II. Market Strategy
Prior to the challenge, it had been quite a while since I did active marketeering. Over the past year I'd only done one serious effort, which was to invest in Steadfast Res/+Def IOs redside just before Issue 12 was released (which brought several new ATs and builds that specialized in defense). However, I have explored the market pretty extensively, so I was firmly grounded in the principles.
I knew that in order to win this challenge I was going to have to make a pretty high income every day. That meant that some of the more lucrative patient plays weren't going to be successful - they turn over too infrequently to be counted on. I had to move fast, and that meant constantly moving in where opportunities opened and getting out immediately when they closed. There were a few close calls when I thought I was going to be stuck with a few duds, or forced to sell items to recover liquidity, but overall I did pretty well (but see IIe. The Strange Case of the Devastation Quad for an exception).
IIa. Phase 1: Scrounge and Prepare (0-1M)
I had several strategies to hit the ground running right out of the tutorial. First, you can sell one of your large insps, buy two of the other, and combine them into a large purple, which sells for a lot. Second, you can buy and vendor underpriced common IO recipes. Third, you can do the same for enhancements.
I did end up combining to get a big purple, but I didn't really need to. I street-hunted Hellions exclusively from the start, and as soon as I could do so, I took on level 4s. The first few drops turned out to be pretty lucky ones. My first luck charm sale was really what made my kitty.
Meanwhile, I was scouring the market looking for my next opportunity. I was especially interested in mid-level common tech salvage, because while it's usually very inexpensive, I remembered some spikes from the Winter Event (presumably because people were farming for candy canes and not earning much tech at all).
Bingo: the very first evening, I was able to flip a 1k Inert Gas for 25k. That's a pretty significant mark-up. Probably there were other like-minded folks building inventory, because prices bounced around quite a bit between Wednesday night, when I started, and Friday morning, when Double XP began.
I flipped quite a bit of Inert Gas, Iron, and Circuit Boards as I continued to sell Hellion droppings. I also attempted to combine large insps into purples, but quickly realized how slot intensive that is; I only did that when the salvage flipping margins were low, and only if I could get in and out of the insp sale quickly.
At level 10 I created my own SG, the Mighty Marketeers, and started a base. Good thing, too; I was going to need it.
IIb. Phase 2: Double XP Weekend (1-100M)
On Friday, when Double XP started, I was level 14 and had 5.6M inf. I thought I had prepared myself pretty well: I had room for 30 pieces of salvage, and 12 market slots.
Boy was I wrong.
I knew that Double XP would be a frenzy of leveling followed by a shortage of goods. What I didn't realize was how much of a glut Double XP produces while it's already underway. I guess this makes sense: people are incented to fight constantly while the event lasts, so they throw their goods on the market to get rid of it. By mid-day Saturday I was furiously building salvage racks in my base, having filled both my personal inventory and my vault space with Runes, Inert Gas, Circuit Boards, Iron, Stabilized Mutant Genomes, and more, all going for less than 1k, all virtually guaranteed to sell later for much more than that.
There were large periods of time where I was completely locked, with all inventory and all market slots full with salvage. I couldn't cancel some of my offerings even when I knew they wouldn't sell - there was no place to put them. I was loathe to delete because I knew there would be shortages later. My solution was to earn a little more prestige to buy more racks.
I wasn't fast enough. I only got my third salvage rack on Sunday, by which point the glut was slowing down. Too late, I realized I could have sold my invention table to buy more racks; I was so focused on how to juggle salvage that that simple solution went right by me. I estimate I could have earned another 20-30M over the weekend just by selling that table and keeping 3-4 more salvage racks in the base.
Even so, I finished out the weekend at 15.5M inf, and another 20M in built-up salvage to sell when the shortage hit.
And hit it did. Monday and Tuesday, right on schedule, all the salvage I built up over the weekend sold, some of it for stupidly high prices. I tiered my offerings so I could tell where the high water marks were, and even the Inert Gas I listed for 100k+1 had sold by Wednesday morning. By the day before my net worth had hit 100M, and I was already moving into the next phase.
