When I asked on an earlier date what crew skills to get for making credits Slicing was recomended (obviously) but also treasure hunting because of what I can get from it and sell on the GTN.

 

But, both Crew skills give lockboxes as rewads for missions, so if I'm already getting them from slicing how should I get Treasure Hunting too? Is there something I'm missing? Is Treasure Huntings lockboxes better?

From treasure hunting you'll get credit boxes as well as storage boxes, containing items.

does that mean slicing doesn't have storage boxes then?

Despite all the "nerfs" I'd say slicing is the clear winner here.

 

At 400 you can run tech parts missions for the epic grade 6 augment mats, which sell for currently 11K+ each on my server (2x units from each crit you get on a tech parts mission); or you can run lockbox missions that return epic 340 skill mission discoveries, which go for anywhere from 3K (investigation) to 60K (slicing). The more common returns will be stuff like archaeology and UT missions, that go for 13-35K depending on the market. The nice thing about mission discoveries is that they're consumables, and farming mats gets to be a big pain at grade 6, so active crafters will always buy them if you set reasonable prices. You will also occasionally get slicing mission discoveries from the lockbox missions, which are guaranteed to return 4x epic augment mats and around 8K in credits; so basically 50K+ profit from one mission.

 

The big thing about slicing vs. any other gathering skill is that it is completely free to level up, since all you do is spam lockbox missions all the way to 400. These missions never take more than 25 minutes even at grade 6, and the minimum returns are white lockboxes that on average will cover about 105% of the cost of running the missions. So you pay literally nothing to level the skill, and at the cap your only cost to run them continuously is the queue time, meaning everything you get from the crits is profit.

 

The only skill I think really competes with slicing for pure credit farming is UT, and that only if you have a slicing alt to supply you with a stream of UT mission discoveries, which would be your main source of epic grade 6 mats. The nice thing about UT is it supplies metals that are used by both of the armor making skills, so they tend to be in shorter supply and sell better than almost all other crafting mats other than raid drops.

 

If you want the ultimate money machine, I would say take slicing, UT, and diplomacy. Run lockbox missions to get mission discoveries, sell off all the ones you can't run yourself for instant cash, and then run the UT, slicing, and diplomacy discoveries you get for the epic mats which you can also sell off for nice profits (and max out your light/dark side points with the diplomacy runs as well, which is always a nice perk).

Edited June 11, 2012 by Heezdedjim

Slicing, Diplomacy, and Bioanalysis is also pretty profitable. Stacks of Rank 5 and 6 Biochem mats are easy to get and sell for massive profit.

With Slicing you can get money boxes from gathering nodes for free. I want my Bounty hunter to be rich so obviously I want the crew skill that gives me free money. Besides, if you send your companion away for the credit box it usually gives you more credits than you spend on deploying then on the mission so it is a win-win either way

Slicing wins. All the time.

I make a lot of credits selling companion gifts.

Despite all the "nerfs" I'd say slicing is the clear winner here.

 

At 400 you can run tech parts missions for the epic grade 6 augment mats, which sell for currently 11K+ each on my server (2x units from each crit you get on a tech parts mission); or you can run lockbox missions that return epic 340 skill mission discoveries, which go for anywhere from 3K (investigation) to 60K (slicing). The more common returns will be stuff like archaeology and UT missions, that go for 13-35K depending on the market. The nice thing about mission discoveries is that they're consumables, and farming mats gets to be a big pain at grade 6, so active crafters will always buy them if you set reasonable prices. You will also occasionally get slicing mission discoveries from the lockbox missions, which are guaranteed to return 4x epic augment mats and around 8K in credits; so basically 50K+ profit from one mission.

 

The big thing about slicing vs. any other gathering skill is that it is completely free to level up, since all you do is spam lockbox missions all the way to 400. These missions never take more than 25 minutes even at grade 6, and the minimum returns are white lockboxes that on average will cover about 105% of the cost of running the missions. So you pay literally nothing to level the skill, and at the cap your only cost to run them continuously is the queue time, meaning everything you get from the crits is profit.

 

The only skill I think really competes with slicing for pure credit farming is UT, and that only if you have a slicing alt to supply you with a stream of UT mission discoveries, which would be your main source of epic grade 6 mats. The nice thing about UT is it supplies metals that are used by both of the armor making skills, so they tend to be in shorter supply and sell better than almost all other crafting mats other than raid drops.

 

If you want the ultimate money machine, I would say take slicing, UT, and diplomacy. Run lockbox missions to get mission discoveries, sell off all the ones you can't run yourself for instant cash, and then run the UT, slicing, and diplomacy discoveries you get for the epic mats which you can also sell off for nice profits (and max out your light/dark side points with the diplomacy runs as well, which is always a nice perk).

 

Great post and 100% hits the nail on the head.

 

Also augmentors go for 16+K on my server and will be even more valuable post 1.3. I have UT, Bio, Arch, Invest, Scav, and Dip and the slicing feeds them all with missions. Slicing also returns schematics. I constantly cycle eight alts on two characters on slicing missions and have ended up making a ton of credits and have had to buy extra cargo hold bays to hold everything my alts produce. The mats from all sources also feed my crafting skills.

 

My wife and I are leveling two alts (both at 15 now) and I made sure that both have slicing as one of the crew skills. We are finding lockboxes everywhere and are making money on the way up and leveling the skill without having to run missions (although I do to see if I can get lower level augment schemes). Our only problem is racing each other for each node that appears.

Wow, thanks for the help guys.

 

Expecially you Heezdedjim.

That post you made really helped explain to me how useful slicing and the other skills are. I'll be sure to use the slicing, underworld trading and diplomacy mix on my Imperial Agent who gains crit bonus's on all three to boot.