Weapon and Armor Pricing - a General Guide
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:13 pm
Hi everyone,
As player vendors can often vary wildly in pricing for certain items, I thought it might be helpful to explain a bit about armor and weapon crafting requirements, results, and how they can influence price. Naturally, these are only my individual perspectives as an AS/WS, and are not indicative of any hard and fast rule. I've focused on the most common weapons (and armor types) here for the sake of brevity.
Weaponsmith
General note: given the maturity of this server, virtually all weapons need to be made with enhanced components - and NOT made in a factory. Factory-made weapons will not be able to compete with other weapons with a few exceptions (like survival knives to help our smugglers get xp!)
Power Hammers:
Power hammers are generally made with either reinforcement cores or acklay bones, and require resources that are pretty easy to cap. Thus, the determining factory in a PH's damage is always the looted bones and the slice rather than the weaponsmith's mats or skill (as most will be pretty close to cap with their materials).
With the implementation of the Acklay instance, bones are much more common. To give a reference point, a hammer crafted with 82 min 98 max bones (pretty bad) makes a 5.8 speed, ~180-534 hammer (pre slice). A perfect slice on this hammer would get you a 243-720 hammer.
Given the frequency of acklay bone drops now and the ease of making hammers, (post-slice) hammers between 650-700 max damage are going to be quite common. The vendors are pretty full of hammers of this quality at price ranges between like 150k-300k, give or take.
Obtaining high damage (200+ bones) remains difficult, so the price of hammers in the (post-slice) 800 range is going to be significantly higher than for the 650-750 range. These are usually sold as one-offs so there isn't an obvious fixed pricing for these, but it's not uncommon to see sellers asking for 1m+.
Vibro Knucklers:
VKs are nearly always made with looted vibro units (that drop from nightsisters or prophet guys). Much like PHs, these are very easy to make and very easy to get close-to-cap resources for.
To give a reference point on VKs, a VK made with a somewhat bad looted vibro unit (26 min 41 max) will come out with roughly ~40-152 damage. With a perfect slice, this would be a 54-205 VK.
200 max VKs are very common, and seem to be on vendors for around 100-250k. Because speed is irrelevant on VKs at TKM, speed sliced VKs (i.e. 150-175 max damage) are sold for cheap (under 50k).
Going significantly beyond 200 damage on a VK is VERY difficult, as looted vibro units have a pretty narrow damage range unless you get very lucky. Thus, a 250+ damage VK is likely going to be sold for a very high price.
World Boss Drops - Xenoboric Lance, Corrosive Sickle, Bio-Knucklers, Necrotic Sword:
Pricing for these weapons is typically significantly higher than comparative weapons. There are three main reasons for this:
Ranged weapons in general:
Generally speaking, ranged weapons require significantly more diversity in resources than melee weapons. A weaponsmith's stash of resources is likely to play a much larger role in the outcome of a gun. And with few exceptions (i.e. guns that don't take tissues), most guns are going to be made using krayt tissues / tanrat glands. There are significant variations within damage ranges for each different type of gun, so I will only call out flamethrowers here - but feel free to write me on discord if you want specific info on a specific type of gun.
Flamethrowers:
With flamethrowers, speed is key. Because of the limited +special heavy weapons speed mods available and the VERY high speed cost modifiers on commando specials, the difference between a 1.5 speed flamethrower and a 3.0 speed flamethrower is going to be extremely noticeable.
Making high speed flamethrowers requires a 5+ stack of krayt tissues/tanrat glands with good speed mods (like -1.5 and higher), and, if your budget allows, an imperial stock from the imperial theme park. These imp stocks are usually worth at least 100k a piece.
Due to the variability in resources/tissues I have not included an illustrative example of stats, but generally speaking price will go up (sometimes dramatically) as the flamer gets faster (bonus points if there's high damage as well). Flamers under 2.0 speed will usually have the highest price premium.
Armorsmith
General note: the armor crafting system on SR is different than vanilla pre-cu SWG.
Factory composite minisuits:
The very best factory composite minis will typically have a stat range as follows:
Kinetic: 85%
Energy: 81-85%
Electric: 65-67%
Base: 65-67%
This will be unsliced. An effectiveness slice will bring the base up (potentially up to the 85% cap with a lucky slice), but the electricity resist will remain where it is.
