1500 Reward Merits in 4 days

[Lockpick]

My latest stalker (Savage / SR) recently hit 50.  I ended up in Oroborous and looked at the conversion vendor to see what was there and saw that I could get the annual badges for 100 merits each.  I knew you could get these badges in May, but had forgotten about it since I usually only go for the 4 passives.  Anyway, I have a 4 day weekend, so I decided to give myself a challenge to get 1500 merits to buy these badges for years 1 through 15.

 

My plan is to:

 

• Run the SSA arcs for 20 merits each
• Run Smoke and Mirrors a twice per day for 12 merits each time
• Try to hit the Hami raids for 80 merits per day (although I have never done it on a melee, so that should be interesting)
• Figure out what the WST is and run that

 

Any other suggestions?

 

BTW, I hate throwing away merits on badges, but I figured this one time I will do it just for the experience of doing this type of challenge.

[Yoru-hime]

Look at the older blue-side arcs as a way to change things up. A Stalker can blitz through many of these very fast on low difficulty. Some of the lower level ones offer pretty big rewards for the time and challenge.

 

Smoke and Mirrors is the standard for fast merits, but 1500 merits earned 12 at a time will probably drive you mad.

 

Freakshow War is considered another standby for merit grinding, but many of the lower level arcs have decent rewards and let you run a variety of content. Old Positron TF is an easy solo.

 

I'm pretty sure Empyreans can be sold for merits, so Heather is an option as well, though if you're working on your incarnate powers you're possibly already bored of that particular arc.

[Psyonico]

Tinpex also grants 80 merits in about 40 minutes

[Lockpick]

1 hour ago, Yoru-hime said:

Look at the older blue-side arcs as a way to change things up. A Stalker can blitz through many of these very fast on low difficulty. Some of the lower level ones offer pretty big rewards for the time and challenge.

 

Smoke and Mirrors is the standard for fast merits, but 1500 merits earned 12 at a time will probably drive you mad.

 

Freakshow War is considered another standby for merit grinding, but many of the lower level arcs have decent rewards and let you run a variety of content. Old Positron TF is an easy solo.

 

I'm pretty sure Empyreans can be sold for merits, so Heather is an option as well, though if you're working on your incarnate powers you're possibly already bored of that particular arc.

 

52 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

Tinpex also grants 80 merits in about 40 minutes

 

Great suggestions, thank you both!  I had forgotten you could convert Emps to Merits, so will check that out.

[Taboo]

um.. good luck!

[Sovera]

Tinpex once a day for 80 merits. Double Hami (they are always ran as doubles) for 120. If you manage to join the double Hami in the Abyss that's another 120.  So from those alone 320. 320x4 days = 1280.

 

Cake.

 

Double Hami takes about 40 minutes. Tinpex is also 40 minutes. No reason no farm like a madperson for 8 hours straight.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Sovera

[Redlynne]

5 hours ago, Lockpick said:

Any other suggestions?

LINK

[AboveTheChemist]

If you are not locked into doing it on one character, and if you have a level 25ish+ character that hasn't done the first chapter of the 'Who Will Die' SSA, you could run that twice (since you get a freebie run for your first time) for 40 merits plus a Smoke and Mirrors for 12, then buy a Hero Merit for 50 merits and send it to yourself. That would give you 50 merits in about 30 minutes of easy solo work, and perhaps the different powerset would be a nice diversion.

 

Don't forget that the WST changes at midnight GMT Sunday night so assuming your 4-day weekend extends to Monday, the chance to run 2 WSTs is there.

[Lockpick]

The 4 day weekend is over and I did not (or did I) make my goal.  My character has a little over 1200 merits, but I also played other characters and did multiple Hami raids, so if I transfer those merits to my stalker I will have easily made it.  Now that I have the merits the question is do I pull the trigger.  My character build is complete and I have a little over $100M influence, so I don't really need the merits for IOs or to make influence on the market.  I'm just having a hard time buying 15 badges for 1500 merits.  I have a few days to think it over, so will hold off for now.

 

[Troo]

16 minutes ago, Lockpick said:

I'm just having a hard time buying 15 badges for 1500 merits.

I bought hero packs for the merits and sold the rest. That might help you close the gap. Could just about break even.

 

AND congratulations on maximizing the long weekend. That is quite the impressive haul.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Troo

[Parabola]

9 hours ago, Lockpick said:

I'm just having a hard time buying 15 badges for 1500 merits

I finally took a deep breath and did this on my badger over the weekend. I just went through my alts and emailed hero merits to myself from anyone who could make one. I was surprised just how many merits were sitting around on characters I haven't played in ages. I had enough before I'd reached halfway down page 2 of my roster. It still hurt a bit spending it all but it had to be done.

[Shred Monkey]

On 5/25/2020 at 10:31 PM, Lockpick said:

The 4 day weekend is over and I did not (or did I) make my goal.  My character has a little over 1200 merits, but I also played other characters and did multiple Hami raids, so if I transfer those merits to my stalker I will have easily made it.  Now that I have the merits the question is do I pull the trigger.  My character build is complete and I have a little over $100M influence, so I don't really need the merits for IOs or to make influence on the market.  I'm just having a hard time buying 15 badges for 1500 merits.  I have a few days to think it over, so will hold off for now.

 

Yes.  Of course you pull the trigger.   You can always get another 1500 merits (in about 4 days, even).    

[Bionic_Flea]

I would only do this if you have a goal of getting all badges on a certain character.  I did that on Bionic Flea, but could not be bothered to sacrifice a the equivalent of a purple or ATO/WinterO for a badge.

 

[Ukase]

Well, I say go for the goal. 

