Legends' Hunting Blog!

[Legends]

Creature #1: Leviathan (27-36)
Location: North of Port Atlantis
My Animal Looter level: 28.5
My Evade level: 27.4
Rings: Athenic (L) and Ares (L)
Tagger #1 (efficiency): ArMatrix LR-40 (L) + ArMatrix 37B + P20 - (71.3%)
Weapon #2 (efficiency): ArMatrix LP-40 (L) + ArMatrix 28B + P20 - (71.4%)
Weapons decay (incl. attachments): 180 PED (+31 markup)
FAPs (Regen 6 (L) and Resto 1 (L)): 10 (+2 markup)
Armor decay: 68 PED (+8 markup)
Total ammo spent: 2,050 PED
Total spent on hunt (w/mu): 2,349 PED

Hunting run duration: ~ 5 hours
Globals/HoFs: 76, 287, 149, 138, 163 and 52
Items looted: none
Items TT value (~markup value): n/a
Stackables (~mu): 2,376 PED (+23 PED)
Net returns (w/mu): 2399 PED or 102%
Loot quality, i.e. % shrapnel: 84.7% of loot tt was shrapnel
Profit/Cost per hour: +10 PED/hour

Note: I used Damage enhancers on these guns as they tiered up which causes Efficiency to drop. The Efficiency shown is without Damage enhancers.

I actually wasn't going to record this run. I just wanted to go finish off 3 guns and 2 amps that were almost broke; the rifle had about 12 ped left on it, one handgun had only 5 ped left and the other had about 26 ped left on it, so I thought "bah, I'll just go kill 2-300 Levis to get rid of these guns", but in the first 10 minutes I got 3 globals. So I thought "Well I'll just keep going until I basically break even, how long could that take...?" About 2,000 ped worth of Universal Ammo later and I still haven't gotten there. So I've gone back and tried to figure out the numbers as best I could from memory cause I actually didn't write anything down before I started this one. Although the numbers aren't as precise as I usually like to have them, I'm quite confident that they are very close.

Hunting: The last time I was hunting these Levis I was using level 35 guns. I'm not sure that I see much of a difference here with the level 40 guns.

Defense: My defensive costs were roughly 3.3% of hunt costs for this run. I'm using the new Improved Imperium armor set with AP-18 Impact plates on it. Still not enough Impact protection so I had to heal a lot. Ideally, I'd use AP-30 Impact and that would be fine, but the markup on those is a bit steep so maybe I'll just stick to the Regen 6 healing chip for now, at least until I finish off these AP-18s and then I'll see.

It's pretty slow killing these guys, which is why my defensive costs are so high. The good news is that this time, I'm using UL Armor as opposed to Limited, so that will help save me from incurring markup costs. I'm going to brainstorm a bit and see if there's anything I can do to increase my dps without spending too much.

 

[Legends]

Today is this thread's 1 year anniversary!

I just thought that was a fun fact

 

[Legends]

LOOKING AT THE NUMBERS:

Recently, I maxed the ArMatrix LR-45 (L) rifle and before going ahead and making myself a bunch of them for my own hunting (I normally just craft all my own stuff since I'm a skilled crafter), I wanted to be sure that it would actually be cheaper then auction. So what I needed to know was: "How much does it actually cost to make 1x LR-45 (L)?"

It's no secret that Entropia tends to reward those that are good at math, I knew this going into it and in fact this was something that attracted me right from the beginning. Also when I started this Blog I knew I was going to talk a lot about the math and the numbers. But it's been a little while since I've done one of these so I think this is a good opportunity to cover this subject. Of course there are some very experienced crafters that know all of this and that probably can do it better than me but I would say most hunters don't actually know how to do the math on this, most of them will just look at the Market History for an item and think to themselves "Well, if others paid this much for it then that price must be ok I guess..."

So, how much does it actually cost to craft something? There is a way to figure that out and that's what I'm going to go over in this post.

