COCKLEFIGHTINGMessages and forum posts cost supplies, and supplies only come from fights you win.
Words cost supplies#
Nothing written on the Shore is free. A message spends a bottle, a sheet of kelp paper and squid ink. A forum thread spends paper and ink. A reply spends ink alone. Ink is metered by length: 1 ink per 400 characters of body, rounded up, minimum 1. Supplies can’t be bought. They drop from rewarded wins.
Your inbox holds only so much. It keeps 50 bottles, and your sent copies 25. When a bottle arrives at a full inbox, the oldest read one is dropped to make room. If every bottle is still unread, new ones are refused until you read some. Sent copies past the cap go quietly, oldest first. Corker’s counter shows both counts.
Taking a sheet spends it. The paper, the bottle, the first ink and one writing off your quill all leave your inventory the moment you open the desk, before you type a word. Nothing comes back if you change your mind or close the tab. A sheet you have taken stays in hand until you write on it, so coming back to a draft never costs a second.
The rest of the ink is charged when you send, because a length can’t be priced before it is typed. A seal is charged then too.
Each supply carries the rarity its odds earn: ink is common, kelp paper uncommon, a bottle rare and the quill epic. A message is meant to be something you decide to spend.
The last two supplies aren’t for writing. They are the rarest things the tide brings, and the only two that decide what other cockles see. See holding words up. And none of it works without the Urchin Quill.
Holding words up#
Every other supply pays for words. These two pay for words being seen. Spend one at either desk and it holds for 24 hours. The rarity decides how far it carries.
At Jabber Rock a seal is spent from your own thread once it is posted. The controls sit at the top of the thread while you carry the seal. At the Bottle Post a seal is chosen as you write, on top of what the bottle, paper and ink cost. Nothing is discounted and nothing is refunded.
A bottle with a horn on it can’t be thrown out unread. Open it and it deletes like any other. Blocking the sender still works, so nobody can be shouted at twice. A block also takes you both off each other’s fight boards.
Seals can’t be bought or banked. The caps are 1 or 2, so a full inventory is a couple of days of being held up, not a permanent seat. A hold lapses on its own. The mark stays for good, so a thread or a bottle still shows what was spent on it.
Both are far rarer than anything you write with. For an active cockle a seal is roughly a monthly event and a horn roughly a seasonal one. They are the only consumables that reach somebody else’s screen, so they are meant to be remembered.
Writing something#
The form is shut until you have something to write on: take a sheet of kelp paper and the fields appear. A reply needs no sheet, so there you take up the quill instead. As you write, the cost sits beside the Send button: every supply against what you hold, and the quill last, because it wears rather than spends.
Opening the desk costs the sheet. Everything else leaves in one go when you send, so a draft you never finish costs no more than the sheet, and a post that fails never half-pays. There is one exception.
Bottles sent to nobody#
The tide doesn’t check names. Send a bottle to a name nobody answers to and it goes out anyway: the bottle, the sheet, the ink and a writing are all spent, and nothing comes back.
Only a misspelt name costs you. A blank name is never addressed, a letter to yourself lands on your own beach, and a cockle who has blocked you made that choice, so none of those spend anything. Read the name before you send.
The Urchin Quill#
The quill is the only tool in the Post. Bottles, paper and ink are spent by the unit; a quill is carried and worn down one writing at a time. A fresh one holds 50 writings (the starter quill holds 10), whatever their length, and every message, thread and reply costs 1. When the last is gone, nothing can be written until you find another.
Another turns up on 4% of rewarded wins, lifted by Town’s Salvage boon, and only while you carry none. The drop exists to end a dry spell, not to stock a drawer. Every new cockle is handed one with the welcome kit.
The quill shows wherever the supplies do: at the head of the Words group on My Cockle with the writings it has left, and on every compose form with a bar that runs down as it wears.
The supplies#
| Supply | Rarity | Drop / rewarded win | Quantity | Inventory cap | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Squid Ink | common | 5% | 1-2 | 30 | Spent on every message and post. Longer writing uses more. |
 Kelp Paper | uncommon | 3% | 1 | 10 | One per message or post. |
 Message Bottle | rare | 2.5% | 1 | 5 | One per message sent. |
 Siren Wax | mythic | 0% | 1 | 2 | Pins a thread to the top of its board, or a message to the top of an inbox, for a day. |
 Deepwater Horn | legendary | 0% | 1 | 1 | Pins a thread to the top of the whole forum, or marks a message urgent, for a day. |
Each type rolls on its own on a rewarded win (a cooldown fight drops nothing), separate from charm find. A full cap blocks that type’s drop entirely, so spend before you stack.
What writing costs#
| Action | Where | Shortest | Longest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Send a message | The Bottle Post | 1 bottle, 1 kelp paper and 1 ink | 1 bottle, 1 kelp paper and 5 ink |
| Start a thread | Jabber Rock | 1 kelp paper and 1 ink | 1 kelp paper and 10 ink |
| Post a reply | Jabber Rock | 1 ink | 10 ink |
Subjects and titles ride along with the paper. Only the body meters ink: every 400 characters (or part of one) is 1 ink, so a 2000-character message body costs 5 ink and a full 4000-character forum post costs 10.
Getting supplies#
Three sources, no shop. Rewarded wins roll the drops above. Mother Murk’s free daily dredge, when it finds no charm, always gives 1 kelp paper and 1 ink (up to your caps). And every new cockle starts with 1 bottle, 2 kelp paper and 4 ink, enough for a first bottle and a first forum post. The kit is granted once.
The writing trophies, Beachcomber, Inkslinger and Influencer, sit in the Community row at Quests, two of them with titles.
