Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Recipes

From Fallen London Wiki
World Qualities:
Preferred Quality:
Amalgamy
Preferred Type:
Birds
Occasional Buyer:
A Dreary Midnighter
Diplomat's Fascination:
Skeleton: Menace
Reference Tables:
This guide is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
What needs work: Human, Ape, and Monkey skeletons now also have 10% zoomania bonus.

Recipes for Home Comforts, such as Relatively Plausible Curator Skeleton can be found here.

The guide assumes at least level 5 in advanced skills as a baseline. Requirements beyond this will be listed at the top of the recipe.

Unless specifically stated, the following recipes do not have the skeletons declared as a Chimera. Declaring it as a Chimera leads to a spike in Self-Evident Implausibility that can be troublesome and expensive to deal with.

Amalgamy[edit]

For these skeletons you will typically need Helical Thighbones, Skull in Coral or alternatively Amber-Crusted Fins. The first two will require a Shapeling Arts challenge, and all of the supplies take some time to gather.

Knock-Kneed Newt[edit]

Attaching Helical Thighbones is not automatic until you have Shapeling Arts 10. If you fail one of the first three thighbones, there are ways to recover the recipe to target Amalgamy 6, and either Antiquity 3, or Menace 3, which will produce the same pay-out of 18. Failing the last roll will result in a pay-out of only 16, and failing two rolls is difficult to recover from.

Thorned Toad[edit]

Credits to m0k0n4 from the Failbetter Games Discord server.

It's strongly recommended to have at least Shapeling Arts 10 before attempting to build the skeleton.

Assembly:

This yields E 356 worth of items ( 97 x MoDS and 615 x Final Breath) and exhausts the Bone Market for the week.

Coral-Coiled Cockatrice[edit]

Lopsided Lizard[edit]

Caducean Raptor[edit]

The limbs to be used depend on the outcomes of the installation of the skull and tail. If both are successes:

If both are failures, i.e. you have only 4 levels of Menace, then:

  • 4 x Helical Thighbones: You have no other choices, really; thus far, these are the limbs that can give up to 2 points of the pertinent qualities. This will bring the multiple of the secondary qualities to at least 20, if you have been having really awful luck with the rolls.
  • Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Reptile

If either is a failure, i.e. you have 5 levels of Menace, then go for 7 levels of Amalgamy with these:

Amorphous Arthropod[edit]

This is a skeleton made with the intention of having maximised Amalgamy, without having to resort to a Skeleton with Seven Necks, in order to sell to the Tentacled Entrepreneur. This will require Shapeling Arts challenges, so train this skill first.

This recipe should reach Amalgamy 11, which will maximise the pay-out while keeping your Bone Market Exhaustion at 4 levels, which will be cleared by Time, the Healer.

Warped Warbler[edit]

That should give you up to Amalgamy 14 for selling to the Tentacled Entrepreneur. This will give seven levels of Exhaustion.

Amalgamy Bomb[edit]

This recipe uses the least number of actions to use up Bone Market Exhaustion as efficiently as possible.

Roughly speaking, this recipe gives around 70 Echoes for every point of Bone Market Exhaustion. Very efficient.

Fish Of Unusual Length[edit]

This recipe can be used to produce an extremely large payout from the Tentacled Entrepreneur by burning a massive amount of Warm Amber and Bone Market Exhaustion. If you want to lock yourself out of the Bone Market for 19 weeks as profitably as possible, this is your Fish. This may not be wise, but it's fun.

Add four more joints to your skeleton as per the table below, adding 4 x Amber-Crusted Fin each time, until you hit 27 joints (or run out of Warm Amber, Amber-Crusted Fins, Trembling Amber, or time). After 27, the profit diminishes as your Warm Amber costs mount. After 39, you are making a loss.

