Money making : How to do it.

Amiris - Sanctuary wrote: »

Hello all, Amiris here. Felt like making a short guide on moneymaking, because it seems the majority of newer people have trouble keeping up with equipment, and nearly every high lvl player complains about skill costs. First of all, don't mind my avatar. My main is NOT lvl 42. She's higher. Amiris is my forum char because the rest of my avatars are bugged.
Anyway, on to the actual guide. I'll divide the concept of money making into two subcategories.

1) Making money
2) Saving the money you've made

Should be reasonable enough. Alright, on to making money.
I'll list several effective ways to do this.

A) Grind.

Fairly obvious. When grinding, you get lots of money and item drops. Pick them ALL up, unless there's some insane swarm of monsters on top of it and you can't handle them. Do NOT ignore the money drops, even though there seems to be so little money. It builds up. A player lvling from 1-20 without picking up any money missed out on, on average, about 50-60K. And those are the easy no-grind lvls.
Also, sell any drops you may get to the NPC. This includes Dragon Quest drops, unless you're actually able to sell them to other players. I wouldn't count on that. From my own experiences, it's best to sell every single DQ drop to the NPC, unless you're really desperate to upgrade your bank.
Items you should keep :
-Things you may need, such as potions
-Good equipment (good equipment is any BLUE two-star item or better. Explanation below.)
-Materials if you need them
Just for comparison, at lvl 45, my Venomancer made about 100K while grinding 30%.

Help people

Sounds odd, doesn't it. "But Amiris, I don't want to get paid for helping people." That's right, you don't. Helping people just because they'll pay you isn't exactly nice. However, it does work the other way around. People may pay you just because you helped them. Like a Ch'in squad needing a Cleric, those aren't exactly rare, and they'll often end up paying the Cleric for their help. Other such occasions are helping people with a dungeon (without wine. You don't get paid for a wined run.), or crafting items for others (provided they give you the materials).

C) Sell the good items

To players, that is. If you got a nice equipment drop from a monster, your best option would be to sell it to a player, because they're usually worth a lot more than the NPC will pay you. Good equipment is usually a blue-named two-star item with decent stats (By which I mean a magic weapon with accuracy does NOT have decent stats). Now, there's three types of people:
-People who sell their items through chat. This is usually not a great option. Trade chat in West Archo can get you a buyer sometimes, but it's usually not very effective.
-People who sell their items through a 'cat shop'. This is a good option for the medium-priced items.
-People who sell their items through the auction. This is a great option for the medium to high-priced items. You can set a minimum bid (and a buyout price), then just go grind. After 24 hours, the item will get sold to the highest bidder (earlier if someone payed the buyout price). Downside is that you have to pay to use the auction. Costs are negligible though, just make sure you'll get more money out of it than you put in.

D) Farm
"What, I'm not a farmer!" No, but you should farm materials. Anytime you see a material, grab it. They sell high and they're quite common, especially at the higher lvls, when you're the only one around to grab it. It's usually best to decide what materials you'll grab though, as bank space is limited. If you have to decide, pick either herbs or the rest.

E) FB's are great exp

But they're horrible for money. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT lvl doing just call to duties for the reward. There is NO money reward, and you won't get a lot of drops in dungeons. You may get lucky and get a mold, but don't count on it. Do an fb every once in a while, don't constantly stand in towns asking for call to duties.
How does this make money? Because it relates to grinding. No fb's = more grinding = more money.


There, that's basic money making. Now, how to save the money you've made.

A) Walk, fly, run, swim

"Uhh, I do that already." Yes, but not enough. Way too many people teleport around places. Put it this way : If you're paying to teleport around Archosaur, or paying the -I think- 5K to go from Sumor Camp to Swiftwind Tribe, you're wasting your money. You may think it's not a lot, but it really builds up. Teleporting is the number 1 mistake people make regarding their money. I generally only teleport between the following places :
-The three main cities : They're relatively far from each other, and I'll admit it's quite dull to fly between them as much as you should. Therefore, I teleport between these.
-City of the Lost -> Wellspring Village : My gateway to Archosaur. It costs 200 coins, and flying from there to Archosaur takes about 2 minutes. Saves you 2.8K.
-The towns from lvl 1-20 : Eh, it's only 200 coins, you can make that back from a single monster. You have to walk too much at the lower lvls otherwise.
Also, if you have TW teleports in your faction, use them wisely, because they're awesome.

Edit: The FREE teleport to Archosaur. Starting at lvl 40, if you want to get to Archosaur, go to a main town (the lvl 1 and 2 territory towns) and go to the Adventure Assistant and Khatru Pup. Have either teleport you into the Cube of Fate, then talk to the Exit manager in there to warp to Archosaur. Free teleport, use it.

Don't buy NPC items

NPC items are NOT worth the price you pay for them, though I suppose shards are an exception to that rule. If you need items, buy them from players or the auction. This especially goes for equipment. Usually, blue two-stars in the auction are cheaper than white 1-star NPC items.

C) Don't buy stuff cause it's pretty

Too often do I see this: people buying three-stars with horrible stats just because they glow. Or imbuing elemental shards into your equipment, just for the looks. That's a LOT of money down the drain. And a blue weapon isn't really exceptional either - don't expect to be seen as a god just cause you have one.

D) Boutique Clothes don't do anything

So don't get them unless you really, really want them. And even then, make sure you can really spare the money. Boutique Clothes are only there to look nice. I suppose this falls under C a bit...

E) Only get the good skills

Don't waste your money just to try a skill out. Read the description, look it up, then decide whether or not you want it. For example, many wizards want to get Hailstorm, it's an AoE and all. However, the skill is totally rubbish. Money (and SP) wasted.

F) Forums first

Got a question? Ask it on the forums. Don't waste teleacoustics on world chat to get an answer to a simple question. I, for one, look at the forums every 30 minutes or so, to see if there's unanswered questions.

So there you have it. Hope that helped some of you newer players, and maybe even a couple higher lvls. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, and feel free to submit anything you think should be added.