Can I make money by crafting?

Question

If I have blues, is it more efficient to cash them in for gold, or to salvage them and then craft something new? It seems like I just get more blues by crafting, which are generally not worth the hundreds of gold it costs to make them, but is that true for all crafting?

Asked by nnythm

Answer

In general, I'd suggest cashing them in for gold. The auction house is a far, far, better place to spend your money.

If you break down items, you're essentially saying that the components are worth more than the sale value of the item - in most cases, this is not true. Purchasing components at the auction house is frequently a cheaper alternative. Some very low level magical items are worth more as crafting components, but the difference is so slight it's not worth the additional effort.

You then have to craft items at the blacksmith. Unless you are targeting a specific Legendary item, you're gambling with your money and your components. Chances are you're going to end up with a lot of "garbage" magical items with worthless enchantments as a result. This costs you both money and components. When you add this to the money you essentially "lost" by not selling the item in the first place, you're likely to be far into the red on a typical blacksmith transaction.

By contrast, going to the auction house, you can filter the list for rares with low buyout prices, and get just the enchantments you want, for a fraction of the cost of crafting it yourself. If you sell your magic items (and poor quality rares) to the vendors, and spend that money on the auction house instead, I guarantee you will get a much larger bang for your buck - at least until you get into the higher difficulties.

Answered by agent86

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What's the most efficient way to earn Rupees early on in Zelda: Skyward Sword?

Question

I am at the Forest temple in Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and just got the flying bug remote control thingadongdong. There's a lot of stuff at Beedle's Airshop I want to but but it's friggin' expensive! What the most effective way to earn rupees at this point in the game?

Asked by Josh

Answer

At the point you're at, you don't actually need all the shiny stuff right away. The Bug Net and the Extra Wallets are probably what you need the most right now, especially if you want to buy the shinier things early.

That said, this early on, there are few ways to get Rupees effectively:

• You can try to find all the Goddess Cubes you can and open them; they can contain Rupees, but often contain other things.

• You can catch as many bugs as you can with the Bug Net (Deku Hornets come in especially large numbers) and go see Stritch in his room at the Academy at night. He will buy some bugs off your hands, but only buys four specific kinds of bugs a night.

• It is doubtful you have a lot of treasure by now, but if you're willing to part with them (keep in mind they are used to upgrade your equipment at Gonzo's), Rupin will buy treasure from his house at night on a mechanic like Stritch's. His house is located on the other side of the river, near the graveyard.

• There is also the classic "break everything you can" strategy. Break all the pots and skulls you find. Cut all the grass and flowers you can. Roll into every tree.

Answered by Kareen

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How much time does it take for a shop to restock caps?

Question

I admit that I'm used to Fallout 3, where stores restocked twice a week. In Fallout New Vegas, how long does it take for stores to restock -- particularly on caps? It feels like it's been at least a week since I woke up in Goodsprings, and the Goodsprings stores aren't restocking on the cap front. (Nor on equipment -- I'd settle for decent stuff to trade, to whittle down my inventory.)

How long must I wait?

Asked by John Rudy

Answer

The Vendors restock twice per week on Sunday and Wednesday. 72 and 96 hours respectively.

Answered by LessPop_MoreFizz

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Is this a glitch in The Sims 2?

Question

You can buy a Bowling Alley object that resells for more than you buy it for - letting you continuously buy and resell it for boatloads of cash.

Is this a well known glitch? Or is it just me? Are there any other objects that do this?

Asked by Corey

Answer

As far as instantly? Not really, but some pieces of art tend to increase in value over time.

Answered by McKay

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How can I check how long I need to wait for the next bank deposit?

Question

I never know how long I have to wait until the next bank deposit. I know it's meant to be every 20 minutes and that there are events that annoyingly reset the timer without telling you, so I was wondering if there's a way to check how much longer I need to wait for the next deposit (assuming it won't be interrupted).

