Can someone give me a breakdown on the Stress Relief building upgrades & priorities?

[Jamers]

Which should I use, and should I just stick to one (Abbey or Tavern)? They seem to function identically except of course for the quirks that allow/disallow particular heroes from visiting various activities.

Do different classes get more relief from different activities? (Highwayman prefers gambling, Vestal prefers prayer, etc.)

Also, what priority should I be looking for here? I've mostly been doing throwaway runs with Seeker teams and have about 40k gold (haven't upgraded any heroes, but have spent money on Stress Removal, and likely too much with no building upgrades). I already upgraded my coach and barracks a couple times each.

As heroes go, I don't have any favorites, really. Highest hero is level 1, and there are several of those :\ I have a hard time ditching them just because they have *some* xp and usually good positive to negative quirk ratios, but next thing I know Seeker teams succeed in a mission and then they're lvl 1s, too. Now I just have a bunch of stressed out noobs with no place to go.

Thanks!

[UR|Dialetheia]

Tavern and Abbey are functionally identical. They both have three (upgradeable) tiers of stress relief options - with the generally least effective but also the cheapest option located at the top, and most effective but most expensive option located at the bottom.

What can make you reconsider what constitutes "least effective" is character quirks. First, some characters can only partake of only one method of stress relief. Those are considered negative quirks, and can be removed. Second, some positive quirks give bonuses to particular stress-relief methods, making them, for this character alone, (much) more effective than more expensive options can be. Example: a character with Meditative quirk will shed more stress by Meditating, than by Praying.

Overall, low-level characters (low-level being 0-1, maybe even 2) are not worth spending money on. Take them through the crucible, run them through more dungeons using only dungeon curios to de-stress them (if you run into those). If they survive, and make it to level 3 and beyond, then consider upgrading your de-stressing town building according to the quirks they have, and removing their negative quirks

[Rolla!]

I maxed out the Bar and prayer and it has worked quite well

[MrMurLock]

Just to immerse myself further into the game's atmosphere, I've separated my heroes into Religious and non-Religious groups based on class.
Crusaders, Vestals, Lepers and Plague doctors for the Abbey.
The rest of the classes I send to the bar.

[Lasci]

Having a bunch of stressed out low levels is fine. You should be upgrading your stagecoach for the sake of having a bunch of expendable characters coming in to replace the stressed out / bad quirk ones that you no longer need or want.

You should be upgrading the Abbey first. It requires the bust resources, which is by far the least in demand resource. The tavern needs portraits, which is a shared resource with the guild. You want to save your portraits for the guild, so upgrade the abbey first. It's best to fully upgrade one stress relief to the max before you move onto another one -- or at least until it gets two slots unlocked.

Otherwise, I think difference classes are supposed to get different benefits from the various areas of stress relief, but if that's actually the case it's so negligible that you shouldn't worry about it. They also definitely have different downsides -- you can get specific quirks or run into temporary issues with both the abbey and tavern. For instance, you can lose gold gambling, lose an item when your character goes on a drinking binge, and the abbey can give you the god-fearing negative quirk.

Still -- go with the abbey. It's by far the most resource efficient route.

[Hans]

The other to realize is all have a chance of making your characters disappear EXCEPT perhaps flagellation and the brothel. It hasn't happened to me yet and I routinely throw three characters in a time for... erm... stress relief parties while filmed. Instead of disappearing for 1 to 2 weeks, you can actually get a damage buff/debuff of +20% for the next dungeon.

I'm assuming constantly going to the abbey for stress relief tags your character as religious since the Vestal's camp abilities do "if religious, relieve more stress," but I don't know if that's tied to quirks (ie will only pray for stress relief) or how that works.

[UR|Dialetheia]

Originally posted by Arngrim:

The other to realize is all have a chance of making your characters disappear EXCEPT perhaps flagellation and the brothel. It hasn't happened to me yet and I routinely throw three characters in a time for... erm... stress relief parties while filmed. Instead of disappearing for 1 to 2 weeks, you can actually get a damage buff/debuff of +20% for the next dungeon.

