So what's the trick, folks? Best route?

[TheGlitterJojo]

What a fun game... but I can't seem to make it around the world in 80 days... I either run out of funds because the most direct route costs the most, or I run out of time. So, what's the best route to take? In your opinions? Any tips and tricks?

[iamthemagicbonsaitree]

My advice would be to buy items that sell for a lot of money in a particular place, then head to that place e.g. you can often buy wine in Paris that sells well somewhere else in europe. Try to have a few of these items, as it'll give you options in where to go. It's usually worth going slightly out of your way to earn a bit more money, as it'll allow you to use more expensive transport later.

[Lac]

Try different paths and try to remember the upsides and downsides, I'm quite sure only a few people succeeded on the first try. As @iamthemagicbonsaitree already said following the path of expensive items (like the wine in Paris or that thingy you can almost always sell in Brisbane for 5-6k) is almost a 100% safe strategy). A few tips without spoilering: flying is always the fastest and most expensive way but the train is usually safer. Read the news while travelling, the more information you got, the more possible way you have to choose. Always take care of Mr. Fogg if you have the tools, who knows what kind of adventure awaits you :) Oh, and before starting a new adventure, check your items, and choose based on your planned path.

[TheGlitterJojo]

Cool, thanks for the ideas, y'all! I've had multiple playthroughs, I always run out of funds before the 80 days is up (not enough trading/selling, I'll admit), or I run over the 80 day mark before getting home (by taking train alone).

[georgie_blythe]

I failed to return back in 80 days on my first play-through, but have since succeeded on my further two attempts without paying attention to buying specific items or anything like that. I'd just suggest trying different routes - my first, unsuccessful, attempt took me through India, which ended up taking a few too many days. But my journeys through Russia and more northern destinations proved triumphant.

[NS Plover]

On the way back I find either : Yokohama -> Honolulu -> Acapulco OR Manilla -> Acapulco

and then

Acapulco -> New Orleans -> Washington -> Ponta Delgada -> Lisbon -> London

is fairly fast.

Since you can only go to a location once beware of buying items that are good to sell in locations you can't get back to.

The items that say sell for $xxxx in xxxxx are usually better buys than the valuable in xxxxx and have a known price.

I think either the wiki or one of the guides has a map that really helps trying to figure out where you can go to sell things (so that you don't buy items if they are impossible to sell).

Edited to say - I don't think anyone can list a "best" route because the game is randomly generated each time so you can't always expect the same thing to be for sale in a location or to be valuable in the same other location...

It is possible to get the achievements and make a profit: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1262808426

[TheGlitterJojo]

Originally posted by NS Plover:

On the way back I find either : Yokohama -> Honolulu -> Acapulco OR Manilla -> Acapulco

and then

Acapulco -> New Orleans -> Washington -> Ponta Delgada -> Lisbon -> London

is fairly fast.

Since you can only go to a location once beware of buying items that are good to sell in locations you can't get back to.

The items that say sell for $xxxx in xxxxx are usually better buys than the valuable in xxxxx and have a known price.

I think either the wiki or one of the guides has a map that really helps trying to figure out where you can go to sell things (so that you don't buy items if they are impossible to sell).

Edited to say - I don't think anyone can list a "best" route because the game is randomly generated each time so you can't always expect the same thing to be for sale in a location or to be valuable in the same other location...

It is possible to get the achievements and make a profit: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1262808426

Thanks! I appreciate everyone's input and advice. The answer I chose basically puts it all in a nutshell, especially the fact about the game being randomly generated (something I have found in playing since I made this thread quite some time ago). I do appreciate the tips for getting across the USA. I've been stumped by the north american continent many times. By the way, how can you avoid the mutiny and actually make it to honolulu? :)

[Power of Seven]

Maybe I just don't get the strategy in this game. I played this game a LOT and I never could get under 40 days. In the end, the frustration just made me hate the game to the point where I haven't been able to load the game in six months.

One of the things that I didn't understand was how talking to people was supposed to help. Every time I wanted to talk about a location, instead of being able to talk about potential routes to go forward, you can only talk about cities that have NO route to your current destination anyway. Or worse, the passenger would only talk about valuable trade goods in that city.

The other thing that I still don't understand is how people were able to go so fast because most of my time was wasted from constantly exploring cities to find routes to another location. This wasted probably a week of in-game time and I was following routes that were virtually guaranteed to get back to London in under 40 days.

