Polythremic Promenade (Guide)

Mid Zailing Content

Polythremic Promenade Summary
Locked Fixed-Length Activity
Setup				Progress				End
1 A				10 A				1 A
Progress Details			Raise and to 8/12/13 depending on desired payout.
Items Inputs/Outputs Boosting Outputs
Raw EPA			2.5			Raw SPA			-

Preparations

Before leaving London, consider that while in :

• you cannot access the Bazaar
• you cannot use items from your inventory, including changing gear
• you cannot send, get or answer social actions
• you cannot reduce menaces (if one rises to 8 you will feel the consequences the second you get back to London)
• you cannot gain second chances

Here is a spoiler free list of items that you might want to acquire before heading out to avoid leaving Polythreme not having done what you came for. Continue reading the guide to find out what they are for if you will.

• (!)
• Mysteries of the Elder Continent for bribes
• for bribes
• 
• 
• 10
• 13
  • if doing Heart's Desire.

Getting There

are located in Polythreme and require services of a ship. There are two ways to reach Polythreme:

1. The first is to buy a ticket on the tramp steamer at using 150 s (typically earned from the Rat Market). Then build your quality to 10, using the various cards and storylets aboard the Tramp Steamer. Once it is at 10, the There at last! storylet will open up. Selecting Polythreme there will place you in the , from where you can unlock and access .
2. The second method requires a ship of your own (check the PoSI Item Crafting guide to see how to get one) and an assembled . See the Zailing (Guide) for an introduction to how you zail and plan a trip to Polythreme in the Sea of Voices.

When it's time to leave the island the following options are present:

• Board the Tramp Steamer for 80 s (8.00 Echoes). These can be gained in the streets.
• Journey home on your own ship

Basic Mechanics

The Polythremic Promenade revolves around (A) and (C), which is used to progress the stories. In addition to this, you could go for instant profit with the action shown in the table below. The s and s can subsequently be used in Paying Your Way to increase ALLURE or COGNISANCE, should you wish to do so.

Polythremic Promenade

To access or advance any of the Polythreme Storylines you need to complete a 12 action carousel consisting of Beginning your Polythremic Promenade (giving you 11 (UE)), 10 actions reducing these to 1 while changing your A/ C and a last action to collect rewards or advance a story.

Raising and

The various ways to increase A/ C are:

• Buy A/ C at Paying Your Way. Here you can pay to dependably raise or by 10 or more CP depending on the action. Succeeding gives more CP, and may also give CP of the other quality. The checks are marked as , which is essentially checks that increases by 10% every time you've failed the previous round(s), and resets on a successful round. You can get most of the supplies on the One Might Profit Even in Such a Place storylet, which doesn't cost UE.

• You can exchange for (A Clay Man of Wealth and Influence) or vice versa (Robes and Belts and Masks And Mantles) as soon as you have 10 CP of one of them. This costs 10 CP of the undesired quality and gains 22 or 12 CP on the other side (50/50).

• The entire opportunity card deck consists of A/ C changing actions, several of them skill-based (see Opportunity Cards Overview). Note that you can add/remove the Fractious Furniture and The Zailors at Polythreme's Harbour cards to/from the deck by starting/finishing the A Little Spy Work and A Guided Tour of Polythreme stories. Since the opportunity card deck in Polythreme is only between 6 and 8 cards thick this makes a great difference. So think about your stats and what you want to do before adding these to the deck.

• • Fractious Furniture and The Zailors cannot be drawn before starting your promenade. If you want these cards, make sure to start your promenade first.

Paying Your Way

It's difficult to get the progress qualities up to 13 by using cards only, so it's usually a good idea to use Paying Your Way a few times at the beginning before resorting to cards (as the cost of Paying Your Way increases as decreases.)

If this results in also receiving extra of the quality that you don't want, see above for swapping it for the one that you do.