I'm assuming constantly going to the abbey for stress relief tags your character as religious since the Vestal's camp abilities do "if religious, relieve more stress," but I don't know if that's tied to quirks (ie will only pray for stress relief) or how that works.

No exceptions, all stess relief buildings have a chance to make your character disappear, or be engaged in some other variously (un)fortunate event. They can gamble away trinkets and money, WIN money, leave the hamlet in search of MOAR WENCHES, only to return one or two weeks later, ridden with syphylis, they can flagelate themselves into receiving a quirk boosting their Deathblow resistance, or meditate to a point of being unable to meditate ever again. Risk and reward, you guys, risk and reward.

[Istvan]

Originally posted by Arngrim:

I'm assuming constantly going to the abbey for stress relief tags your character as religious since the Vestal's camp abilities do "if religious, relieve more stress," but I don't know if that's tied to quirks (ie will only pray for stress relief) or how that works.

I'm pretty sure "religious", insofar as it affects the Vestal's camp skills, is class based. Vestals, Crusaders, and Lepers all seem to be religious when I use them. I don't think I've seen anybody else get the greater benefits, but I haven't tested it exhaustively.

[UR|Dialetheia]

Originally posted by Istvan:

Originally posted by Arngrim:

I'm assuming constantly going to the abbey for stress relief tags your character as religious since the Vestal's camp abilities do "if religious, relieve more stress," but I don't know if that's tied to quirks (ie will only pray for stress relief) or how that works.

I'm pretty sure "religious", insofar as it affects the Vestal's camp skills, is class based. Vestals, Crusaders, and Lepers all seem to be religious when I use them. I don't think I've seen anybody else get the greater benefits, but I haven't tested it exhaustively.

Quirks can also infer "religious" quality to a character. God Fearing, for example.

[Istvan]

Originally posted by UR|Dialetheia:

Originally posted by Istvan:

I'm pretty sure "religious", insofar as it affects the Vestal's camp skills, is class based. Vestals, Crusaders, and Lepers all seem to be religious when I use them. I don't think I've seen anybody else get the greater benefits, but I haven't tested it exhaustively.

Quirks can also infer "religious" quality to a character. God Fearing, for example.

And that makes them receive the greater benefit from the Vestal's camp skills? Good to know!

[FDru]

I haven't noticed negative effects from the bar or meditating, other than the quirks that make them unable to go there again or only able to go there. Flagelation and the brothel have really nasty debuffs that seem to happen all the time. Gambling can cause you to lose money or trinkets, never seen anybody WIN money, either. Prayer can cause you to lose money by donation. So to me the safest and cheapest options are the top ones.

Early game you probably only want 2 slots on each stress relief service you actually plan to use. Then focus on guild and blacksmith because those are by far the most important upgrades in the game (in order weapon > skills > armor generally). Once you can get two upgrades for each service, start upgrading the gold cost to get that nice and low (especially for skills which you'll be using a LOT).

Once you get a solid level 3 party fully updgraded you should be raking in the heirlooms and can upgrade more freely.

[Danceofmasks]

The tavern upgrades uses portraits.
Portraits are better off used on the guild ... so, I tend to only upgrade the abbey until after I can get max level skills.

[Jamers]

Thanks, all!

Question about losing trinkets:

Generally I feel like I shouldn't be terribly concerned, because I tend to shy away from most of them for the negative effects anyway, but I know that down the line I'll have more skills and will be able to specialize my groups with trinkets, so I'd hate to lose them.

Are they only lost when Gambling, or when Drinking as well? For those suggestions I go for the Abbey first, too late; I already have all except one upgrade for the Bar :\ Also, from which "pools" can the drinking hero give away trinkets? From my town stash? If other heroes have them equipped, are even those ones at risk?

Thanks!

[UR|Dialetheia]

Trinkets disappear from your stash. The chance of this occuring, however, is relatively small (remember, though, that "relatively small" still means "inevitable" across a large enough time frame)