'Gold Farming' - Money From the Minter

I want to do a clear thread about actual methods of achieving good returns with the minter. Also some explicit information regarding spotting items that are frequently undersold.

There are several general threads about the chrysominter, and I wanted to start a thread with clear information about actual methods, not just mentioning items that are useful to mint or current prices.

First, some older threads:

I want to point out that anyone should be able to have access to a fully coiled chrysominter by their second or third day of gameplay, if making rapid coin is a priority for them:

I often reference a rambling post I made in one of those threads and mention farming for gleam as a way to make easy, endless money. The post is very conversational though and includes some unclear points and approximate data.

So I’ll start this off with a post clarifying the exact method I used for doing this, and sharing some hard numbers.

EDIT: I’m pasting in some useful data from deeper in the thread to save people having to dig through a bunch of posts complaining about this.

Stone doors:

  • Rock is 0.028c mint value
  • Stone is 0.028c mint value (0.056c per rock)
  • Plain stone doors are 1.4c mint value (0.243c per rock)

Wood Doors:

  • Trunk is 0.07c mint value
  • Timber is 0.028c mint value (0.056c per trunk)
  • Sticks are 0.014c mint value (0.056c per trunk)
  • Plain wood doors are 1.12c mint value (0.378c per trunk) <-???

I had to triple check my math there. Sigh I’m going to have to stop selling 0.1c trunk.

  • Crafting stone doors is a roughly 8x value multiplier.
  • Crafting wood doors is a roughly 5x value multiplier.
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OK - this post is about farming gleam for coins. I’ll try to keep from rambling.

First, Gearing Up:

I went to Nova Golda and bought this hammer for 3999 coins at Original Forgeries:

I bought this Persisting Pie for 199c at Noms 'n More (also Nova Golda):

I found a great deal on Mega Speed brews, 175c at the Iconcsville Plaza:

I also grabbed a bag of regen bombs. I sell these for 699 all over and you can find them cheaper. In the end I used 77 of 200 durability, I’m going to count this as 269c in cost. So total costs to gear up for this were:

  • 3999 for a Forged Diamond Hammer
  • 199c for a Persisting Pie
  • 535c for 3 Mega Speed Brews
  • 269c for Regen Bombs

This summarizes to

  • 5002c in Total Equipment Costs

I took this gear and my miner (max hammer skills, max zeal and durability drain epic) to a gleam ball set up for farming on serpensarindi. The planet is littered with these, already built into farms. Ask around if you can’t find one.

Second, The Technique

I used a vertical harvesting technique, which basically guarantees that I get 9 blocks of gleam every time i swing the hammer. With framerate and speed I occasionally hit the floor, but overall this technique is very efficient. Here’s a demonstration for anyone who doesn’t understand what I mean:

With this build a single persisting pie gives 45 minutes of duration, and matches with the three Mega brews. The lack of forged durability on this hammer means it should last almost exactly as long as the pie/brews. Here are some shots at several stages of the process:

End of First Mega Speed:

End of Second Mega Speed:

End of Hammer:

Pausing to drop gleam between speed brews and take screen shots meant that my hammer had 300 durability left when the persisting pie ran out. Since I was only there for the one hammer, I finished it out with no persist buff while I still had the speed buff on.

Third, Processing and Output

So this took almost exactly 45 minutes of gleam farming. Here are some numbers regarding the results. All coin values assume a fully powered chrysominter will be used.

Raw Gleam:

  • 49,812 raw gleam harvested
  • 0.42c per raw gleam minted
  • 20,921c returned if you mint raw gleam
  • 418.24% returned minting raw gleam

Refined Gleam:

  • ~69,183 refined gleam generated (49812 / 36 * 50)
  • 0.7c per refined gleam minted
  • 48,428c returned if you mint refined gleam
  • 968.17% return minting refined gleam

Plain Gleam Doors:

  • Approximately 17295 doors crafted (49812 / 144 * 50)
  • 7c per plain gleam door minted
  • 121,065c (gross value) minting plain gleam doors

Crafting the doors will require approximately 6.9m spark if you are uncoiled/no bonuses. With spark and wear level 2 I can do it for 1.9m spark on a 10-coiled refiner. This is an expense of roughly 127 compact hard coal, or 12,700c roughly in market value leaving me with:

  • 108,365c after expenses minting plain gleam doors
  • 2166% return if I mint plain gleam doors

So in summary, with these numbers it should be very clear that using this method alone you can pull over a million coin from the chrysominter with less than 12 hours of active gameplay gearing up, farming gleam, and queuing up mass crafts into 12 refiners.

This is based on 10 45 minute sessions being 7.5 hours, leaving you nearly half an hour per trip to grab some gear and toss the results into a refiner. These doors go 900 into a smart stack so minting 17k of them won’t take long.

The number of refiners you’re able to field will affect the wait time between harvesting the gleam and collecting the coins, but that doesn’t have to be spent sitting watching the refiners.

