Fast Money Trick, I wish more people would use.

It's not super fast, but I do wish more people would use it. 20 Merits will get you a randomly rolled recipe. As near as I have been able to determine (data mining Paragonwiki, mostly), there are two sweet spots in the random rolls, places where you have the highest probability of getting something that is worth the trouble. Those spots are 15-19 level, and 35-39 level. Those are the rolls with the least suck-age and the most wicked awesomeness.

Doing your two opening arcs in villains will easily get you your first 12 merits. Pick up a few other arcs on the way to level 20, and you can make a level 15-19 roll while you're still at a low level yourself. Everybody wants low level procs, and procs are what you're most likely to get. The last two times I did it, I got a proc that was worth 20 million, and another that was worth 5 million. (Mind you, I'm talking about villain side, where everything costs more)

I think it's a win-win situation for everybody. You get enough inf to do your basic IO sets at level 20, which you really want to do as early as you can so you can level faster with all that extra- powerful-ness. The market benefits as well, in a much needed way !!!!! Villain side, the supply shortages for things people want for their builds is just staggering. Ordinary recipes that just boost your attack and such are not too overpriced, but procs ...... procs are what has everybody wondering why they bother getting 2 billion inf in the first place.

It doesn't always work. Sometimes you get a total loser recipe that's barely worth the 500 inf you'll get selling it to a store, but I think your odds are not bad. The odds of getting a truly exceptional drop are only about 24% (I did a spreadsheet using paragonwiki data to determine that, and the calculation was limited by me only recognizing some recipes as being exceptional), but I think you're at least 50% likely to get something that doesn't totally suck. Risk=Profit.

I wouldn't do these rolls at higher level, or if you've got real access to Task Forces either. It's just a quick score to get you the power you need to get up to level 35 so you can start doing real SF's.

Amen to that.

I've done this with 7 of my batch of 10 villains, and its been brilliant. I've had four sales in the 100 million mark, which has been more than enough to keep them in mid-level goodies like Thunderstrike, Crushing Impact, Steadfast uniques and KB protections.

I did it a bit suboptimally by your analysis, I just saved up merits till the characters hit 30 and then rolled random rolls in the 30-34 range, but it still worked pretty well.

Plus, I've fed the market with a number of mid-level rare recipes that net me 5 to 10 million a piece. I feel like I've done my service to the community as well as profiting myself.

IT IS YOUR FAULT I MUST TELEPORT EVERYWHERE NOW.

... or something.

It's a win right now because so few of us do it that profits are so high on some that it makes the risk of junk rolls worth it. If more people did it the junk would remain junk but the good stuff would hit the market more often and the prices should go down.

I have actually thought about creating some toons and turning off XP when they hit 20 and another one at 35 just so I could do something like this.

Positron TF nets 68 merits
Synapse TF nets 58 Merits
Sister Psyche nets 50 merits
etc...

Plenty to keep you busy and up the supply of low and mid level recipes.

The money would be nice of course but it would be cool to have a custom built toon at that level and get some recipes in circulation.

DYK: Come to Midlevel Crisis/Teenage Wildlife! (MLC is heroside, TW is villainside...) There's a regular Fire/Rad group on Monday nights and a good chance of someone else being on the rest of the time. I was trying to organize regular Tuesday "Lunch With Evil" but I kinda fell down on the job.

What server are you on?

Is it only open to Fire/Rad toons?

We're on Freedom. The monday thing- I'm not involved in it. Ask Hell Jumper about details.

EDIT: The SG's are not Fire/rad only. Fire/rad thing is on Mondays, and I didn't organize it.

Nice idea

The only problem with the red-side is that merits are much harder to come by generally speaking.

While the respecs can be done quickly, there are fewer SF/TF opportunities overall.

There aren't very many story arcs with large amounts of merits for people to stealth like there are blue side.

I suggested years ago that if the Devs allow villians access to Croatoa story arcs and Katie Hannon TF's they would have solved a ton of problems...soloable arcs in a small zone and a level 30-34 TF/SF all in one.

I can't wait to run stalkers through all those rich merit reward arcs blue side.