~~ KrN-Sight aka K-Sight[3]’s D2X Economic Theory / Money Making Guide ~~
1.11

=Note=
I’m not trying to say I’m the richest guy on D2. I’m actually quite far from it. However, I have always managed to make “money” very quickly. Some of the things written here may sound obvious to you, but please be courteous as some people may not know.
=Note=

In any game, the more you think than the average / most players, the better off you’ll be. Add the art of patience for D2X and you’ll be golden.

This is my first guide so any comments, things to add / delete / edit are all welcome.
Flames on the other hand…Well, please don’t flame me L

Intro
Hello, my name is KrN-Sight (Andy). Have you ever stayed up until 4 A.M. in the morning and turned on the television? If so, you’ve probably seen many paid advertisements on building financial assets and alike. Well this is very similar except you will not have to pay any money (or FG for that matter) to learn the skills needed to build wealth (which I call FG). This is designed to be a fun, yet also a critical read, as I’ve analyzed the game to a different level than most.

Why build wealth?
Hmm…a strange question as I write it myself. If you ask me what the purpose of D2X was, I’d give you a very simple answer. To duel (nowadays I’m also into collectibles). Now it is my personal opinion to be a top duelist, you not only need to know techniques to duel, but also have the godliest items to come up on top. Techniques you acquire from experience from dueling, but how about the items? It isn’t .09 anymore where you can “pop” a corpse and steal people’s items. The only way to get these items is to find them yourself (MF), craft them yourself, or trade for them. Since the crafting formulas are all found on Arreat, I will be focusing on MF’ing and trading on this thread. MF’ing is the art of patience, while trading is the art of being crafty. If you have no patience, I suggest you simply start from trading. You can always make a living off goosh*thead.

* If you play D2X just for fun (it is after all just a game) my advice is to NOT read this guide. *

* I am posting this thread now because I have already utilized the recommendations made on here, and the game has progressed far enough where some people already know about it, and even if others start doing the same, it will not impact me as much if I posted this a year ago. (I mean…I have to be rich before I can state these claims right?) *

Here’s the basics…
What is FG?
I believe every noob / new player on forums has asked this question. In fact, I still see way too many people post questions on this matter. Here’s what FG really is. (Anyone with a basic education in economics should know ^^) Think of the real world economy. If I want to buy a car, I wouldn’t give 100x bikes for one now would I? No, I would probably give cash, or some kind of monetary issuance. In the D2X world, there is no such thing as dollars (which is why certain items become “currency.” Back in .09, SOJS were “currency.” In 1.0, 290 SC’s and 3/20/20 SC’s were “currency”). FG takes that all away, and gives everything a value in terms of it, just like dollars do. Dollars (or FG for that matter) have no actual face value. (I mean, what is a dollar really..it’s just a piece of paper right?) FG is just a tool to lead us away from bartering (trading item for item) and act as currency itself. FG isn’t backed by anything, but neither is our dollars in the real world. (The dollar is no longer backed by gold contrary to popular belief). If I want a small item say like a 30% chancies, I don’t have to offer up a “whole” currency item like an HR (which would make the other person add another item to make the trade fair), but instead offer a certain amount of FG, say 5, to trade. Basically, FG exists to make trades easier.

* Important difference between D2X and the real world *
As you may know, any economy in the real world has inflation (well at least 99.9% of the time..) The price of chips 10 years ago is less than the price of the same chips today. However, in the D2X world, the price of items actually deflate. This is due to the fact that dupes exist, and the simple fact that items become less and less necessary. When ladder resets, no one has a Shako on the first day, and when that first one is found, people are willing to offer even 1,000 FG. Yet, a week later, that same shako is worth only about 100. This is because more and more people have acquired the item, and there is a less of a demand for them.

* Important difference between FG and item vs. item *
Although the price of an item will be less in terms of FG as time goes on, the item’s value will not change much from other items. A perfect chancies may be worth 100 FG today, but only worth 50 in a week. However, if a perfect chancies is worth a perfect tals belt today, chances are, a perfect chancies will be worth a perfect tals belt (give or take a little bit) in a week. This is why I consider FG as “wealth.” It’s like a bond in the real world. The longer you hold onto it, the more its worth in the long run.

