A money thread that has nothing to do with FoW armor...

Shocking, I know.


First, a few things to point out about my current game situation.
1) I'm anti-social when it comes to playing game. I'm not in a guild, and I don't ask for help on quests/missions, at all. Just need to get that out right off the bat.

2) The furthest I've gotten location-wise is Droknar's Forge (via runner). The furthest mission I've reached is Sanctum Cay, which I have yet to defeat. (both of these are on a single character, my lv20)

I've learned through playtesting that the only primary profession I have resounding success with is Warrior.
So lately, I've been creating new characters to experiment with different weapon specializations, secondary professions, etc.

My problem is this: I always make a ton of money in the pre-shiverpeaks areas, quests, and missions (ton meaning, over 1 platinum).
Then I get to yaks and upgrade my armor...big dent in the cash.

From that point on in the game, I'm almost never above 800g, trying to keep my armor up-to-date, buying skills, etc.
On the rare occasion I go chest-hunting, I never break even on my original investment of buying the keys.


Okay, guess my main question is:
Given that I'm already merching 90% of the drops I get, what can I do to increase financial efficiency?

Play more.

Like generik said, play more & spend less and/or get very lucky. I know it sounds simple but thats kinda how it is.

Getting very lucky would mean getting a superior vigor rune which is the only rune left worth anything like serious money or a few black dye's. The alternative is farming which takes time and effort and can be a bit of a mindless grind.

My suggestion is try not to buy new armor and such unless you're dying, ALOT. In which case, try to get collectors armor.

Essentialy, you make money quickly in this game two ways, you farm, or play the market. Farming is done in specific areas, with specified builds, there's really no amazingly productive area to farm for you right now, because you don't have the skills, level requirment, and access to said areas. As for power trading, you need a descent amount of capital before you even start to do that.

My best suggestion for armor and weapons is to find collectors and get their items. May not be the prettiest (but hey, some people like them) in the game, but it saves you money and gets the job done.

As for making money... continue playing through the game is all I can suggest. A single desert mission alone usually wields close to 1k in gold + item drops for me. If you've gotten to Sanctum, do that mission and start exploring the desert.

Stop wasting money on keys for crappy chests. The only keys worth buying are those for high-end chests that count toward the title. Stop wasting money on runs if you haven't even beat the game, play it and you will make money.

If I'm understanding right you are making multiple warrior characters to experiment with different builds? Complete and total waste of time and money. You can customize builds with one character and later in the game can change your secondary class.

Don't waste money buying skills unless it's a skill you know you need and can't get it via a quest.

Use the search button. There are plenty of previous threads loaded with this and more knowledge on this subject.

stat soloing, go to the FoW

Don't use money you've made on keys to open chests. From what you've told me you don't have that much money in your vault. So the likelyhood that you're going to get a good item out of a highend chest is low, since you won't be able to afford that many keys.

Find an area that you can go out and solo in to make more money, save that money rather than using it on the next lvl of armor that you come across, useless skills, or keys. If you're really short on cash then I'd suggest you just stick to collectors armor until you can get enough money, from farming, to buy max armor.

If you had actually read the initial post, you'd realize how completely stupid your suggestion is. FoW entrance requires ascension, not possible the the character is not past Sanctum Cay.

Anyway, don't buy skills. Most of the better ones come as quest rewards.
Don't merchant everything, salvage it. You can easily collect most of the materials needed for most armor sets. Materials are usualy the hardest part of aquiring new armor.
Pay attention to the drops for any rare craft materials. I've seen sapphires drop from level three golems outside ascalon, and rubies from the fire imps outside Lion's Arch.

Money is only made in late game - you haven't made it there yet.

Chests are pretty much a money sink. In late game you may get really lucky (really past the southern shiverpeaks, even there it is near total money sink) but that is about it and it take a fairly high initial investment. You have to have enough to afford enough keys to get a high value weapon/mod.

Doing like you, I think I only started making money on my fourth or fith character. It's hard to solo-farm useful areas until you finish both 15 attribute points quest, get a few elites, and can afford some superior runes. Some characters can ettin farm or farm outside of Bergin Springs and get a plat or so an hour, but you can get much better in many other areas. Personally the undead outside of Bergin were where I got enough for the items I needed to solo farm. Once you get a single character able to do so money is no longer an issue.

I'm pretty much anti-social also - the only mission I did not do with the henchies was Visunah Square and that's only because I do not control the other team. If you want to be a tad less anti-social some here (myself included) would be willing to show you how. Though I will assure you I am no where near "good" at it and would be nothing more than a beginner "instructor " (if you could even call me that) - I just sorta goof off (I do not solo Underworld or Fissure of Woe - just normal areas).

If you play game normlay trough ( no running, all missions) you should have had 10-15k when you enter droks

- There's no need to keep your armor up to date by buying it, there are collectors everywhere (since your in droks you can already get the best armor).
- Don't buy so much skills, most skills you can get through quests (up untill the dessert), before buying a skill check guildwiki if the skill can't be obtained through a quest.
- Chests aren't worth it untill your in the shiverpeaks (southern) and even then it's hard to play even.