The numbers we need to know for this are:
1. Total TT value of all ingredients required for 1 click
2. The total amount of ingredient markup incurred per click
3. The cost of the blueprint clicks
4. Your Success Rate
5. Cost of Residue
6. Fees incurred for each sale (auction or shop)

So let's dive right in and figure this all out for the ArMatrix LR-45 (L). Here is the list of ingredients needed to make it:

Figuring out total TT and markup incurred per click:

Ingredients	Total TT / Click	Markup value	Markup / Click
12x Standard Feedback Panel​	0.5424​	220%​	0.65​
12x Standard Vents	0.2016​	125%​	0.05​
12x Standard Plate	0.1536​	117%​	0.03​
8x Simple 2 Conductors	5.20​	107%​	0.36​
3x Erionite Ingot	1.80​	109%​	0.16​
2x Fire Root Pellet​	1.20​	450%​	4.20​
471x Nanocube	4.71​	N/A​	0​
8x Hardened Metal Mountings	5.20​	130%​	1.56​
TOTALS:​	19 PED​	--​	7 PED​

So :
Total TT value of all ingredients required for 1 click = 19 PED
The total amount of ingredient markup incurred per click = 7 PED

The value/cost of the blueprint clicks:
This can easily be overlooked if a person is focusing just on the cost of the ingredients. It has happened to me before to forget to account for the cost of the blueprint so remember to include that in your calculations. The current Market History graph for the ArMatrix LR-45 (L) Blueprint (L) looks like this:

I have drawn a red line right where I would consider the average to be at the moment, i.e. right around 1.10 ped / click. This blueprint, at a cost of 1.10 ped for each click is sure to add to the cost of each LR-45 (L) made so I'll be sure to account for it in my final calculations down below.

The Success Rate:
For a limited blueprint that is maxed, the Success Rate is always 95%. Based on my experience with crafting over the years, I can tell you that, in the long-term, this will translate to approximately 40% actual successes, which is to say that 40% of the time, you'll succeed in making a gun, the other 60% of the time, it will either be a near success or a fail. What this means is that in the long run, I'll make 1 gun every 2.5 clicks (of course short runs are going to be all over the place, but if you log everything for hundreds of clicks, you will arrive at that number eventually).

Also, the 95% Success Rate on the Blueprint shows how much of the TT I can expect to salvage over the long-term. I will show this in my math later but all that means is that if 1 click is 19 PED TT, then I'll only get 18.05 PED of that back on average and thus lose 0.95 every click (of course when you have a success that's not the case but this is the average).

So now my equation is beginning to take shape, if I need to do 2.5 clicks to make 1 gun, then for each gun I actually make:
The blueprints will cost me 1.10 x 2.5 = 2.75
The TT loss will be 0.95 x 2.5 = 2.375
The markup on the ingredients will be 7 x 2.5 = 17.5...

Except that this last one (markup on ingredients) is not entirely accurate because some materials are salvaged when you get a near success, but unfortunately there is no magic number that we can use for this because it will vary a lot from one blueprint to another which materials you actually salvage and they all have different markups. One quick solution to attempt to somewhat account for this is to multiply the markup of the materials by 2 instead of 2.5. It is not very precise but allows us to at least have these salvaged materials roughly accounted for in the math.

The Residue cost:
That one is very simple but you shouldn't omit it as it will add up to an important number when crafting high volumes of items. Right now I just bought some Metal Residue on the auction for 101.30% so that's what I will use. The amount of Metal Residue we need for each gun is approximately the full TT minus the total TT of all ingredients added together, in this case:

Full TT of the gun = 95 PED
Total TT of ingredients = 19 PED

Which means:

95 - 19 = 76 PED of Metal Residue will be needed per gun made

76*0.013 = 1 PED of markup on the Residue per gun I make

The answer to my question:
If I'm making guns just for myself or my soc mates, this is as far as I need to go, i.e. I don't need to worry about auction fees or shop fees because I won't have to pay any of that. So the answer to my initial question "How much does it actually cost to make 1x LR-45 (L)?" can be answered in this way:

