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How to make decent money early?


Deathstalker_

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My understanding is that, in order to keep your gear current, you need to get a full set of orange gear, and every so often, you upgrade the mods to your current level via GTN. However, the prices on the GTN are exorbitant, to the point that you can never actually afford to do this via normal solo play. How am I supposed to make the money needed to keep my gear current, when the missions I'm doing give crap money? And keep in mind that I don't enjoy PvP, and it often takes forever to find a group, so Flashpoints and Warzones aren't really a viable way to pull this off for me.
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If you do nearly all the planetary quests, you ought to earn enough commendations to buy the mods. If you do Flashpoints and Heroics, you get even more coms. The harder quests tend to give you more coms, too. Also, don't even think about orange gear until your past Level 10 because you can't really get mods much lower than that. I've seen some level 9's, but that's about it. At the lower levels Green Gear is probably better for you because orange is bare bones.

 

To fully outfit a player you will need 18 mods costing 77 coms. Then there are the mods for weapons, so it's closer to 100 coms for absolutely everything. I believe they all cost the same from the com mod vendor no matter what the level. Of course you have to choose the coms over the other rewards after a quest, but if you look at the rewards, it's rare that anything beats a com. You usually get a gamble box and a couple of pieces of mediocre gear, or a com. I just got a mod, worth two coms, as a reward, but I must say this is relatively rare.

 

I'm actually doing an experiment right now with an alt. I got him orange gear and am doing a comparison. So far (and I'm just barely into it) Green Gear that drops is proving stronger than low-mod orange gear. The idea is that you ought to get some good green gear drops in the normal act of play, and that should do you until you get high enough to want/need orange gear.

 

Also, just so you know, repair costs for orange gear are WAY higher than for green gear. So this idea that "orange gear is always better" is not really true. It's a different approach that, when you use it correctly, can keep your guys armored up, but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with green gear. One advantage to orange gear is that you can choose which mods to place in them, so if you need cunning and endurance instead of aim and endurance, you can choose which mod to insert.

 

If you are strapped for cash and not foolish enough to use the Cartel Market for pets and fluff, you can always save your monthly allotment and buy something to post on the GTN to get you a little bit ahead of the game credits wise without spending real money to do so.

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The basics are - do lots of side quests, always loot grey junk as it really adds up over time. Never miss an opportunity to farm a point when you see one. Either use it for your own crafting or sell the mats.
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I'm doing every sidequest I see, and looting everything, but I didn't realize that Planetary Commendations were so important, so I've been passing them by. I may need to restart my Sentinel again to make sure I start picking those up. From the sound of it, I can just take any and all Planetary Commendations I see, and when I get enough to buy gear in shops, pick up whatever is best for my class. As for Orange gear, I should leave it until higher levels, unless I get handed one as quest reward (that doesn't have Planetary Commendations as an alternate choice), in which case I can go ahead and use it as long as I can keep upgrading the mods for it. Is this correct?

 

As for buying the gear, should I do all my purchases from the Fleet, or is it better to stick with Specialty Vendors on planets?

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If you aren't interesting in making your first toon a crafting toon, I would recommend getting these three crew skills:

 

Scavenging

Slicing

Underworld Trading

 

As you level, you can run into nodes for scavenging and slicing. Droids can also be scavenged. Meanwhile, send your non-active companions out on UT missions for blue materials.

 

The slicing nodes will give you straight credits. The scavenging and UT materials can be sold for good money on the GTN.

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I actually went Cybertech instead of Slicing, since it lets you create Armoring (which is used by pretty much all armor pieces, I think) and Mods (which is used by just about everything, including weapons). The plan is to work the Cybertech skill up and reverse engineer everything I craft to try to get better blueprints, then reverse engineer those, and so on. My hope is to be able to keep at least my Armoring and Mods current on any orange gear I happen to pick up (though I won't be making that a priority anymore).

 

Interestingly enough, part of the reason I'm looking to get a steady income is so I can keep sending companions on Scavenging and Underworld Trading missions, as that's the only way I've been able to get materials for Cybertech Crafting. The missions themselves don't cost much, but because I'm Reverse Engineering everything instead of selling it, it's a constant drain on my finances, so I will eventually run out of money. Heck, I don't even know how I'm ever going to afford the 35,000 fee for Speeder Piloting at Level 15.

