How To Become A Pro On Your First Day for $200 (active for $300) Disclaimer:This is not how to be UBER, but this will allow you to play at a level which most people in the game are comfortable with on a long term basis which will earn you the skills needed to become the UBER of your dreams if you are willing to put in the time and money. Cost ~1000ped for skills + ~1000ped for gear (only investment gear, this doesn't include guns or ammo) Goal Skills and gear to use the Korss H400(L) handgun to its max efficiency which will let you hunt drones, atrox, feffoids, armax, etc. on Calypso. Werewolves, Motorhead Security, High level Vampires and Vixens, mid level Zombies on Rocktropia as well as a LOT of the mobs on Next Island including some drakes. Skills needed (offense only, this doesn't cover defensive skills) 30pedTT of Handgun = 270ped 6pedTT of Weapon Handling = 48ped 2pedTT of Inflict Ranged Damage = 23ped 39pedTT of Anatomy = 305ped 43pedTT of Laser Weapon Technology = 324ped 2ped decay on Implant inserter per chip = 10ped Total Cost of Skills = 980ped Gear needed (there are lots of options but this is a common and fairly cheap setup) Vivo T1 = 9ped FAP 50 w/ mu = 55pe Shogun with markup = 180ped Mark.6A plates w/ markup = 210ped (optional, you don't need this if your not going to hunt bots) Mark.5B plates w/ markup = 350ped (optional, you don't need this if your only going to hunt bots) Omegaton A104 amp w/ markup = 180ped NeoPsion 10 Mindforce Implant = 21.99ped Teleportation Chip I w/ markup = 90ped (you can get low tt ones if you want to be cheap and only spend ~10) JUELZ MIC-Killa SG2(L) w/ markup = 57ped (seems to be the cheapest per shot long range tagger right now) Total Cost of Gear = 1153ped (943ped with only 5Bs and no 6As) (803ped with only 6As and no 5Bs) Gear + Skills = 2133ped (1923ped with only 5Bs and no 6As) (1783ped with only 6As and no 5Bs) It would take a normal couple of hours a day player a few months to reach this stage of skills and gear on a marginal budget. A hard core grinder could achieve this in a week, but they would probably loose quite a bit of PED in the process. It would take a conservative non-depositing player about a year to achieve this. The biggest disadvantage (besides cost) to chipping in to this level right away is that you wont have any of the peripheral skills and defense skills you would have gained by skilling naturally. Within a few weeks of hunting at this level you will gain those skills anyways, so I don't think it is too big of a deal. The other disadvantage to chipping in is pride. Its great to say you reached such and such goal naturally with no chips. But on the other hand its nice to say "I am such and such level" as well as actually being able to hunt at that level early in your carrier. Skills and gear can not make up for knowledge of the game, you should still study and research what you are going to do even when you have them, otherwise you will just be a "rich idiot." If you are playing on Calypso I would highly recommend hunting Drone gen1-3 (North of Jason Center) for a while until your dodge skills increase some and then move up to gen 1-5(south of Zychion Citadel). If you are on Rocktropia you are a pioneer and no one has figured out a "best" mob to camp yet, but you can hunt Werewolves, Motorhead Security, Medium Zombies and high end Vampires and Vixens. (or Dragons in a Team). If you are on Next Island you are also a pioneer and there are plenty of mobs you can kill including the Sea Artist Pirates. (I would recommend talking to Manny, Corey or Magyar for more info on Next Island mobs if you are there) To do any real hunting you will need about 100more dollars(1000peds) Full TT Korss H400(L) w/ markup = 203ped Save the rest for ammo and repairs = 797ped 300ped of ammo should last you an hour or two of hunting. You can expect a bad run to bring back about 50% of your costs in loot. You can expect a good run to bring back about 150% of your costs in loot. You can expect that in time your average return will be around 80-90% You MUST sell your loot for Markup to make up for losses vs the TT. You MUST budget from each run for ped to replace your Korss when it breaks. Since you wont have any defensive skills yet, you MUST use your "tagger" weapon to bring just one mob at a time to you for killing, if you get 2 or more on you at once your armor decay bill will be very high. It takes years to learn and relearn all the intricacies of this "Real Cash Economy" but hopefully this demonstrated how even on your first day you can play with the "big boys" An example of how the skills help you. A-3 Justifier Mk.II + A104 statistics with 0 skills 2.153dmg/pec and 19.38dmg/sec Korss H400(L) +A104 statistics with hit and dmg at lvl 15.5 2.941dmg/pec and 33.67dmg/sec Disclaimer #2: This is the bare minimum for skills needed at this level and does not include evade/dodge or other defense skills. If you can afford them, defense skills are always useful in lowering your defense bills and allowing you to spend more time shooting and less time healing.
Thanks :) I would also like to point out that this is one path of many options that people have towards playing, it isn't necessarily the best route for everyone. We each have to choose our own goals and ways to acheive them. The beauty of this game though is that the options are limitless. narfi
Great work. To bad it can be read like you need to deposit $200 to play as you should in this game. I for sure shouldn't choose a game that did cost $200 to start playing. (even though I have deposit way more than that during my 4 years as an active player :) ) EDIT: I still think this is a good description of the different ways of playing EU: http://nirfu.gluonsoft.se/Path.htm it's old now, pre VU10. And what is described in this post is the deposit way.
