Echo Bazaar: I’ll Show You Mine

My current status in Echo Bazaar. Spoilers, obviously, but I’ll try to black them out—though I don’t know if it’ll work in an RSS reader or LiveJournal subscription. Those tend to like stripping out style tags.

What is Echo Bazaar? It’s a text-based browser game set in a Victorian London that’s been stolen by demons into the Underworld. Literally the Underworld. It’s bizarre and wonderful and there are shrooms.

Anyways, status and spoilery discussion of the related items under the cut.

Current description

ArachneJericho, a sagacious and fascinating individual of mysterious and indistinct gender

Stats

Dangerous: 20
Watchful: 90 (the max of any stat; that the red bar will never grow again makes me sad)
Persuasive: 46
Shadowy: 20

As you can see, I traded off everything for Watchful stat increases, with token amount in Persuasive to help fulfill the Heart’s Desire ambition.

Current Level of Heart’s Desire Ambition

Obtaining 77 First City coins. These are very, very rare, but there are various ways to go about getting them:

  • Use up one point of Connected: Masters of the Bazaar, which is expensive indeed, but gets you 50 coins which would otherwise be really, really difficult to obtain. I lost this attribute and don’t know if I’ll get it back. :(

  • Use your monkey that you got with this Ambition. Unfortunately, your monkey starts to plot vengeance, and this method rarely yields coins. I don’t know what he does when this level of Inciting a Simian Revenge? gets high enough.

  • Gamble for coins! Requires Connected: Bohemian at least 15, and 70 drops of Prisoner’s Honey. Long odds, but better than the monkey I think; after four tries I got four coins. This is actually a decent rate of return.

  • If you have Connected: Rubbery Men at least 5 and one piece of Warm Amber (different from the usual amber, actually), you can get some (one?) coins, but I don’t have either.

  • The Numismatrix will sell you one coin per 111 pieces of Surface Currency. If you buy them at the bazaar, that means each coin costs 6.66 echoes, ha ha. Unfortunately I don’t know of any storylets that yield Surface Currency on a regular basis.

  • Commission burglaries. Don’t know what happens here. Requires Connected: Criminals at least 10, 100 Moon Pearls.

  • Arrange for another player with high Shadowy or Persuasive (70+) to steal coins for you. I do not want to do this, because supposedly bad luck will haunt someone who steals these coins without finding or paying for them. And the game is evil enough to do this. :)

I have 58 coins so far. It’s a long way up.

Heart’s Desire also has opportunities to raise Nightmares. It’s a theme, I find, with the Watchful track.

Stuff

Hats

  • Archaeologist’s Hat. Gotten in the Forgotten Quarter; quest item. Watchful +1
  • Exceptional Hat. For the record, it hasn’t eaten my brains yet. I think.
  • Sneak-Thief’s Mask
  • Gentleman’s Hat
  • Prisoner’s Mask. Needed for a storylet in the Forgotten Quarter that yields serious echo money.

Clothing

  • Dignified Tailcoat
  • Black Felt Garments
  • Fourth City Rags. Gotten from a card or from the Forgotten Quarter. Watchful +1, and the only piece of clothing to do so.

Gloves

  • Lady’s Lace Gloves. Because I’m particular like that.
  • Avid Glove.
  • Cracksman’s Mittens.

Weapons

I feel like I should use air quotes at times here.

  • Patent Scrutinzer
  • Horsehead Amulet (I dunno, I got two somehow, they’re too cheap to sell at market)
  • Skyglass Knife (I don’t use it)
  • Shepherd’s Timepiece. Quest item in the Soul Trade storyline, at least, one branch of it.

Boots

  • Stylish Riding Boots
  • Spidersilk Slippers

Companion

  • Cheerful Goldfish
  • Araby Fighting-Weasel. It gives good odds in the Weasel-Fighting Ring, and if you win there you get many things, most importantly to a high Watchful person in the ‘Neath, Nightmares reduction.
  • Sulky Bat. Unlocks a card that increases Connection: The Game, useful for Watchful people.
  • Malevolent Monkey
  • Cardsharp Monkey. Quest animal in Heart’s Desire Ambition.
  • Reprehensible Lizard. You can get Sulky Bats with him in the Carnival. Otherwise, hasn’t been useful.

