AgentMountaineer

Every now and then I come across somebody who is less than happy about the market system and the rather high prices of certain items. While not extensively detailed, this should provide some good starting strategies on how to get the influence/infamy you need for those items you wish to make your toons lean, mean critter-bashing machines.

*THIS GUIDE BROUGHT TO YOU AS PART OF THE OPPRESION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (OMS)*

As in real life, I happen to become extremely perturbed by the 'victim' mentality. There is plenty of influence/infamy to go around. All you need is the knowledge of how to go about getting your piece of it. Some methods work better than others; but the hard, sad truth is that whining and playing the victim won't get you 1 point of inf. That is, unless you’re one of those chars I sometiems see running around begging. Begging is not the most admirable way to generate cash as far as I’m concerned, but it’s fine if it floats your boat and doesn’t waste my time with your moocher lifestyle.

The system is fine the way it is as far as 'free-markets' are concerned. With a little time and effort you can literally start to roll in the cash. How about a short list of some of my own strategies, starting with the most obvious?

1) Do your job. Sure this won’t generate a lot of inf in the early levels, but does begin to become more lucrative as you advance. The game we all play is City of Heroes/Villains. Be the hero! Be the villain! Realize your potential by incarcerating those baddies, or by advancing your own villainous purposes. Go. Fight! Kill Skulls! And earn a little inf along the way.

2) Don’t just sell everything to the vendors. The implementation of the invention system was brilliant in that it allows you to generate inf by other means than option number 1. You have salvage, enhancements, inspirations, and recipes that can all be used to either further the powers of your character or line your wallet. Some of these ‘drops’ sell better than others. Some sell better on the markets, others are just as well sold to the vendors. The only problem is that you won’t know what to take where unless you put forth a little effort. (Curse the day that god decreed that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his own brow!!!) Go to the markets and see if those drops are better suited to sell to other players or just dropped off at a vendor. Personally, I keep Notepad open so that I can keep track of where to take things and I’m always checking the markets because they have a tendency to fluctuate. I don’t keep track of every item individually, but I keep my eye open for big money makers. Also don’t delete items unless you can help it or unless you know that it isn’t worth the space in your inventory.

3) Flip this Salvage/Enhancement/Recipe/Inspiration! This is what I call, “using the markets to your advantage.” I do not call it greedy to want to improve one’s own situation or their character’s. I want all of my characters to perform to the best of their capabilities and I want everybody else’s to perform to the best of theirs. You generally need salvage and recipes to accomplish this so start learning (another hard thing to do in an society that demands instant gratification, but still doable) the price ranges of a few pieces of salvage, buy low, and sell high. This requires a little trial and error; but once you find a niche, it works quite nicely. The key to flipping is patience and a little bit of knowledge of how the game works. Flipping is awesome before an event such as 2XP weekend because prices on certain items sky-rocket during these times. If you can get enough of a few items, they will reap very nice benefits. Just by logging in a few times to make sure my previously-purchased supply was maintained over 2XP weekend, I made a good chunk of influence. Candy canes were extremely profitable at the beginning of this past winter event. Think ahead a little and you just might be able to see some good benefits from your insight.

4) Do a little crafting. In general, crafted IOs will sell for more than the recipes and salvage will sell by themselves. After crafting enough of a certain kind of common IO, you will have ‘memorized’ the recipe and all you will need for further crafting is the salvage. There is an excellent guide to the field crafter badge that could help you maximize your profits if you wish to make it your profit-making niche.

5) Merits = Influence/Infamy. Merits do take time to generate, but can reap very nice dividends. Play taskforces, trials, complete story arcs, and defeat Giant Monsters. Quite recently, 200 Merits earned me approximately 65 million influence points from random rolls at one of the Merit Vendors. Not a record, but from what I understand 325K/Merit isn’t a bad ratio. Of course you can save your merits for specific recipes that you know earn good influence, but that is really a matter of preference. Kind of a risk vs. conservative approach to the markets. Dr. Robert has created a merit price index for anybody who would be interested in up-to-date numbers for IO set prices and inf/merit ratios. Oro arcs are great for generating merits while running solo if you have the build for it. Here is where you can find the merit reward for each of the various arcs.

6) Spread the wealth. While I don’t condone any sense of entitlement in this game or in real life, I do believe one of the keys to a happy life is to share a little bit of your own good fortune. Every now and then give a little bit of your influence/infamy away to another player. You can either do this spontaneously or as a reward for a unique challenge you thought of, finding a cool costume, or a particularly well written bio. In the short term, this may not grow your own influence account, but you might find yourself in Atlas one day with a generous gift from another player. Personally, sometimes I will hang out in Atlas under the statue and wait for a low-level char and give them 1 mil inf to help them out with DO/SOs or whatever they might wish to use it for.

I realize that my examples are anecdotal and may not be representative of every situation; however, I am confident enough in these strategies to say that, with a little personalization, you will begin to see the amount of influence/infamy you generate grow and multiply. You won’t wake up tomorrow with 2 billion in your wallet, but you’ll find that you will begin to be able to purchase the things you want and need to optimize your characters. Remember that patience is key.

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

Hello Marotte and welcome to City of Heroes. There isn't a button you can press, but there should be a slider to drag when you select the item you want to bid on. You can select anywhere from 1-10 items at a time for one slot. The only thing that doesn't apply is enhancements. You can bid on more than one, but you can't place more than one in a WW/BM slot. If you still can't find it, you might ask somebody in-game for help. I know you can't send tells, but you can use the help channel if broadcast doesn't yield some assistance.

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Do you seriously think that they post their common IOs on the market for under 1k because of a lack of knowledge?

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First of all, I commend the writer of this guide for sharing his system for making inf. I am a little more selfish about my specific money making strategies. However, I will say that I have come into a little bit of a new strategy myself. Before this weekend I would only list IO recipes if I thought they were worth listing (would sell for more than 500K). On a whim I decided to start looking at the crafted IO price for all my drops and then look at the required salvage. I was surprised to find that one particular IO recipe was selling for around 5K, but the crafted IO had sold for around 2 mil. So I looked at the required salvage and found that the highest priced was only 200K. I said to myself, "Self, you'd be pretty silly to not craft the IO and see if it will sell." I listed it for 1.5 mil last night and found a nice 1.8 mil waiting for me this morning. Sure 1.8 isn't a whole lot when you want to buy a Numina unique, but every little bit helps.

Now, the reason that I clicked reply in the first place in reference to the quote above, I just wanted to chip in that often I will list things on the market dirt cheap because I happen to really enjoy getting those WW badges for X number of items sold. I just want to move them as quickly as possible. I am not unwary. and I know I'm more than likely contributing to some other "ebil marketeer's" profit, but I am more than fine with that as I trust that I just as well may be the one profiting as the one contributing. That is the great part of a free market! Equal opportunity, baby!