29 replies to this topic

[Ceer]

I'm creating this post because I tend to keep saying the same things over and over again to different people.

There are a few things you will need to start your adventure off on the right track, and one of these is money. A player with money, knowledge, and friends will always fare better over time than one who doesn't.

This post will deal with the first one...money. Ragnarok Online is a game where most of the best gears are neither character bound, nor account bound. This means that they're tradeable. Making zeny, the medium of trade, is desirable because you'll want your characters properIy geared for the situations you take them into.





Step 1: Humble Beginnings

Everyone in RO starts with no money, no experience, and are only equipped with a knife and a shirt. Your first, and most basic task is to pick up all the loot you find. In the beginning, this is important because it helps you get on your feet quickly. If you're the first or only person to kill something, the loot is yours by right. For now, just take everything and store it when you go overweight.

It's okay to start on a class that can't sell or make zeny particularly well if that's the way you really like to play the game. Your second character particularly should be one that is good at selling or gathering items because all of the best leveling and pvp methods of the game require a net loss of income.






Step 2: Vending

There are 2 classes that are good for this. If you want to play a well rounded general character with many random abilities besides the vending, go for the super novice. They take a little bit of effort to level at first, but with a friend or 2, they're doable. If you would rather dedicate your character slot to vending and have other characters pick up other tasks, or if you want the abilities of a blacksmith or alchemist, then make a merchant.

After you pick your vendor character, go ahead and take a trip through southern Prontera to see what people are selling. Then take a look in your storage and see if you can't find something that people seem to be selling. For everything else, go here:

Ragial

It should give you a good idea about what to sell and for what price. Some items can be purchased on the market and resold in other towns, or even field maps around the game, providing convenience to other players.





Step 3: Item Finding

Item drop rates apply equally to all characters in the game. Some characters are more equal than others though. The best characters for item finding are rogues because they can auto-steal from monsters they're engaged in close-quarters fighting with. And hunters because of their high attack power, ability to use elements, and ability to attack from range quickly. Each of these characters has its merits.

After you pick your item finder, go and pick out an item that he's good at getting and go for it. Below is a listing of maps with many items that can be gotten in bulk and sold off at a considerable profit. With them are the minimum levels your character needs to be to get the items in bulk easily. This list is brief, but not exhaustive. For a more thorough list, go down to "Full List of Creation Reagents".

Item Map Level Range

Items for WoE/WoE2

• Trunk - Dokebi/ Greatest General Map AKA pay_fild10 - 30+ Archer, 50+ Rogue
• Panacea - Eddga Map AKA pay_fild11 - 60+ Hunter, 45+ Rogue
• Yggdrasil Seed - Gators Map AKA cmd_fild01 - 45+ Hunter, 40+ Thief
• Yggdrasil Berry - Yggdrasil Trunk AKA yggdrasil01 - 60+ Hunter, 45+ Rogue
• Strawberry - Wolves Map AKA pay_fild02 - 25+ Archer, 25+ Thief
• Blue Herb - Yggdrasil Trunk AKA yggdrasil01 - 60+ Hunter, 45+ Rogue
• Orange - Peco Map AKA moc_fild02 - 25+ Archer, 20+ Thief
• Yellow Gemstone - Drillers Map AKA ein_fild02 - 60+ Hunter, 60+ Rogue
  
• Red Gemstone - Drillers Map AKA ein_fild02 - 60+ Hunter, 60+ Rogue

Alchemists Need These:

• Stem - Mandragora Map AKA prt_fild02 - 10+ Archer, 20+ Thief
• Blue Herb - Yggdrasil Trunk AKA yggdrasil01 - 60+ Hunter, 45+ Rogue
• Poison Spore - Poison Spore/Ambernite Map AKA mjolnir_07 - 30+ Archer, 20+ Thief
• Immortal Heart - Pyramid Basement 1 AKA moc_pyrd05 - 60+ Hunter, 45+ Rogue
• Cactus Needle - Muka Field AKA moc_fild08 - 25+ Archer, 20+ Thief
• Fabric - GH Churchyard AKA gl_chyard - 60+ Hunter, 65+ Rogue
• Empty Bottle(Ymir Only) - Most Early Maps - 1+ Novice

Assassin Crosses Need These:

