'Gold Farming' - Money From the Minter

General
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Personally, I’ve actually never fully performed this process for coin. I guess I could have mentioned that in response to @deenw’s post earlier :rofl: The gleam from my session today is actually sitting in chests at my workshop right now.

The grind of actually processing this sort of material is something I don’t enjoy and do only on an as-needed basis, to stock my shops. My rock shop is dying because I can’t stand the table/refiner clicking grind.

And I produce a tremendous surplus of trunk which I’ve been selling for barely over minter price because I would prefer to drag it over to shop stands and try to find people who need it rather than throwing it on the ground. I frequently mint the raw trunk because I literally can’t be bothered to click hundreds of times on crafting tables churning it into timber so i can click hundreds of more times refining it into doors.

deenw posted that they would rather hunt, and it meets their coin needs. There are plenty of reasons that people just won’t be doing this.

I run several shops, and I have a ton of this gleam in stock for block making at a pretty low (in the market) price. This is the reason that I actually have a farming platform set up. I sell the refined gleam for 1c each, which sells somewhat slowly, or in occasional large batches. This nets me profits on the gleam somewhere in between the method of minting refined gleam, and minting doors.

Right now my shop stands are already full so I have a ton of excess from this session, I might make some doors.

To be honest, there are a lot of people in this game that dont have any or all of the following:

  • Time to participate in multiple aspects of gameplay
  • Interest in participating in multiple aspects of gameplay
  • Desire to run a shop
  • Understanding of the economy and/or loot management in boundless

Even with the shop scanner added, trying to find buyers alone seems to be a large obstacle (source of complaints) for people that want to consider themselves “pure builders” but are willing to put in some time gathering materials.

Basically I see this as a way for players who wouldn’t otherwise be able (or interested), to get coins for spending in your shops and mine. I’m happy to do the more complex grind or crafting processes and produce the materials that builders need.

It’s not my favorite (I don’t enjoy building the shops), but I’m ok with getting them out into shop stands and making it known that they are available for the people that need them.

Hmm I’ve spent way too long trying to frame my meaning into something understandable, I think. But I see this as providing a better way to participate in the economy that you want to nurture for many players, while providing an outlet for certain other forces that would otherwise bring negative pressure onto the markets.

:man_shrugging:

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A good point, and if I’m honest I don’t know why it bothers me. I guess it does mean more coin in potential customers pockets to buy things from my shop!

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indeed :smiley: they need more money to spend at my shop too :slight_smile:

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It’s the sole reason the devs included the minter don’t you think?

If they wouldn’t want us to make quick coin they would not have added it.

Besides, why would we want to keep things a secret for other players?

Yep, and not much has changed with the minter prices. Some have been adjusted but not all that many really.

@deenw:
Thing is also, the minter prices have to make sense, if they now start to make sure gleam gives as much coin no matter if you throw it in raw or heavily processed then it really does not make much sense either. You also invest spark and lots of time to make tons of essence and/or gleam doors from the raw materials as presented here!

So I don’t think we need to be worried about ‘nerfs’ on this…

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This is a rather tedious way to make coin.

I knew about this, but by seeing Nightstar’s numbers I quickly had a thought after checking the earnings of my new concrete shop that I’m crazy to be doing the concrete thing since this gleam method seems way, way more lucrative!

But…

It’s boring as all heck!!! :joy:

So I rather run my different shops since it makes sure I do like 10 different things to make my coin instead of a repetitive thing like this! :slight_smile:

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hope not time to rethink our old training station :joy:

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The minter is our first Boundless “NPC” that “buys” our junk. It establishes a base, minimum value for everything we collect, which is a good thing. I used to regularly skim the auction house in World of Warcraft, buy everything selling for less than vendor price and make easy money.

And yes, the devs will absolutely nerf this if it becomes popular. That’s just how Boundless works. Any time something appears to make our lives remotely easier, it gets nerfed:

Bomb Mining; Forging; Footfall; Rock Exp; Block Place/Smash/Place exp (cooldown added); You used to get XP for chiseling blocks while you mined; The War on Fun in general

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Good thing then this method isn’t exactly easy :wink:

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I think gleam gathering is too good because it gives much XP and minting value is ok.

In your example you are using diamond hammer but I would use use ruby hammers if you collect gleam in Serpensarindi because those have more base speed and durability. To me also super fast brews feem to be enough, if those are easier to get than mega ones :slight_smile: .

If player needs xp refining gleam is really nice way to do after gathering gleam, and minting could be just byproduct to keep mindless xp hoarding.

I did some xp mining test some months ago with gleam and it seems to be very good. I suppose crazy players could keep pace on gaining 10x 50+levelups in hour with pies, and this would be only gleam gathering xp (refining xp is about same):smiley:

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I totally understand why it feels a bit shameless to use the minter to make a bunch of coin. But i will definitely be trying this out, if only to get a cash infusion once in a while.

I just opened my first shop and i understand it takes a lot to run it. Building an attractive design, advertising, keeping it stocked, etc. I’ve been working on it for probably a week already and really just been focused on getting it set up.

It’s nice to feel like I’m participating in the economy. But i haven’t yet recouped my investment. And to be honest I spent way more coin getting the blocks to build and set up the shop and it’s only a 1x3 pop up shop at Dk Mall.

Took me a week of crafting what I had saved in my stock, and then 50k plus buying what i needed to make the rest of the shop stands, marbles, mosaics etc.

Over time i think it will be great to be able to manage a shop and add items and/or coin into the economy. But i need a way to be able to participate. I need to be able to buy some stuff from the rest of you to keep my shop running.

