Easy Money - Will (?) for Credits

[Hefeweizen]

All,

Wanted to start a thread to include some quick ways to make easy cash for basic training, repairs, weap/armor upgrades, etc. to get new characters up and running (not meant to be a How to Become a Millionaire thread). Just some quick ways to get some easy credits in the early days after character creation that require little effort or risk that are scattered around the internet, but wanted to get some of the basics here in one place... feel free to add your own, but keep the newly created, possibly non-combat types in mind, standing outside the Starport with only their trusty Melon and Survival Knife in mind... this thread's for you...

[Hefeweizen]

DELIVERY MISSIONS - the server starts you out with a landspeeder and 1000 credits... you can use that to earn thousands more just travelling the planet doing non-combat quests for lazy NPCs, here's how:

• Find a Mission Terminal in a major starter planet city (Coronet, Tyrena, Mos Eisley, Theed, etc.)
• Click on the Deliver tab (most are defaulted to Destroy missions which are strictly combat)
• Sort the list by Reward to get highest paying at top... then keep refreshing list, till you get a feel for the max payout (it will vary with your character level), then pick 2 missions at highest payout in same compass direction... typically this will run anywhere from 1000-1500 credits per mission.
• Hop on your landspeeder/bike and find the quest givers, typically 100-500m away, get their quests by double clicking on them (green arrow), they will dump some item in your inventory, usually a disk of no value...
• After getting your quests, check the planetary map, usually both missions will wind up in the same city somewhere else on the map (that is optimal)...
• Head to the nearest shuttleport and pay to fly to the destination, it will most likely be 100 credits, you should have that much on you, if not use your landspeeder/bike
• Arriving at the destination city, find the recipients for the delivery and drop off the items, they pay you on the spot

Most of the time both delivery givers will send you to the same delivery city, city to city shuttle service is typically 100 credits, payout is typically 1000-1500 credits per delivery, the whole process (with a landspeeder/bike and using shuttleports to quick travel) can take anywhere from 10-15 minutes but reward you with 2000-3000 credits (give or take a 100 for shuttle fare), which could net you 7000-10000 credits per hour, etc. which can cover training expenses, vehicle repair, miscellaneous purchases, etc. until you establish yourself in the galaxy.

Once you try it for a little bit, patterns start to emerge, deliveries often (but not always) are consistent between cities... for example, most Coronet deliveries end in Doaba Guerfel, once in Doaba, picking up 2 deliveries there, usually land you on Vreni Island but there are no mission terminals there so you pretty much have to shuttle back to Coronet (be sure to visit the Theater before you leave for a free Badge), anyhow, find your own favorite pair of cities and ping pong back and forth between them making deliveries for easy cash...

[Hefeweizen]

JUNK DEALERS

This is more for the low level combat types since Artisan/Crafters don't usually pick up a lot of galactic garbage off of NPC corpses...

Every major NPC City (ex: Coronet, Bestine, Nashal, etc.) usually has one or more Junk Dealers. They can be located pretty much anywhere, but a lot of them seem to be near/behind starports and shuttleports, you can find them pretty quickly with the overhead planetary map, select the Junk category then zoom/pan the map to figure out what part of town they are in. While they buy most junk, some are particular about what they buy... after a while you get a feel for what they want... major categories are:

• Generic: pretty wide category - pretty much anything with "broken" or "damaged" in the name (electro binoculars, datapad, etc.) but also other generic items like satchels, cameras, hyperdrive part, etc. (there is one outside the Coronet Starport to the left)
• Clothing/Jewelry: haven't seen much jewelry yet in game, but for all those Ithorian Bathrobes and Wookie Sun Dresses you loot, those can be sold to the Clothing junk dealer(Finery, who do they think they are fooling?, there is one in Bela Vistal)
• Weapons: too many CDEF pistols? look for Weapons Junk dealers, often in NPC city Combat Guild Halls
• Special: In some cities you will find NPCs that are looking for specific loots from specific groups/races... a few that come to mind are CorSec Weapons(Bela Vistal), Jawa Beads(Tatooine) and Gungan Items(Naboo)

Main Junk Strategy comes down to inventory management... the stuff can clutter up your inventory, and you never know in your wanderings when/where you may have the right junk on you to make the right junk dealer cough up some coin... two easy ways to manage it are:

• Dump As You Go - (anytime you see a Junk Dealer, see if he/she will buy anything you are carrying)
• Big Dump - (don't worry about selling it off but store it up in bank, house or alts and wait till you are maxxing out, then organize by type and make specific runs to the right junk dealers and sell it all at one time... once you loot/buy some containers/packs it gets easier to organize it all...

Why Bother? - Most items net you 200-400 credits, so every 3-4 nets you 1000... any combat character is going to loot dozens/hundreds of these every game session, do the math...
Watch out for items valued 1000... these are loot kit parts that you may want to save (they make special rugs, table, sculptures, gongs) or can often be sold on the bazaar for more than 1000 credits... but if you need the cash and don't care about wall to wall carpeting, sell them off!