Companion no longer with us for undisclosed reasons: Dazed Raven Adviser. It unlocks a card that can advance various minor attributes. I need to get a new one. They can help you get back from That River.

Lodgings

Rooms above a Gambling Den.

Accomplishments

Admirer of Art. Mainly this means he comes back asking for money all the time. Sigh. And I am a Magnanimous sop.

Admirer of Beauty. Mainly this means that when her other suitors have problems with each other, I get to clean up. Not sure why I don’t pine after her like I do after the artist. Hmm.

Scholar of the Correspondence. Level 5, though it doesn’t show on the status page. You don’t want to know what I had to go through to get that. It involved an awful lot of laudanum and purging of Appalling Secrets.

Contacts

The ones that matter the most—

Connected: Bohemian 17. Mainly so I can gamble for First City coins.

Connected: The Great Game 14. So I can up Watchful; used up a lot of this.

Connected: The Constables 29. Yes, I am their pet. Useful for upping Watchful something serious.

Connected: The Church 9. To up Persuasive, and I forget otherwise.

Connected: Hell 6. I actually want to get rid of this. Also, I made a very bad decision in the Forgotten Quarter that netted me a lot of it, but otherwise I burned it to increase Watchful.

Connected: Revolutionaries 15. To up Dangerous.

Connected: Society 17. To up Persuasive.

Connected: The Docks 5. To up Dangerous. (I love increasing stats through burning connected stats. It means you can concentrate on one stat while nominally raising the others.)

Connected: The Orient 7. Burned up a lot of this to up Shadowy.

Route

The Forgotten Quarter. I used to want to obtain access to the Flit so I can spy on the Topsy King and increase Watchful, but… er… well, no more Watchful for me.

Story

Current Nightmare exploration: Is Someone There? 15. Oh my, the laudanum. And still not finished, as far as I can tell. It also sometimes gives me Memories of Light. I cannot sell them. I imagine something unlocks as soon as I get enough of these.

Finder of Heiresses
Constables’ Pet

Ascending the Reliables list of Mr Pages 3
Occasional Guest at Mr Wines’ Revels 1 The wine he gives you reduces Nightmares something serious.

Associating with Radical Academics 3
Hosting an Inconvenient Aunt 2
Involved in the Soul Trade 6
Shepherd of Souls 5
Trail of the Cheesemonger 1

Minor Attributes

Subtle: 11
Hedonist: 5
Magnanimous: 11
Melancholy: 7
Steadfast: 3
Forceful: 2

Plans

I like the Watchful storylines and challenges, but appear to have run out of a large part of them, probably because I spent a lot of time in the Forgotten Quarter getting money to buy stuff, and that inevitably raises Watchful.

Things to do, in no particular order:

1. Overgoat! Just because. I’ve wanted one forever, but I’d have to save for like a year or something at the moment. Sadness.
2. Pursue spying on the Topsy King in case it yields cash so I can get an Overgoat.
3. Get enough Prisoner’s Honey (40,000 drops!) for rooms at the Royal Bethlehem.
4. Heart’s Desire Ambition.
5. Explore the lands of Nightmare.
6. Go insane. Very, very insane.
7. Shepherd of Souls sub-storyline of the Soul Trade storyline.

32 thoughts on “Echo Bazaar: I’ll Show You Mine”

  1. I’m trying to get enough souls to get a room at the Brass Embassy. This is going to take…a while. Yes.

  2. I think the higher-end lodgings are really for the Knife-and-Candle folks. They can get some really valuable drops when killing each other (for instance, full pieces of Jade rather than just fragments). Some of the really high-level opportunity cards can yield like 200 Cryptic Secrets and such, but they don’t come often—but probably getting kills in Knife-and-Candle yields serious money.

  3. Hi Telophase. Google Alerts brought me here – I thought you’d like to know that this

    ‘ (the max of any stat; that the red bar will never grow again makes me sad)’

    is only true for now. When we open Book 2 Part 2, we’ll lift the level cap with it.

  4. Hello Alexis,

    Thanks for stopping by. I’m not Telophase though. :)

    YAY book 2! Also, I see now why there is a level cap. It’s useful to be able to still go back to the older storylets for now….

  5. Hmm. I had just started the First City coin collecting when the Great Server Rollback happened. I noticed that in the Shuttered Palace, there is a storylet for the Commissioner noting: “The Constables are always confiscating surface currency. Its legal status is ambiguous. Perhaps you could find a home for it, if you’re prepared to trade in some favours.”

