Things I Would Do If I Started Over: Beginners Tips!

I often wondered what I would do if I had to start over from scratch. If I knew when I was a noob what I know now, what would be the important lessons learned? What things would I have done to avoid wasting peds? Well... The good news is, I have some answers that I feel sharing with you new players should help you out...

CRAFTING:

If I had it to do again, I would have started off with a 100 QR Blueprint... Seriously, it makes a HUGE difference. Try a run on a 100 QR bp, then do a run on a 1 QR bp and compare your results. You save a ton of peds by not having to skill up the blue print when you are at zero skills.

I would have probably started off with Basic Sheet Metal. The Metallurgy skill is a huge boost to mining. I think you will agree once you start obtaining this skill. Besides that, BSM has a HUGE demand, all those 101's that are always being crafted, take a LOT of it. Alicenies and Narcanisum alwasy have good markup usually, and that means BSM does too, and I find it is easy to turn a profit on BSM.

I would also have bought a few hundred points of skill in Engineering perhaps. Engineering is by far the most useful of the crafting skills, it is used in all crafting. Every little bit of skill you gain increases your average returns... It may only be slight increases, but after a while, you go from averaging four or five sheets of BSM per click to averaging eight to ten of them. At least this is what I have observed. Every bit of experience tells me that skills and bp QR affect your results.

If you are new, and prefer not to sweat, crafting basic filters isn't a bad deal because it is the cheapest thing in the game to craft.... 100 peds would let you buy nearly 2K clicks depending on what you pay in markup. 100 QR Basic Filters BP's usually can be found from 15 to 30 Peds usually. Sometimes I have seen them under 15 Peds.

MINING:

If I had it to do over again... I would  have started with enmatters, skilled up my geology from surveying... After I hit say level 10 or so in Survey, I would probably begin my search for ores.

I would also not have trade terminaled the few odd stones I'd have every once in a while that I couldn't refine. Over time, I am sure I've lost hundreds of peds in markup from doing this... Believe it or not, a few pecs can add up to being the cause of your being broke!

HUNTING:

I have spent so much at hunting with so little loot out of it, I don't even WANT to comment on this category... But I for the sake of completeness...

I would have started out with an Isis CB5 (L)... They are cheap, last a long time despite being (L). They shoot faster than their Trade Terminal laser counterpart too. I favor BLP over laser any day.

I would not have gone hunting EXPECTING to get any loot, therefore not be disappointed when I didn't get any which was most of the time.

I would actually have not bothered with hunting... And instead put all those resources towards crafting and mining.

The mobs that I feel deserve the most effort and have had the best outlook as for loots, are as follows: Molisk, Argonauts, Exarasaurs (don't laugh, I have probably had more loot from these than anything else), and Drones... The Generation 1's are easy enough to kill, just have a moderately good weapon and a little armor. The mobs I would avoid? Feffoids, nothing has looted worse for me than a Feff. I consider Atrox and Atrax neither good nor bad... They either will loot or they wont.

MISCELLANEOUS:

-Do NOT lend ANYONE that you do not know in REAL LIFE anything of value, Unless you can afford to lose it.

-DO NOT fall for people saying they will give you skills if you provide empty implants. If you think they are serious and true, then ASK FOR COLLATERAL!

-Do NOT join someone's team hunt without looking the loot parameters first. It used to be very easy to be taken advantage of through unscrupulous loot settings.

-DO listen to local chats, eavesdropping sometimes can provide useful information.

LAST NOTES:

If you don't agree with what I've written, that is ok. These are things based on my own hindsight, experience and observation that I wish I would have known sooner. Everyone could write their own such list and have it read differently than everyone else. The point of this is to get everyone thinking, and if you are thinking, you will be more careful and hopefully more successful in the long run. If it helps you, great. If not, well, hopefully some of my other posts will :-)

HELP: I've Played For Years Without a Global! Suggestions For Getting One!

It took me six months to get my first global. After that, they came in somewhat regularly. But that was crafting. Then my first mining global took FOREVER. It finally came. Then, you know? It took me about 3 years to get my first hunting global, and keep in mind, I have hunted so much that I have 2.5K in Rifle, Laser, and BLP from skilling... Not to mention what I have in Anatomy. But only one global on a Drone Gen 1. All my globals and hofs in hunting come while I am in a team... So much for solo recognition :( Look me up on http://www.entropiatracker.com/... Goldbaron Goldbaron357 Maximus... Notice my stats for mining and crafting? Then look at hunting. Pitiful ain't it?

HUNTING: If you don't care about whether or not you get the recognition and credit, find someone who isn't even hunting but doesn't mind you adding them to a team... Even if they are hunting, you can do what you want and not really make it a team hunt if they agree... By being in a team, your chances to global and hof go up exponentially. The theory I come to is this: Teams spend more in decay, more in ammo, plus the loots GENERALLY are split, therefore they must be larger on average. If you each do your own thing, you get your full share of what is in the mobs you kill. I know, why can't I get a solo global or hof? It is frustrating, and I will spend hundreds of peds trying to, but it just ain't happening. The one global I got musta been a glitch in the system.

