Editing Advancing the Liberation of Night (Guide)

{{GuideFor | Pages=Advancing the Liberation of Night: }}

So you want to contribute to {{IL|Advancing the Liberation of Night:|Appearance=The Work}}. Perhaps you want to become a {{IL|Paramount Presence|Appearance=Paramount Presence}}, maybe you just really, really hate candles and lamps. Maybe you just have a crush on a Month and want them to notice you. Regardless, this is a fairly intense grind, and the best options are not entirely obvious.

This guide is intended for lategame characters with very good stats (i.e. you should be able to 100% most if not all checks in a given grind) - and a couple of the grinds require access to fairly late-midgame or late game areas.

Advancing the Liberation has a few quirks that make this grind slightly annoying (not much, but slightly). Firstly, there are quite a few options in the Upper River that will ''hinder'' the Liberation that you may need to take for other grinds, and secondly, your Myself page will not show you your actual AtL level, just a vague description describing which bracket of 10 you're in.

As such, it's probably best to commit to this grind all at once, so you don't hinder yourself in the process.

== Notable Non-Grindable Sources & Early Levels ==

There are a few scattered non-grindable sources of {{IL|Advancing the Liberation of Night:|Appearance=AtL}}. You should probably do most of these before any grinds, just because they give quite a lot. Some of these are outright more efficient than the grindable sources, and some of them are just side effects of things you might want to do anyway.

This is not a list of ''all'' such options, some are pretty bad (e.g. a one-time sale of the location of the [[Cave of the Nadir]] to the Revolutionaries is a whole, princely sum of 1 CP), but there are a few worth taking into consideration - especially if you're not too far in your Liberation progress yet.

==== Chess (With AtL < 10) ====

In [[Chess (Guide) | Parabolan Chess]], you can [[ Betray! Destroy! Take white down from the inside! | Betray White ]] for some early CP. This is '''extremely''' good, at 50CP per use, but you can only use it if you currently have {{IL|Advancing the Liberation of Night:|Appearance=AtL < 10}}. While the option itself isn't locked by this level, it's only available during the endgame while playing as the White pieces, and it forcibly switches you to Black after. Unfortunately, switching back to White is only possible if your AtL is under level 10. It also gives a few {{IL| Favours: Revolutionaries | Appearance=Revolutionary Favours}} that can in principle be converted to AtL, but rather inefficiently (mostly with cards in the Upper River, and even then they mostly require specific statues).

All-told, it's just barely possible to do this 2 times, assuming you haven't gotten any other CP (Level 0 to 10 is 55 CP, and since one use of this is 50CP, you can barely squeak out a 2nd with 5CP left to spare). That said, it's good enough that if you're just ''barely'' level 10 and not currently White, it may actually be worth it to do a few things that reduce your Liberation quality (such as lightening an Upper River area) just to get that last 50CP if you can bump your level under 10 in only a couple actions. Especially since most actions that reduce your Liberation do so (slightly) faster than most actions that advance it.

==== Railway Progression ====

If you're a dedicated min-maxer, you can always [[Railway (Guide)|Support the Liberationist Tracklayers]] as much as possible while constructing the Railway to get some early CP. However, this may be undesirable for various RP reasons, external concerns such as missing out on a good source of [[Bone Market (Guide) | Bone Market ]] materials, dealing with the extra Tracklayers' Displeasure, or a lack of will to grind out the extra explosives needed for the Liberationist options.

==== Station Darkness ====

Many stations in the Upper River have a darkness quality of some sort (e.g. {{IL | Balmoral: Darkness || Appearance=Balmoral: Darkness}}). Most options that increase darkness will {{IL|Advancing the Liberation of Night:|Appearance=Advance the Liberation}} by a fairly good amount, usually 2-3CP.

While this might seem grindable, it's actually a finite source that runs out fairly quickly, because lightening an area will always lower {{IL|Advancing the Liberation of Night:|Appearance=AtL}} by (slightly) more CP than you'd gain by darkening it.

However, if you're trying to hit a specific target (e.g. for {{IL|Paramount Presence|Appearance=Paramount Presence}}) it's probably worth it to just darken every station before doing any grinds. It's a pretty easy source, especially if you're flipping cards while doing other tasks in the relevant Upper River stations anyway. As a bonus, most stations have grinds that benefit from maximum darkness you can consider this setup for (though some stations also have alternative grinds that are easier if it's light, so be wary!).

==== {{IL | Steward of the Discordance | Appearance=Learning Things You Should Not Learn }} ====

Following the {{IL | Steward of the Discordance | Appearance=Steward of the Discordance }} storyline will give a fairly large amount of {{IL|Advancing the Liberation of Night:|Appearance=AtL}} CP, especially in later stages. From a detached min-maxing perspective this isn't necessarily ''efficient'' per-se, given the advanced skill loss, tedious weekly CP grind, and the need to create and burn a couple T8 items to get to the big payouts, but if you want to do the storyline anyway you may as well capitalize on the large amount of CP you get in the process before dedicating yourself to grinding.

