Parking at Visage to farm artifacts?

[Runica]

Seems like I can get 2 artifacts and a snippet every time the port action refreshes, and given that fuel isn't consumed without movement/lights and Visage also reduces terror, it seems like I can just park there and wait for the port action to refresh with no real risk.

Supplies are still consumed, but Visage tends to spawn near places that sell supplies anyway.

[Anelyn]

That sounds very boring to do, you can achieve those by just playing the game normally :) Plus you can covert trophies and zee stories into artifacts in Chelonate (both being very easy to get from other places and in large numbers, is not uncommon to make 20-30 artifacts in a single tour of the map).

[Runica]

Hunting trophies seem hard, or at least risky, to get with the starting ship. I don't know about later in the game though.

[St3amfails]

very simple to hunt trophys as soon as you move up one boat. twice the hull and 2 guns makes short work of almost anything

[Anelyn]

It is at start. But then again, you do not need them at the very start of the game. Bank some cash from port reports / SAY / quests from admirality, and if you want to go hunting upgrade your ship to Corvette (and later on to frigate, I personally don't find the Dreadnought a better ship for my playstyle, but each to their own).

You need a ship with forward and deck slots in order to be able to deal more damage in combat and take targets out faster. Don't engage with lights on. Always attack from max range and don't keep attacking on targets that have more HP than damage you can do before they can spot and engage you. Fire a salvo or two (depending on your aiming speed influenced by your mirrors stat), and observe their behaviour. When first attacked they will spot a "?" mark and start looking for you in the general direction the shots got fired from. If you remain in same spot and / or turn your lights on they will spot you and engage you. If you however reverse engines they won't find you and resume their patrol / roaming, giving you a chance to engage again from safe distance.

Early game is meant to be hard and it's part of the learning experience, what you can do and what you can't or should be very cautious (ie: if the rewards outweight the risks). Once you transit into mid game you will have the tools and knowledge to expand your options regarding hunting / combat.

For example, I can make about 15-20 hunting trophies on a full map rotation (visiting most of the ports), 5-10 artifacts, 3-6 relics and a dozen of stygians from zemonsters alone. Add to that whatever else you get from random events / exploration in ports and SAY events and you will be in a good spot.

[Runica]

I was focused on building a mansion and getting some heirlooms first, so I didn't upgrade my ship, especially since I wasn't sure how much the weight affects engine power requirements and how much engine power affects consumption. Was worried I would end up shafting myself by buying something I couldn't afford upkeep for.

Though now that I did upgrade my ship, killing monsters really is a lot easier.

[Anelyn]

Don't rush to buy a mansion and make a will / trophies. It's hard to get them at a respectable rate if you lack the means to do so.

The Corvette is similar to starting ship except it has more hull and a forward weapon slot making exploration a bit easier.

Regarding engine - don't bother too much with it unless you upgrade past the corvette (into merchant / frigate / dreadnought), the 1000 / 1500 ones are more than enough power wise (you can get an officer that also helps with power increase and / or fuel efficiency) as well as an auxiliary slot (clay men for 300 echoes in polytherme) that also helps.

Don't bother getting more than the starting search light either for your earlier captains, is not needed. Focus on getting a good flencing forward weapon / deck cannon (don't go for calminus ones until you already have a good knowledge of the game and your current captain is in a position to hang onto his ship / echoes for a longer while).

Regarding consumption vs engine power: when you navigate with lights off, it really pays off to have a stronger engine - you move faster, especially if you go full power, with lights on it's a wash in most scenarios (you should only use lights on for discovering places / keeping terror in check when to save fuel).

For example it takes me ~7 units of fuel with lights off to travel from bottom of map to top of map in a straight line at full speed non stop, which also costs me only 2 food (since I move so fast). If I would go at normal speed with lights off I'd probably save 2-3 fuel but consume 6 maybe 8 food (this is with the Serpentine engine - 1800 power on a frigate, with 10% power efficiency and extra 300 I think? engine power so ~2.1k power in total).

As you well know, food is way pricier than fuel (normally 100% more, you pay 20 for food and 10 for fuel in London as example), and on any port of the map fuel is cheaper to buy than food.

But then again, you need to have whole map discovered so you know each port location and can plan your trips to get most benefit of a better engine + supressor to go at full speed (you will learn by exploring which ports have a SAY event associated, which ones are worth to check when you visit and which ones you can ignore etc).

Just keep playing the game, if possible with a somewhat cautious mind set at begining (the more you learn before your captain dies, more you can pass to your next captain - more information - which is more important than echoes or anything else at this point in the game), and you will get to the point where you can play out your hand to beat the game hand and become a succesfull captain ^_^

[Wlerin]

You can get even more artefacts if you have scintillack.