Zenzile's Hunting Journal

[Zenzile]

Preface

I've tried to do a few of these before, but was unsuccessful in sustaining my updates, so I'm going to go ahead and try again with a different strategy. Right now, I'm only focused on skilling so will be sharing the occasional rare loots and skill progress; I'll be forking EntropiaTally to add support for proper tracking of my arso chip eventually.

Backstory and Purpose

I'm a fairly old player at this point, starting back when I was in my young teens and playing off and on since. I've always wanted to reach level 100 and be seen as competitive with known ubers, but couldn't quite reach or come close to this point due to time, financial and maturity constraints.

I'm now trying this again, with the sole intent of this journal being to track my skill progress towards this larger goal. Again, I'd love to include returns, though I myself am not tracking them at the moment; I'll begin sharing these on a monthly cadence once I've got my own return logging tools in a reliable state. Part of my motivation here as well is seeing Yazuki's hunting log. It seems like he's grinding too fast and I want to try to offer some competition

I’m aiming for Oct 1 as the start of return tracking.

Returns

Month	TT Profit / Loss	TT Return %
Nov 28, 2022	-1782.93	99.84%

Skills
Last Updated: Nov. 28, 2022

Total Skills: 361k
HP: 300
Swordsman Hit: 100
Swordsman Damage: 104
Laster Pistoleer Hit: 95
Laser Damage: 107
Evader: 62
Animal Looter: 65
Mutant Looter: 50
Robot Looter: 30

Equipment

- Armor: Perfected Gorgon T7 + Aug 5b
- Tagger: IMK2 T6 + HC204
- Primary: Mayhem Nano Blade, Modified T8
- Secondary: Arso IV FEN T4 + Kinetic 5
- Rings: Summer 2020 + Xmas 2020
- Healing: Imp Hedoc Mayhem

 

[Zenzile]

Reserved.

 

[Art Jennifer]

Nice Setup! Will be interesting to see how you go. Good Luck!

 

[Yazuki]

Good luck on the journey

 

[M Rufen Power]

We surely need more posts to motivate people.
I am posting in support of your endeavours. Gl!

 

[RandyGetz]

Pretty epic gear for sort off low skills, i love it!!!

 

[Zitti]

Etheral armor!

 

[Zenzile]

Alright, I think I’ve gotten basic return tracking down. I’m concerned that armor decay may be inaccurate, but it should at least be close or average out over time.

I will find a better system to record MU, given i’m only currently tracking tt returns.

I’ll build my own charting soon to share more in depth return analysis.

 

[Yazuki]

I either keep a sticky note of my PED spent every time I repair, or I just repair my armor at the end of the day and then record that into my TT returns as decay.

 

[Zenzile]

I either keep a sticky note of my PED spent every time I repair, or I just repair my armor at the end of the day and then record that into my TT returns as decay.

Thanks, yea my goal would be to switch to repair costs since they’re more reliable. I’d like to automatically record those costs but would need to use OCR and may take me a bit to implement effectively.

For now, average armor decay is easier and should be accurate enough over the long run, given I’ll be posting monthly as well.

 

[Zenzile]

Ok wow, did not expect this one

 

[Zenzile]

Posting a few of the good loots so far this month. Progress has been really quick after switching to Flesh Rippers. I'm overall very glad to have tested them out and made the switch; comparatively, these offer a lot more value than moloch at my lvl given how fast skill gains are.

Currently sitting at 87 laser dmg, 79 laser pistoleer after switching from rifle a few days ago.

 

[Zenzile]

Month 1 Update

Sep. 26 2022 -> Oct. 26 2022

Unfortunately found some mistakes in my return tracking. They should be corrected now, and I'm hoping to be able to post accurate results for this coming month. No real sense posting these as the mistakes invalidate any use looking at them. I can say that I had ~800k in total loot this past month. It largely doesn't matter anyway as I'd be pushing through regardless of losses and am only focused on leveling; I'm guessing that my results were similar to Yazuki's though from just qualitatively watching my pedcard.

I'm hoping to get return tracking to a much healthier state here soon. Disappointed in the bad news for my first update, though at the very least am happy with my skilling progress as follows:

Skills

Total Skills: 191k -> 267k
HP: 180 -> 240
Laser Sniper Hit: 66 -> 90
Laster Pistoleer Hit: ~ -> 86
Laser Damage: 62 -> 94
Evader: 38 -> 50
Animal Looter: 40 -> 54
Mutant Looter: 24 -> 30
Robot Looter: 23 -> 27

I've switched around some of my gear as well, and will soon be buying and skilling for a Mod Nano Blade.

Equipment

- Merry Mayhem (M) / Mayhem (M) mixed
- LR-70 FEN T10 + HA204 + mk2 scope + 1x mk1 sight
- Arso IV FEN T4
- Summer 2020 + Xmas 2020 (HW16 when lifesteal is needed)
- Imp Hedoc Mayhem

 

[Art Jennifer]

Shame about the tracking. Live and learn.

Good luck for the next month and we’ll done on the skill gains!

 

[Bloodstalker]

Crazy progress and gear you really stepped up! Nice work, seems to be already paying off! GL at mayhem

 

[Zenzile]

Month 2 Update

Oct. 27 2022 - Nov. 27 2022

A much better month, and one with successfully tracked returns! This month was positive surprisingly, though I largely attribute this to a lot of time spent on Fleshrippers, and a lot of large loots on them as well. I know for a fact that my time hunting Moloch last month has caused pretty significant ped and skillgain losses.

