Talk:Mission: The Portia Bridge/@comment-50.24.93.112-20200927022153

To optimize your returns, and to school Higgens, you can stall out the 'repair Ack' quest since it isn't timed. This can give you a chance to get all the steel you are going to need to finish these quests, and to get the recipes from Petra for the Industrial Furnace and Cutter (10 disc research option for both of them).

You will need substantial amounts of Tempering Liquid, both for the Hardened Clay and for the Reinforced Glass for these quests. Run a Level 2 or Level 3 combat expedition in the sewer plant, depending on what secondary drops you want (Level 2 has Simple Engines and can get extra Tempering Liquid in orange chests, Level 3 has Industrial Engines in blue chests and as a finishing reward).

Then you will need the following:


 * 8 Steel Frames


 * 10 Hardened Clay - this stuff requires Tempering Liquid and Resin. You can make Resin in a blender, you won't have enough otherwise


 * 6 Cables - this requires Pulleys, which are steel and lubricant (drop from combat expeditions, should pick it up while you're grinding for your Tempering Liquid) in a Grinder. They take a bit to make, so be sure to have them made in advance.


 * 6 Bridge Lights - Each one requires one Strengthened Glass, which again requires that Tempering Fluid.

For the second part, the four bridge quests, you'll need a total of the following:


 * 40 steel plates
 * 32 hardened clay
 * 8 strengthened glass
 * 28 iron wooden plank
 * 16 steel frame
 * 24 bronze pipe

Remember that Steel Plates are 3x Steel per each in an Industrial Cutter, and Steel Frames are five steel plus soldering in a workbench. The Artisan perk can really help reduce the cost of the Steel Frames, which are normally five steel each, but with max ranks in Artisan, it's only four. Either way, it's a couple hundred Carbon Steel to complete, plus substantial investment in bronze as well for all the pipes.

Also remember... that's Iron Wood Planks, not Hardwood, so let's hope you've been investing wisely in the tree farm! The medium sized rubber trees sometimes give you one iron wood from chopping stumps, but the larger trees that give honey when you kick them will provide more.

If you can time your fixing of Ack to be on a Friday, you'll have the whole weekend to complete the comissions without Horrible Higgens sniping them. Apparently they post Main Quest commissions on weekends, and Higgens won't bother looking for them until Monday, giving you an opportunity to snipe them all before he even realizes they've been posted!

Good luck out there, Builders!