Question: How does the fruit test work?

HardWrath

Marauder
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Posts
6,038
Location
Wisconsin, USA
Society
Freelancer
Avatar Name
Max HardWrath Mayhem
Can someone please explain to me how exactly the "fruit test" works?

Every now and then I need to calculate the exact decay of a weapon.

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Calculate the decay of an item
Introduction
There are several ways to determine the decay of items. The most traditional way is to note the TT value of an item, use it one or more times, and determine the difference in value. The main drawback of this method is that in most cases it needs a high number of uses to get an accurate value. This guide describes 4 methods that require just one or two uses, and still get a very accurate result. The 4 methods are:
fruit method (using the Trade Terminal, very accurate, works for all items),
auction method (faster and very accurate, only works for (L) items),
repair Terminal method (faster and fairly accurate, only works for non-(L) items).
PED card method (this method works for repairable, non-ttable items)
Shop/Shopkeeper method (this method works for all items regardless of TT value and is 100% accurate)

Fruit method

General information
This method is very accurate and works for any item. The accuracy is almost +/- 1/1000 of the PEC (+/- 0.00001 PED). That's "only" 0.00002 PED. For more trustworthy results you'll shall need to cross exam several data that you'll obtain.
Ingame there are several stackable items that are worth 0.00001 PED (0.001 PEC). What are they and how can you see this: the examples are Vibrant Sweat, Fruits (Papplon, Bombardo, Caroot, Haimoros), Common Dung, natural stones (Brukite, Kaldon, Nissit, Rutol, Sopur, Trutun) and fragments (Nova, Blazar) (*). When you use big enough stacks you are able to see that the Trade Terminal (TT) actually shows they have value. When you put 1000 in the TT it shows 0.01 PED, when you put 10000 in the TT it shows 0.10 PED and so on. The trick is that the TT can only show 2 decimal, the rest of the value is truncated. So with a stack of 999 it will show 0.00 PED while with a stack of 1000 it will show 0.01 PED. This information is very useful to test the actual decay an item has taken since the beginning of your test. In the guide we'll be referring this items simply as "fruit".

How to do it
Put the item in the TT.
Add fruit to the TT until you find the exact amount where the value increases 1 PEC.
Write down the TT value and number of fruit needed.
Determine the real value by doing: (Initial value in PEC) + (1 PEC - (number of fruit/1000)) (where number of fruit/1000 is the value of the fruit in PEC)
Cancel the trade, and use the item one time.
Repeat 1 to 4.
Calculate the difference by subtracting the exact value before and after you used the item. The difference will be the exact decay.


Example
You put a 57 PEC (0.57 PED) Pixie Harness (M) in the TT. After putting several stacks of fruit in the TT you find the amount where the value passes to 58 PEC. In this example a stack size of 321 fruit still shows 57 PEC value but a stack size of 322 shows 58 PEC value.
The value of the item is then (57 PEC) + (1 PEC - 321/1000) = 57.678 PEC.
After this, use the item one time, and repeat the procedure again. Determine the difference in TT value (exact value before - exact value after), and you know the decay.
Guide made by MG Mighty, for more info click here.

Auction method

General information
This method only works for (L) items. It is more easy and faster to do then the method above, with about the same accuracy.

How to do it
Put the item in auction, and set the asking price on 10000000%
Write down the number of PED and Cancel the auction.
Use the item one time.
Again, put the item in auction, and set the asking price on 10000000%.
Write down the number of PED and cancel the auction.
Subtract the value from 5 from the value from 2.
Divide the value by 100000.
You now have the item decay in PEC. Note: When it is not possible to set the auction at 10000000%, you can use 1000000% or 100000% instead.

Example
A full TT Vivo T20 (L) in auction at 1000000% costs 5790000 PED. After using it once, at 1000000% it costs 5784999 PED. After subtracting these you get 5001 PED. Divide by 100000: 5001/100000 = 0.05001 PED or 5.001 PEC.

Repair Terminal method

General information
This method is only advisable when doing a quick check, to confirm or get a general idea of the decay. For more accurate results the fruit method is recommended. This method is fast and only works for non-(L) items.