I participated in HW Mayhem for a bit, though stopped during the final week to focus solely on skilling swordsman; the reason being that I've gotten my hands on a T8 Mod Nano + Trauma 5! My thesis this month was to grind out melee levels as fast as I could, through xmas mayhem to get my DPS and looter skills up for TWEN / future events. I've seen some massive changes in loadout, which I'm excited to share below!

My biggest achievement this month has been the MASSIVE skill gains. I've been very surprised by just how slow melee skilling is relative to mindforce / guns. This was all done with absolutely min-maxed buffs, easter eggs on throughout, along with 100% pills and a summer 2016 ring. Every codex reward has similarly gone into longblade.

Loots

Only including a few, loads of ubers this month!

Returns

TT Input	TT Output	TT Return %
1095272.86	1093489.93	99.84%

Skills

Total Skills: 267k -> 361k
HP: 240 -> 300 (Rounding 299.7)
Swordsman Hit: 48 (?) -> 100
Swordsman Damage: ~ -> 104
Laster Pistoleer Hit: 86 -> 95
Laser Damage: 94 -> 107
Evader: 50 -> 62
Animal Looter: 54 -> 65
Mutant Looter: 30 -> 50
Robot Looter: 27 -> 30

Equipment

- Armor: Perfected Gorgon T7 + Aug 5b
- Tagger: Marber BGH T7 + HC204 / Z12 Barbella
- Primary: Dragons Breath T8 + Trauma 5 (Skilling for Mod Nano)
- Secondary: Arso IV FEN T4 + Kinetic 5
- Rings: Summer 2020 + Xmas 2020
- Healing: Imp Hedoc Mayhem

 

[Zenzile]

Mid-term update: just hit 120 swordsman hit and 70 looter! Can’t wait to switch to the mod nano.

 

[Zenzile]

I’ve passed 140 swordsman hit / dmg! Now going to work on around 5 lvls of damage before switching and taking advantage of SIB, when the eff dif * 0.07 >= hit %!

 

[minim]

I’ve passed 140 swordsman hit / dmg! Now going to work on around 5 lvls of damage before switching and taking advantage of SIB, when the eff dif * 0.07 >= hit %!

I just got a weak claw that maxes at 70 and I started using it at 61. Returns has been quite ok and skill gains great. I’ll send you my results later when I’m posting from a PC and you might be tempted to go mod nano awesome work on the skilling btw!

 

[Yazuki]

I’ve passed 140 swordsman hit / dmg! Now going to work on around 5 lvls of damage before switching and taking advantage of SIB, when the eff dif * 0.07 >= hit %!

Have you considered skill enhancers to use it sooner? Haven't checked the math on if its cheaper than your current setup but sounds like it might be

 

[Katie Chalmers]

Have you considered skill enhancers to use it sooner? Haven't checked the math on if its cheaper than your current setup but sounds like it might be

I've use these before, dunno whether it was my run but they broke super quickly for me, like damage enhancers but without the damage. Plus it is hard to find a decent supply because not many make em. I'd rather just waste PEDs on misses.

 

[Killahbee]

Have you considered skill enhancers to use it sooner? Haven't checked the math on if its cheaper than your current setup but sounds like it might be

IDK if they changed this but when I used them ~1,5 year ago I still did lower damage than what the item info showed me (they didn't work). Can someone confirm they work now?

 

[Zenzile]

I just got a weak claw that maxes at 70 and I started using it at 61. Returns has been quite ok and skill gains great. I’ll send you my results later when I’m posting from a PC and you might be tempted to go mod nano awesome work on the skilling btw!

I may give it a try a little earlier actually. Would definitely be quicker, and I don’t think the losses would be a huge deal after comparing my current hit and eff.

Also, probably not going to do skill enhancers mainly because they’re tough to acquire and would slow down lvling. Half way through sib still puts me in a better spot than using the niflheim, and i’d only be there for a couple of days. Part of this being some of the experiences listed above as well.

 

[Evey]

I started using mine at around 141, with 6-7 skill mod enh and went really well. I was gaining skills much faster and then later on I mixed skill mod with dmg.

 

[Tina Walther]

IDK if they changed this but when I used them ~1,5 year ago I still did lower damage than what the item info showed me (they didn't work). Can someone confirm they work now?

Yeah back when i used some on m83 they were bugged in 2017 if i recall correctly. Afaik they got fixed by now. They worked for the first few shots until you got a skillgain.

 

[Zenzile]

Big news! While I've switched to 50% pills, meaning skilling took a little bit longer, I've finally maxed the mod nano! I'll still be doing fleshripper as I work on getting my looter to 100, but overall this should be where the hunting log gets more interesting.

 

[Azgarot]

Big news! While I've switched to 50% pills, meaning skilling took a little bit longer, I've finally maxed the mod nano! I'll still be doing fleshripper as I work on getting my looter to 100, but overall this should be where the hunting log gets more interesting.

I missed this update, great job, Zenzile! Imho, you should consider switching prior to lv100 as there are much better MU mobs out there and 10-15 lvls difference should still work in your favor. Best of luck with whatever you choose!

Whenever you wanna downgrade, I am still holding on to your LR-60 Aug, just sayin'...