Basically, your goal is to accumulate the most FG in the shortest amount of time. (This does mean you have to be patient for the economy to deflate L). The fastest way to build your FG is when ladder resets (see how I’ve waited to post this thread so I don’t get beaten ^^). I restarted playing D2X when a friend of mine told me ladder was resetting. In the 1 month I’ve played, I’ve accumulated ~3,000 FG. (You can check my gold logs, I have 0 trades done June 2006 – June 2007 and started from absolute scratch because my friend is still playing NL). I would not be able to do that in any other time. This is also why I consider my friend a complete noob, because he has no idea how the D2 economy works, yet he believes he’s a GOD although that may or may not be true in NL duels.

http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot003pi5.jpg
Here’s Countess….She’s in the Black Marsh inside the Forgotten Tower…Well. We haven’t forgotten her now have we?
This ladder season I’ve ran her…at least 1,000 times. In those runs, I’ve found 1 Mal, 2 Um, 4 Ko, and a whole bunch of Tals, Rals, Orts, Thuls, Amns, Sols, which are valuable in the beginning when ladder resets (since everyone wants insight / spirit). I’ve still yet to see a high rune drop from her L. When you’re starting out, countess is a good stop since she doesn’t take much to kill her… (You really don’t even need to use your switch wep (although it’s obviously better if you do) When you tele to her, she doesn’t like to move much so you’ll have an easy time killing her “minions” then singling her out after). Believe me, having all those low-mid runes around made me 200-400 FG in the beginning…and it’s also a good thing to have all those runes for crafting, and when you need to make COH or Enigma, or any other runeword later. She also drops T Keys, and I know I’ve made at least 200 FG just from those. Ilvl 82

http://img488.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot005av3.jpg
Mmmm…Andy. Hey we share names! Look at that poison goddess…By the way, you and your merc will lose hp very fast even with max (75) poison resists (my guy has 85 and still dies easily). Remember you will stay at 1 hp if you’re poisoned and don’t pot, but your merc can die from poison. This chick can drop Maras, and SOJ, the two jewelry you want to find when you first start out to make FG. I’ve yet to find a SOJ (anywhere in my several years of playing, not just from Andy, and I’ve heard of people that found like 5 SOJS from Andy alone) so really its probability ^^. Ilvl 75

http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot006ip0.jpg
Mephyyy. Here’s the guy I liked most since .09. I’ve found countless Shakos, Arachnids, Verdungos, Skullders, SS, Dracs, Travs, etc. This guy is great because not only does he drop lots of uniques, he’s also super easy to kill. I’ll get into moating later. This is the one guy you don’t want to miss especially when you’re starting out. (See Moat #1 in my MF guide…link further down) Ilvl 87

http://img381.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot007ld2.jpg
Chaos…Well. Read this section only if you’re not a sorc. These guys all have their different resists…Knights are immune to fire, Oblivions are immune to Cold, Stranglers are immune to Lit, Venom Lords are immune to Poison and 95% to Fire, etc. It’s really a death zone for sorcs and mercs (those Oblivions do cast Iron Maiden every now and then you know). Actually…what’s there to write? I’ve never MF’d here so I’ve only heard stories of what people found. This is my thread…I should be writing about what I’ve done. Ilvl 82 / 84 / 85

http://img372.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot014cl8.jpg
Pindle / Nihlathak
Well back in .09 my friend had a Pindle bot that ran 1,500 runs every night when he slept, and 3,000 runs every day when he went to school. (I on the other hand never bot’d). I no longer recommend doing pindle runs anymore because each run takes ~30 seconds, and that is way too fast, and battle net WILL realm down you. This guy can however drop pretty much everything except Tyreal’s Might…everything else such as COA, WF, etc. he can drop. Ilvl 88 (That 1 level difference from Meph is huge. Meph can’t drop COA, WF, etc.)

Nihlathak…Seriously I hate this guy. I have nature’s peace ring on and ½ the time (and I literally do mean ½ the time) he will cast corpse explosion on me. However, this guy’s ilvl IS 95 so he can drop virtually everything (except of course, Tyreal’s Might). This guy does however drop D Keys, and people always want keys to torch hunt so that’s a perk. Since D Keys are also the hardest one to get, they’re valued higher than the other keys!

http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot016hs3.jpg
Baal…Yes…This guy takes the longest to kill, and longest time to reach (you have to kill his minions) but his Ilvl is 99. He can drop…anything. So far this season I’ve found a Shako, 29 Maras, Perf Travs, and a bunch of other uniques / rares. This guy does require you to have atleast some decent items for his minions…but it is possible to kill him easier when you get to him. (See Moat #2 in my MF guide…link further down).