    My connection to the Constables is still too low to unlock it, but I was trying to decide if it was worthwhile to boost it for this storylet to make gaining Surface Currency easier. Have you tried this and if so, is it worth it?

  6. I didn’t have access to the Shuttered Palace at the time I was collecting First City Coins, so I’ve never tried it.

    My connection to the Constables was at 35 when I finally found the storylet, mostly because of decisions I’d made in earlier days along with a particular branch of the Soul Trade storyline.

    If your connection to the Constables is naturally high and you have ways of maintaining it, I’d say go for it, because 80 pieces of surface currency in one action is nothing to sneeze at—however, be aware that, like all calling in of favors, your connection will take a serious hit each time.

    In the end I went with (a) the gravy train I had working in the Forgotten Quarter at that point in the ambition, and (b) going insane for several days.

  7. Unfortunately, my Constables connection isn’t terribly high, but I do get tired of grinding through honey production in Spite. (I want that very fortunate gambling result back! *sob*) For some reason, gambling hasn’t been kind to me this time around, perhaps my Bohemian needs upping (but I’m not sure that affects my luck).

    Thanks for the tips! I think I’ll go explore some other areas and remind myself that grinding isn’t everything.

  8. You’re welcome. I’m sorry I couldn’t help more.

    Bohemian doesn’t affect luck, I think. It just affects how much longer you can keep turning in Bohemian for honey in the Shuttered Palace. :)

  9. How did you get the Hedonist, in the end? I’ve been after some, so as to look in the carnival mirrors, but nothing I’ve done (save one ultra-fortunate gambling result) gets me any.

  10. Hello Greg,

    Choices on cards or storylets that can be considered hedonistic can raise hedonism. Hedonistic activities in the ‘Neath are things like honey dens, mushroom wine, and, not to put too fine a point on it, implied sex. ^.^

    Examples:

    After you’ve become an Admirer of Beauty (through storylets at Veilgarden), sometimes your former girlfriend will come by via opportunity cards to ask you to get rid of a troubling suitor. You can (a) beat up the suitor [Dangerous], (b) tell the suitor bad things about her [Persuasive, easier], or (c) ah… distract the suitor with a delicious afternoon [Persuasive, harder].

    Option (c) will raise hedonism. ^.^

    Another example: after you become Free From Surface Ties, sometimes an opportunity card will show up with clouds on it. If you pick the melancholy-sounding option, melancholy will go up at the cost of hedonism. If you pick the option that blithers on about honey dens and ‘shrooms, hedonism will go up at the cost of melancholy.

    Watchful tends to be associated with melancholy, and persuasive tends to be associated with hedonism. Melancholy and hedonism (and the rest of the minor qualities) are most often raised via opportunity cards.

  11. Thank you for that – it’s ever so helpful! I suppose that’s a downside to roleplaying a chap like Fred – he’s not really a one with much time for the pleasures of the flesh.

    Do let me know if you need a hand with any Dangerous missions etc, though, and thanks again!

  13. I’m going crazy trying to work out how to *start* on Scholar of the Correspondence. Is there something simple I missed or is it a gold card? I’d love a hint. >:)

  14. Scholar of the Correspondence starts with storylets in the Forgotten Quarter. You can only start and increase it through succeeding high Watchful challenges, and it’s a quite fun quest on its own.

    The Correspondence really starts when you get the Correspondence Stones in the Forgotten Quarter, but that requires other things (like unlocking the Archaeologist’s Hat).

    Also, remember that studying the Correspondence is a good way to raise nightmares, nightmares, nightmares.

  15. Hmmm, I’ll go take another look – or maybe I just need a bit more watchful. Either way, I know where I’m hanging out now, just as soon as I stock up on Laudanum.

    Thanks :)

  16. The Forgotten Quarter starts popping at 60+ Watchful. You’ll need to build up to 80 Watchful to get through the story successfully, I believe.

  17. Commission burglaries. Don’t know what happens here. Requires Connected: Criminals at least 10, 200 Moon Pearls.

    This is the method I’m using, so I’ll explain the best way I’ve found to go about getting coins this way in case anyone ever stumbles upon this and needs it.