I'd like something more specific than 'dawn, midday, and dusk' because those are just as hard to time as 'every 20 minutes'. Is there a timer anywhere I can have a look at? I've not found anything so far but I've only just started playing and was hoping that after two games they'd include something as simple and useful as this.

Asked by Alex

Answer

Unfortunately, no. There's no timer visible in the game.

When I was in need of money, I tended to just leave the game running and park Ezio in a haystack or rose bush near a bank. If you leave and eat dinner (for example), when you get back, you should have enough cash to continue.

Answered by agent86

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How do I make money efficiently?

Question

In Oblivion, I had two favorite money-makers:

• Dump all my stuff except some basic armor and potions, and raid an oblivion tower. The armor and weapons was worth lots, and selling it in Anvil made a lot of cash fast.
• Harvest an entire farm's worth of crops, create 'restore fatigue' potions and sell them.

Skyrim seems to spoil this:

• Merchants have a max-amount per day/QOD/... instead of per item
• You can't carry as much (or maybe I have yet to discover the strength/feather spells)
• Alchemy is a lot harder (most common items go into food recipes now, which don't sell for those prices)
• On top of that, once a dungeon is cleared, it doesn't respawn - so no 'farming' familiar dungeons?

What are some easy/repeatable money making methods in Skyrim? Which are most efficient effortwise/real-life-time wise?

Asked by Konerak

Answer

I've found the best way to make money is pick up ingredients in the wild, make potions and sell them.

This works best for invisibility, because you can sell it for squillions. It'll also help your alchemy skill and get you loads of restore health and magica potions. I've made around 20k mostly from potions.

Avoid buying expensive ingredients like void salts, fire salts, daedra hearts etc. The return isn't worth the cost.

Win win win!

Answered by Coomie

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How can I make a lot of gil?

Question

What is the fastest way to make gil? Is there some trick to repeatedly gain lots of gil?

I am more concerned on a high level, what's the trick to get a lot of gil? Is there some way to repeat something and get a lot of gil every time?

Answer

There's a gil farming guide at gamefaqs, but it deals with near endgame, endgame, and postgame farming. In the beginning of the game there's not really much you can do to farm gil other than selling components. Most components sell for a pittance relative to the cost of anything you might actually want to buy, so it's generally more worth it to use them to upgrade your accessories (heavily upgraded +str or +magic accessories can really make the early game easy.) There's also not much to buy anyway. PSICOM or Guardian Corps enemies have a chance to drop a Credit Chip, which sells for 500 gil, and has no other purpose. There's a few encounters in the early game that I think always drop them since they're sort of like minibosses. You won't see very many enemies that drop them until around chapter or 8 or 9, when you get to Palumpolum.

Here's where you can start farming in earnest. Spoilers follow. Each area is better farming than the last.

When sneaking in to Palumpolum there's several groups of PSICOM/Guardian Corps dudes patrolling that you can farm semi-effectively. You can go from the save point, to the end of the tunnel, then come back. Only the earliest ones will have respawned, but you can save and reload to respawn them all.

A little bit later after after Snow meets back up with them, is an area where's there's more larger groups of soldiers. These also are the first enemies who can drop Incentive Chips which sell for for 2500 and like the Credit Chips are meant to be sold. There's usually one or two in each group who can drop it and have Credit Chips as their common drop. Once you get the rhythm of 5 starring the fights (I found Rav/Rav and Rav/Com paradigms, with Med/Sen or Med/Com only when you're really hurting to be the only feasible way) you'll normally get maybe 3-4 credit chips and an incentive chip or two per run. There's also a couple enemies that can drop Rhodocrosite which is used as a catalyst. It takes about 5-10 minutes per run, and there's a save point on either end of the area so you can just save and reload.

The next area is at Hope's dad's apartment, where there's two groups of PSICOM guys that endlessly respawn if you walk a short distance away. The apartment is roughly circular so you can just run down the hallway in one direction until you get tired of farming them. There's more incentive chip droppers in these groups. It's also about when there's some nice accessories you may want to buy (I think 2nd tier str and magic stuff) and upgrade. This place is pretty awesome since it's essentially infinite enemy density. About 5 seconds between fights.