(TT loss/click+BP cost/click)2.5 + Total MU of mats/click(2) + MU of Residue / success = Cost to make 1 item
(0.95+1.10)2.5 + 7(2) + 1 = 20.125 PED cost to make 1 gun
​

This 'Cost' is in addition to the TT of the item. So really, it costs 115 PED to make a 95 PED TT gun, which makes the break-even markup on it 121%. Therefore it would stand to reason that if I can acquire it for less than 121% or 115 PED, I'm actually saving money. Knowing this I just went right to the auction to see what the cheapest LR-45 (L) was listed at and found this gun:

I bought it and saved myself 4 PED and the headache of gathering up all the ingredients and risking my own money clicking for it at the crafting machine.

But there is one more step here if you are to sell the items you make on the auction; you need to account for the auction fees:
If I was to make some of these LR-45s (L) and sell them on the auction for profit, I'd have to list them for at least 117 PED total (123.16% markup), and that would only give me 0.29 PED profit on each gun. There's very little chance that my gun would actually sell since there are so many available at the moment for a lower price then that, but here's the math on it anyway:

117 PED - 115.125 PED cost to make the gun (as per the above) - 1.58 PED auction fee = 0.295 PED NET profit per gun

So why are people selling guns on auction for less than what it cost them? Well, there's a few possible reasons:

1. Their input costs were somehow less, probably because they bought their materials and/or blueprints at a time when the markup was lower or maybe they got a good deal on something

2. They had a good run, global or HoF, which made the costs seem cheaper than they actually were

3. They value other things like cycling or skilling more than profits

4. They don't actually know how much it costs them to make the item

or

5. They bought them cheaper somehow and are reselling them for a ped or two profit

Conclusion:
The math I've shown here isn't perfect, and I think every crafter probably has a slightly different way of making these calculations. But I think it's very reliable and most likely the best formula and explanation you're going to find in this forum at this time as this is somewhat of a closely guarded secret. After all, who in his right mind would ever divulge exactly how much it cost them to make something when they are hoping to make a profit from selling the items?

I wish I had a simpler formula for this but at this time, this is really the best I've got. Hopefully it is of some benefit to you.

 

[SoberPhil]

Thank you for this detailed calculation, it was interesting to read. Even before seeing this it was clear to me that crafting low to midlevel Armatrix guns is pointless because many people are happy to do this at a loss. Higher level rifles have better MU but they don't sell that often, mostly because the MU is high. And this isn't just about Armatrix, same weird logic applies to many crafted items and components.

I've heard that some people have UL Armatrix BPs, which would lower the cost of the craft once the BP has high QR. Could this be the 6th reason?

And there's another disturbing thing here. I didn't do the math like you did on it, but it seems that paying 117% MU on a L Armatrix rifle outweighs the benefit of the extra efficiency it provides, ie. buying a weapon with 105% MU and 50-ish efficiency off auction would be more eco.

 

[M Rufen Power]

Paying 117% MU on an L Armatrix rifle outweighs the benefit of the extra efficiency it provides, i.e. buying a weapon with 105% MU and 50-ish efficiency off auction would be more eco.

Paying any markup is pointless and self-defeating, whether the item has high efficiency or not. But I agree, buying a lesser efficient weapon with less markup to pay is more economical.

 

[jetsina]

Great cost breakdown Legends, thanks. The highest bp I regularly crafted for auctioning was the LR-40(L) and my cost calculations looked similar to yours, except that the success rate was a bit lower a while ago before MA tweaked it up slightly. Since the change my crafting has not been enough to be statistically secure, but my rough guide is also set at 40% success now.
One point I didn't see you mention is the effect of getting a great tier rate sometimes. I don't know about now, but LR-15s used to be one of the best weaps for one of the mayhem categories if you could get it to a high tier and enhanced before breaking. There was thus an occassional mu boost from selling this lucky result too, as well as occassionally looting a sought-after bp. However, AH competition was usually fine-tuned enough to mean that crafting was only slightly in profit per sale on average, and for this you would need to craft enough to get reasonable multis now and again.
It is indeed probably better for most people to grab a good deal on AH or even a perfectly-priced deal rather than get all the mats together for a run themselves (unless they stack most mats from hunting/mining anyway and just source the extras).

