Welcome HELL
Picked this up the other day, interesting game. I reckon speedrunning it might not the most enjoyable way to play it, but I have some sketchy routes for the "most famous explorer" victory condition and the "retire wealthy in a mansion by the zee" victory condition.
For wealthy retirement:
Start out with the street urchin past, sell the tutorial book, read the papers, buy supplies, pick up the strategic information quest if you like. Sail north-northeast (stop by Hunter's Keep for extra supplies, use the recent news from newspaper) until you find Mt. Palmerston or reach the edge of the map (or cross the Funging corp, or Corsair forest with the strategic information quest) sail east if you get to the edge of the map without finding Palmerston, when you do find it, go up the slopes and have tea with the deviless, then search for supplies, you'll get some semi valuable stuff to sell off, hopefully. Wait around until you can go up the mountain again, offer up your soul to the deviless, then wait around some more until you get to deliver stuff back to London, this unlocks the Brass Embassy, where you later can sell stuff for a good profit.
Don't sail back immediately however, travel south and keep using the zee-bat in hopes of finding Pigmote Isle, go do the quest there and steal the false star, your veil stat should be high enough to make it very easy, and give you some useful early cash and fuel. Sail further south until you find the Isle of Cats. Do the quest, if you found some lamentable relics they will come in handy, otherwise give up some fuel and some fragments until you get the vial of red honey to London quest.
Sail back, stop by Quaker's Haven on the way back, reach the shore, if you find a Harlot-Fry, fight it for extra cash, if something else you probably want to pick up fuel or something. Use full power when leaving Quaker's Haven to skip the special port event in london, this ensures that you won't have to pay for your vial of red honey. Unlock the Academy, finish the honey quest, exchange some forlorn artifacts, the lump of scintillack and relics for cash, sell zsoup and parabola linen etc. Buy a flare, and crew (especially if your engines exploded from going full power a lot). Then set out for the Isle of Cats, using the zee-bat when close, you should also find Visage around there. Go there first, use the flare in the ceremony to get a searing enigma, report back to your patron on the Isle of Cats. Get a bunch of supplies as reward, you'll probably overflow, dump the mushroom wine, I guess. Give up one of your crew for even more supplies, go to the Cumaean Canal to fetch an unwilling gift for the pirate lord. You might want to go back to london before to sell the searing enigma and lower terror a bit, but I think keeping the enigma should result in as many trade runs anyway, so idk.
Return to the Isle of Cats with the poor surfacer, sip the red honey, trade for 4 firkins of red honey, go back to london, stop by Quaker's Haven and do the full power thing to skip the london event to secure your illegal cargo. Sell it at the Brass Embassy, sell the captivating treasure as well, do some small things to lower terror if you must, but wait with buying the better lodging until a little later. buy supplies, 20/20 fuel and supplies seem to be a good balance. Travel back to the Isle of Cats, repeat... Ideally you'll afford 8 firkins the next round, then 12, then 20, then 33, them you win with the run after that. Realistically you'll have to buy a better lodging and dump some cash to lower terror before, but it should still be a win in 6 trade runs. To ensure that your fuel and supplies lasts the final run you should do some terror micromanagement with the lights; you only have to turn on the lamp for a fraction of a second before the terror indicator is about to increase to keep it down, you can count slowly to 4 when the indicator is green. You might also want to fight some nearby zee-beasts, or even let them eat some of your crew for the extra supply efficiency. Having 6 crew seems about right for the last trade runs, just be careful with going full power too much.
This should lead to a ~3 hour victory (managed 3:08 with this route just now).
To become the most famous adventurer:
You do almost everything the same to start out, except starting as a poet instead, and definitely stopping by either Gaider's Mourn or Palmerston for the random event where you remember your past early on, this will boost your pages and thus your secrets, you might want to skip stealing the false star on Pigmote, and instead benefit from the free supplies and terror reduction when you need it+ picking up some officers when you can is probably worth it here. Then get trading with Red Honey just as before, just until you have enough for the second best ship, and equip it with the fastest engine and the engine suppressor for permanent and safe FULL POWER and the strongest forward and deck weapons, then go hunt zee-beasts to the east, get trophies whenever you can, stygian ivory is also good, find the Fathomking's Hold for the quick Lorn-Fluke grind (3 secrets per kill+ extra money) grind that stuff. Sell off stygian ivory for tales of terror in Whither (and hunt some Lifebergs when you are there, for outlandish artifacts and more tokens), trade hunter tokens for zee-stories, memories of distant shores and more tales of terror in godfall.
Finally, travel to Irem with ~12000 spare echo(get from Lorn-Fluke's or some extra red honey trading as needed), buy 7 searing enigmas and 7 strange catches, and trade tales of terror to equalize your zee-stories/memories/tot's. On the way back get the last few hunter tokens before passing (go get the Kingeater's Castle and Khan's Heart port report when you're passing by them) godfall (elder angler crab and eastern angler crabs, behemoustaches are pretty good for tokens). Finally get back to London, trade the searing enigmas for a dreaded surmise, buy a live specimen, upgrade your housing, write the Zong of the Zee, retire.
