Best Method for Gaining Reward Merits Solo, Red Side?

[Astralock]

What would be the most efficient way to obtain and accumulate reward merits red side, solo?

[huang3721]

This link might help:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Merit_Rewards 

 

I think it depends on your skill/build and your definition of wasteful.

 

• You can solo a trial, but it's difficult and you can fail. (wasted effort)
• SFs give better rewards than story arcs, but getting stuck in an SF is a time waste.
• Redside Giant Monsters (aside from Arachnos Transport) only spawn after a certain condition is met. You'd have to kill a hundred critters to spawn the GM.
• Accolades from exploration badges give merits, but their number is limited. 

 

edit

If your toon can solo an AV, do the weekly target SF, then do other SFs you like. GM hunting is a good alternative if you don't mind killing a hundred critters first. Otherwise, stick to story arcs.

Edited January 30, 2023 by huang3721
additional info

[BlackSpectre]

Completing story arcs and running signature story arcs if there are any red side (I don’t know much about red side). 
 

By far trials are the greatest reward merits for time spent, but they’re not solo. Tin man/apex are 2 good ones but they’re in the RWZ. Hami would be good, but not sure how often it’s run red side. 
 

sorry I could t help more. 

[MoonSheep]

i level by running ouro arcs for the badges and merits, TFs etc. stacks up pretty quickly

 

i keep an eye out on LFG and my Events chat tab for monster spawns too, every little helps

[TheZag]

Ghost of Scrapyard is very easy to spawn repeatedly.  If you can kill him quickly its probably one of the fastest source of solo merits.  I've only done it with at least a duo and we killed him for about 300 merits worth in 2 hours.  Solo kill speeds might not be fast enough to the point that farming inf in AE and buying merits might be faster.  Get a few people helping when they see the repeated Miner strike in Sharkhead messages and the merits can start flowing very quickly.

  

[tidge]

6 hours ago, Astralock said:

What would be the most efficient way to obtain and accumulate reward merits red side, solo?

 

 I have suggestions:

 

1) For leveling characters, run arcs. My recollection is that red-side arcs (from contacts) give merits (and at a better rate) whereas the blue-side OG contacts don't really start offering merit-rewards until later... and only if you get to the point where they offer them to you.

 

I want to note that if you run with XP boosts (and to some extent, with XP on!) a red-sider will out-level content quickly and have to turn to Newspaper missions to get new contacts, so it can be something like a merit-defeating feedback loop.

 

2) Leveling red-siders should consider tip/morality missions, especially to reinforce the feel of villainy. It takes 10 to get the 40(?)-merit morality mission. I suspect that very few players who complain about the "total lack of agency" in the Rogue Isles have regularly done this content. There are different tips at 20-29, 30-39, 40-50.

 

3) For level 50+, as mentioned (while I was typing this up!) The Ghost of Scrapyard is the easiest of the GMs to spawn (and find). This will be a bit of a grind, and it is not easy for solo characters below 50.

 

Level 50s can also do #1 through Ouroboros, and can cycle through the same batch of Tips at level 50.

 

Special extra: the Signature Story Arcs exist on red-side as well, the first one in "Who Will Die?"  is a fast one to re-run (faster than Ghost of Scrapyard, for sure). The first time you run a SSA you earn 20 merits, and you can earn an additional 20 merits each week by running it. It offers 5 merits while the rewards timer is active.

[Shred Monkey]

You can run 10 alignment tip missions to get morality missions.  Morality missions give 40 reward merits.  If you're going for speed you can set your difficulty to +0x1 and stealth to the objectives.  This is nowhere as fast as running team TFs for reward merits, but it can be done solo which is what you're looking for.  Also, unlike story arc missions, you don't have to worry about out-leveling a contact.  And unlike Ouroboros missions you can go do something else without losing progress.

 

Also, you get an option to stay your same alignment instead of changing alignment, so don't worry about affecting your alignment if that's a concern.