Fish Of Unusual Length extension costs and payouts
Trembling Amber total Warm Amber total needed Amber-Crusted Fin total Memory of Distant Shores Final Breath Bone Market Exhaustion Profit (Echoes) Echoes per Bone Market Exhaustion
0 0 3 891 315 2 222 111
1 225 7 1029 1021 7 549 78.4
2 1450 11 1167 2159 16 992 62
3 4475 15 1305 3745 27 1479 54.8
4 10100 19 1443 5793 40 1937 48.4
5 19125 23 1581 8310 57 2289.5 40.2
6 32350 27 1719 11306 77 2461.5 (max) 32
7 50575 31 1857 14788 100 2376.5 23.8
8 74600 35 1995 18761 125 1957 15.7
9 105225 39 2133 23232 153 1126.5 7.4
10 143250 43 2271 28205 184 -193 -1
11 189475 47 2409 33686 219 (a year!) -2078.5 -9.5

This table prices Warm Amber at 10 pence, and assumes you have added an Obsidian Chitin Tail and are selling in Amalgamous Fish week.

Menace[edit]

There are no legs that give menace, so most of these are birds with many skulls, or fish.

Ancient Armoured Avian[edit]

This skeleton is to be sold to the Author of Gothic Tales, thus giving a return of 39 x Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory for 1 level of Bone Market Exhaustion.

You can also replace the Horned Skull or Sabre-toothed Skull with a Doubled Skull for more manageable increases of Menace. Of course, if you do this, the wings must be composed of a Wing of a Young Terror Bird and an Albatross Wing.

Savage Sunfish[edit]

You also want to sell this to the Rubbery Collector. The target is Amalgamy 5 and Menace 7.

Heuvelmans' Nightmare[edit]

If you succeed in all of the rolls, you should have around Menace 10-11 and Amalgamy 8. You would be having a lot of Rubbery Pies, but keep in mind that there will be Exhaustion.

Chaos Monkey[edit]

Low cost (common component) per point of menace to easily take advantage of Exhaustion. Sell this to A Teller of Terrors in Menace week for 3 levels of Bone Market Exhaustion.

Ideal during Human/Monkey/Ape zoomania with Menace fad. Brass version is more exhaustion-efficient but less action-efficient.

Prismatic Walrus[edit]

by mp, georg

Sell on Menace (or Antiquity) Fish week to an Author of Gothic Tales. This recipe does not give Exhaustion.

Antiquity[edit]

These recipes typically use Mammoth Ribcage, Femurs of a Jurassic Beast and tomb lion tails.

Sauropsid on Shale[edit]


Terrifying Pterodactyl[edit]

Ivory Glimsect[edit]

The idea behind this recipe is to get a 15% bonus on turning Ivory Femurs into Hinterland Scrip while at the same time getting the maximum exhaustion-free secondary reward.

Sainted skeletons[edit]

Spider Pope, Spider Pope
Neathy Holiness Spider Pope
Once He glowed, on the roof
Now He's bones, here's the proof
Look out! We're selling Spider Popes!

These skeletons are based on both Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology and value and should be sold to the Bohemian Sculptress. Note that the Bohemian Sculptress neither gives nor is affected by Exhaustion, making these good for periods when you are locked out of high-end sales.
A variant is the exhibition recipe, which shouldn't be sold at all, but is used in order to work the opportunity deck of the Upper River with a Statue to a Custom-Made Saint at Burrow-Infra-Mump. Unsold Sainted skeletons can also be used to Inspire the Bohemian Sculptress while Oneiropomping, which does not pay well, but is amusing.

Arachnid Antipope[edit]

AKA RoofPope, SpiderPope II, etc. This skeleton should be sold to the Bohemian Sculptress during spider week.

Depending upon Mithridacy, this produces 4-5 Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology per leg, or a total of 32-40 points of Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology, and a base payout of 79 Preserved Surface Blooms. The resulting rumours can be spent on Prismatic Frames for further skeletons.

Sacred Scarab[edit]

A variant of the RoofPope for Insect Week. By u/sobrique (I think).

Depending upon Mithridacy, this produces 4-5 Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology per leg, or a total of 24-30 points of Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology. The resulting rumours can be spent on Prismatic Frames for further skeletons.

Beatified Beetle[edit]

This skeleton should be sold to the Bohemian Sculptress during insect week.

