How To Earn Money In The Entropia Universe The Unofficial Guide
Table of Contents Part 1 – Introduction Part 2 – Basics & Quick Overview Part 3 – The Standard Professions Part 4 – Loot System Overview Part 5 – Specific Loot Cycles and Trends Relative to Hunting Part 6 – Analyzing and Reacting to the Cycles and Trends Part 7 – General Hunting Strategies Part 8 – Reducing your Losses Part 9 – Mining and Crafting Part 10 – Alternative Revenue Streams and Evolving Opportunities Part 11 – Trading and Reselling Part 12 – Resources
The “Entropia Universe”, formerly “Project Entropia”, and all related logos and names are trademarks of M indark PE AB. This guide is not endorsed, supported, or authorized by Mindark, or any of its employees, affiliates or subsidiaries. All information contained herein is for educational purposes. This guide may not be resold, copied, distributed, or disassembled in any way, shape, or form.
© 2007 The eBook-Supplier - All Rights Reserved -
[email protected]
Introduction This is a “game” where small fortunes are continuously won and lost. Nowhere else can such trivial items be worth so much money. College kids that started playing years back could (if they wanted to) liquidate everything and buy themselves a nice house… or even a Lamborghini if they so desired. Some people actually earn a real world living simply from their virtual earnings in this virtual world. A few of these people have invested substantial amounts of money to get what they have, others have not. This strategy guide is written for those who don’t have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to deposit into the Entropia Universe but some parts of this will benefit them as well. The Entropia Universe has motivated roughly half a million people to join just to see what all of the commotion is about, however what causes large percentages of these people to quit is the lack of immediate gratification and/or loss of money which is due to a lack of instruction, direction, discipline, and inspiration. The purpose of laying my strategies out on the table for all to see is for the betterment of the Entropia Universe as a whole, not to undermine it. The more new success stories that can be created, the more prospective players will be inspired to join. With more people joining and depositing, more money enters the Entropia Universe, which not only flows into the pockets of other participants, but also ends up as profit for Mind Ark. When Mind Ark has more money to work with, inevitably more opportunities for all will continue to be created. Nowhere in this guide will you find a way to cheat the system or other players. You will only find honest and ethical ways to earn a profit. After less then a year of participating in this virtual world I had managed to discover a multitude of methods that provided me with a continuous in-game cash flow. This continuous cash flow allowed me to not only cease depositing my own money into this game, but also allowed me to withdraw thousands of dollars while being able to continuously invest in my avatar’s skills, equipment, cosmetics, and also was able to invest in various other money generating assets within the game. I was able to accomplish many other things as well, however I will not go into specifics, as this will reveal my in-game identity. If you are reading this and have been playing even for a short time, you have either heard of my in-game name, met the working end of my guns at the rig, or are familiar with what I created… that is a guarantee. In an attempt to put all rumors aside, I am not one of the major landowners or heavy investors in the game. I am simply an average guy who was able to become successful playing the game profitably through the resources and methods available within the game itself. While some of the information contained in this guide is common knowledge, some is not. As a result, this information should not be distributed to everyone that you know. Obviously, if everyone did what I did then the whole system would be off balance and things would have to change. As a result, keep this information to yourself except for when you come across a player who you like and who shows real potential. Take that person under your wing and guide them as you see fit. Within the game exists opportunities to earn through the “standard professions” and various other methods. In regard to the standard professions, the bulk of the loot system overview will be slanted towards the hunter since this is the most popular profession. Keep in mind, earning profits through the standard professions is difficult to do consistently… you will need other avenues of income in the game to keep you afloat during difficult times.
The Basics & Quick Overview The Entropia Universe is a “MMORPG” or Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game that is formerly known as Project Entropia, the company that created it is called Mind Ark. It has been around for many years but in the past couple of years it has exploded. Over 600,000 registered accounts have been created from people who participate in the EU and the community continues to grow despite all of the skepticism that surrounds it. Very few participants consider it to be the traditional “video game” because they take it much more seriously. For some, it is as real as the world in which we live. Some people treat it as a game, others as a hobby, to others it is their life, to others it’s a casino, and others strategically manage to consistently earn money and withdraw it into the real world. 1. The first thing that you need to know is the money system. PED or Project Entropia Dollars and PEC (Cents) are the in-game currency. 10 PED = $1 USD and 10 PEC = $0.01 USD 2. The second thing thing that you need to know is that EU is dynamic. This means that everything changes all of the time, as a result you need to constantly adapt. 3. The third thing that that you need to know is that the EU is what you make of it, nothing more! 4. The forth: Within the EU exist societies and the social social dynamic these societies bring to the table is the glue that holds this game together. Each individual society is unique in its own way. Some are for new players, others have minimum skill requirements, others are for the top skilled. Some societies strive to be the largest in numbers while others strive to have the best skilled players. Within these different skill categories you will find that each society is different in rank, structure, leadership style, core values, and methods of operation. Some focus on earning money, others focus on building skills, engaging in PVP combat, hunting, crafting, mining, trading, investing, while others focus merely on the social aspects of the “game”. The various dynamics and nuances of societies within the EU are endless. 5. The fifth thing that you need to know is the importance of skills. Within the game you control an “avatar”. This is essentially you in the game, as time goes by you will want to alter this character’s appearance in various ways. An appealing looking avatar dramatically helps in your relations with others. As you play the game your avatar will also acquire skills, these skills will make you stronger, faster, harder to kill, and will allow you to use better weapons and tools. At first you will gain skills quickly and almost effortlessly but as time goes by, each skill gain is harder but at the same time each skill gain become more significant. For example, take a highly skilled player, strip out 50 skill levels and then place those same skills in a low skilled avatar, they will give a skill level gain of 1000 or more to that new player! If you are going to participate in the game in any of the traditional or semi-traditional ways you will need high skills. Skills are simply one of the most important things in the game. You can earn them, buy them, and you can strip them out of your avatar and sell them. Skills are critically important so never sell your skills. If money is tight find another way! If you should ever decide to quit the game these skills will be very valuable if at high levels. 6. The 6th thing is the importance of Mindforce. Within the game there exists a thing called “Mindforce” and it is basically a combination of mind power and technology that allows you to do a range of things from teleportation, to magic-like combat, to healing, to resurrecting the dead and more! Before you start buying weapons, armour, mining and crafting equipment just stop and get set up with the entry-level teleport chip. This will save you enormous amounts of time and frustration. Believe me.