[Xiddo]

2 hours ago, tidge said:

Special extra: the Signature Story Arcs exist on red-side as well, the first one in "Who Will Die?"  is a fast one to re-run (faster than Ghost of Scrapyard, for sure). The first time you run a SSA you earn 20 merits, and you can earn an additional 20 merits each week by running it. It offers 5 merits while the rewards timer is active.

If you would like to entice more people over, this also gives an optional astral for incarnates instead of merits.

The arcs tend to be shorter - five to ten missions - and the rewards are lower. But it doesn't feel like such a slog. I suspect @Snarky might know which ones field more.

[Snarky]

3 hours ago, Xiddo said:

If you would like to entice more people over, this also gives an optional astral for incarnates instead of merits.

The arcs tend to be shorter - five to ten missions - and the rewards are lower. But it doesn't feel like such a slog. I suspect @Snarky might know which ones field more.

Lol.  I just ran them all, finished yesterday.  My new years project  There are some good redside guides. Really for me it is perception.  I would look at each arc and avoid the kill alls.  Less redside than blue, but still.  There are just some great arcs redside.  Even Number 204 that has 1-2 kill alls is a hoot because of the plot.  And only 6 missions.  Of gold blue or red you will definitely find it easier to farm merit’s through arcs red.  Good luck

[Yomo Kimyata]

Do you want merits specifically, or do you want inf?

[Snarky]

12 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Do you want merits specifically, or do you want inf?

Yomo goes Meta....

[Yomo Kimyata]

Just now, Snarky said:

Yomo goes Meta....

 

I'm trying to solve the problem, which is not always the perceived issue.  That's why I get paid in winter os.

 

[Astralock]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Do you want merits specifically, or do you want inf?

 

Reward merits.

[Yomo Kimyata]

16 minutes ago, Astralock said:

 

Reward merits.

 

story arcs will be the fastest way.  If you do signature story arcs (Who will Die, Pandora's box) you will get extra merits for a few missions once a week.  

[Snarky]

i just solod redside all arcs that can only be completed under 44 and a few task forces  1900 merits

[aethereal]

13 hours ago, tidge said:

 

 I have suggestions:

 

1) For leveling characters, run arcs. My recollection is that red-side arcs (from contacts) give merits (and at a better rate) whereas the blue-side OG contacts don't really start offering merit-rewards until later... and only if you get to the point where they offer them to you.

What?

 

Both sides give merits for completing story arcs, at any level.  I don't know what you mean by "if you get to the point where they offer them to you," but, I mean, of you do the arc, you get the merits.

 

Older content on blueside has this annoying deal where the contact won't offer you a story arc until the second mission -- first you have to do a one-off mission for them.  And a few contacts don't offer arcs at all.  But on the other hand, new content gives you arcs right away.

[Snarky]

The fastest way i would think is through Ouro.  You never have “extra missions” just the ones needed for the arc and the merits.  

[UltraAlt]

20 hours ago, Astralock said:

What would be the most efficient way to obtain and accumulate reward merits red side, solo?

 

Work the market and buy card packs.

I don't use merits much because I can generally buy what I want on the markets with inf.

 

Currently, in "Character items" from card packs, I have 1133 "25x Reward Merit (Salvage)", so 28,325 reward merits that I can pull out of "character items" on any character when I might need it.

So yeah, I say work the market and by carc packs if you want merits ... even if it turns out that you don't need the merits because you're working the market.

[Snarky]

10 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Work the market and buy card packs.

I don't use merits much because I can generally buy what I want on the markets with inf.

 

Currently, in "Character items" from card packs, I have 1133 "25x Reward Merit (Salvage)", so 28,325 reward merits that I can pull out of "character items" on any character when I might need it.

So yeah, I say work the market and by carc packs if you want merits ... even if it turns out that you don't need the merits because you're working the market.

THis actually 100% true.  The sick thing is it will start to feed itself at volume.  Because you sell everything in the packs...to get more Inf to buy packs.  Leaving you the merits and odds and ends that cannot be sold.  I do not enjoy marketing nor profiteering at volume off fellow gamers.  I sell what drops.  Keeps me rich.  Then I game.

[Yomo Kimyata]

16 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Work the market and buy card packs.