[Hefeweizen]

EASY QUEST - CORELLIA/DOABA GUERFEL - Ging Darjeek(Rear Office Cantina)

Won't give too much away... basically he offers you a 3 part quest series, which with a landspeeder/bike can net you some easy credits...

• Part 1 - no combat at all... drive to a location about 1000m from Doaba, and .?. then return to the quest giver... (1000 credits, 10mins work)
• Part 2 - chance of getting attacked... if you are jump on your bike, spam peace and return to try again... eventually you will succeed... then return to the quest giver... (1000 credits, 15mins work)
• Part 3 - combat required!!!... easy enough for low levels... non-combat types should collect their winnings from Parts 1 & 2 and call it a (profitable) day... (Reward??? - honestly don't know for sure, did Parts 1 & 2 with one of my Artisan alts who was in Doaba on a Delivery Run and haven't had a chance to go back with my Rifleman main... but would think it was comparable to the first 2 parts... but definitely involved combat...)

At least 2000 credits easy with no combat in under a half hour, more if you do all 3 parts (landspeeder/speedbike required unless you like running up and down mountains... then your mileage may vary...)

[tarnwar]

Well put together Hefeweizen certainly should help some of the new people!

~Remoku

[Hefeweizen]

Thanks... it's a balancing act... want folks to enjoy/explore all that SWG has/had to offer, but know how frustrating it can be trying to scrape out a little bit of cash until you get your feet wet, and the community gets a bit larger/diverse (best part about this game in my humble opinion). Played live the first 3-4 years it was around and never knew about Delivery missions (learned about them in the emulators)... would have made some of the lower level training a bit more affordable when I couldn't find a "live" trainer... I know there are a handful of other pretty simple quests out there... but I'm at work (shhhh!) so will have to do some more poking around when I get home... hope they help some aspiring new players.

[Hefeweizen]

NEVER(or RARELY EVER) Pay an NPC for Training!!!

This goes without saying, but especially here on Awakening where the Search feature is actually enabled under the Character tab (unlike some other emulators, what gives?)... I'm not positive, but think the default on character creation is make each character searchable, at least I think it is, because I have never set it, and people seem to find me easy enough...

Anyhow, when it's time for training to lock in that hard earned xp... always try to find a real live person to teach you for free (or tip them a token amount to be nice) but avoid the NPC Tuition Scam (each higher box costs 1000 more than the one below it...) For those unfamiliar with SWG, or the aspect of receiving training from fellow players... here are some quick tips:

• Use the Search feature under Character tab... you can look for exactly the type/level of player (profession-wise based on the title they display) that you need (novice, master, somewhere in between...) then send them a /tell and ask if they would be willing to train you... most will if it doesn't take them too long/far from what they are in the middle of... some will because they are uber helpful, be sure to thank them.
• Use the /note and or Add Friends features to start a list of who all you have met in game, received training from and what professions they were able to teach in case they change their displayed titles later in game but can still train other skills. Keep these notes/friends lists up to date as you play for obvious reasons. On the flip side, keep track of folks you yourself train... they may be able to return the favor one day if they spent their xp in a different skill tree, or just leveled up faster than you. /note is also a good place to track alts so if I need a Brawler trainer but none are logged in, but I have notes that Chef Joe has a Brawler alt named Jack I might be able to get Joe to have Jack login for a quick training session... if I make it easy for them, or worth their time.
• Keep track of profession trees... for example, need Scout training but no Scouts in Search... try folks who may have had to skill up Scout to get where they are today, they may be able to train (Ranger, Creature Handler, Bio Engineer, etc.) Same goes for other professions... all Docs have all Medic skills, most combat types have a lot of the underlying Brawler/Marksman skills, etc.
• Other tricks to find potential trainers (that may be unsearchable or not wearing titles) - go to crowded areas (front of Starports, Cantinas, Med Centers, etc.), create a macro that announces in as simple terms as possible that you need training (basic one line macro: "/say LFT need Scout: Exploration II, PST;") put it on a free toolbar slot and click it (don't spam it!) every once in a while as you run from the starport to the bazaar, over to the cantina to get healed, etc. and eventually (if lucky) somebody will send you a /tell asking where you are, etc. so they can train you, so keep your eyes/ears open. (or somebody will whine about you spamming... even if you are only doing it every couple minutes... you are no doubt interfering with their own spam about their happening new AA/CA vendor (yawn)... move along, nothing to see here...) also the obvious... see a guy with a polearm... he probaby can train Polearms... just sayin'
• Stand beside the NPC trainer in crowded areas to intercept potential "live" player/trainers as they run up to the NPC to waste money on training... they might be able to train you and you might be able to train them... all while the NPC stares off into space, several thousand credits none the richer.
• If somebody agrees to train you, make it easy on them... offer to meet them someplace convenient for them, or easy to locate (Cantina, Starport, or send them a waypoint by in game mail if out in the wilds)
• Tipping/Apple for the Teacher - most folks will train for free, it's always nice to offer a /tip, anywhere from 500-1000 credits if it was an easy hookup, maybe more if they had to travel a long distance to help you out... some say at least 10% of what you would have paid NPC, whatever... many will tell you no charge, or return your tip... definitely add them to the Friends list... if short on funds offer trade items... crafters / medics / docs can always use resources, even grind level to help them level up...

