crafting Craft & Convert: Detailed Step-by-Step Guide

[Saikochoro]

I know this is somewhat of a necro, but I have to say thanks for this guide. 
 

Ive been trying to find ways to fund all my alts with even just basic IOs. I have a ton of alts so that turns into a ton of IOs to craft. 
 

First, I just did ticket boss farming in AE to buy rare salvage to sell on the market.  
 

Second, I farmed Summer Blockbuster to sell overwhelming force enhancements.

 

Third, I farmed merits with Smoke and Mirrors to buy converters and then sell them. 

 

Each method was more successful than the last. Then I happened upon this guide. Not sure how I missed it for so long. I tried this method starting with 20m on a toon. In two days that 20m has turned into 300m with about another 25m still on the market. I know others probably can make way more faster, but this is insane for me.
 

I did spend probably 4 hours total on it, but that is starting with zero knowledge prior to reading this guide. I’ve been getting faster and more adept with the market in just two days. And I’ve probably made almost as much inf in these two days as I have with all the other methods combined. 
 

Thanks!

Edited February 22, 2020 by Saikochoro

[ShadyCoh]

Thanks for this  8ish hours over the last 2 weeks has netted me 1.8 billion not including 2 fully slotted toons

 

[jagspowar]

Can the rare targeted AOE enhancements be rerolled to Javelin's Volley? I've never gotten one using this technique.

[Yomo Kimyata]

23 minutes ago, jagspowar said:

Can the rare targeted AOE enhancements be rerolled to Javelin's Volley? I've never gotten one using this technique.

No.  PvP enhancements are in their own category.

[jagspowar]

On 4/5/2020 at 2:01 PM, Yomo Kimyata said:

No.  PvP enhancements are in their own category.

Thanks!

[Robotech_Master]

On 4/7/2020 at 1:17 AM, jagspowar said:

Thanks!

That said, if you can find a PVP recipe or Enhancement inexpensively, you can roll it to one of the PVP sets with lucrative procs that sell for 11 - 12 million. (And then roll it within that set to that proc.)

[Jack Power]

I see the Market as a mini-game in the game. It's turning into a City of Spreadsheets. 

 

I love it! Though I'm bad at it. Just can't seem to get over the hump where the Inf start to multiply on it's own. 🙂

 

//Jack

Edited September 7, 2020 by Jack Power

[Razia]

Edit: NVM, found my error

Edited January 28, 2021 by Razia

[Bros Ex Machina]

Probably I'm doing somethin wrong but, even if I list enhancements at a lower price than the last ones were sold, most of them aren't sold.

Anyone can help me understanding what I'm doiing wrong please?

[Triumphant]

22 minutes ago, Bros Ex Machina said:

Probably I'm doing somethin wrong but, even if I list enhancements at a lower price than the last ones were sold, most of them aren't sold.

Anyone can help me understanding what I'm doiing wrong please?

 

My advice:  Just list everything at 1 insp.  You'll lose money sometimes but, overall, you'll still turn a tidy profit.  No hassle and you can get back to playing the game right away.

[DarknessEternal]

I read this guide at least once a month and still have no idea what to do.

[Ukase]

6 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

I read this guide at least once a month and still have no idea what to do.

What's confusing you? 

It is true, there are many ways to figuratively skin the cat that is "marketing". 

A few principles: 
You will need to have some idea of what items on the AH are worth to other players. This includes salvage, recipes and enhancements. 

You may need to be patient to save more inf on raw materials. 
You may lose some influence if you haven't been paying attention OR another marketer moves in on your niche and stays there, undercutting your potential for profits. 

[DarknessEternal]

I don't understand where to stop (and sometimes where to start) on enhancement roulette.

[Ura Hero]

7 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

I don't understand where to stop (and sometimes where to start) on enhancement roulette.

 

This isn't an exact science, but here are my rough rules.  I say rough because I don't follow this strictly, but it should get you started and once started you will probably start to see the patterns.

 

1. Look up the item on the AH.  

2. Is it worth more than about 1.5M?

    Yes.  Post it for sale.

    No. Do roulette,  go to step 1.

[Sirius.Games]

23 minutes ago, Ura Hero said:

 

This isn't an exact science, but here are my rough rules.  I say rough because I don't follow this strictly, but it should get you started and once started you will probably start to see the patterns.

 

1. Look up the item on the AH.  

2. Is it worth more than about 1.5M?

    Yes.  Post it for sale.

    No. Do roulette,  go to step 1.