I don't use merits much because I can generally buy what I want on the markets with inf.

 

Currently, in "Character items" from card packs, I have 1133 "25x Reward Merit (Salvage)", so 28,325 reward merits that I can pull out of "character items" on any character when I might need it.

So yeah, I say work the market and by carc packs if you want merits ... even if it turns out that you don't need the merits because you're working the market.

 

True.  But you and I know how many packs you had to open to get there.  And we are in a "Well, if I can do this with a lot of clicks and effort, why don't you just make it so we can do it instantly?" stage of the game.

 

Having 25k merits in character items (which any one of us can easily do!) is considered a privilege, for some reason.

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

And we are in a "Well, if I can do this with a lot of clicks and effort, why don't you just make it so we can do it instantly?" stage of the game.

 

Is the question

1) What would be the most efficient way to obtain and accumulate reward merits red side, solo?

5) How do I get merits reside -solo - as quickly as possible?

3) How do I get merits redside - solo - without any effort on my part?

 

The most efficient way to obtain and accumulate reward merits - solo - (whichever side you are on) is over time through marketing to make profits and turning profits into card packs.

 

I agree full well there are players that don't want to take the time to do what they need to do in order to reach their goals and/or don't have patience enough to play City of Heroes for the long run. I do not see the number to be in abundance nor do I see it as a "stage" of the game. It is only a "stage" that those players have reached.

 

The OP doesn't even indicate why they want merits? What do they want to spend merits on/what will they achieve by having merits?

 

4 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Having 25k merits in character items (which any one of us can easily do!) is considered a privilege, for some reason.

 

I'm not sure why it is considered a privilege. It took me a long time to obtain it and probably millions of clicks.

It wasn't like the merits were gifted to me (maybe a card pack or two along the way - but that was long since paid back multiple times by card packs that I have given away through one mode or another).

[Midnight Mystique]

I find the best way to get merits solo is to run story arcs in oro flashback. You don't have to work your way through a contacts 'get to know you missions', plus you can use the pillar in oro to teleport straight to the contact when necessary. That said, I don't know which are the fastest arc's redside as I mostly do this blueside. I do know that there are a lot of blueside arcs that stalkers or other stealth capable characters can speed run very quickly, including the old Sister Psyche's TF which gives 50 merits. I find I have averaged about a merit a minute on the better ones.

 

The drawbacks to this are you can't start until L16(blueside, not sure about redside), the flashback will act like a task force in that you can't interrupt it to do other things and you will be sk'ed down. I usually do arcs in level group just below me so that I was never SK'ed more than 5 levels down (which means you keep all your powers) - so at L16-19 i would do the L10-15 arcs, and at 20-24 the L16-19 and so on.

 

[tidge]

9 hours ago, aethereal said:

What?

 

Both sides give merits for completing story arcs, at any level.  I don't know what you mean by "if you get to the point where they offer them to you," but, I mean, of you do the arc, you get the merits.

 

Older content on blueside has this annoying deal where the contact won't offer you a story arc until the second mission -- first you have to do a one-off mission for them.  And a few contacts don't offer arcs at all.  But on the other hand, new content gives you arcs right away.

 

Those OG blue side contacts (level 1-4, 5-9)... starting with the ones in city hall, don't have story arcs that offer merits. Players who leverage the contacts introduced later (Matthew Hasby, Sondra Costel, et al.) can get story arcs without dilly-dallying with an "introductory" mission. It is trivial to outlevel these, especially with 2XP of course.

 

Redside, IIRC, every one of the initial contacts immediately offers a new player an arc with merit rewards.

[Snarky]

5 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

The OP doesn't even indicate why they want merits? What do they want to spend merits on/what will they achieve by having merits?

 

maddening isn't it....

[Shred Monkey]

6 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

The OP doesn't even indicate why they want merits? What do they want to spend merits on/what will they achieve by having merits?

 

48 minutes ago, Snarky said:

maddening isn't it....

 

I've had to use merits instead of influence to buy recipes/enhancements that weren't currently being sold on the AH.  It's not often, but it happens.