Some Words of Caution; Don't be a Lemming

 There are so many new players in Entropia, presumably from people being stuck home looking for new fun things to do. A couple years ago it was only ever the same names running around. Now, its almost all players I've never even heard of before. In fact, for a few months, I've seen nothing but new names everywhere I go, which is good, it means the game isn't dying, but rather growing quite well it would appear. 

So, this is intended for those newer players. Just a few pieces of advice and common sense to consider.

Beware that misinformation does exist in a few places once in a while. There are people that have it in their minds that if they can't loot something it doesn't exist, or if x equipment works great for y mob, then that is the best gear for it and no one should use anything but that. The fact is, you can sometimes make slight changes to what is considered "the best there is". Everyone loves Ghost and 5B plates for Atrox. Nothing wrong with that. But you also have to consider do you want one suit of armor for each couple mobs you hunt? Or do you want to find a suit of armor that averages out nicely for those mobs you typically hunt so that you don't need to tie up money in several sets of armor? In my case, robots are my best looting mob, and the differences between Vigilante armor and Ghost aren't so far apart that I can't use it for Atrox, too. And yes, it drives people crazy that I run around in Vigi with 5B plates for Trox; but I just can't see having several different sets of armor when I can have one that is acceptable for everything I do. 

There are some very high end rewards sometimes for a few very, very, long grinds. If you find something epic, that you absolutely want to work for, yes, you will have earned it by the time you get it. For example, there are people doubting the smuggler armor even exists. Oh, it absolutely exists; there was a full set on display in a booth in Ark Underground for a short while. I regret not taking a screenshot of it. But it is character bound, and there is a very, very small chance of looting a piece when running a warehouse. MA has a mob maturity connection to the type of loot and chance of that loot dropping so I am assuming the greatest chance of obtaining the smuggler armor would be from Warehouse 4. But do not for a moment think it doesn't exist and cannot be obtained. It is, in my opinion, the most epic of the gear one can possibly try to obtain, though it isn't mission related per se. You do have to unlock warehouses by doing all 6 stages of Wombana for Warehouse 1, Navi for 2, Badger for 3, and Togolossi for 4. You can expect to spend a couple years to complete all four of those through stage 6. But then you also have have to have two piles of 500 peds TT worth of Arkoin to buy the smuggler clothes to be accepted as a smuggler, but there is no sense in doing that until youve done at least one of the stage 6s. I will do a post soon going into depth on Warehouse 1 so you can know better what to expect and what you are getting yourself into.

On another note, sometimes there are missions to obtain gear from NPCs; which is to say if you have the required loot items, you can turn them in and get your stuff without having to have it drop from a mob or after so much grinding on mob. MA can, and does, break NPC's once in a while when they do updates or patches. Most notably is, the armor NPC on Planet Cyrene is non-responsive. So, people hoarded up all the animal parts and loot to "craft" their uber armor, and the patch came, now they are stuck with the parts, and there is a rather limited amount of the uber armor sets. For how good the various armors are, they are a tremendous bargain. But no one knows if or when the NPC will be fixed, and people aren't so eager to sell or trade the armor they do have now. So, the lesson here is, as soon as something rolls out that you are very interested in, go for it right away because eventually it will get nerfed.

And I suppose the last main thing here to cover is... Eco vs non-eco. Well. I've never had a good return playing eco. I know everyone worries about being as eco as possible. There comes a certain point at which being eco will cost you more for the gear than you will ever save in costs. Do a few runs eco, do a few runs uneco, track everything, and decide for yourself. Ultimately you need to do your own trial and error, and testing. What works for one player will not work for everyone else. No two players with the same gear and the same skills will loot the same way or have the same chance at the same loot. Just the way the game is, and this is my 14 years of playing the game and observing and looking for similarities and differences between what's happening to me vs what is happening to others. Don't be afraid to try a different combination of gear, and seek to find that which works best in your situation.

And sweating... Well... If you are insistent upon non-depositing, by all means I won't stop you. But it is a long slow grind to get much accomplished that way. You likely will spend more on electricity to run your computer than you will make off the sweat. So, my first day playing the game I put $10 in and played on that for right around a full year. Well, as a totally new player, you can only spend so much and do so much.

I will sign off now, and I will get into some more specific, detailed and informative posts shortly.

The Auction Trap: How not to screw yourself and the economy over!

It has come to my attention, that there are those of you who are unfamiliar with how an economy functions. Prices are collapsing on things that should not become TT food and I am going to do my best to help you prevent that from happening.

It wouldn't be so bad if supply and demand were strictly what was governing the auctions on Entropia... Well... So some degree, I guess it is. But there is something you need to know and realize:

It isn't just Entropia that is having a sluggish auction. eBay is functioning just as badly as Entropia right now. You can list hundreds of items and if one or two sell you are lucky... And it isn't just at market prices, it's even if you slash your prices.

You see... If no one is buying what you are selling, you won't sell it for any price. There is a grave mistake being made in thinking if you price something low enough it will sell quickly. That is clearly not happening. Molisk teeth and buttons have suffered a full 100% slide in the last week or two since Halloween Mayhem started. Why? There just aren't many people using them right now, but all of you molisk grinders are desperate to sell your teeth because loot is so bad. So, what do you do? You post yours for 20 points under the going rate, or even 50 points. The next guy desperate to sell his does the same, pricing below yours which is already ridiculously low. Now, we have the reverse of a bidding war. At some point, yes, people who normally use a bunch of them will start buying them up for peanuts maybe.. But that is a big maybe.

It is ok to undercut the competition by a ped or two or a few percent. But it is reckless to undercut it by a ridiculous margin trying to force a sale. Just accept the fact that if no one needs what you are selling, it isn't going to sell. There are more people after a quick ped, than there are people willing to speculate or gamble on buying cheap stuff to resell later. Why do you think traders like giving 150% for molisk teeth? Because they know even at 200% they will make something on them.

It will take just as long to sell your goods at the lowest price on AH as it will to sell at a ridiculously lowest price on AH. Markup is THE ONLY way you are going to come out ahead in EU. Well... There's a bit more to it than that, but I can't tell you much. Just know that if you can do everything in EU at TT costs, you are probably going to do great in the long run. And yes, after 8 years in the game you learn a few things. And if I were going to share the details it would be in a guide and it would cost you a few bucks, afterall, it takes money to make money.