The Standard Professions The Entropia Universe started with three standard professions. They were Hunting, Crafting, and Mining. Countless scores of people have made large amounts of money doing these standard things however countless more have lost large amounts of money doing these same things. Within these standard professions there is an enormous skill gap between the “uber” players and everyone else, in fact it is so large it is nearly impossible to grasp. Let me give you an example. Take one person from one of the top 10 skilled societies and put them up against every player from every society below the top 40 most skilled all at once. In a battle, this one person will be outnumbered thousands to one however that one person will kill every other player and come out victorious. It is impossible for all of those people to kill that one person, even if they attack at once. You have to understand, the lower skilled players wont even be able to shoot and hit that person and if they do it will only cause 1 point of damage. That higher skilled player will almost never miss and will be able to kill each lower skilled player with just one or two hits. If for some reason the lower skilled players manage to do damage to the higher skilled player then that person will have the tools needed to heal 100% within seconds. YOU CANNOT BE VICTORIOUS WITH SHEER NUMBERS! Skills, experience, the strongest weapons, the best armour, and the best healing tools are all needed. With mining and crafting the same is true, the people with high skills have a clear and dramatic upper hand. 1. Hunting As a hunter you basically go out into the wilderness and kill things. When you kill something it usually drops “loot” or items of value. The value of the items range from simply worthless to things worth tens of thousands of $USD. Obviously the higher valued loot drops are rare… or are they? 2. Crafting As a crafter you basically make things and some of these things can be quite valuable however to craft the items that have value, high skills are needed. The crafting terminal can also be much like a slot machine at times. Once in a while when crafting, the machine will kick back items or resources that can be very valuable. As your skills increase, you will be able to use blueprints that enable you to craft the things of higher value. 3. Mining As a miner, you will go out into the wilderness and try to find valuable deposits of ores and energy matter. You will need a range of tools and as your skills increase you will be able to use the better tools that let you look farther and deeper in the ground thus increasing the probability of finding something. Mining in the Entropia Universe is not like mining in the real world, the valuable deposits do not necessarily follow the geography of the land and often times once a deposit is extracted from the ground it will respawn in the same or a nearby location.
The Loot System Overview The loot system associated with the standard professions is complex and has many variables. First, lets touch on the bigger picture of the game and how money flows from the point where it enters the game to where it leaves the game. Money flows into the game primarily from the participants when they “deposit” real money into the game in exchange for PED. At that point Mind Ark has your money in their possession and they use it for research, development, paying the bills, paying the employees, advertising, etc or whatever they want. Now, even though you have given your money to Mind Ark, at any given point you can take it back which means that they just cant go spend it all, they have to keep some on reserve to pay out to people when they withdraw funds from the game. As a result, there has to be a method for Mind Ark to make a profit and allow them to keep a part of that money forever. Some of those methods consist of Land Sales, Trade Terminal sales, and repair costs from item decay. A percentage of the money that flows to Mind Ark through those avenues is recorded as profit and the rest gets reinvested into the game through the loot system and thus redistributed amongst the players and when combined with the money players’ deposit into the game it creates a very basic economy. It is essentially a basic input / output system. Money comes in to the game and then part of that money flows out of the game to Mind Ark, the rest is cycled through other players via the loot system. Additional ways that money flows to Mind Ark as profit are through monthly rental fees, auction fees, shop sales tax, various other fees, and in-game advertising. Keep in mind; this is a simplistic way of looking at Mind Ark’s business model. Another factor is the money that participants carry with them in the form of PED and the TT value of the items they own. This money must be handled differently because this is money that a person could take out of the game immediately which means that it cannot be recorded as profit nor could it be distributed through the loot system, nor can it be spent by Mind Ark, that money is still yours! Example: Deposit $100 USD and get 1000 PED. Buy a 200 PED item from another player, that money simply transfers to that person. Spend 50 PED repairing that item, now that is 50 PED that is out of the game which means Mind Ark can do what they want with it. Take 100 PED and buy ammo, generally this money directly feeds the loot system but it does not have to, Mind Ark can keep this money as well if they want. So far we have spent 350 PED, which leaves us with 650 PED remaining. Here is why Mind Ark has to treat the PED in your possession differently: You have 650 PED or $65, if they took that 650 PED and distributed it to another player through loot then they would lose if you both withdrew. They would lose the $65 that you put in which would wash out to zero when you withdraw, but then when that other person withdraws Mind Ark would be negative $65. As a result, PED is carefully redistributed through the loot system with two general goals in mind: 1) don’t let the company go bankrupt. 2) Pay out enough money through loot to keep people playing and depositing. The last part of #2 is a key point. They need a constant flow of NEW money into the game to pay the bills and record a profit in order to satisfy their investors. They CAN NOT pay out more then they take in, in fact they have to pay out less then they take in. It’s just how it works. Your goal will be to minimize expenses to the point where they are less then the amount of money that you take in from loot. The difference between what you loot and what you spend is your profit. If you spend more then you take in, then you have obviously lost money. Careful discipline is needed with your money; do not spend it foolishly unless you are willing to lose! Note: Killing people in PVP is very expensive, however once good at it, it is entertaining and satisfying enough to make it worth the loss… I call an entertainment expense and budget accordingly.
