Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Recipes
| World Qualities: |
Preferred Quality:
Preferred Type:
Birds Occasional Buyer:
An Ingenuous Malacologist Diplomat's Fascination:
|
|---|---|
| Reference Tables: |
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]
Amalgamy 9,
Antiquity 2, and
Menace 2, sold to a Zailor with Particular Interests or A Rubbery Collector.
Reptile or Amphibian. High
Shapeling Arts
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 Ribcage
Horned Skull when targeting Antiquity, or
Plated Skull when targeting Menace
3 x Helical Thighbone- If all thighbones were successfully attached:
1 x Helical Thighbone
Tomb-Lion's Tail when targeting Antiquity, or decide your Tailless Animal needs no tail when targeting Menace- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Reptile or Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Amphibian
- If one thighbone failed and targeting Antiquity:
- If one thighbone failed and targeting Menace:
1 x Femur of a Surface Deer (reduce Menace to prevent overshooting)
Jet Black Stinger- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Reptile
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.
Amalgamy 11,
Exhaustion 4- Zoomania:
Amphibians/
Reptiles - To be sold to the
Tentacled Entrepreneur.
Thorned Ribcage
Skull in Coral (requires
1 x Knob of Scintillack)
4 x Helical Thighbone
If the current Zoomania is for Amphibians:
Decide that your Skeleton needs no tail and declare it an Amphibian.
Otherwise, if the current Zoomania is for Reptiles, attatch any easily acquired low-value tail, such as a
Jet Black Stinger and declare your Skeleton a Reptile.
If you don't care about Zoomania and just want to use up your Exhaustion on an Amalgamy week, go with the Amphibian option for better efficiency overall.
This recipe yields 48.5 (or more depending if you attatched a tail) and
307.5 worth of bonus items (
97 x Memories of Distant Shores and
615 x Final Breaths), exhausting the Bone Market for the week.
Coral-Coiled Cockatrice[edit]
Amalgamy 6,
Antiquity 3- Zoomania:
Bird, Sell to the Zailor
Thorned Ribcage
Skull in Coral
Tomb-Lion's Tail: Install this early to chance the roll, if it is not 100%. Maybe you could abort or alter the build if you fail, but this must succeed for the recipe to be viable.
Helical Thighbone(s): Install these next. If you successfully install one, try to deliberately fail the check for the other with a
Weasel of Woe. If you fail the first leg, try to install another successfully; if you fail both, this recipe won't be optimal.
- If you succeed at the first leg, the other leg can be a
Femur of a Jurassic Beast.
- If you succeed at the first leg, the other leg can be a
Wing of a Young Terror Bird(s): At least one, or both wings if both legs have to be Helical. This/These should bring Antiquity to 3.
Albatross Wing: The other wing, if you prefer to raise the value of the skeleton to as high as possible. One of the legs must be a Jurassic Femur if you take this option.
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
Lopsided Lizard[edit]
Amalgamy 7, Zoomania:
Reptile (1 exhaustion),
Tentacled Entrepreneur.
Thorned Ribcage: This ribcage is relatively easy to get compared to the more expensive ones.
Skull in Coral: Since the above ribcage is used, the Shapeling Arts roll for this should be trivial for characters that have maxed out their base skill.
2 x Helical Thighbones: You may have to begin with these, if your character cannot accumulate up to 10
Shapeling Arts. What you use next depends on the outcome of these rolls.
- Both failures:
1 x Helical Thighbone and then,
1 x Unidentified Thigh Bone or a tentacle, thus leading to a lower Amalgamy rating. - Both successes:
2 x Unidentified Thigh Bone - Give any tail except an Obsidian Chitin Tail, and declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Reptile.
- Both failures:
Caducean Raptor[edit]
Amalgamy 6
Menace 6 -
Rubbery Collector- Zoomania:
Bird/
Reptile, 1 exhaustion, high
Shapeling Arts
The limbs to be used depend on the outcomes of the installation of the skull and tail. If both are successes:
Wing of a Young Terror Bird: This should bring
Menace to 6.
Albatross Wing
2 x Helical Thighbones- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
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.
Flourishing Ribcage
1 x Skull in Coral:
Shapeling Arts -2 challenge
1 x Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory To occupy the second neck without adding a skull, which would prevent you from declaring the skeleton an Insect.
