starting from scratch

[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 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. 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.

 

Edited for numerous typos.  I included writing this in my hour time limit.

Edited September 10, 2021 by Ignatz the Insane

[iBot]

Good start.  Please do keep us updated on your progress and your steps as you go.  Always some little nugget there that I wasn't aware which is amusing given the amount of time I've spent with this game.

[Wobegone]

16 hours ago, iBot said:

Good start.  Please do keep us updated on your progress and your steps as you go.  Always some little nugget there that I wasn't aware which is amusing given the amount of time I've spent with this game.

I appreciate that, but honestly I was more focused on showing Yomo's thread than my own.  He/she's  a better story teller than myself, and probably far more versed in the intricacies of the AH as well.   But Ok, I'll keep going.

 

I logged in and see that 39 of my recipe bids have filled. I have two stacks of 9, so choose one and buy the salvage and craft.  For new players, there's a space at the top of the AH screen where you type in the name of the salvage you need. When you have converters in your inventory, click enhancements at the top of your power tray then click on convert. At the top you'll see In Set Conversion and Out of Set Conversion. Click and drag the enhancement you wish to convert.

I convert each of the nine twice, two converters to rare(you'll need to use the little down triangle), and one by rare type and I end up with this:
Gaussian's:To hit/recharge/End Reduction
Positron's Blast:Chance for Energy Damage
Call of the Sandman:Accuracy/Endurance
Obliteration:Accuracy/Recharge
Performance Shifter:EndMod
Preventative Medicine:Heal/Absorb
Annihilation:Acc/Dam/Recharge
Numina's:Heal/Absorb
Reactive Defenses:Defense/End

 

Not bad at all.  Seven of those I can sell right away(although the Performance Shifter and Gaussian's might take a while) and throw them on the AH. Picking a list price varies.  In this case I list all of them for a little over 1.6 million.  In the case of the Unbreakable Guard:+7.5% Max HP I sold yesterday I would have listed for 2,999,999 if I'd had the Influence to do so. Someone has been buying them for 2,922,229 for a couple weeks now, so I wasn't surprised when it sold for that amount.  When you put an IO up for sale, take a look at the last 5 to get an idea what the list price should be.  Keep in mind there are a couple, like the Miracle proc, that have goofy numbers for some reason, I usually list them for something over 3.5 million and they always sell quickly.  The Call of the Sandman and Annihilation I keep until I have some more merits. I could just buy the converters and still make a profit, or even list those two for a little under a million each...but I'm gonna do another story arc first.  

 

As an aside, this took me maybe two minutes to buy the salvage, convert, and list on the AH.  Obviously a new player navigating the AH for the first time would take several minutes.  

Before starting I buy an Acc Single Origin enhancement for each power as well as a couple damage and a recharge.  I'll stick with the Prestige Enhancements for now for the other slots.  By the way, I'm actually level eight, not seven as I stated above.  Time to start Shauna Stockwell's arc.  I'm glad she's an automatic contact.  It's a fun and challenging arc. Use your inspirations liberally, and I can't stress this enough, when you get to Chernobog, empty your inspiration tray.  I was prepared and came close to dying.  

Pretty short arc and 6 more Merits.  I still have half an hour so time for another arc. Eagle Eye is next.
I suffer my first defeat to Back Breaker.  No biggie though, the challenge is why I like these arcs. (I may have been overconfident)

Time to Take Veles Down.  Like Chernobog, he'll be an Elite Boss.  So I load up on Luck and damage inspirations.  I also dropped the Prestige enhancements and bought Accuracy and Damage SOs and upgraded my other SOs(cost 192k to upgrade).  My attacks now have two Acc  and one Damage SO plus my big hitter, Blazing Arrow, has a Recharge SO....I don't like missing.  I'm level 12 heading in.  Veles isn't much of a problem...if he can't hit me he can't hurt me.  I get the Facility Manager to safety and am rewarded with six more merits.  

