Level and Get Rich in Space!

[Karaokelove]

I've had remarkable success with the following strategy, so I figured I would post it here in case any of you would like to give it a shot. My disclaimer is that if you don't like doing the space missions then this isn't for you. Also, if you don't like repetition, then this isn't for you. So here we go.

 

As an Imperial Agent, I ended up getting my space ship around level 17. I didn't land it until I was level 24. Not only did I absolutely love the space missions, but I realized that I was making way more xp and money doing them than I ever could by doing actual missions on the ground. I ended up doing some calculations, and figured out that I could make approximately 19 xp/second on the Sarapin mission (that's 5500xp over the course of 4 minutes, 40 seconds). I could also get huge spikes in xp by repeating each mission once/day, for the maximum reward yield. But honestly, by simply playing the Sarapin mission over and over, I managed to level from 17 to 24 in a matter of hours (of play time). If I remember correctly, anywhere from 8 to 10 playthroughs was enough to level up. I would mix it up by doing the other missions from time to time, but that was my basic strategy.

 

Now here's the other side of the coin. My slicing skill was around 40 or 50, I believe, when I first started "farming" the space missions. Since I had 2 companions, I started sending them out on "lock box" splicing missions. Typically, their splicing missions would take as long as my space mission. This meant that I would go in to the 4-minute space mission, make around 5500xp, and come out just in time to open a lock box with anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 credits in it. Thus, by the time I reached level 24, I was filthy, stinking rich. I think I've actually given away somewhere around 50k to guild mates and random people I've grouped with, so they could afford their speeders and what not, and I haven't felt it at all.

 

I do want to stress the fact that I actually enjoyed doing the space missions on repeat. Had I not found the process enjoyable I wouldn't have stuck with it. It did get tedious a few times, and when I hit 24 was when I finally decided to go down and do some normal missions. I just wanted to let everyone know the potential that lies in the space combat and splicing systems.

 

If you do decide to try this system, don't be thrown off when you finish the mission and it says you only gained 2600xp. That is your actual mission reward. It doesn't count all the xp you actually earn by killing ships and turrets within the mission. Also make sure you use your missiles to destroy the main ship's navigation center for a 2000xp daily bonus, and a 500xp standard bonus. Good luck!

Edited December 21, 2011 by Karaokelove

[MalachiDraven]

You can't do this to level all the way to 50, because then you wouldn't have any of the rest of your companions Same as PvP, gotta do the storyline to get them.

 

Anyways though, you don't make any credits from Slicing (not splicing) by just sending your crew out on those creditbox missions. Most of the time they don't contain anything more than what it cost you to send them out. And there's no way you got a 5k creditbox with only 40 or 50 Slicing skill...you actually take a LOSS from sending your crew out on missions until you reach a Slicing skill of 150+.

 

You make a ton more credits if you were out doing quests on the ground and Slicing things on the ground, while also sending your droid companion on Slicing missions.

 

You can also make good xp by just grinding mobs like an Asian MMO. Just find a spot that has Strong mobs that don't hit too hard and grind away. It's incredibly boring, and you'll want to shoot yourself, but it works. At level 35, a strong mob was giving me 565xp per kill, and a quest would give about 10-20k. So if I could kill about 30-35 Strong mobs faster than I could go out and quest, I'd get faster xp. It's easy to do, seeing as most quest make you travel and then you gotta go back to turn them in, and blah blah blah. But, it's incredibly boring to grind.

 

Oh and you also don't get any good rewards for doing the space stuff, so that's another reason not to do that to level up. You went from 17 to 24, and I bet you had a hard time killing stuff at level 24. Well, maybe - 24 is still low enough to not have a hard time. But if you went from 30 to 40, you'd be in big trouble if you went to fight anything after having done only space combat.

[asciiadam]

I have only done a few space missions but each one that I did I only got 300 xp. Why is that?

[OSUNightfall]

OP is totally correct. Do space missions, level up, slice a bit. When you think you've had enough, go get some armor off the auction house and you're golden. I am pursuing just this strategy for my alt commando (already have a vanguard main, have no interest in doing the same side-quests over. Then you just have to do your storyline missions.

[Karaokelove]

You can't do this to level all the way to 50, because then you wouldn't have any of the rest of your companions Same as PvP, gotta do the storyline to get them.

 

Anyways though, you don't make any credits from Slicing (not splicing) by just sending your crew out on those creditbox missions. Most of the time they don't contain anything more than what it cost you to send them out. And there's no way you got a 5k creditbox with only 40 or 50 Slicing skill...you actually take a LOSS from sending your crew out on missions until you reach a Slicing skill of 150+.

 

You make a ton more credits if you were out doing quests on the ground and Slicing things on the ground, while also sending your droid companion on Slicing missions.