I hope this helps people to see that the chrysominter is not just a waste of time, or a garbage disposal. With these detailed instructions, any player should be able to get going on this by level 20. Feat and objective coffers alone will have given you more than the 5000c needed to get started by then.

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CORRUPTION FARMING

Corruption is a particularly minter-friendly block, minting at 1c per block. I don’t like corruption farming, the one time I went to try and farm shadow orbs this way I figured I could get them almost as fast and with less expense by harvesting them on Besevrona. That trip lasted all of 5 minutes. But I wasn’t concerned with the minter at that time.

Today I went back, and spent a good part of the day there. The results of my first run were mediocre, so I decided to try a different technique. This character is a fully skilled shovel harvester, with durability drain epic. Here are the details:

Round 1:

The Expenses:

  • 9000c 1x Forged Diamond Shovel (+20 dmg, 3x3, +1600 Durability)
  • 597c 3x Persisting Pie (199c @ Nova Golda)
  • 700c 4x Mega Speed Brew (175c @ Iconicsberg Plaza)
  • 129c Regen Bombs (37 durability @ 699c/bag)
    .
  • 10,426c Total Expenses

Some Notes:

  • I could have probably gotten a cheaper shovel. I have a bunch of these on the shelf from @AeneaGames and I knew I wouldn’t LOSE coin on this so I just grabbed one. A cheaper shovel (no dura) could have provided a similar ROI in a shorter session.

  • I used three pies and only 4 brews because this isn’t something I’m good at and I felt the extra speed might be causing me to waste some shovel durability. After I was sure I wouldn’t finish the tool in 2 pies anyways, I stopped using the mega speed.

You can see I’m no pro at this. I know someone who does this frequently, if he says my numbers are really bad, I’ll ask him if he’d be kind enough to log a run for me.

The Results:

  • Time on Task was nearly 2 hours and 30 minutes
  • 20235 corruption (28329c @ 1.4c Mint Value)
  • 1686 growth (944.16c @ 0.56c Mint Value)
  • 600 tangle (336c @ 0.56c Mint Value)

This a return of 29,609.16c in mintable blocks. Not Impressive.

  • 283% ROI

This is generally considered and orb farming activity. I didn’t want to include these as I would always keep them as loot and the point of this thread is to look at chrysominter output. Still, it’s an important part of deciding what to do with your time. These are approximate orb market values at the time of posting:

With Orbs Included

  • 1115 Shadow Orbs (31220c @ 28c Per Shadow)
  • 93 Shimmering Orbs (2604c @ 28c Per Shimmer)
  • 55 Vital Orbs (275c @ 5c Per Vital)

This is a return of 63708.16c counting orbs. Much more acceptable.

  • 611% ROI

This is slower but has a superior ROI to minting raw gleam.

I thought I might just be geared wrong for this, so I went back to try a different technique.

Round 2:

The Expenses:

  • 2400c 2x Clean Diamond Shovel
  • 59c 1x Starberry Pie @ Nova Golda
  • 525c 3x Mega Speed Brew (175c @ Iconicsberg plaza)
  • 59c Regen Bombs (17 dura @ 699/bag)
    .
  • 3043c Total Expenses

Some Notes:

  • You can see in the video I still wasn’t really comfortable at this activity

The Results:

  • Time on Task was 45 minutes
  • 4015 corruption (5621c @ 1.4c Mint Value)
  • 444 growth (248.64c @ 0.56c Mint Value)
  • 31 tangle (17.36c @ 0.56c Mint Value)

This is a return of 5887c in mintable blocks, still not impressive.

  • 193.4% ROI

I’m not sure if I just blew this one. I’ll include the orbs for a look at overall value:

With Orbs Included

  • 225 Shadow Orbs (6300c @ 28c Per Shadow)
  • 22 Shimmering Orbs (616c @ 28c Per Shimmer)
  • 1 Vital Orb (5c @ 5c Per Vital)

This is a return of 12808c counting orbs. Ugh. The AoE did a lot better.

  • 421% ROI

There’s not a lot to say here, I’ll ask my friend to look at these numbers. Tomorrow, a different block.

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Some essences minter sheets for reference in case anyone needs. Also, please let me know if you see an errors as they were just kinda thrown together. I added the fully powered minter values by request.

The original post in a different thread is here Economy discussion: for what items are you unable to get requests filled? - #63 by Soju-VB

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any spark costs in those calculations?

No, just identified in the fresh vital essence listing with an X in the S column if they need spark to make (and an X in the P if it needs power). These lists were really originally just for me, so rough draft / estimated value I guess.

I would think someone with better math / spreadsheet skills could make a much better listing… this is just what I had around :smirk:

Edit: did some quick calculations on spark costs (using this post as a baseline) for what I would think most people “might” convert for minting and the spark cost reduction in value per item seems to be in the .01 to .05 range for “me” doing the conversions. It would vary for others based on what they used for spark and power coils on the machines they are using to do the essence conversion.

