Merit maxing solo guide

[Shoulung]

Since I’ve came back I spend most of my time searching for TF groups as I like to use merits to get my IOS as I level. I would like to explore more of the solo content but not sure what provides good merit rewards. Is it possible to get a guide like that together, or is there already one out there? Would really like to know the contacts for the good mission arcs. Thanks for the help!

[Mr. Vee]

search 'hero merit rewards' and 'villain merit rewards' on paragonwiki.com. a lot of the numbers have been increased for homecoming but it should give you a good idea. General advice I'd say to start off villain (hit null to switch to rogue so you don't miss out on Posi runs). Those arcs give the best merit/time bang for buck early on and are generally more interesting and more contained than their blue counterparts (with the exception of some of the late added ones). If you want to do the Praetoria stuff it's usually a good merit/minute choice since HC upped the rewards from their piddling live server amounts but I'd recommend only doing them as flashbacks so you don't get stuck there for 20 levels.

[Shoulung]

Thanks!

[Kigo]

I know this topic was about how to best spend your time solo for merits... but I am going to post something which will blow away any rewards you're getting soloing.

 

By far the best merits per minute spent (assuming you have a 45+ level alt and your server does daily league attacks of it) is Hami in The Hive. Each time he gets downed is 40 merits (or 4 emp merits the first time you run it each day if pick that instead) and the merits do not lower from reuse. Friday night on Indomitable server we started the first Hami GM hunt at 9:03 pm eastern seaboard time by 9:53 pm eastern seaboard time we had downed our sixth Hami before everyone gave up for the night.

 

That means in 50 minutes time a person could have made 240 merits if they skipped the emp merits and stayed for all 6. Even on normal nights we usually do 4 or 5 Hami's in that one hour spent hunting him. Which is still at bare minimum 160 merits per hour. Nothing else even comes close on a merits per time spent. Not the individual content, not any other tf or trial, not event clearing, and not MSR.

 

Of course as more and more people realize how rewarding this one thing is it opens up the possibility of the game devs nerfing the rewards. So you might want to get started on this in your server soon before it stops being so rewarding. Not sure about your own servers but on Indom we usually only run Hami's once a day for roughly an hour. The actual startup times vary but usually are in the evenings to early night times for the general populace.

 

As for why such a rewarding thing is not farmed constantly... you still need a ton of people to do this and it is hard to get people to do it nonstop without getting bored. We've found that an hour a day pretty much tops out their interest and that the best times for getting enough people are after people from West Coast get home from work but before people from East Coast start going to sleep. It is a tough balancing act.

[Vanden]

1 hour ago, Kigo said:

Each time he gets downed is 40 merits (or 4 emp merits the first time you run it each day if pick that instead) and the merits do not lower from reuse.

This is incorrect. Hami is worth 80 merits the first time, but it does suffer from diminishing returns.

[Kigo]

On 8/31/2019 at 3:14 PM, Vanden said:

This is incorrect. Hami is worth 80 merits the first time, but it does suffer from diminishing returns.

You are correct about the 80 merits first time, but the 40 merits stays every time after as far as I have seen even up to the 7th run. I wouldn't exactly call that the classic view of DR.

[Ironblade]

For merits, I do the following:

1) The Weekly Strike Target TF.  Since the double merit reward is once per week PER CHARACTER, I'll run it on multiple characters during the week.

2) Signature Story Arcs.  A lot of these can be soloed in under 15 minutes and the 4x merit reward (20 merits) can be claimed once per week PER CHARACTER.

 

P.S. The bonus rewards on the Signature Arcs are kind of weird.  Every character can get a 'free' run of each chapter.  So you can pick a character, do all 12 chapters on that character, and earn 240 merits in a single sitting.  Then you can pick one chapter, run it again for 20 merits and that counts as your run for the week.  Then THAT CHARACTER has to wait 7 days to get the full reward again.

 

P.P.S. Some chapters are pretty hard.  I can solo them all on my scrapper.  Some are pretty easy and I can solo them on my empathy defender.

 

P.P.P.S. If you're going to do the arcs, definitely run through them all once for the story and amazing unique maps.  As far as merits are concerned, the final chapter in each arc is much longer and simply not worth it.

[Razia]

If you are in the Level 30 - 34 Range: Smoke and Mirrors from Twilight Son. If you have stealth it takes 7-10 Minutes set on -1/x1. Zero travel time and you get 12 merits every time.