  • Leviathan Frame
  • Skull in Coral (requires Knob of Scintillack), duplicated Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist or other non-Antique skull. Successfully attaching a Skull in Coral pushes total Amalgamy to 4, letting you Sell an amalgamous skeleton as a work of Bazaarine art to the Colourful Phantasist if Implausibility is a problem.
  • 100 x Warm Amber
  • Trembling Amber
  • 6 x Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre
  • Scrimshander Carving Knife FRUITS OF THE ZEE (not consumed)
  • Ravenglass Knife (not consumed)


  1. Attach a skull to your Leviathan Frame.
  2. Add four more joints to your skeleton ( Shapeling Arts 12 to 100%, if below 12 wear suspicion-reducing gear)
  3. Add 6 saint legs. This requires Mithridacy 12 to 100% and gives 5-6 Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology per leg.
  4. Remove the tail with your Ravenglass Knife
  5. Carve away some evidence of age with your Scrimshander Carving Knife.
  6. Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Insect

During Insect week, this will sell to the Bohemian Sculptress for 190 Surface Blooms and 30-36 Rumours, depending upon your success at Mithridacy checks.

Sailbacked Saint[edit]

AKA Prismatic Pope. This skeleton should be sold to the Bohemian Sculptress during insect week.


  1. Attach a Skull to your Prismatic Frame.
  2. Attach 2 Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory to use up the other skull slots
  3. Add four more joints to your skeleton ( Shapeling Arts 12 to 100%, if below 12 wear suspicion-reducing gear)
  4. Add 6 saint legs. This requires Mithridacy 13 to 100% and gives 5-6 Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology per leg.
  5. Add the Albatross Wing to use the 7th limb slot and give the Saint a Sailback.
  6. Either:
    1. Carve away some evidence of age with your Scrimshander Carving Knife OR
    2. Add 2 Withered Tentacles as tails then Remove both tails with your Ravenglass Knife.
  7. Decide your (Skeleton Type) needs no tail
  8. Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Insect

With a Skull in Coral, the Sailbacked Saint sells to the Bohemian Sculptress for 198 (or 201 w tentacles) Surface Blooms and 30-36 Rumours, depending on how well you did at the Mithridacy checks.

Khaganian Exports[edit]

These skeletons are made for sale to The Trifling Diplomat in The Copper Quarter. Though you can sell to him as soon as you're able to zail to the Khanate, you will need access to Khan's Heart proper in order to spend the Assortment of Khaganian Coinage he pays you. This means these skeletons should only be used late in the railway, after building out the Cabinet Noir at Balmoral.

The Diplomat gives Bone Market Exhaustion and does not pay out for it especially well. You're best off selling him skeletons with a high Value; Chimeras are ideal, as he ignores Self-Evident Implausibility. On weeks where he has an interest in Amalgamy, Antiquity, or Menace, avoiding Bone Market Exhaustion is as simple as keeping the relevant quality at 9 or below. On other weeks he uses a sum of all three qualities, which must be 24 or less to avoid Bone Market Exhaustion. Spiders, Insects, and skeletons with numerous legs are best sold to the Bone Market proper; the Trifling Diplomat will not be nearly as profitable.

Because it's such a long journey, anything you do in the Khanate should be combined with as many other profitable related actions as possible: Piracy, crates from Peaceable & Godly, and weekly Emetic Revelations from Khaganian Intrigue all help raise the profit gained through Khanate trips.


Diplomatic Bird[edit]

This can be sold during weeks where The Diplomat's Current Fascination is birds or skeletons with many skulls. It is incredibly easy to source, requiring only a single trip into the Moonlit Woods and the echoes/brass for the skulls.

Prismatic Hydra[edit]

Liquidation[edit]

Occasionally, you'll have spare parts that cannot be sold directly. These recipes assume you have all the parts already and won't be using additional actions to obtain them. There may be cases where sourcing something needed is worthwhile, but the calculations haven't been done.

Amalgamous Ape[edit]

This Exhaustion-free recipe uses Knotted Humeri, which are gained from areas such as Balmoral Woods and Palaeontological Digs in the Hinterlands.

Pre-Railway Skeletons[edit]

Midgame Rubbery Saint[edit]

This skeleton is designed to let pre-Railway players save time and echoes when obtaining the Nightsoil of the Bazaar from the Tentacled Servant required for the Laboratory equipment upgrade, while minimising reliance on opportunity cards: a single skeleton sells for 205-213 Nightsoil (slightly more than the amount needed) and only requires a single opportunity card.

Attaching the Bright Brass Skull and the Knotted Humerus are both Mithridacy challenges so you will have an easier time selling this if you have already gained some Mithridacy from the Waswood in Parabola; additionally the challenge on the Humerus will be easier if you take care to attach it before all the other limbs.