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This is great and thanks for posting it here. Just as a matter of raising pricing awareness and also showing (with both values listed) the significant benefit or joining a group offering powered minter access at early stages of gameplay.

Some of us will be sorry if these and other prices really finally catch up to the minter :sob:

It’s all good though the point is definitely helping players get the most value out of their time and activities.

You don’t need spark or power to refine gleam which is the bonus about doing this.

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They may have be talking about the essence price sheet. As I don’t remember if you need spark for any of those. But nightstar mentioned which needed spark so I imagine it wasnt about his post

Tho I see he made a comment with an edit now mentioning spark cost which means the other question would be answered now if he rereads the comment

Yeah, likely this post will shift some prices for those that read it. Just as an example after I made the post I popped on to a few of the planets I normally shop on and this listing was available (not anymore :stuck_out_tongue:)

BloodExample

Buying 3600 of them at 2c each, then making them into essences (including the spark cost) comes out to a profit of 17,865 coin after minting for a few minutes of my time.

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Fascinating. anyone who says this game isn’t deep enough clearly isn’t playing the same game as others are.

But you do realize that by sharing this publicly, you’re bringing attention to the devs to nerf this? I doubt they want people to create coins this easily. Or maybe they do? Who knows…

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Yeah, and the minter values are something they can (and do) change. I think all of this has been said before in other posts a bit at a time, just maybe not collected in 1 as this post will do.

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Aye. Certain parts of this game is such a deep dive. Forging, farming, and throwing stuff into a trashcan , of all things. Who knew. I know some people want this game simplified but it’s stuff like this that facinates me. This is kinda like Eve-light but just more PG-13 and fewer spreadsheets involved. :grin:

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After posting the OP and reserving the second two posts it took me nearly an hour to compose and format that second post.

There will be a third post about getting to some decent gear from nothing. I just finished supper and I’m creating a completely new character now.

The coil requirements are a bigger deal than spark, for extracting from large fossils. However you can get the required coils for under 2k now, it’s not really a big deal.

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Another easy way to make money. Might not be as fast as this is tho. Farming growth or mould. As both shim orbs and pulsating orbs are really easy to sell. And both mould and growth mint decently(well growth does, can’t remember what mould is at). But this one requires either hunting for baskets to sell the orbs to or having a shop. Tho pulsating orbs sell fairly easily at 11c and shims are 25c move fairly fast too. And those would make up the difference on the lower cost of minting the growth/mould. But as you can farm these in t1 planets tool cost could be lower. And not as many skill points needed in different spots.

Oh also zero power or spark required on machines other than the minter but if joining a guild with one that’s covered already. And no other machine besides the minter needed.

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This post is beautiful!

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Right but with regards to the gleam I posted three separate options for cashing out. If you’ve built up some spark, the bonus for using it is considerable.

I’m going to be looking at how much you can make harvesting thorns on t1 in a bit. After that there’s an even better block I’ll get numbers for. For purposes of this thread I’ll be ignoring orb values but, they are undeniably a well paying part of farming any of these blocks.

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I think it’s just easier to go on a hunt for an hour and make 20k in coins from selling Oortstones rather than grind through the above endeavor

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The post on gleam farming is pretty long, and hopefully plenty detailed, enough for people to understand the entire process and as such it’s a long and probably boring read for people who aren’t really interested in it.

Gleam farming is a relatively safe, brainlessly easy way to churn out some coin that doesn’t depend on timing group activities, finding buyers for many types of loot, or many of the other things that turn people off of hunting, or even mining for coin. It really boils down to:

  • Tool Up
  • Portal/Warp To Farm
  • Hammer for a While
  • Refine Output
  • Collect 50k - 100k Per Hour of Activity

Personal preferences matter a lot. And it pretty much always seems easiest to just do what you’re used to. If you’re used to hunting and know where to find gear, etc… then yeah it’s pretty easy money. Especially if you need the animal drops as much as or more than the coin.

Nothing against hunting at all, I do it a couple times per week myself, most weeks. And plenty of people say that it’s the “best way to make money” in the game. But a lot of people don’t like it, and they’re not really aware of another reliable way to make good coin in a short period of time.

Plus there are also always people saying that the minter is basically useless, the coils are decorations, etc… so I felt it was worth making the post for a couple of reasons.

I tend to think, based on reading james’ comments and some of the other devs over time, that they want people to have fun, while still offering a range of activities.

This is simple but as you noted above it’s not really for everybody. And it still requires some investment in time, and either in setup or in social interaction to enable this sort of optimal result. Even if it’s relatively low time on task there are also some moderate to heavy time-gates on the output as well.

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Yeah I don’t want to be that guy lol but I don’t like this.
I get that it’s doable and it’s impressive to have worked out the math but I’m building shops left right and centre to try and make coin and this seems to demean that a little… I get that the minter is there to be used and you’re not doing anything wrong. Just my opinion :slight_smile:

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