This is a good rule to start. You may or may not start seeing patterns on when to continue rolling. I look at the cost of the ingredients.

 

Example: the price of the components is 300k, each converter is 75k you need at least 2 of not 3 to get to 1.5M. 

 

Best case is 450k to make 1.5M not a bad return but let's go further.

 

Say we have a miracle set piece after spending 450k and we want to know what it costs to try to get the proc. We could sell the set piece for 1M or roll with a 1/6 chance to get 3M money.  That means each time we roll in set it costs 225k and there is a 80% chance to not get to the proc...

 

This means if we roll in set 8 times trying to get the proc there is a 32% (0.8^5) chance we break even.

 

So is rolling in set worth it? Every single set and situation is different but the market usually favors rolling over the long run for the difference lending to the fact that people sell too early on average and buy higher because they want it now without doing it themselves (like every business ever).

 

That being said if you start with a small amount of inf you absolutely could end up with less after some bad RNG.

 

 

There's so many ways to play the market because its a mostly stable system which is nice because playing the game allows you to get sets and strong builds without abusing mechanics (like afk farming pvp on live).

[Bionic_Flea]

Pancakes must make bunny brains smarter.  I agree with Ura Hero.

 

I try not to do too many "within set" conversions, unless the set has only 3 pieces, like Blessing of the Zephyr, because then you have a 50-50 chance of getting the -KB piece in BoTZ because you have to convert to one of the other two pieces and not stay the same.  I'll also do similarly when I get the worst piece in a good set, like the end/rech in Luck of the Gambler -- it would be great to have the +7.5 recharge but any of the other pieces would be fine too.

 

Other than those types of situations, when I do convert within set, I try to limit it to 5 or 6 attempts at most.

 

Flipping between categories is generally limited to once from uncommon to rare as I will usually only do the conversion when that is the known outcome.

 

Flipping within rarity can go on a bit, but after about 5 or 6 flips I try to accept something that is "good enough".

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

8 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

I don't understand where to stop (and sometimes where to start) on enhancement roulette.

 

It's not an exact science, and you don't have to come even close to make lots of profit.

 

I have one character who only does one thing.  He buys crafted rare IOs at 500k.  Once every week or two, I log on and collect 100 rares from my bought list.  I convert each one of those once by rarity and without looking or caring relist it as is at 1mm.  Then I put in bids on more rares at 500k.  If anything hasn't sold by the next time I log it, I pull it off the market, convert once by rarity, and relist at 1mm.  This completely inefficient schlub of a character has made *billions* doing this.

 

So don't sweat it!

[DarknessEternal]

4 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

 He buys crafted rare IOs at 500k. 
 

How are you doing that?  Just picking 100 things at random?

[Underfyre]

5 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

How are you doing that?  Just picking 100 things at random?

 

If he's starting from rares, then any random thing will do just fine. When starting from uncommons, it's easiest to start from a set that only has an option to flip to a rare, like defense debuffs.

[Yomo Kimyata]

5 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

How are you doing that?  Just picking 100 things at random?

 

Well, that's one way to go, but no, I'll generally start with something that I know does not have a lot of inherent demand.  After a bit, it's pretty clear which rares are mostly useless.  But the point of my completely ludicrous method is that even a random conversion can be good.  Just imagine if you had a plan!

 

But as @underfyre notes, it's generally even cheaper to make a rare out of a crafted uncommon that you convert by category to a rare.

[Golden Azrael]

On 7/19/2019 at 3:18 AM, Shinobu said:

I and several others have posted guides on how to use converters to craft and convert to items that will sell on the market and make you good money, and yet I still find people that struggle with the process.  This boils down to familiarity with the market, knowing what to buy, at what level to buy it, and what will sell.  So I thought a step-by-step guide on exactly what I do to make money would be useful.  This process usually nets me 50 to 75 million influence per session, per character that I do it with.

 

Note:  This guide assumes you understand how to use converters.  If you're brand new to this, you might want to read one of the other guides first, then this one once you have the basics down.  That said, it's pretty self-explanatory if you study the converter window and play around a bit.

 

Step One:  Buy Converters

 

You will probably need at least 100 converters at a minimum, but 200 for preference.  If you have enough money, buy converters off the market -- otherwise you can start out by buying them with reward merits.  I usually put in bids of around 90,000 per converter and give my bids 24 hours to fill, and they almost always do in that time.  200 converters at 90,000 influence per equals 18 million influence, if I'm calculating correctly.