4 x Helical Thighbone: Unless you failed the challenge for the Skull, you should try to fail exactly one of these rolls. If you failed the skull, try to fail none of them.
2 x Unidentified Thigh Bone: If you have failed 2 rolls so far and your Amalgamy is 9, then replace one of these with another
Helical Thighbone.- Decide your Tailless Animal needs no tail
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Insect
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]
Skeleton with Seven Necks
5 x Skulls in Coral: These involve a lot of Shapeling Arts challenges. which is the main hurdle for this recipe. Fortunately, each skull that is installed reduces the difficulty further.
Sabre-toothed Skull: You are wasting the
Antiquity (and
Menace), of course, but the value is what you want.
Bright Brass Skull: This would be good for increasing value while not increasing
Implausibility too much that a high-level player character could not reliably handle it.
2 x Albatross Wings- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
That should give you up to
Amalgamy 14 for selling to the
Tentacled Entrepreneur. This will give seven levels of Exhaustion.
Pelagic Persephone[edit]
Humanoid recipe targeting
Amalgamy 7 for 1 Exhaustion when selling to to the
Tentacled Entrepreneur. Use during Amalgamous Primates week. Note that since we're starting with a non-amalgamous torso, affixing the Skull in Coral has a chance to fail even at high
Shapeling Arts levels. If this happens, attach another
Knotted Humerus in place of the
Ivory one for an additional Amalgamy point.
If you really don't want to use a Skull in Coral for whatever reason, you can replace the Human Ribcage with a
Thorned one, but this means you bave to replace both arms with Knotted Humeri and both checks on the Helical Thighbones have to succeed, which means you should only attempt this if you have a
Shapeling Arts of at least 10 for everything to turn out right.
Human Ribcage/
Thorned Ribcage
Skull in Coral
Helical Thighbone x2 (must succeed for recipe to be optimal when attempting Skull-less version!)
Knotted Humerus x1 (x2 if the Skull failed, or if you don't want to use a Skull in Coral)
Ivory Humerus x1 (only if you succeed on the Skull check)- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Humanoid
Amalgamy Bomb (Conventional)[edit]
This recipe uses the least number of actions to use up
Bone Market Exhaustion as efficiently as possible.
- Up to
Amalgamy 23 (24 with an
Obsidian Chitin Tail)
Ribcage with a Bouquet of Eight Spines
- Exchange
8 x Volume of Collated Research and
4 x Unprovenanced Artefact for
1 x Skeleton with Seven Necks in 9 actions, see Moonlit Woods (Guide). - Exchange
1 x Skeleton with Seven Necks,
1 x Thorned Ribcage,
3 x Nodule of Trembling Amber and
3 x Searing Enigma for
1 x Ribcage with a Bouquet of Eight Spines, see Helicon House (Guide).
- Exchange
8 x Skull in Coral
- Exchange
Memory of Distant Shores and
Sworn Statement for
Skull in Coral, see Canal Cruising in Jericho Locks (Guide).
- Exchange
2 x Helical Thighbone
- Collate a great number of palaeontological reports to grind lots of
Survey of the Neath's Bones. - Dig near Station VIII and choose An amalgamous interment
Shapeling Arts 10 the best
- Collate a great number of palaeontological reports to grind lots of
2 x Albatross Wing
- Exchange
25 x Nodule of Warm Amber and
2000 x Bone Fragments for
2 x Albatross Wing, see Duplicate the wings of a Focused Albatross.
- Exchange
- No tail
- Or any tail is fine,
Obsidian Chitin Tail is the best but hard to grind.
- Or any tail is fine,
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird and Sell to the Tentacled Entrepreneur (Skeleton) on Amalgamy and bird week
Comprehensive Study of Avian Anatomies, Oneiric and Otherwise required
Bizarre 13 required, 15 the best.- Gives
2895 x Final Breath,
1069 x Memory of Distant Shores and
21 x Bone Market Exhaustion
Roughly speaking, this recipe gives around 70 Echoes for every point of
Bone Market Exhaustion. Very efficient.
Amalgamy Bomb (Nuclear)[edit]
This recipe has one and only one purpose: to earn enough echoes to buy a
Firkin of Hesperidean Cider in one fell swoop, at the cost of being locked out of high end buyers at the Bone Market for 9 years. If you don't want to be locked out for that long, don't do it.