Just understand that the auction isn't what it used to be. Just like eBay isn't what it used to be. Those people who paid 100's of thousands of dollars for a grilled cheese sandwhich with the virgin mary on it aren't around any more. Those ridiculous things that used to sell all the time don't sell any more. Entropia, is having much the same problem. Ubers are getting pinched by loot, and when the hofs are only about as big as the cost to kill a mob it comes from, you know it's only a matter of time until everyone is in the same boat.

If you are going to sell cheap and quick, filling orders will do more for you than wholesaling what you have to sell on the open auction, and it won't destroy the markup so badly.

Getting More for your TT Food! Auction Advice

While I am doing monotonous things like hunting... Yes, to me it is monotonous... I randomly think of things I don't consciously consider, and then I figure ok now I have something to blog about. Which, is why I am posting now.

A lot of people get a lot more markup for things that otherwise are sold to the trade terminal. The reason this works is because if you need a few pecs worth of a certain ingredient in a huge 10 or 20 ped or more per click craft, it's ok to pay 200% for tt food. If you are dropping several peds per click, or in some cases maybe a ped or two, it won't really affect your outcome much at all. You have two options. Buy in bulk so that you can get it "cheap", but why buy 4,000 ingots of lyst when you need 40 of them? Or buy what you need so that all those peds you would otherwise tie up are free for the main ingredients so you can get more clicks in your run.

So, when you are determining what you can get for smaller lots of "tt food"... Consider when you were crafting. What were you buying and what percentages were you paying for your small lots? Chances are similar lots for similar markups will continue to sell. Convenience is a service. Small lots can be convenient. So, the extra markup is the natural cost incurred by convenience, especially since you still have auction fees to contend with.

The only long term profits tend to come from markups. Not always, but, generally. I know the exceptions are rare but I do know of a very small few. Basically if you can make an extra few peds every hunt, thats an extra few peds you won't have to deposit later.

Go through, write down a list of materials youve bought in small quantities and the price range youve paid for them. This will give you a working guide from which to base future listings on. Certain wools and cloths are good for around 120 to 150% in small lots. Leathers.. Wood... Anything you can't generally do something with.

I hope this gives you some encouragement when deciding what to do with your hunting loot. Good luck!

Mining Advice 7-26-13

A lot of you have told me that none of my tips and advice are really helping mining results. Well,, I think the mining algorithms may be busted or bugged and MA isn't fixing them. Mining is NOT anywhere near stable or reliable. Looking at Entropia Life, will tell you that something is clearly wrong. Look at the numbers for crafting and hunting. Then look at mining. If that doesn't indicate something is broken I don't know what does. The numbers for mining have never been lower, and I know a LOT of people spending more peds than ever before mining including myself. I've burned hundreds of amps and have never hoffed while amped. All my big mining hofs were unamped. Even the little ones. I don't know what is up.

Now... I got tired of dropping 50 bombs and not hitting any ore claims. So, I decided the hell with it, I will drop combo probes and look for both ores and enmats. The minute I started doing this, I started hitting tons of claims. My returns are around 90% if I combo drop. I am on RT currently, but my advice is you will want to hit Ark for denser claims, or Caly just because it's easier to get markup on your mined materials. MARKUP should NEVER be underestimated in your total returns. Without markup, you are doomed.

If you don't normally solo drop, try solo dropping. If you don't normally try combo dropping, try combo dropping. If you are doing badly at something you normally do good on, try the opposite. The system apparently is so dynamic that anything different than usual can produce good results.

Also, I tend to do better on Level 3 amps than I do with say a level 7 or 8. I can actually global on a level 3 but I have barely been getting globals on 7s or 8s.. It seems screwed up but if you are losing your shirt on big amps, try some smaller ones :-)

CLD Payout Update

I never wanted to buy CLD's. I never have. Instead, I have a different plan in mind... Let's just say I am... Speculating on some things in Entropia Universe that I am not willing to divulge at this time at peril of it throwing a monkey wrench into my possible opportunity. I also don't want to go on the record and start any rumors from my theories which may or may not be true. However, I know a lot of the importance of my blog is in providing you with actual working theories to improve your returns, so please expect in the next few days my new posts that I will reveal some patterns that have proven true 100% of the time. Even that said, they are still theories since there is no way to know for sure, other than their results, which indeed seem to corroborate them. It is time to get back to business as usual, here at Entropia Universe Guide.

While the 50 cent per week dividends that were common in the beginning of the program, per CLD, are far far better returns than any savings account or certificate of deposit with any bank... Mind Ark is not guaranteed to remain solvent in the amount of time it would require for the CLD's to actually return their initial investment, which was about 3 years, now I suspect more like 5 years.

The initial terms were, 50% of the profits from Calypso to be paid evenly among the CLD holders.

When the earnings reports and all were made public, turns out that MA has dropped it from 50% to 30%. This information came from a few concerned CLD holders. If this information proves in error I will correct this posting.

There is nothing to guarantee MA will maintain a certain payout ratio. They seem to change terms on the fly, with no prior notices. They don't even give us notice in advance when there is going to be an update!!! Well, unless you count the "Servers will be offline in 30 minutes" in red chat text... And maybe, maybe from checking the support tab a day before they update... But most times I can't find any information on the updates until a few days AFTER they already took the servers down and patched. I would like to see them be more forthcoming with what future patches will hold, and what day they will go into effect.

As far as investment opportunities are concerned, just keep in mind that CLD's are on par with Stocks. They can be a good value one day, and worthless the next. Anything you have in Entropia, you should expect can be lost. With that in mind, you should never put in anything you cannot afford to safely lose, and you certainly cannot go by past performance to be an indicator of future performance.

With that, this is the "Goldbaron" signing off.

January 2013 New Years Advice, Comments, Etc.

I am sorry I was unable to get here to wish you all happy holidays and a merry new year... But here we are, another year gone where I don't know, but let's hope time slows down a bit so we can enjoy life. I swear, the clock starts spinning any faster might as well hook a generator to it... That's just about how bad time seems to fly any more.

There are a few issues I want to touch on.

A. Yes, the Android app is working from what I am told. I hear people might be having issues with it but it is working. As of now, you do not need to have your blueprints in books to be able to use them at the crafting terminal. This may change, who knows. And from what I see, it doesn't seem to matter what planet my prints are on, I seem perfectly able to use them, which makes sense. An app like this needs global access to all your items if it is to work. But who knows where things will end up after a while with the way MA tinkers with stuff.