I can’t really align my schedule with hunts so that’s out. I can farm beans for an hour and sell to request baskets but that’s maybe 10-15k. If i can farm gleam for 45 mins - then pop it into the refinery before bed and make 50k tomorrow. I will definitely give this a try.

This will give me the funds to buy enough of your things to actually build something with. I’d like to be able to say “Yea, go ahead and buy 500 of those pretty blocks for 200c” because i know i can make that coin back tomorrow.

I want to participate, and i think something like this will be an economic stimulus for me. Like tax returns :slight_smile:.

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Never feel ashamed for any method of making coin lol. In every other game ever, the loop is, “Get a bunch of stuff, sell to NPC, rinse and repeat.”

Money is kinda weird and hard to get in general in Boundless.

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If enough people do this, inflation is gonna kick in hard.

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So true.

That video is crazy, that’a a giant gleam ball. The one I use is almost exactly the radius of a regen bomb. Thanks for adding some efficiency suggestions.

I grabbed diamond because it’s common and i knew right where to go to get a fairly inexpensive one that would serve for this. By the end it should be clear that the coins are there to support using even the most expensive tools, without needing to panic over how much it costs to do it.

The reason that I go on about stuff like this is twofold. I want to address two common misconceptions:

  • I can’t afford (forged items) (exo trips) (nice blocks) (whatever …)

and

  • The chrysominter is (useless) (decoration) (status symbol) (whatever …)

That might be OK. At the moment there is already a bit of inflation, but it’s also resulting in a good amount of income inequality and there seems to be more comments about “rich or poor” than are necessary in a game like this.

There are plenty of ways to make money in game. A miner can bring in returns like this, in similar time. Hunting is plenty lucrative for a lot of players,and it brings in much needed items to the economy. People appreciate it. Gathering has the best ROI of any profession still, even though it’s a little slower.

Very few people that are already comfortable with their gameplay are going to stop everything and start farming gleam full time. It is boring, and I’ve also skimmed over the time gating, focusing on what I referred to as “time on task”. The single session above requires:

  • 575+ uncoiled machine-hours for refining

Or

  • 860+ uncoiled machine-hours making doors

The spark requirements to make the doors are not negligible. They’re obviously compensated in ROI and I published some numbers above showing how much they can be cut by epic skills, guild buff, and all - but this batch would still cost me nearly 2 million spark.

So this is a way to make fair money, in short sessions, over time. It’s not like an instant flood of coin. The players that aren’t already flush with time or interest to gather spark are more likely to be refining the gleam and minting it than crafting it all into doors.

Also this is a grind and people who already don’t like to grind, well, don’t like to grind. Most of them won’t be doing this kind of thing any more than they need to fund specific activities.

Also after watching that video, some people might end up doing this for cubits over coin. It’s still profitable, but nothing like the numbers posted above using persist.

I first posted about this in June. @FireAngelDth added then about refining into doors, which I wasn’t aware of. Someone else mentioned making them into poles or another item, which required some essence but also added to the returns. @almund and I had some discussion about gleam farms (I think in the same thread) at the time as well, he was already leveling this way. The video he linked above was posted in July.

So gleam farming isn’t a new technique, and it isn’t exactly a secret. But it’s one of those things that just hasn’t been pulled together into a single source of clear information and presented end-to-end.

This post will hopefully result in more players finding the coin they need to enjoy the game. It’s not imbalanced, it’s just a different balance, as it depends on your solo effort and investment rather than the whims of “the economy” and requires time waiting rather than time spent actively scouring for buyers or managing a shop.

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Aren’t basic stone doors no spark and an alright return on minting? Pain crafting up a ton of stone, only overhead is a tool to mine and spanners to repair?

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Stone doors:

  • Rock is 0.028c mint value
  • Stone is 0.028c nimt 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.

These numbers don’t really justify a full time farming operation on their own. However since these are both common byproducts of other activities, it’s worth taking the time to follow through with the crafting if you are trying to maximize your coin.

There are a wider range of multipliers involved with essence but they demonstrate this same principle with regard to the chrysominter.

The chrysominter rewards you in coin and experience for taking extra time to process your materials. With the exception of certain blocks crafting raw materials is not the best way to use it.

EDIT For consistency with the rest of my posts I edited these values to reflect the fully coiled minter values.

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I doubt this tactic will be as popular as some that Krollbar listed. So probably wouldn’t worry too much about the nerfhammer coming down. Especially when coils are hard to find right now. Anybody know what a decent price is for mint coils?

Do the devs manually adjust the mint numbers or they do have their own formula which adjust itself on a certain time period?

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I wonder what the time vs money argument would do to your gleam numbers, if you use a starberry pie instead.

You’ll go through more hammers, but you’ll get gleam quicker, so you could pop in a few more trips. Doing this over a certain amount of time, i wonder which pie would be preferable.

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Add in the durability epic with the star berry pie. Not sure if have the epic on your miner in OP

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I tend to worry more about xp than I do coin, so I may have to look at what the return would be making charcoal with the trees in comparison to processing it into wood doors xp wise. Plus it takes about a 1/10 of the time to just shove them into furnaces with coal already in them.

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I think they said they get data reports on what’s being minted, and if they see something has a little too much return they manually dial it back. But you almost have to specifically go out and mine mint fodder because aside from fossils nothing useful gives a decent return. Or if you use it as a trash can, then any coin is just a bonus.

But even if a few people mint 100,000c per day, that’s still nothing compared to the mountains of coin footfall used to generate. I don’t really see the minter causing problems, and even if prices suddenly doubled the economy would still be in a good spot.

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