Smash_Zone

I know there are already some guides about this particular subject, but I figured I could post my own strategies here.

*Ahem*

You say you're strapped for cash? Can't get those SO's you've been waiting for? Is just doing missions not cutting it for you? Well, my friend. You have come to the right place. With these tips, you can make up to 3,000,000 INF as early as level 4! If you have XP turned off, you could even make it at level 1! How do you do this, you may ask? Let's get started and find out.

Tip 1: Mission Architect and the market.

With the Mission Architect, making INF can be really easy. No, this does not involve farming in any way. All you need is 550 tickets, which can easily be gained by running a standard 5-mission story arc. (Shameless plug: My story arc "Becoming a villain" is perfect for this. Very solo friendly for lowbies.)So, all you need to do is run through the story arc of your choosing. By the end of the final mission, you should have at least 550 tickets, and unless you have XP turned off, you will have gained a couple levels too!

Now that you have your tickets, go to any Consignment house or Black Market. Check the listings for Rare salvage, and find the ones selling for at least 1,000,000 INF. As of 6/24/10, Deific Weapon and Impervium salvage are selling for around 2,500,000 Inluence blue-side. After you have found the salvage, go back to the Mission Architect and go to the ticket vendor. Go under the "Invention Salvage" tab and look for the piece you need. After you've received your salvage, go back to the market. Since you probably don't have a ton of INF at this point, you won't be able to list it for 1,000,000 due to listing fees. Simply list it for as much as you can. After it sells, Voila! You should have something around 750,000 to 1,000,000 INF, maybe even more! This INF should be able to hold you over until you get to SO's. Congratulations!

Tip 2: Sell sell sell!

By the time you get to level 20, some of that previous INF may start to dwindle away as enhancements get more and more expensive. So, instead of using our previous method, we're going to try my second tip.

Check your invention recipes. you should have a few uncommon recipes, and maybe some rare ones. If you have no particular want of these recipes, then they are perfect for selling. But, we're not just going to sell the recipe all by itself are we? no, we're going to craft them first.

Check what kind of recipe it is. PBAoE Damage? Defense? Healing? This is very important, as different types don't sell for the same amount. The three types mentioned above usually sell for the most in my experience. The ones you probably couldn't get much off of are sets like To-hit Debuff, Immobilize Duration, or Sleep duration. Now, with your recipes in hand, go to the market and buy the required salvage for your recipe. A word of warning, check the prices that the Set Enhancement you're selling is going for. Compare them to the price of the salvage required. If the salvage ends up being more expensive than the selling price, it would be better to just sell the recipe.

Assuming the net gain is higher, resume your salvage buying. Don't be a crazy bidder; we're trying to make money, not lose it! Bid at about the same price as the previous auctions, maybe 500 more or so. If you don't get it immediately, don't worry. Just leave it there until you do get it. If a full day passes and you still don't get it, then you may cancel the bid and input another one.

Now that you have your salvage, go to any university and craft your recipes. Go back to the market, and put up a selling price. Crafted recipes sell for much higher than uncrafted ones. Don't get all frustrated if it doesn't sell immediately. Trust me, it will sell. Usually you can get about 1,000,000 INF for rare recipes, and about 500,000 for uncommon recipes. If you do this with any rare recipe you don't want, you can make a ton of INF for every level.

Tip 3: The inner hoarder

This last step doesn't make any INF in and of itself, but it can save you money on expensive salvage. By around level 20, rare salvage drops become increasingly more expensive on the market. As I pointed out earlier, some rare salvage can go for around 3,000,000 INF. We don't want to pay that much for salvage! It's highway robbery!

You remember those salvage vaults? That's right, we're going to use those. Salvage vaults can usually be found any place where there's a market. Simply go to the vault, and store any rare salvage drops you find that you don't need. The next time you find a rare recipe, check your vault to see if you have the rare salvage for it. This can save you up to 3,000,000 INF in crafting costs, provided you have the salvage needed. Also, if there's an expensive piece of salvage that you don't have, remember that rare salvage is sold at the Mission Architect for only 550 tickets. If you find yourself in need, running a AE arc or two can get you the salvage you need. Now just repeat the second tip, and there you have it!

