Vertiginous Horticulture (Guide)

Early MYN Content

Vertiginous Horticulture Summary
Limited-Length Activity
Setup				Progress				End
1 A				7+ A				1 A
Progress Details			Raise Nurturing a Rooftop Growth to between 105 and 150 to cash out.
Items Inputs/Outputs Outputs One of the following: Favour in High Places and Intriguing Snippet Puzzling Map and Sapphire Strong-Backed Labour and Cryptic Clue
Raw EPA						1.46

Vertiginous Horticulture is a simple early-game carousel with a fun and lighthearted story. It doesn't increase menaces on failure, which is a big big draw, especially for early-game players.

How to unlock

Vertiginous Horticulture is available in the Flit once you have A Name Whispered in Darkness 4 (which you get after completing Making Your Name: Going Up in the World).

To unlock it, play Fingers Both Light and Green in the Flit. First you need to approach the gardener, then impress them. This raises your Engaged in Rooftop Horticulture to 2. Now you can access the storylet Vertiginous Horticulture from the main Flit hub to start the carousel proper.

Vertiginous Horticulture will be permanently available after that.

Progress

In this carousel, you choose a plant, which you then nurture until you sell it to one of three buyers. You need to raise Nurturing a Rooftop Growth to 105 to be able to sell your growth. You can grow it further than 105, but once you've reached 150, you will have to sell it.

Choose your Plant

First, you need to chose what species you want to grow. This decision does not influence the potential payout - you can sell any growth to any buyer. The only quality that influences the outcome of the carousel a little is Difficulty. It makes the associated checks harder, but also rewards a little bit more Nurturing. Classification and Light Preference unlock storylets unique to that type.

All these options are available from the beginning, except for the Singular Cuttings. For these, you have to have Attending to the Needs of a Singular Plant of 10 or higher.

Rooftop Growth	Difficulty	Classification	Light Preference
Singular Cuttings	2	Plantae	Shaded
'Dawn-Yodeller' Mandrakes	1	Plantae	Sunlight
Prize-Winning Peppercaps	1	Fungi	Darkness
Recusant Marigolds	2	Plantae	Shade
False-Cantigaster Hybrids	2	Fungi	Shade
Millennium Roses	3	Plantae	Sunlight
Tomorrowspore Ortcaps	3	Fungi	Darkness

Building up Nurturing

The ranges of Nurturing in this table reflect the Difficulty of your growth. A simple growth (Difficulty 1 in the table above) will give you the lower end of the range, a hard growth (Difficulty 3 in the table above) will give you the upper end of the range.

All these actions have a chance to yield a rare success, which gives 3-5 more Nurturing than the standard success. Listed here are only the standard success. The difficulty level may vary, depending on your Rooftop Growth, Difficulty:

Airs	Option	Challenge	Success	Rare Success	Failure	Average Gain
First move only
	Divine the needs of your (growth)	Shadowy 65	+ 10-12	+ 12-14	+ 1	+ 10.4-12.4
All types of growths
26-75	Water your (growth)	Shadowy 65	+ 10-12	+ 12-14	- 0-2	+ 10.4-12.4
1-25 76-100	Treat the soil	Shadowy 65	+ 10-12	+ 12-14	- 0-2	+ 10.4-12.4
1-33	Secure vital nutrition for your precious (growth type)	Shadowy 80	+ 14-16	+ 19-21	+ 5-7	+ 15-17
34-66	Sing to your (growth)	Persuasive 80	+ 14-16	+ 19-21	+ 5-7	+ 15-17
67-100	Cajole your (growth) into action	Dangerous 80	+ 14-16	+ 19-21	+ 5-7	+ 15-17
Classification Plantae only
0-50	Prune your (growth)	Shadowy 85	+ 13-15	+ 15-17	+ 2-4	+ 13.6-15.6
51-100	Eliminate pests	Shadowy 85	+ 13-15	+ 15-17	+ 2-4	+ 13.6-15.6
Classification Fungi only
0-50	Keep a tight rein on the temperature	Shadowy 75	+ 13-15	+ 15-17	+ 2-4	+ 13.6-15.6
51-100	Tend to the mycelia	Shadowy 75	+ 13-15	+ 15-17	+ 2-4	+ 13.6-15.6
Light Preference dependant options
0-25	Plunge your (growth) into appropriate darkness (Light Preference: Darkness only)	Shadowy 85	+ 15-17	+ 19-21	- 0-3	+ 17-19
26-50	Contrive a shaded spot for your (growth) (Light Preference: Shade only)	Shadowy 95	+ 16	+ 20	- 0-2	+ 18
51-75	Blast your (growth) with light (Light Preference: Sunlight only)	Shadowy 75	+ 15-17	+ 19-21	- 0-3	+ 17-19

