Farming Merits?

[The_Warpact]

How do you farm merits in the quickest easiest way possible? I saw a thread awhile back that used a stalker for one of the TF'S (can't find it now).

I understand you can run the weekly but obviously cannot farm that. So how do you do it?

[Troyusrex]

I hear the Vahzilok Polluted Plot arc is a good way to go. I haven't tried it myself, but hear it mentioned often for merit farming. 

[AboveTheChemist]

Once a week I run five different characters through the first chapter of the Who Will Die signature story arc. It takes a total of about 45 mins to an hour (about 10 mins per character) depending on how distracted I am, and it nets me 100 merits, which is enough to meet my needs. If you need more than that, you'll need more characters, since it's a once-a-week-per-character type reward. I have also heard that the Freakshow War arc is a good one, netting 55 merits in about an hour's time, but I've not personally farmed that one.

[The_Warpact]

4 minutes ago, AboveTheChemist said:

Once a week I run five different characters through the first chapter of the Who Will Die signature story arc. It takes a total of about 45 mins to an hour (about 10 mins per character) depending on how distracted I am, and it nets me 100 merits, which is enough to meet my needs. If you need more than that, you'll need more characters, since it's a once-a-week-per-character type reward. I have also heard that the Freakshow War arc is a good one, netting 55 merits in about an hour's time, but I've not personally farmed that one.

Do you just run it through Ouroboros?

[Sakai]

The Freakshow one yes. 

 

The Signature Story Arc you can just walk up to the contacts. 

 

 

[Sir Myshkin]

Easiest merits I've ever earned in the game came from using a high-yield AoE character during Mother Ship Raids in the RWZ after level 35 with Vanguard membership. The V-Merits are easily converted into standard Merits, and an aggressive AoE build can easily hit 1,200-1,800 V-Merits during one Raid. Conversion is 30-1, so 40-60 Merits for 35-40 minutes of work, maybe an hour if there's any wait time to get started.

 

Speed running TF's is another way to earn hundreds of Merits per day, per character. The Imperious TF as an example can be run in 12-18 minutes depending on team make up set at -1 con. Similarly the Ms.LTF have also be executed in a similar time frame, and the two together and going to drop a significant chunk of Merits, and a HO. If you are villain side, the LRSF is also an option (or, for Vig/Rog, both). All three will net around a hundred Merits if I vaguely recall. The Penelope Yin TF can also be done very quickly just in general at 15-20 minutes for its ~20 merits.

 

I did nightly Tin Mage/Apex TF combos for several weeks, both can be run within 30-35 minutes total (usually about 14-17 minutes a piece), and built I pile of several hundred just from those. I don't remember what they earn exactly, I think combined it's like 40-60 Merits? Gotta be 50+Alpha to do those however.

 

If you're looking for Empyrean Merits, Heather Townshend arc in Dark Astoria can be repeated through Oro and gives a few per completion, and the "arc" can be done within ~10 minutes.

[FrauleinMental]

If you have a lot of spare inf, you can get a lot of merits from opening Super Packs.  I average around 8-10 merits per pack (usually opening 50 packs at a time and getting 400-500 merits).  It's a little less than directly buying merits from the Merit Vendor (1M inf -> 1 merit), but there's all the other stuff that rains when you open packs.  I run into mail system lag if I open more than about 50 packs in any given day.

 

Hami drops 80 merits (40 on subsequent runs), 4 empyrean merits, or an HO.  But it requires a coordinated league effort.  On Indom, raids are run for 90 minutes nightly, typically yielding 5-6 runs per night.  (Usually doing the zerg approach, where you only clear mitos once and then pile on Hami.)

 

The Dr Q TF is decent now, though it can be hard to recruit because there are several defeat-all missions and a lot of travel back and forth between the city and the Shard.  A full team (at least 3-4 with Team Transport) can run this in 90-ish minutes.  122 merits (it's worth running when it's the WST).

 

Cavern of Transcendence is pretty easy to solo if you have a stealth character (or Stealth IO + Grant Invisibility empowerment from base).  Not many merits (only 7), but it's soloable in less than 10 minutes including the LFG teleport to Karsis.

[Mr. Vee]

I've not run specifically for merits in a loooong time but did it early on HC since that was my main concern on live. If you're solo I'd say old posi in ouro in addition to the arcs mentioned above. on teams Lady Grey, Terra volta 1 and Morty Kal are great merit/minute assuming speed runs, in addition to those mentioned above. Manticore and the three treespecs are decent. Mantis is good m/m but it's probably too annoying to do too often. Faathim was pretty good on live so I'd imagine with TT etc. it'd be better here.

[tidge]

For mid-level characters: The first SSA arc is an extremely easy 20 merits per week (40 for your first run!) even with the lowest DPA characters. I think the slowest time I've had on it have been with a Mastermind (because of the SSA level) at around 11 minutes. Another relatively fast arc for Blue Side is Aaron Thiery's Atlas Park arc. You can rerun that one for both Wolf Spiders and Doorbuster badges. Red side, almost all of the low level villain arcs have very good merit rewards for relatively few missions.