Now, this guide doesn't incorporate unique recipes, as those are often difficult to find. Usually however, Unique recipes sell for much more than regular recipes when they are crafted. I found a Regenerative Tissue: Recovery Bonus on my level 22 Scrapper once. I crafted it and it sold for about 20,000,000 Influence.

And there you have it. Just some tips for easy INF. Never again should you find yourself unable to afford SO's. Never again should you be dirt-poor. I usually end with with around 200,000,000 INF by level 50 using these tips. No farming needed, no endless grinding for anything. These tips are all based on drops you get from playing the game regularly. Even if you're just a casual player, you can use these tips.

Now, go forth, use the knowledge I have shared with you. And may the INF be with you.

[EDIT:] After a little testing, it seems that the "Invention Salvage" tab for the Ticket Vendor does not actually appear until you have found a piece of invention salvage from a enemy drop. You could wait for an enemy to drop one, or go and buy a really cheap piece of salvage off the market. Might I suggest a Computer Virus or Inanimate Carbon Rod? =P

Team two finished in just a bit over two hours.



Steamrolling at it's finest. Very awesome run guys, it was great fun!

In my personal opinion, Dark/Elec makes a good pair for Defenders.

Why? Because not only does Dark Miasma completely negate the foes accuracy, Electrical Blast drains their endurance so that they can hardly attack. When they actually do attack, their accuracy is so weakened that they end up just whiffing at thin air. It's especially effective against bosses, since their higher HP lets you use more endurance draining attacks. Short Circuit also helps tremendously with -End powers, since it halts the enemies recovery.

A few quick points for you, since you haven't even started playing yet.

1) There is no "gear" in city of Heroes. Instead, we have Enhancement, which are similar to gear, but also different. Enhancements are slotted into your powers to increase their effectiveness. There are enhancements for almost anything; damage, accuracy, recharge, and more are all covered. This differs from gear in that a) they are not universal benefits, they only benefit the power they are slotted in, and b) They always do the same thing for every power. There's a big section in the tutorial about enhancements, I'd read up on that when you get there. =D

2) You won't get to PvP on a trial account, at least by conventional means. Trial accounts can only get to level 14, and you need to be level 15 to enter the PvP zone of bloody bay. Technically, you could use the arena, but since trial account cannot start teams or send private messages, that'd be difficult. Why do we have these lovely restrictions you ask? Well, you can blame the spammers and RMT'ers for that.

3) PvP is not very popular in this game. If you came to PvP, you may end up being disappointed. PvP was changed drastically with Issue 13 in 2008, and since then much of the PvP crowd has left. There are a few PvP'ers left, mainly on the Freedom server, but other than that PvP is scarce.

Hope this helps.

I'll bring my Dark/Elec Defender, Thunderous Void.

Sorry E-man, but something came up. Take me offa list, I won't be able to make it. =(

Left and right I see tons of people suggesting new booster pack ideas. All of them are only costume suggestions though. While I do love new costume goodies, what about animations? Issue 16 gave us the ability to customize our powers animations for Super Strength and Martial Arts, but how about expanding that? Instead of new costume boosters, how about Animation boosters?

The idea came from watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (more like Avatar: The Last good cartoon) and seeing all the action scenes. All those awesome ninja-like attacks with elemental powers thrown in. Then I thought of our elemental powers, and how untamed they look. In Avatar, they've been training for years to master their element, and it shows. Their forms and styles are all just stunning. But here, it's really boring how you attack. Fireball is literally just that, chucking a fireball. Lighting Blast is just a simple point-and-shoot animation. You get the point.

