Cover Identities (Guide)

Late Railroad Content and Onwards

Cover Identities Summary
Variable-Length Activity
Setup				Progress				End
1 A				0+ A				1 A
Progress Details			Build out your cover identity. Max 10:, Max 6:, Unlimited:
Items Inputs/Outputs Start-up Free (No Ties) Inputs Outputs
Raw EPA			3.60			Raw SPA			5.68

Mechanics

Cabinet Noir

In order to construct a Cover Identity, you need at least . Higher values of enable more advanced Identities with more available Cover Identity Qualities. The can be built and upgraded in for the usual scaling cost of in addition to the other listed requirements.

Level	Requirements	Qualities Enabled
2	3
3	2
4	3 1

Constructing an Identity

Starting a New Identity

A new Cover Identity always starts with 1. With 4 and either Favours to spend, Ambition items to show, or Whitsun beasties to enclue, it is possible to also set when creating a new Cover Identity. It is not possible to later add or change until you lose your current Cover Identity and start a new one.

Ties	Action	Requirement
		-

Building Up an Identity

cannot be changed after the Cover Identity is started.

Quality	Limit	Challenge	Gain
	10	(3) (150 + 10 x )
	6	(3 + ) (5 + )
	6	(3 + ) (5 + )
	6	(3 + ) (5 + )
Quality		Cost	Gain
		(2 actions)

Selling an Identity

Repeatable Sales

Action	Storylet/Card (Location)	Cover Identity Qualities	Reward
Clay Highwayman's gang (Non-Marauder)	()
Clay Highwayman's gang (Marauder)	()
A Veteran Revolutionary
An Urchin	()
A constable	()
A Devil	()
Devils	()		(leads to )
Spies	()		(leads to )
A Legal Scholar	()
Academic	()
The person you were	()
	()		(N = + + + ) (No ) () () ()

Clay Highwayman Grand Larcenies

When you are part of the Clay Highwayman's gang, you have the opportunity to perform larcenies across the Hinterlands. The highest level larcenies require Casing 10 and moderately advanced Cover Identities and reward you with 312.50 Echo items.

One-Time Uses

There are also a few one-off opportunities to use Cover Identities, such as erecting statues or advancing storylines.

One-Time Uses

Action	Storylet/Card (Location)	Cover Identity Qualities	Reward
Put up a statue (Balmoral)	()
Put up a statue (Moulin)	()
Identify yourself...	()		Hillchanger Tower, Changed
Join the gang	()

Strategy

Assuming all checks are 100%, the baseline cost of a constructing a Cover Identity is ( + + + ) actions. You may also have a cost of 1 Favour for adding . The cost in both items and actions of depends on the options used to raise it, but can also be fairly approximated as 1 action per Backstory with some exceptions.

From this, we can determine that Provide an Urchin with evidence that she's a long lost heir, Sell an undercover identity to a constable, Sell a socially plausible cover identity to a Devil each cost 5 actions (not including travel) + 1 Favour to receive 2 Favours. We can also approximate that Put up a statue in honour of your Cover Identity (which is to say, yourself) costs 14 actions + 1 Favour.

Involve the Clay Highwayman's gang in industrial steel robbery (Non-Marauder) costs 32 actions + 1 Favour to receive 10-11 . In order to get 10 railway steel from other sources, it takes 2 actions, 230 BSI and 2 Justificande coins. Assuming 2 actions for the coins, and 1 action for the favour, one would have to get more than roughly 7.9 or 8.7 BSI/action to make it more efficiently through other sources. This is in line with the best sources of Steel.

Selling a very advanced identity to Devils or to to Spies costs around 530 actions to receive an that results in a or , respectively.

We can also approximate that Fence this identity is upper-bounded at 2.50 EPA. Each point of , , , or adds one 2.50 E item to the reward and each 5 points of adds one 12.50 E item. Spending a Favour to add when starting the identity does not increase the reward at all, but merely changes which 2.50 E items you receive. That said, while it does not compare favourably to other options as an Echo grind, this is a good source for some of the possible rewards. If you do grand larcenies, you can push this up to a 3.60 echo grind, if you get ivory organzas and use the rat market.

Elaboration

The scaling difficulty check for increasing means even top-level characters will not be able to guarantee success when building an Identity that require high level of Elaboration. The challenge to add a 10th point of Elaboration has a difficulty of 240, which would take 400 to guarantee success. A realistic value of 300 gives only a 75% chance of success. On average it will take $1/0.75=1.33$ attempts to achieve success.

The table below summarizes the scaling challenge, success chance, and cumulative action cost for a character with 300. The scaling is not exactly proportional, but is somewhat close. A character with 280 Shadowy would take 11.78 actions on average to reach Elaboration 10, while a character with 320 Shadowy would need 10.74 actions on average.

