Theres a good half dozen ways to earn actions back. Most of em aren't efficient unless (or sometimes even if) you are aiming for them, but compared to its predecessor Fallen London each one is a feast of actions, with one in particular serving as a cornucopia.

So, breathers. It seems like most people don't understand how ones past the basic work, and then avoid using them Sometimes misunderstanding them, and then avoiding them. I'll tell you this right now, there is no such thing as a bad breather, just a bad use of one.

Note: For ease of math this guide will use the base ten minuet action refresh rate as default.


So to start with, lets establish the basic breather. Its primary purpose is to store your actions for later, as it gives the same amount of actions as it takes to craft(10). This makes it a horrible comparison to every other breather as they, if used properly, give you a net gain of actions. The only way to do anything other than break even is to not make them at all, but have them gifted to you by an event or the code in the discord's rule channel. It gives you a handful of basics and a single free other type.


The binge! Not even gonna write up a section about it other than to mention you can squeeze a bit more actions out of the initial refill by using action cap boosts, such as tank, one option on a card for having a buncha Sliding Through The City, and a subscription. All of the above gets you the cap's cap of 100 actions.


Now lets move onto the easiest one to understand how to gain actions from: Go Gas. It gives you periodic adrenalin rushes and reduces your action refresh rate by four minuets. This brings it down to six, changing your total actions an hour from 6 to 10. Not bad huh? Well on the next section you're gonna learn thats ♥♥♥♥, so lets talk about the 'side benefit' thats suddenly become its main draw. Adrenalin can be used for several things depending on your character's body reacts to it, which is a trait randomly rolled at the start of the game. You can change these at the backstreet clinic eventually or from the start if you have endocrine control, not gonna talk about em all(don't even know em) except mentioning one of them can reduce your black shakes. Back to topic the side benefit of the side benefit can actually give you actions, because adrenalin is very good for carpe diem. See other sections for how to turn that into actions.


Ok, this is the big one. I've seen some people not get it and diss it, but the things so good the dev had to nerf it. Why? Because at its peak Tank was almost as good as a binge with good timing, and could be done forever. For as long as you can keep up the fuel at least. See, Tank is the ultimate answer to why you should never pay use credits to refresh your actions, because why use real world money when you can pay with ingame cash instead?! In a greedier game this would not fly, but just like in GTA 3 the force of this Tank is enough for liftoff.
Tank costs two actions to make, and gives you ten in return. Not accounting for the actions buying chemicals (which you can do either 5 or 10 at a time depending on source and can bulk buy at both, even further lowing how much it counts for this) thats a gain of eight actions.
Sounds great, now here comes the downside. Your action refresh rate is increased by four minuets for an amount of time between ten seconds to an hour(?), with an average time of twenty minuets give or take five. Ohhhh noooo! That doesn't effect anything, you know why? Because when it wears off, just use it again! And again. And again. The actions gained almost always are way more than you would of gained naturally. You're natural refresh rate is six an hour, but having three Tanks in one hour is 34(28 accounting for crafting using six, with an additional four from natural regen) instead! Thats almost a SIX TIMES increase, and it used to be the default before the nerf.
So with all that, whats the real downside? Its a money sink. Not real money, no no no no no, but ingame monopoly money, those sweet sweet OH$. You make Tank using chemical supplies and those aren't exactly cheap, especially for personal mass production. Not prohibitively expensive mind(unless you're buying from Bob's Tools) but unless you have a good enough revenue stream you aren't going to be on them all day everyday, but thats not how most players play is it? If you are only on for say an hour a day... then thats still somewhere around 30 additional actions on average per play session, and it all fits in a single purchase. But for those who can check in on the game all day, and can keep the Tank fueled? It'll shoot hundred of actions a day. This is how you "more actively" play a game with a refresh rate.


The Deep Hit breather is easy to mess up, but if you have the good luck to get one you're about to learn why I call it the Combo Breather. Its the only one you can't make, gained predominantly from the Drugs, Madness and Mayhem deck. The best time to use it is with the weekly breather code publicly available on the discord, along with a go gas. You may of even gotten this breather from the code. Since this breather reduces Totally Crashed by a good amount, it is useful for letting you spam most of the basic breathers you get from the code, then topping it off with a go gas and deep hit combo to bring your refresh rate to the lowest its gonna go outside of a binge.
If you are at danger of getting crashed adrenals (Gotten from drawing cards while above 12 Totally Crashed) you can use the deep hit to keep yourself from that. It reduces it by a sizable amount so when using the weekly basic breathers I tend to break it open at 16-18 Crashed.
To those who were wondering "Does this work with subscription's minus two to the refresh rate?", yes. It goes down to that of a binge, which seems to be the minimum.

You might of run into a few of these, and for now this is just off the top of my head:

By having 6 or more carpe diem you can draw a life deck card that can refresh you actions if you spend the carpe and some moods.

There is a card that lets you spend 3 'sliding through the city' for a 90% chance for a refresh. You can get more sliding from mode two of the Braid spike or other sources if you run out of your daily 10.

On one of the main airport cards, driving will sometimes refresh you actions. This is different from the rolling card. Similarly there is a card while hiding out at Jax's place that has about the same chance for a refresh.

If you use a vehicle to get around, sometimes you will gain a quality called 'saving time' that can be traded in for a couple of things, including an action refresh. This is generally not efficient, not to mention the price of gas. The cheaper your ride to run, the better. This is more of a 'get your actions back! program' type of deal, as how much you can drive around on demand is capped. This cap goes back down with actions spent, HOWEVER so does the saving time quality. You can now see why its not the best but it is a way to turn excess carpe diem into actions without having to wait for a card. Well, except the card to cash it in.

In the Drugs, Madness and Mayhem deck there is the Bursting card. It can do a bunch of things: give you a refresh directly, give you carpe diem (which as shown can be made into actions) and give the deep hit breather. It chews through your moods though.