 

[SuperFly]

So why are people selling guns on auction for less than what it cost them? Well, there's a few possible reasons:

Its not less than what it cost them ofc.
- you always get back some high MU materials on near success
- you can get some high MU BPs on success
- serious crafters know where to get the materials and the fillers by the cheapest way
- AH fee can be compensated by the CLDs

 

[Legends]

I've heard that some people have UL Armatrix BPs, which would lower the cost of the craft once the BP has high QR. Could this be the 6th reason?

And there's another disturbing thing here. I didn't do the math like you did on it, but it seems that paying 117% MU on a L Armatrix rifle outweighs the benefit of the extra efficiency it provides, ie. buying a weapon with 105% MU and 50-ish efficiency off auction would be more eco.

I have never seen or heard of any Unl ArMatrix blueprints out there. But the interesting thing about that is even if there were, they would max out at 90% success rate meaning you'd lose almost 2 ped/click on the LR-45 for example. But ultimately it would be a lot cheaper for someone if they got their hands on an Unl blueprint since they wouldn't have to pay for the clicks. So the more expensive the clicks are, the more advantageous it would become to have the Unl blueprint.

And yes that is a calculation I would like to do at some point, thanks for reminding me.

Paying any markup is pointless and self-defeating, whether the item has high efficiency or not. But I agree, buying a lesser efficient weapon with less markup to pay is more economical.

Yeah my instinct tells me I'd be better off buying something for around 105% even if the efficiency is in the 50s, as opposed to paying almost 120% for ArMatrix. And I'm not sure that it is really self-defeating as you say, it depends on where the market is at and if you believe it's going to go up or down in the future. It's similar to figuring out if it's better to rent a place or buy a house in my opinion. If the market is about to come down, then it's better to rent a place for a while and try to time your purchase when the market is more favorable for buyers.

Great cost breakdown Legends, thanks. The highest bp I regularly crafted for auctioning was the LR-40(L) and my cost calculations looked similar to yours, except that the success rate was a bit lower a while ago before MA tweaked it up slightly. Since the change my crafting has not been enough to be statistically secure, but my rough guide is also set at 40% success now.
One point I didn't see you mention is the effect of getting a great tier rate sometimes. I don't know about now, but LR-15s used to be one of the best weaps for one of the mayhem categories if you could get it to a high tier and enhanced before breaking. There was thus an occassional mu boost from selling this lucky result too, as well as occassionally looting a sought-after bp. However, AH competition was usually fine-tuned enough to mean that crafting was only slightly in profit per sale on average, and for this you would need to craft enough to get reasonable multis now and again.
It is indeed probably better for most people to grab a good deal on AH or even a perfectly-priced deal rather than get all the mats together for a run themselves (unless they stack most mats from hunting/mining anyway and just source the extras).

Yes getting a high TIR number gun can provide a much needed boost to your overall profits. Maybe it's just me but it seems like these are a rather rare occurence as I have not had a single gun with a TIR number above 400 in the last 70 or so that I have crafted. Considering this, I thought it better not to account for it. Same goes for rare blueprints, when crafting ArMatrix lately, I just haven't been lucky and haven't gotten any at all. If it takes a hundred successes before getting something of value, is it worth accounting for it? Spread that over 100 guns and I think the difference will probably end up being less than 50 pec/gun...

Its not less than what it cost them ofc.
1. you always get back some high MU materials on near success
2. you can get some high MU BPs on success
3. serious crafters know where to get the materials and the fillers by the cheapest way
4. AH fee can be compensated by the CLDs

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that sometimes you WILL have to sell what you crafted for less than what it cost you to actually make it, there is no doubt whatsoever, I have been crafting long enough, I know for fact that this is the case. It is the case with Enhancers, ArMatrix, Armor, basically anything crafted. The only exception is the unique or very rare blueprints like Mk. 5B and Level 13 Amp blueprints which only a few people own and so the price on these things ends up being very controlled.