MINING: I recommend you use say a Ziplex Z5 finder, MAYBE a Z10 at a place like Akmuul, or say New Switzerland. Run a few hundred bombs... See what kind of results you are getting, if you are doing ok, just keep running and the globals will come in. It's all about how many bombs you drop, and each area has certain ores, and each finder is better at finding those certain ores... So most miners do in fact have a finder for each different area they mine based on their experience. Now, it is observable that most towers I have seen screenies of, happened with an OF-105... As did my 906 ped or whatever it was hof on Gazzurdite... In fact, I still have faith that Treasure Island North is still a good chance at something great... Nice thing about TI is, it is the only place I am known to have found Cobalt, which has VERY nice markup usually. If you want to improve your returns, and your chance at a global/hof... I recommend using one level of amp for every 10 levels of prospecting or surveying skill depending on what you are doing. This is what an uber miner I know did, and he was always towering and hoffing all over the place. I notice if I use an amp that is bigger than a tenth of my skill, then my returns are cut in half on average.

Also, crafting metal components gave me metallurgy, after I gained significant amounts of it, my mining returns, and variety of ores found gone up. Now I regularly find stuff I never dreamed I would. Another rule of thumb, if you can't hit anything in 10 bombs, change locations!!! But also, I want to say that if you are amping, it would behoove you to amp all your drops and not just pick and choose. Why risk missing your first tower? And it's never failed to give me about the same return either way, percentage wise. And remember, with markups, it is easy sometimes to run a profit while mining, just pay attention to what the traders are actually giving you... And if you have enough of something, maybe auction is a good idea, but be competitive.. If you are too far out of the ballpark, you wont sell it and your peds will be tied up for a while.

CRAFTING:  If you really are having a hard time globalling... My advice is this... Take something like Basic Sheet Metal... Get a decent QR blueprint... Try to do runs of at least 400 clicks, and you should average at LEAST 5 sheets per click... If your average is above that, you should be close to profit mode with markup. You will global if you do enough clicks. I have globalled a lot on BSM. And just the other day on a basic screws blueprint that I skilled from 1QR, I hit a 80 some ped I think global after hitting just under 40 QR. Iron should still be close to TT food, screws pretty much are TT food, like three items in the whole game require them, so yeah... But it is easy as it just needs Iron :-) Set the autoclick and give'er Hell! If you are DESPERATE to get a global... Try to get a 100QR blueprint, say with screws or bsm... RUN ON FULL CONDITION. After hundreds of clicks you should have some nice residue drops and globals too! But I only recommend full condition IF you have a 100QR blueprint. The losses at lower QR's are staggering, at least for me, though it does skill a blueprint up quicker than on Quantity.

SILENT GLOBALS: The name of the game is making peds... And lots of times, you will find that you have had a silent global, sure you only got a couple peds of Dunkel, but hey, you are talking about 50 peds right there! So you can get a smaller amount in TT, but the markup makes it add up right for you. I know, it's not the same as hearing the bells trumpets and whistles, but don't look Mindark in the mouth when it comes to loot :-)

I will post more advice on this, and other topics as fast as I can. I want to get my inventory of information to the point where I've answered every question and provided advice for everything. I may never get there, but I will have fun trying. Please subscribe if you would like to keep up to date on everything I post, or check back from time to time. Who knows, I might start running some contests before too long! And if you found this blog helpful, please feel free to share with your friends!

Welcome to my Entropia blog!

There are a lot of people wondering where the best places to mine what are, or what items they should craft, what skills to focus on... I am here to help. I have been an Entropian since summer of 2007... Hard to believe my avatar will be four years old :( Time goes by so very fast.

I have done a lot, I have tried a lot. I have experimented with theories. I have studied statistics. I have successfully been in profit mode numerous time... But like all of us do, I get greedy from time to time and want to go big or go home... I have not hit it big on there yet.

I am not perhaps widely known in EU yet, as fame has not reached me. However, I have done some trading part time as well... And if you must know, my identity in EU is Goldbaron Goldbaron357 Maximus. Goldbaron is a nickname I've always used since I am a real life gold prospector... Yes, I have caught the gold fever, and one of the main attractions to Entropia is the fact it is a real cash economy, and one that I can mine all year round in regardless of the weather, though it is nothing like actually being out there and finding real gold! My gold prospecting blog if it interests you is located at http://goldbaron.blogspot.com/.

I plan to post anywhere from two to four times a week, depending on what material I have to bring to your attention. I don't want to go for quantity, I just want to have quality. Information that you can depend on.

As for hunting on Planet Calypso, my advice is, DONT. I have several thousand peds worth of crafting and mining globals and hofs, but despite hitting levels in the 20's for weaponry from hunting, I have but one global hunting and it was only a 50 some pedder. As compared to a level XX gazzurdite on TI North a couple years ago, which gave me 904 peds in TT value. That is my biggest hit to date. Don't let my small numbers fool you though. I would rather hit constant profits than to hit a few big finds in between big losses.

Over the next couple days expect new posts from me, in an effort to get this blog underway, and attract some readers.