 

You can also make good xp by just grinding mobs like an Asian MMO. Just find a spot that has Strong mobs that don't hit too hard and grind away. It's incredibly boring, and you'll want to shoot yourself, but it works. At level 35, a strong mob was giving me 565xp per kill, and a quest would give about 10-20k. So if I could kill about 30-35 Strong mobs faster than I could go out and quest, I'd get faster xp. It's easy to do, seeing as most quest make you travel and then you gotta go back to turn them in, and blah blah blah. But, it's incredibly boring to grind.

 

Oh and you also don't get any good rewards for doing the space stuff, so that's another reason not to do that to level up. You went from 17 to 24, and I bet you had a hard time killing stuff at level 24. Well, maybe - 24 is still low enough to not have a hard time. But if you went from 30 to 40, you'd be in big trouble if you went to fight anything after having done only space combat.

 

I wouldn't expect anyone to do this to 50 or higher. I imagine the diminishing xp returns would eventually drown out any forward momentum. And I never said I was making 5000 credits right off the bat, but it did start to happen very quickly. At no point was I losing money or even breaking even. I was always making at least some profit. My splicing skill is now almost 300, and it's all from when I was using the above-posted strategy. You're not the only person I've seen say you can't make any money from splicing missions, but I don't know what to say besides that's just not true. Sure, sometimes the mission would fail and I would be out the 300 - 1500 credits it cost to send out my companion, but so far (as of my character being level 26) I have made around 150,000 credits purely from doing the splicing missions. For some reason I saw the greatest returns at tier 4, with tier 5 yielding significantly less, so I've been keeping Kaliyo and my droid busy with tier 4 splicing missions. Even when I'm not doing space missions and have Kaliyo fighting by my side, my droid is literally constantly farming credits for me. As far as slicing on the ground goes, if I see a box I might stop and slice it, but so far, even on the 150+ skill boxes, I haven't collected more than 350 credits from a single box. As far as I can tell, ground slicing = chump change compared to slicing missions.

 

One of the major reasons I did end up going back to my story quests was so I could unlock more companions. I figured if I can make that much with 2 companions, every companion I can add to the formula should yield an exponential increase in profit.

[foolishwtf]

I have only done a few space missions but each one that I did I only got 300 xp. Why is that?

 

Space missions have 'suggested levels' you get some indication of this based on what color they appear as when you hover over them. Anyway, if you do one way below your level it gives really bad exp (300 in your case).

[Karaokelove]

I have only done a few space missions but each one that I did I only got 300 xp. Why is that?

 

Make sure you complete all the objectives. And remember, it doesn't actually tell you how much total xp you gained during the mission. It just tells you your xp reward for completing the mission. So all those +7xp for each obliterated starfighter aren't going to show up when you beat the mission, even though you did get that xp.

 

To figure out my rate of return, I wrote down how much xp I had before the mission, and subtracted that from how much xp I had after the mission. It came out to 5514xp gained (even though it only told me I had gained 2600 for completing the mission), which, over the course of the 4 minute and 40 second long mission, equals approximately 19xp/second. That may not sound like a lot, but when you realize that it's a constant stream, it really starts to add up. For instance, my first night I only spent an hour doing the space missions. Which means I gained (216,000 seconds x 19xp =) 4,104,000xp over the course of a single hour, not to mention the fact that you make around 300 credits per completed mission. You would be very hard-pressed to make anywhere near that much xp doing planetary missions. And the fact that you don't need a companion by your side means they are free to do crew missions for you. And you also get to participate in action-packed flight sequences instead of running across plains for 15 minutes to get to your next objective.

 

Just for the record, I'm not saying that anyone should be doing this. I just wanted to let people know that the option was out there, because it worked so well for me. If repeating the same space mission over and over for an hour doesn't appeal to you (which is totally understandable), then by all means go and enjoy your class's storyline.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Karaokelove

[Wren_Atticus]

The first batch of space combats/operations leveled me completely from 20-21 and about 1/4 of the way into 21.

 

I had all Grade 1 ship gear, with a few crafted Grade 2 pieces. Never failed a combat. And there are daily operations too!

 

But besides that, space combat is just a blast. I love it. A nice diversion from the regular questing.

[Karaokelove]

The first batch of space combats/operations leveled me completely from 20-21 and about 1/4 of the way into 21.

 

I had all Grade 1 ship gear, with a few crafted Grade 2 pieces. Never failed a combat. And there are daily operations too!

 

But besides that, space combat is just a blast. I love it. A nice diversion from the regular questing.

 

I couldn't agree more! That's actually how I figured all this out. I was just going to town on the space missions because I thought they were so cool, when I realized that I had gone up a level and a half just from doing them. That's when I started to get methodical about it, but I still just have a blast playing the same missions over and over, trying to kill every single turret and fighter I can get my crosshairs on...