Point #1: yes, I accounted for that in my math.

Point #2: Yes but that is a rather rare occurrence, too rare to be worth accounting for somehow imo. I have not gotten any blueprints or high TIR guns in the last 70 or so that I have crafted. Yes it's true, if you loot a valuable blueprint or high TIR number item you can suddenly make 20-50 ped profit, but spread that over how many clicks you need to do before you can get one and it becomes almost meaningless in the math.

Point #3: Yes and I spoke about this in my post: "1. Their input costs were somehow less, probably because they bought their materials and/or blueprints at a time when the markup was lower or maybe they got a good deal on something"

Point #4: That's a completely seperate activity that should not factor into your ArMatrix crafting business. CLDs is a share in Planet Calypso and the payout is a dividend that you get paid for 'owning' it. You don't get CLDs from crafting ArMatrix weapons, it's totally unrelated...

Cheers,
Legends

 

[jetsina]

Spread that over 100 guns and I think the difference will probably end up being less than 50 pec/gun...

We all know the problems of low sample rates and good or bad luck. However, your ball park makes a difference in a market where you might get 1 ped more or 1 less at auction. Thus, for me, I started including the LR-15 in my calcs for it as it got great mu and was not as infrequent for me as for you.

 

[Alukat123]

Paying any markup is pointless and self-defeating, whether the item has high efficiency or not. But I agree, buying a lesser efficient weapon with less markup to pay is more economical.

that depends on the loot-composition break points and what you're looting...
the 117% MU gun with 66,7% MU-Loot & 33,3% shrapnell as loot composition may just be better than the 105% MU gun with 45% MU-loot and 55% shrapnell as loot composition....

also, the ammo burn on the guns brings down the effective MU per shoot quite a lot and then both guns may not be that far apart anymore when it comes to effective cost.

 

[M Rufen Power]

That depends on the loot-composition breakpoints and what you're looting. The 117% MU gun with 66,7% MU-Loot & 33,3% shrapnel as loot composition may be better than the 105% MU gun with 45% MU-loot and 55% shrapnel as loot composition. Also, the ammo burn on the guns brings down the effective MU per shoot quite a lot and then both guns may not be that far apart anymore when it comes to effective cost.

Loot composition breakpoints? I'd love to hear that theory. 33% Shrapnel composition? Lol, I know for sure that isn't Planet Calypso, which makes your comment a little nonsensical unless you're saying that higher efficiency weapons can alter preset loot mechanics. I take it your comment, therefore, was an example based on a hypothetical scenario? Anyways, any markup paid regardless of the effective cost per shot is wasted as confirmed by Mindark themselves, the people who own the game, you know? I mean, really, your signature pretty much says it all. I'd love to hear what mid-level mobs can compensate for the markup lost. (This is rhetorical, I already know the answer, but you can try).

 

[Alukat123]

I take it your comment, therefore, was an example based on a hypothetical scenario?

it was an example based on the results i get with armatrix vs. some sub 60% effiency gun on rt/hell....

There's different shrapnell loot tiers:
1% shrapnell (high damage rolls/crit kills without misses, only 1 health regen tick, very low overkill)
20% shrapnell (high damage rolls, no misses, only 1 health regen tick)
33% shrapnell (average damage with 63ish% efficiency)
45-50% shrapnell (below average damage/misses or sub 60% effiency)
80+% shrapnell (low damage rolls + misses and/or quite a lot of health regen and/or a lot of overkill)

 

[Legends]

As I was working on my Leviathan mission yesterday I reached level 30 Animal Looter and unlocked Xenobiology and Butchering:

​

And I reached level 50 Laser Pistoleer (Hit) and unlocked Combat Sense:

​

Although I'm quite happy about this milestone, it's not really that special anymore with the rate at which anyone can skill up with the new Codex. A brand new account can get there in about 2 months now. In any case, it does take a bit of work so I'm glad I'm there now

 

[TumiTimeless]

As I was working on my Leviathan mission yesterday I reached level 30 Animal Looter and unlocked Xenobiology and Butchering:

​

And I reached level 50 Laser Pistoleer (Hit) and unlocked Combat Sense:

​

Although I'm quite happy about this milestone, it's not really that special anymore with the rate at which anyone can skill up with the new Codex. A brand new account can get there in about 2 months now. In any case, it does take a bit of work so I'm glad I'm there now

Congratulations Legends. Congratulations ??