Great article for begginers :) Would be interesting to try it out...got all those things though, and more skills, just never tried to grind through 1000 ped of ammo on small mobs like drones :)) might do it just to see results and see how long 1000 ped will last me...
i think that for 300 bucks you can naturally skill to that level and higher, maybe even in a month of very high activity. also while if would get to a level of hunting low level grind mobs, you couldnt really do much else. bigger mobs be hard due to low defense, team hunts hard too as pistol isnt as helpful when hunting big stuff for teams. and definitely wouldnt even mention 5b as gear at that level. no real mob they could hunt and be effective on with them with those skills, maybe 2a instead? with low defense could put them on the shogun and shoot trox or esto i guess. anyway it is one way for the impatient to quickly get to an elevated level of play. but really if the person is the impatient sort they wont be satisfied with hunting drones and argos. one thought, maybe see what it would take to chip to lr32/cb19, rifle skills can help compensate for low defense and the gun is low mkup
The H400(L) is a unique gun in that it is out of balance with the skill requirements of any other weapon at its dmg/sec or eco range. You need a profession level of 15.5 to max the Korss H400 You need a profession level of 20 to max the lr32 you need a profession level of 17 to max the cb19 korss H400(L)+A104 = 33.67dmg/sec and 2.940dmg/pec Isis LR32(L) +A104 = 34.29dmg/sec and 2.879dmg/pec Isis cb19(L) +Beast = 34.17dmg/sec and 2.835dmg/pec Maxing the lr32 isnt even a consideration on this budget. Even maxing the cb19 is going to take considerably more ped to max than the H400 because skill values are exponential and that extra 1.5 levels will cost a lot more than the previous 1.5levels. BLP tech cost more than Laser tech. Rifle skills cost more than Handgun skills. 5b plates could very well be too much for most mobs, that is where research and knowledge of the game comes in. I skilled naturally and gradually purchased my equipment as I grew into it. The main idea behind this is that you could start out your first day hunting trox or drones and have a turn over rate right from the beginning that will produce globals and a higher level of excitement than the more common "sweat for the first week" then study everything approach. I think that with drones the lack of defense is less of an issue than you might think. Anyone that skills up naturally to a level where they want to start hunting drones will most likely have 0 dodge skills and only some of the other skills affecting the dodge profession. So doing this you will start out on a similar level as a natural skiller who is starting on drones, probably even better since alot of people will try and use the H400 before they have it maxed. Thanks for all the great suggestions and alternatives guys. While I tried to present one (less common) option for starting out, there are hundreds of ways to start out and even more ways to play once you have established your own style. good luck and have fun :) narfi
With higher dodge and offense skill levels the p5a+A104(or higher Axxx series amp) and the proper armor+plate setup you could make 1000ped last a VERY long time. The main thing is to manage your defense costs and to get the best price possible for the Gazz you get. I camped drones with a bicak kek which has lower dmg/pec and lower dmg/sec and is melee/close range so more armor/fap decay and ended up about break even after 4800ped cycled. FYI: Project: Bicak Kek vs. Drones
one of the first guides i ever seen that really lays out the cost to play in a realistic way. at least the cost to play past opaloing it.
This is not much realistic... breer (L) skill a lot and are cheap the lack of defensive skill is costing way to much .... , no medical skill I don't understand why a newcommer should rush to the point everyone is stuck ... 80% return on Argo,atrox,drone, you can t make a living of thoses monsters, you can play for long on it but sooner or later= no money torepair stuff they offer only small globals of 50-100 for most of the people .. + it s expensive, so past the 300$ you have to pay again,etc,etc Also some (L) armor are cheap and offer better protecttion and much more Dura ! ... Non L armor are weak and need evade/dodge + they have added shinkiba who also global often and are like 5x easier to kill than argo,drone,etc
Thanks for your opinion tribal. This article was intended to be 1 option for people, and I was careful to explain that it isnt the best path for everyone. Some people's personalities are the type where they would prefer this though. I played my first 6 months without depositing, and am now depositing on a monthly schedual. I am happy to pay what I have decided each month for the entertainment I receive. There are people more dedicated than me though that are able to play at my level and much higher without depositing. An example from today would be this guy; http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?212208-Non-Depositor-Unlocks-Combat-Sense While it is true that you will get 80-90% returns hunting drones, it is very possible to do so for an extended time while breaking even by selling Gazz for markup. I did it and provided a link to the thread with info. Global size is irrelevant in the big picture since overall returns are more important. It would be better to have a consistant return rate with enough markup to break even than to have a global every run. (trust me, I have played both ways :) ) I don't have personal experience with shinkiba, but if they global often and are very easy to hunt, then I would avoid them. I would guess that they have a very high no loot rate as well as low average return rate to make up for the high volume of globals. That isn't a conservative way to play. You can see a slight contradiction from my post here to the article. The article presents a quick way to high turn over playing, while I tend to be a more conservative personality in my playing style. I think that both are valid options though, and wish to present those options so that people can understand their choices. Hopefully that makes sense, narfi