== Temple Club Candles ==

If you have access to the [[The Temple Club (Guide) | Temple Club]], you have a very efficient source of {{IL|Advancing the Liberation of Night:|Appearance=AtL}} at 300 {{IL|Foxfire Candle Stub|Appearance=Foxfire Candles}} per 3CP via [[Fund revolutionary research]], plus a bonus {{IL | Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory | Appearance=Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory}} each time. ''Unfortunately'' visits to the Temple Club are limited. You can gain three free admissions with:

'''Access Code:''' https://www.fallenlondon.com/a/toc8478427505558293e81290

But if you've used those, you need to ask around for a friend who can get you one (probably not too hard, but annoying). As such, assuming you have a spare invite, you probably want to do this entire grind at once.

In case this guide ends up outdated, please check [[Academic Grinding (Guide)#Foxfire_Candle_Stub | The Item Grinding Guide for Foxfire Candles]] for potentially better sources. At the time of writing, your best source is [[Hunting Bees in Old Newgate (Guide) | Hunting Bees in Old Newgate]] for {{IL|Foxfire Candle Stub|Appearance=250 Candles}} per action assuming you can 100% all the relevant checks.

This results in {{IL|Advancing the Liberation of Night:|Appearance='''1.36CP/A'''}}<ref name="newgate-cpa" />, and (except for the limited entry) is both the most accessible grind with the laxest stat and story progression requirements, and the ''fastest'' grind available, (though the [[Advancing the Liberation of Night (Guide)#City of the Tracklayers | Tracklayers' City grind]] might be close to comparable, depending on luck, but is also limited by Rat Market saturation).


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<references>
<ref name="newgate-cpa">
1500 candles in 6 actions, with 5 actions to turn in = 15CP per 11 actions, or 1.36
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== Luminosity Item Conversion Grinds ==

Most [[ Luminosity Grinding (Guide) | Luminosity Items ]], when upconverted, give {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance=1CP AtL}}<ref name="candle-cp-note" />. As an added benefit, you get a "bonus" CP every so often, since the next item tier up (thru {{IL | Mourning Candle | Appearance=Mourning Candles}}) can also be upconverted for {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance=1CP AtL}}. For instance, for every 5 upconversions of {{IL | Lump of Lamplighter Beeswax | Appearance=Lamplighter's Beeswax }}, you'll have 50 {{IL | Phosphorescent Scarab | Appearance=Phosphorescent Scarabs }}, which can immediately be upconverted to {{IL | Memory of Light | Appearance=Memories of Light}} for an extra {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance=1CP AtL}} - and so on.

That said, this bonus is essentially a rounding error, it tends to only bring up the {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance=AtL CP/A}} by a few hundreths or thousandths. As such, the calculations below only take the bonus into account if it's (relatively) significant. You should still do it, it's technically better and you get more bonus items. Except maybe {{IL | Mourning Candle | Appearance=Mourning Candles}} unless you have spare {{IL | Favours: Revolutionaries | Appearance=Revolutionary Favours }} around you don't need for something better, since it takes one per 25 Candles to "cash out".

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<ref name="candle-cp-note">
Cashing out {{IL | Mourning Candle || Appearance=Mourning Candles}} gives 2CP on rare success, but it's not worth factoring in - take it as a nice bonus.
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=== {{IL | Lump of Lamplighter Beeswax | Appearance=Lamplighter's Beeswax }} at the [[The Sunken Embassy (Guide) | Sunken Embassy]] ===

Farming {{IL | Lump of Lamplighter Beeswax | Appearance=Lamplighter's Beeswax }} at the [[The Sunken Embassy (Guide) | Sunken Embassy]] can get you {{IL | Lump of Lamplighter Beeswax | Appearance=380 Beeswax/Action }}. 380 Beeswax represents 3.8CP before taking into account the upgrade bonus and factoring in the actions per conversion.

When upconverting, make sure to use [[You know a fellow who wants it]] to convert 100 at a time, instead of 1000 at a time. This is an inefficient source of higher tier items, but is a ''much'' more efficient source of {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance=AtL CP}}, since it gives 1CP per lot of 100, instead of 1CP per 1000.

This naively gives {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance='''~.79CP/A'''}}<ref name="naive-cp" />, not including the higher tier upconversion bonuses. Including upconversion bonuses for the resulting {{IL | Phosphorescent Scarab | Appearance=Scarabs }} you get about {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance='''~.82CP/A'''}}, but beyond that the bonus is so small it's not worth calculating.