Specific Loot Cycles and Trends Relative to Hunting Now lets get into some specifics with the loot system, first though let me mention that this is by far the most hotly debated and controversial part of this game. To begin with you have to understand that Mind Ark cannot pay out more money then it takes in, otherwise they would go bankrupt. Additionally, they have to pay the bills which means that significantly less money then what flows in to the game will flow out through the loot system and if in a money crunch they can (and have) simply kill the loots which means that players deposit, go hunt, mine, or craft and then receive very little back all while incurring the costs of ammo, tools, repairs, etc. If loots are bad, just stop! The sum total of what is paid out through loots will always be less then what is taken into the game overall. Well then how can you ever make money in the standard professions? A combination of knowledge, strategy, luck, and skills can give you the advantage that you need. Like with the real world, the expenditures and losses of others will supply your cash flow and profit. Loot distribution is complex and always changing. The loot distribution system is governed by a computer, and as a result is not random. Computers don’t do things randomly; they must follow rules and have a system in place. As the programming becomes more intricate and complex it can seem as if the computer is being random but it really isn’t… it is just following a preprogrammed system. Dynamic and ever changing cycles of good and bad loot distribution are the primary factor on all levels and are relative to the amount of new cash that is flowing into the system and getting cycled back to Mind Ark through decay, TT purchases, etc. This applies to the loot system as a whole and also applies to creatures on an individual level. The loot on a particular creature is affected by how many people are hunting it. If you have 100 people suddenly go and hunt a specific creature at the same time, the overall loot payout for that creature has to increase in order to accommodate everyone, otherwise everyone will stop hunting that creature because there is no loot. Loot payout on a creature is not a fixed amount divided by how many people are hunting that creature. It is a variable amount adjusted by how much is spent hunting that creature, minus how much is going to be paid out during that loot cycle, and then divided by how many people are hunting that creature at that time. That creature’s loot payout follows a simple input / output system just like the overall loot system does. The more people hunting a creature, the more is being spent on it, and as a result the overall combined total of what is paid out from that creature will be higher. But then at the same time remember that the overall payout is variable, meaning that it goes up and down in good and bad loot cycles. One quick side note here is that while hunting around other players, the odds of looting an item of significant value decreases. As a result, adjust your strategy accordingly. Overlapping Cycles: The reason the loot system is so difficult to comprehend is that there are a multitude of overlapping cycles that operate simultaneously which effect the loot distribution for each creature, each region, and each player. Overall Loot Cycle: As mentioned earlier, the overall payout as a whole is a variable amount that goes up and down. This is affected by how much cash is flowing into the loot system however it is not always an immediate effect. The system will sometimes “save up” for a string of really good
loots by giving a string of overall bad loots for a while. At any given point in the game, there needs to be enough globals and HOFs coming across the screen to hold everyone’s interest and motivate them to go spend money to find good loots for themselves. In particularly slow times when not many people are playing the game, it is not uncommon to see the average loot payout dramatically go down in order to pay for the constant stream of globals.
Creature Specific Cycles: Each creature has good and bad loot cycles and at any given point something, somewhere is looting very well while lots of other things are looting poorly. Those loot cycles switch from MOB to MOB, but it does not stop there! It will switch between creature maturity levels and then constantly cycle back and forth. One day one creature will be looting extremely well, the next day something else will be looting well and that previous creature will loot poorly. Combine this with variable cycle lengths and things start to get tricky. Regional Cycles: If the creature is paying out well at that time it will only paying out well in a limited amount of areas, or even one area. Take a specific creature for example, say it is a particularly rare MOB and as a result it only spawns in three places in the game. When the loot payout is good in one area, it will most likely be bad in the other two areas. From there the good loots on that specific creature will rotate between its various locations and continue to do that until a different creature starts to loot well, from there the good cycle will begin on that creature. At times, multiple creatures in a specific region will be paying out well for a short period of time. Luck cycles: Luck is a huge factor with Entropia Universe loots… but not in the way that you think. A “luck” factor is programmed into the game, it is always changing with each avatar, and it goes in cycles. Each avatar will have intentional good luck and bad luck cycles and these luck cycles can last days or weeks. You can be as skeptical as you want to be… I am talking about fact here. Mind Ark has publicly talked about this specific point and it’s not a big secret! Believe it or not, there actually are skills that improve the “luck” cycles for the better, such as Serendipity. Look up the definition of the word if you don’t believe me. Contrary to the common belief, the skill Perception does not affect loot! Keep in mind also that Serendipity does not increase your loots; it only increases the odds (slightly) that you will receive a good loot or find something of value on the ground. After unlocking serendipity, it is not unusual for a player to have a streak of very good luck.
Analyzing and Reacting to the Cycles and Trends Overall Loot Cycle: When trying to determine if the overall loot cycle is good or bad simply watch the frequency and diversity of globals and HOFs. Watch for multiple consecutive HOFs spread across various species in numerous regions received by a diverse range of people across all professions. One person receiving a string of globals and HOFs is not an indicator of a good overall loot cycle. Large loots (big enough to trigger a global) typically come in strings of 2 to 5 in a short period. During that period there will be countless unseen larger then normal loots that are just under the size required to trigger a global. When you have located a creature that is at least paying out reasonably well, it is during these short periods where you will want to kill as many as possible. During the low pay out periods you will not want to be as aggressive with how many creatures you
kill unless your loots are high enough to justify what you are spending on ammo and decay. You will not want to go totally inactive for long because often times your global or HOF will be the first one in the short burst. Creature Specific Cycle: Lots of times the end of good loots on a creature can be marked by a particularly high HOF, but then they can also start that way! If you have a creature that has been globaling consistently for a period of time it will sometimes end with a very large HOF. The opposite can be true when you have a creature that is not globaling at all but then someone, somewhere gets a HOF, sometimes a string of globals will follow that HOF on that creature. It isn’t because lots of people suddenly went and hunted that creature, its because of a combined effect of the general overall loot available in the game switching into a good cycle combined with the loot for that particular creature switching into a good cycle as well. During these overlapping cycles, an opportunity exists for a correctly positioned hunter to maximize their profits!