IIc. Phase 3: Heavy Lifting (100-200M)
As I sold off my Double XP holdings I was looking for the next opportunity. Surprisingly, the rare arcane salvage market - which I looked at back when nearly every piece sold in the millions, and found too stiff - turned out to be a rich vein to mine. Once the prices reach the 1.5-2M mark, there's a lot of "middle play" where people sell their drops relatively high and buy them relatively low; but in the mid-hundred thousands, where Mu Vestments, Soul Trapped Gems, Enchanted Imperviums, and Magical Conspiracies now reside, people are a lot less careful.
I set up several standing rotations through all these items, buying most for around 350-400k and reselling them for 500k. Magical Conspiracies I got for a little over 100k and resold for 200k, which is a bigger margin but slightly lower per-slot net. I turned over a ton of all these items over the middle range of the project, even towards the end; at about 1M per slot turnover, and multiple turnovers per day if I checked both morning, nightly session start, and nightly session end, I was making maybe 10-20M off these things.
Stability of these items varied. Several times prices got higher than I was comfortable with and I moved to other items. I could still afford to turn them over, for sure, but I worried that the price increase was temporary and I'd be left with a lot of overpriced wares. Mu Vestments rose so high (800k-1M) that I eventually decided I didn't understand their equilibrium pricing and I left that market entirely.
But rare salvage wasn't going to get me to the 1B mark. At 20M/day I'd need 50 days of fairly intense marketeering to make it. So even as I sold off the last of my Double XP holdings I was already looking to move on.
IId. Phase 4: High End Play (200-1000M)
This phase of the project was where most of my time was spent, and it was also the most interesting. I played around a little bit with flipping midlevel recipes, especially Pool Cs, since in theory they are now below their equilibrium pricing given changes in supply.
But that didn't really pan out. In order to support my goals, I needed items that turn over quickly, and midlevel Pool Cs didn't really fit the bill. Theoretically there might be some suitable recipes at their level cap, such as Touch of Death at 40 or Entropic Chaos at 35, but I didn't find enough margin for the turnover rate.
So I returned to one of my old stomping grounds, rare Pool As. At level 50, there is quite a bit of activity on these items - they drop from farms, and people seek them to complete their characters, often willing to pay top inf for them, especially crafted. Also, people seem pretty willing to part with them on the cheap, perhaps because they didn't have to do anything special to get them.
The last time I used that strategy, which I think was in the i10 time frame, the best bet was to craft something that required tech salvage; people seemed willing to pay high markups on them without actually doing the math on what they cost to craft. This time around, it didn't really seem to matter what the craft ingredients were, I suppose because tech and arcane have evened out quite a bit since i10.
Another difference this time was that it was trivially easy to identify Pool As: just check their merit cost. 125 for a non-unique means rare Pool A.
The items I crafted for sale included:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Aegis End/Res
Luck of the Gambler Def/End
Devastation Acc/Dam/End/Rech
Scirocco's Dervish Acc/Dam
Positron's Blast Acc/Dam
Performance Shifter End/Rech
</pre><hr />
Each of these, depending on market conditions, would net 5-10M per item sold, and sold 5-10 per day. If I could have captured every one of those sales I could have made 100M per day. But that wasn't really possible; every one of those niches was already occupied, and if I tried to capture all the sales, competing crafters would have reacted by lowering their prices, or increasing their bids, to crowd me out.
So instead of sitting in one place, I moved around constantly. I'd slip one or two of each type into the mix and then get out before the competition could get too antsy. I constantly monitored the recipe and crafted prices and dove in wherever momentary opportunities arose. I priced things at 80% + 1 inf of the going crafted rate so that I'd be first to sell, while reducing the risk of being flipped, and if possible I tried to time things so that the east coast morning crowd would see my items first.
Even so, competitors reacted. Sometimes they would buy recipes at higher and higher prices; in those cases I generally got out at the risk of building too much stock. Sometimes they would craft and sell at a loss to close the gap; in one of those cases I countered by lowballing the crafteds and flipping them.
In one case, everything went south.
But before I get to that - the Strange Case of the Devastation Quad - I should mention that towards the very end I flipped or crafted a few purples as well. The market there was surprisingly little different than the crafted rare Pool A recipe, as far as the profit rates go; the net profit per item could be higher - in one case, I sold a crafted Absolute Amazement for 40M that I had bought for 18M - but trades, particularly profitable ones, are much less frequent. These are the items that the true patient player would probably want to trade in, since you could probably go a week without checking the market and still make pretty good use of your slots.