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<ref name="naive-cp">
This is easiest to calculate if you find a round number. It takes 5 actions to get 1900 Beeswax, which in 19 more actions is exactly 19CP. 19+5 is 24, so 19CP/24Actions = ~.79CP/A
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=== {{IL | Phosphorescent Scarab | Appearance=Phosphorescent Scarab }} Grind ===

Assuming you have a remotely reliable source of Ratket items, you can grind raw {{IL | Phosphorescent Scarab | Appearance=Scarabs }}. This is because at the [[The Rat Market (Guide) | Rat Market]] they can be bought for {{IL | Rat-Shilling | Appearance=a single Rat Shilling}}.

For instance, using up only the first tier of Rat Market Saturation (aka base {{IL | Rat-Shilling | Appearance=6500}} worth of items), you get {{IL | Rat-Shilling | Appearance=8580}} = {{IL | Phosphorescent Scarab | Appearance=8580 }}, which is a solid {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance='''171.6CP'''}}. This makes a base 5.2EPA grind that gives exclusively Rat Market-sellable items a {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance='''0.58CP/A'''}} grind<ref name="tier-1" />, but only up to the first Rat Market Saturation threshold.

For the next {{IL | Rat-Shilling | Appearance=11500}} worth of items, you'll end up with {{IL | Rat-Shilling | Appearance=12880}} = {{IL | Phosphorescent Scarab | Appearance=12880 }}. Which yields {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance='''257.6CP'''}}. This is a somewhat worse (assuming the same base 5.2 EPA) {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance='''0.53CP/A'''}} grind<ref name="tier-2" />. Beyond that, you're operating at-cost ({{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance='''0.5CP'''}} per 5 echoes, essentially).

This on its own is worse than Beeswax, but becomes much more efficient when used with [[Advancing the Liberation of Night (Guide)#Tracklayer's City & Phosphorous Scarabs Grind | City of the Tracklayers ]].


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<ref name="tier-1">
171.6 actions to upconvert, plus 125 actions for the sellable items.
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<ref name="tier-2">
257.6 actions to upconvert, plus ~221.15 actions for the sellable items.
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==== City of the Tracklayers Grind ====

As an extension to the above, if you have access to [[The City of the Tracklayers (Guide) | The City of the Tracklayers]], maximum {{IL | Hinterland Efficiency | Appearance=Hinterland Efficiency }}, and your city is aligned Liberationist, you'll get a few cards that will give {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night || Appearance=1CP AtL }}. Generally, these only give {{IL | Hinterland Prosperity | Appearance=500 Prosperity}}, though if your city is located in Moulin or the Hurlers, there is an extra card that can appear that gives {{IL | Hinterland Prosperity | Appearance=520 Prosperity}} while advancing the Liberation.

It's hard to value the {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night || Appearance=CP/A }} of this ''exactly'', but it's worth noting that any of these actions get you {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night || Appearance=1CP }} and (before even taking into account the Rat Market bonus) {{IL | Phosphorescent Scarab | Appearance=50-52 Scarabs }} (aka {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night || Appearance=1CP }} for an additional action) at the same time, assuming you cash out your {{IL | Hinterland Prosperity | Appearance=Prosperity}} for a Rat Market-sellable item (such as a {{IL | Captivating Ballad | Appearance=Captivating Ballad}}). You can think of any Liberation card draw as essentially getting a free action with a free extra CP's worth of {{IL | Phosphorescent Scarab | Appearance=Scarabs }}.

This gives you quite a bit of extra {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night || Appearance=CP }}, depending on the frequency of Liberation cards. The [[Advancing the Liberation of Night (Guide)#Temple_Club_Candles | Temple Club Method]] is still probably better unless ~80% of your card plays are Liberation advancing cards (which they almost certainly won't be), and you're willing to play the long game with Rat Market saturation, but this is a close second and better than Beeswax.

== Pulling Threads in the Khanate ==

The final method is pulling [[Khaganian_Intrigue_(Guide)/Opportunity_cycles#(5,_7,_9,_6):_Advancing_the_Liberation_of_Night_Grind | a very specific thread loop ]] in the Khanate. As stated in that guide, this is {{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance='''0.33CP/A''' }}, which is worse than the other methods here, ''and'' costs  {{IL| Emetic Revelation | Appearance=4 Emetic Revelations }} per cycle, but if you're also going for something like {{ IL | Masters' Blood | Appearance=Masters' Blood }} the {{IL | Bottle of Fourth City Airag: Year of the Tortoise | Appearance=Airag }} might be useful. 

You could also use the {{ IL | Assortment of Khaganian Coinage | Appearance=250 Khaganian Coinage }} to get {{ IL | Fourth-City Echo | Appearance=2 Fourth City Echoes }} for {{ IL | Phosphorescent Scarab | Appearance=250 Scarabs }} ({{IL | Advancing the Liberation of Night: | Appearance='''5CP''' }} over 5 extra actions) via the [[The Rat Market (Guide) | Rat Market ]], but it's still not great, especially taking the boat trip into account.