	Challenge	Success %	Attempts Needed	Cumulative Actions
1	150	100%	1	1
2	160	100%	1	2
3	170	100%	1	3
4	180	100%	1	4
5	190	95%	1.05	5.05
6	200	90%	1.11	6.16
7	210	86%	1.16	7.32
8	220	82%	1.22	8.54
9	230	78%	1.28	9.82
10	250	75%	1.33	11.16

Backstory

There are several items which can be spent to gain backstory.

: It's hard to get these reliably. For 10 backstory, it is always more efficient to Make your Pawns follow your cover identity unless you can get 45 pawns/action. Relative efficiency for larger quantities of backstory varies.

• Pit one Varchaasi against another from Varchas from Behind the Glass at an action. (Requires Shadowy Gains 18).
• Consult the Stewards of the Discordance (Adulterine Castle): or per action
• At the Chessboard: Offer a draw, or fail at Choose a queen mate or Choose an epaulette mate. At most per action.
• Direct your network in the Khanate for per action.
• Buy from Nightclaw's Paw-Brokers at The Rat Market for 2 . Efficiency depends on your source of Rat-Shillings.
  • Selling Night-Whispers from Favour-based Tribute gives per action, or per action

: Overall, this ends up at per action.

• At the Chessboard: free for Midnighters or for anyone else
• Attend a Sermon at the Septemberists' Kirk in Balmoral (takes two actions and for )
• Raise a glass to someone at The Fiddler's Scarlet in Jericho Locks for x 5–9; may be okay if you have good sources for
• Manoeuvre the Counter-Church in Burrow if you have a Counter Church; needs 10 to 100% the check
• Explore the walls in Marigold Station

• These can most efficiently be gained by:
  • Writing a monograph in Moulin for The Exiled Antiquarian: based on Cautionary
  • Selling to the Tentacled Entrepreneur: based on Amalgamy (see Assembling a Skeleton guide)
  • Holding your breath underwater in the Hurlers: at Darkness 0; a loop detailed here gives per action depending on your , which works out to per action.
• Sell Surveys of the Neath's Bones to the Enthusiast of the Ancient World: for 5 Surveys. If you can efficiently publish a newspaper (see guide) or perform lab research (see guide), this works out to about ~4.2 or ~4.5 Final Breaths respectively per action.

• If you have access to it, the Red epilogue of the Chessboard campaign works out to per action. This option disappears when you start any new campaign (even the Chessboard).
• Take tea with the Diplomat in the Khanate: average of for . Not very good. Efficiency depends on source of :
  • From newspapers (including side conversion and up conversion of Journals): per action
  • From twice upconverted bought at the Rat Market for 1 , efficiency depends on the source of Rat-Shillings. At best about per action with Tribute-sourced Night-Whispers.
• Writing monographs in Moulin for The Disgraced Diplomat (requires 3+): based on Ironic
• Exchange some knowledge of the Eversmoulder on the card Halfway to Hell (requires and ). Difficult 210 check for .
• For the Game, spending Corresponding. Requires The Great Game.

• Read the graffiti on the Statue on its Station VIII opportunity card, for 5–7 stories per action, or per action. Darkness increases the difficulty, so this is not very compatible with breaking into Station VIII.
• An Exemplary Work of Lapsarian Theological Art; 4 stories per action, and hence per action

• Await a verdict on Gondoliers v Society Matron (Prosecution) in the Evenlode Courts: 6 actions each, plus the replacement cost of the to start each case. Buying Surface Blooms at The Rat Market at 5.0 EPA takes 10 actions to get 20 Surface Blooms. Alongside 1 action to turn in the Mortification, this takes 17 actions in total. This gives about per action.
• Expanding your Network in the Khanate with the Bandaged Naval Officer, Shapeless Aristocrat, or Idle Soldier: 15 actions each, plus an expected 2.2 actions shuffling to the appropriate Airs, for an approximate per action. Does not include travel time
• Send an inordinately enormous stack of documents to Mount Palmerston from Spelunking in the Sunken Embassy: 18 actions per item, per action
• Breathe an ancient air while Diving in the Magistracy: 8 actions, plus a chance to gain 6 CP of menaces on failing a 220 check, which is impossible to 100% pass. Costs , which would convert to , so a net increase of . Assuming 200 and clearing menaces at 6 CP per action, that's equivalent to per action (300 is only a little better, at per action)
• Enforce your demands at the end of the Parabolan War campaign A Dreaming Priest of the Second City, for 3 Mortifications; no analysis has been made on the efficiency of this.
• Getting An illicit secret as a reward in Hearts' Game gives a Morfitication in 19 actions, which means per action.