Endeavoring for Success: Part 3 - Quarry Monsters (Patreon)

Quarry Monster endeavors are an unusual part of the game when compared to most other endeavors because they are not baked into always being present the way that Innovations and Core locations are. (Current official rules for Innovations have them always present once you own the expansion). So this means they help flavor your game experience far more than anything else. Quarry endeavors are like the spices for the meat and potatoes that the rest represents.

They are also, unfortunately, very rare. The vast majority of Quarry locations are stuffed with crafting recipes, many of which are hot garbage that you'd never craft; and therefore take up valuable space which could have been placed on the crafting location. Others like Spidicules & Slenderman have a supporting Innovation that supplies the endeavors instead. 

Because of this, I've chosen to include the Flower Knight sense memory endeavors here in this article, because Sense Memory (and to a lesser extent Dark Water Crafting) are in essence crafting locations with "temporary" access disguised as story events. This means that we have more than just two quarries to discuss here, we've got three!

Forbidden Dance -  Stone Circle/Screaming Antelope

Cost: 1x Endeavor, requires Forbidden Dance

Type: Permanent, Random

Effect(s): Turning unwanted monster resources into additional chances to draw needed basic resources.

One of my all time favourite actions in the core game, with the changes to 1.6 this action is sadly going to become a Screaming Antelope only one and that is a huge hit for settlements.

This action is one of the core ways that a settlement which is struggling for armor can fix this problem, by stockpiling a bunch of unwanted monster resources, they can time it to pull basic resources from the deck while holding some brought back from the hunt. This can result in increased chances of gaining the best resources in that deck - Hide and Love Juice - which can be turned into Rawhide/Leather and Population. Hide and Population are the kings of a healthy settlement, so converting spare bones/organs (you always need less bones/organs than hide) into chances of hitting more hide is really valuable.

Remember to Scrap Scavenge (if you are going to do that) before you do this, so you can also be holding the broken lantern cards before drawing from the resource deck. 

As mentioned, in 1.6 we're going to see that the Stone Circle becomes an exclusively Screaming Antelope only ability, which is going to hurt hard in campaigns where there are no antelopes. So think hard about excluding the antelope from the campaign, because this change is significant.

Rating: 4/5

Gormchymist - Special Innovate "Brain drain"

Cost: 1x Endeavor, 1x strange resource, 1x Gorm Brain

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): Gain the lowest tier Gormchymy innovation which has not been innovated

As will be a tradition in this list, endeavors that gain innovations are very highly prized. They have a quadruple impact on your settlement; a) they give you a permanent upgrade, b) they increase your options by giving you extra endeavor slots, c) they thin the innovation deck so you increase the odds of getting what you really need and d) they do not need to be innovated when drawn earlier, they can be ignored in favor of other development routes.

In most campaigns with the Gorm, these innovations are not of high importance because (as we will see) their endeavors are not that strong, however there are benefits to getting them into play as fast as possible (deck thinning, survival limit gains on Citrinitas, expensive courage gains, fixing broken injuries) so you still want to be doing this as soon as you can and as often as you can. But in Green Armor Campaigns they become even more valuable because they are tied to crafting recipes. (Also Gorm Brains are worth very little and Acanthus is easy to get).

As a consequence, this is a gold standard endeavor and one that should be done whenever possible.

Rating: 5/5 rising to essential in Green Armor Campaigns

Scent of Lost Wealth - Sense Memory/Flower Knight

Cost: 1x warbling bloom, 3x organ + Sense memory activation (either killing an FK or an endeavor action in PotBloom).

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): Turning a warbling bloom and 2x organ into Otherworldly Luck

Otherworldly Luck is good. It's REALLY good. It is one of the strongest forms of randomness mitigation for hunt/settlement phases we have and it can turn awful events into fair or even positive ones. This is a way of tutoring up that fighting art, which means that you can have it in a reliable fashion across important survivors without being forced to waste your one Sculpting slot on it (so you can save it for something impactful like Backstabber/Shielderang/Infernal Rhythm etc).

Rating: 5/5

Scent of Lost Sight - Sense Memory/Flower Knight

Cost: 1x lantern bud, 3x organ (1x endeavor from Sense Memory or Flower Knight fight trigger)

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): Gain Leader and anxiety disorder.

In stark contrast to the previous entry; Leader is not a really important Fighting Art to get your hands on. In particular, the cost of this one and the addition of the Anxiety Disorder (which in truth can sometimes be used in a positive fashion), makes this one a poor choice for spending your resources. I believe this option is always a hard pass and will continue to be one unless we find gear that has incredible levels of synergy with Leader (Drums is close to this, but drums is not a valid piece of gear in the current meta).

Rating: 1/5 (for now)

Ballad of the Wallflower - Sense Memory/Flower Knight

Cost: 1x endeavor, 1d5 population. Requires Sculpture and Song of the Brave

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): +1 survival limit, +1 understanding and +3 insanity for departing survivors.

Let us be honest, you should be doing this one every single campaign you can. Sculpture and Song of the Brave are two innovations you want to have in all your settlements, so the only real cost here is the Flower Knight fight and the population.

Given that this is also steps towards getting an Acanthus Doctor (also wants sculpture) and multiple other elements of Flower Knight involved campaigns want/desire Sculpture. You should be constructed this one in every campaign with the FK in (especially People of the Bloom variants).

Rating: 5/5

Next time we'll look at the other half of how monsters inspire settlements, by examining the campaign specific monster locations, how they thematically inspire and shape the settlements they're involved in and what you can do to take the best advantage of each one.