Guesstimate time ~6 hours
I hope the father's bones victory condition is faster and more entertaining, these are pretty grindy :/
For wealthy retirement:
Start out with the street urchin past, sell the tutorial book, read the papers, buy supplies, pick up the strategic information quest if you like. Sail north-northeast (stop by Hunter's Keep for extra supplies, use the recent news from newspaper) until you find Mt. Palmerston or reach the edge of the map (or cross the Funging corp, or Corsair forest with the strategic information quest) sail east if you get to the edge of the map without finding Palmerston, when you do find it, go up the slopes and have tea with the deviless, then search for supplies, you'll get some semi valuable stuff to sell off, hopefully. Wait around until you can go up the mountain again, offer up your soul to the deviless, then wait around some more until you get to deliver stuff back to London, this unlocks the Brass Embassy, where you later can sell stuff for a good profit.
Don't sail back immediately however, travel south and keep using the zee-bat in hopes of finding Pigmote Isle, go do the quest there and steal the false star, your veil stat should be high enough to make it very easy, and give you some useful early cash and fuel. Sail further south until you find the Isle of Cats. Do the quest, if you found some lamentable relics they will come in handy, otherwise give up some fuel and some fragments until you get the vial of red honey to London quest.
Sail back, stop by Quaker's Haven on the way back, reach the shore, if you find a Harlot-Fry, fight it for extra cash, if something else you probably want to pick up fuel or something. Use full power when leaving Quaker's Haven to skip the special port event in london, this ensures that you won't have to pay for your vial of red honey. Unlock the Academy, finish the honey quest, exchange some forlorn artifacts, the lump of scintillack and relics for cash, sell zsoup and parabola linen etc. Buy a flare, and crew (especially if your engines exploded from going full power a lot). Then set out for the Isle of Cats, using the zee-bat when close, you should also find Visage around there. Go there first, use the flare in the ceremony to get a searing enigma, report back to your patron on the Isle of Cats. Get a bunch of supplies as reward, you'll probably overflow, dump the mushroom wine, I guess. Give up one of your crew for even more supplies, go to the Cumaean Canal to fetch an unwilling gift for the pirate lord. You might want to go back to london before to sell the searing enigma and lower terror a bit, but I think keeping the enigma should result in as many trade runs anyway, so idk.
Return to the Isle of Cats with the poor surfacer, sip the red honey, trade for 4 firkins of red honey, go back to london, stop by Quaker's Haven and do the full power thing to skip the london event to secure your illegal cargo. Sell it at the Brass Embassy, sell the captivating treasure as well, do some small things to lower terror if you must, but wait with buying the better lodging until a little later. buy supplies, 20/20 fuel and supplies seem to be a good balance. Travel back to the Isle of Cats, repeat... Ideally you'll afford 8 firkins the next round, then 12, then 20, then 33, them you win with the run after that. Realistically you'll have to buy a better lodging and dump some cash to lower terror before, but it should still be a win in 6 trade runs. To ensure that your fuel and supplies lasts the final run you should do some terror micromanagement with the lights; you only have to turn on the lamp for a fraction of a second before the terror indicator is about to increase to keep it down, you can count slowly to 4 when the indicator is green. You might also want to fight some nearby zee-beasts, or even let them eat some of your crew for the extra supply efficiency. Having 6 crew seems about right for the last trade runs, just be careful with going full power too much.
This should lead to a ~3 hour victory (managed 3:08 with this route just now).
To become the most famous adventurer:
You do almost everything the same to start out, except starting as a poet instead, and definitely stopping by either Gaider's Mourn or Palmerston for the random event where you remember your past early on, this will boost your pages and thus your secrets, you might want to skip stealing the false star on Pigmote, and instead benefit from the free supplies and terror reduction when you need it+ picking up some officers when you can is probably worth it here. Then get trading with Red Honey just as before, just until you have enough for the second best ship, and equip it with the fastest engine and the engine suppressor for permanent and safe FULL POWER and the strongest forward and deck weapons, then go hunt zee-beasts to the east, get trophies whenever you can, stygian ivory is also good, find the Fathomking's Hold for the quick Lorn-Fluke grind (3 secrets per kill+ extra money) grind that stuff. Sell off stygian ivory for tales of terror in Whither (and hunt some Lifebergs when you are there, for outlandish artifacts and more tokens), trade hunter tokens for zee-stories, memories of distant shores and more tales of terror in godfall.
Finally, travel to Irem with ~12000 spare echo(get from Lorn-Fluke's or some extra red honey trading as needed), buy 7 searing enigmas and 7 strange catches, and trade tales of terror to equalize your zee-stories/memories/tot's. On the way back get the last few hunter tokens before passing (go get the Kingeater's Castle and Khan's Heart port report when you're passing by them) godfall (elder angler crab and eastern angler crabs, behemoustaches are pretty good for tokens). Finally get back to London, trade the searing enigmas for a dreaded surmise, buy a live specimen, upgrade your housing, write the Zong of the Zee, retire.
Guesstimate time ~6 hours
I hope the father's bones victory condition is faster and more entertaining, these are pretty grindy :/
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