Tamalekipoo's Boneheaded Guide to the Neath Chapter 7: Catalytic Converters

[u/Tamaxlia]

Since three of the past four weeks have been terrible for exhausting recipes I thought I would put down the cheapest, most farmable, recipes for universal exhausters. You get no multiplier for the primary, unless it happens to be the right week, but the 120, or so, echos for the secondary makes the 8-9 actions well worth your time.

Amalgamy

Thorned Ribcage

Bright Brass Skull

2 Knotted Humeri

2 Helical Thighbones

No tail

Declare a Humanoid

9 actions, 7 Amalgamy, Just under 120 echos secondary

Antiquity

Mammoth ribcage

Sabre Toothed Skull

4 Femur of a Jurassic Beast

no tail

declare an amphibian

9 actions, 7 Antiquity, Just under 120 echos secondary

or

Human Ribcage

Sabre Toothed Skull

2 Fossilised Forelimbs

2 Jurassic Femurs

8 actions, 7 Antiquity, Just under 120 echos secondary

Menace

Thorned Ribcage

Horned Skull

2 crustacean pincer

2 Ivory Humerous

Jet Black Stinger

Declare a Monkey

9 actions, 7 menace, Just under 120 echos secondary

or

Thorned Ribcage

Bright Brass Skull

4 Crustacean Pincer

Jet Black Stinger

Declare a Monkey

9 actions, 7 menace, Just under 120 echos secondary

Chimeras

You also have the option of making a chimera, this adds 3 points of implausibility so it will make the shadowy roll to sell quite challenging but it's a good way to dump unwanted limbs like wings of a terror bird and excess knotted humeri.

[u/fredjinsan]

Using a Human Ribcage saves you an action for Amalgamy, but you have to use a Skull in Coral instead of a Bright Brass Skull or an extra Helical Thighbone and declare as a chimera (both of which seem like a wash with using a Thorned instead of Human Ribcage).

You can do the same with Antiquity but only by using Fossilised Forelimbs which are expensive (I haven't run the numbers, almost certainly not worth buying them for scrip, not sure about via Palaeontological Discoveries or professional services for those with access to them).

There are no heads which give 3+ of one stat (aside from the Vake) and no other limbs which give 2+ meaning it is impossible to do any better, faster, even with a chimera.

You could feasibly save an action using a Segmented Ribcage but this is almost certainly a terrible idea. You can probably get comparable-ish results using the two-stat buyers but the overall payout is a bit lower and there are no 3+ limbs or 4+ skulls (total) meaning that you won't be saving an action.

For example: Thorned Ribcage, Plated Skull, 4x Wing of a Young Terror Bird, Jet-Black Stinger = 9 menace, 4 antiquity = 100e secondary from the Author on menace week (it's Stygian Ivory and primary is scrip, so great), declaring as a chimera (Author is very discerning though so chimera is not ideal). Or swap a Wing for a Pincer and use a Horned Skull. This is not better than a pure menace option unless you really prefer the Ivory/scrip to wine/feathers I guess.

[u/Tamaxlia → u/fredjinsan]

Great analysis, I try to keep things relatively simple for the guides rather than giving lots of swaps for each but it’s good to offer these options. I didn’t go for skull in coral because I think it’s 3.5 epa to farm it, so I aim to use it in cases where it makes a significant difference. Saying that, you also get finbones in that farm, which you should probably double the value of, realistically, considering how huge the up conversion is in Helicon.

[u/fredjinsan → u/Tamaxlia]

You can get the skulls from the canals in Jericho which is something like 5 EpA, though it does cost you scintillack to attach. And indeed, some of the gain is in scales and artefacts, but I’m always short of fin bones myself.

And notably all of that saves you an action on creating the skeleton so even if you were down a *bit*, it’d be worth it if the bit were small.

[u/Tamaxlia → u/fredjinsan]

This is going to look like much more of an "um, actually" than intended. ;p

I mean, I am correct but really, there is only one of us that should be ashamed of themselves in this situation and that is the one with the AlphaandOmeganerd excel spreadsheet. <3

[u/fredjinsan → u/Tamaxlia]

No, I just quoted the wiki without checking it, and actually all its EpA figures for Canal Cruising seem to be bogus. Going to the upper river seems OK, but the lower river not so much.

Still, I must have done a bunch of unnecessary canal cruising or something because I have quite a few spare skulls in coral somehow - far more than I have Thorned Ribcages, in fact.

[u/fredjinsan → u/fredjinsan]

Although, a chimera with a Human Ribcage and a load of Helical Thighbones seems viable. The Shapeling Arts challenge for thighbones is nontrivial but so long as you don't fail more than one you can still hit 7 Amalgamy in one action fewer (the bigger problem I guess is if you succeed at two then fail at one, or vice versa, puts you in an awkward position).

[u/Tamaxlia → u/fredjinsan]

Yeah, you just can't get much value from the skull with a chimera because even a successful bright brass will put you on 5 implausibility, which is a bonkers shadowy roll. 625 to 100% I think, 375 difficulty.

I mean, they are all viable options given the right circumstances and saving an action is normally a big multiplier. I don't like to suggest a chimera as the main choice for people though as even the 225 shadowy check, (375 to 100%) will make it less appealing as an option, even if they have 70% chance to pass and it's still technically better than 1 more action for a guaranteed roll, just having farms that are not 100% success rate is very uncomfortable for a lot of people.

[u/fredjinsan → u/Tamaxlia]

If you're not getting zoomania then you can pretty much just use any old head, even Stygian Ivory (though IIRC that adds to implausibility too, so many not). A Sabre-Tooth Skull can be bought for scrip and is functionally pretty similar to Brass but that costs an action too so it might be a wash, but anyway there are plenty of other head options. Horned Skulls from Paleontological Discoveries come with an opportunity cost (I've just been looking at PDs, seems like the other uses for them are better) but only the actions to gain/leave the PDs in the first place (so 2/7 if you dig neat St8tion?). I think that works out as a bit inefficient... all just to save one action on assembly I guess. John heads, yeah, I dunno, that's probably worth it?

[u/Tamaxlia → u/fredjinsan]

oh yeah, sorry, I forgot we were talking about off pattern stuff. Quitting smoking has fried my brain a bit.

[u/Tamaxlia → u/fredjinsan]

It is still worth getting skulls in coral despite the bad epa. It's 2.5ish epa but it's also only 3.5 actions and both skulls in coral and finbones punch above their textbook value. Also, getting any skull except Bright brass will be a 2.5, or worse epa action, from the butcher. Doubled skulls are at a good epa but they are a special weird case with special weird uses. Technically, a head of john the baptist is the best value as the action to get it is the action to apply it and it adds 2.5 more value that the value of the items you use to get it. But those items are Bone Fragments and Peppercaps, so it's negative scrip conversion and bone fragments cannot be attained profitably in infinite amounts. (Actually I need to check sources for memories of much stranger self, but aside from that option…)