You will probably have to pay an NPC at some point in your galactic career but consider this... just leveling up from any of the Novice Artisan, Medic, Marksman, Brawler, Scout, Entertainer boxes to that first Master can cost 40000-50000 credits which could just as easily been spent on better equipment, replacement bikes, buffs and that first 2-room hovel to call your own in the bustling suburbs of Southside Cnet with the rest of the kool kidz... save those training credits so you can blow them on "stuff". You'll be glad you did.

[Hefeweizen]

PLAYING THE MARKET(JUNK) - some risk... proceed with caution...

Following up on the Junk Dealer post above... I decided to check out the Coronet Bazaar last night and see if there was any cheap re-sellable junk, at a profit of course... I set the filter to this Region only (so I wouldn't have to run around) and sorted lowest value to highest and then checked out a couple of categories with various results:

• Weapons - there were 3 cannon style weapons all for 100 credits... I bought them all and tried selling them at the Combat Guild (opposite the Capitol Building) but no luck... the NPC didn't want them, so that gamble didn't pay off (but he did take a crappy Scatter Pistol I had looted earlier)... so probably only cheap low level basic weapons (pistols, carbineers, rifles) are worth attempting. Will have to recheck inventories and see what other pee-shooters I can unload.
• Clothing - there were 10-12 articles of clothing all going for 100 credits... (assorted wraps, shirts, wookiee hoods, casual pants, etc.) the key is make sure that in Details they only show an "Owner" name(left side) and not a "Created by" name(right side with stats)... that tells you it was looted and not crafted. I bought them all at 100 credits each, spent a little over a 1000 credits, then turned around and sold them to the Finery (clothing / jewelry) Junk Dealer for just over 3200 credits... (a few were only worth 80-90 credits to the Junk Dealer but the rest were in the high 200's/low 300's, so basically free money... So far, the only non-Crafter clothing I have found that a Finery Junk Dealer will not touch is the original set of clothes they give you at character creation and a pair of Sandals I "caught" while fishing... go figure...

So if you feel like a low risk gamble, buy some cheap items that you know were looted and you are pretty sure the Junk Dealers will purchase and resell them, not everybody knows they can get 200-400 credits apiece for them so they unload them for 50-100 on the bazaar... some stuff may not sell though, in time you will get a feel for what does and what doesn't. Happy junk trading!

[Hefeweizen]

SING FOR YOUR SUPPER... OR DANCE... (Entertainer Missions)

Never tried this much in live because I only did Entertainer professions for the Hologrind, but have had time to try it out on a couple of the emulators and in the spirit of easy, no risk cash for those new to the game, here goes (vets can point out what I may have missed...), this is good for when you aren't at the keyboard all day, but can check in every 15 minutes or so

On average, you should be able to earn about 2000 credits every 20 minutes (or less) depending on how lucky your are catching shuttles between the cities, and how fast you can Burst run or Speederbike to your gigs... with luck it's more like 2000 credits every 15 minutes, but your mileage may vary... (minus 100 credits travel expenses between gigs...)

1) Set up a toolbar with your entertainer basics... so they are all handy in one place (highest level of music/dance, start/stop commands, the 8 flourishes, along with some non-entertainer things like Burst Run, hot key to speederbike, etc.
2) Go to an Entertainer Mission Terminal (almost always one near an entrance/exit to a Cantina, Theater, Tavern or Hotel... in larger cities near Starport or Entertainer Trainers...) Make sure to pick the Dancer/Musician tab then sort by payout and pull 2 missions that are:

• Highest payout possible, usually you can get ~1000 or so
• Same direction (N, S, E, W, etc.)
• Exact same distance... exact gets you 2 missions done at same locale, almost exact wastes time because one will be say in the Cantina, the other might be across town in the Theater (so it will take your over 20 minutes to play both)... exact means you get full payout for both at same time (10 minutes of entertaining).

3) Check Planetary map(Ctrl-V) to make sure both missions are in a city with access to Shuttleport/Starport service, if not, repeat step 2 till they meet that condition... (most of the time this will happen automatically, but on Tatooine you will sometimes get Wayfar as a destination which is a long speederbike ride (no shuttle service) so not worth the trouble.
4) Travel to the gig... head for the nearest Starport(short wait < 2mins)/Shuttleport(long wait <5mins) and use Burst run/speederbike to zip thru town to your destination... get as close to the 0m waypoint monitor as you can, but sometimes that puts you inside a wall... I have found 10-15m is close enough to get full credit... so just try to get close.
5) Dance or Play Music for 10 minutes non-stop... this is IMPORTANT... if you stop for any reason (e.g. you hit /stopmusic; or you run out of Action so you stop on your own, you will have to start over again and dance/play continuously for 10 minutes... at least that is what it seemed to do for me... I was using a macro that did too many flourishes, so I stopped playing, but the macro called itself starting with a /startmusic; so he kept playing but those stoppages were occurring less than 10 minutes apart, so the mission didn't finish even after 45 minutes before I figured out he had to just play for 10, then the credits automatically hit the bank account.
6) Pick 2 more missions from your current location and repeat till bored...