You're a warrior, right? And you said you have access to Droknar's Forge, right? Have you tried solo farming the Grawl right outside Droknar's Forge in Witman's Folly? They're way easy.

You can use builds that increase your armor way high with skills like Dolyak Signet and "Watch yourself" and you'll do pretty well. Or you can use skills like Shield Stance and Bonetti's Defense all the time so that they have difficulty hitting you. That works too. If your tactics attribute is high enough, all you'll ever need against them is Healing Signet and one of the combos I mentioned above. They won't be able to kill you unless you really mess up and let them win, or unless you aggro mores than 2 full groups of them. Once you add elite skills to the mix, they shouldn't be able to kill you at all, no matter how many of them are attacking you. Try farming the grawl.

You may get bored of killing them, because they don't really use a wide variety of skills against you, but you'll definitely get money from all the steel, iron, leather, and hides you salvage from all the items they drop. And hell, every once in a while you'll get lucky and find a nice rune.

Just remember, don't salvage anything that will give you bones or granite. Those materials are worthless. You're better off selling the Bone Staves, Grim Cestas, Divine Symbols and Frost Icons to the merchant. And You'll probably want to sell purple and gold items to the merchant too, unless they have good mods on them. Identify and salvage everything else.

take less henchies out with you on quests. will make it harder but more chance of a better drop and more gold.

Troll farming outside droknars.

That's the main reason you don't have the money.

I'd say (as others before me), get collectors armor.
If you really want buy armor early on, buy at Corwen (Ascalon City).
That should be enough until the desert missions.
You might want to collect some higher peaces when you are on your way to the desert (use wiki to look up the collectors).
You should be able to obtain the quest items for not too much gold.
The only other armors worth buying are Droks.

Buying skills is not worth it, quest for them, except when you want a specific build that requires a specific skill.
This will save a lot of gold.
Chest hunting is not worth it, except in high level area's.

Use weapens you find on your way, or collectors.

Furthermore: Save, save and save some more. Reconsider every gold piece you plan to spend.

Buy low sell high.

Says my 15ks

agreed...its the easiest way to make cash

I would definetly suggest to take a look at what materials you need at droks for the armor you want. Then u will know what and how much you will need to find. THEN i would find a group to complete the mission and sanctum cay and get to the desert. u should be able to kill the hydras and griffons in the desert to make enough cash to get your droks 1.5k armor in a matter of a few days (or less depending on how much u play)((when you have enough buy 1 piece as soon as u can then the next don't wait until u can buy the whole set)) Then concentrate on finishing the 3 missions in the desert to get ascended. Once you are ascended u will go to ToPK do the mission there and take a capture signet with you and cap Gladiators defense(i think thats where it is) Once you get that look on this forum for a troll farming build and u should be set as far as cash goes....not xxxxxgold but enough to get you buy until u "know" where u need to go to get money etc.

As far as creating new toons to try different secondaries....after you are ascended you have a series of quests that you can complete that allow you to change your secondaries as often as u like. IF u have any probs give me a holler...

IGN Coridan A

I assume you're level 20 with crappy armour and weapons. You're going to have a very hard time getting past that mission with henchies. You can't finish the game with them, and playing with humans is much easier some of the time. Before you start soloing for large amounts of cash, you'll want to get drok's armour, collectors weapons, and green weapons, which in Tyria means playing in groups. But finish the game first.

Here's my suggestion - PLAY THE DAMN GAME!! Don't waste your money getting run anywhere except possibly to Drok's. All that accomplishes is getting your LOW level character to a HIGH level area where you'll be basically worthless. I can see getting a run to Droks for max armor but fight your way to Beacon's and THEN get the run. Hang around in the major towns and monitor the trade and chat channels. Pay attention to what people are buying. I'm not talking about "godly" weapons and such, I'm talking about the items that the COLLECTORS will trade for. Don't merch those dune burrower jaws, bleached shells, azure crests and the like. SELL them to other players. Some items are more in demand than others so concentrate on those. Keep in mind that some of the collector weapons are just as good if not better than a lot of those pretty greens and golds and a lot of players realize this. I personally made over 1000K selling Bleached Shells before ANet shut down that market. I couldn't farm them fast enough because saavy warriors knew that the Crimsom Carapace shields were the best in the game at that time. Lastly, salvage salvage salvage and when you get tired of that, salvage some more. In other words, go into the crafting materials business. You can make nice money on weekends when everyone is looking to get their shiny new armor and materials prices are high at the trader because of high demand and low supply. Tanned Hides - hint hint hint. Just to give you my resume - I have 12 characters in 2 accounts and have beaten both Prophecies and Factions with 10 of them. I have NEVER been to the UW nor do I have any desire to go. I've made all my money PLAYING the game and paying attention to what other players are buying. I've gotten run to Droks exactly 5 times and ALL of them were FREE (test runs). I've always tipped the runner whether it was asked for or not. I solo farm from time to time but make more money from selling crafting materials than I do from uber items. I hope this has been as helpful as the previous posts.