Ribcage with a Bouquet of Eight Spines
8 x Skull in Coral- Add four more joints to your skeleton*19, for a cumulative cost of
988000 x Nodule of Warm Amber and
19 x Nodule of Trembling Amber
80 x Helical Thighbone
Obsidian Chitin Tail- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Chimera
Sell this
Amalgamy 216 monster to the Tentacled Entrepreneur during Amalgamy week for
319457 x Final Breath,
1540 x Memory of Distant Shores and
1866 x Bone Market Exhaustion for a total value of 160,498.5 Echoes. This level of Exhaustion will lock you out of high end buyers for almost exactly 9 years. However, you are guaranteed to survive that long.
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.
Prismatic Frame (or a
Leviathan Frame) - you want as high a payout as possible as you won't be back for a while, and the Prismatic Frame gives 2 extra Amalgamy.
Skull in Coral
2 x Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory for the other two Head slots
Obsidian Chitin Tail, optional, but why not
27 x Amber-Crusted Fin at maximum profit
6 x Trembling Amber at maximum profit
32350 x Warm Amber at maximum profit
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.
| Profit (Echoes) | Echoes per | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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]
Skeleton with Seven Necks
Plated Skulls: Stack these until
Menace lands on 8 to 9.
Horned Skull: What to do next depends on the outcome of the roll to install this.
- If the roll to install the above succeeds,
Menace should be 10 or 11.
- If it is 10, install another
Horned Skull. If it is 11, continue to the next step.
- If it is 10, install another
- If the roll to install the above succeeds,
Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory: Plug any remaining necks with these.
- Or perhaps swap one ball for a
Bright Brass Skull to increase the Value of the skeleton.
- Or perhaps swap one ball for a
2 x Wing of a Young Terror Birds: This should bring
Antiquity to 3.
- Alternatively, you can substitute 2 Plated Skulls for 2 Horned or 2 Sabre-Toothed ones, and install
Albatross Wings instead. This is less predictable though.
- Alternatively, you can substitute 2 Plated Skulls for 2 Horned or 2 Sabre-Toothed ones, and install
- Make your skeleton less dreadful: You really shouldn't have to do this if you have been closely managing the increments of Menace.
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
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.
- Zoomania:
Fish
Thorned Ribcage: Again, of course you should start with this.
Plated Skull
- If
Amalgamy is in fashion rather than
Menace, you can use a
Skull in Coral instead to reverse the two qualities.
- If
4 x Amber-Crusted Fins- Decide your Tailless Animal needs no tail: (Author's note: Sunfish have next to no tails.)
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Fish
Heuvelmans' Nightmare[edit]
- Zoomania:
Fish
Rubbery Collector.
Flourishing Ribcage
Plated Skull or
a copy of the Vake's Head; the latter is more expensive.
Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory: The fish that you are going to declare can have only one head.
6 x Amber-Crusted Fins
Jet Black Stinger- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Fish
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.
Menace 7 (brass version) or
Menace 9 (horned version)
Thorned Ribcage
Bright Brass Skull or
Horned Skull
4 x Crustacean Pincers
Jet Black Stinger- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Monkey
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
Prismatic Frame
Sabre-toothed Skull
2 x Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory
3 x Amber-Crusted Fins
Jet Black Stinger- No further tails
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Fish
Sell on Menace (or Antiquity) Fish week to an Author of Gothic Tales. This recipe does not give Exhaustion.
Dreaded Seraph[edit]
This is an easy and efficient recipe to hit the weekly 4 exhaustion in less than one candle of actions (excluding favour trade). It's a chimera, thus can be done by anyone, and all bones are cheap, so almost no profit is lost due to not using zoomania.
- Zoomania: Any
Antiquity 8,
Menace 12
Flourishing Ribcage (from Rubbery Favours at Jericho or elsewhere)
2 x Horned Skull (from Ealing Gardens Butcher)
6 x Wings of a Young Terror Bird (from Bohemian Favours at Jericho or excess from Moonlit Woods)
Jet Black Stinger (from Dig where the fossils are likeliest in London)
Sell to an Author of Gothic Tales on Menace/Antiquity weeks for 100+
Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory and
Hinterland Scrips. You can make this your sole recipe for exhaustion if you always sell after TTH, then skip on amalgamy weeks, and next time sell both before and after TTH.
Antiquity[edit]
These recipes typically use
Mammoth Ribcage,
Femurs of a Jurassic Beast and
tails of tomb-lions.