And now, on to the most fascinating part of the story.
IIe. The Strange Case of the Devastation Quad
When I first started trading in Devastation Acc/Dam/End/Rech, recipes were going for 3-6M and crafted items were going for 9-10M. Since the salvage costs 3-4M and it's another 500k to craft, this is a healthy but not outrageous profit - 3.5M if you lowball everything and sell high, down to just about nothing if you catch it wrong both sides.
Devastation was one of the items where I first noticed competitors were twitchy: if I put up too large a batch, suddenly craft-at-a-loss items started appearing. I flipped the first two that came on the market, then moved on as the profit margin started to close. Every few days I checked back on the item and saw pretty much what I expected: prices would return to their original equilibrium, I'd compete for a bit and they'd close.
Until the weekend after double XP. Then something enormously strange happened, which I'm still somewhat at a loss to explain.
There are some things you learn to look for in the rare Pool A crafting business: how many recipes are selling, how many enhancements, and which filled bids are clearly from lowball bids (i.e., your competition). Starting the Saturday after Double XP, I started to see all the sales come in as lowball bids. Very few people were buying recipes for themselves, it seemed. But looking at the crafted enhancement sale rate, it didn't seem like they were buying crafted enhancements either.
Predictably, prices on both started to fall. Thinking this was just a temporary anomaly, I quickly stepped in to what I thought was the recipe price floor, thinking that if the crafted market had dried up I could simply sell back the recipes when things returned to normal. My bids were so low I was pretty confident that if worst came to worst I could sell back to the crafting crowd at 3M and come out slightly ahead.
But before I knew it, I had 20 of the things, and still more lowball bids were getting filled. I crafted a bunch and put them in storage, but I just couldn't figure out what was going on. The number of lowball bids getting filled was astonishing. Prices fell beneath my 2M "floor" to 1.5M, 1M, 500k.
Where were these recipes going? They had to have been building up in crafters' inventory - there weren't nearly enough sales to "outsiders" to soak up the excess, as far as I could tell.
I started to unload. I sold the enhancements in dribs and drabs, but it was slow going. I tried to price the recipes at a reasonable flipping profit, but they didn't move; in fact, recipe stocks shot through the roof, up to 65+ at one point (when I started, it was 8-12, typically, with another 8-12 crafted for sale at any given time). Devastation quads accounted for "40M" of the holdings I still had when I dinged 50. Eventually, I sold most of it at cost, with a few above and a few below as prices moved around.
The Devastation market is still weirdly skewed. Recipe prices have returned to the 2-3M range, which seems about right given their usefulness and rarity, but take a look at the crafted prices! (The 9M sale is mine.)
I still have one left, actually. I might keep it for sentimental value.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
III. Merit Strategy
At the outset, I had intended to park Burn Rate at some optimal random-roll level (like 33) and spend merits on random Pool Cs. However, this plan didn't work out so well in practice, for several reasons:
- I overshot the optimal rolling level (33) by the end of Double XP. I was running whatever TF was offered, and a lot of times that meant being in the level range of the TF (and I didn't quite have the chutzpah to turn off XP altogether). Plus, by the mid-30s the ITF had begun to whisper its siren's song in my ear.
- I was very tight on slots. 10 different 5M recipes was worth vastly less to me than one 50M recipe, and there was no way to predict what the distribution would be.
- As it turns out, random rolls are not the best inf/merit anyway.
My first discovery was the Steadfast -KB, which sells at level 30 for 30M inf, about 400k/merit at 75 merits. However, I felt really bad taking advantage of this, because lower level ones sell for considerably less... and have less utility due to exemplaring rules. I only sold one before my conscience got the better of me.
Its brethren, however, the Res/+Def IO, sells for 50M or so at level 30, again about 400k/merit at 125 merits. Over the course of the project Burn Rate bought, crafted and sold three of them with merits and one with inf.
Prior to that I did take a few random rolls, and lucked out on one with a Miracle unique. It may say something about my thinking that I decided to get out of that game while the getting was good.