B. Mining is inexplicably volatile and high risk. EVEN ON CALYPSO, you can go 50 bombs without a claim. This is ridiculous. And the software doesn't exactly do anything to balance it out either. If I didn't know any better I would say MA fubared the mining grid and won't come forward and admit to it. On the other hand, I visited FOMA. Please, don't be foolish enough to go there. Do so at your own risk. I paid 150 peds for a V oil before I realized why I vowed never to go back to FOMA, but I decided it couldn't have stayed that bad forever... Ummm yeah right. FOMA is definitely having issues. If you do go, you are going to want at least 10,000 drops for it to average out. I have done 1,000 drop amped runs without so much as a global, so it is forseable that 10K drops MIGHT give you a shot at something. But if you ask me, it's not worth the stress. There are a few things I can tell you... 1. You cannot buy a hof. 2. You cannot buy a global. They seem to happen on their own accord. So don't plan on being able to hit anything just because you are running big amps.

C. ROCKTROPIA: Loot is infinitely better balanced for me on RT. That said, it may not be for you or the next guy. Instead of 25% returns like is normal for me on Caly no matter what I do these days, RT actually keeps me around the 80% and up range on a run, doesn't matter if I craft, mine, or hunt. So I want to applaud the RT team for keeping a fair and balanced planet.

Mining advice: The F103 seems to be golden in Hell, and it is definitely doing better than the 105 on the surface for me. In general the ores on RT are shallower than elsewhere... Not saying you won't hit well with a deep finder of course... But I've tried most finders on RT, and the F103 is the one I keep going back to when I am there. If you are not doing well on RT, try either the Demonic or the F103, I think you will notice a big difference. And I still have not hit a SOOTO on RT.

Crafting: The RT armor prints, and tool prints available at the technician are quite cheap per click to craft, and I notice I gain more skill on RT than elsewhere. If you want to cheaply skill, clicking these prints on RT might be the answer. It certainly seems to be for me, and even on full condition crafting I can usually break even or profit even on a short run.


If there is ANY resources you need, and you are on RT... Please do us a favor and place orders for it... I mean, when we don't see anything listed on the AH, and we don't see orders, we don't tend to know someone needs it unless we advertise in Lagoon and someone speaks up. If we know something is in demand we are less likely to TT it or "give" it to a trader for peanuts.

Hunting: I can definitely say that my loot is best with ARK weaponry... Who knows why, but I see a huge difference in loot between various guns... And Arkadia guns always give me the best % return so far of anything.

D. ARKADIA: Treasure hunting was good to me last year, I know it's been a while already since I been there doing that, but, the only SOOTO's I've had in about two years came from ARK, and were vases.

The keys, I did try last winter. I am happy with how it works... But I had just ran through all the mobs to get to the end and fight the boss... Apparently... All those little mobs on the way, loot from the goes into one of the treasure chests. The other treasure chest just has the boss item and what not... So as it turns out I didn't end up having much of a haul on my attempts. Now, I guess they changed things so you can't really just bypass the mobs on the way... At least is what I heard, and I am not uber enough to bother doing another key... Well I just don't have good enough gear for hunting. I am a miner, crafter... Hunting is a joke... Anyone want a good laugh, look me up on entropialife... Hunting is the biggest damn joke I ever did see.

E. HELL: I am impressed with my hit rates in hell. They are reminiscent of the hit rates I had on the asteroid before Foma ended up with it... i.e. I can hit at least once in 10 to 20 drops, instead of 50/50 chance of hitting one claim with 200 drops on FOMA :P Seriously, that is literally how bad FOMA is for me. Beginning to think the only way to hof there would be to have someone at MA tell you where to bomb.

One thing I have noticed... If you can't hit a claim fairly close to the TP, you probably won't in the rest of the dome, at least for many drops. If you are doing badly, just drop a few bombs around each TP and see what happens. You have nothing to lose if you are losing already!

MISC:

They are practically giving Marber Bravos away now... +90 peds mu! Seriously! At least thats the most recent one I seen... I heard of them selling even cheaper. Used to be +200 for one. It makes me wonder what other opportunities are out there.
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I am not sure if there is a way out of the Prison on RT now or not... The TP was there, then it wasn't, and I don't honestly know if it is back yet... But before you go to prison on RT.. Just make sure you have some Mind Essence and a TP chip so that you can TP out even if someone hid the TP!
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I know officially there are no personal loot pools... But I don't see how. It is obvious something is personal with us and MA... My loots seemingly are "capped". In 6 years time... Of running big amps, small amps, no amps, full condition crafting, quantity crafting... Hunting big mobs, little mobs... I have ONLY broken through the 1,000 ped level ONCE. I have only gone past 500 peds, three or four times. What is keeping me capped? I have plenty of skill... I've deposited plenty... The fact I have an invisible glass ceiling above my loot must in and of itself indicate my loots are tied to my avatar. Whether they want to call it a personal loot pool or not, it has the same effect.
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 I dunno, I thought I had more stuff to report, but too many things on my mind to sort out. I have one more post to do for today, and then after couple days I will get back to quality posts on specific issues and advice. I know a few recent posts have been quite general and nothing really special... It is time we get back to business and help you all prosper a bit more easily. Which,, interestingly enough has a lot to do with my next post!

Land Area Taxes... My Opinions

I see land owners are becoming greedy and upping their taxes. Is there no sense of competition? I have quit mining on land areas with rates pushed into the 5% bracket. I am sure many of you have to. I have no problem at all with a tax rate in the 2's and 3's. But 1.1% isn't a huge difference you say... No, it's not... But it is enough to determine whether you run a profit or a loss at times.

If land areas who have 5% taxes cut to even 3.5%, I would bet almost anything that your revenues will double.

It's kind of like the paytable on video poker. 6-5 Jacks or Better pays close to 94% on the long run if played properly. Gamblers don't take it seriously. I sure don't. I rather play slot machines than such a bad paytable on video poker. Full pay is 99.56% on the long run, which is a 9-6 Jacks or Better paytable. What does this have to do with land area taxes? A lot...

See...

A casino will actually make more off full pay machines than they will by trying to cut the payback of the machine by altering the pay table. The people who take the game seriously and will spend countless hours on them, will be going somewhere else doing something else, and the game is only making money if someone is running money through it.