If you look at the HOF list for the day and if you do it every day, you will notice that there are always certain creatures that have one or two high HOFs for each day. Now every so often that payout cycle shifts from creature to creature but it is pretty easy to establish a trend. If you look at what has already had a high HOF for the day, it is not hard to predict what will have a HOF in the near future. Regional Cycles: The fact that good loot also switches from region to region makes consistently hunting profitably difficult. You will need to become very familiar with the locations of all MOBs and their maturity in each location. You will be watching for what specific creatures and maturities are globaling. Then through the process of elimination, you will be able to ascertain (in most cases) the region that is paying out well. Since most creatures spawn in multiple regions and each region has spawns of multiple creatures side-by-side, the maturity level and surrounding creature can be the only indicator as to what region the good loot is in. If mid-level Gokibusagi, mid-level Armax, and mid-level Atrox are all producing globals you will want to find the area that contains those creatures. If low maturity Allophyls and mid-level Estophyls are globaling, you will want to go to the area that contains those creatures instead of just picking a random Allophyl or Estophyl spawn. Luck Cycles: The player’s individual luck cycle also has a dramatic effect, perhaps the most dramatic. He/she could be doing poorly in one area and another player with equal skills and equipment could be doing great in the same area on the same creature / maturity. I have seen it time after time after time… a player spends hours on end hunting the same creature in the same area and lose tons of money. Then another player comes into that area and gets a huge HOF almost immediately and then that same person gets global after global while the original person gets nothing! The first player gets upset and thinks, “only if that person wouldn’t have come here and gotten my good loots, I would have gotten them”. Well no, you wouldn’t have! You are on a “bad luck” cycle. You need to just stop hunting for now and do something else! When on a good luck cycle, you could potentially hunt or do anything and come out profitably. It’s just how it works, so when nothing is going your way just stop!
Additional Information: The maximum potential payout of a creature is directly tied to the amount of hit points that it has. The creatures with higher hit points are going to deliver larger average loot and larger maximum loot. The caveat is that these creatures also cost more to kill so in times of bad loot the overall total PED loss will be greater but then the potential for total overall profit is also higher. If you are hunting a creature with particularly high hit points, numerous small globals will not be uncommon, it is simply the average payout of that creature exceeding the minimum loot value required to trigger a global. Globals do not guarantee that you are profiting! The average payout per creature killed minus the cost spent killing them determines the profit or loss margin. Other hunters are your biggest competition but it doesn’t stop there! While hunting, you are also competing with the Miners and Crafters for loot too since the system as a whole can only pay out so much in a given time! While each specific creature has its own input / output system, mining and crafting also has a similar system, but then all three combined cannot pay out more then the overall game input / output system. Good and bad loot payouts will cycle between the standard three professions. I have seen it time after time after time where people are getting great loots left and right hunting various different creatures. Then all of a sudden the globals and HOFs for hunting will slow way down, and the globals and HOFs for mining or crafting will increase. Meanwhile, everyone is still spending money hunting, just waiting for the good loot to come back. Medium to higher valued item drops (not uber) will usually be the deciding factor in whether or not your hunt was profitable. (I will discuss this more later) Loot is funded in two different ways. 1. Paid out by the loot system through the TT value. In other words, if you just go and TT your items then the loot system will pay for your loot. 2. Paid for by other players. For example, if you receive an item of particularly low TT value but high market value then the people who purchase your items are making your hunting trip more profitable. Seek out MOBs that consistently drop items of value at all times. -
-
-
-
With the above general understanding, you will have the framework needed to put yourself in front of good loots more often then not. If you are smart, you will pay close attention to the globals and HOFs running across the screen at all times and constantly cross reference the creature type / maturity to a list of creature locations (I will provide a resource). With enough experience you will be able to predict what is going to global or HOF next 70% to 80% of the time. You will do this by watching and analyzing the globals, seeing what group of creatures the loot is alternating between and what maturity. Once familiar with the location of ALL creatures across the whole game you will be able to decipher what regions of the map the good loot is cycling between. Then by testing out the loot on a couple of creatures, you will be able to make a prediction. The sad part is that often times the prediction comes true before you can get yourself to the appropriate area or creature!! That has happened to me so many times I really don’t understand how my computer mouse and keyboard are still in one piece!! Software that utilizes the general cycles that I talked about has been created, used, and proven to work consistently. The problem is that the people who used it are banned from the game forever or are too scared of getting banned to use it again. You need to do it with your mind and if you do it that way it is not cheating! It is simply playing the game.
General Hunting Strategies There are several general strategies followed by most participants, I will touch on them here. Casino strategy: These are the people who think loots are random and that the game is a casino. These are also the people who complain about bad loots because they are usually losing money… the house always wins ☺ Global / HOF chaser: This is the person who analyzes the loot system, takes calculated risks, predicts and then goes after the big loot. These hunters typically fair better then most hunters do. Average loot seeker : This is the person who is typically very economically oriented. They will seek out constant average loots that are slightly higher then what they spend. This is a great strategy in times of “bad luck” and an even better strategy in times of good luck. This person will test the water with various different MOBs until they settle on something that is paying consistently and if they get a very large loot then that is just a bonus. The item seeker: This is the best method to consistently hunt profitably. You will average anywhere between a 20% to 40% loss on the overall TT value received from your hunts. When you loot an item that has market value, the difference between TT value and market value is not factored into the loot distribution because the market value is funded by other players at the time of sale and not by the loot system itself. As usual, the person hunting will average a PED loss but then it’s the market value of that item that makes the hunter profitable. As your avatar becomes stronger and better equipped, you will be able to hunt the creatures that drop the really expensive items. I will never forget when I looted my first uber item. It was EON armour from a Gokibusagi north of Camp Phoenix. I watched the globals and HOFs and I knew that the Gokis were looting well that week. The region in which they were in was paying out well at the time, and there had not been a large loot on them for that day. About an hour into the hunt I got a small global that contained that EON Armour. Team Hunting Team hunting can have its benefits and its drawbacks and unless hunting with other experienced and skilled hunters, I usually preferred to hunt alone. In a team you will want to be careful that everyone is pulling their own weight. With the team loot distribution set incorrectly someone can easily take more than their fair share of the loot. Hunting in a team gives you the advantage of seeing what the other players are looting from the creatures that they kill individually. This will aid you in finding better loots, especially when you are all hunting in different areas! If a member of the team is in a particularly bad luck cycle it can affect the whole team. The same is true if one or more members are on a good luck cycle! If someone you know seems to be on a good luck cycle, invite them on a team hunt with you. -
The reality is that no strategy works all of the time; the Entropia Universe is dynamic and always changes. As a result, you will want to utilize different strategies at different times.