Brass Lollipop[edit]

This skeleton allows you to easily transfer Echoes to Bone Fragments or Hinterland Scrip. This could be useful to get Parabolan Orange-apples for Ivory Femurs in order to make high value skeletons with other skeleton recipes, or in order to get scrip to exchange for a Sabre-toothed Skull, which adds the same value as a brass skull, but doesn't add implausibility. This could be useful when making skeletons with high implausibility like the sculpture above. It can also be done for building the station in Ealing Gardens.

You need:

Stupendous Statues[edit]

These skeletons are meant for the Colourful Phantasist, and should be possible with no access to Parabola. You will want to focus on Implausibility and either Antiquity or Amalgamy. This is one of few ways for pre-Railway players to benefit from exhaustion.

Start with the following parts:

Antiquity:

(Provides Memory of Light and Knob of Scintillack)

Amalgamy:

(Provides Hinterland Scrip and Slim Volume of Bazaarine Poetry)

Menace:

(Provides Solacefruit and Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory)

And end with Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Chimera.

This should give you at least 5 Implausibility and 4 of the other quality for 21 bonus items, but may give a lot more, especially if your advanced stats are low.

Special skeletons[edit]

This guide is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
What needs work: Sections about generator skeletons and Khaganian coinage grind need restoring


Crackpot Export[edit]

The surface-dwellers who purchase bird skeletons through the Dumbwaiter of Balmoral are the only ones who are foolish enough to buy the following recipes. Due to the high implausibility, few other buyers would want these.

Septa-Cranial String-Along[edit]

That takes 13 Actions, not counting the trip between Balmoral and London.

Extravagant Eight-Headed Hoax[edit]

That takes 16 Actions, not counting the trip between Balmoral and London.

Leviathan Frame Fuel[edit]

The Carpenter's Granddaughter will trade you a Leviathan Frame for a completed skeleton if its value is at least 30,000 pennies, including zoological bonus. Therefore, if you want to do this your goal is to hit 30,000 as close as possible.
Note that with a base shadowy of 220, Leviathan Frames can also be obtained from Heart's Game.

Sufficient Archaeopteryx[edit]

On a bird week:

If the Monstrous Anatomy 7 check to add the Ivory Femurs is passed, this produces a skeleton with 0 Implausibility (important because, as a real palaeontologist, the Carpenter's Granddaughter is more perceptive than most buyers) and a value of 30,800 including zoological mania. Exceptionally Shadowy characters may substitute a Bright Brass Skull for the Sabre-toothed, swap in one Wing of a Young Terror Bird for one Albatross Wing, and add a Jet Black Stinger, for a value of 30,030 including mania, with a 200 Shadowy check; Ambition: Bag a Legend! players may use a Vake skull instead, for 0 Implausibility with the same value.

Triple-Headed Terror Bird[edit]

On a bird week:

This produces a skeleton with 0 Implausibility and a value of 30,250 pennies including zoological mania, just sufficient for a Leviathan Frame trade.

Opulent Saurian[edit]

This should give you a tidy sum of 30085, inclusive of the bonus from Zoological Mania.

Treasure Toad[edit]

Like the above, but for when the mania is for Amphibians. Use the same skulls and ribcage, and the same number of Ivory Femurs, then continue with the following:

Sensational Scarab[edit]

Teutonic Terror[edit]

Use to consume excess flourishing rib-cages, such as from Jericho Locks.

Fragment Farming[edit]

Incomplete Skeleton[edit]

This deliberately-incomplete skeleton is meant to convert Echoes into Bone Fragments by intentionally failing the Dangerous check during disassembly. Additional parts are optional and Implausibility is not a concern since we're not selling. The base skeleton, the only part that can't be bought directly, is not consumed upon disassembly, so you can always do this so long as you have the Echoes to afford skulls.

You can ensure failure on the dissassembly check by having only a Weasel of Woe equipped. The mere presence of this wretched little creature is enough to reduce overcapped Dangerous to negative double digits. You'll also want it equipped for the Mithridacy checks to add the Brass Skulls. Each failure reduces the skull's value by E 2.50 but saves you E 2 worth of Nevercold Brass.