Merits were earned from a variety of TFs. I earned the Task Force Commander accolade more or less naturally over the course of the project. I did one run of Positron solo with the aid of several nice folks from Triumph Watch who were willing to pad, but other than that all were fully manned teams. The ITF was popular, but I also ran two Shadow Shard TFs, a first in my long CoH history. (Their detractors are right: they are overly long and tedious. The final fight in the Augustine TF, though, is actually pretty great.)
Here is the final tally of merits. The unspent merits were earned in the final push to 50 - if I'd needed them for the 1B count I would have just bought more Res/+Defs.
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Merit earnings
Cost Type Result Inf(M) Inf/Merit(M)
30 D Roll Sovereign 0.01 0.0003
30 D Roll Aegis 1 0.03
20 Roll Miracle 50 2.5
20 Roll Vend 0.01 0.0005
20 Roll Vend 0.01 0.0005
75 Pool A - U KB prot 30 0.4
125 Pool A - U Res/Def 45 0.36
125 Pool A - U Res/Def 50 0.4
125 Pool A - U Res/Def 55 0.44
239 Unused
Total:
809 231.03 0.405 (of 570 spent)
</pre><hr />
If I had needed to spend the last few merits, I doubtless would have bought another two res/+def IOs for approximately another 100M. That makes merits about 1/4-1/3 the total earnings for the project depending on whether you count the unspent ones in the tally. Inf per merit was 405k overall - almost exactly what I was getting from Steadfast Protections, which means the random roll was only slightly better than average for me even given my Big 3 score.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
IV. Outfitting Strategy
I intended to be stingy with my slotting - very, very stingy. Accordingly, I was prepared to buy DOs/SOs if that was necessary.
As it turns out, it mostly wasn't necessary. I used drops until 12, then started buying spare common IOs off the market, as well as Yin-Os or low-level SOs if available. That tided me over until 17, when I outfitted with all level 20 IOs, then with 25s when more slots opened.
In the early 30s I frankenslotted... and man, what a difference that made. Frankenslotting is a little harder than it used to be, I guess, but it's still one of the biggest performance boosts you can buy for the money. In fact, with a little scrounging I was able to bring the cost in to under what common IOs would cost.
With the exception of some cheap (2x 3-set) Titanium Coatings and (1x 5-set) Doctored Wounds, frankenslotting lasted me until level 50. I didn't even bother slotting my epics since they were really just placeholders for purples.
V. Leveling Strategy
I soloed Burn Rate up to Positron TF level, then soloed one Posi. That was enough Positron for me, so the next step was to get up to Dark Astoria levels and burn zombies.
I only did that for about a level and a half. I didn't find it to be terribly lucrative, probably because that was the middle of the Double XP glut; plus, I didn't have a build that gave me Acrobatics, so the storm shamans were really annoying. As soon as I could get into Croatoa I ran the arcs there.
As I mentioned before, my original strategy was to park in the low 30s and milk random Pool C rolls. But by the end of Double XP I was level 34, at which point I was in striking distance to the ITF... and once I got there, pretty nearly all the TFs I was running were giving me XP. As I neared 1B inf I was close enough to 50 that I thought I might as well go for it. One level of bridging, two ITFs and a Justin Augustine got me my last four levels.
VI. Conclusion
This was a fun project, if time consuming. At the end of it I had a brand new level 50, with nearly enough for a full purple build (as of this writing, I have four 5-sets of purples, and can possibly earn enough through saved merits for the 5th, if I'm careful) and a few high-end QoLs like a Kismet +ToHit and a Slow Resist.
I should mention that I topped out at 137 hours of play on this character by the end of the project. That's a lot of time logged; I don't pretend this is something a casual player could do by any means. However, I think a reasonably casual player could reach 1B inf in many fewer hours of play if they didn't care too much about calendar time. It's also worth noting that even though I ran quite a few TFs with no XP involved, and spent a lot of time at the market, I still reached 50 in many fewer hours than it used to take, pre-i9 (and pre-level smoothing, pre-patrol XP, etc).
The game may not have gotten easier, exactly, but it sure has gotten faster.
- KeepDistance
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
Nice write up. Thanks for your time and effort and gratz on your accomplishment.