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Planetary comms are very easy to get. I don't even do any sidequests (though I do a few flashpoints in between planets, usually getting at least the group finder + Emerging Conflicts dailies) and I have much problems getting enough Planetaries for myself and my companion. Another thing you could do is the PvP daily/weekly and trade Warzone comms for Planetaries.
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I actually went Cybertech instead of Slicing, since it lets you create Armoring (which is used by pretty much all armor pieces, I think) and Mods (which is used by just about everything, including weapons). The plan is to work the Cybertech skill up and reverse engineer everything I craft to try to get better blueprints, then reverse engineer those, and so on. My hope is to be able to keep at least my Armoring and Mods current on any orange gear I happen to pick up (though I won't be making that a priority anymore).

 

Interestingly enough, part of the reason I'm looking to get a steady income is so I can keep sending companions on Scavenging and Underworld Trading missions, as that's the only way I've been able to get materials for Cybertech Crafting. The missions themselves don't cost much, but because I'm Reverse Engineering everything instead of selling it, it's a constant drain on my finances, so I will eventually run out of money. Heck, I don't even know how I'm ever going to afford the 35,000 fee for Speeder Piloting at Level 15.

I completely understand what you're doing here, and I tried to do exactly that on my first toon.

 

While I was leveling on my first toon, making my own gear, it was actually a bit of a slog. I tended to be low on money, as the materials I was gathering went into the rather expensive reverse-engineer process. It was a bit frustrating, actually.

 

On my second toon I exclusively went for the money making approach I mentioned (slicing/scavenging/ut), and had 350k in the bank by the time I left Tatooine, despite having to buy my own gear (rather than crafting it).

 

It wasn't until my third and fourth toons that the initial investment in cybertech began to pay off, as I had already learned a number of schematics.

 

I feel that cybertech isn't very useful until have a LOT of raw materials in your cargo hold to do reverse engineering, which is quite difficult to do on your first toon. Your mileage may vary. :)

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The gains from Slicing aren't very big money-wise, from what I've seen, so I'm assuming that you were just picking up the raw materials, then turning around and selling them. Is that right? I've been keeping raw materials, since I don't know what I'll need for crafting later, but if the materials bring in that kind of money, then I may just worry about getting materials when I get to a higher level and start looking at actually making and upgrading my gear.
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The gains from Slicing aren't very big money-wise, from what I've seen, so I'm assuming that you were just picking up the raw materials, then turning around and selling them. Is that right? I've been keeping raw materials, since I don't know what I'll need for crafting later, but if the materials bring in that kind of money, then I may just worry about getting materials when I get to a higher level and start looking at actually making and upgrading my gear.

As far as slicing goes, I didn't run lockbox missions while leveling, I only gathered open-world nodes lying around.

 

Same with scavenging, I wouldn't run scavenging missions, I would just gather world nodes and droid kills.

 

However, I would run UT missions.

 

By level 25, you can have 3 crew missions running. When I left Nar Shadaa on my Trooper, I had 4 companions (including the ship droid) so I could have one companion helping me quest with the other 3 running UT missions.

 

Grade 2 UT missions take about 10 minutes and return 4-10 Mullinine. If I stayed on top of things, I could keep 2-3 missions running at all times, and get a stack of 99 in less than an hour, which would sell for good money. If the Mullinine market was ever flooded, I could do the same thing with Xonolite (grade 3).

Edited by Khevar
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With my first toon, I also tried my hand at crafting, but crafting turns out to not be worth it until way later and only after crafting level 400 really. So now I have bio analysis, underworld trading, and treasure hunting. Treasure hunting yields gems that others need for crafting and some of the gems sell for A LOT of credits. Underworld trading yields metals and some of those also sell for a ton. Then the bio stuff sells to those who craft stims and med packs. Other than that, I use my monthly CC allowance to buy packs and sell what I find. By level 30, I was a millionaire. When you go to sell something on the gtn, search it first by name and see how much they sell for, then adjust your prices accordingly. Set your sale for 2 days and just wait for the emails. Also you can sell the packs without opening them, and those go for a lot. I open them though because sometimes it'll have something I want. Then sell the rest. I have some really nice crystals thanks to that. I even got a darth Revan holo statue once that sold for 700k by itself.
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I tried crafting, I just find it too boring, when I try crafting, I tend to keep dropping off to sleep, its THAT dull to me, but the prices players charge is bloody insane, there are some that charge reasonable prices and I salute them, but there are some that just want to make as much as possible and don't care how much they are ripping people off by.

 

Maybe Its just me that doesn't have the whole greed gene.