 

[Legends]

Creature #1: Leviathan (27-36)
Location: North of Port Atlantis
My Animal Looter level: 29.97
My Evade level: 28.03
Rings: Athenic (L) and Ares (L)
Tagger #1 (efficiency): ArMatrix LR-45 (L) + ArMatrix 28B + P20 - (70.1%)
Weapon #2 (efficiency): ArMatrix LP-45 (L) + ArMatrix 28B + P20 - (71.2%)
Weapons decay (incl. attachments): 503.30 PED (+98.80 markup)
FAPs (Herb Box, Regen 6 (L) and Resto 3 (L)): 34.33 (+6.20 markup)
Armor decay: 159.91 PED (0 markup)
Total ammo spent: 6,272.18 PED
Total spent on hunt (w/mu): 7,074.72 PED

Hunting run duration: ~ 12 hours
Globals/HoFs: 861, 51, 172, 161, 68, 52, 99, 78, 64, 180, 96, 77, 73, 77, 217, 70, 84, 68 and 68
Items looted: Polaris Arms (M,L), Polaris Harness (M,L) and Kinetic Attack nanochip 9 (L)
Items TT value (~markup value): 356.29 (+7 markup)
Stackables (~mu): 6,699.21 PED (+71 PED)
Net returns (w/mu): 7,133.50 PED or 101%
Loot quality, i.e. % shrapnel: 82.7% of loot tt was shrapnel
Profit/Cost per hour: +5 PED/hour

Note: I used Damage enhancers on these guns as they tiered up which causes Efficiency to drop. The Efficiency shown is without Damage enhancers.

​

Got a nice HoF right at the start of this final run on Leviathan and managed to ride it all the way to the end and finish in the green, so that was very nice.

Hunting: I've maxed the level 45 guns now but I have to say it's hard to see any difference; it's still slow killing these beasts.

Defense: I'm using that new Paneleon Spec armor along with Serpent Scale plates which gives me 58 Impact, 9 Acid and 17 Cut. It's a bit weak on the Acid and there's always damage getting through with it which means I am constantly having to fire up the Resto 3 on the Olds and Providers. For the Youngs and Mature I typically just heal in between using the Herb Box which is cheaper to use. Next time I'll just throw on Pulsar 4 plates as I think that will just make things a lot easier for me.

Achievements: L50 Laser Pistoleer (hit), L50 Laser Sniper (hit), L48 BLP Pistoleer (hit), L17 Paramedic, L21 Dodger, L18 Mutant Looter.

I finished the 6k Levi and got my 22 PED of Perception, which makes my Animal Looter Level 30.68 now so that's a nice little jump from a 12 hour hunt. When I turned it in I was able to take the 12k Levi which surprised me as I thought we would just be able to finish the one we were currently on but I guess we are able to get as far as we want until next September. I'll have to take a good look at the rewards for the Rextelum and Leviathan and see which one I'll focus on.

 

[M Rufen Power]

2. Higher Efficiency weapon setups means higher overall tt loot returns. Meanwhile, loot composition is only affected by DPP, the biggest factor of which being critical hits/damage, meaning that adding enhancers to weapons or taking pills most likely has very little to do with looting interesting items. There could be a case to be made for using Accuracy Enhancers to raise DPP and improve loot quality on mobs that drop higher mu stuff, and I might explore this throughout the Blog.

 

[AckerZ]

Great Hunting Log Legends, in regards to crafting Armatrix do you think it is viable if you are looting/mining all materials yourself?

 

[Legends]

Great Hunting Log Legends, in regards to crafting Armatrix do you think it is viable if you are looting/mining all materials yourself?