• Karvodailnirol - Poison Spore/Ambernite Map AKA mjolnir_07 - 30+ Archer, 20+ Thief
• Cactus Needle - Muka Field AKA moc_fild08 - 25+ Archer, 20+ Thief
• Bee Sting - Hornet Field AKA prt_fild00 - 10+ Archer, 15+ Thief
• Poison Spore - Poison Spore/Ambernite Map AKA mjolnir_07 - 30+ Archer, 20+ Thief

Sages/Scholars Need These:

• Scorpion Tail - Dimensional Gorge AKA moc_fild20 - 40+ Archer, 40+ Thief
• Rainbow Shell - Horn/Stainer Map AKA mjolnir_06 - 35+ Archer, 25+ Thief
• Snail's Shell - Poison Spore/Ambernite Map AKA mjolnir_07 - 30+ Archer, 20+ Thief
• Horn - Horn/Stainer Map AKA mjolnir_06 - 35+ Archer, 25+ Thief
• Cobweb - Argos Map AKA mjolnir_10 - 35+ Archer, 40+ Thief
  

Leveling Items (Premium Only): http://irowiki.org/w...able_EXP_Quests

• Dokebi Horn - Dokebi/ Greatest General Map AKA pay_fild10 - 50+ Hunter, 45+ Rogue
• Frill - Border of Papuchica Forrest AKA cmd_fild05 - 50+ Hunter, 45+ Rogue
• Sharp Leaf - Moscovia Dungeon 1 AKA mosc_dun01 - 45+ Hunter, 50+ Rogue
• Anolian Skin - Gators Map AKA cmd_fild01 - 45+ Hunter, 40+ Thief
  

Major items to look out for:

Sometimes, equipments or cards drop. These really should be individually priced. For weapons/armor, if you have something drop that's better than what you're currently using, or the same as what you're using, but with more card slots, go ahead and use it. For older stuff, check the market value and see if it's not worth vending. Remember, an item's NPC value isn't a very good indicator of its usefulness. If something can be sold to another player, it always fetches a higher price...sometimes by ten times or more! As for cards, If you need them, go ahead and use them. Be sure to upgrade your equipment BEFORE slotting cards on, especially if you try to over-up your equips. That way, if your equipment breaks, you don't loose the card too. If you don't need a card, you can keep it for another character, or sell it on your merchant.



On some maps, there really are things that you should teleport from when you first see them. Also, there's usually more than 1 map to find the monster you're looking for. If you find it difficult/pricey/time consuming/annoying to get to one map, try another. You can look up alternate map locations here:

Amesani

I won't list the exact prices of each item because it varies from server to server, and even week to week in some cases. Prices normally rise and fall as various aspects of the game go in and out of fashion. A good merchant knows to buy items when they're cheap, and sell when they're expensive.

Full Lists of Creation Reagents:
Anything here can probably be sold to another player. The lists are lengthy and items typically go in and out of popularity for both hunting and consuming. If you're leveling in an area, it may be a good idea to cross reference items you're collecting with items here in case they can be sold off in bulk.
Archer: Arrow Crafting
Alchemist: Potion Creation
Blacksmith: Axes, Daggers, Swords, 2 Hand Swords, Maces, Knuckles
Sage: Create Elemental Converter
Assassin Cross: Create Deadly Poison



Step 4: Making Friends

A large portion of the game is devoted to making and maintaining meaningful relationships. This applies to Player Versus Environment, Player Versus Player, and economic activities. Expanding your circle of friends will help provide you with an edge over the competition in bringing your products to market or finding the products you need. Also, friends can help you hunt more difficult monsters with better drops, even MVP bosses.

Edited by Ceer, 09 August 2010 - 03:14 AM.

[Kagrra]

Just as a suggestion, because it's needed by Alchemists and they're really easy to get on Mages or Archers; Maneater Blossoms.
And there's Heart of Mermaid, once again, for Alchemists. And Large Jellopies.
I just think adding those would be helpful. :> And it gives more easy options for people to sell.

This has a lot of stuff in it too and a lot of them are fairly easy to get.

Just helping. :<

Edited by Kagrra, 22 July 2010 - 09:49 AM.

[Meshif]

You didn't list stuff that blacksmiths need to make weapons?

[Kagrra]

You didn't list stuff that blacksmiths need to make weapons?

Yeah! Blacksmith stuff is great to sell.
Those are in the link I posted, btw. :>

[Ceer]

Just as a suggestion, because it's needed by Alchemists and they're really easy to get on Mages or Archers; Maneater Blossoms.
And there's Heart of Mermaid, once again, for Alchemists. And Large Jellopies.
I just think adding those would be helpful. :> And it gives more easy options for people to sell.

