Purple

I have been toying with trying to purple out one of my characters. Just for grins this morning I checked out the prices for some purple sets. JESUS F**KING CHRIST! If I took all the inf. From all 14 of my characters I could buy one, just one, purple IO. How do you people do it? I can not imagine the amount of grinding you would have to do to have a complete set let alone a set in most powers. Is there something I’m missing or is that it? Just grind, grind, grind.

In the past? Ham-O's and crafting anything decent that dropped/rolled for profit?

These days, though, it's hard to say. The prices for regular/normal set IO's has collapsed. You could try "farming" specific IO's w/ reward and A-merit purchasing to sell for profit, but that's a longer term thing.

And add patience. My widow has 3 sets of 5 enhancements for purples. I placed bids and played the game. About 3 or so months later, checking my bids, I had 14 of them bought. Since I only paid <300 mill for those first 14, I just went ahead and spent about 150 mill for the last one.

Another way to get some good inf Fista is to do A merit rolls for rares and craft them. Not sure why, but the crafted IO costs is usually way, way higher than the recipe costs on a number of IOs.

There are numerous ways to make money in this game. Some people prefer one over the other, while others think they are above any sort of approach. I'll offer my methods as they involve a little bit of several things. I try and run TFs as much as possible for reward merits, and turn them into alignment merits to in turn pick up things like LotG procs to slot or sell; Tip missions for the same reason work; I also do a little bit of ticket farming or running of AE missions to get tickets, then roll, craft, and sell anything of decency. I've made almost 1.5 bil with ticket crafting and selling over the past two weeks, and the other methods also offer chances at purple drops while playing as an added benefit.

Are these the fastest or most efficient methods? Not by a long shot, but they allow me to still enjoy playing my characters, which is what I care most about.

As others have already said, getting A merits and using them to purchase recipes like LOTG +recharges, Miracles, etc., crafting and selling is a reliable way to earn inf. You can also play the market, finding IO's which are cheap for the recipes and sell high when crafted.

Also, make sure those purple sets are worthwhile for your character in the first place. A lot of builds are better off without purples - for example if you're going for defense or hit points/regen.

All of the above, and farm moar demons and/or council. Or tip missions or whatever, at -1 x8, and stash every purple that drops. I usually only have to buy two or three purples when I slot because I've saved enough otherwise.

i dont ever expect to get purp drops, but its nice when they do, as of about 1.5 years ago i said to myself i would never sell any purps i got and so far 75% of the purps my toons have are from drops or trades, hardly buy any of them anymore

Fista, I'm really glad you posted this because I was just having this discussion with the PvP Boot Camp people about the affordability of purple sets.

The truth is there is no secret way to get purples or to farm inf to buy them outright. The advice that people have offered is solid and time tested.

I am certainly do not have the deepest pockets in the game nor on Victory but I use a few strategies, which has allowed me to keep bins full of purples since they were introduced.

1st- never sell purples. It doesn't matter to me if its a sleep, a confuse or even that stun proc that doesn't work. I don't sell them, I craft them and put them away for a rainy day. Purple prices have been going up since day one. Remember we used to be able to pick up the range/melee purples for about 20mill a pop. I think the price has been stable for about a year now but its not worth it to sell something and then a year later have it worth 10 times what you sold it for and THEN you realize you needed it.

2nd- Craft, craft craft. I used to take one day a week and craft all the non-crap recipes on all my characters and if they were something I could use (Posi, Decimation, Crushing Impacts, Numina, etc ) I'd put them away in bins, anything that I don't use often (touch of death, reactive armor, red fortunes) I would sell. People who play City of Marketeers will tell you to find a 'niche' a recipe that you can buy cheap, craft and sell for a nice profit. I haven't done this because I really hate spending time at the market, but it is a time tested and effective method of making billions of inf in a week.

3rd- Multitask. I typically only play 50's on level 50 content. By doing so I am maximizing my inf gain (which these days is not really a lot) but also for ever lvl 47+ NPC defeated there is a chance at a purple drop. So I am playing and "farming" for purples at the same time.

