Everything seems to cost too much influence

[iBot]

The idea here was to give the OP some suggestions and encouragement not necessarily map out the optimal path for making inf.  There are plenty of guides and quite a few good threads about doing it "organically". (See posts by @Ukase and @Yomo Kimyata amongst others).  I think we've come to a consensus in quite a few threads that there are multiple paths to victory here and the optimal strategy is to employ any and all of them depending on your preferences in game.

[Neiska]

@Diantane Here is what works for me personally. Granted, this wont work on all levels, but I am listing what makes me the most money to the least.

 

1. Farming. My main source of income is farming. I 3 box MMs and clear maps very fast (3 mins a map) and after an hour or so of farming each one has usually around 50-60 mil inf, plus whatever they managed to find. You can add another 10 mil per purple, 500k per rare/orange salvage. But the majority of my "selling" money comes from selling vast piles of level 50 white recipes to vendors. They are roughly 100k apiece, and I have finished up a farm session with 100+ of them on 3 characters before. I mean that's roughly 30 mil in just white recipes alone. The majority of yellow recipes aren't worth much these days. There are a few here or there but most of them are junk.

 

So together they will have around 50 mil each in raw Inf for a total of 150 million, plus another roughly 30 million for a rough total of 180 million or so, thereabouts. This fluctuates a bit, depending on how many white, purple, and pvp recipes I find, but that is a good ballpark figure.

 

2. Converters. Converters always sell. They go for roughly 70-75k a pop, and you will find them constantly when you are 50. Now days I wait until I have a pile to throw them up onto the market.

 

3. Packs. You can sort of "gamble" using the winter/at packs. You buy them from the Auction house and get a random assortment of goodies. These can be character account items like EXP/Money boosters, recipes, IOs, and so on. Even brainstorms. You can convert the brainstorms into other things and sell them with all the rest. You then "flip" these and often net a profit. Though this isn't as profitable as it used to be. But you can still net enough from the IOs alone so that anything else after that is a profit. Luck is involved though, but rarely have I ever lost money. I have always made a profit or broke even. The trick to this method is patience. If you throw 100 things up on auction, don't be surprised if it takes a bit to sell. But, its a good time killer.

 

4. Catalysts. Similar to Converters, its special salvage you find at 50. Its what you use to turn Orange sets into the epic Purple stuff. They go for anywhere between 1.4 mil to 2 mil a pop, depending on how impatient someone is. Again, I usually save up a stack or so of them before putting them up.

 

5. Threads. Threads threads threads. Precious when you start out, but at the end, you could knit a scarf big enough to wrap around the world twice. You can use the them at a vendor to buy group inspirations and then sell them as people who run the endgame content use a lot of them. Don't be too fast to do this though as threads are non-transferrable, and you need quite a lot of them starting out. But eventually you will find yourself having a ton of them if you play the same character long enough. I have around 12-15k of them across multiple characters. Personally I wish we had more uses for them.

 

6. Stock Market Simulator. If you are patient, you can play the market game. The whole buy low sell high thing. But this takes a bit of time and experience to do, but it can be done. A few friends of mine are die hard roleplayers who play the market while they roleplay, and have never stepped foot in a TF, Raid, or Farm, and they are at INF cap. You don't have to be a high level to be absurdly wealthy in this game. Mostly what it takes is time.

 

7. Gambling. If you are feeling lucky, instead of selling your converters you can save them up and use to convert AT IOs from a cheap one into one high in demand. This is totally random however, but its only 1 Converter to reroll. You might turn an AT IO that is worth 6 or 7 mil into one worth 10-15 mil. Even more if you are gambling with purple sets.

 

8. Crafting. Instead of selling recipes/salvage, you can hoard them up if you like. Though this requires space and storage to do. You essentially save every bit of salvage and every high value recipe you find and craft them. For an example, if you have a purple recipe worth 10 mil and salvage worth 500k, you could spend the inf and other salvage to make it, and possibly turn around and sell that purple IO for 20 mil. This is especially good for the PVP recipes, as well as sets like Hecatomb, Ragnarock, Armageddon, and so on. This method is the "long view" though, but does give the most profit per INF spent. Personally I don't bother with crafting anymore as I could make more by farming than the time storing, organizing, crafting, and selling. But if you are patient, this is likely the most bang for your buck.

 

9. Merits. This is the standard money maker while leveling up. You complete story arcs or TFs and get merits at the end, which you can then turn into other salvage and sell. You wont be rolling in the moola like Scrooge Mcduck anytime soon, but it will pay for your leveling up needs with change to spare. 

 

10. Base Building. If you are good at base building, there are some folks who pay INF for such services. Depending on the server, I have seen people shell out 1-2 billon for a skilled base builder to help them make their dream home. I have no experience in this myself however, but it is a note-able way to make money, if you are good with the builder.