Likewise, I do not take 5% land areas seriously. But... If hunting taxes are LOWER than mining taxes... I REFUSE to support that land owner with my mining. The whole game is slanted towards hunting, leaving mining in the dust. And they wonder why there aren't many miners any more. Also... If I come accross your land area and you do not have a list of what ores and enmatters have been found there, I am not likely to stick around. If I know whats there, I know what finder to bring, and whether or not it is worth bothering with.

I guess in principle, The difference between 3% and 5% is greed, and greed will never get you anywhere. And I will not support anyone that is greedy. I know land area owners want to make money... But I see almost 0 in the way of effort for marketing and advertising, events, etc. You will only get out of something what you put into it, and just because it's there doesn't mean you will have customers. You have to do something to bring them in, not alienate them and drive them off. I used to mine a lot in miner's heaven. The mobs came in, and sorry, Kanerium or not, I will mine elsewhere.

The success of land areas relies on understanding your customers, why they are going there, and making things so that they don't stop going there. If you make major changes to how you are running things, expect to lose customers... But you should be sure that you will pick up more new ones than old ones you will lose.

Arkadia Key 1: My First Experiences in Aakas

Well... I have ventured back to Ark to finally try the treasurehunting. I am glad to be able to report that my returns are much higher on treasure than doing ores and enmatters, but due to the larger cost per drop, you may need a larger ped roll to be able to absorb the ups and downs of doing treasure only as compared to ore or enmatters. I do not like running combo drops, because like I said before, MA would not have given us the ability to run multiple types on our finders if it didn't add to their profit margin. It is just simple common sense. Also, you have to bear in mind that a finder that is geared for ores in a certain area is not going to be as effective at finding enmats. Every serious miner knows certain tools for certain places to find certain things is what is effective.

But...

I want to say yes, the keys are like the beacons. If you have ANY lag or have to run on reduced settings for normal game play, you probably will NOT be satisfied with your results attempting a key. They are pure bloatware, I mean, I have to shoot in first person with RIGHT CLICKING because frame rate is so low I can't hit anything aiming and shooting, right clicking at least only shoots when a target is lined up!

Do not attempt them with a slow internet connection. Best results, use hard wired. I have less lag on hard wires than with wifi. Also, if your wifi craps out you will lose valuable time.

If your system resources are not sufficient enough to keep up with the key runs, you will crash frequently and often. If this happens, you may attempt compensating by clearing your shader cache in the launcher options. This is what cured the crashing for me.

Last night I attempted doing one of these on dialup at home. BAD idea. Lagged out constantly. Finally it kicked me out and the next morning I log in to find my 20 peds for the key was refunded. NOTE: If you are paying for a higher key, with huge markup, (even though the keys are UL, apparently they are only one time uses, so you do not get them back), and they give you a refund, You better open a support ticket and ask them for the key back due to the high markup. On the ark 1 keys, the +2 peds is nothing really, for the hassle of trying to get them to replace the key and all.

In the ark 1 run, you will have level 2 snakes that I can one or two shot with the herman ark 10. The grasshopper things are pretty much two or three shots, but I am using the CB 13, which one shots everything except for the level 6 Ubos... They are kind of a pain because they hit hard, probably doing acid damage which I am not protected against. You must make it down four levels. Once you reach bottom you go out through the center of the underground complex, and under the big statue, into the other side... You keep going and you will find the treasure room. There will be a bunch of snakes. You must kill 8 of them or 10 of them to spawn the Dahar soldier or whatever it is called. It looks like those same statues standing in the main room with all the doors where you entered the run.

He is very much a pain, I did not have time to defeat him due to about 30 minutes of crashing trying to make it work. And I wasted much unnecessary time... But now I have learned what I must know and will reattempt it. You will find two treasure chests. I am not 100% positive as to whether or not the loot not gotten in the previous run is added to the chests in the next one, but I can only imagine it would be.

A team of noobs should easily handle this run. It is soloable if you just make a team put someone on it that doesn't want to go, and go by yourself, if you have decent weapons, fap, armor and high frame rate. You do respawn fairly close to the boss mob at least, which is good because you can keep running in... But I am not sure also on the mob boss's regeneration or anything, so I may need to do some research at this point.

Those of you that do not have Aakas... You must head towards the southwest of the desert area, but the exact spot can be found on entropedia.info.

Good luck and happy treasure hunting!

CRAFTING: A look at risk vs rewards

I had obtained several HMAP and Fire of Hel bp's, and had about 500 peds to work with, so I decided ok... Time to do what I never have done much... Take a big ticket item (Compared to BSM and Settler Shins, which by the way still hold my personal number 1 hof in crafting, is an uber expensive couple of prints to click... And I did them on full condition. I had a rather remarkable run of luck, was actually somewhat global spamming. No hofs though.

The only logical conclusions that can be drawn:

1. The more expensive the TT clicks are, the more likely a hof or global will happen, and the more often they will happen.

2. If you are going to do full condition, you want to be able to do a significant number of clicks. If you risk everything on just a few, you may hit it big but most likely will go broke. I did a full condition 1600 click run on BSM, it took me 400 clicks before ANYTHING, EVEN RESIDUE on partial successes dropped. Literally 400 dry clicks. Then, I started globalling every few hundred clicks. Had I only did a 400 click run, on full condition, I would have been broke.

3. Yes, it takes nerves of iron on a crap run, but if the run is long enough it will balance out somehow. Unfortunately it might be days or weeks later if you can't run a big enough run :(

4. If you want less volatility and a safer return percentage, keep the slider in the green. As long as it is green, I've always done ok. If I do full condition, its either a really good run or a VERY bad run. So this is why you need a very big run for it to balance out.

5. I think a lot of people start getting disgusted on expensive clicks with little coming out and quit before the big one hits, but, theoretically, you might quit after 500 clicks, but the 5000th click might be the ATH. You just don't know. So, I firmly believe that every click you do, every bomb you drop, every mob you shoot, brings you closer to hitting something big. For one thing, it is statistically impossible to go forever and not hof, and not global if you are turning the peds over.

6. The only way to get big hofs, is to turn over a LOT of ped. And a LOT of clicks. Even on quantity, if you turn over enough ped and clicks, a big one will happen.

I know it is hard to not get discouraged... My best advice if you are ONLY seeking uber hofs and don't care about the item being made, your best returns seem to be doing those prints which A. are done the most, and B. have the lowest Markup on materials. The system is designed to figure everything in TT values, and any markup is simply a user to user transaction, and well... Any markup on any loot is what has come out of someone elses pocket, or yours for that matter.

