On top of what was said here, I would like to add something: keep your hunts constant.
Like, you have to start somewhere. Ok, this dude is superrich, I only have 1k or less, what to do.
1. Set skilling prio and dedicate a bit to it. Say, 1 month. Nomatter what, this month I will hunt with X item. Pick something which is easily found and lowish MU if not UL.
2. According to the item, set your hunting budget/run. It would be unrealistical to make 100 ped hunts with lvl50 hg or 500 ped runs with tt knife. From my own xp, something like 5-10 tt knives=run, next step would be about 70/run etc. I feel comfy at about 30 dps with 300 ped/run. Here is a balance with overall budget also, of course. Using 3 L swords/run would be an obvious math, but sometimes is more difficult. Either cumulate some shrapnel (like hunt 1 week to this purpose: cumulate shrapnel) either use the decay of gun as counter or the decay of amp etc.
3. Cannot stress this enough: keep your hunts constant. 500 kils, 275, 240 ped etc, such numbers have absolut no relevance for your individual case. Just whatever you do, do it constant, because then you will get to feel the lows and highs and such you'll know when you can block some cash in storage and when you have to be more free from this pov. That's why I talked about measure with decay of gun, because looted ammo can confuse. Don't shoot it. Stay constant, if is 100 ped a run, is 100. Keep track of all your results for tens of runs.
4. Pick 2-3 mobs of comparable hp aggro etc so as offensive+decay exp/run would be in same league constantly. After slaughtering one for say 10 runs, try to mix others. Maybe you will find some mobs which would keep you rather static, hence no need for balancer loot. Myself prefer this way but to each his/her own.
5. use tt fap inbetween kills IF YOU ARE NOT IN A TIMED EVENT. Use emergency fap only if the mob can kill you in like two hits+crit. If not, just tt fap.
6. stay away from armours which has 12 protections across the board. Decay works by summing all protections to calculate cost/pt of prot, so a 15 imp hit will be more costly on a 15 imp 10 acid 20 electric 5 cut 10 pene armor than on a 15 imp pure armour (absurd examples). Good rule would be about max 3% def cost (armour and fap) compared to offensive.
7. until you clear your mind, drop all fancyness: sights, scopes, enhancers, pets, clothes anything which adds even 1 pec.
8. use only maxed guns and no overkill amps.
These are just very basic guidelines. The whole point is to get you "into it", to get a feel of where is your ava standing, which are your limits etc etc. Afterwards you can think at finesses like looted MU, market, suitable risk, suitable overkill or overdecay, speedskill etc. You will not be a champ with what I said here, you will just start to learn.
You will try to do what I said and you will fail. Do it again. You'll have "aha" moments. Don't expect to be a EU-computer from 1st month of self education.
The argument here, is the suggestion there will “always” be a balancer as long as you have enough bankroll to cover the number of mobs before that balancer occurs (or number of crafts).
There is a big catch, and quite obvious. The game has a certain tolerance for running on negative markup, dmg/pec lower than 3 etc, because otherwise all our pedcards would be dead in days. However, this tolerance is not extreme. That is, with an absurd example, you cannot slap Eamp 15 on tt handgun and hope to break even. Sure, this is obvious, but let's get into finer details a bit.
If you hunt, for example, at about 15-20 dps, a lootpill from tt will last for about 1 hr. Time in which you spend about 100 ped. Sure 0,5% is not huge. But that added to, say, some L bought too expensive (preferably a regular melee to have % the highest impact), not much, 5%. Some enhancers, for the heck of it? L amp bought from auction and not suitable from dps perspective. Overprotection with some silly armour like gremlin. L fap used too often when the tt would do the job (between kills e.g.). Letting mobs gang you because you heard that's how you skill evade. Etc. Not an exhaustive list, but I think it makes the point clear. Without a lot of care, all these little details can sum up to a running deficit which simply cannot be returned by the game. Hence, even a 2-300 pedder (or a string of >70tt globs) which would be balancers for mobs <1k hp would not, in time, bring you on +. Am not trying to doctor anyone, just speaking from own experience. And I didn't even mentioned auction fees.
, old ones obviously, you can't read anything helpful on PCF in the last 3 years or maybe more.