Finally, I still don't get how anybody can get Fogg back to London without using a hotel. Fogg's health drops like a rock if you don't use one. It also damages your relationship with Fogg, and then he'll start refusing help when you use the comb.

[NS Plover]

For no hotels - Try to get longer journeys with the right restorative equipment. I forget which seed I did this on but I think I had the winter gear and the russian gentleman stuff and took the siberian express. There are two spots that I found that will restore health back to 100% (may be more).


(1) If you take the mongol caravan from Irkutsk to Urga and rescue the girl, it turns out that she's a doctor and heals Fogg (I think close to 100%) and also exploring urga with the right conversation choices opens up a flight directly to Yokohama. If you've clicked news a time or two on the trip if will tell you about and air flight from Yokohama to Honolulu.

(2) In Honolulu, if you walk on the beach, you can also get restored (not sure if it's to 100% but its a lot).

Seed 6 I tried this route for no hotels:

London -> Paris -> Vienna -> Warsaw (ask the Russian about the trans siberian express) -> Moscow ->Irkutsk (conversation choices speed up the train) -> Urga (save the girl, ask her to look at Fogg, explore temple to open up garuda flight) -> Yokohama -> Honolulu (if you solve the murder your next trip is free, explore to get health gain and shell) -> San Francisco -> New York(resist train robber to limit theft) -> Washington -> Ponta Delgada -> Lisbon -> London

I find Honolulu -> Acapulco -> New Orleans -> Washington -> Ponta Delgada -> Lisbon -> London is faster with more trade goods but encountered a 4 day wait in Honolulu that I didn't have money to negotiate so I took the other route and just barely had enough money to get back. Actually thinking about this, if you are doing no hotels, avoid Acapulco since I think you have to stay at a hotel to find routes out, kind of defeats the purpose and these routes don't seem to unlock through conversation...

By the end of it Fogg will really dislike you and you won't have the option of shaking his hand... Back in London (I forget the exact wording) I'm pretty sure he fired me the first time!

[9010]

My fastest time so far is 38 days on android. Didn't notice the seed.

Route: London - Paris - Istanbul - Tehran - Kabul - Omsk - Karimskaya - Pyongyang - Manila - Acapulco - New Orleans - New York - London

Did not notice the seed. There was only one profitable item I could sell for more than £1000, the Persian pottery from Tehran (that I sold in Kabul). Spent nearly £2000 to board Trans-Siberian without spending a night in Omsk. Because I did not have military papers, I took the ticket to Irkutsk instead of Ussuryisk or Vladivostok, because without the papers one could get stuck in Vladivostok and I did not have anything of value to sell there anyway. At Irkutsk, I decided to stay on and disembark at Karimskaya. I don't know what triggers it, but the Trans-Siberian was sped up after Irkutsk so that saved some time.

Before reaching Manila, my character was suave, but I did not risk staying in a hotel, so we were able to catch Reina Cristina to Acapulco without triggering the cholera dialogue. I had been balancing my character to choose news, dialogue and valeting, so it is possible that he would have known to use boiled water, but I did not want to risk the progress so I lost some points in valeting skills, but saved time (I finished with the character as zestful) that might have been lost. I have read that a valet with dependable or higher level character trait would know how to avoid cholera, but my theory is that if the valet is up-to-date on news, reading about cattle influenza etc, he would know about using boiled water.

There were not any useful maps for sale. I got most of the routes from conversations and exploring. If I remember correctly, I got the Manila - Acapulco route from Lady Sibyl on our way to Omsk. Despite the seed not being helpful in terms of money, it did help in keeping Fogg comfortable - I got useful things like railway man attire, frequent flier set, cold weather set, Russian gentleman's attire right on time to keep Fogg healthy during journeys and for negotiating travel times. That way I could concentrate on news or conversations during the journey - otherwise I would have used those options to serve Fogg to improve my relationship with him.

One thing that really helped with time was winning the boxing wager. I left New Orleans very low on funds, but winning the wager meant I had to wait only one day for money from bank at New York and so I could take the Henreitta to London which cost £3800. I sold most items I had, and did not use a hotel in New York so I would have just enough money to buy the ticket.

[TheGlitterJojo]

I know it's been awhile since I replied to my own post, but thanks for all the tips and recommendations! They've helped out a lot! I need to go back and try to finish this game again!

[Facemelter]

Via the North Pole was my quickest route. 50 odd days