Question: Missions that can't be done (unless you have no life)

[Luna Roc Hammerhand]

So I've recently made a new account after I deleted my old one five years ago (stupid move, I know), and decided to just go for it and do the beginners stuff. So I went on to do most missions and get my skills up, but there's a thing bugging me about the "I've got a bone to pick" mission. I've found an older post here where someone asks how on earth to get to those 10,000 bone samples. That topic is nearly 6 years old and I would have thought that by now the mission would have been improved.

Right now I must have killed well over 10,000 puny mobs but my grand total of bone samples is a whopping 64. I mean, come on. At a certain point I felt like the South Park kids in the WoW ep when they're shooting low level boars and end up having literally "no life". My rifle skill is getting higher so I'm almost ready to bury my Opalo and get a bigger gun and hunt bigger mobs, but you can't finish the Bone mission without shooting puny creatures. Are you simply doomed to shoot them for months (or years even?) to finish this mission, or am I missing something here? I know I could buy the bones but that feels like cheating.

Also wondered if there are more missions out there that are just not worth it to start because you might end up in a loop like this.

 

[Fanan]

The reward if I'm not mistaken is 1 agility point, that mission is pre-codex when attributes points were very hard to gain. Now every 5 codex done you get a meta point that boost up your attributes. So I would say it's not worth it anymore.

 

[Nik-Elas]

What he said! But if I'm not mistaken you can buy those bones if for some reason you REALLY wanna finish the mission, which also is repeatable i think.
But yeah, just skip it is my suggestion.

 

[Art Jennifer]

Welcome to Grindtropia

 

[Luna Roc Hammerhand]

Well, like I thought. Just a shame that a mission isn't updated then for such a long time. It really would be a doable thing for any starting player if the item would drop regularly, and help with gaining skills etc. Don't see why MA would keep it like this...

 

[Nik-Elas]

Well, like I thought. Just a shame that a mission isn't updated then for such a long time. It really would be a doable thing for any starting player if the item would drop regularly, and help with gaining skills etc. Don't see why MA would keep it like this...

Just you wait buddy, there is so much shit we as a community wonder why MA has not fixed or deleted after all these years.. you'll get used to just ignoring some stuff with time, best of luck to you!

 

[John B Knight]

Safe the mission for later, skill up attributes with hunting and meta and go for the missions that gives rewards like this (tokens) once you are 140+ in the respective attributes then its a point worth getting for the comparatively low cost of the bones.

 

[Legends]

Well, like I thought. Just a shame that a mission isn't updated then for such a long time. It really would be a doable thing for any starting player if the item would drop regularly, and help with gaining skills etc. Don't see why MA would keep it like this...

Welcome to the club; almost every single player has some axe to grind with MA for either unfulfilled promises or broken content.

 

[Ferial]

Well, like I thought. Just a shame that a mission isn't updated then for such a long time. It really would be a doable thing for any starting player if the item would drop regularly, and help with gaining skills etc. Don't see why MA would keep it like this...

If I am not mistaken, this mission in particular is and always have been just an MU-infusion for new players. I think the intention is as follows:

1. New players hunt punies, gets a chunk of bones
2. New player sells bones to an "older" player for markup. The older player wants the attribute, but doesn't feel like spending time on punies is worth it
3. New player becomes the "older" player and buys the bones from new player.

I think it is an excellent design choice. I just wish it was more rewarding.

 

[Katie Chalmers]

In recent history the bones dropped a lot more regularly so it was somewhat achievable. However most people doing the mission would simply buy the bones from multiple sources. Nowadays you hardly ever see people selling bones (because hardly any people have them) but back then it was as common as sweat to see them for sale.

 

[Luna Roc Hammerhand]

If I am not mistaken, this mission in particular is and always have been just an MU-infusion for new players. I think the intention is as follows:

1. New players hunt punies, gets a chunk of bones
2. New player sells bones to an "older" player for markup. The older player wants the attribute, but doesn't feel like spending time on punies is worth it
3. New player becomes the "older" player and buys the bones from new player.

I think it is an excellent design choice. I just wish it was more rewarding.

Okay, yeah, that sounds reasonable. But still, for this to work the bones have to drop a lot more than they do now. Then it would be worthwhile to turn it into something of a profit.

 

[NevadaJake]

I have 8 bones in storage that are yours for free if you want them

 

[Ferial]

Okay, yeah, that sounds reasonable. But still, for this to work the bones have to drop a lot more than they do now. Then it would be worthwhile to turn it into something of a profit.

In this here lies the hardships with balancing in a game like this. There are just so many aspects that have to be carefully planned to make things go round smoothly.

You have to balance effort and reward on two different planes.

The reward has to be good enough to make it worth it to "older" players. This was cleverly done by using a flat attribute reward that grows in value the more you have of it (not the point itself, but the cost to acquire it, and as such the value of the reward)

You also have to make it hard enough that people decide to buy the bones instead if just grind them out themselves.

The effort also has to balanced as a funnel. At any given time there is a substantial amount of more people looting bones than there is people who want to finish the mission.