Reducing your losses You have to accept the fact that generally speaking you will only receive 60% to 80% of your money back on each hunt, which is a loss of 20% to 40%!!! The first thing you will need to learn is how to minimize your costs while hunting. With hunting there is one thing that you can directly control and it’s the cost of the hunt… it boils down to simple math. When hunting (or doing anything) you will need to focus on minimizing costs. Costs that you can control are ammo, weapon decay, armour decay, and tool decay. By minimizing your costs you will increase the amount of money that you earn. This comes in two parts, weapon efficiency and overall hunting efficiency. Weapon efficiency: The cost per shot fired is a huge variable. If you can reduce your cost per shot you will dramatically increase the probability of hunting profitably and will decrease your losses when on a bad hunt. The amount of potential damage per shot divided by the combined cost of decay and ammo constitute weapon efficiency. The more efficient a weapon is, the less it costs to use therefore increasing your profit margin on a hunt or at least decreasing the amount you lose. Overall hunting efficiency: This is total of the combined hit points of all creatures killed on the hunt divided by overall cost of your hunt. Weapon efficiency, missed shots, armour decay, fap decay, and any other cost all are factors in your overall hunting efficiency. Most people focus on weapon efficiency however while this is important, it is a critical mistake! The overall efficiency of the hunt is the critical factor! Not weapon efficiency!! Below the two are broken down. -
-
-
-
Skills are the single biggest factor in weapon efficiency because they affect the amount of average damage that you will do per shot. High skills are critical. Each weapon has a minimum and maximum damage, which is determined by the Damage Interval stat on the weapon, the higher your skills are the higher your average damage per shot will be. Some amplifiers can increase the overall efficiency of a weapon. As a result, you should research them carefully. Scopes and Laser Sights play a huge part in overall hunting efficiency, as a result both should be used simultaneously at all times. Without them you will miss more often which dramatically increases the costs of each kill. Shots fired into the air do nothing but cost money. Your weapon can be as efficient as possible per shot but if you keep missing shots then what is the point? Understanding lag can also help with overall efficiency (especially in PVP). Each creature or avatar has both a “kill box” and a graphic. The graphic is the animation that you see on your screen and the “kill box” is an invisible area that records a hit. If you shoot within that creature’s hit box then you will do damage, however if you shoot outside of that creature’s hit box you will miss. In a perfect virtual world both the creature’s graphic and the kill box would be in the same spot, however when you factor in lag, the creature’s hit box and the graphic that you see can be in two slightly different places. Usually it is the graphic that lags and not the hit box, which means that the hit box is right in front of the animation. When a creature is running to you or away from you this is not an issue, but when the creature is moving at an angle or moving side to side then it can create lots of problems if you don’t aim properly. Understanding lag is also critical to being strong in PVP.
-
-
-
-
Skills not only affect weapon efficiency, but they also affect the overall hunting efficiency because they affect how often you will hit or miss. This is determined by the Hit Ability stat on the weapon. The damage per second that a weapon can do relative to the hit points of a creature is also a big factor in the overall hunting efficiency. If you have a very economical weapon but it does low damage per second then the efficiency gains are washed away with creatures that have higher hit points. Just like your avatar, creatures will automatically heal as they take damage. The last thing you want is for a creature to have time to repetitively heal itself while you are shooting it. If you have to shoot it 5 extra times because of how much it can heal before you kill it then your cost per kill goes up and overall efficiency goes down! Match the weapon to the appropriate difficulty level of a creature. Armour decay is a huge factor in overall efficiency. If you have armour that decays quickly because it is absorbing lots of damage before you can kill a creature then you are losing more money then you need to. The more damage the armour absorbs, the more it will decay. The lower the TT value of the armour, the quicker it will decay to a point where it does not protect well. Once again, match the creature difficulty level to your skill level and the power of your weapon. FAP decay. If you have to constantly and repetitively heal yourself then you are losing big time! First you are losing because of the excessive FAP decay, second you are losing because of the excessive armour decay incurred from the repetitive hits from the creature, and third you are losing because while you are healing yourself, that creature is also healing! Again, hunt the creatures that are appropriate to your skill and equipment level. Note: This is why the value of the Adjusted, Improved, and Modified FAPs are so high, it is because of their very cheap cost per heal and also their ability to heal quickly. This allows hunters to hunt without armour or with minimal armour, which eliminates the excessive armour repair bill!
Mining & Crafting Since I primarily hunt and do very little crafting or mining I wont spend much time on these professions. If either of these two professions are your primary interest then I would recommend joining a respected society that focuses on the profession of your choice. Mining Mining can be tricky, and if you don’t know what you are doing you will lose money fast. -
-
-
Like with any of the standard three professions, it will take some investment in skills and equipment and will also require some money lost through trial and error. Do not “Line bomb”. This is when you keep running in a strait line and repetitively drop random bombs and probes in hopes of finding something. This is more gambling then working a strategy. When using mining equipment you will want to make sure that you are only using the equipment that fits your skill level the best. Otherwise, you will not be able to efficiently use that tool and will lose more often then not as a result.