Duel me.
I will work on my sig pic more when I have time.
Thanks for the write up.
That was an incredible journey you made.
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
See, that was very insightful to me. I'm what I consider a small time player. Yes, I have lots of inf (to me, sitting on 600+ mil and a decent stock) but I'm not a hardcore marketeer.
To bring it back to an old post, I'm Smart/Lazy. I dabble just enough to keep myself in the lifestyle to which I'm accustomed.
I think the research was well done, your write-up was insightful but not boring. Once again, I praise the market community for sharing information; not distorting it.
Very interesting, particularly the buy recipe-craft-sell bits.
(I've always been surprised by how cheap the Devastation quad is. 2 SOs in one slot! It's a purple, sort of. I guess it's because the set bonuses are meh.)
Awesome, awesome guide. This needs to be stickied, so we can all point at it whenever those people come in here. 
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
[ QUOTE ]
I continued to sell Hellion droppings.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ewwww. 
Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.
Well written, and well done. 
EDIT: Also shatters yet another myth that general whinners come up with.
Let's see we've done:
"A 50 can't make 1mil inf per hour"
"It's impossible to make a Billion inf in 30 days"
"It's ebil marketing that's screwing the market"
Any others left to debunk? 
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
This is an awesome post, congrats! Your journey sounds exactly that of a wall street day trader lol.
Virtue: @Santorican
Dark/Shield Build Thread
Fascinating stuff. I particularly liked the Merit section.
-DR
[ QUOTE ]
Well written, and well done.
EDIT: Also shatters yet another myth that general whinners come up with.
Let's see we've done:
"A 50 can't make 1mil inf per hour"
"It's impossible to make a Billion inf in 30 days"
"It's ebil marketing that's screwing the market"
Any others left to debunk?
[/ QUOTE ]
You have to pay the flippers' prices to get stuff.
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
[ QUOTE ]
Awesome, awesome guide. This needs to be stickied, so we can all point at it whenever those people come in here.
[/ QUOTE ]
Stickies get unstuck and lost sometimes. I think it needs to go in the guides section. Also, I think you (that is, you KeepDistance, not you Dumple, even though I'm replying to Dumple's post) should keep a local copy of the whole thing, just in case the thread is lost in the new forums.
This thread is the answer to so many objections to the market. Of course, the people who have been unable to see those answers for the last couple of years will continue to be unable to see, but it's still a big beautiful block of evidence for anyone with their eyes open.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well written, and well done.
EDIT: Also shatters yet another myth that general whinners come up with.
Let's see we've done:
"A 50 can't make 1mil inf per hour"
"It's impossible to make a Billion inf in 30 days"
"It's ebil marketing that's screwing the market"
Any others left to debunk?
[/ QUOTE ]
You have to pay the flippers' prices to get stuff.
[/ QUOTE ]
Will have to work on that one next . . . actually the debunking of that happens everyday.
Just have to figure out a way to show it. 
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
[ QUOTE ]
To bring it back to an old post, I'm Smart/Lazy. I dabble just enough to keep myself in the lifestyle to which I'm accustomed.
[/ QUOTE ]
I put myself in this category as well. I could pull it off if I cared more. As long as I can keep my alts fed and my 50s stomping bad guys, it's all good.
I don't usually frequent the Market forum, but the title piqued my interest. I really like this guide, and it's an impressive feat. I admire the discipline and planning it took, and the write-up is excellent.
Well played
Fascinating project and write up. Well done.
@Bonker Guide to Base Building for the Small SG
Present project: Solo Everything Project
Remaining: Lusca, Sewers, Eden, Kahn, States, HeroSpec2&3, Apex, Tin Mage, Moritmer Kal, Tesseract, Recluse, 'Cuda, Quarry, Stropharia, Thorn, Arachnos Flier, Deathsurge, Caleb, Seed of Hamidon (Villrespec2&3, Hami, CoP, Incarnates)
Interesting writeup.
@Mindshadow
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well written, and well done.
EDIT: Also shatters yet another myth that general whinners come up with.
Let's see we've done:
"A 50 can't make 1mil inf per hour"
"It's impossible to make a Billion inf in 30 days"
"It's ebil marketing that's screwing the market"
Any others left to debunk?
