Talk:Replace him with something - or someone - more ruthless/@comment-79.207.115.221-20150222225957

Is this branch worth it?

The sell-price of Mr Devious is 14.40 E, the selling price of Mr. Ruthless is 62.50 E. Assuming the outcome is 50:50, you average out on 38,45 E, which is 6.55 E less than the monkey's selling price. Which means you loose 8.55 Echoes when you do this, on average. This is not a good way to get rid of a monkey.

Is it a good way to get a Ruthless Henchman? You pay 90 Echoes for Li'l Malevolent, and two Echoes in brass. You will also buy a new monkey every time you lose one, because we have to pretend this branch is worth it for reasons of calculation. Now, my Calculus(or, as we call it around here, my Infinitesimalrechnung) is a bit rusty, but if we have an exact 50% chance, we have to pay, on average, 184 Echoes to get 1 Ruthless Henchman and 1 Devious Henchman. Buying them -or, at least, their services- at the Bazaar merely takes 144 Echoes. You loose 40 Echoes and may gain a Devious Henchie you'll never use.

(First we have to pay 92 Echoes; then we have a 50% chance of paying 92 Echoes, i.e. we pay 46 E on average. Then we pay 23E. then 11.5, then 5.75 ad infinitum. The amount of echoes paid gets closer and closer to 92+92 Echoes, infinitely close indeed, indistinguishable from 184 Echoes. Similiarly, we get 0.5 DHs, 0.25 DHs, etc ad nauseam approaching one entire Henchman)

Q.E.D & TL;DR: This branch is not worth it. You may gain, but statistically you will lose heavily. You will be a sucker. Your business associates will laugh at you, posh-Englishmen-style. Your Henchmen, too. Even, especially, the monkey.