Editing Game-mechanics FAQ

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This is a FAQ-page to link to for frequently asked questions from places such as [https://www.reddit.com/r/fallenlondon reddit], [https://discord.gg/59aNpKf Discord], or the [https://community.failbettergames.com/ official forum]. The focus here is to answer questions regarding game-mechanics. This means that spoilers regarding specific stories or concerning the lore in general '''will''' be included if it's necessary to answer the question.<br /><br /><br />

== Q: How do I raise Renown? ==
Main article: [[Factions (Guide)]]
* If you do yet not have any Renown, you may obtain the first five levels at [[Mrs Plenty's Carnival]]. [[The Big Top]] and [[The Sideshows]] give both Favours and Renown.
* To raise Renown beyond 5, players must use [[:Category: Faction Items|Faction Items]], which may be purchased at the Bazaar. These convert Favours into Renown, sometimes also costing other resources. The faction item will let you raise your Renown as far as your stats allow, so there is no need to look elsewhere. A few stories may slightly increase Renown with certain factions.
* Faction items have different tiers of conversion actions--one for 0 to 8 Renown, one for 8 to 15 Renown, and one for Renown over 15. They will automatically unlock as you progress.

== Q: What is the best way to get lots of Correspondence Plaques? ==

* Get Whirring Contraptions from [[Searching out a Missing Woman (Guide)|Searching out a Missing Woman]] in Wilmot's End. Use those Whirring Contraptions to [[Publishing a Newspaper (Guide)|publish a newspaper]]. At a 100% chance for all challenges, this gives 6.7-8 Journals of Infamy per action (depending on the Newspaper edition you can publish). These can be directly cross-converted into Correspondence Plaques.
* Without access to Wilmot's End or Doubt Street, Journals of Infamy can also be gained via [[Thefts of Particular Character]] in the Flit (and, again, be cross-converting into Correspondence Plaques).

== Q: What is the best way to get 1001 Memories of Light for opening the Parabolan Base-Camp? ==

* If you have lots of tier 3 items, use the cross-conversion carousel.
* If you have the [[University Laboratory (Place)|Laboratory]] and [[An Admirer of Art]], grind [[Drop of Prisoner's Honey|Drops of Prisoner's Honey]]. Upconvert the Honey to [[Romantic Notion|Romantic Notions]] and then [[Vision of the Surface|Visions of the Surface]]. Finally, cross-convert through the tier 3 carousel.
* Alternatively, grind [[Compromising Document|Compromising Documents]] and cross-convert those into Memories. Useful sources for this are [[Breed the Somnolent Hyaena 5|the Labyrinth of Tigers]], [[The Devout Intriguer's Itinerary|the Foreign Office]], [[Write it all down|Boxfuls of Intrigue]], or [[BLEF! BLEF!|the Velocipede Squad]])
* Consider switching your Profession to [[Silverer]]. This reduces the cost to "just" 300 x Memories of Light.
* If you have no access to any of those, you are probably not yet ready for the Base-Camp, but you could [[Steal Tales of Terror from a noted author|get Tales of Terror]] and cross-convert twice.

== Q: What is the easiest way to get a Four-Card Lodging? ==
* The four-card lodgings ([[Reservation at the Royal Bethlehem]], [[A guest room at the Brass Embassy]], and [[Premises at the Bazaar]]) may either be bought at the Penstock's Land Agency at the Bazaar, or less expensively through opportunity cards or storylets.
* The Brass Embassy Guest-room and the Bazaar Premises can be acquired by getting the required resources (Brilliant Souls or Bazaar Permits, respectively) via [[Thefts of a particular character]] in the Flit. (For the guest room, a percentage of Brilliant Souls needs to be upconverted into Muscaria Brandy.) This usually takes around 400-500 actions, depending on your [[Shadowy]] and whether you have a [[Gang of Hoodlums]] or not (if you already have access to Parabola, grind Casing there instead). The required items may also be obtained by other methods, but the one mentioned is probably most efficient. If you don't have access to the University Lab yet, this approach also works for the Room at the Royal Bethlehem, which requires 50 Antique Mysteries.

== Q: How do I grind [stat]? ==
Main article: [[Leveling (Guide)]]
* The four main stats ([[Watchful]], [[Dangerous]], [[Persuasive]], and [[Shadowy]]) include recommended area progressions on their Wiki pages to indicate where players should be to train their stats as they progress through the game. If players want to specifically raise their stats as quickly as possible:
** For Watchful, the most effective method is to [[Talk to the Porters]] while pursuing [[Making Your Name: Investigations in the university|Investigations in the University]]. The Sudden Insights that this action gives may be converted to Watchful CP, and the Investigating [[Raid a Message-Drop|may be used in the Flit]] to make the process profitable.
** For Dangerous, players may use the storylet [[An Eye Wide Open]], which is available after completing a cycle of the [[Riding the Savage Cobbles (Guide)|Riding the Savage Cobbles ]]carousel, to get 5 CP Dangerous per action.
** For Shadowy, players may engage in Suspicious Loitering with each other, and [[Learn Shadowy lessons from your surveillance|Learn Shadowy lessons ]]to get bonus Shadowy CP and Hastily Scrawled Warning Notes.

== Q: When should I become a Person of Some Importance (PoSI)? ==
Main article: [[A Person of Some Importance (Guide)]]
* Becoming a [[A Person of Some Importance -|Person of Some Importance]] does not lock any significant content in the game, and so there is no disadvantage to pursuing it as soon as it becomes possible for your character.

== Q: What's the best way to cash in [[Investigating...]] accumulating with repeating visits to [[Helicon House]]? ==
Main article: [[Investigating (Guide)#Spending Investigating...|Spending Investigating]], in the Investigating Guide

The Upper River:

* [[Investigate the Clay Highwayman: Rely on recent investigating...|Investigate the Clay Highwayman]] to gain 1 CP {{IL|On the Trail of the Clay Highwayman}} (up to level 5) and {{IL|An Identity Uncovered!}} This option only costs 15 CP of Investigating (rather than resetting the quality), and the card for this option only stops appearing at {{IL|On the Trail of the Clay Highwayman|Appearance=On the Trail}} 100; therefore, you can keep cashing in Investigating for Identities Uncovered for quite a while.
* [[Learn what you can about him]] when captured by the Clay Highwayman.
* With {{Il|The Tale of the Clay Highwayman}} 12 and up, you can [[Inform on the Gang]] to reduce {{IL|Seeing Banditry in the Upper River}}.
* There are uses of Investigating in the [[Following up Rumours of Cornelius (Guide)|Following Up Rumours of Cornelius]] story.

{{IL|The Flit}}:
* [[The Heights of Chicanery]] — [[More than just Messages]] for {{IL|Piece of Rostygold|540 x}} (rare success: {{IL|Foxfire Candle Stub|540 x}}, {{IL|Relic of the Second City|10 x}}, and a {{IL|Reprehensible Lizard}}). 
** This is an {{Il|Investigating...}} challenge that becomes straightforward at 8 (so everything beyond that will effectively be wasted, as success resets Investigating)
* [[Making Use of Cats (storylet)|Making Use of Cats]] — [[Follow up a tip-off]] for {{IL|Cryptic Clue|540 x}}. This also resets Investigating but is a {{Il|Shadowy}} challenge.

[[Category:Guides|*]]
[[Category:Game Mechanics|*]]