4th- tickets/merits/A-Merits- These are all very useful for gaining the inf you need to purchase purples. Tickets are easily obtainable and most people will tell you the money is in low level bronze rolls. At this point, tickets are so plentiful I usually just do mid-range gold roles. Merits- for me I always try to convert them to A-merits, but if you only play Rogue or Vigilante then random rolling merits can net you a nice profit. I know people will tell you to go with the sure thing (buying LoTGs, low level stealth IOs, or Kin Combats) but in the long run random rolling (and crafting!) will get you more inf. A-Merits are the same thing, some people are farming the heck out of these and buying these lvl 10 +3%def PvP IOs then selling them off market for anywhere between 2.5-4 billion. This is an ok strategy but I've always said this market is non-sustainable, the people who really want these and have deep pockets are getting them and then the demand for these will dry up and combine that with the increased supply as more people go for the quick bucks and the prices of these will fall back to 2 billion.

Lastly, be smart about your reward choices. Do you really need that 8th incarnate infused nictus fragment or would the merits be a better choice. 4 shards over a chance at a hami?

This is not my only method, but I've actually made a TON of INF just by crafting common IOs. The key is first learning the recipes (which will cost) and learning which recipes more frequently sell (Accuracy, Damage, Recharge, END Reduction, END Modification, Defense, Damage Resist and Heal). Instead of selling that common high level salvage for 250 at a store (or for less than that on the market -- if you can sell it at all), craft the common IOs and put them up there at a price that will guarantee a profit (remember, it's your cost x 1.1111).

These are not big profits that you will get at once, but something that you will have over time. Though, thanks to a typo I cleared about 500 million on the last double XP weekend by selling these things (the prices shot through the roof while the costs to make them stayed stagnant).

Keep in mind, I also use the methods listed above to gain INF. This is just an extra thing that I do on top of my other methods. Seriously, once you have the recipes memorized it takes about two minutes to assemble and dump the IOs on the market.

Also, I'm certainly not one of the richest characters in game (not even close), but in the past month I've assembled an Armageddon set and two Ragnarok sets, and still have plenty of funds available for whatever else might come up.

Also...despite what Masque said, I will actually sell purples I know I won't use. But also keep in mind I don't go full purple, instead putting them in strategic powers I think could benefit from the boost (blaster nukes, for example).

Alas, I pretty much only run Hamis with people that need shards badly, so I rarely roll for a Hami-O. They can be a nice boost if you can go for them, though.

I did use to sell my purples when I was starved for cash and never had plans to use them. Years later... I always keep them and sell all my other stuff. As others have said, it's worth having them around if you ever want to slot one on a character that wants a lot of recharge. I finally made plans to go for a Dominator with permadom, and I only had to buy two of the five recipes he needed for his stun set. I'm hoping that I will get another purple or two as I work on leveling him.

Very simple- play the game, use the tools available.

-Don't vendor things unless they are really totally crap. Also don't list things for 1 inf. List them for an appropriate price, then you will always make what you want (and not LOSE inf on a sale).

-If you just want to mishes, do tips or arcs. The A-merits from tips are gold and so is the merit bonus from arcs.

-When you buy things, buy recipes and craft yourself. When you sell, craft them. (this is the general rule 90% of the time I would say)

-And lastly... and you can't do this all the time, but.....

Enter contests!

PERC runs hami raids every week, if you show up in the themed costume, you can win recipes, enhancements or inf. We also run a lot of forum/in game contests where we've given away lots of inf/prizes. It's not a reliable source of income, but it certainly does help!!!
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Also remember, purples are exciting, but not the be all end all. You can make great builds on a budget without any purples. If you need help, just ask


(and if all else fails, I am looking to pay someone to craft about 300 recipes for me.... lol)

Or you can sell your shineys for millions from PvP farming, like some of the cool kids on this thread.












































































And then buy your purples.

I run TFs with SH and purples seem to just fall from the sky for me. He's my lucky rabbit... err.. hamster.

I feel your pain Fista. Since returning to the game, I find may of my alts of out of date builds and unfinished projects. Bringing them up to speed is costly.

Here's the thing though, since returning to CoH about a month ago, I've burnt through 4-6 billion influence. I did not have that kind of funds when I left. I've made and spent it since returning.

It can be done. I essentially spread my efforts in all of the above mentioned methods. As I get bored/annoyed with one, I move on to the next. Currently, I'm on a AE and market flip cycle. I've read through this thread, because as I suspected, I've not been going about it in the most efficient manner, lol.

I don't mind it, but there is a learning curve to it.

Thanks all for the tips. Currently I'm in crafting mode. The problem with this whole thing is it's another game entirely and it's very time consuming (at least right now). I'd rather be playing CoH and not City of Markets. I will say that by crafting and selling my high end drops cash is flowing more so than previously.