Talk:Recruit a Laconic Prodigy as your assistant (20 FATE)/@comment-24389606-20161106031454

Here is a approximate calculation of the "cost" of acquiring the Prodigy.

1) The most cost effective way of raising Engaged in a Scheme is to Offer Some Urchins a Place.

a) This option appears only with Airs 31-70. so you spend 2.5 turns on average to randomize the airs to get it right.

b) It consumes 30 echoes

c) It consumes 200 Connected:Urchins. The most cost-effective way to replenish this is to use 3 actions to Talk to the Knotted Sock (assuming you have the Rookery Password already, and as that's a one-time fixed cost, not counting it). Each time you do it, you will need to replenish 3 Reprehensible Lizards (purchase from the Bazaar at 40 pence each) and 90 Rats on a String (equivalent to 0.82 turns of Keep your hands quick). Thus 75 cps of Connected: Urchins get replenished for 1.2 echoes and 3.82 actions. 200 cps of Connected: Urchins will require  3.2 echoes and 10.18 actions

2) So you end up getting 4-6 cp of Engaged in a Scheme (assume its 5 cp on avg) from 33.2 E + 12.68 A + 1 action to actually use the card (I am ignoring the number of card draws expended for the Handsome Townhouse card to show up itself).

3) To grind till Level 15, you need to repeat this 120/5 = 24 times. Which means 24 x 33.2 E + 24 x 13.68 A = 796.8 E + 328.3 A

4) To get the Recuit a Laconic Prodigy option to show up (Airs 90-100), you spend 10 actions on average. Plus the 1 action to actually use the card, making it 796.8 E + 339.3 A

5) Converting 1 action to 1.64 E (using the most efficient grinding mechanism via the A Boxful of Intrigue carousel), the final cost is ~1353 echoes (+ 20 FATE). Whew!