    First off, you’ll need a Connected: Criminals stat of 20 for this to be a straightforward challenge. I maintained mine by attending the sideshows at the Carnival. With every attempt to get First City Coins via criminals, this stat will drop from 20 to 19 and you’ll need to use three more carnival tickets to get it back up to 20. (Obviously this isn’t mandatory if you feel like gambling at a “low-risk,” “moderate,” etc challenge)

    Once your connections are in order, you’ll need lots and lots of moon-pearls. At the time I reached this step of the Ambition, my watchful was at 43 or so. You’ll need a Watchful of 42 or higher to unlock the “Track down and silence an anarchist.” Each successful completion of this task gets you 42 moon pearls. If you plan on using pearls and criminals to get all 77 of your coins you’ll need 3200 pearls (or about ~75 successful completions of this storylet).

    With all your pearls ready, you can start trading them and your connections in for coins. Each success (that is, one point subtracted from your “Connected” quality and 200 pearls) will earn you 5 First City Coins.

  18. chiz,

    *whistle* That’s quite a nice way of getting First City Coins! Thanks for the tips!

  19. Just wanted to add on to that last method of getting First City Coins, since your blog is one of the first that comes up for me when I google for Heart’s Desire info. I ended up getting my coins the same way, but I did it after leveling Shadowy in the Flit. If you are willing to get your Shadowy up to mid-70’s (I did with +12 in items), you can grind Connected: Criminals through Meeting the Topsy King and tipping off your colleagues after Casing, and you can gain moon pearls from running the spires (69 moon pearls).

    Not a great way if you’re focusing on Watchful/Persuasive only, but I get bored easily, so this worked for me. :) Also I had sort of given up on getting coins in any reasonable way, so I had Watchful at 80+ and Persuasive at 70+ before finding this method of grinding Connected: Criminals and finishing this bit of the Ambition.

  20. Thanks to all who posted with Heart’s Desire information! I’ve just started the 77 First City coins phase of the Ambition, and these comments have been extremely helpful.

  21. Hannah,

    It’s nice that there are so many ways to get these coins. Because they’re so annoying to get. Even the reliable ways of getting them are annoying. Thank you for adding another reliable method to the pile. ^.^

    Jane,

    I wish you luck on your path. :)

    A general note: now that they’ve started shuffling the cards, there is another, older way to stay insane regardless of what you pick in insanity land: the Brass Ring.

  23. Hi there! Lovely to find this.

    I’m mystified by how excited people are about the Nightmares — there’s niftyness that comes from them? I love the fact that the different tracks are drawn from The Waste Land, but currently a State of Some Confusion seems like an inconvenience…

  24. Hello Tithenai,

    Mostly the interest is in the story each Nightmare lays out, and the boosts to minor stats (although the latter is now spread out to more storylets and non-Nightmare cards). You can get intriguing items out of a few dreams, although none are useful just yet—and thus far a certain Nightmare is the only way to start pursuing Mr. Eaten’s name if you’re not participating in Knife and Candle.

    The idea is mostly to explore Nightmares while keeping them low enough so that you stay out of A State of Some Confusion—especially as going there resets all your progress in Nightmares. I’ve not been there for quite some time, even though I did spend a lot of time there to get some stuff for my ambition….

  25. Ohh, I didn’t realise the tracks for each individual nightmare were distinct from the nightmare level that leads to ASoSC! Hmm. Maybe I should stop ignoring the red-bordered cards…

  26. Tithenai,

    Yup! And there’s even the rare red card that doesn’t lead to an increase in Nightmares. Also, when you get further in a dream, you start to turn up brown-bordered dream cards, where you actually get a choice. ^.^

  28. The guys behind the Bazaar are thinking of actually adding unique storylets to each of the locations so that may turn out to be fun later on.

  29. Arachne Jericho, Thanks so much for your overview! It is so helpful. I’m currently working on collecting the 77 coins, so my ears perked at your explanation. My one question is, how did you get connected to the Masters of the Bazaar?

    Thanks for all your help!

    • Visit all of the locations you have access to in Echo Bazaar, but you’re going to need access to the unlockable places as well, such as The Flit, Wolfstack Docks, The Palace, etc.

  31. I found the quickest way to get First City coins was through the Masters – I got 55 in one go through that option.

    I got Connected: Masters of the Bazaar 1 from sharing some wine with Mr Sacks.

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