There are a few other factors to consider, but these are enough to make a point.

A slight change in either of these has an impact on the value of the mission.

With the implementation of meta codex, attribute gains have been streamlined up to a point much higher than it was before, and therefor this mission will be "on pause" for a while. As the "older" player, right now, you would want to grind out as much meta codex as you can before considering completing the mission (as that gives tha reward maximum value).

The amount of people who want to finish the mission right now has decreased, and as such the market value for the bones drops.

For players on punies now, you can either consider this a small MU boost, if you manage to sell them, or just keep them until you are ready to buy bones yourself, and consider the ones you have *free*. Another option would be to keep them in hopes of prices increasing when more people grind out more of their meta codex but that is a longshot, at best.


I don't think this was ever meant to create a profit opportunity for new players(at least not a sustainable one), and I think it is balanced the way it is for a reason. I think the intention is to teach new players some very important basics of the economics in our game and i think it still works for that reason. The more of your loot that you manage to sell for MU, the more you can offset your costs as you skill up.

 

[Sheryo]

I've been trying to get all of them myself, I'm at 2.3K on the 10K required, might finish it in 5 years.
Just skip it for now

 

[jetsina]

Some good info and possible wisdom here, but I'll gladly repeat what I think is the best of it.

Because skills slow down, down, down, it is better to wait a long time before finishing the mission.

MA doesn't usually clearly show this much balancing wisdom (imho), that new players should sell to much older players who have waited - and not even bothered hunting punys to get their own bones. But it's possible. [I hope there is more opportunity other than sweating for cheap but time-heavy activities for noobs in UE5. It used to be that sweating, then swunting (sweat-hunting = sweat and kill afterwards), was a good activity for non depositors, or low depositors.]

Codex, or rather meta codex rewards, mean players can get much higher than they would have done years ago, so the wait is much longer on the multitude of mob types on various planets where rewards still come relatively easily and it would be a waste to hand in the mission before being high meta-codex level.

The drop rate depends on how efficiently you kill your punies. It's called loot quality, as opposed to the tt value loot quantity. Years ago when I was doing punies I think I was getting a bone at something like 1 in 7 kills, and I think I have over 4 missions' worth in storage. I think the street price was about 100 peds per mission amount, so 1 pec mu bonus every 7 kills I think in my case, which at puny level does make a small desirable difference. But I never bothered to go on trade chat and shout out I was selling. It's possibly quite rare to find someone who thinks the right time is 'now'.

 

[Bones]

Couple of things

Stop using that Opalo , its a piece of crap.

Look at this mission as a long term project with several benefits.

1. All these mobs count towards their particular codex , which is not always the case with puny missions.
2. Ok , guess i didn't need a numbered list , but some other stuff i can't think of.
3. and now im stuck in this damned numbered list , anyway it's easy mission that you can do whenever you need something cheap to do.

 

[Orion]

When I finished the mission years ago, I tracked the looted bone samples of 4k punies and saw that it will take me another ~36.000 kills more to reach the 10k bone samples.

And yes, in the end it very well matched the total of 40k kills needed to loot 10k bone samples to finish the mission. at least with my gear, which wasn't very efficient and had no high DPP.
For the needed kills I used the biggest (L) grenade launchers, ran in circles at Fort Icarus for hours, days long, and was so sorry that i fucked up the poor newbies there.

I cant tell if the drop rate got altered recently.

 

[DRAGUNOV44]

I have no life i'm married

 

[FireFist]

if you want instant gratification this isnt the game...

 

[buckaroobanzai]

Is this mission still repeatable?

 

[unufain8]

What he said! But if I'm not mistaken you can buy those bones if for some reason you REALLY wanna finish the mission, which also is repeatable i think.
But yeah, just skip it is my suggestion.

a guy named kozmodan is selling those bones

 

[Msturlese]

Well...... too many bones in this thread.

Mission for no-lifers are more than bones
1. PLEAK Wings... 10.000 of on cyrene. same puny carnage required, nice drop rate, need VERY SMALL cells weapon to optimize
2. The color of ENVY chain (rocktropia) 396.000 Puny Vixen to kill (seems few but it is hard to kill more than 7000 per day)
3. Lime green token at HUB for coat ... 550.000 Token collection repeatable i got 35k in a day the zone is autoloot
4. Ultimate Noob / test of faith chain on cyrene (about 100k kills)
5. entropia master Rextelum / Traeskeron / Leviathan killpoint missions (restelum one is about 75.000 ped cycle)
6. Muscle park atrox chain (about 45k cycle) but double dip with caly codex step 6 repetable is 44k cycle)
7. IFN dropship chain on ark (1 year daily)
8. Horn of Zagol on Monria

add more, we can reach a Decathlon and open a thread for who completed all and ask MA to track for a "entropia addict" title

 

[Bones]

Well...... too many bones in this thread.


7. IFN dropship chain on ark (1 year daily)

Dropship is a year , but entire mission is 823 days if you fulfill each kill requirement daily.

and , can you really have too many bones ?