This has a lot of stuff in it too and a lot of them are fairly easy to get.

Just helping. :<

All of them decent suggestions. I appreciate you taking the time to make suggestions. I know about them all, and their uses. It's been a while since I've looked at them, so I headed over to Ragial. I'll address each item in turn

Heart of Mermaid:
Surprisingly, the highest of the 3 seems to be heart of mermaid...by a significant margin. I managed to keep a few during the pirate event while looking for Squid Ink. Looks like it paid off a little without me knowing. I'd hunt to sell, or use to make reagents and sell reagents.

Maneater Blossom:
Of course, if you're already leveling a Mage or Archer at Floras/Geos, you'll want to price all their loot at ragial.com. It's been typical that anyone who solos a ranged class will end up with many thousands of Maneater Blossoms, and the use of Plant Bottles has declined since the OD2/Bomber bubble a few years ago. Based on the prices on Ragial, that balance may be shifting back towards the favor of the item hunter. Overall, still not a great item to hunt, but you could definitely do worse. I'd probably buy, pick up if you see them, but don't go out of your way.

Large Jellopy:
Not really going up in price noticeably...but still worth hanging onto in case you need them for potting or event quests. Pick them up if you see them, but not really worth its own hunting trip.

On RMS...I'm not sure we should be promoting the site. Although most of its information is good, it's based on eAthena (low rate pserver), rather than Aegis(official server), which means wherever the 2 differ, you're up a creek. The previous forums had hyperlinks to RMS blocked because the site promotes pserver activity.

I'd probably put up a link to the corresponding iROWiki or ROCards pages instead.

The point of my thread is to provide a detailed, but not overwhelming introduction to hunting for profit in a way new players can understand...not as a comprehensive list of all items that can be vended for more than sell-to-npc value. I'll be sure to add the Heart of Mermaid, and I'll keep a closer watch on the other items.

You didn't list stuff that blacksmiths need to make weapons?

A good suggestion. Steel is useful in woe, not just in making weapons.

Iron - Don't go out of your way for it, but snag it if you're in the area.
Steel - Good to sell, but hard to find for newer players
Coal - This is good to sell and easier to get for newer players.

I think I'll just add Coal, but I'll create a link so that people can more easily find a comprehensive list of creation reagents.

[Kagrra]

On RMS...I'm not sure we should be promoting the site. Although most of its information is good, it's based on eAthena (low rate pserver), rather than Aegis(official server), which means wherever the 2 differ, you're up a creek. The previous forums had hyperlinks to RMS blocked because the site promotes pserver activity.

Good point. I didn't think of that. :/
I keep forgetting about the pservers on there since I just use RMS for reference.
I'll edit my post.

Edited by Kagrra, 22 July 2010 - 09:47 AM.

[D111]

Awesome you Put this back up... Great...

[Witch]

Cobwebs - Argos located 2 maps north of Prontera
Cactus Needles - Mukas located 2 maps south of Morroc

You can kill both monsters using a mage with Firewall for Argos and Fire Bolt for Mukas or a rogue with Gank

[D111]

This should be Pinned...

[Ceer]

@Witch

Both good suggestions. The Cactus Needle was already up under both Sinx and Alchemist because they both need them. I added the Cobwebs to the Sage section which I renamed Sage/Scholar. I have archers surviving on that map at level 35 and Thieves at level 40.

@Everyone
Mages will tend to follow the Archer leveling requirements +/- 5 levels or so.

[D111]

MOD, Pin this Please...

[Xerox]

useful information Ii will bring It to practice when I can play more.
I want it pin too^

[CatMuto]

Good tips - do these work just as well for Valk as they do for Ymir?
Considering the lower Drop Rate/Selling Price, it's harder to get to money. (which, may I add, doesn't really make the game seem appealing enough for payment)

C-A

[Ceer]

The information here will work for Valkyrie...to an extent. You're not going to get super rich hunting your own items on Valkyrie like you would on Ymir. What you will do, is make enough zeny to buy some basic gears and cards so that you can level higher and start hunting the big stuff, where you'll make more money.

[CatMuto]

The information here will work for Valkyrie...to an extent. You're not going to get super rich hunting your own items on Valkyrie like you would on Ymir. What you will do, is make enough zeny to buy some basic gears and cards so that you can level higher and start hunting the big stuff, where you'll make more money.