[Tamanous]

Well congrats on spilling the leveling exploit many are doing. As one person stated: The missions tell you you get a few hundred xp when in fact you get thousands. Slicing has always been known as the credit hack craft for ages.

 

A reasonable player (like me) simply does a quick couple missions to stop off a level and then proceed to the next story arc. You miss all your story and all your light'dark options speed leveling this way. To level this way is to exploit as I am sure space missions are giving too much xp. 6 missions that took very little time made my toon a complete level when I first tried them ... I was like whoa whoa WHOA! ... and have been ahead of the leveling curve ever since which rather annoys me actually.

 

It is very funny that some players find a massively more efficient way to level and think it is a strategy or "pro tip" and others see it as an exploit, a possible bug and report it knowing how it negatively impacts the game.

 

I have never had an issue with money, quests give more than enough to allow saving for speeder training and to keep up crafting (non-slicing crafts) to your own level. The Balmorra bonus series gives 30k+ in credits for less than a level in xp (takes a couple hours to do). Selling on the AH gives thousands a day.

 

You are only giving players a tip to not play the game as it is intended. It is indeed a nice little side game but was not intended to give so much xp as to make regular game play obsolete. Expect changes despite your soon to post venomous replies.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Tamanous

[Karaokelove]

Here's what I don't get: I found something in the game that I liked, had fun with, and thought I could share with others. That is literally all this thread was supposed to be. "Hey guys, I found this cool thing that some of you might like. Here's how to do it if you're interested!" I never said it was the best way to play the game or that you're gimping yourself by not doing it. I just posted it as a possible activity that some players might enjoy and get some use out of. So why do people feel the need to post negative remarks and tear it down? If you don't want to level through space missions and make hundreds of thousands of credits through splicing, then simply don't do it. Play the game your way. I'm not going to tear you down for it. There is no right or wrong way to play the game, so why are you going to waste your time posting negative comments on posts that have nothing to do with you? There is so much negativity on these forums, and I've been trying to keep out of it, but I just really find this irritating. Anyway, I'm just going to leave it at that because I don't want to turn this post into a flame war. I will just say that if you think what is posted in this thread is stupid and senseless, that's fantastic, just pretend it doesn't exist and spend your time elsewhere. Thanks.

[Florial]

Thank you Karao and I may try this to get a few bucks in my pocket. Sadly, none of my characters have their ships so I really need to get cracking. What crafting/gathering skills did you take with your slicing? Can't wait to see my ship and do some missions.

 

One edit: Don't let the negative folks pull you down I always like to hear different ways folks make money or gain exp in games. I have more of a tendency to do all the quests but I may roll up a bounty hunter, do the main class stories and spend a boat load of time in my ship. I don't know yet. Currently I have a Sith Inquisitor and Imperial Agent but have wanted another character as another crafter. Your system sound perfect---I will come back to the ground to do my storyline quests....)

Edited December 21, 2011 by Florial

[Oogresh]

yeah thanks for the info i have actually completely neglected doing the space missions although i did plan on doing them tonight when i got home. maybe i will just spend a little while longer doing it though that i had initially planned.

[Flame_Star]

Make sure you complete all the objectives. And remember, it doesn't actually tell you how much total xp you gained during the mission. It just tells you your xp reward for completing the mission. So all those +7xp for each obliterated starfighter aren't going to show up when you beat the mission, even though you did get that xp.

 

To figure out my rate of return, I wrote down how much xp I had before the mission, and subtracted that from how much xp I had after the mission. It came out to 5514xp gained (even though it only told me I had gained 2600 for completing the mission), which, over the course of the 4 minute and 40 second long mission, equals approximately 19xp/second. That may not sound like a lot, but when you realize that it's a constant stream, it really starts to add up. For instance, my first night I only spent an hour doing the space missions. Which means I gained (216,000 seconds x 19xp =) 4,104,000xp over the course of a single hour, not to mention the fact that you make around 300 credits per completed mission. You would be very hard-pressed to make anywhere near that much xp doing planetary missions. And the fact that you don't need a companion by your side means they are free to do crew missions for you. And you also get to participate in action-packed flight sequences instead of running across plains for 15 minutes to get to your next objective.

 

Just for the record, I'm not saying that anyone should be doing this. I just wanted to let people know that the option was out there, because it worked so well for me. If repeating the same space mission over and over for an hour doesn't appeal to you (which is totally understandable), then by all means go and enjoy your class's storyline.

 

 

I don't mean to nit-pick, but your math is a little wrong. There are 216,000 seconds in 60 hours... only 3600 seconds in 1 hour. Which equals about 68k xp a hour, which is a much more reasonable rate than 4m xp a hour. That would surely be noticed and fixed really quick.

[Jadalyn]

Hi Karo,

 

Did you ever figure out how to destroy the medium-class cruisers?