Sauropsid on Shale[edit]
Antiquity 7,
Ambassador.- Zoomania:
Reptile/
Bird, 1 exhaustion
Mammoth Ribcage
Bright Brass Skull: Might as well maximise the returns of Memories of Light.
4 x Femurs of a Jurassic Beast 2 of these may be replaced with
Wing of a Young Terror Bird in order to make a bird.- Add a
Tomb-Lion's Tail - Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Reptile / Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
Standard Australian Arachnid[edit]
A spin on the above recipe, but relatively action-efficient instead of exhaustion-efficient. You might lose out on 100 or so Echoes by using this recipe, but you'll use up your 4 levels of
Bone Market Exhaustion faster.
- Goal:
Antiquity 11 (4 exhaustion)
Mammoth Ribcage
Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory: You'll need to use this in order to declare this skeleton as a Spider.- Add four more joints to your skeleton: This requires
1x Nodule of Trembling Amber and
200 x Warm Amber to accomplish or more, depending if you fail. This is somewhat likely, as the challenge requires
Shapeling Arts 12 to 100%. If your Shapeling Arts is below 12, wear suspicion-reducing gear, e.g. the
Light-Drinking Cravat.
8 x Femurs of a Jurassic Beast
Tomb-Lion's Tail
This skeleton should be sold to an
Investment-Minded Ambassador, who will give a secondary reward of
123 x Tailfeathers Brilliant as Flame, and thus gives us a great return of around 78 Echoes per level of Exhaustion when accounting for Tinned Ham Arbitrage.
Terrifying Pterodactyl[edit]
- Goal:
Menace 6 *
Antiquity 6 to the
Author of Gothic Tales. - Zoomania:
Bird, 1 exhaustion
Mammoth Ribcage
Plated Skull: You can also substitute this with a
Horned Skull, if you are confident that the Monstrous Anatomy roll would turn out right.
Jet Black Stinger
2 x Femurs of a Jurassic Beast: If you decide to attatch a Horned Skull, replace one of these with any limb, optimally an
Unidentified Thigh Bone.
2 x Wings of a Young Terror Bird: These wings are very much the best limbs for skeletons to be sold to this particular buyer.- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
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.
- Goal:
Menace 3 *
Antiquity 6 to the
Author of Gothic Tales. - Zoomania:
Insect
Glim-Encrusted Carapace
Sabre-toothed Skull
2 x Wings of a Young Terror Bird
3 x Femurs of a Jurassic Beast
3 x Ivory Femurs: Can be replaced with
Unidentified Thigh Bones if you just want to turn
Glim-Encrusted Carapaces into
Hinterland Scrip.- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Insect
Old Yharnam Special[edit]
Humanoid recipe using the
Panoptical Skull and
Jurassic Femurs to get
Antiquity up to 4 (or more if you have
Fossilised Forelimbs and exhaustion to spare). Use during Antique Primates week when the
Mammoth Ribcage is ruled out.
Human Ribcage
Panoptical Skull- 2x
Femur of a Jurassic Beast - 2x arms of your choice, preferably
Ivory Humerus if you have enough
Kataleptic Toxicology to avoid the plausibility penalty. - Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Humanoid
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.
Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory
Glim-Encrusted Carapace - Requires Roof access from Firmament, best sourced from the Stacks
8 x Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre
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).
- Duplicated
Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist,
Bright Brass Skull,
Skull in Coral (requires
Knob of Scintillack), or other non-Antique skull.
Glim-Encrusted Carapace - Requires Roof access from Firmament, best sourced from the Stacks
6 x Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre
2 x Albatross Wing
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
Bright Brass Skull or duplicated
Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist or
Skull in Coral (requires
Knob of Scintillack), 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)
- Attach a skull to your Leviathan Frame.
- Add four more joints to your skeleton (
Shapeling Arts 12 to 100%, if below 12 wear suspicion-reducing gear) - Add 6 saint legs. This requires
Mithridacy 12 to 100% and gives 5-6
Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology per leg. - Remove the tail with your Ravenglass Knife
- Carve away some evidence of age with your Scrimshander Carving Knife.
- 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.
Prismatic Frame- Duplicated
Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist,
Bright Brass Skull,
Skull in Coral (requires
Knob of Scintillack), or other non-Antique skull. Attaching a
Skull in Coral pushes total Amalgamy to 5-6, letting you Sell an amalgamous skeleton as a work of Bazaarine art to the Colourful Phantasist or Sell the Diplomat an amalgamous skeleton if Implausibility is a problem.