 

It isn't hard to get a reasonably full team for the Penelope Yin TF, and it is rare that a team objects to running that as fast as possible. Even a 'defeat everything' team can finish in about 30 minutes.

 

While we have the 'fast travel' options, it isn't hard to get to Echo: Dark Astoria to get there and earn some merits when someone has summoned Adamastor. I expect this to get slightly more difficult when the changes to travel via SG bases roll out.

[The_Warpact]

@Boomie

[Ukase]

If memory serves, you can run an SSA the first time on a character for 20 merits, then run it again for 20 more, then wait a week, run one for 20 merits once a week thereafter. 

However, many are not thinking that redside has their own version of the SSA...the first one is almost the same mission, and you don't even have to fight the CoT boss, but agree to work with him. (but you will have more than just Echinae to deal with in the last mission) 

Why not run both? An easy matter to see Null and switch. 

But for me, the best bang is Apex/Tin Mage. 80 merits in 20-25 minutes. 30 if your team isn't quite up for speedy runs. 40 if they are a bit sluggish, but still competent. 
Second is the hami raids. 3 runs for 160 merits, in less than an hour - discounting the horrible wait for leagues to assemble. 

[AboveTheChemist]

4 hours ago, Ukase said:

Why not run both? An easy matter to see Null and switch.

Is that possible? I would have thought the 1-week lockout would apply to both versions but I have not tried it. If the lockout isn't mutual then that is a good idea. I've played through the redside version many times but despite the differences between the hero and villain versions being only minor, I find aspects of the villain version fairly annoying.

Edited November 9, 2020 by AboveTheChemist
clarification

[tidge]

I want to say that I tried running "who will die?" SSA1 on both sides in less than a week... I can't recall if it worked but I think if it did I would have added it to my list of tricks!

 

I prefer blue-side for trivial reasons: You get to fight igneous bosses (for the badge count). The most annoying part of that arc is the final mission if you lack Perception and the spectres fly away from you!

[Ukase]

Well, in about 10-20 minutes, I'll put it to the test. 

And will post the results. 

[Ukase]

Ran SSA 1, blue side (skyway) 20 reward merits (character's first run)
Ran it a second time, because for whatever reason, the first run is a bonus, so you can run it twice. 

I'm sad to report - the red side does NOT award 20 merits. So, I am sorry to have led folks astray. Getting older, I guess. I thought it would - but it could have been the first time I'd run the map and didn't run it a second time, as I only learned about the "free first run" after I did the red side run months ago. 

So, kindly disregard my suggestion. 

[Saikochoro]

Good way to farm merits is to do Twilight Son’s task force “Smoke and Mirrors” from the Oro crystal. This is repeatable without diminishing merit rewards, so it always gives you 12 merits.  Also no need for a team as it is best done solo. 
 

Run it at -1/1 and it’s best done on a stalker. It is 4 missions. First two just kill the boss and possibly his immediate minions. First map and boss position never changes (boss is always on the steps of the tram). Second map changes a little, but it’s always easy to find the boss. Third kill the mobs around the people you have to rescue (all around the board walk). This map and target positions don’t change. Fourth, run to the end and kill the EB and the mobs around the two people to rescue. This map never changes so you get used to it after a run or two. 
 

There is a crystal right next to Twilight Son who is the contact. He also ports you to each of the four missions.  Upon exiting the mission you are sent directly back to him. So no travel time between missions. 
 

First few times it may take you 10ish minutes. After a few runs you will memorize the layout and it gets significantly faster. Again doing it on a stalker is the best. I can consistently complete runs in just under 6 minutes. So you can get 100-120 merits per hour for as long as you can stomach it.
 

I haven’t found a more efficient way farm merits without needing any prerequisites besides being level 35 I think. Just keep in mind it gets very boring very fast. 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Saikochoro

[The_Warpact]

42 minutes ago, Saikochoro said:

Good way to farm merits is to do Twilight Son’s task force “Smoke and Mirrors” from the Oro crystal. This is repeatable without diminishing merit rewards, so it always gives you 12 merits.  Also no need for a team as it is best done solo. 
 

Run it at -1/1 and it’s best done on a stalker. It is 4 missions. First two just kill the boss and possibly his immediate minions. First map and boss position never changes (boss is always on the steps of the tram). Second map changes a little, but it’s always easy to find the boss. Second kill the mobs around the people you have to rescue (all around the board walk). This map and target positions don’t change. Fourth, run to the end and kill the EB and the mobs around the two people to rescue. This map never changes so you get used to it after a run or two. 
 

There is a crystal right next to Twilight Son who is the contact. He also ports you to each of the four missions.  Upon exiting the mission you are sent directly back to him. So no travel time between missions. 
 