The last is around the middle of Chapter 10 (I think) where you're on the big airship, and there's a big section of hallway with about 7 groups of 3-5 PSICOM guys that drop both Credit Chips and Incentive Chips. There's a savepoint as well as a door to another section of deck you can go through to force respawns. Basically same song and dance as the previous parts.

After that the next (also much more effective) is the chocobo farming which is in linked guide.

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How can I earn lots of credits?

Question

On reaching level 20, I was advised to 'start saving up' for Speeder training by a tutorial popup. And looking at my class skill trainer, high level abilities cost... well, they cost what seems to be an astounding amount of money to my low level self.

What's the most efficient way to earn lots of credits in The Old Republic?

Answer

I just ran my level 22 daily space missions (all 5 of them), with the daily quest rewards. It took 30 minutes.

• Credits - 7265 earned
• Xp - 33259 earned (15000 rested xp was not touched)

On top of this, I earned ~20 fleet commendations. With those, I can buy a level 50 green random bag worth 1400 straight to the vendor, or 1300-1500 if I open it and vendor the item.

This activity yields ~17000 credits/hour with the daily space missions at level 22.

---

One of the missions awards 600 credits for completion and can be run in 6 minutes. Another one awards 300 credits for 3 minutes. Repeatedly running either one gives 6000 credits per hour without the daily space missions at level 22.

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Fastest way to make money in GTA IV multiplayer?

Question

I've been reading a lot about money-making schemes in GTA IV multiplayer, and everyone seems to believe something different works best. What is the one mathematically fastest way to make money?

Assume the player has access to the main game, The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and The Damned DLC packs. Try to avoid answers that require boosters (people who are willing to help you specifically gain money), since they're few and far between.

Answer

Running Hangman's NOOSE over and over again with a solid group of people who know how the situation plays out exactly and can communicate is a great way to earn money. You can run NOOSE with random players, but if you aren't winning every time and doing so in just a few minuets the rate at which you earn money isn't as high as it could be. The OP might consider this a "boosting" answer since the money gained is higher when working with a group of well coordinated players, if so just disregard it.

I'd still say that Hangman's NOOSE is the best way though, because when it goes well you win rather quickly, and when things go bad, your group is killed rather quickly. The other forms of multiplayer (DM/TDM/Racing/Turf Wars/ect) can take much longer and don't return nearly as much money.

Just be warned if you are looking to get the Wanted achievement/trophy. The grind to it ($5,000,000 gained in multiplayer) will take forever no matter which method you end up using.

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What is the best layer to mine for gold in Minecraft?

Question

Now that booster tracks can be created using gold ore, I seem to be getting through my supplies rather quickly.

What is the layer with the highest amount of gold? I'm currently looking around layer 25-30, but can't seem to find more than a couple of blocks..

Answer

I'm always mining on the second level on top of bedrock. That is 4-6 blocks on top of bedrock layer.

This area is very rich in everything. Tons of coal, tons of iron and reasonable amounts of gold/diamonds/lapiz/redstone.

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What do I do with all this money?

Question

I am still pretty new to this awesome game, but I've got a ton of money from mining minerals and selling all sorts of stuff.

I've bought the miner's helmet, and some dynamite and a few other things but it seems like there should be more expensive items. Maybe I'm missing something? I have 4 NPCs (Nurse, guide, merchant, demolition), do future NPCs have better wares? Does the merchant ever get new items? What's the point of all this sweet sweet cash?

Answer

Coins don't play a very crucial role in the game. However, there is more to buy than you've seen thus far.

Just a sample:

• The arms dealer sells the Minishark for 35 gold which is the most expensive item in the early game.
• Some items like Purification Powder can only be bought from NPC's. If you care to clear the world of corruption you'll need to spend a good bit of cash on this.

Also, NPCs will have new items for sale after you defeat the Wall of Flesh.

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Can we get robbed of gold in Skyrim?

