Engeopathichero Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 Hey all just posted this to Reddit but also felt it would be good for the forums since not everyone uses Reddit. This project took some time, as did the writeup, so I want as many to see it as I can. Link for those who would prefer to read it there, https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/18kf5p5/fresh_start_to_1_billion_credits/. After this sentence the post will be identical on Reddit: About 4-5 months ago I got bored and decided to try a project just to see how hard it would be for a fresh player to reach 1 billion credits in the current economy. About the same day as 7.4 I hit that milestone, and here's a writeup of what it was like, how I did it, and other information people might find interesting. There are plenty of things I could have done differently to make it faster but I also wanted to have fun doing it. I will try to bold each section since this is going to be a very long post and some might just be curious about certain things. Special shoutout to Kindred Spirits and Wookie Wackers for giving me guilds to hang out with while I worked on this project. All in all, what I hope for this post is to let everyone know that a billion credits does take some work, but is very doable if you are patient. Don't think that just because you haven't been playing as long as players with billions of credits means you can't one day join them. You also don't have to craft, just pick gathering skills and run around Onderon for an hour and sell the mats, you will make plenty of credits. Heck just make sure you are running missions while you play naturally, sell anything you get from them and you will make millions in no time. Don't think billions are needed to have a good time in this game, by the time I finished my second character I had already unlocked a good chunk of legacy unlocks, and those I couldn't were because of legacy levels, not credits. Yes it will take time, but you can still play like you want to and make credits with a little extra effort. Don't let the current economy scare you, it is easier than you think to make credits. If anyone has any questions I will do my best to keep an eye on the thread and answer them, I can't include everything I did and learned in this post. Stats: For those that don't care about how or my personal analysis here's the raw stats. Total time on characters that contributed to making money (was leveling an alt that I didn't count): 24 days, 3.65 hours, or 579.65 hours. Expenses: Enough strongholds for max conquest bonus, Dantooine 10 ransom paid achievement, alts got legacy buffs as I unlocked them, and for the last 3-4 characters I leveled I bought hk and treek to get a comp at level 1 and an extra crafter. Also bought all legacy perks, no species unlocks or any that can be acquired by any means besides credits. 9 characters to 80 which included all crew skills to max and any additional were Biochem and mat gatherers. Time based on /played of those 9 characters. Roughly 4 months taken. Yes I know I play too much. I'm disabled and have a lot of free time. Rep at Legend: Yavin, Dantooine, Onderon, Rishi, Oricon, CZ-198 (bounty event might join once I consume all tokens). Didn't do datacrons yet. Also spacebarred all story, but also spent some time chatting in guild so I think it about evened out. 5/8 stories on Legend, leveled at least one of each advanced class however (not including mirrors of course). Almost done with 100 season objectives, obviously already done with the rewards. Rules: I did my best to make it as close to a new player as possible, but of course some things I couldn't help without starting a new account and I can't afford 2 subs. Short list of "rules" I followed. *No use of the long time player/sub rewards (almost 80 emails worth) unless it was purely cosmetic, and I still made sure to get one unlocked in collections before I used any cosmetics like color crystals, mounts, etc. No Revan statue, no titles since they give xp, no special companions. *Everything legacy related had to be bought with credits, no fast tracking with Cartel Coins. *No joining guilds with conquest rewards that would fast track credits (also refused any offers to help speed me along). *Though the goal was to make credits I also played as if I was a newish player that wanted to get some things done, (rep, working on legendary, etc.) *Along with the last rule I would spend credits on whatever I wanted. Didn't really buy cosmetics off GTN cause I do that on my main server, but during the Dantooine event I did get the achievement for paying the ransom 10 times. *Making money on GTN was fine, but had to be crafted, no Cartel items, even if gotten through seasons. How I Did It: For my first character I focused on utility over money making, so started with stock standard Biochem. I used Biochem to make the first 50ish million, while I leveled characters to make the big money. Most credits were made selling augments, specifically purple augments. Avoided buying standard mats off GTN, most gathering done on Onderon. Main mats I bought were Solid Matrix and Legend Embers. First few characters were mostly story and heroics, and once I got tired of those I added flashpoints to mix things up. Other than that the majority of my credits came through crafting. Things I Learned: *Flashpoints are incredibly good for xp until around level 55-60. From there expansions tend to be a little faster (especially Onslaught). *Biochem is not great for making lots of money quick, but a decent starting point. *Legacy levels are way easier, especially including expansions (at least compared to launch, I started 1.2 and it was way harder). *Vet flashpoints are way easier than I thought, the only bad groups I had were because of bugs. *Prices have dropped a lot more than I thought, overall. Inflation stuff is working. *You can probably level a character in a single day if you do it right. *Most classes are okay to level, most get a reasonable amount of their kit by 35 and a decent rotation by 47. Only class I hated leveling was Powertech but I leveled Pyro and that might have been part of it. Things I Would Do Different: *One of my raid leads brought up selling aug kits instead of augs during patch droughts, that would have made more credits quicker. Also would have been a good supplement since augs weren't as popular during the time I was selling. *The ransom achievement was totally unnecessary for the project but I was in a mood. *Legendary would have been better than focusing one side, but I like one sides dailies/heroics better so I focused there. Other Thoughts: This project took both less and more time than I thought it would. When I started, inflation was a little worse so I thought it would be pretty quick, but seeing everything I did I'm actually a little surprised how quickly I was able to do it. I'm really glad inflation has gotten better, really curious to see how the new server does with economy. I still feel it takes way to long for a new player to be able to make a decent amount of credits to buy things. Like I was able to get what I needed but if I had wanted to buy any cosmetics off the GTN it would have been way worse. I'm really glad a lot of guilds offer conquest rewards, but I also know what it takes to get top 10 in some of those guilds so it might not be a valid option for most new players. At least you can take sub cartel coins to buy some things that sell for a decent price and are in demand but that takes away from things like