UE range	Cost	raise	raise	Base success rate	Progress
11-8 (4)	(2.50 Echoes)	Give surface-silk to Clay Men	Offer silks to a clothes-colony	50%	20 / 10
7-5 (3)	(5.00)	Spread tales of love and glamour	Speak of romance to an empty garden	60%	20+10 / 10
4-2 (3)	(12.50)	Speak of the Elder Continent at Arcimboldo's		70%	40 + 10 / 10
4-2 (3)	(12.50)		Present your findings to an academic gone native

Opportunity Cards Overview

Card	Option	Req	Challenge	Success	Failure
At the Market	Attract attention at the market		120	+12 CP -5 CP	+5 CP -5 CP
	Wander around the market	4		-10 CP
The Temple	Have a look around the temple		120	+12 CP -5 CP	+5 CP  -5 CP
	Poke around the grounds	4		-10 CP
The Priest at the Temple	Speak of his spiritual work		50%	+15 CP	+2 CP -10 CP
	Speak to the Clay priest of matters romantic	8		Reset
The Ruin	The walls are rattling		50%	+15 CP	+2 CP -10 CP
	What's that fluttering?	8		Reset
Fractious Furniture - Examine the carvings		1	120	+12 CP -5 CP	-5 CP
The Zailors at Polythreme's Harbour - Speak with the zailors		1	120	+12 CP -5 CP	-5 CP
The Masked Man - Bid him a good morning			70%	+6 CP +6 CP
The Wax Wind Comes - Crouching in a low stone building			50%	+12 CP	+12 CP

Spending ALLURE and COGNISANCE

Once you reach your last UE you cash in whatever A/ C you gathered:

Spending your Time

Name	Requirement	Reward	Value	EPA
A Distressing Lack of Progress	-		20.00	1.67
The Voice in the Fog	A 13		30.00	2.50
There's someone in there	A 13, PoSI		30.00	2.50
What's going on in the bay?	C 13		30.00	2.50
Speak to a matched pair	C 13, PoSI		30.00	2.50
What's going on here?	A 8, C 8		30.00	2.50
A walk in the villa gardens	A 8, C 8		30.00	2.50

The required number of CP for the relevant levels are (91 CP for lvl 13), (78 for 12) and (36 for 8). It therefore seems easier to get A8/ C8 than A13 or C13 (36+36=72 vs 91) but since most cards raise one quality while reducing the other it is not.

The highest rewards will result in 2.50 Echoes per action. However, this does not account for failures.

If, maybe because of bad luck, you will reach neither A8/ C8, A12, nor C12 you can spend small amounts of A/ C via some of the opportunity cards to increase the round's revenue. Picking up s requires 10 CP of A or C, while getting s requires at least A8 or C8 and costs all of it. Remember that you will be able to gain s at Spending your Time no matter how low your A/ C is. This has the bonus of increasing , making your next cycle easier.

Storylines

There are a handful of storylines to follow. It might be a good idea to do several of these at a time.

• winds through Polythreme.
• requires a visit to Polythreme.
• Turn an into an by learning about Unfinished Men via An Unfinished Story.
• Turn a into a at The Clothes-Colony.
• Do A Little Spy Work, adding Fractious Furniture to the opportunity card deck, when doing stories based on . You can finish the storyline if you want better odds for cards.
• Take A Guided Tour of Polythreme, adding The Zailors at Polythreme's Harbour to the opportunity card deck when doing stories based on . You can finish the storyline if you want better odds for cards.

See Polythremic Promenade (Guide)/Story Table for a breakdown of all the story-based conclusions to the promenade.

All of the listed storylets become available with exactly 1 UE. Playing any option will remove that last one and finish the promenade.

Notes

• All storylines require A12 or C12 but not all offer a superior option for A13 or C13. The superior options double the reward.
  • If your round has hit level 13 but the story you wanted to advance has only level 12 options, it is usually better to spend it on a story you did not want to advance, or just Spend your Time without advancing a story, rather than waste half the reward.
  • If your round hits only level 12 and there are level-12-only stories you could advance with it, consider advancing one of those stories rather than another story which does have a level 13 option, even if you would prefer to make progress on the latter.
• Regardless of how you cash in your A/ C, you will lose all of it with your last UE. There is no way to Begin your Polythremic Promenade with any A/ C.

Tips & Tricks

A summary of the tips mentioned in the guide:

• It's often a good idea to spend an action or two buying progress, to ensure you get enough - at least when not doing the carousel for Echoes.
• Unlock either The Zailors at Polythreme's Harbour or Fractious Furniture depending on whether you're going for or (assuming you have the stats to do the challenge). Start your promenade before drawing cards.
• If you get progress in the wrong quality, such as with The Wax Wind Comes, exchange it for what you want.
• If you see that you're not going to make it, spend your progress on the cards that exchange them from items, and use the cycle to increase instead.