Guild Wars 2

Not a thread about exploits. I’m a very casual player, so is my wife, and I’m not really that great at making cash in games. I thought I’d ask if anyone had any tips as to making some quick gold/silver, especially since travel is now 3s+ per waypoint at level 80 (far too high, IMO).

Any “trick” that doesn’t involve dungeon and DE spamming will be worthless 24 hours after being posted here.

Then PM it to me or something.

Hell, it could even be as simple as “hoard Orichalcum and then sell it in a huge batch.” I’m open to any ideas here.

Sell EVERYTHING.

Equipment (except for Gold and Yellow) to vendors, resources and the remaining equipment on the Trade Post.

Sounds simple, but unless you enjoy ‘playing’ the TP (aka buying and reselling for profit), that is really the best way to go about it. Play the game, do whatever you enjoy, and anything that drops on the way, sell.

Also, never waypoint. Those costs rack up really fast. If you have to travel really far, you can go to the Heart Of The Mists through your sPvP interface (for free), once there enter the portal to Lion’s Arch (for free) and once in LA, grab a portal to the nearest Capital (also for free).

In addition to what Ten said:

Greens sometimes have value to players; it is worth checking the TP value for those as well, but expect to make more sellign to a vendor in most cases.

Always use the free portals unless you are really strapped for time. Free portal to LA is generalyl useful for end-of-day activities. If you aren’t strapped for time, consider walking to your destination—explroation and such on the way has its rewards, too.

Learn how to convert crafting materials in the mystic forge and buy/sell as appropriate. Effectively, this is converting skill points to coin.

When using the TP, remember that supply tends to be highest at the end of the weekend, while supply tends to be its least just before the weekend starts.

Over time it feels as if my income has increased, but what really happened is my expenses dwindled—I have more resources on-hand so I buy fewer, plus I don’t actually need upgrades any more.

Sent you a PM Vince

Thanks for the advice, all of you. I currently have 2g on my 80 Norn Warrior and with 7 alts to feed, that isn’t much. I think my major problem is that I don’t really know how to work the TP, and that all I know about the Mystic Forge is that it’s the big glowing tornado toilet in Lion’s Arch. Everyone keeps telling me it’s a potential cash cow but to me it’s just that place where the Genie steals my items.

Merch items, buy low sell high. You just need to watch the prces on several items over the course of several days and you can tell if its worth it or not.

I have the same problem, I can’t seem to make money. I have tried farming Orr events but lack the AoE on my mesmer to compete with the bots. I maxed weaponsmithing because I’d heard crafting rares for people chasing precursors was profitable… it isn’t, I make back the cost of materials but that’s it. Crafting, my MMO stand by for money, is a huge money pit in GW2. I tried buying and reselling on the TP but I guess I’m doing it wrong because I only made about 2 silver. I have never had this sort of trouble in a game and I don’t know what to do. After about 4 days I finally made enough to buy an exotic weapon. And now I’m broke again. I wish I knew what to do. I’m having a lot less fun than I should be because I can’t afford anything.

“it’s just that place where the Genie steals my items.”

An accurate assessment. Basically, I would only ever use the Mystic Forge for guaranteed recipes. Using it like a casino in the hopes of getting valuable items is a surefire way to lose money over the long term.

My advice for earning money, especially at lower levels, is:

1. Never Waypoint anywhere. Those costs can add up very quickly if you’re constantly teleporting around. If you need to travel back to a main city, use the Heart of the Mists free transport that others have mentioned.

2. Don’t repair your armor until ALL of them are damaged. You don’t suffer any defensive penalty until armor starts breaking, and chances are you’ll replace your old armor with new drops before it gets to that point. If you have any Instant Repair Canisters from Black Lion Chests, use those once all of your armor is damaged instead of paying for repairs.

3. Buy one of every gathering tool and harvest EVERYTHING you come across. This is especially true at lower levels, where a single use of a Copper tool costs less than 0.3 copper, and the return on the item can be many times that. Copper ore, for instance still sells for around 10 – 15 copper on the TP, which means that for the 24 copper you spent on a Copper Mining Pick, you earned back 1000 – 1500 copper (minus taxes).

4. In general, you’ll want to salvage all white and blue items for their materials. Light armor in particular is especially profitable, since low-level light armor gives Jute scraps which are consistently in high demand. For Green and higher items, have a look to see whether the item itself or the upgrade components on it are considered valuable on the Trading Post. If they are, sell the item, or salvage the rune/sigil and sell the upgrade on the TP; if not, just merch the item.

hey vince! just wanna ask a quick question – what will be your use of proceeds? and depending on that, there are multiple ways to make gold. note – i don’t make gold super fast, but very surely and steadily.

just some quick hints, sorry for any repeats in the thread. and like FIldy said, a lot of this works IRL. cut costs, and naturally you’ll see your gold amass.

Note, i ask what you want the gold for because for me, i am saving for a legendary so i need both mats AND gold. i figured if i sold all my mats, i could make a lot more gold, but alas. the same with ecto’s, i salvage for them in hopes of getting them. but if you don’t need them, just sell them if you do come across them.