At this time please visit my MF guide. When you’re done with that one, come back here ^^.
http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=10164950&f=87

If and when you do find that godly item, you’ll be faced to make a choice in selling it unid, or ID’ing it to possibly get more. This is very similar to rolling runewords (will be explained in a little bit) but I personally think you’re better off ID’ing it. These “godly” items include items like COA, Griff’s, EDC, etc. Even if you find the worst %, you’ll still get some FG, and I think it’s worth the “gamble” to try and get perf to get massive amounts of FG. (After all, when are you going to find another godly item, and if you do, you’ll probably not get as much by then).

The later the season goes, the less and less effective you will be at MF’ing. This is why I believe after about 2-4 months, you should make a gold finding barb…Godly Circlet / Ammy’s that you can gamble is the * only * way to make a huge amount of FG after a certain amount of time. (Some items don’t lose their value as fast such as COA, but in the end, they will to a certain point). In the grand scheme of things, when you start out, uniques are always good to MF / trade with. However, NO UNIQUE will ever match a godly rare item. Here’s an example:



(Except for the PSN mod ) Thanks to my friend James who had this item last season. This is solely because rares can have so many different mods that uniques don’t have. I have yet to see two of the exact same rares, yet you see plenty of perfect COA’s don’t you?

Obviously you can still make FG from normal MF’ing, I just think you will make less and less as time progresses. This is where personal preference kicks in. At this point, you should be able to make a living off trades which I’ll be getting to in just a little bit, but I always like the safety of knowing if I go broke or something, I can at least still MF.
Here’s a guide you can follow if you want to make a gold-find barb.
http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=4294900

With that said, when you MF, you will almost always not find items you want. However, don’t waste the drops that these monsters give you. The bosses will always drop 4-6 items that you can sell for gold. Armors are best as most of them give you 35,000 gold each, and the “better” the item, the more gold you’ll get. I.e. a truncheon is worth more than a cudgel. (Exceptional vs. normal). When you reach your max gold, (should be about 2 million gold or more) gamble. You can gamble from anyone you like, I personally like Anya since she’s in A5 aka the last act. Look at the link to see what items to gamble.
http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=492539

Speaking of things to pick up, I suggest picking up flawless gems (since perfs don’t drop except in Meph Stone) and make them into P-Gems to roll a Baal GC / SC. Baal GC / SC’s don’t cost much, and it’s really something to keep you stimulated while you MF. Except…you never know…you could roll a 45 Life P-Combat and be super rich too. They don’t take up too much space either…since as soon as you get 3 flawless of the same kind, it becomes one slot again, and when you get 3 P-Gems, they “go away.” Plus, it’s always exciting when you find that gem shrine. (Remember you want to have a flawless gem in your inventory).

Continued...

This post was edited by KrN-Sight on Aug 9 2007 10:44pm

Rolling rune words…
Now this is really something if you want to try, at least have a lot of FG to back it up. It’s really a gamble that CAN pay off. At the start of this ladder season, HRs started around 300 FG. To build a CTA, it would cost you roughly…400 FG (Mal, Ist, Ohm mostly), maybe a little less. I remember when I saw the first 6 BO CTA, it went for about 2,000 FG. Pretty good profit don’t you think? Now from here it becomes a mathematical problem. Meaning, the odds of you making a profit MUST be favored in order for you to take on this risk (of rolling a 1 BO CTA). Looking at all the variables, the Battle Cry 1-6, and Battle Orders 1-6 (the skills that matter most), you have just a good of a chance of rolling a 6-6 as a 1-1. Without getting into combinatorics, here’s the thing you have to focus on. Since the middle roll is a 3-3, if you can make a profit from rolling just that, you are a favorite (i.e. likely to make a profit since 50% of the time you’ll roll that or better). At the start of the season I know for sure that a 3-3 still made a profit so it’s definitely something you can try. However, as the season progresses, you would need to make a 2+ / 4+ roll to make a profit, and sometimes even a 2+ / 5+ roll. Be sure to know what prices are beforehand. The only thing I can say for you if you want to go this route, is to be sure to have a cushion (if you only have 400 FG and take on this risk…it’s not very smart). The rune words you want to roll are the ones that have a high variance, AND that are popular. These include CTA, Hoto, Fort, Grief, Infinity, Spirit (although not high in cost) etc.

