Tbf, pretty sure I lucked out and had a squaddie with a crafter scrip affinity for a while (whyyyy did I ever swap that out? D= ). So I had managed to have just enough for all the Master III books without ever troubling myself with collectable synth.

And, personally was none too pleased with the Master III requirements to begin with. I suppose it's not the worst thing at 60, when you can at least unlock Zhloe to get started, but they were even required for a few of the leves around 56-58. And grinding for scrips pre-Zhloe just seemed like a monumental ballache.