Drawbacks with mitigations...

• It gets dull after awhile --- with multiple chars use this guy to earn cash while you do something more interesting on another...
• Dancing/Playing Music on its own earns NO XP --- you can macro, with flourishes, just watch out for the 10 minute non-stop factor... with proper tweaking you can earn a trickle of XP as long as you don't over flourish, or have a good Stat Migration setup... but your basic AFK Cantina Grinder macro is probably not going to work for this...
• Where the heck is the Entertainer Mission Terminal? --- city by city they are not always where you expect to find them... most Cantina's have them next to the Trainers... if you are in the Entertainment field, you probably already know where those are... most Theaters have them front and center as you enter the front door... or along the back door alley ways... bigger cities near Starport exit/main courtyard where most low level trainers/crating stations are located...

[jasonh]

Really cool of you to type this up, Hefe. Should give some newcomers a boost during their initial exposure to SWG.

[Hefeweizen]

Thanks... had a couple more but the holidays been keeping me busy... besides don't want to make it to easy for them... ;D

[Hefeweizen]

SURVEY MISSIONS... can ya dig it?

There are a lot of good guides on this out there online, but here is the gist...

Artisan Mission terminals (light blue/gray, found in most major cities) offer up Survey missions (if you click the Survey tab)... you can pretty much ignore the direction... basically the way they work is you get the Credit Reward indicated if you locate the Resource indicated with at least the Concentration (they use the term "Efficiency" but they mean "Concentration"), and the survey site must be a minimum of 1024m from the Mission Terminal... I have limited experience with these but the Resource almost always seems to be of the Mineral variety (e.g. Ferrous/non-Ferrous metals, Petrochemical, Gemstone, Radioactive, etc.) but there may be others... Rewards are direclty proportional to Concentration... 90% earns 1100-1200cr, 80% earns 900-1100cr, etc.

The normal approach (frustrating) is to treat them like a normal mission... i.e. select a couple and then wander around trying/hoping to find a high enough concentration of the required resource that is also at least 1024m away... then repeating that luck with the 2nd mission's required resource... all for an average payout of ~2000cr or less... which explains why I never bothered much with these in live, but I was a combat toon... and it's no fun shooting at 78% Gemstone spawn locations...

The main way to making these more lucrative is to approach them in reverse... in other words... locate a high Concentration survey point(>70% at a minimum) for one of the categories above (Category X) near a shuttleport/starport of City A. Travel to any other city on planet 1024m or more away (City B) and locate a high Concentration of any other of the categories above (Category Y).

Now that you've done the prepwork, you can milk this cow till the cows come home... (/say what?)

From City A, keep refreshing the Mission Terminal to get 2 missions of resource concentrations of Category Y at or below that of your already located waypoint... fly to City B, survey at the waypoint and cash in both missions at the same time. Then from City B, keep refreshing the Mission Terminal there (in City B) to get 2 missions of resource concentrations of Category X at or below that of your already located waypoint back in City A. Fly back to City A, cash in 2 more mission simultaneously... Repeat until completely bored (or securely entrenched in the Middle Class).

Refinements/Additional Notes -

• Higher concentrations mean higher payouts... ideal would be to find 90% yields... 70-85% is more realistic, don't bother with much below 70% since payouts are only 500-700cr and the shuttle ride will run you at least 100cr...
• Reduce the amount of travel to the waypoints by looking for cities that have their Artisan Terminals really close to the Starport/shuttleport and that have high yield concentrations as close to the Starport/Artisan Terminal area as possible. While testing I found a sweet setup... 80% Ferrous Metal right next to the Anchorhead shutteport and 89% Radioactive <500m from Mos Eisley Starport... so most of my running around was to the Mission Terminals...
• You only need to Survey at the waypoint, not Sample, so don't worry about Radioactives giving you wounds... you can even survey from the saddle of a Speederbike, so no need to even dismount...
• Eventually one or more of the survey sites will despawn and you will have to find new ones so be on the lookout for additional Mineral concentrations when you do your initial surveys to quickly get back in the business...

[Hefeweizen]

SHELLFISH ALLERGIES? - easy mission chain for low lvl combat toons... Updated info 2 Apr 2015 at bottom of post...

Too noob to get very far into the Jabba Theme Park? (which throws 5000HAM Tusken Captains at you a couple of missions in, then drives you batty with endless (incredibly slow moving) delivery and escort missions... but hey, the Badge is cool and eventually you get to play in the band with Max Rebo and meet Boba Fett (but I digress...)

Bounce on over to Wayfar (nearest outpost to Jabba's, but no shuttleport) and seek out Rakir, sitting at one of the umbrella tables on the edge of town (yep, another lazy NPC!).