So, an example for an animation booster pack. You could have "Super Booster: Natural Talent" which would add new animations to look more ninja-like. Add in some Martial Arts style animation for powers, instead of the standard point-and-shoot animations we currently use. You could expand this to other powersets and origins, such as magical animations, technological ones, etc...

I know that this would be a huge undertaking, and I don't claim to know anything about programming animations, but I just I'd throw out the idea. Who says booster packs have to be limited to costumes?

It's not the Freedom is the evil server of DOOOOM, it's just that it's the most crowded. Seriously, I dare you to go to Atlas Park on Freedom on a Friday night and try to keep track of all the broadcast messages. There's just a ton of people, and it's better to get used to quieter servers than to immediately jump into the busiest one.

But for the people who say "Avoid Freedom, it's full of farmers!" just ignore them. Having been on the server since day one, I don't think anybody has even been there to justify the "OMG EVIL PL'ERS!" lies. Sure, if you stand around in PI all day, you'll see a few of them, but there are farmers on every server.

I may be able to make this. Sign me up as Proto-Zero, level 50 DB/EA Stalker.

*Spoilers on the new villain arcs follow. You have been warned*

This sort of thing happened to me while I was trying out the new villain contacts. This was with my main character, a level 50 DB/EA Stalker, Proto-Zero. His whole story is that he was an unwilling participant in a 5th Column experiment (kind of like synapse!) except he was to be used as a weapon. Unfortunately, the experimentation broke his mind, and he escaped. So, he's kind of insane, but not in a "RAWR! BREAK STUFF! GRAAHH!" kind of way. More of a sinister madman kind of way.

Anyways, I was running Leonard's arc, and I was just finishing up my battle with protean. I was still in my villain state-of-mind, like "How DARE you destroy MY LAB Protean! I'll destroy you!" So I did. One defeated Protean later, the lab explodes, so I start running. That's when I find the last surviving clone. I go over to see it, and it was like a revelation. For my villain, all he's ever known in his life was cruelty, pain, and torture. Now he has a chance to show some degree of kindness to this clone. I literally stood there for about a minute of my three minutes countdown contemplating whether or not I should save him.

Against my villain instincts, I saved him. I let him go free, and I went my way. It was like a turning point for him, the fact that he was capable of good, he just didn't realize it.

Later on, I go to steal all of Protean's money. I finish my transaction with the extremely terrified teller, and before I can leave, I turn around and my clone is there! He's all like "Dude, why did you save me?" and I had three choices. I could kill him myself, make him do my bidding, or... just let him go free and live his life. At first I was thinking "This guy could make a perfect minion!" But then, I remembered my decision to save him earlier. I let him go, told him to live his life and be free.

If you've ever seen "Avatar: The Last Airbender" towards the end, Prince Zuko, who's normally the big bag-guy of the series, starts having second thoughts about himself. It was like that for me. Proto-Zero has been evil all of his life, but now he's starting to see things a little differently. He's still a villain for the most part, but now he can see past his insanity and look at the bigger picture. It really clicked for me then, I could really connect with him in a way (No, I'm not an insane villain bent on taking over the world. =P)

Will he change sides with Going Rogue? I can't really say. All I can say is that his world view has been altered dramatically since that event. Since then it's been much more fun playing him than my other characters.

On a side note, my other villain was doing the same arc. Though this villain is a ruthless mercenary, who really doesn't care about helping anybody but himself. So when he was faced with the choice of saving his clone, I left the clone to die. Afterwards, while wandering around the streets, a civilian said "I saw this guy who looked just like Solemn Shadow walking around, except he was burnt to a crisp!" which was just bone-chilling to say the least. The devs have really out-done themselves with these arcs.

I give two thumbs up for the back story. =D

I'd personally make him Natural. The way you explain it, I can eliminate the other origins.

He doesn't have any special mutation, regardless of the child's powers, so Mutation is out.

He isn't created by science, so that's out too.

He isn't created by tech, nor is he being held in the world by it. So that's gone.

He doesn't seem to have any magical abilities, so magic is gone too.