A lot of this is common sense at least to me... But if any of this information is helpful to anyone in any way, I am glad to have shared it.

One region versus Moving All Over

Something for you to think about... In my own experience, and everyone may have some different results too... But just in my own play style I can tell you that focusing on one area and doing 90% of my hunting mining and crafting has done better return wise over the long run than moving from TP to TP to TP and hoping I am in the right place at the right time.

See, it's like this. If I spend all of my time on Treasure Island, then it is safe to say that all of my hofs, globals, and ATH's will be on Treasure Island. If I move around a lot, I won't know where to focus on, and I will waste my resources trying to figure it out.

So, I may have covered this, but when I got my four digit hof of 1322 cobalt... I spent one month solid on Treasure Island. Did ALL of my crafting, hunting, and mining on TI. All of my ped turnover was on TI. What I noticed was, over time, my average loot increased a little, average global sizes increased, frequency increased, not just mining, but crafting too. I hit the hof, and kept doing alright. As soon as I started moving around and TP jumping frequently, returns went BAD. Now, I am starting to focus on one area again, and on the average, it is working better for me.

So,,, If you can't get good returns... I suggest you pick one area, focus on it for maybe a week or two, and just see if something big doesn't happen for you too :-)

Afterall.. You probably won't lose any more than you already have lost!

But if you pick an area, Please note what resources are there, and use a finder appropriate to finding that stuff for best results!

Treasure Hunting Arkadia: Will It Ever Be Released?

I am GREATLY frustrated. The KEY element ensuring the success and driving the anticipation behind Arkadia was TREASURE HUNTING. I remember last year the release date was expected to be August. Obviously that didn't happen. But guess what?! I just read on the forums that the new expected date of arrival is JUNE OF THIS YEAR! Well... Multiply it by a few more years and it MIGHT be out by then.

You can't advertise something that isn't true. Arkadia is NOT a treasure hunting MMO. It WILL be if they ever get off their a$$e$ and make it happen. If they are having trouble figuring out what items to make as treasure, and what can be done with them, well, just listen to everyone's suggestions!

I think it would be great, especially with gold at $1,750 an ounce, to slip a few 1 gram, or 1/10th ounce bars of gold into the loot pool to be found while treasure hunting, and ship them out. This would be a great way to kickstart the treasure hunting. And the cost of a one ounce bar of silver to slip in the loot pool would only be about $35 right now... So you give a few hundred peds in real treasure to your prospectors... Do you know how popular this would make Arkadia? Virtual treasure is fine, but it seems to me, if you have a real cash economy, you might as well throw in some real treasures as well.. I mean, they throw in laptops to the mining pool... SERIOUSLY!

There are so many great things that can be done... IF THEY DON'T SCREW IT UP. Please voice your ideas to their development team... If you like any of mine, the more of you passing them on the more likely they will listen to popular demand. The old adage in business is, the customer is always right. Customer choices and habits, also desires dictate what directions companies will take their products. Otherwise, if you run your company the same way a government operates, you might put snorkels on airplanes!!! It is ridiculous and an inefficient waste of resources. But that's what happens when companies don't listen to their customers.

I am sorry to ramble. I see a lot of hits coming in from people wanting to know about Arkadia and the treasure hunting. It is very irritating to me that it is not here. I went to Arkadia because I thought that next vu it would be out and I wanted to be there the first day and see what could be found. But it never happened. And I lost too many peds waiting to see. I also had a bad experience with eBay and a customer, you may check my eBay blog to read about that if you are curious.

But... Now that I have vented... Let's get back to business as usual, shall we?

Also, I want to thank all of you for making this blog a big success. The traffic I generate on a daily basis here is mind blowing for me. Never in a hundred years did I expect to start a blog or site that would bring in upwards of 200 hits on a good day most of them unique. If you have a website you would like to advertise, I am willing to negotiate terms to give you your own placement for your ad on this blog for a month, or a year at a time. It will cost, but where else do you have such a niche of targeted traffic? Otherwise I will just keep running the current ads.

I plan to streamline the look of this blog soon, but I am currently authoring several books that will be released on Kindle, hence you may have noticed my poll. I expect to upload my first finished book to Amazon today. It is about real life gold prospecting, and no doubt a post on it will soon follow on my prospecting blog.

Just as our environment has random variables, and certain laws of physics... The fact that Entropia is a computer program does not negate the fact that it too is an environment much like our own, with certain rules and laws that govern how it operates. This leads to peculiar and unique patterns in prospecting there too. It is not as scientific as real life prospecting is, but somehow, I can't help but feel my vast knowledge and love of prospecting has translated into my success where prospecting in Entropia is concerned.

It is further sad to note... That after running my sluice box for an hour, the dollar amount present in the cleanup even from poor gravel, is anywhere from 50 to 200 peds worth, and my best day of prospecting in todays value yielded what would have been around 3800 peds in game if I were to have sold and deposited my gold.

But still... There is a unique excitement in seeing those large roman numerals showing up on your finder. It isn't the same as seeing a nugget in your pan... But unfortunately may be the closest thing you will ever experience to hitting the motherlode.

Advice: Containers & Organizing Your Blueprints

Well..+This+is+not+what+I+would+consider+a+high+priority+topic%2C+but+when+a+writer+has+an+idea+he+hasn%27t+covered+and+one+that+most+people+don%27t+think+about%2C+he+does+what+he+knows+best...+Write%21%0D%0A%0D%0AI+have+probably+120+items+in+my+inventory+on+my+character+at+any+given+time.+100+of+those+items+are+blueprints%2C+and+blueprint+books.+I+don%27t+like+going+anywhere+without+my+entire+collection...+But+as+the+Entropiaverse+expands%2C+some+day+it+won%27t+be+possible+and+I+must+form+a+new+plan.%0D%0A%0D%0AWell...+You+remember+those+christmas+boxes+you+got%3F+If+you+didn%27t+get+one+the+MU+is+pretty+low+for+it+actually+being+a+container%2C+and+containers+command+HUGE+prices+on+Entropia%2C+but+for+a+good+reason.+See%2C+item+limitations.+Also%2C+it+takes+forever+for+inventories+and+storage+to+load+if+you+have+too+much+stuff+in+a+given+window.+Now+if+only+they+would+let+us+label+the+boxes+so+we+can+know+what+we+put+in+which+one+without+having+to+go+through+them+one+by+one+til+we+find+the+box+we+need.%0D%0A%0D%0AYou+might+decide+to+put+all+your+calypso+prints+in+one+box%2C+and+other+planets+in+their+respective+boxes.+Or+maybe+they+all+fit+in+one+box.+Up+to+you.%0D%0A%0D%0ABut...+When+you+have+complex+items+you+want+to+craft...+I+find+that+containers+make+budgeting+for+your+crafting+run+much+simpler.+Suppose+you+are+hunting+for+materials+to+craft+with.+You+simply+put+what+you+need+in+your+container+and+then+there+is+no+risk+of+TTing+something+accidentally.+And+by+putting+each+project+in+it%27s+own+box%2C+you+don%27t+have+to+worry+about+not+having+all+your+materials+when+you+go+to+craft.+Nothing+worse+than+getting+all+set+up+at+the+terminal%2C+to+find+that+you+are+missing+one+ingredient+or+another.%0D%0A%0D%0AThe+possibilities+are+enbxbox%n8rtemUiite+honest...+And+being+more+organized+has+actually+made+my+gaming+experience+many+times+better%21