 

There you go. There are 10 ways to make some moola during your journey. I would like to add that a mistake some people make is as soon as they make 500m or so, they go out and blow it on their first build, and then find themselves in the first predicament as before. You can spend that 500m, and make much much more, and in a sense, bankroll yourself and your other characters/projects.

 

As I mentioned before, you don't have to be level 50 fully incarnated out to make money. Mostly it takes time and persistence. I know some level 2's who have more money than I do, even though I farm and they don't. That's because they have played the market ever since HC launched almost 2 years ago. I might catch up to them if I cared to, but they play largely the same characters and I tend to like to experiment with alts, and try new powers and builds.

 

Best Wishes, and I Hope this helps!

[UltraAlt]

8 hours ago, Diantane said:

As much as I've tried, I just can't afford to upgrade my enhancement upgrades. Only play a handful of alts and every one's enhancement page is lacking. The enhancements are either red or some have IO's that are 20 levels lower than the character. Now DO's dropping as loot sure helped, but its not enough to catch my characters up. I've been told that when I reach 50 that the influence will be coming in a lot more (course level 50 enhancements are very expensive too). See players with IO sets and I'm thinking how could they possibly afford it.

 

Make sure to sell your salvage and recipes on the market to make loot for enhancements.

Ask your teammates if they have any spare enhancements, and you will be suprised by the response ... probably in more than one way, but in general, more good than bad.

[DoctorDitko]

In the spirit of going through the superbase's sofas looking for pocket change: I grab the "internal inspiration" power from p2w on all my characters. This gives you 3 medium or large inspirations 2 or 3 times an hour. You can sell these to any vendor for a few hundred inf, or, if the RNG gods are kind, glom something that sells for tens of thousands on the AH. (If you don't have enough slots free when the power recharges, use, sell, or email yourself a few insps to free up room.)

 

You won't get rich, but especially for low-level toons, it can provide some handy walking-around money.

[Sovera]

8 hours ago, Diantane said:

As much as I've tried, I just can't afford to upgrade my enhancement upgrades. Only play a handful of alts and every one's enhancement page is lacking. The enhancements are either red or some have IO's that are 20 levels lower than the character. Now DO's dropping as loot sure helped, but its not enough to catch my characters up. I've been told that when I reach 50 that the influence will be coming in a lot more (course level 50 enhancements are very expensive too). See players with IO sets and I'm thinking how could they possibly afford it.

 

Everything that could possibly be said on this subject has been said, but if you are at the level where not knowing how to afford your SOs then you can probably make good use of the guide in my signature.

 

Just to give a perspective by running the first TF in the game (and the least rewarding) you get something like 3 mill. Completely slotting in generic IOs (not SOs because as you noticed they go red, while generic IOs never go red) costs something like 2 mill. You can even solo these if you feel so inclined because of not liking groups.

 

Running missions arcs (not newspaper missions, not Architect missions) also gives merits. As per the guide in the signature check your salvage, see how many you have, you might have a lot more money to your name than you think.

[arcane]

1 hour ago, Luminara said:

 

I only use sets.  I don't farm.

Ok but do you manipulate markets in a most sekrit and nefarious way

[UltraAlt]

9 hours ago, Diantane said:

I'm thinking how could they possibly afford it.

 

- or -

 

This may help ::

 

 

 

[Nerio72]

@Diantane,

I didn't see anyone mention this, but are you by chance running 2xXP from the P2W? If so that shuts off earning inf, which definitely could make it harder. So you would for sure need other ways to earn. The easiest to me is crafting, and converting set IOs, and either using them or selling them on /AH.

 

As others have said check out some of the guides. And if you are confused on how to do something ask, either on the forums or also in-game on Help channel. There are people who will help you out, either by giving you stuff or teaching you how to do some of the ideas here.

 

Good luck.

[A Cat]

2 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

And as I recall, somewhere around level 43-45 the influence starts coming in much faster then the levels so you'll end up catching up on your SO's once you hit that point.   I've not played an SO build in a long time and there's been changes since then, but I imagine there's still a tipping point on that scale. before you hit 50.

 

 

When I first started, I was also poor af. That is, until I learned about the "turning your merits into converters method" thanks to Sovera's beginner guide. Then I realized I was a millionaire all along. The thing is, you have to have heard about that from somewhere. I had no idea what merits were best used for. There are a lot of things you can buy with them, but often the other things are just not with spending merits on. I think learning about selling converters/boosters is really the minimum knowledge to not be poor as hell. I know everyone here tells anyone who's asking about this method already, but I wish EVERYONE could be taught this. Don't know how this is best done though. Maybe a quick merit vender tutorial? I know crafting and covering is more lucrative but I don't know if everyone would want to get into that, and I think just asking converters puts you in the "won't starve" range of income. 