 

Caveat: buying converters, and having enough money to craft and list for a good price, is the first hurdle for anyone.  If you're starting with just a few million, you'll want to do 1-2 recipes at a time until you've made enough money to go at it like I do, 20 at a time.

 

Step Two:  Buy Recipes

 

For recipes, set your minimum and maximum level to 31.  This is how I do it -- it allows me to craft at the lowest level possible (IE cheapest crafting costs) without dealing with level 30 recipes.  There are, of course, some good IOs that you can come up with at level 30, but also a lot more stuff that won't sell for you, so this is what I consider a good "sweet spot".  Others do things different, but if you're just learning, follow my guide until you have a good idea of how things work.  ^_^

 

I tend to craft 20 recipes per session / per character.  I'll log into multiple characters, but for each I will collect sales, collect converters I've bought, grab 20 recipes to craft, and craft and convert them and list them for sale.  The next evening I'll do the same thing.  So!  Buy recipes in bulks of 10, and put in bids of 5,000 to 10,000 per recipe.  Bid for 40 or 60 or 80 recipes at once, so you're sure to have enough for several sessions.  I buy the cheapest recipes I can, and I usually bid 10,000 per recipe, as this is a pretty good high price that will mean my bids will normally fill in 24 hours or less.

 

Good recipes to buy cheap:

 

Confuse - Perplex

Defense Debuff - Undermine Defenses

Fear - Nightmare

Flight - Soaring (except Soaring: Fly/Endurance which requires rare salvage)

Holds - Essence of Curare

Immobilize - Enfeebled Operation

Knockback - Kinetic Crash

Leaping - Springfoot

Running - Quickfoot

Sleep - Lethargic Repose

Slow Movement - Tempered Readiness

Stuns - Rope-a-dope

Taunt - Mocking Beratement

Teleport - Jaunt

To Hit Buff - Adjusted Targeting

To Hit Debuff - Dampened Spirits

 

Good recipes with multiple uncommon/junk conversions:

 

Melee - Crushing Impact

Melee - Focused Smite

Melee - Smashing Haymaker

Pet Damage - Blood Mandage

Pet Damage - Brilliant Leadership

PBAoE Damage - Cleaving Blow

PBAoE Damage - Multi-strike

Ranged Damage - Maelstrom's Fury

Ranged Damage - Ruin

Sniper Attacks - Calibrated Accuracy

Sniper Attacks - Exploit Weakness

Targeted AoE Damage - Air Burst

Targeted AoE Damage - Detonation

 

Note that some of these damage recipes may sell for more than 10,000 influence part of the time.  PBAoE is a quick conversion to Obliteration, which sells well, so those for example may sell for more than my usual 10,000 influence bid.

 

Why buy these recipes, specifically?  They're all cheap and all of the ones in the first group should convert to a rare IO if you do a Category Conversion (2 converters) first.  The second group listed can convert to other uncommon IOs (there's more than one uncommon set in the category) so with those, you can do a Rarity Conversion (1 converter) first and hopefully get something that automatically converts to a rare with a Category Conversion, and even better, something in a category that will sell.

 

Obviously, buying a "cheap" defense or healing recipe may sound like a better idea since it converts directly into something good -- but a lot of people can see this, and those recipes are sometimes selling for hundreds of influence per.  Meanwhile, with converters, virtually ANY recipe can be turned into something valuable, so we just want some cheap recipes that we can get easily.

 

Step Three:  Crafting

 

Once you have 20 recipes (either 10 of each of two different recipes, or 20 of  one recipe) then buy the salvage to craft them.  I tend to bid 5,000 influence per salvage for both uncommon and common, because I want my bids to fill immediately.  I don't see much of an advantage in bidding ahead of time to save money -- you don't save that much.

 

I like to craft in the Vanguard building, but a university works, or anywhere works with a crafting table which is 10 million from Pay 2 Win.

 

Step Four:  Converting

 

As noted above, for IOs from group A, do a Category Conversion (2 converters) first so that you have a rare IO.  Next do one to several Rarity Conversions (1 converter) until you get something that will sell well.  For recipes from group B, do it in the reverse order -- one or more Rarity conversions, and then a Category Conversion to get to a rare.  Then more Rarity conversions if needed.

 

Things that will sell well (convert until you get one of these):

 

*Defense - Luck of the Gambler.  Always convert Gift of the Ancients and Reactive Defenses to Luck of the Gambler with Category Conversions.  This can sometimes take a lot of conversions, because you'll also hit Red Fortune and Serendipity, but LotG sells better than almost anything so it is always worth it.  I usually do in-set conversions until I get Defense, Defense/Endurance, or the +7.5% recharge IO, but all of them sell pretty well I think.