Some last words before you go off MF’ing…
Always pick up rare weapons. Even if it’s an eth war axe, and has 300+ ED, 40 IAS, 2 open Socs, Fools Mod++, you can up it to Zerker and get mountains of FG. Speaking of which, always open chests, weapon racks, armor stands, etc. they are good places to find random items, as well as socketed / socketable items. Now obviously I can’t list all mods that would make a rare item godly so…when in doubt, just post a picture on a thread. I’ve seen plenty of noobs throw out godly rare items and it’s sad really…
You always want to carry juvies around…There are those times where you tele into a mob, and need that juv to save yourself. Just pick them up as you kill monsters. In fact, just have your left hand ready to pot. The last thing you want is your sorc saying “Not enough mana~~” and then dying because there’s that one asshole monster with mana burn hitting you and if he’s got friends, GG you.
Always leave TP’s before engaging in battle. I usually leave my TP at the entrance as no monsters can be there unless of course they’re led there. (With the exception to Forgotten tower, Pindle’s exit and Throne of Destruction, no monster will be at your entrance / exit stairway). There are times where you will die in battle, and usually you want to get your body back, and finish off killing the monster that killed you. Vengeance is a beautiful thing.
Repair your equipment after 10-20 runs. This is optional but really…it’s about principle…think about it. If you were going off to war, (which MF’ing is) do you really want to go out there in rags? Repair your equipment and prepare for battle and glory! Lastly, it is my honest opinion that MF is the battle of patience. If you do enough runs, you WILL find SOMETHING.
That being said, I believe doing 100 runs in one go, is better than doing 10 runs 10 times. (This obviously can’t be proven, but have the patience to wait it out). I also found that in my own experience that after I’ve found a good unique, I’ve usually found another good unique a few / several runs right after. If you find one godly item, don’t stop for another 15-20 runs. Think of it as having a rush of good items.

Trading
Before trading any of your items make SURE you know what the value of each item is BEFORE trading. Finding out you got jipped is never a good feeling. Plus, having more knowledge of what items are worth will work to your advantage since you’ll be able to spot what are good deals and what are not. With that said…
I think a lot of people over look trading and that is a terrible mistake. Last ladder season I found a bunch of Vipermagi / Skullders early that put me to about 2,000 FG around the first week. My friend on the other hand found maybe ¼ of that and made more FG than I did simply because he was adept at trading.

I may get flamed for putting the following on here because some may say what I do drives down the economy at a much faster pace (aka deflating). That’s ok, since only a few if any knew about this “idea.” If you’re like me you will have an account only with mules to hold onto all the items you find from MF.

http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot017ef0.jpg


I personally like to organize my mules so that I know exactly what items are on which mule. Anyway, your objective is to have a very short “shelf life” on every single one of your items that you have on your mules. Two reasons for this… One, you’ll be able to sell these items for more now than later, and two, selling the items now frees space for more items on the mule. The only real way to quickly get rid of your items is to obviously host a game of frees (which deflates the game anyway critics) or sell your items for a cheaper price. It’s a simple idea from economics. If your products aren’t selling, reduce the price. Why try to sell an item that’s worth 10 FG for 10 if you know you can sell it much faster if you just accept 8? If you try to sell for 10 you might get the trade, you might not. But in doing so, you waste time (if and when you don’t get the trade), and a lot of times people don’t want to pay face value for items with currency anyway, so you won’t be able to get rid of the item, in which you’ll probably trade it for 8 or maybe even less later. In order to maximize your efficiency, you want to give your customers some kind of incentive to buy your items. If you have one item worth 5 FG and another worth 10 FG, sell them both for say 12. Free up space, and get trades in when you can. I constantly fill my mules, and I constantly empty them. I’m not going to let my items sit around and wait for the economy to deflate. I’m getting in the action now when I can still get the actual face value or maybe a little less. You don’t have to take my advice. In fact, you can just troll around my thread and you’ll always find goosh*thead for you (always check my sig for US East Ladder trades). I don’t mind. I’m helping myself, while you’re helping yourself. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I do realize that if everyone were to do this, the economy would collapse because everything would be being sold at a cheaper price, artificially screwing up the economy…which is really why we do need those people that say “Thul rune here for 5 FG.”

In the forums…
Always think long term / run. In the long run if you’ll make a profit, isn’t it a viable option? Of course it is! Just because you don’t need a certain item doesn’t mean you shouldn’t trade for it especially if its cheap / an item a lot of people want. Making these side trades (i.e. being the “middle man”) got me lots of FG.