Bold text = just wrong.

QFT.... It sounds like you've rerolled several times. You are your own worst goldsink. Whatever character you have now, stick with it. You can change attributes, skills, etc. in GW so your one warrior can be any warrior you want him to be just by changing out his skillbar, attributes and weapon. Don't buy every new armor level that you find. Use collectors armor until you decide on whatever "end-game" armor you want. (My mesmer stayed in pre-searing armor until I got her past the Desert and bought 15k Enchanter's.) Use collectors weapons and don't buy expensive mods from fellow players. Use what you salvage off other drops. Get a crappy weapon with a +25hp suffix on it? Salvage that and use it. It's worthless in the trade market, but for you, it's a free extra 25hp. Can't afford Superior Vigor? Buy a minor and don't use any superior attribute runes. Use minors for those too until you can afford the superior. Don't buy every new skill you see. If you are running an axe warrior build, focus on axe skills, "weapon attacks" that aren't limited to one weapon and other skills from strength/tactics as needed. Don't waste your funds buying up hammer skills or sword skills until you are ready to change over to using one of those instead.

this is utter bs, all of tyria can be henched quite easily with only 2 missions having any level of difficulty...this includes bonuses. He's also stated that he already has droks armor, and the issue isn't what weapons he is using, but the cash flow.

to the OP I'd say, since you arent really interested in making money via interacting with other people (aka buying and selling - I've deduced this by reading the fine print in your autobiography), I'd suggest just leave off buying keys (collector stuff in the desert is better anyway. Or just craft some weapons in droks. Then you just dont spend money, thats basically how I got rich... pick up everything, salvage or sell, only buy the skills you are actually going to use right away until you get 'too much money' and you'll accumulate wealth easily.

someone with 800g CANNOT get into trading...800g buys f8ck all.

Poor advice to say the least.

Some tips..

1. Complete the game
2. Buy droks (there is no reason why you shouldn't have 10k by the time you get to droks via the correct way)
3. Learn to solo farm (trolls are a good starting point the money sucks but you can move onto bigger and better things later)
4. Buy only what you need (buy high req weapons for PvE chars..req8 are a luxury you cant afford)
5. Chest running is a money sink, you rarely make your money back.
6. Never resort to buying gold online..if you do it time to quit playing as you are taking the game too seriously.
7. ENJOY!!! even farming should be enjoyable..if it becomes a chore take a break ( a month or so)

Basically just rounded up what everyone has covered..

Warrior are great for running learn to run ppl places early on will make you have a lot of cash...I remeber my very first run was ~10 mins and I got like 5k right there. There are maany scammers so you just going to have to deal with it...I even ran a group once of 7 and 1 person actually payed and I was charging 500 gold for the run to get infused..It was sad...But after you dealt with all the scamming and a few decent players then you will see that you dont have to run anymore and can start soloing for your money..as you proceed to get better elite skills...then life will be easier and you can start doing bosses for greens etc. But in the end running will get you a good profit fast..a desert run can get you a lot of cash too if you are good enough to master that run.

Believe it or not some players sit in droks and do that run and a make 100k in a few hours..Same with desert runs...Learn to run places and become an expert runner will earn you some extraordinary cash fast...A friend of mine that stopped play once told me he use to even get PM from players for runs and they would give him 5k alone for the drok run...

As long as you are able to upgrade your characters armor and maybe upgrade the weapons, you are all set. You don't need anything else.

If excess money is what you crave, then you must play for excess amounts.

Caveat reader: I'm notorious in my guild for NOT being a solo artist or farmer. I'd much rather play missions and quests.
That said, sometimes, I need to fatten the Xunlai Bank. So I take my little necro, load up on degens and so on, and...

...farm me some lvl 10 minotaurs outside Ice Tooth Cave.

Lame, right? Not really. One trip of about 20 min. nets me 800g-1.5k, depending on drops and salvages. One run I got a silver and a black dye. Almost every run gets me a dye of some kind. Minotaur hides salvage into tanned hide or into leather squares. Sometimes weps have good mods; sometimes not. Two steel ingots can turn into 300g pretty fast. By the time I gather up all the gold, merchant stuff, and salvage stuff, it's not bad.

Best of all--it's really not hard.

That said, I gotta seriously agree with the posters who said: play thru the game. Missions are more lucrative than quests, which are more lucrative than just running around aimlessly. Sanctum Cay is henchable--I've done it with necro and warrior and ranger--as long as you're careful. Once you get to the desert, find all the towns and mission areas. Don't pay for the run. Don't buy random crap. Hoard your money. Keep purple weps that are max damage, or salvage for half-decent mods.

I'm like you--a bit anti-social. But in the desert, you may need to bite the bullet and join a group.

Good luck, dude.

Just to update everyone....

A friend advised me to deposit 1k into storage each time one of my four characters passed the 2k mark.....
I currently have over 5k in storage, and that's just from playing through the game with my char's...
Still haven't gotten past Sanctum Cay yet, but I haven't attempted it in awhile.