Won't spoil the "content" but in 30 minutes or less (if not easily distracted) your starter combat toons can:

• Run 4 quick missions, all only 700-900m from town
• Kill a handful of low HAM(300-1200) thug NPCs that often don't assist each other (but stay alert!)
• Earn 10,000cr total
• Recieve a schematic that any profession can craft for the Shellfish Harvesting Tool

Easy money, low risk, half-hour or less... The only bummer is that while the Shellfish Harvester will let you stand in water and randomly harvest Crustaceans and Mollusks (from the Seafood/Creature Food family, like Fish) there are no schematics specific to Crustaceans (that I could find) and only one for Mollusk (Mimetic Circuitry, an optional component in Reinforced Fiber Panels (Armor/BE Clothing/Tailor)). Both Crustaceans and Mollusks can be substituted in any Schematic requiring Creature Food (or possibly Organic, not sure though) but unless the stats are fantastic (OQ/PE) you won't get rich using the reward, probably meant to be a gag-gift (Seafood on a Desert Planet?)

Upadated 2 Apr 2015: have been gathering some shellfish to fill an offer recently made on the Trade Forum and thought I would update with some more info...

• I've heard that an alternate way to get the schematic is from "a guy under the bridge in Anchorhead", also on Tatooine... I have not tested this one lately but hear it is only a 2 part quest chain, but the enemies have higher HAM so be careful!
• it appears that whoever "learns" the schematic can make as many as they want by hand and give/sell them to others, but have also heard that the schematic may be "factory friendly" meaning you could pop it into an Equipment Factory and make tons for resale (I have not had a chance to test this though...
• a simple harvesting loop can be set up as follows... go to an available tool pane, put the tool in the first button location (slot 00), create a simple 3 line macro, call it "clamDigger"... line 1 hits the Harvesting tool "/ui action toolbarSlot00;", line 2 pauses as long as your character needs to regain the Action/Mind pts he or she just used to harvest... you may have to experiment to determine the right number of seconds "/pause xx;" where xx is how many seconds it takes to refill his or her HAM bars, line 3 calls the macro so it loops "/macro clamDigger;" Have a /dump button or macro handy on that pane so you can stop it if needed.
• while looping, I notice a lot of "misses", whether I have an Artisan character with full survey abilities, or Scout/Ranger with high harvest abilities... not sure if the amounts you pull, and the frequency of success is dependent on your character, the puddle you are harvesting from or purely random...

[Dirtnose]

I'm a new player and I wanted to thank you for all these mini guides you have been doing.

They're really helpful and I've learnt some useful stuff, so thank you Hefeweizen.

[jasonh]

Welcome to Awakening! You'll find a great and growing community, evidenced by the author of these guides. But clean your nose.

[Hefeweizen]

Thanks... starting to run out of ideas... and don't want to turn it into a "get rich quick" thread... that really varies depending on individual character build, playing style, and emulator... and a lot of the out of date stuff you can still find on the Internet for becoming a millionaire (even back in live) were very server, patch level, luck dependent (I know... as a combat toon I fell for the "buy a bunch of wind collectors and you'll be rich in a week or so trick"... not if nobody is buying wind power, or worse, it's costing you 1-2 cpu to keep the harvesters going, but the market is flooded and nobody is paying more than .5 cpu)... long as I can recall/retest simple activities/quests that nearly anybody can do I'll keep tossing them here...

[Hefeweizen]

FINE TUNING MISSION REWARDS/DIFFICULTY vvv(downward)vvv???

Just starting out, you have no skills(noob!), no cash(=no buffs), crap weapons("Survival Knife?"), no armor("Casual Pants?", seriously? I'm stomping Gubburs and Durni's!!!).

The Mission Terminals (for combat players) generate Rewards/Difficulty based on what it thinks your skill level, group size and weapon certification/use is. If you find the mission levels too difficult (lots of Incaps, trips to the Cloner, etc....) you can make the Mission Terminal give you lower level missions by unequipping your weapon before you access the Terminal... similarly, if you have pet or droid that you usually group with... ungroup before you access the Terminal and that will lower your difficulty (and unfortunately reward) as well.

If you are handling the average missions just fine, don't worry about disarming/ungrouping yourself, but if the game is kicking your butt when just starting out try holstering that weapon(i.e. unselect it so it is in your inventory, not your hand), grab 2 lower level missions and see if it doesn't make things easier... the important thing starting out is to get a steady flow of xp and credits to start filling/locking down some skill boxes... then you can go for the higher reward/difficulty missions...

Eventually, you will dabble/become proficient in ways to dramtically increase the reward/difficulty like grouping, slicing, solo groups, etc. but for the new player, you can fine tune RISK downward by adjusing your weapon setting (compare unarmed, armed but low lvl weap, armed with uncertified, armed with certified, armed with max. certified...) or adjusting your "group" (solo, with a weak pet or droid, with a tougher pet or droid, large solo group, etc.). REWARDs will be less, but you should be able to successfully finish more MISSIONs over time, which means more XP over time and less cost, downtime, frustration, etc.

