A quick guide on spending surveys of the neath's bone, whether you get them from newspapers, laboratories or anywhere else.

This is copied from my upper river, calculating every EPA doc. I have tidied it up a bit so that it is understandable to more people than just me. :) TLDR at the bottom

Survey Spending

Ealing storylet

1 Strong Backed Labour(SBL) 50 Surveys 27.5e cost

3 Helical Thigh 9echos

2-3 knotted humerus 7.5 echos

1 Human Ribcage 12.5

206-571 Bone Fragments 3.885E

32.885

5.285 EPA (Need a way to extract value from humans)

 

1SBL 75 Surveys 40 echos

1 Thorned Ribcage 12.5

1 Horned Skull 12.5

3-5 Femur of a Jurassic Beast 12

2-6 Jet Black Stingers 2e

6-19 Fin Bones Collected 6.25e

5.25 EPA(Using enough Thorned Ribcages will be the value limiting factor, if you have ways to dump the rest it's a great source of fins)

1 SBL 169 Surveys 87E

7  Palaeontological Discovery 87.5

0.25 EPA (Needs 9.75 profit from choosing to bring it to 5 EPA)

 

1 SBL 175 Surveys 10 Magisterial Lager 95 Echos

8E more for Stirrups

49-77 Rusted Stirrup 4.9-7.7E

7  Palaeontological Discovery

 Value comparison

6 surveys 10 MSG = 8 echos (difference between the two costs)

49-77 Rusted Stirrup = Average 6.3 echos

Checked for uses – monograph, not worth it. The stirrups are used, at value in the monograph, so choosing this option is a value loss, unless you have a way to improve monographs.

Bullbone Island

20 Surveys = 10E

1 Horned Skull 12.5

2.5 EPA(During a cycle of bad EPA actions that you have to zail to and from)

 

Upper River Cards

Engage in Excavation

15 for a human skeleton

5 EPA if you need more human skeletons

 

Dredge the River – Jerico

2 surveys

10 Relic of the Second City

2  Unprovenanced Artefact

5.5 EPA

 

Dig in the Magistracy

Make the train stop in the plains of thirsty grasses 140svy 70E

6 Palaeontological Discovery 75E

2.5 EPA(Need to get 5 echos of bonus to bring it to 5 EPA)

Other two survey options are worse, 1 for 15 surveys is 2.5 EPA but it's 1. 5 for 120 surveys is 1.25 epa.

 

Lead a dig – Station 8

40 Surveys 20E

2 Palaeontological Discovery

2.5 EPA(Could be used for travel, almost never worth it though)

98(245e) rumours of the upper river + Oil of Companionship (50 echos 2 actions) for Prismatic Frame on the same card

295 for 312.5 = 5.833 EPA(Not including travel back and forth)

 

Results of Discoveries – +1 action to leave! 0 to spend, when leaving you can go to the bone market

 PPS = Profit Per Survey, which was odd of me because it means profit per discovery

1(12.5E) for:

1250 Bone Fragments (8 BBS into an 8 spines bird, Woesell, Dismantle or Sell Memories of a much stranger self in the Sous or sell a leviathan frame on fish week)

 5 Femur of Jurassic Beast15E(2.5 pps)

 1 Horned Skull (Get from Ealing)

2(25E) for:

2 Thorned Ribcages(Get from hell favours)

25E

6 Helical Thighbone +

4 Knotted Humorous 

30E(2.5 pps)

3(37.5E) for:

2 Human Ribcage (Too many to use already)

4 Human Arm

5 Trace of the First City

37.5E

4(50E) for:

2 Fossilised Forelimb 55E(1.25pps)

 

5(62.5E) for:

1 Sabertoothed Skull 62.5E (Get from Ealing or Bone Market)

1 Mammoth Ribcage 62.5E (Get from Balmoral)

 

25(312.5) for:

1 Leviathan Frame 312.5E (Get selling a skeleton on carpenter’s granddaughter card)

Worse EPA than it looks as you have to use multiple spends

 

Leaving you can:

Stay where you are

Go to the bone market(Saves an action and avoids banditry) 

Analysis, the profitable ones are the rarer to find ones anyway so go for them. Spending 7 at once gives a decent EPA.

Quick Leviathan Frame analysis, with the best possible choices

Gain 7 discoveries 2 actions

Go to 14 discoveries 4 actions

go to 21 discoveries 6 actions

Go to 28 discoveries 8 actions

40 echos of value loss assuming 5 echos per action. 2 echos of value earned from the conversion actions.

38 echo loss for frame.

Gain 6(Magistracy Card)

to 12

to 18

to 24

to 30

10 actions, 50 echo loss. 25 echo value gained from the conversion.

25 echo loss on the frame

Compare to Hearts Game

66 actions for 1 Frame(costs 1 action to cash in)

330 echos at 5 epa

17.5 echo loss

A Public Lecture is even better IF you have the device from estival but really complicated to work out.

Get 10 Hedonism(My preference is for invitation to a scandalous party)

Go to Parabola(Whenever you are going anyway)

Get 4 Orange Apples (4 actions)

repeat whenever you go to parabola

Sell the orange apples with bone fragments to Bohemian Sculptress for Ivory Femur, all the good options for the card need 2 Femurs. This section is profitable on it's own, just included for completeness.

Make a skeleton worth 273 or more echos (9 actions, the only good ones are mammoth based)

Avoid Implausibility, the shadowy roll is 100x Implausibility, so 2 is the highest you can get and still 100% with perfect gear.

Lets say 275 skeleton value for simplicity. 37.5 Echos profit

9 actions, 4.17 EPA

7.5 Echos loss per frame(Compared to 5 EPA)

On Fish, spider or insect week, you only need 261 echos but on those weeks you will need at least 3 more actions to build, so it's not any better. Well, not on fish, but there are no expensive fins.

Quick note: All of these should still be very profitable! Lecture is card based so it is not exclusive to the other two. Included for comparison.

TLDR

Surveys are best spent gaining 7 discoveries in Ealing, on the storylet or gaining 6 from a card in the magistracy.

The only profitable purchases are: Jurassic Thighs, Helical Thighs and Fossilised Forelimbs, all other choices are some level of loss(but not a lot, so it's not the end of the world). There are better sources for many of the bones so it can be best to stick to those three options.

I'll probably do the butcher next, since we are in Ealing anyway