How to do it
Repair the item fully.
Click/shoot/smash one (1) time.
Put the item in the repair terminal and slide the repair slider to see the repair cost change.
Move slider to the exact percentage where the repair cost changes from max repair to 1 PEC below max repair. Ex: If the maximum max repair seems to be 3 PEC, then find the repair percentage where the cost changes from 0 PEC to 1 PEC. At this point the repair cost is 1 PEC.
Calculate the exact percentage by adding the percentage before the change and after the change in repair cost, and divide by 2. Ex: 55.7% = 0 PEC, 56% = 1 PEC. The percentage will be (55%+56%) / 2 = 55.85%.
Calculate the decay using the repair cost found in (4) divided by the percentage found in (5).

Example
An item's repair cost is 0 PEC at 55.7% and 1 PEC at 56%. The repair cost at this point is: 2.5 PEC. The exact percentage is: (55.7+56) / 2 = 55.85%. So the item decay is: 1/0.5585 = 1.791PEC

Note
If the item decays less then 1 PEC, the item needs to be used more then one time to determine the decay. The rest of the procedure will remain the same, although the result must be divided by the number of uses of the item.

PED Card method

General information
This method is the most accurate way of measuring the decay of items that are repairable but that cannot be sold to the TT for PEDs. It works by controlling the amount of PEDs on the PED card, and using that control to precisely find the cost to repair the item after a use.

How to do it
Repair the item fully.
Click/shoot/smash one (1) time.
Extract all PEDs and PECs from card, and then buy as much ammo as possible until card is empty.
For greater precision, tt sweat, fruit, or dung one piece at a time until you can buy one final ammo cell. Now your PED card is completely empty.
Now, sell ammo to the tt one cell at a time, counting the sales, and try to repair the item to full condition after each sale.
When you can successfully repair the item, the cost of repair is equal to or less than the value of the ammo you sold to the tt. Each ammo is worth 0.01 pec.
For a more precise calculation, again tt dung/fruit/sweat one piece at a time until you can buy an additional ammo. The residual value on the card after the repair is 0.01 pec - (0.001 pec * dung), so the total repair cost, and hence the decay per use, is 0.01 pec * ammo tted - 0.001 pec * dung tted.

Shop/Shopkeeper method

General Information
This method of decay testing is 100% accurate of the other tests. It works by subtracting the initial value from the final value of TT in order to obtain the difference (decay value). This test requires at least two uses left on the item and does not need to be at FULL TT.

How to do it
Place your item into a Shop/Shopkeeper.
Check on the price listing as if you are going to list it up for sale. This will show you the EXACT value of TT you have left on the item. Make sure to record this number down exactly as it appears.
Take the item out of the Shop/Shopkeeper and then use the item ONE time.
Place the item back into the Shop/Shopkeeper.
Check on the price listing as if you are going to list it up for sale. This will show you the EXACT value of TT you have left on the item. Make sure to record this number down exactly as it appears.
Take the initial value that you had and subtract it from the final value to obtain your decay value. Example: 5.00 (initial TT value) and 4.9821000 (after use TT value) 5.00 - 4.9821000 = 0.0179
To add this value from the example (0.0179) into entropedia, move the decimal place over to the RIGHT, TWO places like so: (1.79)
 
Shopkeeper test is super easy and mistake-free.

I've seen a lot of bad decay numbers in entropedia, and I bet most are due to fruit/TT etc tests, as it can be a bit confusing and easy to count wrong. If you do a fruit test, try to get someone else to replicate the test before entering into entropedia.
 
If you do a fruit test, try to get someone else to replicate the test before entering into entropedia.

That's the reason why the "confirmed" dk numbers were introduced. If you look closely, you'll notice that some are black and most are dark grey of colour: the black ones are confirmed to be the right number - in theory that is, I'm sure there'll also be some mistakes made in those.
The confirmation is done by users that are both experienced in PE and dk-calcs as well as using the wiki.

Like everything on the internet: no guarantees, if you want to be really sure, best check for yourself using I've of the methods above.
 
Back
Top