 

*Resistance Damage - Aegis or Unbreakable Guard, or Impervium Armor Psionic Resistance.  If you get any other Impervium Armor, my suggestion is to do a Category Conversion to get an Aegis or Unbreakable Guard, those sell pretty well and doing an in-set conversion to try and get the Psionic Resistance IO does not strike me as worth your time.  If you get it randomly, then keep it and sell it of course.

 

*Healing - Miracle +recovery, Numina regeneration/recovery.  It is not necessarily a bad idea to sell any Numina or any Preventative Medecine that turns up, most of them will sell for 2-3 million influence, but what you want is the two above IOs that sell for 4-5 million influence.  In my opinion it is always worth converting a Miracle IO into the proc, the profit is too good not to.

 

*Endurance - Performance Shifter Endurance or +Chance of Endurance.  I do in-set conversions to get one of those two, although the Endurance IO only sell for about 2 million right now.  But it will definitely sell.

 

*Some Damage IOs, as follows

 

*PBAoE Damage (Obliteration especially, but also Scirocco's Dervish).  Some Obliterations can go for 4-5 million depending on availability.

 

*Melee Damage - Touch of Death and Kinetic Combat.  Mako's Bite I usually convert again.  Kinetic Combat is the only really good seller here, and I will usually convert the Chance to Knockdown into one of the others since it does not sell well.  The other pieces sell for at least 2-3 million.  Nothing else here sells for a lot, but I can list Touch of Death for about 1.5 million and it will usually sell.

 

*Ranged Damage - Decimation only. Again not a huge seller, but sometimes certain pieces of the set are in short supply and sell for several million.  The other options - Entropic Chaos, Devastation, sell for very little.

 

*Targeted AoE - Positron's Blast, and to a lesser extent Annihilation.  Annihilation does not sell for a ton but I can get 1.5 million to 2 million for them.

 

Knockback - Sudden Acceleration: Knockback to Knockdown. Pretty much only this one knockback IO is worth your time, but it sells well.

 

*Universal Travel - Blessing of the Zephyr. It's probably worth converting your BoTZ to the 4 points Knockback Protection IO, which always sell well -- although not well enough to chase it with in-set conversions, I think.

 

*To Hit Buff - Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control.  They don't sell for a ton, but around 1.5 - 2 million.

 

*Running - Celerity (Steath only). Again, 1.5 to 2 million.  I only sell the stealth IO (only this run version, I ignore the leaping version which sells even more poorly).  If I get a Celerity that isn't the stealth IO, I do a random rarity conversion again rather than trying to do an in-set conversion, it's not valuable enough to mess with that.

 

*Recharge Intensive Pets - Expedient Reinforcement. These sell for at least 2 million on average, sometimes more

 

*Holds - Lockdown.  I don't bother with Ghost Widow's Embrace, but Lockdown will sell for about 2 million.

 

*Accurate Healing - Touch of the Nictus.  These don't sell particularly well except when something is in short supply, but 1.5 million to 2 million per IO is possible.

 

If you get anything other than what is listed above, do another random Rarity Conversion.  They only cost 1 converter, so do as many as you need to get something good, and then do Category or In-Set Conversions as needed to get the right IOs.  Remember, more Rarity Conversions means more chances to land on a Defense or Resist Damage IO, or a Miracle IO.

 

Caveat:  Everyone will have their own list of what they consider worth selling, and even mine changes occasionally.  At one point I was selling Mako's and Devastation and I did not consider converting to the Numina unique worth my time.  Always be willing to try new things -- the important point here is that you need to do enough conversions that a good portion of what you list is making good money.  You might be able to sell a lot of other IOs for 1 million a piece and turn a small profit, but if we're going to all this effort we might as well do an extra conversion or two to get something that sells for 2 or 3 or 4 million.

 

Step Five:  Listing/Selling

 

Never list for what you want to sell for.  Your goal is to have the lowest price without selling it that low.  If you think it usually sells for 2 million, list for 1.9 million, or 1.7 million, or however low you think you can go without accidentally selling it too low.  Naturally, this trick only works some of the time, but that's okay too.  The point is that you want your IO to sell, not sit around -- but you're hoping for a good price.

^_^

 

Pay attention to how many are for sale.  If there are few for sale, you can sell at a very high price.  IF there are only a couple for sale, or zero, then list for at or above the most recent prices, because you should be able to get that.