[Without_Pause]

Not mentioned I don't think, but on live and here on HC I had a crafter character who unlocked crafting badges so I could get the badge to craft level 25 IOs without a recipe and at a discounted cost. You can then outfit any character with level 25 Common IOs once they hit 22, and keep adding IOs as needed all the way to 50. All of my builds on live used Common IOs. That character played the market and had over 2 billion and started to give my other characters money as needed. The character I use for that now "only" has 500 mill, but is funding various IOs sets for builds, and already slotted out a cheaper build for themselves. I also took a decent break from Homecoming, so I could easily be at the 2+ billion mark if I wanted to be. Easiest way to have currency is to get a character to 50, and keep playing them. Common level 50 recipes can go for 100K+ via a vendor.

[Yomo Kimyata]

6 hours ago, Snarky said:

I was about to reply to your post by saying there is a guy named Yomo that gives away 20 mil a pop....  but then, oh yeah, it's Yomo.

 

 

No one expects Yomo!

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

5 hours ago, Ukase said:

I believe @Yomo Kimyata has influence at a level where if he were to stop and count it, the amount would change while counting, as bids are seemingly continuously being posted & filled, which results in a lower total in the short term, only to be recouped in the slightly longer short term - hours or a day or so. There are just too many beans to count. 
 

 

I can know how much I have, or I can know where I have it hidden, but I cannot know both.  Call it Yomo's Uncertainty Principle.

 

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

No one expects Yomo!

 

 

That pun is atrocious.

 

Well done.  👍

[arcane]

1 hour ago, Luminara said:

 

That pun is atrocious.

 

Well done.  👍

I had to read several times before I got it 😞

[InvaderStych]

3 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

I can know how much I have, or I can know where I have it hidden, but I cannot know both.  Call it Yomo's Uncertainty Principle.

 

 

[Ukase]

3 hours ago, Luminara said:

 

That pun is atrocious.

 

Well done.  👍

That pun is fantastic! 

[Grouchybeast]

6 hours ago, Nerio72 said:

@Diantane,

I didn't see anyone mention this, but are you by chance running 2xXP from the P2W? If so that shuts off earning inf, which definitely could make it harder. So you would for sure need other ways to earn.

If you're trying to play self-sufficient characters without farming or marketeering, then double XP, DFB, door-sitting AE farms, joining teams running Council papers at +4x8, and other ways to speed through the early game are a terrible idea. 

 

Things that are good: playing story arcs to get merits, checking all drops to see if they're worth crafting and selling, running on level-appropriate smaller teams.

[Bionic_Flea]

4 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I can know how much I have, or I can know where I have it hidden, but I cannot know both.  Call it Yomo's Uncertainty Principle.

Y.U.P.

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 hour ago, InvaderStych said:

 

 

This isn't that far from the truth.  I know how much I have in bids on impossible items.  I know how many 999,999,999 emails I have (which I transfer to bids on impossible items monthly).  For the rest, I know how many alts I have and I estimate based on a historic average inf per alt.

 

It's a lot.

 

[ScrewlooseCohh]

I tend to have each of my characters run a bunch of Converter Roulette til they have 400 to 500 million inf before I really get into playing them seriously.  So often before level 15 I don't have to worry about that character anymore.

 

I do sometimes seed them with 10 million just to ease out the starting boot strap portion.

 

See below links on ways to use the market to generate Inf in without investing playtime.

 

 

And I think there is room for a lot more Converter Roulette marketers at the moment because a lot of IO Enh seem to have very low amounts for sale.

 

regards, Screwloose.

I am not young enough to know everything

 

 

 

[Ironblade]

10 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

Sell, sell, sell. Make a stop at the market at least once a session, drag all your orange drops over to post, collect the inf from those that have sold.

For convenience, note that you don't actually have to go to the market.

Just type  /ah   in the chat window and it opens the Auction House window wherever you are - EXCEPT in an instanced map (basically missions and bases).

 

 

17 hours ago, Diantane said:

As much as I've tried, I just can't afford to upgrade my enhancement upgrades. Only play a handful of alts and every one's enhancement page is lacking.

Do you enjoy running task forces?  As a matter of habit, I get the Task Force Commander accolade on every character and run those task forces when they are the 'weekly target' so I get double merits.  That's 424 merits right there, which are worth quite a chunk of change.  You can run the first task force (Positron part 1) as low as level 8.

 

I personally don't care for the low level content, so I run Death From Below on each character until level 10 or 11.  Each run gets you (I think) five SO's of the correct origin for your character.  The SO's from earlier runs will be trash by the time you're done, but the ones you get at level 9, 10, 11 will be useful for a bit of time.  Don't slot any of them until you're done running Death From Below.  Sell all of them except the high level ones that are actually useful to you.