2 x Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory
225 x Warm Amber
Trembling Amber
6 x Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre
Albatross Wing (or a
Bat Wing if desperate)
Scrimshander Carving Knife FRUITS OF THE ZEE (not consumed) OR
2 x Withered Tentacle and
Ravenglass Knife (not consumed)
- Attach a Skull to your
Prismatic Frame. - Attach 2
Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory to use up the other skull slots - Add four more joints to your skeleton (
Shapeling Arts 12 to 100%, if below 12 wear suspicion-reducing gear) - Add 6 saint legs. This requires
Mithridacy 13 to 100% and gives 5-6
Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology per leg. - Add the
Albatross Wing to use the 7th limb slot and give the Saint a Sailback. - Either:
- Carve away some evidence of age with your
Scrimshander Carving Knife OR - Add 2
Withered Tentacles as tails then Remove both tails with your
Ravenglass Knife.
- Carve away some evidence of age with your
- Decide your (Skeleton Type) needs no tail
- 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.
Holy Trinipodisaurus[edit]
- Zoomania:
Reptile
"I saw the crocodile, as presented to the eyes of its idolaters at Arsinoë, with costly gems in its loathsome ears, and rich bracelets of gold encircling its feet..." Thomas Moore, The Epicurean
A simpler version of the Sailbacked Saint for Reptile week. As Reptiles only earn a 10% bonus it pays slightly less per leg, but doesn't require adding extra limbs.
Prismatic Frame(2 Antiquity, 2 Amalgamy)- Duplicated
Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist or
Bright Brass Skull
2 x Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory
3 x Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre
Scrimshander Carving Knife FRUITS OF THE ZEE (not consumed) and
Plaster Tail Bones OR
2 x Withered Tentacle and
Ravenglass Knife (not consumed)
- Attach a Skull to your
Prismatic Frame. - Attach 2
Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory to use up the other skull slots - Add 3 saint legs. This requires
Mithridacy 13 to 100% and gives 5-6
Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology per leg. - Either:
- Add
Plaster Tail Bones, then Carve away some evidence of age with your
Scrimshander Carving Knife OR - Add 2
Withered Tentacles as tails then Remove one tail with your
Ravenglass Knife.
- Add
- Decide your (Skeleton Type) needs no further tails
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Reptile. Yes, this thing isn't a Chimera, it’s a three-legged crocodile. Are you calling me a liar?
- Sell to the Bohemian Sculptress for 188 Surface Blooms, 18 Rumours (with Brass Skull and Plaster Tailbones and passing all Mithridacy checks).
Magdeburg Unicorn of the Blessed Virgin[edit]
- Zoomania:
Reptile
Learn about the Magdeburg Unicorn
A simpler version of the Beatified Beetle for Reptile week. As Reptiles only earn a 10% bonus it pays slightly less per leg, but doesn't require adding extra limbs.
Leviathan Frame- Duplicated
Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist or
Bright Brass Skull
2 x Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre
Scrimshander Carving Knife FRUITS OF THE ZEE (not consumed)
- Attach a Skull to your
Leviathan Frame. - Add 2 saint legs. This requires
Mithridacy 12 to 100% and gives 5-6
Skeleton: Support for a Counter-church Theology per leg. - Carve away some evidence of age with your
Scrimshander Carving Knife - Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Reptile.
- Sell to the Bohemian Sculptress for 181 Surface Blooms, 12 Rumours (with Brass Skull and passing all 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]
Skeleton with Seven Necks
7 x Bright Brass Skull
2 x Wing of a Young Terror Bird
Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
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]
Prismatic Frame
2 x Doubled Skull
Bright Brass Skull- Any limbs, preferably ones that add
Skeleton: Amalgamy,
Skeleton: Antiquity, or
Skeleton: Menace.
Decide your (Skeleton Type) needs no tail
Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Chimera- Sold when
The Diplomat's Current Fascination is skeletons with many skulls.
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.
Human Ribcage (the limiting factor of this recipe)
Bright Brass Skull (there are
other
sources of
skulls if you wish to spend other items)
4 Knotted Humerus
Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Ape- Sell to the Tentacled Entrepreneur during Amalgamy week.