There are certain things you want to look for while browsing the forum. In peak hours, threads come and go so fast, many of them don’t even get looked at. A lot of times, all I’m doing is constantly refreshing the trade page so I don’t miss out on a good deal. Oh, if you have a FT list, or any kind of thread, KEEP IT SHORT. Almost no one is going to look at your thread if they see it is 5 pages long. Like this guide for instance…I’ll bet you most people skimmed over the first few paragraphs and decided it wasn’t worth their “valuable time.” Don’t worry those people will always be poor. If you have read this, post a reply with “bump up this thread” (other comments are appreciated) and I’ll donate you 5 FG. (Limited to the first 10 people).

The first thing you want to look for is “DISO.” These are the guys that are usually willing to pay even more than the face value of an item they are in search of. (After all they are “desperate” for them aren’t they?) Think of it in the real world. If you need a certain type of medicine, say insulin to stay alive, and I’m the only person in the entire world that can give it to you, I can set the price at 1 Million even though the cost of production may only be 10 dollars. You’d have to purchase it at that price since you value life over money (at least I hope you do). Desperate people are willing to pay more for the item because they want it. Sadly, you will probably be one of the many who has an item people want, but here’s what separates you. Other people will be greedy asking for outrageous amounts of FG they probably know they can’t even get (i.e. “Bloodfists here for 10”) but you won’t be. You’re going to go in there offering the item cheaper than anyone else (unless of course it’s too big of a loss where you would live to trade another day) and win the trade.

Always look for bulk deals. After you MF you should have enough FG to purchase a large amount of “stuff.” Things you can buy in bulk are anything from HRs, Torches, Annis, etc. The people usually always want HRs so that’s what I would recommend. If there’s a guy selling 20x HRs at 100 each, he would potentially make 2,000 FG, but it would take a long time. Most people are impatient, but you won’t be. You say something along the lines of “I’ll buy all of them for 1,800.” Most of the time they’ll agree because it’s easier for them to trade all of their HRs in one go to you than to trade one or few at a time. Now YOU take the time and sell them at 100 each and make a nice 200 profit by doing absolutely nothing but waiting in a game and PM’ing people the game name. (Remember HRs are prone to poof so if you get masses of them stay in that game until you resell all of them).

Since posts are here and gone so quickly, your threads will also come and go in a flash. I still have times where I would post my thread and as soon as I refresh it, my thread is already at the bottom, or on the next page. What you want to do is always make your thread appealing. (Don’t purchase bold, italics, or color that’s a waste of FG). Make borders to make your topic look cool. If you want to say FT / ISO cover it up like

====== FT / ISO =====

Now doesn’t that look so much cooler than just

FT / ISO

Or have something on their that will put the average person on the computer click your thread. I don’t really want to say but having the word “sex” is always a big one. Just look at how many views on a thread you get just by having that one word on there.

Give an incentive for people to come and trade with you. Say things like “cheap bins” or “quick trades” or whatever gets people’s attention / blood going.

Jipping people…
Well I was a little skeptical about writing this one in because I do believe in Karma and the values set by Aequitas…But I do have my justification for it so here it goes. Some people, not knowing what the value of an item is, will set a bin (which I think is not smart) and trade for that amount which YOU see as being incredibly cheap. You KNOW you can bin the item then resell for a profit. Really who in their right mind posts “that’s a really cheap bin” everyone will simply post “bin” or sometimes offer higher than the bin because it’s so incredibly cheap. If you get the trade, more power to you because a lot of times people don’t want to wait for trades (say they’re in a hurry) and they just want to get rid of the item before they leave. Not a problem for you since you can wait it out. Honestly, jipping is much easier in pub…I remember when I first started playing D2X I miraculously found an IST rune and I traded it away for a Lidless. Sometimes it is about making a profit.

Great post bro. I like the GF barb suggestion, very smart. ;]

i enjoyed the antisemitic character names the most.

Eh, Bump up this thread.

It was a pretty good read and I learned a few things (the dollar is not backed by gold anymore?) and it was well written and organized.

I find that the real key to power trading is to know the prices of all items by spending a lot of time browsing the forums. Not only that, but watching for trends. By this I mean items will sometimes be much cheaper/more expensive during the day when not many people are around and the price will either increase or decrease during the night.

Nice guide.

They're not antisematic (altho it looks that way...) the "Jew" part is short for Jewels / Jewelry
Just like Arm is short for Armor
Sock is short for Socketed / Socketables
etc.



very key indeed

This post was edited by KrN-Sight on Aug 9 2007 11:06pm

Bump up this thread. O.o

This thread rocks Thanks for the guide.

"Bump Up This Thread"

Great guide, hope it can help me

petition to sticky, started by InkAndDagger!