ANNOUNCEMENT: 100 QR BSM and Simple I Conductors BPs On Auction

I will delete this post after most of these have sold... But I wanted to put the word out that I have the following blueprints on auction...


100 QR Basic Sheet Metal, Buyout 100 Peds
100 QR Simple I Conductors Buyout 95 Peds
62   QR Mann MPH Dlx Buyout 70 Peds
48   QR Simple I Plastic Ruds 12 Peds
46   QR Basic Screws Buyout 15 Peds


They are listed for 7 days, so if you want them you better get to them before someone else does!

ANNOUNCEMENT: My First Four Digit HOF!

I have done it finally!!! I hit my first four digit hof! After four years! Just shy of level 25 prospector, I hit a XXI Cobalt, Unamped, 1322 Peds! Of course it kind of sucks because Cobalt is down to about 122% on orders, from it's usual 135% to 150%... But everything else is super cheap now too so it's a buyers market at least.

This is the only place on the web I will post the full screenshot with the coordinates not blotted out. Everywhere else that I post, is going to have the coords blacked out. This is done as a thank you to my loyal readers who have made the success of this blog possible.

My instinct tells me this is only the beginning!!!

FAQ: Mining Amps

I have took it upon myself to post common questions and the best answer I have for them regarding mining amps.

1. Is it worth amping?
- Generally, yes. What one has to realize though is, you might be able to afford 300 unamped bombs, but if you amp with say a level 4, you might only afford 100 drops. What happens is you are spending more ped in a shorter amount of time, so your finds will be larger, but you have 1/3rd less chances to hit your claims. However, not only do Amps amplify your claim sizes... They will multiply your losses as well, so if you can only afford one or two amps, consider it high risk, and if you should only get 50% of your investment back, try another unamped run with your remaining Ped, it's not uncommon for me to global unamped after a bad amped run.

2. Is there a strategy to mining with amps?
- In my experience, if you are going to amp, you need to amp every bomb, otherwise it's like playing a progressive slot machine at the casino. Does it make sense to only play max bet once in a while when the jackpot could hit on a lesser bet and you miss the big payoff?

-Also... Don't be afraid of giving some distance between drops. If you spread them out a bit, I find my returns are much better as opposed to dropping as fast as I can.

3. How much decay is there if amping on enmatters?
- Since all of the changes to the amplifiers and mining went into effect, your amp will now decay at the same rate for ores or enmatters. So if the decay is 1 ped per drop, if you mine for both, the decay becomes 2 peds per drop.

4. Are amps required for big hofs?
-No. They may improve the odds and frequency of big hofs, but they will still happen unamped. In fact, one friend has hit many towers without amps, but it took a lot of prospecting to get them. Another friend hits his four digit hofs unamped too. As for me, my biggest hof of 908 peds was hit with an OA 102 (near as I can tell is equivalent now to a level 4). I don't think I have ever had a three digit that was unamped to be honest with you.

5. Is there any other advice I might be able to use?
-Yes... Always look for the lowest markup you can get on amps. If you can get a level 3 for 110% and a level 4 for 120%, it is better to go with the level 3. The closer you get things to TT, the less losses you will have in the long run.

- If you get numerous NRFs in a row, switch to another area. I was so far in the hole, and decided with my last few drops on my level 3, that I would try shinook. First bomb just away from TP hit a 66 ped alferix global. I continued mining, and only ended up down about 25 peds which wasnt a big deal on a 250 ped run. I've made that loss back crafting.

-Don't worry about getting big hofs. Even the globals will happen when you least expect them. Funny how that works too.

6. What level should I be for what amp?
-My best results have always been by following the rule of thumb, that says 5 levels of prospecting for every level of amp. So a level 4 amp would be good idea to use at level 20 prospect or survey. I find if I take out bigger amps, my returns sink lower, and lower on average. This is my opinion, but it is also based on my experience. I think you will agree its a good formula. But you are free to disagree as well.

I will expand this as time goes on... Thanks for reading!

ADVICE: When Double-Bombing Is A Good Idea

This is just a matter of opinion based on my own experiences. Results may vary.

I seldom double bomb... But if I hit an unknown ore with an unknown size, I go back and mine it, then I head out to about where I dropped the bomb that found that claim then I drop again, and almost always , say 85% of the time, I will find a claim not far from where the first one was.

Double bombing is kind of a yes/no/maybe so thing. It's never guaranteed.

However.. I have known of people to double bomb after they hit a global, and they sometimes hit another global or even a hof. You just don't know.

But my best odds have been double bombing an unknown claim.

ADVICE: Take Advantage of Low Markups!!!

A lot of blueprints can be very expensive to skill up. Armor is especially costly to skill in. If you have something you want to skill in but don't want to pay high markups, just keep track of what materials you need and check their prices over time. I have seen Alice drop from 150% to TT food. Narc from 170% down to 120%. Cobalt as high as 170% down to 130%.

If most of the components you need for a blueprint drop significantly, there is no better time to craft it than when it is most affordable. That way, when the prices go back up, you have your skills without the expense you would have had. The system does pretty good usually at compensating in terms of TT losses, but Markup is what you can expect to lose. It's the cost of doing what you are doing. I am not saying that the system cannot compensate you in terms of the relative markup, but it sort of has a built in mechanism for that. Say if you have narc at 140% and Alice at 120%, BSM tends to sell for 160 to 170%. The markets on Entropia are no different than any other. They will always tend towards equilibrium. If it costs more to make a good, that good is going to be worth more, generally.

I see dozens of resources that are "on sale" because they have dropped so low in markup. Cash Cows of the old days... Turned to TT food.