collection unlocks or buying perks that are hard to do without, like rocket boost. Without cosmetics though, unlocking things in legacy is actually really easy now. If you are patient and sell things on the GTN, you will make plenty of credits to unlock legacy perks. Probably just about anything else in game too, like the ransom achievement. That one is not even close to as big of a deal as when it came out (part of the reason I did it). Still think more achievements like it would help with inflation but that's another discussion. This might be a hot take, but though the overall prices have greatly increased, really buying cosmetics on the GTN hasn't really changed. To buy things on the GTN you needed more credits than you could generate through normal means, this has always been true. I do think the price points will scare players who don't know how much credits they can make off just about anything they sell on the GTN, but in truth the market hasn't exactly changed since launch, the prices are just different. Still think a fresh start server without inflation money would be a good idea, maybe one for each region. Obviously a lot of people on Shae Visla have found out a lot of what I have about fresh starts, they aren't too bad after the first character or so. I also don't think it would be a problem if character transfers, with legacy, could be transferred with either a cap on credits or simply not including credits in the transfer. Think a lot of new players, and even returning, would find it more inviting to come to. I think the legacy unlocks are far more important than the credits for long time players. Overall I had a ton of fun with this project, but it definitely was some work. Frankly making credits always has been, but to this scale was interesting to try. Obviously I could have done it much faster had I wanted to, but I felt it important to play with the intent of making it like a new player, and that included some things that take extra time. Really curious what those who have been working on the new server think of this post. Don't get me wrong I've been spending some time there as well, free cartel coins with seasons is too much to pass up for someone with the time to do it. Right after finishing a major fresh start project is just a little much right now lol. The server wasn't around when I started this project. Though using collections on that server has been way better than the restrictions I put on myself for this project lol. Hope this helps someone, and a big thank you to anyone who took the time to read any or all of this post. Obviously it was a big project which lead to a lot of analysis, and honestly I could keep going, but for my sanity and yours I will stop here. Hope everyone is enjoying 7.4, and remember, credits are easier to get than you think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkestmonty Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 (edited) In 7.4 Aug kits were my best seller on every server. I sold thousands of them and they were cheap to make. Each Aug 77 made more individually but the profit margin is much smaller per cost. If you get lucky on the GTN you can quickly flip a single item into hundreds of millions to a few billion credits. Sometimes people forget zeros in their prices, other times returning players don't understand the current economy and they sell retired items for less than 100 million. A player recently bought the new metallic black dyes for 10% of its value on the GTN yesterday because the seller forgot a zero. And like any MMO, once you have a lot of money your ability to build more gets exponentially easier. Glad you enjoyed playing the economy, check out the SWTOR trade discord if you want more trade talk and advice. Edited December 17, 2023 by Darkestmonty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engeopathichero Posted December 17, 2023 Author Share Posted December 17, 2023 Didn't know there was a trade discord, having trouble finding a link mind letting me know how to get in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkestmonty Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 https://discord.com/channels/201593481863364609/899909910467346452 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engeopathichero Posted December 17, 2023 Author Share Posted December 17, 2023 7 minutes ago, SoontirMorillo said: And now do it on Shae Vizla and report back, what you can achieve in 24 days. With the presumption that there will no server transfers in that time frame. Just to see how much credits you can make with a real fresh start, when everybody is fresh starting and not just handing over free credits for basic things. I mean I said right out this is only with inflation and I'm curious to see how it pans out on Shae. This is for server with inflation, not fresh start. Trust me though I plan to play the market there eventually too, hopefully without credit transfers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkestmonty Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Engeopathichero said: I mean I said right out this is only with inflation and I'm curious to see how it pans out on Shae. This is for server with inflation, not fresh start. Trust me though I plan to play the market there eventually too, hopefully without credit transfers. I know traders that hit a few hundred million credits on SV already. I wouldn't be shocked if they convert that into a billion or more by the end of this month. Edited December 17, 2023 by Darkestmonty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkestmonty Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 2 minutes ago, SoontirMorillo said: Why don't you report those traders to Broadsword? Because there is like zero chance, that these credits will not go to credit sellers. This is the problem... the community itself... they know stuff, but never report. Like back then, when everybody was q-syncing and wintrading in ranked... they all kept their mouth shut, to gain all rewards in the last week of the ranked season. Only when Top-3 was on the line, that was the point to finally act and denunciate. Sorry, but is it an endemic thought on this forum that if someone enjoys playing the economy they are automatically a credit seller? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkestmonty Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 Just now, SoontirMorillo said: No, it's just logical to assume, that somebody with a ton of credits is more likely to supply them to credit sellers, and not somebody with an income of 500k per week. I have hundreds of billions, you better report me for credit selling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkestmonty Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 Just now, SoontirMorillo said: If you have hundred of billions on Shae Vizla, i would certainly suggest, that Broadsword looks into it, yes. nah, I'm not going to bother with SV until I can transfer there. I am not wasting my time unlocking legacy unlocks I already earned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkestmonty Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 Just now, SoontirMorillo said: yeah, right, not having legacy unlocks makes the game basically unplayable. especially if you can't rocket boots to the gtn and hoover all day. you are being snide but the lack of rocket boost and mount while moving are one of the first things you notice starting over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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