Crafters/Entertainers/Merchants can correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like skill level doesn't seem to affect Rewards for Deliver, Crafting, Survey, etc. missions (i.e. my Novice and Master Artisan both see only ~1000-1500 credits max for most of those... but I never did much of that in live, so not sure if things like grouping, wielding a weapon, etc. can increase those types of missions...) they tend to be pretty easy, costing the player only time away from more exciting activities... besides, dedicated Crafters and Entertainers make so much more money once they become established in the community (with vendors, buffs, tips, etc.) that they probably don't spend much time tweaking Mission Terminal payouts... and focus more on making contacts and perfecting their professions.

Only other thing I can think of to mention on the topic is that the Difficulty level can be somewhat misleading... suppose one mission says Durnis, level 47, and another says Swoopers(NPCs) level 47, they are both in the same direction so you grab them and head out... the Durnis are a piece of cake, but the 1st or 2nd Swooper incaps you... WTF? Over!

The devs who look thru the actual source code probably know exactly why they can be so different... my hunch is critters tend to do "primarily" Kinetic damage, and even most low level armor available on the bazaar from Novice Armorsmiths have some/basic Kinetic protection. NPCs (especially those ranged ones) tend to use a variety of guns that deal heat, blast, electric, etc. damage that most low level armors are not built to handle so you take more damage from a few shots than you did say against those static spawns of Meatlumps and Ragtags outside of the Coronet Starport (who typically stroll on up to you (while you get some ranged shots in) and start kicking you in the shins (Kinetic damage), which makes them much easier to handle than their Mission Terminal cousins... at least until you level up and/or get some armor specific for those kinds of damage. There's more to it than this of course, like the NPCs are probably also coded to be wearing some form of random pieces of armor whereas critters do not... many NPCs hit with Intimidate, Blind, Dizzy, etc. which affect your ability to do damage, etc. but I'm trying to keep things simple... bottom line, if NPCs are too tough, stick with critter missions... but avoid critters with special attacks (eg. Intimidate, Dizzy, Stun, etc.) till you get better at killing them...

[Hefeweizen]

NOT A MONEY TIP... JUST A TIP...

Hey all! Was working my way thru the Jabba Theme Park and ran into some trouble that brought back memories of those glory days on Live that might be worth passing along to any new to the game...

One of the quests involved going to some location, killing some thugs so you could talk to an NPC and of course, as luck would have it, the NPC I needed was spawned inside of a solid rock and nearly impossible to interact with. This reminded me of some tricks we used to have to use on Live that might make things less frustrating for the newcomers (or some vets who have forgotten).

Not sure if this JPG will come thru... haven't tried attaching pix before...

StuckInStone.jpg

Recalling one of the joys of Star Wars Galaxies (or woes, depending on your point of view) was the fact that there was always more than one way to skin a Tauntaun. If you can't interact with something with your cursor, try the radial menu, if that fails, you can always try / (slash) commands to get what you want...

In this particular case, I needed to talk to the NPC to further the quest, otherwise I was looking at a trip back to Jabba's to cancel the quest, repull it, and try again... instead, knowing that the NPC's first name was "Sirad", I did the following:

/tar sirad
/conv

The first command Targets the NPC named Sirad, the second command Converses with the targeted NPC... which resulted in him replying to me, and completing the quest without having to go back to Jabba's.

So, if you run into problems like this (NPCs or other targets trapped in walls, rocks, etc.) see if you can target with /tar to get focus, and then try another command like /conv to talk to the NPC, or the tilde ( ~ )key to open the radial menu when you can't get at them with the direct mouse click method.

Happy questing!

(I may try to do a basic post on the Jabba Theme Park, nothing as detailed as a walkthrough, it's pretty self explanatory, more along the lines of why somebody might want to do it for cash and glory...)

[Hefeweizen]

YO JABBA JABBA... (for low level combat types only, sorry...)
Part the First - What is Required of You...

At first... I didn't think Jabba's was a good "easy" money maker for new players, but I've changed my mind after spending the weekend questing for the big slug... not a walkthrough... but here's the dollars and sense behind why you "noobs" who have progressed a bit in your combat professions should give it a shot(or melee hit)...

What you need - that depends... (always hated answers like that... :-\ how about this... most of the combat quests will be anywhere from 1-on-1 to 1-on-4 encounters with NPCs (so they usually are lightly armored, and attack from range with anything but Kinetic, most are low HAM (200-1500, with a few boss levels at 3000-8000)... BUT! they don't always assist each other (criminal types are soooooo unreliable). So, given that... I would suggest/not suggest the following if solo... adjust if you have a good group to play with:

Skill Level - unless you have a decent group together I wouldn't recommend soloing without a box or two in your elite combat profession locked in (e.g. carbs, pistols, rifles, tka, swords, fencer, polearms), possibly Master Marksman/Brawler, but don't sue me... also, lower level ranged types are going to have an easier time of it than melee because they can hit and run(bike or kite) from long distance, but higher level melee with AOE attacks, armor and stims would do fine... (states obvious... melee player roll eyes and groan)

Buff? - nice, but not required, also, can be expensive for us noobs, plus Jabba's is in the boonies with no nearby shuttle, so you waste a lot of time getting out there and that wastes buff time... if you can afford it, great, but let's assume no buff... it's a long ride, it's a long quest chain, and when it wears off the desert winds do howl... and you are out there all on your lonesome...