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Scavening.

Crafters for Armortech and Armstechs can use upto 6 units of Laminoid, grade 1 scavenged compound per craft. You usually get Silica from missions so Laminoid is abit harder to get but missions are only a few minutes and on our server a stack of 10 Laminoid can sell for 5000-6000 credits.

Very easy money maker.

 

Other:

If subbed I always advise taking Artifice (if Jedi) or Cybertech (if non jedi) as first crafting. If you enjoy Tor and can see yourself playing some time and making more characters its very handy to have both of these crafts (can even level them up side by side) as then your self reliant for Hilts, Crystals, Offhand shields and when you move into modded gear you can also make own enhancements, mods and armouring.

 

The way I play now is I have every crafting on my characters and when I got round to my characters after having all crew skills catered for, I use them for slicing and more gathering to help out.

When I log on and before I log off I do the rounds on all characters to send their companions all out on missions and every few hours if I am having a long session ill take a 10 min break and do the rounds again. Also ensure that companions on the character your playing and not using (ie ship droid) are contstantly sent out on missions.

 

Remember also for rarer mats, the legacy repair droid has sensors you can get and equip your ship droid with to help have a better chance of a critical mission success:

Engineering Droid Sensor: +5 Scavenging Efficiency; +5 Critical Cybertech

Exploration Droid Sensor: +5 Archaeology Efficiency; +5 Critical Synthweaving

Hunter Droid Sensor: +10 Investigation Efficiency; +2 Critical Armstech

Medical Droid Sensor: +10 Biochem Efficiency; +2 Critical Diplomacy

Scout Droid Sensor: +10 Artifice Efficiency; +2 Critical Treasure Hunting

Security Droid Sensor: +10 Armormech Efficiency; +2 Critical Underworld Trading

They're all sold on the player's ship by the legacy repair droid for 100.000 Credits each and all require Legacy level 12 to equip.

 

You can group with someone who already has the droid also and buy off their ship saving you the unlock fee but items are bound to legacy so only you can purchase, you wont find on GTN etc

Edited by Ziso
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That's MMO market economics for you -- if people buy stuff that's listed at those prices, then that is a "fair" price.If it doesn't, sell, the sellers will have to drop their prices, or, if the price is very low, sell it to a vendor.

 

As has been said before, for a first character, get 3 gathering skills -- ideally 3 that you can use "in the world", so I would pick 3 of scavenging (droids), bioanalysis (animals), slicing (lockboxes and computer nodes) or archeology (nodes). Don't go far out of your way to "grind" that stuff, but pick up what you come across as you level -- and any time you are near a mailbox, send them to another character that's "parked" on the Fleet next to a GTN console, along with any other gear that you can't use. (I generally sell to a vendor any green item that isn't useful to that character, their frequently used companions, or the same for an alt of similar level -- it's not really worth "saving" greens that are more than about 5 levels too high -- and sell un-needed blues and such via GTN).

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I tried crafting, I just find it too boring, when I try crafting, I tend to keep dropping off to sleep, its THAT dull to me, but the prices players charge is bloody insane, there are some that charge reasonable prices and I salute them, but there are some that just want to make as much as possible and don't care how much they are ripping people off by.

 

Maybe Its just me that doesn't have the whole greed gene.

Yeah, you got the "lazy and self-righteous" gene instead.

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Something that really helps, and is a huge time saver, is unlocking the mailbox and gtn terminal on your ship. Then you really only need to go to the laggy fleet once in a while. And your ship is always just a taxi ride away.

 

Another good place is the VIP lounge on the fleet. It has the GTN, the mailbox, and your storage all in one place, too. The problem I have with the ship option is that each time you enter the ship, you take off. I think this is a design flaw myself.

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I tried crafting, I just find it too boring, when I try crafting, I tend to keep dropping off to sleep, its THAT dull to me, but the prices players charge is bloody insane, there are some that charge reasonable prices and I salute them, but there are some that just want to make as much as possible and don't care how much they are ripping people off by.

 

Maybe Its just me that doesn't have the whole greed gene.

 

The GTN is a marketplace. If people are NOT selling for the highest price they can get, then they are doing themselves a disservice. There is nothing to gain from subsidizing your prices.

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Lots of people call crafting a credit sink, but actually they're not even trying to use it commercially.

 

When you reverse engineer an upgrade to the artefact version, keep making it and then sell them on the GTN, if you are forced to but the purple mats from the GTN, you should be able to price the mod you make to get a margin.