New Planets, New Frontiers, New Opportunities

It was recounted to me a couple years ago how many of what we would now call "Ubers", the ones running around with 5 and 6 digits of markup on their weapons armor and other tools... Made their pile of Peds simply by having started early on, in the beginning of Entropia. It is unknown how many people are included in this group, but I often wonder when I see screenshots of hofs with astronomical ped balances... How'd they do it? Simple... A lot of what USED to be just every day cheap items, became scarce but highly desireable when the Entropia Universe took off and became more and more populated. There was a... Boom in markups and demand for things, especially weapons. I am told some players capitalized on this drastic rise in prices that occured many years ago already.

It was probably 2009 when I was told of this.  The source of the information came from a player who himself had done this, taken advantage of common things becoming uncommon and valuable. It is quite possible that same person may actually read this and maybe not remember having talked to me about it... But I want to open everyones eyes to the future. NOW is the furthest back in time we will ever be. How's that for something to ponder?

Right now we are seeing infant worlds, much how Calypso started out to be sure... Except there is a huge difference. Calypso did not have other planets already successful from which to spinoff and use as a foundation. Rocktropia, Arkadia, Next Island... All are able to lean on Calypso, a well established economy and solid player base. There is no way that any planet will fail so long as this strong foundation remains. However, there is still great opportunity.

Over the years, many tools, weapons, have been changed, or eliminated. Some things quit dropping. And some of those items are worth a great fortune in peds to the lucky few who own them.We do not know what Rocktropia weapons or tools will become rare or valuable... Certainly, it will do so to a lesser extent than was seen in the earlier days of Entropia... But nothing is 100% right at the beginning. Take a look at your favorite television series. Compare say, seasons one and two, to seasons five or seven... Don't you notice something? The components making up that show begin to grow together and flow more smoothly, while at the beginning, no one knew for sure what direction things would take. If you compare the early days of Entropia to now... You can definitely see the point I am making here. Things have came together smoothly for Calypso. But now, we embark on the other planets journeys. It will take a few years, but they will get them ironed out.

Right now, yes, there is a lot of loot out there that has no use at present. Hopefully this will be fixed. But learn the lesson that has already been observed... Android Gears were dropping by the piles, but there was no use for them so they were TTd. Now their drop rate is so low that they command a 6200% markup on orders. The same thing can happen with other components that are dropping.

But what I am really writing about now is this: Look to the future. Based on what you know... What items do you feel are going to be valuable and needed perhaps by yourself or someone else? What weapons are cheap now but have the potential of going up a lot? I know L weapons make it a moot point... Being L, they are no longer items so much as they are commodities. A half condition Isis CB5 (L) at 250% is no different from a full condition Isis CB5 (L) at 200%. It's a commodity. It comes down to X gun is only worth about Y markup. Unlimited items and tools and weapons is where there is a lot of room for profits. For instance... No one in their right mind would hunt with a L weapon that costs 10K% MU. But... A UL weapon that is +5K peds... + 100K peds... If it is worth it to the person that has the money, and they want it bad enough, they can keep it as long as it suits them.

The message I am trying to put out to all of you is this:

You will probably not see ridiculous price increases especially in light of the bad economy and also with more planets, there being more competition between "brands", and what may be expensive from one planet's product line, the equivalent may be much cheaper from another planet, and people will always compare.  But there will still be a few items of which only a few will ever exist, and these, if you can get them early enough, and hang on to them, there is profit to be had.

But when looking at items, always bear in mind that all as it is now, shall not forever remain. Those items you refused to hold onto might be a small gold mine some day like those Android Gears... Or... Maybe that 800% ore will turn to TT food as has happened before too. But at TT prices, one can only go up!

Also... I speak this last paragraph from my own experience... If you are doing so badly that you find yourself TTing things you wouldnt have dreamt of TTing... It's too late and your luck is too bad for that few peds to save you. Rather, you should find other sources of peds, that those items will be of more value to you later than now.

ROCKTROPIA: Loot and Opportunity

There are a lot of materials in very high demand but very low supply... Auction house is full of high markup listings... 6000% MU for Vixen Gears... 500% MU for rocktropia records... 180% for Silver Shakers...

A lot of things that I loot I hold onto because it will be far too costly to get them the day when I ned them. But out of desparation for peds... I've listed maybe 15 peds TT of loot i've saved... Well... With MU I am looking at about 70 or 80 peds!

The big items drop more frequently on Rocktropia than on Calypso in my opinion. But the little things like components and materials don't loot so much. But on calypso... I've hunted a whole week and never had a loot over 10 peds. On Rocktropia, I have at least one 25 or 35 ped loot a day, and mostly all are easy mobs, at least if you stick below level 15.

The droprates on items may be changd, who knows...  But prices are up, so if you can take advantage of this, it would be wise to do so.

ADVICE: One Opportunity You Should Never Pass Up

Every once in a while, you will see someone about to TT their ores and enmatters, and offer to let people buy it for TT. I've seen it more often than you would think possible. Usually oil, lyst, force nexus, etc. Sometime melchi and iron.  Basically anything they dont feel like messing with selling on AH.

NEVER pass up an opportunity to buy anything for TT value whether you need it or not. It is just as good as having peds, and it might be you can resell or fill orders for a little more than you paid.