Armor - without buffs, this is pretty much a NECESSITY... either something cobbled together from loots or a nice mini-suit an Armorsmith can put together for you... otherwise, you will probably die a fair amount... since it's mostly NPCs shooting at you, every little bit of Electric, Blast, Heat resist you can get helps... or the kinds of ranged mitigations that come with higher combat skills

Speederbike - another NECESSITY... the terrain is mostly flat and the waypoints are usually only 1000m from Jabba's but a bike is great to (ranged:) hit from distance with a bleed and run or (melee:) burst run, thin the herd, burst run back to bike and run for those greater than 1-on-1 instances...

Managing Wayfar Expectations - Welcome to Wayfar(800m from Jabba's)... the town Civic Planning forgot, and apparently hates Speederbikes... there is no shuttle, there is no Parking Garage... it is nearly 5000m to Bestine (nearest Shuttle/Starport) and further to Mos Eisley (nearest Parking Garage for repairs). Guard your bike with your life! What is in Wayfar besides a lot of lazy NPCs(see earlier posts)?

• Junk Dealer - one end of the Cantina (buys Generic junk - no weapons, no clothing)
• Cloning Center - if you can afford it, pay the fee(to clone) and insure your armor(at the terminal)... especially if you die alot...
• Cantina & Tavern(doubles as MedCenter & Cantina) - if you have an alt that entertains/heals, park them here while doing the quest line so they can patch you up... see next post for more reasons you will want to park an alt (healer or otherwise) somewhere in Wayfar.

This was the prep... next post is the Accounting Firm of Reinheit & Hopfen discuss the lovely, lovely, credits...

[Hefeweizen]

YO JABBA JABBA... ("Go (south)west young man... or woman...")
Part the Second - Brought to you by the Accounting Firm of Reinheit & Hopfen in cooperation with the Wayfar Chamber of Commerce

Now that you know what to do to prep for Jabba's and the Downtown Wayfar area, and you think you have what it takes to survive (hardy soloist or fun group) here are the hard cold cash facts on why you need to put this on your to do list...

• 27 Quests from 7 "iconic" Star Wars characters, each quest +100cr more than last, totalling 22,000cr start to finish (50, 150, 250, ... 1950, 2000 final bonus).
• The Quests usually involve killing at least 1 NPC that will loot for at least 50cr, usually more, and a few missions are escort style, but lets say only 20 missions get you 50cr for 1,000cr... kill off any associated henchmen and your numbers will be higher. Many also drop junk loot, weapons and clothing... (more on that later).
• Once you complete the first 9 quests you are granted deeper access to the palace... where there are anywhere from 4-8 low level (200-400HAM) thug/criminal/jawa faction NPCs that you can blast for pocket change (average 50cr + junk loot)... you have 6 quests to do before you get much deeper... doing the math (I love math!) if you are solo you could rack up roughly:
  (Avg. 50cr per loot) x (Avg. 4-8 NPCs per visit) x 6 visits) = ~1200-2400cr (plus junk loot)
• Once you complete the first 15 quests your are granted access to Jabba's Throne Room... inside there are anywhere from 15-20 low level (200-400HAM) thug/criminal/jawa faction NPCs that you can blast for pocket change (average 50cr + junk loot)... you have 12 quests to do before the end... doing the math (I love math!) if you are solo you could rack up roughly:
  (Avg. 50cr per loot) x (Avg. 15-20 NPCs per visit) x (12 visits) = ~9000-12000cr (plus junk loot)
  CAUTION #1: If your Thug/Criminal Faction level is really bad they will shoot first and ask questions later so best not to go running into the Throne Room screaming "Jabba Dabba Doo!" or you will have 2-5 thugs on you at once...
  CAUTION #2: Amongst the low levels SOE also planted a 25,000HAM NPC called "a spacer"... don't accidentally target and shoot him, or you will probably die and clone back to Wayfar... shoot the Thugs and Jawas around him... he won't mind...

Be sure to blast these thugs... in most cases the credits looted from them can exceed what you are getting from the actual quest/mission givers...

So... quest/kill loot alone, on average, over the course of the quest line is going to get you somewhere in the neighborhood of:
22,000 + ~1,000 + ~(1,200-1,400) + ~(9,000-12,000) = ~33,200-36,400cr

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!!!