 

Using these credits, fund your further crafting. However, there is a thread in crew skills where a guy says he makes millions in profit just from gathering mats and selling them on the GTN.

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Lots of people call crafting a credit sink, but actually they're not even trying to use it commercially.

 

When you reverse engineer an upgrade to the artefact version, keep making it and then sell them on the GTN, if you are forced to but the purple mats from the GTN, you should be able to price the mod you make to get a margin.

 

Using these credits, fund your further crafting. However, there is a thread in crew skills where a guy says he makes millions in profit just from gathering mats and selling them on the GTN.

 

Bad advice actually. It may be POSSIBLE to turn a profit doing this, but you can also find yourself sitting on a pile of mods you can't sell because some clown keeps flooding the market with grossly under-priced items.

 

Stick to gathering. I haven't tried the UT strategy, but scavenging and slicing work. I prefer bio for my 3rd skill since it lets me double loot beasts, and there is always demand for it. But UT makes sense if higher level crafters want to make gear for their alts leveling up, but don't want to spend time spamming missions for the materials.

 

And that, really, is why this strategy works so much better than trying to craft your own gear as you go. I've done it in other games too.

After market watchers (people who know how to spot trends in the market and invest early to make huge profits) gatherers are usually the richest players in the game.

The only time crafters strike it rich in this game is if they are able to learn a schematic from gear obtained in the highest level operation.

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On my first toon I took synth weaving and the appropriate support skill (arch and UT from memory). Bought schematics for orange moddable gear from GTN and crafted and sold those items. I wasn't making megabucks but it was enough to keep me in pie and cake whilst levelling.
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...

 

The only time crafters strike it rich in this game is if they are able to learn a schematic from gear obtained in the highest level operation.

This is a sweeping generality and not remotely true.

 

Just since 2.0 dropped I've made ~50 million on MK-9 augment kits, and ~25 million on MK-9 augments. That doesn't include the grade 28 enhancements, or the mid-level gear that I've also crafted. A friend of mine went on a level 50 crystal rampage and learned practically every single crystal schematic in the game and made a mint off of it.

 

If you indiscriminately craft and sell, you won't make good money. If you pay attention to holes in the economy, you'll do great.

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This is a sweeping generality and not remotely true.

 

Just since 2.0 dropped I've made ~50 million on MK-9 augment kits, and ~25 million on MK-9 augments. That doesn't include the grade 28 enhancements, or the mid-level gear that I've also crafted. A friend of mine went on a level 50 crystal rampage and learned practically every single crystal schematic in the game and made a mint off of it.

 

If you indiscriminately craft and sell, you won't make good money. If you pay attention to holes in the economy, you'll do great.

 

75 million? Really? Ok, I'm gonna call BS. Where are you farming the mats needed to craft the darn things?

OR are you sitting at a GTN terminal all day scooping up under-priced mats and crafting with that to flip a profit?

If you're sitting at a GTN terminal, that is EXACTLY what I was refering to....

 

Plus, we were talking about LEVELING gear, not endgame.

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75 million? Really? Ok, I'm gonna call BS. Where are you farming the mats needed to craft the darn things?

 

I don't think it's BS, quite feaseable in fact. You need the right number of crafting toons and some dedication of course. MK-9 slot components sell like hot cakes on my server and with the right crew skill chosen can be created with high efficiency.

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75 million? Really? Ok, I'm gonna call BS.

Wow. You think I'm actually lying? About something as irrelevant as making fake money in a videogame?

Where are you farming the mats needed to craft the darn things?

Scavenging missions on multiple alts, sent to a Cybertech that can craft the earpieces for 2/2/4. Slicing missions on multiple alts, sent to Armstech and Synth (each with +5 to cit).

 

I should note that I don't actually have a lot of playtime either, but I can usually kick off missions in the morning before going to work, in the evening when I get home, and at night before going to sleep. Multiple alts x 5 companions x 3 times a day = a lot of scavenging and slicing missions.

OR are you sitting at a GTN terminal all day scooping up under-priced mats and crafting with that to flip a profit?

Nope, sitting by the GTN is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

Plus, we were talking about LEVELING gear, not endgame.

This is true, this thread is about LEVELING gear.

 

BUT, the comment of yours that I said was a sweeping generality and not remotely true is:

The only time crafters strike it rich in this game is if they are able to learn a schematic from gear obtained in the highest level operation.

You're not exactly going to get gear from an operation while LEVELING, are you?

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