If you cannot afford the Woesel, you can approximate its effect with a Talkative Rattus Faber and other Dangerous-reducing gear. Success on the check can actually be useful, once: it will gain you Whispered Hints instead of bone fragments, which should be sold to the Bazaar, so you can buy the Woesel, so you don't accidentally succeed again.

In this way, you can gain up to 48000 x Bone Fragments in 10 actions at the cost of 500 E . If your normal EPA is 6, you can gain Fragments per action.

Seven Heads Bird[edit]

In this way, you can gain 57680 x Bone Fragments. If your normal EPA is 6, actions are , which means you can gain Fragments per action.

Warm Amber Farming[edit]

Similar to Seven Heads Bird.

In this way, you can gain 5745 x Nodule of Warm Amber. If your normal EPA is 6, actions are , which means you can gain Warm Amber per action.

Recipes with historical value[edit]

Spider-Pope[edit]

This guide is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
What needs work: Reevaluate the sell value and overall usefulness of this recipe to account for the recent relic nerf.

Their Holiness has retired owing to the perfidious treachery of values rendering their occupation of the Holy Zee unprofitable. AKA Their Wooliness, Unbiscuit of Balmoral, Leader of the Counter-Crunch, Successor of the Holy Mammoth, Protector of Bones, Spider-Pope. This recipe was meant for maximising the value of Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre. It uses Segmented Ribcage, currently only available from WHITSUN and Port Cecil, which formerly gave 8 Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology per leg. It was sold to the Bohemian Sculptress during spider week.

  1. Start with a segmented ribcage
  2. Use another segment as its skull.
  3. Add another segment as a tail.
  4. Add 8 saint legs. A high Mithridacy is an advantage.
  5. Add a tail that gives value but not Antiquity or Decide your (Skeleton Type) needs no tail
  6. Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Spider

A high Mithridacy will help both reducing Skeleton: Self-Evident Implausibility as well as increasing Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology. You will end up at between 16 and 24 Support as well as 0-16 Implausibility. An estimate at Mithridacy 10 give 20 support and 8 implausibility, giving a Shadowy 400 challenge on the sale. ~2.5 Support and 14.37 E skeleton value (incl. Zoomania) equals 8.046 E value per relic. The resulting rumours can be spent on Prismatic Frames for further skeletons.

Primordial Ape[edit]

Wiki note: As of 11 August 2022 Fossil Apes are no longer a viable grind, due to a increase in Fossilised Forelimb cost

This recipe requires Monstrous Anatomy 15 to guarantee success on all checks, but for those who can attain that level it is was a quick and comparatively simple way to generate a chunk of Hinterland Scrip without accruing Bone Market Exhaustion. It produces a skeleton with 9 x Antiquity and 2 x Menace, for which An Author of Gothic Tales will pay 18 secondary rewards ( Carved Balls of Stygian Ivory), just below the Exhaustion threshold. When Bone Market Fluctuations is Antiquity, the payout increases to 22 without generating additional Exhaustion.

Four Fossilised Forelimbs can be purchased from Anning and Daughters in The Upper River Exchange for 220 340 Scrip. Because the Author pays out in Scrip, that investment will be recouped immediately, along with a profit of 55 Scrip results in a net loss of 65 Scrip. Stygian Ivory will also sell to the Upper River Exchange for 5 Scrip apiece, if you are so inclined. Rinse and repeat!

The Frog of Faith and the Reverent Reptile[edit]

This skeleton has been superseded by the arrival of Segmented Ribcages

You make this skeleton to sell to the Bohemian Sculptress. Keep in mind that the skeleton must not have any Antiquity.

Such a calcified congregation would bless you with at least 5 Counter-church Theology points, more if you use the other ribcage. This should net you a lot of Rumours of the Upper River. And flowers, of course.

Beatific Bird[edit]

If you still insist on using skeletons to get the Rumours, but you don't want to risk failed Mithridacy rolls or go through the tedium of getting the holy thigh bones, then use this build:

Ancient Asymmetric Alliterative Arachnid[edit]

Wiki note: In case spiders ever get good

Use this when antique spiders are in vogue. Your targets are 9 x Antiquity and 4 x Amalgamy, which can be tricky to pull off due to the number of legs this skeleton will have. You'll want to Sell to a Zailor with Particular Interests to get the most out of your qualities.