- check out the TP and i like to take note of which items are most demanded / most traded
- salvage all white items (even leather items) and sell mats. gossamer can sell for quite a bit
- blue / green items i always vendor. with green items though i always check the TP and see if they go for decent amount above vendor price (including fees). then start to recognize which types of items go for more
- yellow, TP or salvage depending on glob of ectoplasm prices and how lucky you feel. level 68+, 70+ to be safe can yield 0-3 ectoplasms, which sell for a bit on the TP. if my yellow is near or above ONE ecto price, i’ll usually just sell it though. also check the sigil or runes to see if they’re highly desired, if so, use a Black Lion salvage kit, and go for a chance of ectos to sell
- exotics, again, depending, you can sell. i tend to NOT salvage these but supposedly they can yield more ectos as well. also, remember to take note of the sigil / runes

- note how much you spend on traveling / repairs. if you WvW a lot, if you REALLY want, when downed, you can take all your armor off before you die. lol, i don’t do this though

- i’m not a big fan of the mystic forge, but some people can and have made a profit from it. do a little research there are a bunch of guides out there that have recipes and you can take a look at what you have and CAN generate

- if you like running dungeons, there’s always a chance for lodestones, and or cores. destroyer, charged, corrupted, etc etc all sell for quite a bit. molten and glacial are on the low ends.

- wear an MF set! i have a rare explorer’s set with 5 superior pirate runes and 1 superior traveler rune. along with green (masterwork) jewelry; i got a bunch of MF% increasing food as well; and don’t be afraid to use MF boosters if you have them available if you know you’re goign to go on a run – helps with chances to drop better loot so you can sell. there are also food out there that gives +MF% and +gold%

just general guidelines that i run to slowly increase my gold. i don’t get to play a whole lot either, but i don’t do impulsive buys, my gold inscreases at a decent rate. : ))) hope this helps! not the best way to make gold perhaps, but it’s working for me.

- wear an MF set! i have a rare explorer’s set with 5 superior pirate runes and 1 superior traveler rune. along with green (masterwork) jewelry; i got a bunch of MF% increasing food as well; and don’t be afraid to use MF boosters if you have them available if you know you’re goign to go on a run – helps with chances to drop better loot so you can sell. there are also food out there that gives +MF% and +gold%

yh indeed however… first I need to find money from somewhere to actually get a set like this XD

Be a cheap kitten! This is how I reached lvl 80 with 16 gold in my pocket!

As others mentioned, walk everywhere and harvest everything you see in the mini-map. Do the DE’s around you, explore the maps to 100%. Sell the crafting mats you don’t use on the TP. Try not to die as much as possible, and wait for other players to rez you to avoid wp costs.

As for what to vendor or salvage, everyone has there own methods when it comes to this. For me, I set a value limit, anything below a certain value I salvage, anything above I vendor or goes on the TP.

Since I am cheap (salvage kits cost! ) at lower levels I set my vendor/salvage value at 20 copper. Very low, but since I was harvesting everything on the map, mats were not a problem. At around level 40, I raised the vendor/salvage to 30 copper, and still use this at lvl 80!

As for kit, never bought a single piece of kit (weapons/armour/accessories) until lvl 61. If I really needed something, I used karma vendors to save on gold. I up-graded with what I found in loot drops. When I bought Berserker armour at lvl 61 off the TP it was all ‘blues’. At lvl 72, I sold that and again bought ‘blue’ Berserker kit. This got me to lvl 80.

Then I sold some gems for an additional 5 gold, to bring my lvl 80 stash to 21 gold, and went on a major spending spree – full set of Berserker exotic armour, and 2 exotic weapons ..

lol, fair enough. i did pretty much have no funds left after i invested into this set. and i had to do it bit by bit of course. but it paid off in the end! and still paying off now ; )))

i did sort of list it last, as the other points i mentioned before hand helped me accumulate enough to do so XDD

Sell all tradeskill materials and sell all gear that you do not use. These two functions alone can make me 1 gold per day playing only 2-3 hours in the evening. I’m level 55.

akamon.2769:

hey vince! just wanna ask a quick question – what will be your use of proceeds? and depending on that, there are multiple ways to make gold.

My three biggest things are my alts, my wife’s alts, and my craftsmanship skills. I’ve never maxed out a Craft in any MMO, so hitting 400 Weaponsmithing was a big deal for me. Armorsmithing is next, but I want to be able to fund my other characters and buy nice gear for my wife and her characters when I want to. I’m not looking to craft a Legendary or stockpile Exotics (barring the Exotic weapons I make when the mats add up— those are fun), I just want to be able to have a stable financial footing across my whole account.

Sabo.1485:

I have the same problem, I can’t seem to make money.
[snip] After about 4 days I finally made enough to buy an exotic weapon. And now I’m broke again.

As a note, its very possible that ANet considers 4 days to be a reasonable length of time to accumulate funds for an exotic weapon. If you got everything you wanted at level 80, armor, weapons, jewelry, etc. in 4 days, what would you do for the next 6 months?

So far my experience with the TP is that you can make money at it by watching what things sell well and doing a lot of tracking of what it costs to make them, but frankly you can probably do as well per hour by getting to 80 and playing and selling stuff. I do it because after at least 20 hours invested I think I’ve found a couple of niches I hope to earn some cash at while not playing, and I’m lucky to average 6 hours/week of actual play time (i.e. sessions longer than 10 minutes) so it will be awhile to 80.

Very interesting thread and info. I think, since this is a ‘free to play’ system, and there is a cash shop available, funds in game is not an easily attainable item. Companies like ANet need to make money somehow so it is expected that some players will pay $ for gold, therefore getting gold in game is harder then on a P2P system.
I played Aion before GW2 and money in game was never an issue even though I had to pay for arrows all the time…
Despite of that, GW2 is an awesome, the best game out today!!!