And something a lot of you might not realize is the harsh reality of trading. If a trader does not feel he can profit off of what you are selling, such as perhaps lyst or oil, then it is most likely he will pay you TT if you have other ores and matters in the trade. If it is just lyst or oil, you can expect they will offer a few pecs extra, because then it's obvious and you just as well could have TTed the lot.

A very patient person, can easily sell Lyst on AH for 115% and up. The most I could reliably sell for was 133%. Sure, it took a day or two to move a few K ingots, but when you get markup on TT food, it makes a HUGE difference in your returns.

If you buy something at TT... The worst that can happen is you get your peds back from recycling it... But someone always needs something and will pay a little extra to get it rather than try to loot for themselves. I've tried looting parts I've needed, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper to buy for a little extra than burn the peds hunting for it.

Don't pass any bargains up, and profits won't pass you up.

ROCKTROPIA: Mining Advice

First... I am going to reconfirm what I already posted about the arctic:

All I can hit there is Oil and Lysterium, but there is such a high density of it all over the place that I'd say if you need lyst or oil, is safe to go there and drop a few probes! And there is a crafting terminal on the great big building next to the one with the hole in the floor that you drop down to hunt Things. I only say this because Lyst and Oil makes Standard Dampers and Basic Filters, and I have had great results crafting in the Arctic.

Second...

I average 1 hit for every 10 drops in Hell. And the smallest claim I get for Ore is a IX, and smallest for EnMatter is VII. I am working on bringing you a comprehensive list of ores in each Hell Mine, as well as the mobs in each one and what their levels are. The hofs and globals seem to be very deep here, with my 105 I was able to hit a blausariam global at about 1100M depth, and my depth enhancers only took me down to 600m. So I got lucky I think.

And Last:

Rocktropia ores and enmatters are incredibly shallow. All my big claims on the surface are between 200 and 600m. So while the Demonic Dector is a Hell blueprint, it doesn't work for crap in Hell, I surmise it might work good on enmatters there, but certainly not so great on ores. On the surface however, yes. You are going to do well with it, and it is pretty easy to craft requiring only Lysterium and Alternative.

But I Surmise that the Z5 and Z10 finders will work great, as will the 103's and 104's. I would love to try an F-211 or a eMine... With what I've seen so far, an F-211 might produce some awesome results! But this is mere speculation.

If you want some great areas with what seems to be high density of Alternative, I will reveal a couple of my choice locations: East of City of Dreams... The stadium construction site... And East and South of Mulholland Way TP.

I have hit Frigulite, Garcen, and Blues at the Construction site... I have hit Melchi and Lytarian along with the Alternative and Lysterium and Blues over by Mulholland. I have even hit Dianthus east of CoD.

FURTHER NOTES:

If you can't hit within the first 3 bombs, go to another area if you aren't seeing skill gains. If seeing skill gains, try a few more and then move if nothing.

If you are getting double and triple skill gains with a single drop, it means you are at the right depth for hitting what is there. 90% of the time I will usually global if I get double and triple gains, on the same finder that I got those gains.

Beware that the game is dynamic, which means everything is a variable and the system changes to fit those variables. I.E. It can't know where we will be mining or what we will be spending, but it can know where to put loot and what to put there for loot. I am beginning to understand more about how the claims spawn. There are certain mobs for instance, that won't respawn unless you kill all of them. Once the last one is killed, then they respawn. Since programmers like to recycle code to save production costs and time, I like to think of Mobs as claims but we don't know if they have loot or not. It is forseeable that before an area will spawn new ore deposits, all existing ones must be hit, or else it will automatically respawn and redistribute them every night during whats known as Lagoclock, since unless you are in a dome, it is unlikely every claim in a given area will be hit.

And if you are having bad luck mining still.. One more place I recommend trying is near London Blockade.

Also, Some days I hit better with combo drops, others, just doing ore or just doing enmatter. If you are doing something and it isn't working, change, and you will get different results, not necessarily better or worse, but different.

Hope this bit of information helps and will tide you over until I can provide something a bit more substantial..

There is quite a bit of info that I have not shared with you and will not until I feel the time is appropriate. A lot of what I have I am still verifying and doing more research.

If any of you wish to contact me or add me to your friends list, feel free to use the Player Register I posted about earlier inside the Entropia Universe and search for Goldbaron Goldbaron357 Maximus. I will be glad to chat with my readers when I am online. I'd like to hear what you think and it would be great if you tell me anything you want to see me to add to this blog. It can be tough writing, because some days you just don't have any ideas, and others, like today, you are clacking away at full speed on a keyboard trying to write everything before you go insane and forget it all!

ROCKTROPIA: My Observations

I have spent quite a bit of time on Rocktropia now... And I am very pleased with it there. There are a lot more quests, and the quests are more rewarding than those on Calypso. Instead of Nova and Blazars, they give you things that actually have TT value, or things that lead to more valuable quests. And the quests themselves are not impossible, though it seems getting some of them to trigger is just about impossible.

Things to remember when doing quests:
If you must find an item for a character, lots of times it must be looted.
If you accidentally cancel a quest, some of them are almost impossible to get back because of how the system is structured.
The quests are location specific. If you get a Quest in city of dreams to kill trolls, killing trolls near say the Hyperplex won't count for your totals.

This is going to be a lot of just general information... More specific things coming soon such as what mines in hell have what ores and matters for instance.

The mobs are looting better and more often than I have seen personally on Calypso... It would seem that Rocktropia is geared more towards building a satisfied following of players than fleecing the flock and treating them like gamblers as Calypso tends to do... So safe to say I feel Rocktropia is under better management. I want to also note, that when Neverdie still owned the asteroid, my loots were never crappy. I mean, I would always hit say 5 or 10 claims in a hundred bombs. After Foma took over, I was lucky to hit one in 200 amped or not. And its not surprising now that I am getting good loots in Hell and RT. I might permanently move to rocktropia, who knows... But one things for sure, the mobs sure look a hell of a lot better :D

What I don't like about mining on Rocktropia is, just a small amount of Rocktropia ores is an immense amount of weight, so the only solution to mining for extended periods of time, is simply to build up your strength using Melee weapons so you can carry more.

When visiting Hunt The Thing, or the Arctic as it is known... You can mine, but bombs can't be bought there if memory serves correctly... So you will have to bring some with you. Only stuff I've hit there is Oil and Lyst, though when you get to the refueling base where you engage The Things, there is a construction terminal next to the supply shed on the bigger building. My crafting has been lucky there in the arctic.