I believe what you are asking is if you'd have an edge mining and looting the ingredients yourself and the short answer to that is "no", I don't believe this is the case. In fact most looted ingredients are much cheaper to buy from the auction then to gather yourself.

Fo mining I should caution you, I don't mine, so my opinion isn't of any real value there. I think it's possible to gather up the mined resources yourself and save, yes, but is that really the case, I'm not sure.

There's actually very few ingredients that are actually worth using up youself if you are a hunter. For instance if you are a big game hunter and loot Brain Oil, it would be worth it to get yourself a Simple 4 Conductors blueprint and use up all the Brain Oil yourself and then sell the Conductors on the auction, you'll double your profits on it than if you had simply sold the raw oil. But doing this requires a bit of a commitment on your part, you'd have to take a hit when you first start clicking that cause the BP maxes out at 27.5 Electronics Engineer and then takes time to bring up to a decent Success Rate.

Anything that would be worth using up would require a similar amount of investement or dedication before it actually pays off, which is why it does.

There's a lot of competition on ArMatrix, so I really don't think it's worth getting into at this point. The time to get into ArMatrix has passed imho. But if you were going to get into it, here's some areas where you could gain an edge over the competition:

1. Sell only in private: no fees on sales
2. Buy your mats when they are cheap and stock enough to last a year or more
3. Click Weapon Tech Gizmos and obtain your own ArMatrix blueprints
4. Save your high TIR weapons till Mayhem when they are most in demand
...

Competition on ArMatrix is pretty fierce now, there's really not much profit margin left on it atm. Best advice I can give is just prepare yourself for the next release so you can jump on it right from the start and grab a decent market share and then just work your ass off to keep it and grow it over time.

 

[AckerZ]

Incredible advice as always Legends!

 

[Korin Dante MDe]

What is your HP points and what contributed most to your HP?

 

[Legends]

What is your HP points and what contributed most to your HP?

I'm at 162 HP

Biggest contributors are probably Coolness, Courage and Dexterity but I haven't really looked into it that closely.

 

[Legends]

Creature #1: Brood of Dotty (L39-L43)
Location: Crystal Palace Cave
My Animal Looter level: 30.69
My Evade level: 28.52
Rings: Athenic (L) and Ares (L)
Tagger #1 (efficiency): ArMatrix LR-45 (L) + ArMatrix 42B + P20 - (71.7%)
Weapon #2 (efficiency): ArMatrix LP-45 (L) + ArMatrix 28B + P20 - (71.2%)
Weapons decay (incl. attachments): 804.13 PED (+149.34 markup, +8.80 mu on broken damage enhancers)
FAPs (Herb Box and Regen 6 (L)): 9.44 (+0.45 markup)
Armor decay: 276.50 PED (+10.00 mu on broken defense enhancers)
Total ammo spent: 9,996.20 PED
Total spent on hunt (w/mu): 11,254.86 PED

Hunting run duration: ~ 14 hours
Globals/HoFs: 86, 85, 63, 107, 51, 137, 56, 103, 68, 50, 51, 67, 84, 81, 51, 93 and 50
Items looted: none
Items TT value (~markup value): none
Stackables (~mu): 9,158.36 PED (+60 PED mu)
Net returns (w/mu): 9,218.36 PED or 82%
Loot quality, i.e. % shrapnel: 67% of loot tt was shrapnel
Profit/Cost per hour: -145 PED/hour

Note: I used Damage enhancers on these guns as they tiered up which causes Efficiency to drop. The Efficiency shown is without Damage enhancers.

Well, since I unlocked the Cave on CP I have done 3 big runs hoping for mutated bones. The first hunting run I did in there ended up being with soc mates in team, so I didn't keep track of my returns. However I should point out that we got a 2,800 PED HoF back then (iirc I got 1,600 of it) and also did manage to loot a mutated bone. The 2nd run I did was by myself, again on the Dotty. I spent an innordinate amount of time in there on Saturday and then again on Sunday when I woke up. I didn't get any bone and didn't see the boss. I figured I'd give it another go but now I actually spent the time and kept track of my hunt returns; which are disgusting to say the least.