Since he is just himself, with no special alterations, being created by a mutant wouldn't have anything to do with him. His powers are natural to him, so I would classify him as Natural.

Of course, that's just me. One of the things I love about this game is the flexibility of the character creation system. It's a good thing, in my opinion, that the origins don't really give any special perks. It lets you create whoever or whatever you want with no limitations on your creativity.

Out of curiosity, what Archetype and build is he? Sounds like an interesting character.

Schedule just came in; I'm free for this TF!

You need a tank? That's cool. I'll bring my Namesake tank, Smash Zone, Inv/EM. (yeah, I know. lolEM.)

Welcome to the disappointment that is the villains epic story...

Probably because the level requirement has been lowered, therefore everybody is creating Epic AT's. One you taste awesome, there is no going back.

P.S. To the OP, I'm probably the only one who actually gets your avatar. It's amazing.

(There is no time! Your sword is enough!)

I don't have my work schedule for next week yet, so I'm not sure if I would be able to make it. Can you mark me down temporarily until I can get my schedule? I'll let you know by Monday if I can make it. Thanks!

Character TBA.

I've got a few to try.


Ragdoll Physics gone wrong!
"It's a long, painful story..."


Crazy Death
"Simon says everyone play dead!"


I spit out my drink when this happened...
With decor like this, the bank was practically begging to be robbed!
(I should probably explain this one. My computer has infrequent texture hiccups and will sometimes replace textures with other ones. When I entered this bank mission, the textures swapped to that of a dollar. How ironic.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to suggest this, but it's about powers so I guess it would be close. =P

Basically, can Stone Armor powers actually looks like armor? Like a suit of stone, having the stone appear in more strategic locations, instead of just randomly assembling on your body. It always looks strange when there's just big chunks of rocks all over me instead of evenly guarding my body. Have some plates over the chest, covering the arms, around the belt line etc...

Been battling the weight problem for a while now. I've actually found this crazy diet that works like no other... seriously, you could start losing one pound every day if you do this diet. Only problem is one you've probably guessed... it's pretty dang hard!

Rules of the diet... No Carbohydrates. No bread, no milk, no junk food! Which means... you're going to have to start reading nutrition labels. And following serving sizes. *audience groans*

So, basically, the main rule is you can't exceed more than 45 grams of carbs a day. That's it. It's pretty simple. But take it from somebody who's been trying this diet for months now... it's extremely hard to keep. But, I've found that the weeks where I have kept it, I've lost a tremendous amount of weight.

I know I probably sound like a paid testimonial or something, but I'm not lying. It's amazing. If you can keep this diet, working out won't be necessary (unless you want that dream body you've always wanted. =P).

Anyways, just thought I'd share that with you guys. As a fellow who also struggles with weight, I can totally understand how you everyone feels. I know how extremely difficult it is to stick to diets, or keep up with exercise routines. Perseverance is what is ultimately needed. I wish you all best of luck in your endeavors, and wish me luck too for my poor diet-keeping skills. =P

First off, welcome back! Let's see what I can come up with...

1) Dual Pistols and Demon summoning are the new powersets with Going Rogue. People who pre-purchased it on the PlayNC Store get early access to these powersets. Shields are available to everyone, but they are restricted by some primaries due to engine limitations. Sets like Dual Blades and Katana cannot be used with a shield, since they are two-handed weapons.

2) While the population may have declined since the earlier days, one important thing to remember is this game is heavily instanced. Players are mostly inside mission, running story arcs, Task Forces and the like. Plus, all of the skyscrapers in the city limit your visibility, so it may seem all lonely in Steel Canyon, but there could be as many as ten teams running around doing missions in the same zone. PI is not exactly the farming wonderland it used to be. Everyone seems to have moved to the AE buildings for that. As for low number of marketeers, I blame the new market interface.

3) The game is by no means dead. The population has declined, but Going Rogue will surely fix that for the time being.

Hope that answers your questions. =D