-
-
-
When looking for Ore and EnMatter, you will want to look for clusters of items in close proximity to each other. The goal is to not drop bombs and probes without finding anything. When you find an area where deposits of Ore and EnMatter are clustered close together you will want to take note of that location after you extract all of the resources and then revisit it another time in hopes that the resources have respawned in or close to that area. The goal in mining is to find a resource with the drop of each probe or bomb. Again, please seek advise on this profession from someone who is highly skilled and experienced, I recommend joining a society that has successful miners in it.
Crafting Crafting can be the most expensive profession to get started in. You will need to spend both time and money increasing your skills to a level in which you can manufacture items that have a decent resale value. All of the items that the entry level crafters can make generally have little to no value, as a result they aren’t always profitable to make When crafting, you have to be especially careful to control your costs, one way is to control the cost of materials. Join a society that has lots of miners looking to sell their ores and enmatters. Build friendships with successful miners, this will aid you in getting materials at a reasonable price. Again, please seek advise on this profession from someone who is highly skilled and experienced. -
-
-
-
-
-
Alternative revenue streams & Evolving Opportunities The three professions can be fun but by design you are set up to lose money over time. With the right strategy and experience you can earn consistent profits in each however I highly recommend developing one or more income streams that consistently delivers profits. This way you can take a percentage of your earnings from that and invest it in whichever standard profession(s) you choose to partake in. As with investing in real life assets, you will want to “pay yourself first”. Now this does not mean to go blow your money on yourself. This means that you will set up a budget of some type and always take a percentage of your profits and invest them in some other asset that will generate more profits in some way. As the game has evolved through time, more (and better) opportunities have emerged. Trading and reselling has become on of the best and most consistent ways to earn money. It is now also possible to own various assets within the game, such as: Land, Hangars, Shops, Malls, and Banks. First though, you need to understand what the difference is between an asset and a liability (this will help you in real life too). An asset is something that continuously generates a revenue stream and / or appreciates (goes up in value). A liability is something that continuously costs money and / or depreciates (goes down in value). Assets are what make you money and I will touch on some now. Owing assets Again, an asset is something that earns you money or goes up in value, a liability is something that costs you money or goes down in value. There are various kinds of assets in the game, especially
now since the game has evolved as it has. Lets identify some assets in the game and talk about each a little. Again since this guide is not for the mega investor, I will not talk about malls, banks, and land areas. The focus of this will be the medium level things that will allow you to build some wealth in the game. With discipline and intelligence, perhaps you will be able to save up enough for a large investment. If you do this then you certainly wont be the first person that started small and made it big! Shops Shops can be considered an asset in three ways. First, if you buy one under market value it immediately becomes an asset because the resale price is higher then what you paid. Second, it is an asset because you can utilize it to sell various different items that will earn you a profit on each sale. Third, it is an asset if you buy one under market value. A shop is nice because you can display your items and then leave the shop to do what you want. While you are gone the displays in the shop and the items themselves cause shoppers to become buyers. Because this is allowing you to earn money while you are away, you are leveraging yourself meaning that you are earning money without directly trading time for it, which in-turn allows you to be off pursuing other cash generating ventures. With a shop you will need to focus on “turning over” your money as quickly as possible. For example, if you buy an item at 50 PED and then resell it for 80 PED you will have turned over your 50 PED investment and earned 30 PED. Now multiply that by all of the items in your shop, if you are working on a low to medium budget this could very well tie up all of your PED. Now if your items just sit there and don’t sell then you aren’t earning anything, if they do sell then you are earning something. The faster you can sell items, the faster you can turn your money over and make a profit. Say for example you have that same item that you paid 50 PED for and are selling for 80 PED. If you sell only one per week then you obviously made 30 PED off that item for the week. Now lets say by dropping the price to 69 PED allows you to sell 3 per week you will have made much more money. Cost = 50 PED. Sale price = 69 PED. Profit per sale = 19 PED. Three total sales = 57 PED. By turning over your investment quicker and more frequently you earn more. TT shops are neat for noobs to buy things but how much money are you making? Honestly… is it worth the time involved to make 1 to 2 PED per transaction? You can answer that for yourself. Also these TT shops typically look junky. Art, Decorations, and Furniture will are great things to sell in shops. Shops are usually located near places where people need these items and if your shop has some harder to find items, or complete sets of things then you can really capitalize on this. I will get more into specific items later in the reselling sections. With a shop you will want to find creative ways to promote your store. Standing in a populated area spamming the shop’s name in the All Chat is not creative. Alternating between different areas and occasionally advertising your shop in the All Chat is acceptable. You will want to also make a nice signature for yourself on the Entropia Forum that CLEARLY advertises your shop. You will also want to heavily participate in the forums as well but absolutely avoid arguing with people or posting a controversial opinion. You need to make friends, not enemies! Everyone needs to like you because these people are your customers. Leave positive feedback often and instead of just making a positive comment about what they said in their post; include a little -
-
-
-
-
-
-
invitation for them to come to your store… They will see this, and other people will see this as well. When posting in the forum, keep an eye out for new threads that are sure to attract lots of attention. You want to make sure that you are among the first people to post a reply, this way everyone thereafter who looks at that thread will see your signature that advertises your shop as they read through the thread. Make sure to post something brief and something neutral! You want readers to think about your signature and not what you are saying about the topic at hand. Keep an eye out for new posts in the Hall Of Fame, General Discussion, and other heavily viewed sub forums. Make sure that your shop has a specific category of things that it sells, such as cloths, furniture, etc. If you are selling furniture and decorations then you want to make sure that people know that your shop is the place to go for that type of item, that way when they are in the market to buy that item, they will check your store first because it’s the first thing they thought of.