[Chirikiti]

Technician Taylor- Bravo for the Shadow Shard (Villain) 3 fast mish, 12 minutes total 13 merits

 

Level 50 plus: DA story arc flash back #1 or #2. 1 emp+1 common AND a choice of a second emp or an Incarnate Loot Roll (c-vr).

2 empyrian merits=20 merits. Time to complete 10-12 minutes. 

[Andrewvm]

On 8/31/2019 at 4:00 AM, Veelectric Boogaloo said:

(hit null to switch to rogue so you don't miss out on Posi runs). Those arcs give the best merit/time bang for

What do you mean by hit null? 

[Shoulung]

Thanks for all the tips guys. Null the gull is an npc in PD that you talk to for switching your alignment.

[Andrewvm]

🤦‍♂️  of course!

 

Thnx!

[subbacultchas]

On 8/31/2019 at 12:46 PM, Kigo said:

I know this topic was about how to best spend your time solo for merits... but I am going to post something which will blow away any rewards you're getting soloing.

 

By far the best merits per minute spent (assuming you have a 45+ level alt and your server does daily league attacks of it) is Hami in The Hive. Each time he gets downed is 40 merits (or 4 emp merits the first time you run it each day if pick that instead) and the merits do not lower from reuse. Friday night on Indomitable server we started the first Hami GM hunt at 9:03 pm eastern seaboard time by 9:53 pm eastern seaboard time we had downed our sixth Hami before everyone gave up for the night.

 

That means in 50 minutes time a person could have made 240 merits if they skipped the emp merits and stayed for all 6. Even on normal nights we usually do 4 or 5 Hami's in that one hour spent hunting him. Which is still at bare minimum 160 merits per hour. Nothing else even comes close on a merits per time spent. Not the individual content, not any other tf or trial, not event clearing, and not MSR.

 

Of course as more and more people realize how rewarding this one thing is it opens up the possibility of the game devs nerfing the rewards. So you might want to get started on this in your server soon before it stops being so rewarding. Not sure about your own servers but on Indom we usually only run Hami's once a day for roughly an hour. The actual startup times vary but usually are in the evenings to early night times for the general populace.

 

As for why such a rewarding thing is not farmed constantly... you still need a ton of people to do this and it is hard to get people to do it nonstop without getting bored. We've found that an hour a day pretty much tops out their interest and that the best times for getting enough people are after people from West Coast get home from work but before people from East Coast start going to sleep. It is a tough balancing act.

Whats even better is having multiple 45+ characters, and swapping them out to get the 80 merits each time. That's 240 merits in 3 runs, or 480 merits in 6 (although more than 3 is uncommon to rare). Ive been doing this a few times a week for months, and able to bankroll my army of alts (7 level 50s, 5 of them fully IO'd).

Just make sure to help with buds, and exit via SG teleporter macro, not by running to the door.

[Sakai]

1 hour ago, Andrewvm said:

What do you mean by hit null? 

He means go talk to Null the Gull in Pocket D to cha ge your alignment so you can do villian side merit hunts. 

[Justisaur]

9 hours ago, Ironblade said:

2) Signature Story Arcs.  A lot of these can be soloed in under 15 minutes and the 4x merit reward (20 merits) can be claimed once per week PER CHARACTER.

 

P.S. The bonus rewards on the Signature Arcs are kind of weird.  Every character can get a 'free' run of each chapter.  So you can pick a character, do all 12 chapters on that character, and earn 240 merits in a single sitting.  Then you can pick one chapter, run it again for 20 merits and that counts as your run for the week.  Then THAT CHARACTER has to wait 7 days to get the full reward again.

Which ones are the Signature Story Arcs?  I mostly play red, is there some resource I can see for that?

[Ironblade]

39 minutes ago, Justisaur said:

Which ones are the Signature Story Arcs?  I mostly play red, is there some resource I can see for that?

The Signature Story Arcs are available on both red and blue sides.  These ParagonWiki pages list them with the level requirement, start zone and contacts for each chapter.

'Who Will Die?' has 7 chapters and 'Pandora's Box' has 5 chapters.

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Who_Will_Die

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Pandora's_Box_(SSA)

[Hedgefund]

Ladies and gentlemen, with today's patch I'd like to introduce you to Shauna Braun for your merit/unit time needs.

 

That is all.

[Gulbasaur]

17 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:

Ladies and gentlemen, with today's patch I'd like to introduce you to Shauna Braun for your merit/unit time needs.

 

That is all.

Her roguish counterpart's mission doles out 20 merits and is pretty good. I did it in about 40 minute not stealthing, but a stalker with super speed could probably do it in 15. It felt well-designed and had no ambushes or kill-alls.