Question

I had about 6,000 gold before selling some stuff to Tonilia in the Thieves Guild. Then I decided to rest there for 2 days so that she gets more cash. I repeated this thing a couple of times and then continued my adventure.

Suddenly I noticed I have only 1,000 gold. I have no idea how I got to this amount. I haven't purchased anything so far. Did I get robbed in the Thieves Guild while I was resting? What happened to all my gold?

Answer

No, you cannot get robbed in Skyrim. If you are selling items maybe you have 10,000 and just misread. Or maybe you were accidentally buying items from the shop keeper instead of selling to them.

It's also possible it's a glitch, but I can assure you no one can steal from you in Skyrim.

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When do merchants start paying the actual value of items?

Question

When you pick up items in Skyrim it tells you the value of each item. However when I go and sell the items the merchants are only paying 30% of this value, at best.

Discounting any perks or other effects, how high does Speechcraft have to be before merchants start paying full value for items?

Answer

Sounds like you have low Speech

Speech will directly affect the prices paid when buying from and selling to merchants, even without the assorted perks. At 0 speech, merchants will sell items for 3 times their base price, and buy for a third of their base price. At 100 speech, merchants will sell items for twice their base price and buy for half.

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Can you invest in a shop multiple times to keep increasing the vendor gold?

Question

Can you invest in a shop multiple times to keep increasing the vendor gold?

The speechcraft perk is rather vague about investing multiple times, but I assume it is a 1 time deal for that merchant.

If anyone has tried it, let me know if you can just keep doing it to get more permanent vendor gold.

Answer

You can only upgrade a merchant one time with the Investor perk (Speech 70). However you can get another perk, Master Trader (Speech 100) which gives every trader in the world an additional 1000 gold. [Source: Game and Official Strategy Guide]

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How much cash do you lose when you die in Borderlands?

Question

When you die in, you keep all your items, but lose some cash when you respawn at a New-U station. I can't find a clear answers of what percentage of your cash is lost or if it scales with some other factor as well.

Answer

The amount of money you lose upon death is approximately 7% of the total amount you're currently carrying. While there is some variability on the Internet about what this % is (5%, 7%, 10%, etc.) the top voted answer here seems trustworthy as the user ran 3 separate tests all in a row.

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Are tradeskills worthwhile in LOTRO?

Question

I am fond of tradeskills in MMOs, but games seem to be very hit and miss as far as what is actually worthwhile for players to take on. For instance, in WoW, engineering was pretty worthless while enchanting or alchemy were amazing.

I am looking for a brief overview as to what the actual professions in LOTRO can produce, and which are actually desirable by players.

If it makes a difference, I know there is some interdependence between the tradeskills and I will be playing fairly frequently with a friend so we will be able to, if necessary, pick complimentary vocations.

Answer

I've played a lot of MMOs and I've come to a conclusion that I find reinforced with each new game: the crafting that has the best bang for your buck is whatever is involved in making consumables. So in LotRO that's the historian. I don't find the weaponsmithing so useful--largely because of the cost of the ingredients versus what user-crafted stuff sells for--but the farmer and scholar can both rely on selling their stuff at the auction house without much trouble.

For example, each weekly batch of master-level athelas/celebrant potions I make cost me less than 200s but frequently bring in 1g (or more) at the AH with barely any effort on my part. And if I'm willing to make lower-level stuff--the oils for arrows in particular seem to sell well--then I can make even more money. But I find a quick and easy 1g a week more than pays for my efforts.

The tinker is probably the second best profession in light of the various tokens he can make, which are always needed for instances. And of all the items the various professions can make, it seems to me that I regularly sell high-end jewelry more easily than high-end armor, weapons, etc.

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What crafted items have the best sustainable profit margins in Rage?

Question

I was wondering, does anyone know which recipes have the highest sustainable profit margins in Rage? Specifically, recipes with ingredients I can repeatedly purchase from merchants.