 

Once you get to level 22, as several people have mentioned, slot level 25 common IO's and use those right up until you hit 50.  There will always be plenty of mid level IO's on the market because people like me are crafting them to get badges.

 

If possible, don't switch between a bunch of alts.  Pick one (or make a new one) that you like to be your 'main' and take that one to high level.  That's the easy way to get money by 'playing normally' - just pick one you enjoy and get them to high level.

 

Oh, and don't forget to pick up the five free enhancements (for every character) from the Pay 2 Win vendor.  They're actually decent and useful until you're 20+ level.

 

[Shenanigunner]

34 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

For convenience, note that you don't actually have to go to the market.

Just type  /ah   in the chat window and it opens the Auction House window wherever you are - EXCEPT in an instanced map (basically missions and bases).

 

Ah, yuck, so much work, all that typing.

 

I just hit F8:

/bind F8 "ah$$toggle salvage$$toggle recipes"

😜

Edited September 10, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[Wobegone]

So I decided to do an experiment ala Yomo here:

A Meandering Path to a Billion Inf - The Market - Homecoming (homecomingservers.com)

but simplified a bit.
Starting from scratch I decided on an Archer/Tactical Arrow blaster.  Always wanted to make one...this seems like the perfect time.  First I hit the vendor and got Inner Inspiration and Steam Jump. (I also picked up various other free goodies)
After finishing Outbreak(don't use the inspirations you get)I leveled and got a mission from Matthew Habashy.  After the first mission(defeat 5 Hellions) I had enough influence to type /ah and list my outbreak inspirations for 1 influence each. I also used an inspiration to clear a space and hit Inner Inspiration and again sold the three on the AH.  46,000...not great, but enough.

I finished the Habashy arc, street sweeping along the way and finished at level 4.  After that I got all the exploration badges in Atlas park for a total of 8 merits, ending with exchanging them for 24 converters.  By this time I'd been playing for about 15 minutes.  
I have a decided advantage in that I've done this many times....a new player would have to look up the location of the exploration badges.  Most also wouldn't know to hit Habashy right away, he's not listed as an initial contact(he absolutely should).  

Habashy offers two more contacts..I chose Officer Fields.  After leveling, I get 2 Times Xp then start Fields missions. Another short arc, although against Vahz(use inspirations liberally!) for three merits.  Use Inner Inspiration again...another 26,000 Influence.
New contact Aaron Thiery.  Total time now about 30 minutes.

At this point I haven't even bothered with slotting powers outside of a few free stuff I've picked up like the prestige enhancements.  
A couple of missions from Thierry, and decide to level again..now level 7.  About 45 minutes from start.  Still not slotting anything.  I'm at about 78k Influence. I finish the Thierry arc for another 3 merits and decide I'm done for the day.  Inner Inspiration again, but bad luck.  I have about 86,000 influence and 42 Converters.

I once again type /ah and look at one of my favorite recipes to buy and convert...Taunt: Mocking Beratement(I like level 31 personally).  I look at Rech/Acc first and the last few are for a measely 2025 Influence.  I put a bid in for 5000.  Immediate hit. Head on over to Steel Canyon and University and craft IO.  Convert once to Perfect Zinger for two converters, then start converting for 1 converter by rare type.  After two tries I hit on Unbreakable Guard:7.5 Max Hp. This is lucky for me!  I list for 1 Influence and it immediately sells for 2.9 million.

I now have enough influence and enough merits left over to buy some recipes and log for the day.  I put in several bids for more Mocking Beratement recipes...Two I avoid because someone seems to be bidding for higher than I'm willing to pay.  The rest I put bids in for 9 each at 5000 per recipe.  Time to log.  Total time, jut over an hour.  I understand a new player would not be able to do this so quickly.  But my time investment of just over an hour produce over 2 million influence, 7 levels, and a bunch of bids for level 31 recipes. 

 

When someone says 'A lot of time' referring to playing the market, I have a hard time understanding that.  Although I understand that some players simply don't have the time, I think it's more likely that the AH is uncomfortable because it's not familiar.  It's daunting deaing with a system in which you have no experience...let alone patience to learn it.  

Edited September 10, 2021 by Ignatz the Insane

[Wavicle]

Use Merit Rewards to get Enhancement Boosters and sell those on the AH. Instant cash.

[misat]

I think one of the biggest problem new players have making Influence is they are running double xp which takes away influence loot drops , low levels you don't get much but the higher in levels you go it gets better. When starting out in this game you need all the influence you can get until you have at least one level 40 or higher toon that can make influence easy.

 

Now you can go to the AE and join a farm to make a ton of influence also, you don't have to level up this way, just turn off xp and delete any xp buff you have then you will get influence drops and salvage/ recipe drops to sell on AH or vendor trash them