Hey,

 

So I'm pretty sure that Class 9 Lockboxes from Slicing Missions have a negative return.

 

Is this going to change in the future?

I've noticed this too. Even on "rich & bountiful" missons, they cost more than the awards are worth.

Over time you will see a net profit, albeit VERY small.

 

If you are looking for "free credits" the lockbox missions are not the way to go and they have not been for a LONG time (even the grade 6 lockboxes are very modest profits).

 

Lockbox missions are for getting discovered missions. The lockbox is there to return most of your credits investment when you do not get a discovered mission.

 

If you are looking to make money off of slicing stick to the sliced part missions and sell whatever you get on the GTM.

Thanks psandak,

I've actually kept records of missions (over 800 at this point) and I get best bang for buck from Class 5 Lockboxes but I usually run 3 and 4s for the missions for my crafting toons.

 

Interesting you say that Class 9's do return a profit over time though, as I need to run some for my biochem toon and I really don't want to be massively out of pocket for it.

 

Thanks again

 

Over time you will see a net profit, albeit VERY small.

 

If you are looking for "free credits" the lockbox missions are not the way to go and they have not been for a LONG time (even the grade 6 lockboxes are very modest profits).

 

Lockbox missions are for getting discovered missions. The lockbox is there to return most of your credits investment when you do not get a discovered mission.

 

If you are looking to make money off of slicing stick to the sliced part missions and sell whatever you get on the GTM.

I went back to my crew skill tracking spreadsheet that I compiled a couple of months ago. In the course of that process (I tracked about 1500 total crew skill events) I ran 47 grade slicing 9 lockbox missions (both the bountiful and rich).

 

Overall data:

• Mission successes: 46
  
• Mission failures: 1
  
• Credits spent (running missions): 150720 credits
  
• Credits received from lockboxes: 127235 credits
  
• Net return: -23485 credits
  
• Average loss:499.681 credits
  
• Discovered missions: 11 (Arch:1, TH:4, Inv:2, Dip:2, UT:1, Scav:1)
  

 

Now what is not calculated here is:

- the returns from those 11 discovered missions

• 10 red + 12 green + 8 Blue + 12 Carbonic Crystals + 14 primordial fragments
  
• 5 Mytag Crystals + 8 Rainbow Gems + Lockbox (2045) + Mission Box (shield=4415)
  
• 4 permacrete + 6 Reinforced Transparisteel
  
• 4 permacrete + 6 Reinforced Transparisteel
  
• 4 Mytag Crystals + 6 Rainbow Gems + lockbox (1965) + mission box (boots=6815)
  
• 4 Mytag Crystals + 6 Rainbow Gems + Lockbox (1923) + Mission Box (purple mod 28=~35k on the low end)
  
• 3 Sterilization Kits + 6 Medical Grade Injectors
  
• 4 Mytag Crystals + 6 Rainbow Gems + Lockbox (2339) + Mission Box (Ear piece=1945)
  
• 4 Sterilization Kits + 8 Medical Grade Injectors
  
• 5 Berylius + 6 Frasium + 5 Nanite Threaded Cloth + 3 Hypercloth
  
• 12 Mythra + 13 Turadium
  

- all the daily quests and FPs I ran while running those missions to offset the cost of running those missions (complete just one daily quest [current daily quests return 8730 credits) and you can run "credit drain" twice and then some).

- the crafted goods profits from using those discovered mission returns

So I'm pretty sure that Class 9 Lockboxes from Slicing Missions have a negative return.

 

yup. as mentioned above, the payoff from running Credit Drain is a crit returning a desirable mission skillsheet (Underworld Trading, Slicing, Scavenging, Bio Analysis, Diplomacy). either run said mission yourself or sell it on the GTN.

 

On Harbinger, 450 skill Treasure Hunting sheets seem to go for ~25k, 450 Slicing sheets can fetch 100k+ while I regularly buy 450 skill Investigation sheets for 1-2k.