First few times it may take you 10ish minutes. After a few runs you will memorize the layout and it gets significantly faster. Again doing it on a stalker is the best. I can consistently complete runs in just under 6 minutes. So you can get 100-120 merits per hour for as long as you can stomach it.
 

I haven’t found a more efficient way farm merits without needing any prerequisites besides being level 35 I think. Just keep in mind it gets very boring very fast. 

This quite possibly is what I was looking for. 

I dont get bored i run 2 fire farms almost every night play some Amon Amarth and turn into a flaming lawnmower of death.

 

Besides I was looking for an excuse to lvl a stalker.

 

Thank you!

[Saikochoro]

10 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

This quite possibly is what I was looking for. 

I dont get bored i run 2 fire farms almost every night play some Amon Amarth and turn into a flaming lawnmower of death.

 

Besides I was looking for an excuse to lvl a stalker.

 

Thank you!

No problem. If you don’t get bored, then yes, I’d say this is your best bet. Don’t have to wait for teams. Don’t have travel time between missions. Stealth to bosses for the most part. No diminishing returns. Like I said, I can’t think of anything that is more efficient without having to form a team or league. 
 

And you are right, a good excuse to make a stalker. I actually made 3 different stalkers purely to see which one would do this farm the fastest. 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Saikochoro

[The_Warpact]

1 minute ago, Saikochoro said:

 

And you are right, a good excuse to make a stalker. I actually made 3 different stalkers purely to see which one would do the game fastest. 

Inquiring minds want to know more.😀

[Saikochoro]

17 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

Inquiring minds want to know more.😀

Honestly pretty much any stalker will do well. Though I’d lean toward more single target burst and away from AoE. Thus I wouldn’t do electric shield stalkers for this. 
 

You want burst primaries:  My top suggestions are:

Energy Melee - the changes on beta are amazing. Just keep in mind current live version is lackluster, but once beta version goes live it will probably be the best primary to use. 
Street Justice - my current top performer. 
Psionic Melee - great burst. 
 

Secondaries: you want offensive focus. If this is your main focus for the stalker you shouldn’t be worried to much about being super tanky.  So I’d choose bio armor as the secondary.  Though I will never discourage anyone from going energy aura. 
 

If you want it to do well in all other content you honestly can’t go wrong with energy aura. It is the best secondary in my opinion. Bio may have it best at offense, but honestly not by a ton and energy aura is just more well rounded and survivable and still gets an offensive boost through +rech.  That said bio is great in other content too. 
 

My current go to stalker for this is street justice/energy aura. This is also great for all content. Once energy melee improvements go live it’ll probably be EM/Bio. 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Saikochoro

[Hyperstrike]

On 11/8/2020 at 8:51 AM, The_Warpact said:

How do you farm merits in the quickest easiest way possible? I saw a thread awhile back that used a stalker for one of the TF'S (can't find it now).

I understand you can run the weekly but obviously cannot farm that. So how do you do it?

Regular participation in ship raids can net you 100+ merits (converted from VMerits) a pop.

[Ukase]

1 hour ago, Hyperstrike said:

Regular participation in ship raids can net you 100+ merits (converted from VMerits) a pop.

My personal best for V merits in a ship raid was 1439 Vg merits. At 30 to 1....if you're getting 100+ merits, you're raking in over 3000 vg merits a run...how? I've got a ice/cold corruptor with sleet, ice storm, blizzard, burnout and judgement...I can't fathom much more AoE goodness than that. 

 

 

[Shred Monkey]

The Heather Townsand arc (Dark Astoria Part 1) rewards 2 Emp merits which you can convert to reward merits.  If I recall correctly it's 1 to 10 conversion.  So it comes out to 20 merits every 10-15 minutes.  I think this comes out about the same as the twilight son TF mentioned earlier.

[The_Warpact]

34 minutes ago, Shred Monkey said:

The Heather Townsand arc (Dark Astoria Part 1) rewards 2 Emp merits which you can convert to reward merits.  If I recall correctly it's 1 to 10 conversion.  So it comes out to 20 merits every 10-15 minutes.  I think this comes out about the same as the twilight son TF mentioned earlier.

Ok well that something i didn't know about conversation from emp to merits...I have like 3k so...

[tidge]

53 minutes ago, Shred Monkey said:

The Heather Townsand arc (Dark Astoria Part 1) rewards 2 Emp merits which you can convert to reward merits.  If I recall correctly it's 1 to 10 conversion.  So it comes out to 20 merits every 10-15 minutes.  I think this comes out about the same as the twilight son TF mentioned earlier.

I always forget about the Empyrian conversion. Lately I've been taking the super inspirations and filling up the SG base storage with the non-Rez ones. The Resurrection ones go into account email.

 

Even though the Incarnate grind (my opinion, YMMV) doesn't really interest me I run this arc a lot (0x8) for the drops. This takes about 30 minutes for my favorite character, so it isn't as good for the reward merits, but I wouldn't turn my nose up at them!