Answer

After playing through, the best answer I can come up with is that there really isn't a recipe good for your personal economy. Instead, craft lots of wingsticks and pop rockets and go do a few rounds of Mutant Bash TV. You can average something like $600-$700 per episode.

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Do deeper Strata give more Crowns/Heat?

Question

In Spiral Knights I recently made it to Tier Two! This means I can adventure past the second stratum and into the third and fourth.

While I know that deeper strata means the possibilities for better material drops, do the deeper strata also reward, on average, more crowns and heat? I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to pay the fee to start deeper rather than adventure close to the surface and not "waste" any potential revenue getting to the lower depths in the first place.

Answer

Yes, every level of depth has more potential crowns and heat than the last. Mostly because of the more difficult monsters.

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What is the fastest way to get money?

Question

I'm playing Dragon Quest IX, and I'm at the part where I just got the boat. What is the fastest way to make a bunch of money? I need about 10,000 to buy the best equipment and grinding takes a really long time when you only get a few hundred per enemy.

Answer

Early on the game, the best technique is to fight the highest level monsters that you have access to.

Here are some more techniques:

• Gold Golems, which you can find in the ditch south of Gleeba, drop 505 gold each.
• Use Alchemy to make Ear Cosys (Fur Hood + Bunny Tail + Lambswool) and sell them. You can buy the ingredients at Slurry Quay (Fur Hood), Porth Llaffan (Bunny Tail) and Batsureg (Bunny Tail).
• Use Alchemy to make Gold Mails (Silver Mail + Gold Ring + Gold Bracer) and sell them. You can buy the ingredients at Bloomingdale (Silver Mail) and Porth Llaffan (Gold Ring and Gold Bracer).
• In mid level (Copper, Bronze, Steel, Silver, and Gold) Cave and Ruin grottoes, you might find Gem Jamborees - these are worth 1130 gold each, and drop Gleeban Gold Pieces or Gold Bars.
• In high level (Platinum, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire or Diamond) Ice (Snowhall, Tundra, Glacier) and Ruin (Crypt, Ruins, Path, Maze, Lair, World) grottoes, you might find Gem Slimes - these are worth 10080 gold each.

(Most of these techniques require finishing certain points of the game.)

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What to spend your credits on in Deus Ex: Human Revolution?

Question

I'm not that far through, and I'm already up to like 40k credits... and simply I don't know what to spend this on.

Things I would really like to buy are stun ammo, but I can't find anywhere that sells them, and then I would like to buy tranq darts, but again, I can't find anywhere to buy them. LIMB buildings only have 2 praxis kits and seem to sell out.

Plus I would like to buy those bars that give me energy, but can't find anywhere either. It seems like the game has not given me any way to spend my credits.

Answer

What to spend money on depends a lot on play style, but here are my suggestions, in priority order:

1. You need $50,000 to buy Praxis kits, period. Just make sure you have $10k available when you enter a new area; don't expect to have it all immediately.
2. General weapon mods, because they will always be useful. You don't really need more than three silencers or laser sights, however; there are only so many weapons to attach them to before your weapon choices start to get redundant.
3. EMP grenades, up to three or four, for bots, turrets, and cameras.
4. Energy bars, if they are for sale. The jar is very wasteful of inventory space, so I never buy any.
5. Special weapon mods, the ones that attach to only one or two specific named weapons. You often don't need to buy them, however; you can find them during normal exploration.

If you don't care about Ghost XP bonuses...

1. All the other kinds of grenades.
2. Ammunition, only if there is one weapon that you constantly use heavily. The most likely candidates are the Tranquilizer Rifle, Stun Gun, and Rocket Launcher; ammo for any of the three is rare, and there is no way you'll be able to use any of them as primary weapons without purchasing ammo.

The only weapon I ever thought about buying was the crossbow, because there seem to only be a handful in the game.

As a side note, mines and mine templates are very useful at the end of your first visit to Tai Yong Medical.

And if you are thinking that the game does not have enough ways to spend credits, you're right. Just use that as an excuse to be relatively free with them.

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