Hunting: Went into it as a Level 50 Laser so I just made myself a bunch of Level 45 ArMatrix guns (L) since that's the most dps available to me atm. I use an LR-45 to tag them and then switch to an LP-45. I've got the biggest ArMatrix amps on there that will fit and I add damage enhancers as the guns tier up to speed things up a bit. I just stand at the entrance and typically don't aggro any, other then the ones I tag.

Defense: For defense I'm using a set of tier 4-5 Unlimited Tiger along with Adjusted/Improved Serpent Scales. It's just perfect and since Tiger armor has a high tt I can just keep shooting for 4-5 hours before I notice I'm having to heal more and need to repair the armor and plates. For peeps that are curious, here's what the protection stats looks like on my setup:

Anyway my defense costs were just a little over 2.5% of total hunt expenses which isn't that bad considering I'm still pretty low level hunter for hunting Brood of Dotty.

Achievements:

• Lvl 31 Animal Looter
• Lvl 51 Ranged Laser (dmg)
• Lvl 51 Laser Pistoleer (hit)
• Lvl 28 Swordsman (hit)
• Lvl 31 Swordsman (dmg)
• Lvl 48 BLP Sniper (hit)
• Lvl 49 BLP Pistoleer (hit)
• Lvl 47 Ranged BLP (dmg)
• Lvl 29 Evader
• Lvl 22 Dodger
• Lvl 51 Laser Sniper (hit)
• Lvl 52 Laser Pistoleer (hit)

I was about 18% of the way to rank 18 on my Aurli Codex when I started this run and completed that, and completed rank 19. I took Anatomy and Perception as rewards. I spent a long time thinking about my Codex strategy long term and this could be the subject of another post sometime down the road. I think it's interesting what strategies can be deployed with it.

Needless to say, I'm very dissapointed here with the returns for this run, not only did I not get a bone, but I lost almost 20% on my spend while trying. For some reason I was given to understand that 2500 kills spawns the boss and then once the boss is killed, a mutated bone is added to the loot pool. I had done the math and if it takes me about 20 seconds to kill a Dotty then it should take me ~50,000 seconds to kill 2,500 of them, which is roughly 14 hours. There were others hunting them now and again so probably more like 12 hours or maybe less... But alas, it didn't work out that way, or maybe I just had the shittiest timing ever and the boss spawned when I was at the repair terminal fixing my armor, who knows... But the lack of predictability in the Cave is getting to me, not sure how many more of these runs I will do without any bones.

If I had more HP and could use an LR-65 I'd probably rather be at the Gorgon in Ancient Greece, but given my circumstance, it's just no fun spending half my time walking back from the revive terminal. At least here I can actually kill the creatures and I can do it while standing in one spot (which is a big advantage when you are carrying over 2k items in your inventory and can't actually run).

I think what is lacking is some visual cues, like say if those mechanical towers hissed or a light came on or something, for every 500 killed, I dunno. I just wish there was a way to estimate the amount of effort that will be required in order to loot one mutated bone, cause I gotta tell you, right now, it's just totally demoralizing when I consider that my last 26 hours or so of hunting in there has turned up nothing but big losses. The team hunt I did with the soc a few months ago went all night long and I think we were about 9 or 10 hours into it before that boss showed up, we killed it, and then a few mobs later we looted a bone. By my estimate, we probably killed 2,500 or so up to that point and so that's why I thought that's the amount that had to be killed in order to spawn the boss. But twice now I have endeavored to kill that many in one hunting run in order to spawn the boss and twice I was dfissapointed when it didn't happen...

Anyway if anyone reading this has any additional info as to how that boss spawns and the drop rate of those bones, please share.

 

[Legends]

I've gone back and fixed all of the broken image links I could find.

 

[M Rufen Power]

Where is the latest update, Legends? Where!?

 

[Legends]

As the 3 year anniversary of this blog comes to pass, I can't help but think "I really should do something with this blog again ..."