on your dreamer. Either you can do a Persuasive, Watchful, or Glasswork challenge with no item cost, which will get harder the higher your intensity is, or you may exchange items for more intensity than otherwise. When gaining intensity, Parabola will become strained, and in order to continue you either have to succeed at a risky Persuasive challenge that might reduce your dream's intensity, or use an action to let Parabola recover.

All options give 1 duration unless otherwise specified.

Intensity Table
Option Requirement / Cost Challenge Intensity gained on success
Parabola is relaxed[1]
Lend power to the dream Persuasive 1-2
Draw in another place 125 x Sighting of a Parabolan Landmark Glasswork 2 6[2]
Infuse the dream with external influences 5 x Slim Volume of Bazaarine Poetry Glasswork 2 6
Transform dream into prophecy The Marvellous Glasswork 1-2
Parabola is relaxed - Detective only[1]
Introduce your own evidence Watchful 1-2
Improve the statistical rigour of this investigation 1 x Mirthless Compendium of Statistical Observations Glasswork 2 6
Set the Detective on the trail of your reflection 4 x Memory of a Much Lesser Self Shadowy 120 5
Parabola is relaxed - Madame Petrovsky only[1]
Transform this dream with vistas of the First City 1 x Expertise of the First City Persuasive 1
Infuse this dream with the knowledge of Irem 1 x Justificande Coin Persuasive 100 2
Parabola is strained
Observe and learn 0[3]
More! Further! Persuasive [4] 1 - 2
-1 (Failure)
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Choosing any option will make Parabola strained
  2. Gives 2 Duration
  3. Makes parabola relaxed, gives 1-2 Duration
  4. Both Intensity of the Dream and Ravages of Parabolan Warfare increases the challenge

Rewards[edit]

For the actions that give 3 rewards, use the Distribution table below to find out what your target Intensity should be. In any case, each point of Intensity is equivalent to 2 E in rewards, 20 CP Investigating... or 10 CP Inspired....

Reward Table
Option Requirement Challenge Bonus Intensity? Rewards Parabolan state[1]
General, Treasure-specific rewards
Hand over this dream as an offering The Long-Dead Priests of the Red Bird Glasswork 2 1 extra Palimpsest Scrap Strained
Let this vista influence the dreamers of the Royal Beth A Bright Brass Button Glasswork 2 Vision of the Surface Strained
Fill an empty Mirrorcatch box with Viric Strained
The Bohemian Sculptress
HAL as a historical figure Mithridacy 2 Relaxed
HAL as more himself than ever A Venomous Caricaturist Kataleptic Toxicology 2 Relaxed
a Saint of Axile Cloud-filled Sphere Shapeling Arts 2 Up to 1/4 of Duration Relaxed
a Saint of your making Glasswork 5 Up to 1/4 of Duration Relaxed
a patroness of Freedom A Palatial Holiday Home in the Arctic Circle Glasswork 5 Up to 1/4 of Duration Memory of Light Relaxed
Take your own inspiration from this dream Persuasive 100 Inspired... Strained
The Detective
Extract clues from his thoughts Watchful 100 Relaxed
Learn from the Detective's investigation Watchful 100 Investigating... Strained
Madame Petrovsky
Let her take her visions home and peddle them to her followers Persuasive 100 Hinterland Scrip Relaxed
Comprehend something elemental Watchful 200 Elemental Secret Strained

Distribution Table[edit]

Remember that Intensity may be affected with up to 1/4 of Duration.

Intensity Reward 1 Reward 2 Reward 3

1 0 0 13
2 0 1 9
3 0 2 6
4 0 3 3
5 0 4 0
6 0 4 13
7 1 0 9
8 1 1 6
9 1 2 3
10 1 3 0
11 1 3 13
12 1 4 9
13 2 0 6
14 2 1 3
15 2 2 0
16 2 2 13
17 2 3 9
18 2 4 6
19 3 0 3
20 3 1 0
21 3 1 13
... ... ... ...


  1. Refers to the state Parabola has to be in, in order to choose the option

Distribution Graph[edit]

With 25+ x Intensity, Reward 2 and Reward 3 numbers are repeated (so you get the same number with N x Intensity and N+25 x Intensity).

Reward Distribution Graph

Sourcing Material[edit]

There is a big difference to the difficulty in sourcing the items spent on progress. In addition, one 2.5E item is typically exchanged for 2E worth of Intensity, giving this a slight loss. The items that can be spent to speed up your dream session are as follows:

These are gained from dreaming, especially dreams of long Duration. Consider spending actions to fuel some dreams (preferably ones that gain bonus Intensity based on duration) and spending the resulting landmarks on faster dreams with no bonus payout.

These can be grinded in bulk by selling ironic monographs in Moulin or by selling amalgamous skeletons to the A Colourful Phantasist when she comes around.

Can only be made in your University Laboratory

Most sources are inferior to just using the persuasive check.

Most sources are inferior to just using the persuasive check.

Strategy[edit]

It takes one action to start a dream and one to end it. As your reward is proportional to Intensity and Duration, it generally makes sense to maximize these, and go for longer dreams rather than many short ones. This can be an issue when using the options that cost no items, because they will get harder with increasing intensity.

Spending supplies[edit]

When going for a reward that doesn't give a bonus to Intensity based on Duration, consider spending items to speed it up instead. You will need to get them relatively fast for it to be profitable, but this means you spend less actions in parabola and can spend them getting resources in London instead, giving you access to your deck etc. If you want as many as possible of the most valuable rewards, you would want to target 7, 13, 19 or 25 Intensity (or higher). This is usually one action for Intensity 1, before spending the items. By getting higher intensity at once, you reduce the extra actions you need to spend to convert your items to other items.

Spending Sighting of a Parabolan Landmark gives 1 extra duration compared to the other options. This can be seen as a decrease in the cost by 15 sightings. Not enough that it's efficient to spend them if you're trying to get more sightings, but they are slightly more valuable than the other items for dreaming.

Spending actions[edit]

When going for a reward that gives a bonus depending on Duration, you might as well spend more actions to improve intensity on these.

Typically you'll want to get as much as possible of the 12.5 E rewards. If you're spending actions, this might mean cashing them in at 7 Intensity, as that gives easier challenges. (Or a little below that if you get bonus intensity).

There is an interesting question about whether you should let Parabola rest or whether you should do the More! Further! action. If duration is left out of the question, the different strategies are compared below:

Amount of actions needed for 1 intensity, assuming no rare successes. s = success rate

The intersection between these graphs happens at , which means that if you have a success rate lower than 71%, you should always allow Parabola to relax between attempts. Rare successes will make it more useful to stretch Parabola, but the extra duration by letting Parabola rest will favour letting Parabola rest. Additionally, the Nightmares gained on failures will make it more useful to let Parabola stretch, as that will end up giving you less failures on average, To give an approximation, you should let Parabola rest if your success rate is below around 70% if focusing on intensity, and below 75% if your main goal is duration.

Using a mix[edit]

If using a mix of free actions and actions that cost supplies, make sure to do the free actions first, as their challenge will be easier that way.

Maximising Duration[edit]

Maximising duration is what you want if you're grinding Sighting of a Parabolan Landmark. There are only two cases where you get more than 1 duration - either by letting Parabola rest, or by spending Sighting of a Parabolan Landmark. Each duration is worth 15 Landmarks, which means it's inefficient to spend 125 landmarks in order to regain 30 landmarks if you're only interested in the landmarks.

For gaining maximum duration, you should therefore always let Parabola rest, but if Intensity is also useful for you, you should check the calculation under the spending actions subsection to see if you should stretch Parabola or let Parabola rest.