Cashing out

You can cash out whenever you reach 105 Nurturing. All potential buyers give a fixed reward, and a secondary reward that scales with your Nurturing.

The fixed reward is always worth 12.5 , while the scaling rewards always net 4.5 for 150 Nurturing.

Option	Fixed Reward	Scaling Reward
		Item	Formula	Amount at 150
Sneering Horticulturalist	1 x Favour in High Places	Intriguing Snippet	( Nurturing - 105) / 2)	22
Wizened Botanist	1 x Puzzling Map	Sapphire	( Nurturing - 105) * 5/6)	37
Dreamy Mycologist	5 x Strong-Backed Labour	Cryptic Clue	( Nurturing - 105) * 5)	225

Strategy

With optimal play (highest difficulty and most yielding options, no failure), aiming for the minimum Nurturing to cash out will result in an EPA of 1.4, while aiming for 150 Nurturing will get you 1.57 EPA.

This carousel isn't the most efficient in terms of EPA, but its big draw is that it doesn't generate menaces on failure. It is a safe way to grind Shadowy once you've made it to the Flit, and a reliable, if slow way to get some good items.

Here is an overview over the rewards, and how else you might get them, specifically for early-game players:

Grinding Primary Rewards

Strong-Backed Labour, Puzzling Maps and Favours in High Places are sought after items during the MYN-Storyline. If you aim for these, only raise your Nurturing to 105 and cash out.

Favour in High Places: With optimal play, you will need 9 actions for one Favour in this carousel. The only other way to get them in the early stages of the game is unreliable, via the A Dream of Roses Opportunity card, and will require multiple draws of the card/trips to Arbor before you can cash out any Favours. (See Influence Grinding (Guide) in general and Arbor (Guide) specifically for more.)

Strong-Backed Labour: With optimal play, you will need 1.8 actions for one SBL in this carousel. That makes it a tiny bit less economic than the Underclay carousel with 1.67 actions per SBL. However, the Underclay carousel comes with menaces on failure. (See Curiosity Grinding (Guide) for more.)

Puzzling Map: With optimal play, you will need 9 actions for one Puzzling Map in this carousel. The only other way to get Puzzling Maps for beginning players is to upconvert Glim from the Underclay carousel with 6 actions per Map. Then again, menaces. (See Cartography Grinding (Guide) for more.)

Grinding Secondary Rewards

There are faster ways to grind Intriguing Snippets, Sapphires and Cryptic Clues, even for new players. However, if the alternative locations/options are not available, this might be a good alternative. Also, this carousel doesn't increase menaces on failure!

Intriguing Snippets: Optimal play yields 1.9 Snippets per action. Attend: and be entertaining at the Shuttered Palace gives 3 Snippets per Actions. (See Influence Grinding (Guide) for more)

Sapphires: Optimal play yields 3.1 Sapphire per action. The Crowds of Spite carousel yields 3.5 Sapphires per action and is available by the time Vertiginous Horticulture comes around. (See Curiosity Grinding (Guide) for more)

Cryptic Clues: Optimal play yields 18.8 Cryptic Clues per action. Stroll in the garden of bones in the The Museum of Prelapsarian History's Natural History Wing will be more profitable once your Base Watchful is over 39. (See Mysteries Grinding (Guide) for more)