 

Time to get a few Converters and log for the day.  I have 36 converters, so I turn 12 Mocking Beratements into Perfect Zingers and convert those once each to see what I get:
Unbounded Leap
Ghost Widow's Embrace
Unbounded Leap
Siphon's insight
Positron's Blast:Chance for Energy Damage
Time and Space Manipulation
Stupefy
Kinetic Combat:Acc/Dam
Winter's Give:Slow Resistance
Freebird
Freebird
Performance Shifter:Endurance/EndMod/Acc

Obviously not very good. Only three of those I want to sell.  I'll save the rest. Tomorrow I'm gonna run Positron 1 and 2 for a better Merit haul.  Someone also moved on Mocking Beratements so I canceled my bids and looked at another favorite(there are lots of options, just look for a yellow recipe that easily converts to a rare).  I find one(Enfeebled Operations for anyone interested) and put in bids, again stacks of 9 for 5k per recipe.  Half of my IOs have sold and I'm at about 10 million Influence.  I also have a bunch of rare IOs and a several more Mocking Beratements.  Total time this session was just over an hour and a half.  
 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Ignatz the Insane

[Yomo Kimyata]

On 9/9/2021 at 11:34 PM, Ignatz the Insane said:

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.

 

Something I tend to forget -- don't choose double xp until you have enough inf to pay listing fees.  You used to be able to sell the TOs you got in Outbreak/Breakout to the vendors, but they replaced TOs with that other thing that you can only delete, not sell.  Even one defeat at regular XP will give you enough inf to list your inspirations at the minimum.

 

Then, of course, Goldside tutorial gives you 50 inf for some reason, so you can ignore my advice there.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

 

[Ukase]

15 hours ago, Ignatz the Insane said:

  My attacks now have two Acc  and one Damage SO plus my big hitter, Blazing Arrow, has a Recharge SO....I don't like missing. 

So, this may be something not everyone is aware of. Our OP hates to miss - so he may be aware of it and just doesn't care. 
So what am I speaking of? Beginner's Luck! 
 

Character's Level	ToHit Bonus		Character's Level	ToHit Bonus
1	+15%		11	+7%
2	+14%		12	+6%
3	+13%		13	+5%
4	+12%		14	+4%
5	+11%		15	+3%
6	+11%		16	+3%
7	+10%		17	+2%
8	+9%		18	+1%
9	+8%		19	+1%
10	+7%		20+	+0%

 

 

Now, there's a fancy formula in the game about accuracy & "toHit". 

I don't know that I need to go over all this, when it's in the paragon wiki under "attack mechanics" - but at early levels, there's not much need for any accuracy SOs, although they certainly won't hurt. But two - at least prior to level 14 or so is probably overkill. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Attack_Mechanics
HitChance = Clamp( AccMods × (1 - TargetElusivity) × Clamp( BaseHitChance + ToHitMods – DefMods ) )

[Wobegone]

Edited because it was a foolish comment.  

 

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Ignatz the Insane

[iBot]

17 hours ago, Ignatz the Insane said:

I appreciate that, but honestly I was more focused on showing Yomo's thread than my own.  He/she's  a better story teller than myself, and probably far more versed in the intricacies of the AH as well.   But Ok, I'll keep going.

No worries.  I find that having a multitude of different perspectives to pull from makes it easier to find information.  Never know what someone else will remember that I've forgotten or never really paid any attention to that can be useful.

[Wobegone]

Wow..so every bid I put in yesterday filled, I now have 54 Enfeebled Operation recipes.  All but one of my enhancements have sold, the Performance Shifter is still sitting there.  Since I'm sitting in the University in Steel Canyon, I decided to do the IO tutorial starting with Admissions Officer Lenk and Montague Castanella's arc.  Both are on the main floor of the University.  The Montague arc is worth 13 Merits and access to the Midnighter's Club, well worth doing.  