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 225–243 Nightsoil on a primate week and 205–213 Nightsoil on a non-primate week. (The value depends on whether certain bones are attached successfully.) Either result exceeds the amount of Nightsoil needed and only requires a single opportunity card.
Human Ribcage either from
The Small Stalls (costs
3000 x Jade Fragments), from
Call in favours at the Shuttered Palace (costs
5 x Favours: Constables), from Brawling with Dockers, or from the weekly A Cultural Exchange (1 in 6 chance to get the ribcage).
Bright Brass Skull from the Bazaar or from completing an expedition to the Sanctuary of the Crimson Petals.
Knotted Humerus either from an infrequent opportunity card
Bones in the River or from the Test the elastic limits of flesh and bone experiment in the Laboratory. This piece is vital, as it provides the single point of Amalgamy required to sell to the Tentacled Servant.
- The
Bones in the River option requires
Survey of the Neath's Bones obtained by publishing the bone edition of a newspaper.
- The
Human Arm either from
The Small Stalls (3 arms cost
2000 x Jade Fragments), or from Call in favours in the Flit (3 arms cost
5 x Favours: Criminals), or from Brawling with Dockers. While almost worthless it allows you to declare your skeleton a humanoid rather than a chimera, making it easier to sell.
2 x Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre from
Publish an Expose of Palaeontology in Doubt Street. You only need these to maximise the value of your skeleton so you could theoretically replace it with some other, less valuable legs, as long as you don't mind sourcing more Humeri, ribcages and arms.- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Humanoid.
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:
Headless Skeleton from opportunity cards or from the Bone Market.
Bright Brass Skull from the Bazaar- Declare your finished skeleton a humanoid
- Sell a complete skeleton to the Bone Hoarder for
Bone Fragments. This gives a bonus of 2 fossils. - Sell to a Constable (Skeleton) for
Hinterland Scrip. This gives a bonus of 20 scrip. - After gaining access to the Upper River exchange, Selling to a Theologian of the Old School (for Incorruptible Biscuits, which can be sold on the Exchange or fed to those in need) gives a slightly higher reward than the Constable.
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:
4x Crustacean Pincer - from Zailing by
The Salt Steppes
(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]
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]
Skeleton with Seven Necks
7 x Bright Brass Skulls: The Implausibility would be so high that even the most naive of Neath buyers would be a difficult customer. But Surfacers who presume that anything outlandish is Neathy? Oh yes.
2 x Albatross Wings: Just to maximise the value; there may be more valuable wings in the future.- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
That takes 13 Actions, not counting the trip between Balmoral and London.
Extravagant Eight-Headed Hoax[edit]
Ribcage with a Bouquet of Eight Spines
8 x Bright Brass Skulls
2 x Albatross Wings
2 x Ivory Femurs: You would think that this would have been too much even for the Surfacers - but it is not.
1 x Plaster Tail Bone: Ditto.- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
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:
Mammoth Ribcage
Sabre-toothed Skull
2 x Ivory Femur
2 x Albatross Wing- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
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:
Skeleton with Seven Necks
3 x Sabre-toothed Skull
4 x Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory
Wing of a Young Terror Bird
Albatross Wing- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
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]
- Zoomania:
Reptile
Thorned Ribcage: If the
Counterfeit Head is used, use the
Mammoth Ribcage instead.
Sabre-toothed Skull: If the
Mammoth Ribcage is used, use the
Counterfeit Head instead.
3 x Ivory Femurs
Unidentified Thigh Bone
Withered Tentacle- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Reptile
This should give you a tidy sum of 30085, inclusive of the bonus from Zoological Mania.
Treasure Toad[edit]
- Zoomania:
Amphibian
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:
Femur of a Jurassic Beast or
Helical Thighbone: This pushes the value just above the threshold that is needed to get the bonus that would put the sum at just over 30000; 30030 to be exact.- Decide your (Skeleton Type) needs no tail
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Amphibian
Sensational Scarab[edit]
- Zoomania:
Insect
Flourishing Ribcage
Plated Skull
Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory: This is unavoidable, since the Ribcage has two cranial joints.
3 x Ivory Femurs
2 x Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre
Unidentified Thigh Bone- Decide your (Skeleton Type) needs no tail
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Insect
Teutonic Terror[edit]
- Zoomania:
Bird
Use to consume excess flourishing rib-cages, such as from Jericho Locks.