A few tips: On Excelsior, some nights, if the raid leader is feeling spry, he'll run hami more than 4 times. Just depends on his mood, and if enough people stick around. 
80 for the first run, 40 merits each additional run. No reason you can't expect 160 merits for the usual 3 runs x 3 days, 480 merits. If you really want to push the envelope, you can try for some raids on Torchbearer which run an hour earlier than Excelsior, where they do things (somehow) far more efficiently and quickly than Excelsior. Theoretically, you could get 960 merits in three days with just hami raids on those two servers. 

Some SSA arcs are better than others, as far as efficiency goes. If you have Reveal power from p2w, you can do the first SSA out of Skyway (Theoden) in less than 10 minutes, running at 1/0. Possibly less than 5 minutes if you really try and become familiar with it.  Wavelength's SSA from Pandora's Box part 1 is also pretty quick; a little bit of travel between missions, but they're super easy. (Hero side assumption) 

Apex/Tin, as mentioned are a fairly fast 80 merits, 40 each. On the right team, this will take longer to form than to actually complete. I've been on solid teams that have done this in less than 15 minutes (each) without any true effort to speed through them. I've also been on teams that did Apex in 9 minutes, and Tin in 11 minutes and change. But those teammates of mine often make specific builds just to speed through for the fastest time possible. 

If you're really desperate - you can dual box one of the shard tfs, and simply have one alt email hero merits (50 reward merits at a time) to the alt that wants the 1500 merits. 

If it were me - honestly - I wouldn't do any of those things. I'd buy winter packs and hero packs and open them until I had the 1500 merits, and then I'd catalyze the ATOs/Winter-Os and sell them until I recouped my influence. The actual recouping might take a few days - superior ATOs at the going prices don't sell that fast. Make them cheaper and they still don't sell that fast. The smarter players realize that they can buy their own winter packs. But, there's still plenty of lazier players who can't be bothered. 

[Greycat]

6 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Some SSA arcs are better than others, as far as efficiency goes. If you have Reveal power from p2w, you can do the first SSA out of Skyway (Theoden) in less than 10 minutes, running at 1/0. Possibly less than 5 minutes if you really try and become familiar with it.

You don't even need reveal for this. (Depending on the character and level, I'm averaging between 7-12 minutes.)

[Ukase]

19 minutes ago, Greycat said:

You don't even need reveal for this. (Depending on the character and level, I'm averaging between 7-12 minutes.)

True enough - but if it's your first time, determining that you exit through that door to the left of the entrance (as you're trying to leave) - and what way to go from there, it's helpful. 

[Greycat]

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

True enough - but if it's your first time, determining that you exit through that door to the left of the entrance (as you're trying to leave) - and what way to go from there, it's helpful. 

MM, true, I was reading it more as "you'll need that for repeated runs." Then again, IK've also seen people just base (or other) teleport out of there.

 

Of course, if you're going after the Igneous bosses badge, you can get at least one of *those* defeated per run, too. 🙂

[Ukase]

6 hours ago, Greycat said:

MM, true, I was reading it more as "you'll need that for repeated runs." Then again, IK've also seen people just base (or other) teleport out of there.

 

Of course, if you're going after the Igneous bosses badge, you can get at least one of *those* defeated per run, too. 🙂

I've always done the Cavern of Transcendence trial set to -1/8, and bring a lot of phenomenal lucks. I think it took me 4 runs to get those igneous bosses. 

 

[Zeraphia]

There is a method (I can't really reveal it as a "promise" to a friend) but you can get this amount of merits in about 5-6 hours depending on how fast you are. It's extremely boring and really monotonous. 

[Lockpick]

7 hours ago, Zeraphia said:

There is a method (I can't really reveal it as a "promise" to a friend) but you can get this amount of merits in about 5-6 hours depending on how fast you are. It's extremely boring and really monotonous. 

That is a serious tease!  Any hints?

[Ura Hero]

I think the below directions should clear it up:

 

It has to do with doing something in the game where you take your character on a mission, task force, strike force or a trial that gives merits.  You then repeat that behavior and collect those merits until you have 1500.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Ura Hero

[Rejolt]

Short of it - Convert merits on other characters on the same account to hero or villain merits and email them to the toon that needs the 1500 merits. You can convert hero/villain merits (tokens?) back into reward merits.

Rikti War Zone has a conversion vendor by the tailor.

[Sovera]

Personally I am very amused by the 'I have a secret that I agreed to keep, but I'm bursting at the seams to let others know that I have a secret, so I will hint at it' factor.

[Bionic_Flea]

16 hours ago, Sovera said:

Personally I am very amused by the 'I have a secret that I agreed to keep, but I'm bursting at the seams to let others know that I have a secret, so I will hint at it' factor.

The answer is obvious.  Make 300 accounts, log them all in simultaneously, set them all to follow your level 50 incarnate as he/she gets all the explore badges in Atlas.  Easy!

[Yoru-hime]

21 hours ago, Lockpick said:

That is a serious tease!  Any hints?

I think that what they're hinting at is creating two dummy accounts, leveling them high enough, then teaming them with an optimized main and speed-running Freakshow War. 55x3 = 165 per run with no diminishing returns. Dummies only have to show up for the last mission to collect rewards. If you're both lucky and good, it can be done in around half an hour, so that equals the 5-6 hours claimed. Unless the RNG gods really love you, though, I'd probably expect it to take about 8 hours for the 10 runs, plus the time to set up the dummies. Not quite sure what level the dummies would need to be, as this level of meta-gaming isn't really my cup of tea. The whole thing feels too much like work for my taste.

 

As long as the population for the server is under 1500, it's allowed under CoC, but you're responsible for monitoring that yourself.