Hangars Hangars can be an asset in four different ways. First, if you buy one under market value it immediately becomes an asset because the resale price is higher then what you paid. Second, it is an asset because you can utilize it to make money from the sale of tickets. Third, if you travel by space craft at all you can save yourself money on buying tickets from others and if you get enough passengers to at least cover the cost of the trip then you are flying for free! Fourth, it is an asset if it goes up in value. With a hangar it can be tough to start out. You are up against a group of existing hangar owners who do not like to share business! Like with a shop, you want to be everyone’s friend! You need to be the person who travels the high road by not reducing yourself to the mudslinging that can go on between hangar owners. Make sure that when you collect payment from people they are adding you to their friends list. After the trip, make sure that you ask for their repeat business. Make sure to stay in touch with these people from time to time to maintain the relationship in order to prevent them from forgetting who you are. This way, in the future when they need a ride, instead of looking around for another pilot, they will open their friends list and look for you first! You want your customers to come back to you… if you are standing out in the open looking for new customer you aren’t making any money! Repeat business is the key! -
-
-
Property Owning property (apartments, estates, etc) can be an asset as well in two ways. First, if you buy one under market value it immediately becomes an asset because the resale price is higher then what you paid. Second, it is an asset if it goes up in value. Make sure that you are getting a good deal whenever you buy an apartment or estate. I will review how in the Trading & Reselling section -
-
Items of increasing value Whenever you have an item that goes up in value it becomes an asset because the money received from the sale of the item will be more then you paid for it. Often times you will hear people who are active in real world investments say that “you make money when you buy, not when you sell” This is true in the Entropia Universe as well, when ever you buy an item that is worth more then you paid then you have made money. Often times, many of the more rare items go up in value quickly, others more slowly. If you have extra PED on hand and come across something that is sure to go up in value BUY IT! Then when the time is right, sell it for a profit.
-
-
-
Knowledge In the Entropia Universe, knowledge is perhaps your greatest asset. Your brain is what will cause you to earn or lose money so as a result it can also be your biggest liability if you aren’t educated on the Entropia Universe. Simple logs of mining hot spots or an understanding of the loot system are also assets! -
-
Trading & Reselling I think that we would all agree that there are some pretty nasty resellers and trades in the Entropia Universe! These people give a bad name to ALL traders. I want to teach you how to become a GOOD trader and to resell the right way, this way you can make money without making enemies. The stereo typical “reseller” is the opportunist waiting to take advantage of some poor noob, or looking for that ignorant and uneducated person. YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE THIS PERSON! There are also the resellers who will aggressively seek to undervalue an item. They do this by convincing the seller that it is not worth as much as they are asking. The reality is that while this may be true some of the time, other times the item just might be worth that much and I promise you if you buy an item from someone and a week later they learn that they could have sold it for more then you will have earned yourself a new enemy!! A good reseller is an honest person who isn’t out to cheat anyone and they actually do good things to the economy. A good reseller helps to stabilize the markets and insure that items have a steady increasing value, that way that item you purchased is less likely to go down in value! Who is a reseller? EVERYONE WHO PLAYS THE GAME IS A RESELLR! I guarantee you, there is not one person walking through the Entropia Universe that is NOT a reseller. Each time we buy an item, use it as needed, and then sell it when we are ready for a better item we inherently become a reseller. There are honest ways to buy and resell that will make both buyers and sellers your friends. You will want to buy and sell at fair prices. This will cause both buyers and sellers to come back to you. Buying There are honest ways to purchase items UNDER market value and I will share some of those with you but first you have to understand what a “motivated seller” is. A motivated seller is someone who wants to or needs to sell something FAST, as a result they are more then happy selling that
item under the current market value. Here are some things that might cause a seller to be motivated to sell under market value 1. The person ran out of money and needs to make a different purchase and they have limited time combined with the fact that that don’t need or care much about the item(s) that they are selling. 2. They are just impatient and don’t want to mess around with getting the max value of the item 3. Someone who is selling multiple items to you all at once. 4. Additionally there are some categories of items that just don’t have a clear market value. 5. The term “market “market value” is a relative term because the value of the item can potentially change depending on the venue in which the item is sold through. Some people who sell their items through the Entropia Forum for example are in lots of cases willing to sell for a cheaper price for a variety of reasons. There are also the “PE Auction” people and the “buy it now” people. The people who follow the PE Auction are under the belief that this is the definitive going rate for items and they will buy and sell accordingly. What they don’t understand is this website does not account for items that don’t go through the bidding process and are just purchased at a set price through the auctions. As a result, in many cases the price on www.peauction.com is actually below the true market value!!!!!! This is especially true for semi-common, or uncommon items. Selling There are also honest ways to sell something over market value. Buyers will literally be willing to pay more money for a variety of reasons, some are: 1. The buyer just does not care about the PED difference because X amount of ped is a minuscule amount of money in the real world. 2. The buyer is in a hurry and does not want to search the whole Entropia Universe for the best deal 3. The buyer wants to complete a set of something and this this is one of the last pieces 4. The buyer is buying a complete set of something and does not want to to take the time to buy each item individually. 5. The buyer likes you (don’t (don’t screw them, otherwise they wont like you anymore) -
DO NOT try to manipulate people into selling things for less then they are worth by giving them misinformation, and don’t manipulate people into buying things for more then they are worth. This will only hurt your trading business. General trading advice When you get started in reselling you will want to focus on ONE category to start with and you will want to become the expert in this category, then expand out from there. Knowing the prices of items by memory is critical in trading and reselling but you should always be ready to instantly be able to check websites such as www.peauction.com to be sure both you and the person you are trading with are getting a good deal.