Problem with that is, of course, that you keep having to buy Potions which really pulls your money down - I don't think I managed to get past 2.000 Z yet (have only been playing for 3 days again) - and leveling is hard(er) which means you can't go to bigger places where better things get dropped. (Like .. a cool weapon! ><)

C-A

[Ceer]

If you have to spam more than about 2 potions per monster killed, I'd suggest hunting for items in a lower level area.

For a typical item-hunting setup, you should be able to afford a mercenary, potions, and warps for your characters.

Since you're on Valkyrie, you can make free slave acolyte accounts and use them for buffs, heals, and warps.

Edited by Ceer, 25 August 2010 - 08:17 AM.

[CatMuto]

I'm not sure about this slave/mercenary thing .. actually, never really heard about it. Haven't seen it on the Wiki (yet).
Well, I'm trying to get enough money for a new dagger (Main Gauche is nice an' all, but kinda weak) and not buying potions, which can be tough what with Poporing stealing my Stuff! ><

And while hunting in lower-level areas might increase my money by drops, those drops don't sell that well (and I'm saving Fluffs and Feathers) and my level will barely increase.

C-A

[Ceer]

At low levels, your mercenary costs 7k zeny. I typically recommend getting the bow merc as your first, because she has double strafe and tons of sp to spam it.

Good solo leveling at low levels comes from Spores. Use mercs + novice pots to help you kill.

Good lower levels money on Valkyrie comes from stems. Use the same bow merc to hunt Mandragoras. Sell the stems to other players in town.

[antikv]

how much should i charge for one orange?

[Ceer]

If you're vending, I assume you'll have more than 1 orange. Typically, it's only worth vending for a dozen or more consumable items. How much you should charge depends on a few factors. How fast you want things to sell, whether there are events that use your item, what the ragial.com average is, where you're setting up shop, who else is vending, and at what price.

For example: 12 Orange on Ymir server, vended overnight in southern Prontera.

Ragial Average: 4,200z average - 6,500z maximum - 1,500z minimum.

No one else is currently (as of Mon 8-30 @ 3:42 am EDT) selling a large number (for heavy consumables, usually 200-300+) that would act as a price cap. This means we can put a premium price on our goods, particularly because we don't have much to sell. Most people can afford a few overpriced oranges if they want them. So, if you want them gone by morning, or by the end of work/school tomorrow, price at about 4,700z to 5,500z. If you will be gone until WoE or Maintainance, 5,500z to 7,000z. If you want them GONE ASAP at any somewhat decent value, 3,000z to 4,200z.

[antikv]

should really include the new items

[Dukeares]

Some 1 should sticky this

[NoCookiesForMe]

Thanks for this post, I found it really helpful! But I have a question: if I want to make a merchant for the SOLE purpose of selling my other character's loot, how should I build him? How high should I expect to level him? And what skills do I need to give him?

Thanks in advance for your help everyone!

[EvilLoynis]

Thanks for this post, I found it really helpful! But I have a question: if I want to make a merchant for the SOLE purpose of selling my other character's loot, how should I build him? How high should I expect to level him? And what skills do I need to give him?

Thanks in advance for your help everyone!

Basically Merchants serve 2 main purposes for your other characters. Vending their drops and Buying Gear/Potions at a discount.

For these two reasons it probably is not needful to lvl a Merchant past Job level 20. This will give your access to these skills:

Discount - 10 (Gives you a 24% Discount on things bought from NPC's like White Potions etc...)
Vending - 1 (Even the 1 Level in this skill will let you Vend 3 items. Like Stems, Blue Herbs & Oranges say. You can put more points to this skill extending the number of different items by +1 for each, lvl 10 lets you Vend 12 Items.)
Enlarge Weight Limit - 5 (Pre Requisite)
Push Cart - 3 ( Pre Req)

[NoCookiesForMe]

Basically Merchants serve 2 main purposes for your other characters. Vending their drops and Buying Gear/Potions at a discount.

For these two reasons it probably is not needful to lvl a Merchant past Job level 20. This will give your access to these skills:

Discount - 10 (Gives you a 24% Discount on things bought from NPC's like White Potions etc...)
Vending - 1 (Even the 1 Level in this skill will let you Vend 3 items. Like Stems, Blue Herbs & Oranges say. You can put more points to this skill extending the number of different items by +1 for each, lvl 10 lets you Vend 12 Items.)
Enlarge Weight Limit - 5 (Pre Requisite)
Push Cart - 3 ( Pre Req)

Thanks very much! What about stat points? I assume strength, obviously, but what about the rest? What will make leveling easier?