 

I generally used lasers to take out all the weapon points and missles on the two remaining internal points (the ones which flash blue when you hit them with lasers). The last two take about 2 missles each to destroy. Does killing the corvettes give you a bigger boost in exp?

[Wynternight]

I just do all the side quests in addition to the storyline, craft, and have a good time. But thank you for the info.

[Kholvan]

 

Anyways though, you don't make any credits from Slicing (not splicing) by just sending your crew out on those creditbox missions. Most of the time they don't contain anything more than what it cost you to send them out. And there's no way you got a 5k creditbox with only 40 or 50 Slicing skill...you actually take a LOSS from sending your crew out on missions until you reach a Slicing skill of 150+.

 

I believe you are mistaken - apart from the bit about the 5k credit box, but I don't really think he meant he was getting 5k at 50 slicing. I expect he means 1-5k is what he was getting after reaching the end of his 17-24 grind, slicing all the way (presumably to 200+ slicing skill).

 

After getting tired of going broke trying to level bioanalysis and diplomacy, I created a slicing alt last night. After getting off the starter planet, I took the next 100 minutes or so doing nothing but grinding lockbox slicing missions on the spaceport. I reached about 57 slicing before going to sleep.

 

My character entered the space port with 4800~ credits, and had 6200 upon logging out. That's 1400 creds starting from Slicing 1 in a little over an hour and a half. Being level 9, my character had only one companion, so could run only one mission at a time. Yes, from time to time the 95 credit mission returned 78 credits and even failed twice, but most of the time it returned 130+, and I was starting to see a couple 200+ towards the end.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Kholvan

[Yaksha]

Gee there are a few slightly angry sounding people here.

 

So what if this wasn't the way the game was meant to be played? So what if it means getting levels but skipping the story?

 

I wouldn't call it an exploit - because it's not the kind of thing that you couldn't do in good conscious and it's not the kind of thing that if someone got banned for it, you'd honestly say "You should have seen it coming".

 

Maybe it was over looked by the devs. But I for one, appreciate people sharing this information, regardless of whether it'll be useful to me.

 

I thought the MMO community had matured beyond this "You found an easy way to level, that's not fair, *rage" business these days...

[Karaokelove]

I don't mean to nit-pick, but your math is a little wrong. There are 216,000 seconds in 60 hours... only 3600 seconds in 1 hour. Which equals about 68k xp a hour, which is a much more reasonable rate than 4m xp a hour. That would surely be noticed and fixed really quick.

 

Ha, yeah, you're absolutely right. I thought that sounded high. I did 1 too many x60... Thanks for the heads-up!

[Karaokelove]

I just do all the side quests in addition to the storyline, craft, and have a good time. But thank you for the info.

 

And I can't blame you one bit! I'm straight-up ocd, so I'm all about the numbers-aspect of the game. Sure I like having a cool character and a good story, but my main joy comes from seeing those high numbers on my screen and figure out ways to make them higher. I probably should have included that in the OP...

[mysteltain]

thanks for the tip, but the space mission seems incredibly hard, I get shot down too early, any tips?

[andysdead]

You can't do this to level all the way to 50, because then you wouldn't have any of the rest of your companions Same as PvP, gotta do the storyline to get them.

 

Sure you can. Heck, as an IA, if he's an operative, he can just stealth through all the class story missions until he's caught up.

[Bhigtimm]

thanks for the tip, but the space mission seems incredibly hard, I get shot down too early, any tips?

 

Have you upgraded your ship? The level 1 stuff can be bought for around 600 credits per item. The level 2 stuff is better, its blue and gives additional bonuses. Level 3 stuff is 1800 credits or so, but I think you do better with a full compliment of level 2 blues than level 3 greens.

[Kheldras]

thanks for the tip, but the space mission seems incredibly hard, I get shot down too early, any tips?

 

Get all Level 1 Ship parts you get from the Vendor. Seriously helps, and is about 2500 Cr, get them, its a good Investment.

 

Lev2 Parts are Cybertech made and need about Lev 19.

 

 

 

Oh and i usually add in a bit of Spacebattling between planets, or do the Dailies, before landing to quest.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Kheldras

[Karaokelove]

thanks for the tip, but the space mission seems incredibly hard, I get shot down too early, any tips?

 

Yeah, just make sure you buy all the upgrades you are able to use as soon as you get your ship. There are about 4 or 5, and they're only about 600 credits apiece. That should make things much easier.

 

Also, I finally verified, as I'm sure many of you already have, that only missiles can destroy any target that gives off blue energy waves when struck. Most of the targets only require 2 missiles to destroy, but the Comm Relay on the bottom of the huge space station and the Command Centers on the top-middle of the battle cruisers require somewhere around 20. Make sure that you don't destroy the Comm Relay until the timer has gone past 1:05, otherwise the mission will freeze. Other than that, the xp bonuses you gain from destroying these tougher targets makes attacking them very worthwhile.