Books and mysteries go hand-in-hand, but how do you solve the mystery, learn the lessons within, and deal with curses? Let’s find out.
Here’s a quick summary:
- Catalogue the book at any time, anywhere, with any soul element.
- Check the mystery element of the book, and take it to the correct desk (i.e. Forge mysteries are easier read at a desk that accepts Forge).
- Start early in the day. Solving a mystery rewards you with a lesson and a memory. If you get a memory in the evening, you’ll only have a small amount of time to use it before it disappears at dawn.
- If you can be bothered keeping a spreadsheet, note down the memory you got from the book. Re-reading the book later will always get you that same memory. Otherwise I’m working on a list of my own.
Also, if you’re new to Book of Hours, check out my handy Getting Started guide for some early tips and tricks.
Catalogue the text
The books you find throughout Hush House are often a mystery. The first step for any text is to catalogue it. Simply use it on a desk, or with your Consider verb and any soul element to catalogue it. So far so good.
Study the book
In the description of each book are several symbols. From the example above, the important ones are:
- Value (in Spintria)
- Language (if you can speak it natively, mouse-over it to find out. Otherwise, when you learn a language, it will be added to your skills.
- Mystery. This is the one you want. The book above, for example, requires 6 Rose to understand.
To understand a book, you need to add it to a desk that matches the aspect of the mystery (or the Consider verb) with a combination of soul essence, skill, memories, etc. that match or exceed the mystery level.
However, the higher level books require more effort, so here are some tips to get there:
- Use the weather, or any memories with a matching aspect. Sometimes this means waiting for the right day to read a particular book.
- Upgrade your soul elements. A +Fet has higher aspect than a regular Fet.
- Level up skills. You can use a Lesson Learned, with some memories, to level up a skill. Higher level skills have greater aspects, making books easier to understand.
- Tools, tools, tools. Tools are found throughout Hush House, and can be anything from the Astrolabe, to kitchen bowls, to a measuring square. They usually only have one of an aspect, but sometimes that’s all you need – and it’s not like you were going to use that slot for anything else.
- Intend to fail. Okay so this one’s risky, but you can start a study without meeting the mystery. Pay attention to the process! You will get prompts to use wall art, soul, weather, comforts or memories as inspiration, which might just push you over the mystery level. Only issue is, if you fail… you run the risk of a malady, which disables the essence until cured. You’ve been warned.
Re-read books to get memories
Studying a book for the first time gets you a Lesson Learned. Re-reading a book you’re already familiar with gets you a memory, which can be used to upgrade skills, read other books, or unlock rooms.
You don’t need to match the mystery to re-read a book. Any soul element of any power will do.
Re-reading a book always gives you the same memory, and you can only have one of a memory at the same time. And the memory doesn’t always match the aspect of the book mystery. How do you know which books give which memories? I dunno, you do you. I have a spreadsheet…
Records and Films
Some books are films. Others still are phonograph records. You can’t read them at a desk, and will need a special piece of equipment to read them. Otherwise they behave the same way. I hear there’s a projector in the Motley Tower…
How to remove curses
Some books are really bad for you. And for other books around them. Keep them tucked away from other, healthy books until you’re ready to deal with them.
If you read a book with a curse, make sure you don’t use the soul elements mentioned in the description, or they will get a malady and become unusable until recovered.
Removing a curse can be a bit tricky. You need is a skill that is effective against that particular type of curse. Then, you need to study the book at a crafting desk, with enough aspect to clear the curse (this is in the curse description). The example above needs 7 Nectar, for example.
What makes this hard is that most (if not all) skills that remove a curse don’t have the correct aspect on them. Which means you’ll need to rely on inks. The simplest way I’ve found to get rid of a curse is to use a level 2 Soul (an upgraded + one), a memory that matches the aspect of contamination) and a low-level ink.
For example, to cure a curse with a 7 Heart requirement, you could use:
- +Chor (3 Heart)
- Memory: Storm (2 Heart)
- Perhibiate Ink (2 Heart)
For a total of 7 Heart, clearing the curse. Naturally, higher level memories (or weather) make this simpler.
How to learn languages
Later in the game, you will start receiving visitors. Most of the time, these will be related to Incidents, or the goings-on in the world beyond Hush House.
These visitors will often, but not always, come to talk about an incident. You can do two things with each visitor:
Talk to them about the incident, which advances the storyline of that incident and, if you provide a book with adequate knowledge, reward you with Spintria.
Or, talk to them about Spintria. They will accept the payment and will teach you a language they are proficient in. This will exhaust their time with you, and you will not be able to talk to them about the incident, so be careful when deciding how best to utilise them.
Note that not all visitors are as well-read as you, and might not speak any languages you already do not know. Be sure to check!
Good luck, Librarian.