[/ QUOTE ]
You have to pay the flippers' prices to get stuff.
[/ QUOTE ]
Will have to work on that one next . . . actually the debunking of that happens everyday.
Just have to figure out a way to show it.
[/ QUOTE ]
The fact that flippers exist disproves the myth. If everyone had to pay the flippers' prices to get stuff (including, presumably, the flippers), then there wouldn't be any profit in flipping.
-DR
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well written, and well done.
EDIT: Also shatters yet another myth that general whinners come up with.
Let's see we've done:
"A 50 can't make 1mil inf per hour"
"It's impossible to make a Billion inf in 30 days"
"It's ebil marketing that's screwing the market"
Any others left to debunk?
[/ QUOTE ]
You have to pay the flippers' prices to get stuff.
[/ QUOTE ]
Will have to work on that one next . . . actually the debunking of that happens everyday.
Just have to figure out a way to show it.
[/ QUOTE ]
The fact that flippers exist disproves the myth. If everyone had to pay the flippers' prices to get stuff (including, presumably, the flippers), then there wouldn't be any profit in flipping.
-DR
[/ QUOTE ]
Logic and reason aren't strong suits for market haters.
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Awesome, awesome guide. This needs to be stickied, so we can all point at it whenever those people come in here.
[/ QUOTE ]
Stickies get unstuck and lost sometimes. I think it needs to go in the guides section. Also, I think you (that is, you KeepDistance, not you Dumple, even though I'm replying to Dumple's post) should keep a local copy of the whole thing, just in case the thread is lost in the new forums.
[/ QUOTE ]
Absolutely- I weep for my lost DA thread and the documentation of my experiment with ancient bones.
Keep's odyssey demonstrates the beauty of internet communities in a nutshell- me 'n Uber had a little flare up and it sparked this amazing effort.
Seeing the effort it took to accomplish, I will have to amend my original statement that anyone "sufficiently motivated" could earn enough for a max build in a month and make it anyone "TREMENDOUSLY motivated".
Given Keep's journey, which I think we can all agree is at the bleeding edge of market performance, I'm amending my original off the cuff estimate of one month and making it 2-3.
What Keep did in a sprint I think most of us could duplicate in twice the time, or a little more.
Kudos sir on an impressive and highly entertaining experiment!
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
That means this was the love child of you and Uber. Think about that! 
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
[ QUOTE ]
That means this was the love child of you and Uber. Think about that!
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, he is a goat, you know. Icon of fecundity and all that.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Project Burn Rate: 0 to 1B in 30 days
Table of Contents:
I. Introduction
II. Market Strategy
IIa. Phase 1: Scrounge and Prepare (0-1M)
IIb. Phase 2: Double XP Weekend (1-100M)
IIc. Phase 3: Heavy Lifting (100-200M)
IId. Phase 4: High End Play (200-1000M)
IIe. The Strange Case of the Devastation Quad
III. Merit Strategy
IV. Outfitting Strategy
V. Leveling Strategy
VI. Conclusion
I. Introduction
In January of 2009, a claim was made on the City forums that anyone equipped with the desire, knowledge, and persistence could earn enough for an elite IO build in a month. From that claim, a challenge was issued: take a new character on a new server, starting at level 1, and see whether that character could reach 1,000,000,000 inf at the end of 30 days.
Project Burn Rate is my attempt to succeed at that challenge. I rolled the character on Wednesday, January 21, 2009, as a Fire/Fire scrapper on Triumph. Today, February 18 as I write, marks 30 days since I started him - and 4 days since I won the challenge. He reached level 50 the same day.
This post (really, series of posts) is the history of Burn Rate as he rose from ignominy to fortune. It is less guide than journal, though there are certainly lessons here for those interested in market forces.
I've compiled screenshots that follow Burn Rate's career here. Some days I forgot to take screenshots, but I have them covering most of the relevant period. I also have a final screenshot showing him with 1B inf, which I intended to stage as the the Money Shot as he hit level 50 at the market on Day 26 (but which I sort of botched with the window placement and level-up emote). Finally, if you're interested in seeing his net worth progression over time, I have an Excel-generated sand chart here.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines