The Road to Profit, or, I hope I don't flop!

Alright, hi everyone! So, in the 2 days I've been ingame for, mostly at Celeste Outpost, I have "seen" conversations in the chat box about, well, depressing stuff related to the RCE of EU. "Mindark always wins" might be true(and is) but that doesn't mean its impossible to succeed...it just takes exactly what real life requires to make it. "The government always wins!" because they take some 40-50% or more of your paycheck in money...if everyone kept chanting that and feeling hopeless, we would all be on the streets.

To me, part of the fun of EU is being able to beat the system, the "always winners" and win something yourself! I sound presumptuous, I know.

But I saw a guy at the Nusul sweat circles today who says he pulls 350 sweat/hour and works from home, makes 5,000 sweat per day. Believable yes. What does he do with it? Goes hunting whenever he can. I'm not bashing this guy, its his game and how he uses it is none of my business. I just think though, "Gosh, if he just saved his 3 ped/k up for an entire year sweating 5,000 per day, he'd have 5,475 ped, enough to do big-boy investing, profit crafting, easy profit mining, and breakeven hunting and never have to sweat again, ever."

Sounds crazy huh xD. I get it, it is his fun and all, and 15 ped is no short hunt most of the time, a good 1.5 hours of fun maybe more on low level mobs...I just think that if he traded and saved with that money he would be pretty rich ingame at least in a year or two.

Anyway, besides that, I wanted to lay down my plan to Profit and Withdraw from EU. Yes. Profit and Withdraw. P&W. Everyone dreams that, but few achieve it. Most achieve it by being lucky. I hope to achieve it by being smart. I hope, anyway, that I'm not dooming myself to ignorance by claiming presumptuously that I am smart.

This is already longwinded, sorry for that, I always have a lot to say....I should work on listening, but if I did that, my nice 330 sweat per hour would drop to like 180 from distractions.

Anyway, even if I actually am not in college yet and whatnot, I hope to do this. I have the time, and the motivation - I hate work! I don't want to work long after I get out of college. Plus this is a fun challenge to myself -> Can I make enough through "playing" at real life in order to really make it in "real real life"?

Alright, so my base plan is to Sweat, Sweat, Sweat, then Trade, Trade, Trade, then Craft, Craft, Craft....then Win Win Win, I hope.

My current investments, 2 will time out in about 12 hours, and the remaining 3 have 2-4.5 days left on their timer. I hope they all go through, but its no matter if they don't. I have already seen 8-10 more under 10 ped great deals that I wish I could buy up this moment. Oh well...missed opportunities...

My Sweat Speed is approximately 300 per hour.

I have anywhere from 7-12+ hours to spend on the weekends. Let's go with 9, given the short attention span of a teenager -> theoretical 2,700 sweat per day of the weekend. To lessen expectations we shall make this 2,000 per day.

On the weekdays I have between 1 and 3 hours to spare, depending on homework load. Let's go with 500 sweat per Weekday.

(2000*2)+(500*5)/7 = 928 sweat per day.

0.928K * 3/k = 2.784 ped per day from sweat.

I also gain ped by listening to Radio. Radio gives about 0.1 ped per hour, I have it on constantly as much as possible -> Weekends, probably 10 hours, Weekdays, probably 6 hours(you only need to check every hour, so that's 3 base hours, 1 before going to school, and 2, 1 before bed, 1 after bed(YES I get up in the middle of the night to gain 0.11 ped, call me crazy, but I love profit more than sleep).

(1*2)+(0.6*5)/7= 0.71 ped/day.

2.784+0.71= 3.494 ped/day Income. Not including holidays, which usually function like weekends for me.

This is likely the best case scenario of course but it is rather significant.

Assuming this income stays static year-round, come mid-January 2016, I will have 1,275.31 ped. Enough to withdraw, and well more than pocket change at that.

But it doesn't. For 2 months(summer break, or, heaven on earth!) my income is (6 sweat + 1 radio) = 7 ped/day.

3.494*(365*0.833333)+(7*(365*0.16666667) = (3.494*304)+(7*61) = 1489.176 ped.

1500 pedroll is enough to be pretty good at any profession. Now add the compounding interest of trading, and I expect to top 5,000, maybe even 8,000+ ped by the end of this year.

All best case, but if you want a decent average, what you hope for is higher than best-case. Which is why I am aiming for 10,000 ped by this year

With that ped next year I will start by doing a 180,000 click(or more depends on markup) basic filters run on full quantity at QR 100. Expect over that huge sample to be more or less 90% return, and gain epic skills in the process -> Craft high markup components(there are more than most think) -> I'll be happy with 40-50 ped profit per day because that ped I profit with shall be used to continue trading -> compounds until I can buy a land area -> rich.

That's my goal, anyway. Any questions? Criticism is welcome, very welcome! if it is constructive, will help me, and is meaningful. Oh, and it is not discouraging either. Because by number crunching I can tell you all right now that it is possible...as long as you have the dedication to sweat 900+ bottles every day for 365 days in a row. And I tell you, anyone with that determination and perseverance, will do excellent in life.

And my main goal, is for EU to be a learning experience, a practice-before-the-real-test, a test run of life before I enter the workforce myself. I hope I will learn enough

 

Well, first of all; Do not craft.

Why?

Crafting is something you need a good bankroll for to manage the swings. Some people say 5k, others say 20k+ - but it all depends on what you craft and how you craft.

I used to have a friend that stopped playing for a while now, but he made 2,5k peds by trading animal leathers only, and he did well. You would want to focus on doing just 1 thing to make peds.

If you go non deposit, sweating is a great start. With initial sweat you want to consider investing in a herb box or an sihear to heal people. It does not only gives you skills, but there are enough hunters that tip well - well enough to make more ped healing players than sweating in a day.

For trading, focus on one item. Trade in items people want, and of which you know you can make a little bit of peds with. If you believe you got enough peds to add another item to trade/resell, do it, and expand your trading empire over time.

Life is hard in the Entropia Universe, so do you best and don't let anyone get you down. And see if you can get a mentor that knows all the little tricks of playing non-deposit or knows all about trading.

I wish you the best of luck, and would love to see how your plan is being executed.

 

I like it how you plan it out. However 1 thing you forgot a little bit. Right now the sweat price is indeed somewhere between 2.5-3PED/k which is great. But once the hype around the Arkadian Passport has dropped price will fall back probably to its original price which is 2PED/k. When will this happen? Noone knows but I doubt the sweatprice will hold up like that for a whole year (I could just as well be wrong though).

The dedication towards this plan is really high and I it would be great if you could pull it off. but as Lizzy said, crafting can be dangerous and completely turn on you. I have seen people hof for 10k + and they broke even with MU.

Last thing is that the dedication will take a lot from you. Just like in any game, if you arent having fun then you will most likely burn out
somewhere along the road. So looking at your plan I would maybe put in some (well deserved!) holidays maybe for you to maybe play around a bit more. Just to prevent a burnout

 

Thanks for the feedback. It's always nice to hear different opinions.

Crafting may well be the most volatile of the 3. Then again, for a certain component craft I wish to specialize in, it is worth barely more than 1/3 the cost of a regular mining ore drop(0.34 TT to be exact, about 0.4 with mu or a bit more). Also note that I shall only go above the 0.05/click basic filters once I get blueprint comprehension, which I've read has a large effect on success rate, how I don't know as no one seems to say . But with a 5k roll as a median outcome in 1 year, I think I will break even to start on markup, assuming that people still gamble-craft in a year from now

I like sweating, its social, it is tough but if you're a nut like me who likes watching numbers go up, sweat gathering skill and sweat bottles are both good numbers to look at hehe.

If I need a break I would do something reallife and drop my sweat/hr to 200 or so for an hour or 2.

The problem with just 1 thing, is that there are not always good deals on that one thing, especially with a super low ped fund like I have atm. I'll probably adapt to that past 2-3 months when things start swinging trading-wise, until then its fun-grind again and again. Even if Sweating is fun its still grinding hehe.

For the healers thing...tips are fluctuative unlike sweat...you always know you will get some ped for sweat, be it 1/k, 2/k, or 3/k.

Even at sweat price 2/k I'm looking at 900-1000 ped non-trading in one year, still a nice number. And I actually don't know about this passport thing, but here's to hoping it at least lasts till summer break for me!

Going back to crafting my plan is after skilling general skills like engineering up to unlock BPC skill, I will craft one single thing. Specialize seems the way to go here, or you spend too much ped skilling and not enough ped to make more ped

If I magically reach 10,000 ped, then it's easy, loot will be likely to balance out more or less...doing clicks of 0.4 ped approximately nets a 25000 click run. Resulting loot has 150% markup(I learned already to never fill orders if they're too low, not worth the time). Initial materials have approx 120-125% and 105-110%. And I'll be patient after a year of sweating and trading, so I'll buy as low as possible...thus leaving healthy room for profit. I hope.

 

Well, if you want to get to BPC fast and cheap, the cheapest and also fastest way is to repair a mothership, will take about 200-300 peds or so. Much cheaper than almost any crafting activity, worth a thought.

 

From what I hear, unlocking blueprint comprehension is cheaper via repair skilling than crafting. You may want to do a forum search for info or ask around (hopefully someone with more knowledge in this area will post).

 

Yes but besides Engineering and Mechanics, what else is skilled up that directly affect crafting? I dunno if I missed another one...point is if I get 90% return on my basic filter skilling up runs, I will probably spend about the same as that(given 5000 ped, that's 4500 return...and you never know if I'll loot a useful blueprint/high markup blueprint/hit a global). Vehicle repairs -> 100% ped loss, crafting -> Chancy XD.

But I think it will be ok to skill on filters. Lyst is almost TT and so is Oil. Keep in mind that 5000 ped gives you 90,000 clicks(assuming avg markup on materials to be 111%, which is 9% higher than their current), which almost guarantees a good return rate...Dunno but I think I will prefer basic filters. No possibility of a global in repairing hehe. And yes, they do global. From what I've heard everything can global o.o.

 

Great to have a goal, and it is doable, anything is doable as long as you're patient. I just have to question you on the basic filters.
Why those and not the explosive projectiles bp?
Also you might be a bit too optimistic about the amount of skills you get while crafting.

 

Remember there is a 1000 ped withdraw requirement and a 1% fee. I am glad you are ambitious but you shouldn't think of this game as "work" and a way to make money. It should be fun and if anything just deposit and shoot stuff.

Convert your peds into $$$. If you think you can make 4 ped per day that 40 cents! Do a chore (mow someones lawn, etc) or work on your computer doing paid-to tasks like surveys. Make a lot more than 40 cents per day. Deposit and have some fun and not stress over peds. So many games pay a monthly fee to play, consider your deposit as a monthly fee to play.

However, this game can be played non deposit and for profit but please stay away from crafting and hunting. May as well go to the casino! Stick with trading. Learn demands of your crafters and buy low and sell high

 

Non depositor all the way! hehe.

But I think crafting could be VERY profitable if played smart and with very cheap(in comparison) clicks...

Dunno about explosive ammo, filters is what I read in guides. I have a year or so to smarten up though, thanks for the tip! Need to check their cost out...

On another note, I think buying blueprints and selling them is a decent trade for my low budget. Example - I've yet to see a explosive blueprint in auction with a buyout under 18 ped. I'm thinking to win them the slow way for 1-3 ped, and resell them on auction at base cost 2 ped buyout 5-6 ped....I think people will buy, i saw 6 bidders on one of them bringing price to 6 ped with 3 hrs left...(it was an II. I am buying both I & II and will price accordingly)

 

From your post you seem to be very dedicated and know what you want. Do take care though, your college is 1489.176 times more important that sweating for a year. It looks to me like you want to put succeeding in Arkadia/ EU at the first place and all rest (studying, sleep!, real-life social life, &c.) at a distant second.
It can be done what you want non-despositing, and if that's what you really want then I wish you all the best. But do consider this other option: 1) get a job on saturday, 2) use to money to enjoy real-life and desposit a little, 3) trade with the PEDs from despositing and learn the markets, 4) adjust your plan to support the community with what it wants and gradually profit.

Succeed on Planet Earth first and then look to Planet Arkadia.

 

I know I will probably get flamed over this but maybe instead of crafting basic filters until you unlock BPC you should consider Explosive projectiles. The base material is found right in the TT, You gain mechanical engineering skills and still end up with a product (EP and residue) that have MU (although not very high MU). THen once you have unlocked BPC change your focus to another BP that has better MU for the finished product. I mean why pay the MU on lyst and oil (102-104%) when you can craft 0% MU materials?

GL with your project and just offering my food for thought.

 

reselling blueprints could be a nice way to make some peds. On thing to consider though is that blueprints keep dropping and dropping and dropping and in the end most blueprints will have 1 ped markup at the most.

So yes you can make some nice peds this way, but don't stockpile them because over the next months the price will drop to 1 ped.

Also the guides were made before these blueprints were introduced.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I work just as well with an hour less sleep and actually usually go to sleep around that time, except before EU, I was just lying in bed thinking for that time lol. I'm not in college yet, and I get decent grades & have a good gpa so I'm not too worried.

Craggan why would you be flamed for that suggestion? It's a very nice one and I'll have to research it because I didn't know about that before. I assume that's why even though theres 4 pages of Explosive I & II, there's a total of about 15 bids in that market...

Markets come and go, but if even for a month I can stay in this niche, I'll be happy . I also have a bet on a basic sheet metal blueprint(QR 1) that I'm hoping to sell to someone who was interested in it when I told them about it for +1.49(cheaper than an overbid in the auction).

 

I have a ton of BP which you can buy to resell if you want?? Prob approx 150 and most components etc. Let me know if interested. We can discuss rate (Ill consider payment in sweat).

 

Currently I'm not sure I have enough funds to branch out into so many opportunities. I see them everywhere and don't have enough ped on me to capitalize on them! Some may likely be an illusion but still hehe. Low ped is depriving me of learning experiences...

Thanks for the offer, I'll consider it once I get enough ped to really play around on the EU "stock exchange" eg, trading on different levels.

Edited to include my progress.

My starting date: 1/17/15 Saturday about 7:00 AM in my time zone.

My total assets include:

2.62 PED on Entropia Partners
1.94 PED in Sweat(3ped/k)
7.00 PED in Hand
11.00 PED invested into the Auction
7.18 PED in Items at TT Value.
----

Total Value: 29.74 PED. I think this is great for just 3 days. Even w/o 10 ped donation by Strash on Saturday, still 19.74 ped

At Weekly Max Markup for Items...31.78 PED.

I'm surprised actually. Markup for a couple of my items went majorly down this week. Hopefully its cause the week just started(as the sales indicate). Means best selling time to be ~next Saturday.

Even if MU stays the same I will make some profit on each item, guaranteed. And if I can't, the TT losses are at max 10% of the buying cost on the 2 items I won.

Now all I need to do is find an ore/enmat trader and a hunting loot trader...and profit will appear! Or break even + experience in markets.

 

Joing in game channel tradermarty for your enmat/ore trading while on ark

 

Thanks a ton for your tip made 0.76 PED. Thanks to Marty as well ^^.

Things are looking up even though Outpost is barren today.

Edit: Not anymore, whee good luck. It was empty an hour ago.

Edit #2: Found another "hidden" good deal(by hidden I mean deep within the pages of most searches) as well as furthered my tiny monopoly on Explosive Ammo BPs...yet to buy any yet lol.

 

btw: If you find a way to make peds don't post it on forums, it'll get jumped on by 100 vultures and it won't be worth doing.

 

Indeed, if you find a way to make money, don't tell anyone.

Also when it comes to crafting, remember this:

Given time, an item will sell for the cheapest it can be produced for, NOT the average it can be produced for.