 

At this point I'm a bar short of 14.  I'm also running into endurance issues, so I slot End Reduction SOs in two of my attacks.  I wanna to get to level 16 before forming Positron 1, so looking at my contact list I see I still have Rick Davies in Atlas, as well as several detectives.  Davies introduces me to Athena Currie in Steel Canyon.  After one mission she offers two more contacts, and has a story arc fighting Clockwork.  For the first time I used the complete mission option, a defeat all clockwork.  Two more missions and 22 Merits saving Lou's family from the Clockwork.  Two bars shy of 17.  I've been playing for about an hour now but it's Saturday! And, since I'm so close, I'm gonna talk to one of my new contacts and get to level 17 for a couple of my first IO purchases.

 

One mission from Guy Denson and I'm level 17.  Upgrading my SOs costs a bit over 560k.  I have 35 Merits so before I start Positron, I convert my remaining IOs to clean up my inventory.  I stop when I get things I know sell well for two million or more: Expedient Reinforcement, Decimation, Obliteration, Kinetic Combat, most damage procs, Touch of Death, Preventative Medicine, and all Resist or Defense IOs, although I tend to convert those to Unbreakable Guard and Luck of the Gambler respectively.  I have one Converter left when I'm done(as well as 54 recipes and whatever other recipes have dropped). Several sell immediately and I have 32 million Influence.

 

My first IO purchases are attuned Miracle:+Recovery and Performance Shifter:Chance for +Endurance.  They don't have to be attuned of course, but I'm neurotic.  So they must be.  For me.  Costs me 7.5 million for buy it now prices.  Several of my listed IOs have sold and I still have a bit over 49 million.  Someone advertised for Positron 2 when I was on my way so I join that group.  It's not a speed group and a couple members are obviously new, so it takes a bit over an hour.  Fortunately most members were a patient and fun group and I got 5 levels.  Decisions to make...do I upgrade my SOs again or respec and buy some IO sets or generic IOs. I wanna slot Thunderstrikes in my ranged attacks, but can't until 27. I think I'm gonna stick with SOs for now, costs 737k to upgrade.  

 

I ran a Positron 1 and call it a day.  I might log in later tonight.  I played about 2.5 hours.

 

Decided to play a bit more...I like this character.  I contemplated running a Synapse and opted instead for Striga.  Good arcs for rewards and Merits plus I can teleport directly to the first contact...love that feature.  Heracles goes down whimpering(I'm a hover blaster so he wasn't dangerous) and 25 more Merits.  I converted 18 recipes into sellable IOs and have 19 converters left. I also bought a portable workbench...worth every penny of that 10 million. I'm one bar shy of 25, have 51 million, and 16 IOs for sale and still have 36 recipes(plus a handful I've gotten as drops), but am stubbornly not going to buy converters. 

 

Really looking forward to level 27.  If most of the IOs sell, I should have 80-90 million Influence...plenty for relatively cheap IO sets.  At that point I can up the difficulty a bit(honestly, with the extra accuracy I have I think I could have done at least +1 with ease, but I'm more of a casual solo player most of the time, plus story arc completion xp is usually fantastic). 
 

[Ukase]

5 hours ago, Ignatz the Insane said:

plus story arc completion xp is usually fantastic). 

This incomplete list may be helpful to you. Maybe not. When you see the +4 in XP per arc, it's because the difficulty setting seems to have an impact on the bonus. 
 