Also, I want to point out, that the shotgun from the Arctic is very cheap and effective against the Rocktropia mobs, mostly. But for the bigger mobs, you want a bigger shotgun!

I am going to call it good for now, but I will be bringing you a great deal of new information that is specific to various issues within the coming days. Happy 2012 to all of you!

ARCTIC Part 2: The Thing Conclusion... Tips

Well... After many hours I finally made it through The Thing quest, and got my arctic helicopter.

I am still not an expert with this quest despite how long it took me. Here are the following issues I ran into:

1. I cannot find any storage terminals in the Arctic. So, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR VEHICLES SPAWNED WHEN YOU LOG OF. They get returned to storage, and NOT to Rocktropia storage either! So I had lost my Arctic Truck to storage. Without it, you are going to have a hard time getting through all of the things gathered along the path to the exit point. It quite possibly may take a trouble ticket with MA to get your truck back if you lose it.

2. When you enter the refueling base, you basically keep to the right, and there is a large building, and a smaller building kind of close to the satellite receiver. Don't worry about fixing this satellite, theres no terminal on it. Instead, you have supply and repair terminals on the side of the buildings there. Inside the smaller building is a hole in the floor that you are to drop down and you will find underground tunnel with Things all over.

3. It does appear that your Armor works from Calypso. My shogun was doing an admirable job, but that could just be from my defensive skills who knows. Supposedly only the arctic armor should work, but who knows really. In any case, the Things are very tough despite being level 7. These aren't the 1 shot 1 kill level 7s of Rocktropia. It took about 20 shots with my breer M3A to kill one. The shotgun you get from the supply terminal is powerful, but it was a 50/50 if I died or not while killing one. And if you get more than one attacking you you are better off to run for it unless you are uber. So if you plan to do the thing, BRING SOME POWERFUL WEAPONS AND THE APPROPRIATE AMMO!

4. You must reach the escape point from underground. There is no way to complete the mission above ground, believe me, I tried. Upon escaping you are at the surface next to a base. You will receive further instructions by Radio, and then it just gives you your Helicopter and says thank you for playing, and more episodes coming in the future. So it does appear that they will be expanding the Arctic.

5. MINING IN THE ARCTIC: You cannot buy bombs there. BUT you can drop them! Though all I found so far is Lyst and Oil but I did use the crafting terminal in the refueling base, and ran a small profit on standard dampers with the mined Lyst and Oil. Just bring everything you think you need and maybe even some things you don't think you need.

If you are not wanting to spoil the spirit of The Thing, and juse use all Arctic gear, that's fine, and I can respect the ambition of that, but you might want to go with friends since it will be helpful to have a team in dealing with all the Things.

Please see Arctic Part 1 in case you missed it for tips on getting through the first half or so of the mission.

My First Visit To Rocktropia!!! New Visitor Tips!

Rocktropia is awesome in my opinion! Seems like there is so much more to do, and the environment is more fun... Well, atmosphere is the word I think. I don't recommend it for anyone on dialup since even high speed wireless seems to be giving me enough lag as it is... Perhaps a good graphics card will make the difference on that.

But there are some things I didn't know that I just learned, and I wanted to post them here :-)

OK...

FIRST! I landed on the top patio for the club neverdie in the city of dreams. Now, yes, the bouncer kicked my butt and I died because I didn't have the pass. But I got to talk to Frankie Headstone up on the top somewhere outside the club. I can't really specify his exact location, but he's up there. If you talk to him, he will give you a free baseball bat worth 1 Ped TT. My friends who been there before didn't know that and didn't get theirs. So I wanted to let you all know.

SECOND: I didn't know I was going to rocktropia today... And I thought there was a CND pass on Calypso auction, I figured eh, I will bid a few peds, thinking it was a good deal. Heh... LOL... No. You get them free at the club on Rocktropia. But it took me forever to figure out how to get the pass.

You have to go to the bottom level, walk outside the club, and there are two people at the entrance, NPC's, and more NPC's making a line to get in. You have to talk to Trinity, and she will add you to the guest list and then Bulldog will give you a pass when you talk to him. This will prevent you from dying from being where you aren';t supposed to go.

I will continue to blog my tips and experiences here on the Rock until I leave maybe tomorrow back for Caly.

AND A REMINDER: DO NOT attempt the journey in a sleipneir with any cargo. I guarantee you the Sleipneir has a "Shoot Me, Loot Me" sign on the back of it!!! Dump all your ores and matters and resources into storage prior to travelling. And unless you have a warp capable ship, prepare to spend an hour or two in space.

Mining Basics Part 2: Controlling Your Costs

Seems appropriate to make this the next topic of discussion. This is a continuation of the following post: http://entropiauniverseguide.blogspot.com/2011/12/mining-basics-part-1-pointers-for-noobs.html#comments

If you don't like the standard costs for prospecting (1 ped / 20 probes) or surveying (0.50 Ped / 10 probes), there is another option.

You may obtain a rookie finder and use rookie bombs. I believe it is 10 pecs per drop each for ore or enmatter, and 20 pecs if dropping both.  So you are spending 2 probes for ore and 2 probes for enmatter.

Your claims are going to be much smaller too, but people still global and even hof on a rookie finder. I have hit VIII's with my first few rookie bombs. This is useful for skilling, or testing a new area you aren't sure if you want to risk a more costly run on. And if you come by your peds the hard way and don't want to lose them fast, this might be a safer option for you.

If unamped mining is too low of a stake for you, you may join the "high rollers" and purchase amps.

The amplifiers will increase your cost per drop, thereby increasing your claim sizes. I believe every claim has a base size, and that your decay puts into effect a multiplier value that is unknown to all but the system. In this way, everyone is proportionately rewarded according to their spend.

However, it is curious that you might not hof or global with an amp but soon as you take it off, your hofs and globals start happening. Don't be discouraged. I recommend you follow the rule of thumb of 5 levels of skill per level of amp. And I don't recommend going past a level 2 or 3 until you are well above level 20.

By the time you reach the biggest of the amps, you are spending up to 10 peds to drop for ore. And if what I hear about amps costing the same decay no matter what you do, then it reasons that enmatters will cost about 9.50 peds per drop, or almost 20 peds when combined, and this doesn't take into account the markup of the amp. As you can see, it is quite possible to wager a significant amount if you so choose, or you may play for almost literally, peanuts.