Best use of secrets

[Kristoffer]

I'm wondering what I should spend my secrets on?

Do people usually upgrade their skills?

[MarQan]

Yeah, I meant you gain money by selling them, nothing special.
All of the 5 skill-items worth more than their components.
You can increase your stats to 200 with them,
I don't think you can do that with officers.

You can't really do anything other than increasing stats with secrets so we agree on that, I'm just saying that you can't really hoard it through playthroughs because you lose a lot.

I agree, Veils is most important. Street Urchin ftw!
Mirrors is pretty strong by itself, and the heritage choice makes it the 2nd best stat to improve.

I'm talking about general gameplay, because the situation is a lot different when you go for a certain victory.

[Wlerin]

Originally posted by Faith+One:

is gaining echos when crafting them a new thing? because that never happend to me. did you mean that you can sell them?

Yes, you can sell them. Some sell better than others, though:

Monstrous Almanac: +7 Pages for 7 Outlandish Artefacts (worth 700 echoes)
sells in Venderbight for 1000 echoes (300 echoes profit)

Shrine to Stone: +7 Hearts for 1 Captivating Treasure (worth 1000 echoes)
sells in Adam's Way for 1200 echoes (200 echoes profit)

Serene Aquarium: +7 Mirrors for 1 Live Specimen and 1 Supplies (worth 120 echoes)
sells in Khan's Heart for 300 echoes (180 echoes profit)

Whispering Trophy Case: +7 Veils for 7x Strange Catch (worth 70 echoes), sells for 150 echoes in Chelonate (80 echoes profit)

Anatomical Cabinet: +7 Iron for 7 Lamentable Relics* and 1 Supplies (worth 55 echoes)
sells in Whither for 100 echoes (45 echoes profit)



Obviously if you're planning to boost Veils and can still learn it from Officers you're better off doing that than crafting a study item, but all the other stats give a slight profit, assuming you can find rather than buy the necessary items. The Monstrous Almanac is the best all around since a) the items required can be farmed reliably, albeit with some abuse of SAY, b) it requires the shortest trip to sell and gives the most profit, c) it raises a stat that currently can't be trained past 50 with officers, and d) that stat helps you gain more secrets. Of course, Pages doesn't really benefit your progeny any...




*These only sell for 5 echoes each, but I think they have other uses? So the opportunity cost may actually be a little higher.

[MarQan]

Originally posted by wlerin:

Whispering Trophy Case: +7 Veils for 7x Strange Catch (worth 175 echoes), sells for 150 echoes in Chelonate (25 echo loss)

I assume you calculated with the buying price at Irem (while all the other prices are for selling).
The reliable selling price is 10 echoes at the librarian.

[Wlerin]

Ah, yes, I did (not intentionally). That makes more sense. I'll revise the post, thanks for pointing that out.

Still probably not worth it to zail all the way to the Chelonate for an 80 echo profit, especially since you can only carry one.

[Skinny Pete]

There is so much dangerous and risky stuff early on where having a good stat makes it easy or risk-free that I can't imagine NOT using them to upgrade stats.

What I usually do is put 10 aside in case I need them for something (like a Judgment's Egg) and use the rest to upgrade important stats, like my "main" stat for the character (usually Veils) and ones where you need a minimum (like 50 Mirrors for Frostfound). Or just upgrading stats that are utterly pathetic so they are at least usable.

This is in the early phase when secrets are basically falling out of the sky while you travel around.

Get a LOT more stingy with them as your map fills out. They become very scarce. Pay attention to any events that give a high number of fragments and make sure to farm them at every opportunity.

One minor example: Adam's Way. You can exchange news from London or Mt. Palmerston or one other thing and spend a day there. The Cabinet of Curiosities event and the other one I forget both give a high number of fragments, so it's basically exchanging news from London or a single port report for "most of" a secret. Considering they cost 1000 echoes to buy directly, that's a great exchange.

This general principle also applies to pretty much anything you can sell to the Alarming Scholar. A lot of that stuff has more profitable uses elsewhere, but especially early on, you really need the echoes.

ETA: Also there are better ways of getting a Judgment's Egg than buying it directly, but they require a bit of luck. That's just an example of something where it's good to have some secrets put aside.

[the-truthseeker]

Something that needs to be confirmed (as somewhat kinda thought so by some replies here) is: Officers can raise your stats only to (base) 100. If your stat is above 100, you can't use secrets on Officers to train anymore.
Secondly, (besides the Hearts-augmenting Ordained Priest background and the Gall-eyed Engineer only to base 50, not 100,) no officer increases pages by Training from Secrets. Not only is the Monstrous Almanac giving you a permanent +7 to pages (up to base 200) each (and if in Aux and additonal +7 per) crafting, you get 1000 Echoes each time you sell it at Venderbight's shop.