Contact	Start level	Finish Level	2XP?	Ouro?	XP Gained		XP needed	Merits
Wincott	6	8	Yes	No	1440	Level 8 to 9	2680	7	5.3 Bars
Flux	8	11	Yes	No	800	9 to 10	3125	18
						11 to 12	4995		1.6 Bars
Julius	11	13	Yes	No	800	12 to 13	6405	10	1.25 Bars
						13 to 14	7400
Talshek	13	15	Yes	No	1000	14 to 15	9093	30	.89 Bars
						15 to 16	11184
Shauna Stockwell	15	16	Yes	No	1800	16 to 17	13000	6	1.38 Bars
Eagle Eye	17	18	Yes	No	1800	17 to 18	15950	6	1.13 Bars
						18 to 19	19200
Jim Temblor	18	19	Yes	No	2000	19 to 20	23400	8	.85 Bars
Penny Yin	19	20	Yes	No	1600	20 to 21	28000	10	.57 Bars
Doc Delilah	20	20	Yes	No	4000 +4				1.5 Bars
Agent G	20	22	Yes	No	17920 +4	21 to 22	36000	25	3.98 Bars
						22 to 23	45000
Stephanie Peebles	22	23	Yes	No	22400+4	23 to 24	56000	25	4 Bars
Long Jack	23	24	Yes	No	22400+4	24 to 25	69,300	27	3.2 Bars
						25 to 26	85,200
Tobias Hansen	24	27	Yes	No	40400 +4	26 to 27	108,000	22	3.74 Bars
Lars Hansen	27	27	Yes	No	76760 +4	27 to 28	135,000	13	5.69 Bars
Gordon Bower	27	29	Yes	No	76760 +4	28 to 29	166,650	27	4.6 Bars
Skipper LeGrange	29	29	Yes	No	40400 +4	29 to 30	203,400	17	1.98 Bars
Kelly Nemmers	30	30	Yes	No	72400 +4	30 to 31	254,000	12	2.85 Bars
Buck Salinger	30	31	Yes	No	57920 +4	31 to 32	314,600	20	1.84 Bars
Lou Pasterelli	32	33	Yes	No	72400 +4	32 to 33	386,400	43	1.87 Bars
Phillipa Meroux	33	33	Yes	No	72400 +4	33 to 34	470,600	28	1.54 Bars
Neal Kendrick	33	34	Yes	No	72400 +4	34 to 35	571,200	55	1.27 Bars
Peter Stemitz	34	34	Yes	No	72400 +4			35	1.27 Bars
Levantera (intro - VG)	35	35	Yes	No	150000 +4	35 to 36	701,500	15	2.14 Bars
Levantera - Ben Decker arc	35	35	Yes	No	32000 +4			5	.45 bars
Cadao Kestrel	35	36	Yes	No	150000 +4	36 to 37	854,700	25	1.76 Bars
Provost Marchand Ch.1	36	37	Yes	No	150000 +4	37 to 38	1,036,600	6	1.4 Bars
Ginger Yates	37	40	Yes	No	120000 +4	38 to 39	1,250,200
						39 to 40	1,502,550
						40 to 41	1,692,900	32	.7 Bars
Janet Kellum	40	41	Yes	No	270000 +4	41 to 42	1,907,550	52	1.4 Bars
						42 to 43	2,150,550
Serpent Drummer	41	43	Yes	No	270000 +4	43 to 44	2,421,900	15	1.1 Bars

[Wobegone]

Thanks Ukase, good stuff.  I also wanna add that you're absolutely right about Accuracy being unneeded for that level 12 fight.  If I remember correctly, one even level SO at level 20 is 90% to hit against +1 foes.  I guess I always have that in mind when slotting at level 12(this is when I buy SOs when I use them), so it's a habit.  Probably a bad one.  I'd have  been better off slotting an extra damage untll I got closer to level 20(or just added a slot to Hover and slotted the Kismet Unique if not increasing difficulty).  One even level  SO with the Kismet Unique is over the To Hit cap at levels 20+ against +1 mobs.  

Edited September 12, 2021 by Ignatz the Insane

[MHertz]

On 9/11/2021 at 12:43 AM, Ignatz the Insane said:

Someone also moved on Mocking Beratements so I canceled my bids and looked at another favorite(there are lots of options, just look for a yellow recipe that easily converts to a rare).

(My emphasis.) I don't know what the bolded part means. Converts "easily" to a rare?

[Wobegone]

2 hours ago, MHertz said:

(My emphasis.) I don't know what the bolded part means. Converts "easily" to a rare?