Good luck and happy hoffing!

ADVICE: To TT or not to TT

There are times when you simply cannot profitably sell something for a markup if it is too low. Take Oil for example. It had a common markup of about 104% on orders or less, and if you competitively list it, you are lucky to even sell it at 105%. But, I was trying to fill an order once... My refiner broke a lot trying to refine a couple hundred peds of crude oil. By the time I was done, the orders were not high enough to cover the refiner decay and the listing fee. In short... TTing my oil was more profitable than auctioning it off.

Generally, I consider anything below 105% to be TT food, unless I have a trader that will buy it from me, or someone in my society can use it. If it is someone in the Society, I generally will sell it to them for TT value, it helps them out, and they will gladly help you out in the future too.

You have to look at it this way too: If you have something at say, 103%, and you are holding it and holding it trying to gather enough to sell... Finally you have thousands of peds worth, or maybe hundreds, and you sell it for your little bit of markup... If you don't feel foolish, you ought to when I tell you... You had no doubtedly deposited so you had more peds to play with because all your peds were tied up in loot, correct? Well... You effectively lost half a percent if you sold your tt food at 103% to a trader, or even on auction. How? Because there is approximately a 3.65% fee deducted from your peds when you deposit to cover the credit card transaction.

So, it is cheaper just to TT the low markup stuff if it means having to deposit.

If you are fortunate enough to have a large ped roll, then never mind me... It is wiser to get any extra you can out of what you have. Feel free to read my posts regarding survivability to find out more on why this makes a big difference.

It is mysterious to me how the auction fees work in Entropia. Some items is possible to fill orders at 102% on auction and still have some slight gain. Other items, you can't pay the auction fee with anything less than 105%... You just have to look closely at what you are selling and what all the costs involved are, otherwise you will find not all opportunities are ge drd le s.
Always remember a loss is a loss no matter how small.

I generally do not recommend TTing anything over 105%... Exceptions are for things that either sell slowly or not at all. If there is no demand, you can't expect to sell it for any markup.

Under 105%, is TT food.

Become a citizen of planet!

I owe it to my faithful and loyal readers to bring to your attention if you aren't already aware of Mindark's new citizenship program. It is kind of part land owner, part stock holder proposition, with dividends paid weekly on your shares. Each "share" deeds you 100 square meters of land and there will be 60,000 shares auctioned off with buyouts at 1000 peds or so per share.

The full details are here:
http://www.entropiauniverse.com/bulletin/buzz/

Count me in!

And you will be able to build houses too!!!!

Questions? Feel Free To Ask!

If there is a specific question on your mind, you may add a comment to this post or contact me through my blog, and I will gladly post a response answering your question in as much depth as possible. If your question has already been covered in my blog, I may simply direct you to the appropriate post.

I try to think about everything, and post about everything, but I know there is a LOT that I have not yet written about. There has to be. So, if you think of any questions feel free to bring them up!

Crafting: How Many Peds Do I Need To Start With?

Well... I decided this is an important thing to mention. Volatility will make or break you in a hurry if you have a small amount of Peds. The larger your Ped balance, the less volatile your results will be crafting. The general rule of thumb is, you want to be able to set up a 1,000 click run or 2,000 clicks. So... If you are doing basic filters, you would need approximately 50 to 100 peds. But if you are doing say, basic sheet metal, you would want to have around 400 to 800 peds. I would not advise trying costly items such as amps without having at least 2K peds to play with, and being able to afford losing them if your results are not spectacular.

If you follow my above guideless of 1K to 2K clicks and just keep cycling everything at the end of your run, you should find some good results. However, if your crafting starts out cold, switch areas until you get some successes in the first few clicks. I have found a cold area usually stays cold. If you can't get any successes anywhere, log off for a short amount of time and then log back in. If your failures ARE the result of a system glitch, there is no way MA would ever admit to it, and I relog just to err on the side of caution.

Also, avoid doing anything at around I think 5AM mindark time... They seem to do their backups around then and loot ALWAYS goes to zero for me during "lag o clock".

Good luck and happy hoffing!

CRAFTING: How To Make FULL TT Items!

Ok... There seems to be a lot of people wanting to know how to craft full value items. So, to make it easy on you guys, I am going to condense it all into a single post so that you can find it easier and make it less work to learn about.

There are TWO ways to get full TT items. Unfortunately, one has more to do with luck than skill, and the other, well, it has a lot to do with skill and QR.

The most cost effective way to make a full TT item (it only makes sense if you are crafting L items. If items are UL, it doesn't matter what the condition is because you can repair them and it cheaper than crafting UL items with residue), is to use residue while you craft.

Say you have a 10 PED max TT item you are making. Say you click and a 1.83 PED success drops out. That's really not bad, but you want full condition. So, if you would have added residue with your ingredients, then you would have had your 1.83 PED success, and 8.17 PED of residue (817 units of residue) would have been consumed and a 10 PED condition item would have dropped out.

If your item uses enmatter, you can use enmatter residue, if it uses ingots, you can use metal residue. But be aware, that the markup on the residues means its best to use for higher markup items. If you can craft super high markup items at like 400%, and you are able to use 100 peds or 200 peds residue in each click, you are getting 400 to 800 peds back just on the residue!

The second way to craft full TT... Is to have as high a QR bp as you can afford... 100QR recommended if you going to do this... Craft full condition. You will have more lost clicks, but your successful ones will be worth a lot more when you have them, and you will have greater chances of a huge loot dropping, but you could very well go broke before one drops.

Hope this helps, and stay tuned for more great information!