When I started in trading and reselling I bought a shop, actually it was one of the first shops ever sold. At first I thought that I would sell common items but soon I realized that EVERYONE was
selling these items, so then I decided that I would sell furniture, art, and decorations. I started small and worked my way up quickly. I found that by selling these types of things, my shop actually looked about 100 times better then all of the little TT shops around. I learned the importance of turning my inventory over quickly to earn as much money as possible but I actually learned this the hard way… at one point I had 5 apartments all FULL to the max with inventory along with my storage facility being nearly maxed out. It was then I learned that I was not making as much money as I could have been. I learned how to balance my shop sales with auction sales and make sure that items quickly sold. I also quickly learned how to acquire items in bulk, which saved time. This category of product is great because it is not well understood by many, also the prices go up and down frequently because of the limited or excess availability of items at any given time. All it takes to flood the marekt is for two people to sell out at the same time. When people are decorating an estate or an apartment, they usually don’t care if they pay 50 PED or 60 PED for a particular item, as long as they can find everything that they need all at once they are happy. Sometimes when they come into your shop they will buy nearly all of the items in the store!! Immediate gratification goes a long way! The same is true when people sell out. In a lot of cases they have TONS of stuff to sell and this is a daunting challenge because it is just so much stuff. When I encountered someone who was selling their apartment or estate I would offer to buy everything all at once for a fair price (including the apartment or estate itself). People loved this! Because I knew the prices by memory, I could walk into a fully furnished apartment or estate and 10 to 15 minutes later come up with a offer that would be attractive to the seller and leave me with enough margin to make several hundred PED to several thousand PED. My offer for everything combined was usually somewhere around 10% to 15% below the PE Auction price. This always left me room to work if they made a counter offer. Don’t forget that your time is worth money, if you are going to sell all of these items it will take time. Remember, with items that are rare or semi-rare the PE Auction website is usually below the true market value. One important thing to always do before you make an offer, find out how much someone is willing to sell for. If they give you a low number then take it! No one can fault you for that but if it is too low, I would explain to them that their items were worth more and gave them more then they were asking. This actually earned me some referral business and because I was honest, I came out ahead financially. After about two months of just dealing with decorations and furniture, I was able to make about $1500 USD in profits. That’s 15,000 PED! Now that I had mastered the market in this category and had my routine down, I had enough time to branch out into various other things and at this point it was pretty easy for me to do this because of my general understanding of the markets. Here is what my general routine was everyday: Login in the morning before work and check the auctions for new listings paying special attention to the newest items that had been listed as “buyout”. Typically when someone is selling out, they have many items, as a result they will list them as a Buyout under market value, this way they would not have to spend weeks and weeks selling their items. There are resellers that will camp at the auctions, constantly refreshing the new listings to check for items listed under market value. They buy them, and then re-list them for a higher price but also just under market value, this way they sell right away and they turn a quick profit, other times they will list them for just over the market value and sit on them for a couple of days.
-
-
-
-
-
-
I then looked through the auctions for various items that were set up to sell through the bidding process. I wrote down the times and dates of all ending auctions for items of interest and I would make every effort to be at my PC to bid on those items when the time was up. I would set alarms to remind me to log in to the game. For some items, if they were important enough, I would get up in the middle of the night to buy them, and then I would go back to bed and sell them the next day. After thoroughly looking through the auctions, I would restock the shop with items that had sold the night before. I would then go onto the Entropia Forum to check any new personal messages, also I would check the buying and selling threads of the forums for new items. I would always look for people selling anything in bulk or people selling any items that were worth reselling. After work I would follow the same routine.
As I found people on the Entropia Forum who were selling something that I wanted to buy I would set appointments with them to meet in game. I was always careful be on time for these appointments as well, because if I was late or if I forgot about it I would hurt my reputation. Some great item categories to get started trading in are: Ores & Enmatters, Furniture & Decorations, Blueprints, Skills, Mid-level weapons and Armour. All of these items will allow anyone with a few hundred PED to get started. If you don’t have a few hundred PED then go and deposit $50 and don’t blow the 500 PED on stupid things. Buy something that you can resell for higher and sell it. Now buy something else and sell it too. Then buy a couple of things, sell those, now buy a few things, sell those, now buy a handful of things, and sell those. Now buy several things and sell those. Now that you have some PED on hand, keep buying and selling but also look for items to buy that will go up in value and hold it, keep buying an selling other stuff but when the time is right, sell the item that you are holding. Take that PED, combined with the other PED that you have earned and buy a bunch of items in bulk from someone, sell all of those and repeat that several times. Soon you will have enough PED to buy a shop. Don’t be foolish and pay too much. Get a good shop in a good location for a good price. Keep trading and reselling but also do it through the shop. At this point don’t be wasting your money on the standard professions. As your PED begins to accumulate start looking at the bigger items such as uber weapons and armour parts (or sets) along with hangars, or small land areas. Keep saving and growing your PED… pinch every PEC!! Don’t waist money. Soon an opportunity will present itself to buy a higher priced item for under market value. Hold that item if it will go up in value, otherwise just sell it for more, additionally if you can earn money by performing a function through it then do that too. Take that money and repeat the process. Eventually you will have enough money to buy a small underperforming land area. Keep reselling, take that PED and invest it in that land area. Get good MOBs in your land area that people will want to hunt. Don’t be silly and run expensive promotions that will cause you to lose PED. Spend the time needed to build up that LA, then when you have the PED run a contest or something that will draw attention to it. Build the momentum on that land area. It is important though to keep saving that money. Soon the opportunity will come for another big investment and you will need to be ready for it!!! Once you have established a continuous cash flow now it is going to be very easy to invest in your avatar and equipment with money that flows through the game. Always keep lots of PED on your PED card... always be ready for that next opportunity.
Resources Here are some resources that will help you in the game: www.entropiaforum.com - This is the online community of the Entropia Universe and is a source for a vast amount of information. www.peauction.com - This is a website that keeps an auction history of all items sold through the bidding process. www.pe-player.com - Another auction history website www.mytwopecs.com - Website that monitors the current price of Ores, Enmatters, and other commonly traded items www.entropianewsnetwork.com - General news about the Entropia Universe www.entropedia.info - huge database of stats on all items including the function of each skill www.entropia-loot.com - Listing of what items each MOB is looting with each VU
I wish you the best of luck and success in this virtual world!!