If you buy at a certain level and convert, it automatically converts to a rare.  Many of the IO sets have only a few sets, some of which have only two above a certain level...one yellow and one rare.  The three examples I provided do this.  Another good one is movement IOs.  You're guaranteed to convert to rare with two merits.  Then rare roulette.  I like level 31 for most yellow recipes.  

Edited September 15, 2021 by Ignatz the Insane

[Wobegone]

Quick update.  I finished Striga, crafted and converted the rest of my recipes and did a respec(I finished just shy of level 28).  After selling all my SOs, I put in bids for various IO sets. I mostly kept to relatively cheap sets, Artillery, Thunderstrike, etc.  When I started putting in bids I had a bit over 146 million.  I didn't bother putting in bids for recipes...I mostly took Sunday off from playing. I also put in lowball bids for ATOs.   

 

When I logged in Monday, I'd bought 3 ATOs and all of IO sets.  I did Ubelmann's arc from Laurie Pennington for 28 Merits(I also increased the difficulty to +1) and joined a Yin TF.  I still had over 80 million Influence as well as about 65 million in bids so I decided to buy 6 Super Packs..see if I can grab some Merits and ATOs.  The Blaster ATOs are scarce and expensive on the AH right now.  

 

I get the following from the Super Packs:
Unslotter
20 Brain Storms                 
150 Merits
3 Experienced
Defense Amplifer
and 8 ATOs, none of which are Blaster. 

This is a good haul.  (I want to caution folks who go this route.  Buying Super Packs is risky, especially when you're only buying such a small number of them.  I was confident I could absorb bad luck.)  When I converted the ATOs, four I convert to Blaster ATOs, and 4 to high volume sellers(I stop converting when I hit one of the two).  I'm still hoping to hit on a few more lowball bids before I respec again.  I bought a few cheap yellows where I could find them, crafted converted and sold.  Then I put in a bunch of bids for higher priced recipes. I'll see how it goes...these recipes are far more competitive.  When I logged I had 156 million, 31 IOs for sale, and 72 recipe bids.  

 

Not bad.  56 of my recipes bids filled. I have enough Merits to convert all but 6 to my desired IO and put in some more bids for the same recipes.  My lowball ATO bids haven't filled, but I'm not too worried.    

 

Next day, most of my IOs have sold and most of my bids have filled.  One of my Blaster ATO lowballs purchased as well. Someone overbid me on the recipes I'm after, so I relisted at a slightly higher purchase price(not surprising, this is a popular recipe) and put in lowball bids for Kismet, Shield Wall, Reactive Defenses, Gladiator's Armor, and Steadfast Uniques. I also put in 3 lowball bids for Luck of the Gambler:Increased Global Recharge.  I'm level 31, have a bit over 262 million Influence with 18 IOs still for sale, and 43 more recipes to craft and sell. Don't have more than a few minutes this morning.  Will probably play in the evening.

 

And... most of my bids fill.  Between Monday night and Tuesday evening, I purchased 109 of my desired recipes. I'm constantly astonished just how many

recipes...ones easily converted to high volume high reward IOs, people drop on the AH.  No converters though so I joined a Synapse, but even with that Merit haul I have nearly a hundred recipes and 20 IOs to convert.  I need converters.  Lots of them.  I could buy them, grab some more Super Packs, or just sit on these recipes for now and concentrate on fun stuff. 

I decided to roll the dice and buy 36 Super Packs.  I got:
37 ATOs
3 Boosters
680 Brain Storms
48 converters
58 Unslotters
225 Merits

I'll probably break even Influence wise...but the extra Merits helps.  The Merits help a ton getting rid of inventory, but Yellow Salvage is stuck at silly prices.  So I'll log and wait for my bids to fill.  Hopefully the ATOs I got combined with the IOs I'm selling will total around 500 million tomorrow night.  I'll log as usual in the morning(I usually have an hour or so to play then).  
 