Even if one were to argue the fuel and supplies cost of crafting and selling those other items vs dumping it and re-crafting it, 1000 echoes for such a short trip for the hardest stat in game to advance is hella-worth-it.


Whether it's worth it for those who craft the Shrine/Aquarium/Trophy Case/Almanac to zail to the respective port and sell it and go back to Fallen London and re-craft for stats vs dumping the item like unwanted cargo and re-crafting depends if they are going to that port anyway or not. Else it is not worth the fuel/supply cost to only sell them alone.

[the-truthseeker]

And to the best of my knowledge, i can't find a direct selling secrets for Echoes. They only can be used to purchase or exchange for other things. I'd love to be proven wrong on this of course.

[Wlerin]

Originally posted by the-truthseeker:

And to the best of my knowledge, i can't find a direct selling secrets for Echoes. They only can be used to purchase or exchange for other things. I'd love to be proven wrong on this of course.

There's no way to directly sell secrets for Echoes, so it's really hard to appraise them. You can buy them in Irem for 999 echoes, but that price is so ridiculously inflated... I'd estimate based on that price, and the prices for other items at Irem, that a Secret is worth between 150 and 200 echoes.

[MarQan]

Well, I've only found 2 consistent ways to use Secrets for money, which are:
1. Buying Judgements' Egg for 10 Secrets in Irem, then selling it in Polythreme for 600 echoes
2. Buying Watchful Curio for 1 Secrets in Irem, turn it into Wakeful Idol in Polythreme, and bringing it to the Alarming Scholar for 100 echoes.

On the other hand you need Secrets during Officer-quests which can be very profitable.

I agree, that 150-200 echoes from wlerin is a pretty good estimate, taking availability and usefulness into account.

[the-truthseeker]

Originally posted by MarQan:

Well, I've only found 2 consistent ways to use Secrets for money, which are:
1. Buying Judgements' Egg for 10 Secrets in Irem, then selling it in Polythreme for 600 echoes
2. Buying Watchful Curio for 1 Secrets in Irem, turn it into Wakeful Idol in Polythreme, and bringing it to the Alarming Scholar for 100 echoes.

On the other hand you need Secrets during Officer-quests which can be very profitable.

I agree, that 150-200 echoes from wlerin is a pretty good estimate, taking availability and usefulness into account.

Originally posted by wlerin:

Originally posted by the-truthseeker:

And to the best of my knowledge, i can't find a direct selling secrets for Echoes. They only can be used to purchase or exchange for other things. I'd love to be proven wrong on this of course.

There's no way to directly sell secrets for Echoes, so it's really hard to appraise them. You can buy them in Irem for 999 echoes, but that price is so ridiculously inflated... I'd estimate based on that price, and the prices for other items at Irem, that a Secret is worth between 150 and 200 echoes.

As noted by wlerin, Irem is way over inflated, except maybe for the Idol price, which I also go to Polythreme to awaken to Wakeful and sell/use in Principles/The Scholar. This was the only thing I consistently bought there for Secrets. Judgement's Eggs for Ten Secrets is hella costly estimating at 2000 Echoes cost for 10 Secrets if the prior estimate was close or accurate. Still not worth it no matter what the cost considering the fuel and supplies going to irem vs getting secrets elsewhere and winning them as rewards.

I'd rather save up a bunch of Fluke cores and convert them at the Iron Republic to Judgement's Eggs (at the Parliament of Flies) either for a cache of quest-related Eggs or selling the surplus for 600 Echoes per Egg at Polythreme instead of 500 Echoes per core elsewhere.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by wlerin:

I'd estimate based on that price, and the prices for other items at Irem, that a Secret is worth between 150 and 200 echoes.

That sounds about right, although I think their value actually increases through the course of the game. Especially early on, the game showers you with them just through exploration, and at a time you don't really need large numbers of them. So it's worth saving some of them until later in the game when they are more scarce.

[the-truthseeker]

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

Originally posted by wlerin:

I'd estimate based on that price, and the prices for other items at Irem, that a Secret is worth between 150 and 200 echoes.

That sounds about right, although I think their value actually increases through the course of the game. Especially early on, the game showers you with them just through exploration, and at a time you don't really need large numbers of them. So it's worth saving some of them until later in the game when they are more scarce.

Yeah, we're just estimating its value based on its trade for other items or trade other items for them/crafting with requirements. 200 Echoes is the unspoken agreed-upon price, but not anything canon or such.

[Wlerin]

It's true that the rate of secret acquisition goes down as the game progresses, though there are always SAY events that give fragments (Beachcombing, for example, especially at Aestival or Mangrove College). But it's also true that their utility decreases as your skills get high enough to complete most challenges, and/or reach the skill cap.