 

Be careful of last five.  Sometimes it lies to you.  That said, most of this stuff sells frequently and I think that affects how often the display bug crops up -- I don't see it a lot when I'm listing these IOs for sale.  Also you will learn from repeated selling about how much is the right price.  I often see an IO that has sold for, say 2 million in the last 5, and I know it normally sells for 3-4 million and will again, so I'm not fooled by a temporary drop in price.

 

Generally speaking the best IOs here are the Luck of the Gamblers that sell for upwards of 7 million.  That's been a pretty consistent price for the +7.5% recharge.  Recently though the Defense/Endurance has been really low and has also been selling for about that much.

 

Miracle +recovery, Numina's regen/recovery, and sveral of the other specials will usually sell for 4-5 million.  It's okay to sell a few of the cheaper things for 2 million but you want to hit on the expensive IOs about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time if you can, because that's where you make money fast.

 

Step Six:  Bidding

 

Before you end your session, make sure you have bids in for enough recipes and converters for next time.

 

---------------

 

And that's it!  Once you have a good idea of what sells and what to list it for, you can do the whole craft and convert thing on 20 IOs and list them in about 10 or 15 minutes, and by the next day you should see at least 50 million in sales.  Profits vary, and you'll be spending money to buy more converters, but it doesn't take very long doing this before you have several hundred million on hand.

 

Superb.

 

Azrael.

[Golden Azrael]

On 12/23/2021 at 6:38 PM, DarknessEternal said:

How are you doing that?  Just picking 100 things at random?

 

Enhancement Sets - Unofficial Homecoming Wiki

 

This will help guide your way.  You can see the sets and the 'hierarchy' of trading up.  So this will tell you 'when' to stop.  (You can check the prices of the hierarchy in the market yourself and they generally correlate into more £££ for the rare or PVP sets.) 

 

I think Flea's rule of thumb of '6' rolls (and going with something 'satisfactory') insulates you somewhat from a run of 'bad luck' and stop you wasting converters, so that, in the long term?  You come out on top.  eg.  Let's say you've made 20 items crafted from 2 'piles of ten' uncommon recipes.  One converter has a good chance of taking that item to a rare enhancement.  A handful of dice rolls will get you something that will go for 2 million on average.  So?  You list 20 rares for 2 million and they sell?  That's 40 million (subject to market fees etc.)  Do that all week?  7x40=280 million.  That's over 1 billion a month.  And that's a 'just about getting out of 'bed' rate.  Very casual crafting/marketing.

 

After a while, which sets are 'hot' and which are 'not' will become clear.  

 

Each time you roll, check the market price of the item in question.  You'll soon get an idea of prices of 'hots' and 'nots' and which are 'middling.'

 

As a rule of thumb, if I get something 'reasonable' I'll list it 10% lower than the 'going rate' (see, 'last 5 bids' history) and it usually will sell.  (This depends on time of day, weekdays vs week end player population ergo 'DEMAND' for said listings.)

 

Azrael.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Golden Azrael

[DarknessEternal]

I specifically meant how are you using the UI to buy 100 random rare IOs.  Leaving bids on every IO in the game?

[Yomo Kimyata]

5 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

I specifically meant how are you using the UI to buy 100 random rare IOs.  Leaving bids on every IO in the game?

 

That's one way to go, and I've done that before.  If you check back to see which bids fill the quickest, you have a better target of things that no one else wants.

[Andreah]

19 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

I specifically meant how are you using the UI to buy 100 random rare IOs.  Leaving bids on every IO in the game?

You make an alt for each category of IO on a server you don't normally play on. Bid for recipes and finished IOs.

• Captain Melee
• AoE Damage Maiden
• Bidder of Pets
• Ranged Avenger
• Area of Effectress
• Intensive Recharger Man
• Sniperriffica
• Daños Universales

 

And an alt for buying salvage. (maybe more than one)

• Junkyard Defender

 

An alt for buying converters and doing conversions:

• Stalwart Converter

 

And finally, your seller:

• Jumping Jacks Used IOs

 

Join them into a super group and make a base filled with storage to move stuff around efficiently.

 

Then you use their market slots to bid low on all the recipes and IOs.  Revisit each one once a week. Collect the things you buy and refresh bids. Occasionally update prices. Craft, convert, sell, profit.

 

Keep a spreadsheet to track it all. Estimate your breakeven minimum sale prices. optimize your window placements and mouse actions. Undercut your adversaries. Dominate the market. Buy a tropical volcano island. Life is good. 

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Andreah