ADDITIONAL CREDITS
On your way to and from quest locations and Wayfar for the occasional rest and recreation the dunes are packed with tons of low level NPCs static spawns just ripe for the killing/looting... take your pick: jawas and the associated engineers/defenders, evil settlers, hermits, water bugs, spice fiends, dim-U preachers, farmers, settlers, slavers, squatters, etc. Most are low 200-500HAM and give up an average of 50cr and junk loot, but use Examine or Con to check... no sense getting killed for nothing...

JUNK MARKET
In the previous post I mentioned that if you have an entertainer/healer alt you should park them in Wayfar in the Cantina(ent) or Tavern(med or ent) for the obvious use of clearing wounds/battle fatigue... but any alt will be useful as a dumping place for all the loot you will gather in your questing...

Nearly all of the combat is against NPCs... many will drop loot (generic, finery(i.e. clothing/armor) and weapons) in addition to loot kit pieces you can either sell or hang onto... with the numbers above, you can easily kill and loot hundreds of NPCs over the course of the quest, and quickly fill your inventory with junk... here's how to turn it into additional cash...

• Generic Junk - Junk Dealer in Wayfar, 800m away, near Cantina, waypoint his/her location, most loot is worth 200-400cr
• Weapon Junk - Meet Ollobo... just inside the Palace front door... he will buy all of your looted guns, daggers, swords, etc. usually at 300-500cr... by the end, between the quest NPCs and slaughtering all the thugs in the Throne Room, I was dropping 3-5 weapons off with him for 1200-1600cr per mission cycle...
• Clothing Junk - the closest dumping location on Tatooine is at Jawa Traders, a long ride away... better to dump it on an alt, and let him/her sell it off when done questing... easier to just take it back to Corellia and dump it there... most articles of clothing go for 200-400cr. I wound up tossing some of it but still returned to Coronet with about 25 pieces between my main and alt that should fetch an average of 5000-10000cr when sold to the Clothing Junk vendor in Bela Vistal or Tyrena
• Loot Kit Parts - for those who don't want Blue Rugs, Naboo Sculptures, Gongs, etc. these parts go for 1000cr each at the Generic Junk dealer in Wayfar... or stash them on your alt and sell them for more on the Bazaar when you get home...

AFTER MARKET SALES
Some of the quest rewards may be of value to others... I won't get into it here, check on line before you do anything dumb like Destroy them... (schematics, gun barrels, swords, battle axe, etc.). You may be able to make some good sales but that is beyond the scope of this thread... I also managed to pick up some average individual pieces of armor that could probably be sold on the Bazaar.

Bit of a cheat - it was common practice back in live to "hide" cool items(cool being up for debate) to either sell later or use to decorate your house... pretty much any item an NPC hands you to deliver to another can be conveniently "lost" by moving it out of your main inventory... the easiest way to do this is have a backpack, satchel, cargo pack, etc. in main inventory and hide the "keeper" inside, then tell the NPC you want to back out of the quest... he/she will disparage your ancestry, relieve you of the quest, but the item stays in your pack... then you ask him/her for the quest again and he/she happily gives you a second copy of the item. This process can be repeated ad infinitum but honestly, how many do you need? Jabba's Theme Park has a few items folks like to hang onto, even if it means hiding them, or making extra trips out to the NPC to get spare copies... I won't give them away... but be on the lookout... if they give you something, check your inventory... if you like the look of it, squirrel it away, if you don't care, don't worry about it... it will vanish when the delivery takes place...

• Can be done with almost anything an NPC gives you to "Deliver" or "Use" on the quest...
• Can't usually be done to duplicate final quest reward, need to rerun with another character
• If no backpack, you can trade to an alt, handoff to a friend, drop in bank, drop in house, etc. but this could take a long time so not as practical as having a backpack to hide within your own inventory...
• Item is yours to do with what you want... sell, decorate, give away, destroy, etc. this is probably why future games came up with the concept of "No Trade", "Binds on Pickup", etc.

Along with the NPC loot, there are a lot of pretty easy kill critters... if you have Scout/Ranger see what you can one-shot and gather the hides/meats/bones for quick grind sales when you get back to Mos Eisley or Coronet... as a solo mid-level Ranger with no perks I was getting 90-150 Leather hides for every Eopie and left Tatooine with over 20,000 hides to dump on the Coronet markets... even at .5cpu grind rates there's another 10,000cr when sold

I'm not sure how much I earned there this weekend doing the Quest Line, but am pretty sure I went there with about 30K in my pockets/bank and came back with just over 100K... but I'm a loot/junk whore (if it's dead, I loot it and go to great pains not to Destroy something I can cash in... even if I have to hoof it to the nearest city...). But, I planned ahead and had an alt in Wayfar... when we left Tatooine we were both at 98-100% full inventory... and some of the loot kit parts were sweet (rug patches, 2-3 adhesives, a couple of the viewscreen and printer kits that take in other parts so should be able to make some posters/paintings, etc.)

Plus you get a ton of XP and Jabba's Trust Badge for completing the whole thing!!! ;D

Well worth it, even at low levels... long as you have a box or two in the Elite prof and can handle yourself or have a reliable group... have fun and be sure to tell Jabba, Hefe sent ya!