I have about 119 million Influence, 130 IOs for sale, level 33,   The recipe i targeted was Titanium Coating.  Probably not a surprise for the pros here.  I bought them at level 41.  The recipes cost about 226k each and convert to either Aegis or Unbreakable Guard.  If I see Aegis Resist/Recharge or Aegis Endurance/Recharge, I convert by type(I have a 50% chance of either Titanium Coating or Unbreakable Guard.  If I have too many Resist/Recharge and End Reduction/Recharge Unbreakable Guards I convert again for three Merits in set.  

 

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by Ignatz the Insane

[iBot]

Definitely something I need to remember when leveling the next alt is going to be utilizing hero packs more.  I've basically ignored them so far but really they seem to be a much better way to turn 100 mil (for 10) into useful stuff especially while leveling up because of the chance for the XP boost temp.  Good info.

[Wobegone]

80 of my ATOs/Resist IOs sold overnight.  I had a few remaining bids for Titanium Coating recipes that also mostly filled(I didn't bother putting in more bids last night).  Crafted,converted, and listed.  I'm at 376 Million Influence with 112 ATOs/IOs still for sale as well as 111 converters.  Gonna switch to another high reward recipe.  

[Wobegone]

2 hours ago, iBot said:

Definitely something I need to remember when leveling the next alt is going to be utilizing hero packs more.  I've basically ignored them so far but really they seem to be a much better way to turn 100 mil (for 10) into useful stuff especially while leveling up because of the chance for the XP boost temp.  Good info.

This reminds me..I forgot to list the Experienced with my last haul....and I can't remember how many I got.  Seven or eight?  Something like that.  Yea, I use 'em up when leveling.  For the most part I break even after selling the ATOs/unslotters/boosters and use the rest(my SG base is full of the stuff so I just sell them now).

[Wobegone]

I finished The Unity Plague story arc from Jenny Firkins for 43 Merits and joined a Manticore TF. Finished a Crey story arc, and ran a Moonfire Task Force.  I'm at level 38 and have 824,345,174 Influence, with 35 things left to sell...4 IOs, 4 ATOs, 23 orange salvage, and 4 Unslotters.  The latest recipes I bought were level 41 Reactive Defenses which I converted to Luck of the Gamblers.  I still have several bids I'm leaving up...if they fill great, if someone overbids me fine.  

 

At this point this character is set.  For my final build I can afford anything I want...Purples, Winter IOs, whatever.  I'll easily reach a billion even without putting in more recipe bids.  

Some final thoughts:
Absolutely read Yomo's thread A Meandering Path to a Billion Inf - The Market - Homecoming (homecomingservers.com)
Its entertaining and funny and full of great advice.

 

For my own advice:

Common rarely used yellow recipes are a cheap high volume option when your're starting out but they take a lot of converters to make money.

Titanium Coating recipes are plentiful and have a high reward.  I prefer to buy them at level 41 where they're guaranteed to convert to either Aegis or Unbreakable Guard.  I made most of my money with these.

Reactive Defenses recipes are great for low volume high reward converting.  They generally go for about 500k(+orange salvage+crafting cost=1.2 million for level 41 recipes) and convert to Luck of the Gambler which sell for 5-7 million.  

 

There are many other recipe niches out there.  This was simply the path this character took  

 

If a fool like me can take a character from nothing to nearly a billion in a week, anyone can.  

 

Edit:  25 of my Reactive Defenses recipes had filled when I logged in this morning.  Maybe not as low volume as I thought.  I cancelled the rest of my bids(I don't need any more money on this character) and converted to Luck of the Gambler IOs.  When those sell I'll officially be over a billion.