Flourishing Ribcage
2 x Sabre-toothed Skulls
2 x Bat Wings
2 x Ivory Femurs
2 x Withered Tentacles
Jet Black Stinger- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
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.
Ribcage with a Bouquet of Eight Spines (or
Skeleton with Seven Necks if you lack access to Helicon House)
7-8 x Bright Brass Skull
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 2.50 but saves you
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 . If your normal EPA is 6, you can gain Fragments per action.
Seven Heads Bird[edit]
- Build on the Skeleton with Seven Necks
- (estimation) gain
4 x Unprovenanced Artefact in 2 actions - (estimation) gain
8 x Volume of Collated Research in 4.8 actions
The Seal of St Joshua required- Compel the Ghillie to extend your visit*2, Enter the woods, Keep to the fringes, Lay a trail, Wander the woods*2, Track down the Capercaillie and Report a sighting of Grouse. 9 actions in all, see Moonlit Woods (Guide).
- Actions are 16.8.
- (estimation) gain
- Affix a Bright Brass Skull to your (Skeleton Type)*7
Nevercold Brass Sliver sourcing from Seek out spy-holes- Actions are
- Add the Wing of a Young Terror Bird to your (Skeleton Type)*2
- Other wings are fine.
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
- Sell a complete skeleton to the Bone Hoarder on a bird week and use 1
Hastily Scrawled Warning Note each time
- (estimation) gain
1 x Hastily Scrawled Warning Note in 0.25 actions. - (estimation) Actions are 2.5.
- (estimation) gain
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.
- Build on the Skeleton with Seven Necks
- Actions are 16.8
- Affix a Bright Brass Skull to your (Skeleton Type)*2
- Actions are
- Affix a Sabre-toothed Skull to your (Skeleton Type)*5
- Sourcing from Buy a Sabre-toothed Skull off him
- Actions are 10
- Add the Wing of a Young Terror Bird to your (Skeleton Type)
- Put an Albatross Wing on your (Skeleton Type)
- Sourcing from Duplicate the wings of a Focused Albatross
- (estimation) Actions are
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
- Sell your skeleton to a Zailor on a bird and Antiquity week
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]
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.
3 x Segmented Ribcage
400 x Nevercold Brass Sliver
8 x Holy Relic of the Thigh of Saint Fiacre- Optional:
1 x Withered Tentacle or other valuable tails that do not increase
Skeleton: Antiquity
- Start with a segmented ribcage
- Use another segment as its skull.
- Add another segment as a tail.
- Add 8 saint legs. A high
Mithridacy is an advantage. - Add a tail that gives value but not Antiquity or Decide your (Skeleton Type) needs no tail
- 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 skeleton value (incl. Zoomania) equals 8.046
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.
Thorned Ribcage: This is the default choice of ribcage. The others give the
Antiquity quality, do not qualify or is otherwise just too much hassle to deal with.
Mammoth Ribcage can be more rewarding, but you have to do a relatively long lab experiment or use the Balmoral woods to get it.
Copy John's skull
4 x Holy Thigh Bones: If you are using the
Mammoth Ribcage, you get more rewards, but the Mithridacy rolls will be tougher - and you still have to remove the Antiquity.- Add a tail and declare it a Reptile, or don't and declare it an Amphibian. Both ribcages have a tail socket that you need to deal with anyway.
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:
Skeleton with Seven Necks
Copy John's skull, 7 times: If you don't have high
Artisan of the Red Science, expect Nightmare build-ups. Failure is just an inconvenience though; it won't set your skeleton back.- Any two wings (at this time of writing)
- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Bird
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.
Mammoth Ribcage
Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory: Since spiders aren't supposed to have skulls, this is the only option. Fortunately you only need to pass the
Mithridacy check once, unlike multi-necked skeletons.
Add four more joints to your skeleton
Femur of a Jurassic Beast x7
Helical Thighbone x1: Any more than one will exceed our Amalgamy limit.
- Note: If you want an exhaustion-free version of this skeleton with only 2
Skeleton: Amalgamy, replace this with an
Unidentified Thigh Bone or another
Femur of a Jurassic Beast and apply a
Withered Tentacle as a tail to negate the extra
Skeleton: Antiquity.
- Note: If you want an exhaustion-free version of this skeleton with only 2
Plaster Tail Bones (Optional)- Declare your (Skeleton Type) a completed Spider