Edited September 16, 2021 by Ignatz the Insane

[iBot]

Thank you @Ignatz the Insane for keeping us posted.  More hard data and proof that the crusaders out there that lament that the "little guy" can't possibly afford to make a character from scratch and play it to have fun just don't know what they are talking about.  My other request if you are willing would be to maybe do it red side next time?  Cause you know... red side is best side 😈

[Wobegone]

My next solo project is indeed gonna be redside!  I've yet to take a Stalker to level 50 and I'm thinking of trying Dual Blades and either Energy Aura or Super Reflexes.  I've never played Dual Blades.  

[iBot]

I've not used dual blades but I did take an energy aura stalker to 50.  That was an electric melee primary.  Look forward to your posts.

[Without_Pause]

Currently dual boxing a couple of characters on red side as a way to do some content on that side. First two contacts can give you 15 merits. I think the next one was 8. There's nothing really red side which would limit hitting a billion. I switched my builds from the standard sell tutorial inspirs, to selling common salvage, to selling common IOs. I can get the up and running on the typical end game stuff shortly enough. My level 50 stalker is /ea. It is a great set. Working on getting a Elec/shield built.

[Ukase]

On 9/15/2021 at 12:28 AM, MHertz said:

(My emphasis.) I don't know what the bolded part means. Converts "easily" to a rare?

To illustrate this - verbally - consider the level 41 Titanium Coating IO recipe. 
It's an uncommon recipe, found in the Resist Damage category. 

At level 41 (and up) there are only three specific enhancements in the Resist Damage Category discounting the PvP Gladiator's Armor. We don't include that one, because no amount of converters will get you a PvP IO from an uncommon or a rare. Can't be done. 

One is the Titanium Coating, as mentioned, uncommon. 
The other two are Aegis (rare) and Unbreakable Guard (rare) 

So, it would be quite fast to convert from the uncommon category to the rare category with 2 converters being used in one conversion. 

Below level 41, there's a few more resist sets - Reactive Armor, Steadfast Protection, Impervium Armor and Impervious Skin. 

The Steadfast Protection set begins at 10 and stops at 30, and is a nice set for the two procs - kb protection and the res/3% def(all) For reasons that escape my logic, this one sells for less than the glad armor, despite it giving resistance buff (albeit one that caps at 30) and the 3% defense to all. Like, really, who cares about tp protection? Doesn't work against Chimera, so big whoop. But I digress. Supply and demand, I suppose. 

Impervious Skin is also level 10-30. 
Reactive Armor level 15-40

Impervium Armor is also 15-40

So, if you convert a Titanium Coating that's level ...27, say, you could potentially get two other sets that don't sell as well. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

12 hours ago, Ukase said:

The Steadfast Protection set begins at 10 and stops at 30, and is a nice set for the two procs - kb protection and the res/3% def(all) For reasons that escape my logic, this one sells for less than the glad armor, despite it giving resistance buff (albeit one that caps at 30) and the 3% defense to all. Like, really, who cares about tp protection? Doesn't work against Chimera, so big whoop. But I digress. Supply and demand, I suppose. 

 

I'm assuming you're joking.  It's a *lot* easier and cheaper to spit out 100 steadfast procs a day than to do the same for the glad armor proc.

[MHertz]

I know you probably didn't mean for this to be a tutorial, Ignatz, but it was nevertheless a very clear explanation of the process. I can't say I'm a billionaire, but I was lucky enough to get some recipe drops to experiment with and made 8 million in a few minutes. That'll give my starter toons a leg up — in purchases, but also in making more cash. Thanks! Now I have an idea what I'm looking for.

[Bananiac]

I am now at a point - after stuffing 2 toons with full Pocket Cash applying the practices that the generous folks of this Forum have laid out - where I think I have a good overview about the values and yields of the most important common and rare IO set pieces. 

 

Now when I start a new toon (or dig out one of the many idle ones) I start to craft once the recipes start dropping, taking the cheap ones to make them expensive. That usually gets things going much earlier than what I did before, because every one becomes self-sustaining early on with what they have and is not relying on Inf dropping or outside help. And once cash starts flowing, everything else becomes easy.

 

It's a great feeling!