Few armorsmiths are able to mass produce factory minis of that quality because of the resource demands, so the minisuits on the bazaar (misc-->wearable containers) will often have lower stats than the above. For much of the content in SWG, you'll be okay with high kin and high energy resists.
Pricing for factory composite minisuits is typically around 100k / minisuit.
Non-factory composite:
Armor made by hand can be enhanced with looted components (janta hides, nightsister armor layers, gundark hides, etc). These looted components can lead to pre-slice armor that looks like the following:
Kinetic: 85%
Energy: 85%
Electric: 70-75%
Base: 70-75%
Or a variation with a single stun layer:
Kinetic: 85%
Energy: 85%
Electric: 70-75%
Stun: 9-13%
Base: 70-75%
As these are crafted by hand and require looted components, they are typically higher cost than factory composite minis.
Composite made with interwoven schematics
The best armor segments in the game are made with interwoven schematics (a looted drop from Acklay) as they allow for a normal enhancer (i.e. janta hide) and a geo cube. As a result, armorsmiths are able to keep protection high and add in some fun things (like 30%+ stun protection). Given the schematic requirements as well as some additional requirements for each piece (gurk king hide, woolamander bone fragments), costs for this type of armor can be very high (and often hard to find).
R.I.S.
Much like the armor made with interwoven schematics, R.I.S. armor also requires some annoying components (like giant dune kimogila scales), so the price is similarly pretty high (relative to normal composite).
I hope this overview is helpful for some of you who may be newer to the server or who haven't crafted before. Feel free to write me with any specific questions you may have.
As player vendors can often vary wildly in pricing for certain items, I thought it might be helpful to explain a bit about armor and weapon crafting requirements, results, and how they can influence price. Naturally, these are only my individual perspectives as an AS/WS, and are not indicative of any hard and fast rule. I've focused on the most common weapons (and armor types) here for the sake of brevity.
Weaponsmith
General note: given the maturity of this server, virtually all weapons need to be made with enhanced components - and NOT made in a factory. Factory-made weapons will not be able to compete with other weapons with a few exceptions (like survival knives to help our smugglers get xp!)
Power Hammers:
Power hammers are generally made with either reinforcement cores or acklay bones, and require resources that are pretty easy to cap. Thus, the determining factory in a PH's damage is always the looted bones and the slice rather than the weaponsmith's mats or skill (as most will be pretty close to cap with their materials).
With the implementation of the Acklay instance, bones are much more common. To give a reference point, a hammer crafted with 82 min 98 max bones (pretty bad) makes a 5.8 speed, ~180-534 hammer (pre slice). A perfect slice on this hammer would get you a 243-720 hammer.
Given the frequency of acklay bone drops now and the ease of making hammers, (post-slice) hammers between 650-700 max damage are going to be quite common. The vendors are pretty full of hammers of this quality at price ranges between like 150k-300k, give or take.
Obtaining high damage (200+ bones) remains difficult, so the price of hammers in the (post-slice) 800 range is going to be significantly higher than for the 650-750 range. These are usually sold as one-offs so there isn't an obvious fixed pricing for these, but it's not uncommon to see sellers asking for 1m+.
Vibro Knucklers:
VKs are nearly always made with looted vibro units (that drop from nightsisters or prophet guys). Much like PHs, these are very easy to make and very easy to get close-to-cap resources for.
To give a reference point on VKs, a VK made with a somewhat bad looted vibro unit (26 min 41 max) will come out with roughly ~40-152 damage. With a perfect slice, this would be a 54-205 VK.
200 max VKs are very common, and seem to be on vendors for around 100-250k. Because speed is irrelevant on VKs at TKM, speed sliced VKs (i.e. 150-175 max damage) are sold for cheap (under 50k).
Going significantly beyond 200 damage on a VK is VERY difficult, as looted vibro units have a pretty narrow damage range unless you get very lucky. Thus, a 250+ damage VK is likely going to be sold for a very high price.
World Boss Drops - Xenoboric Lance, Corrosive Sickle, Bio-Knucklers, Necrotic Sword:
Pricing for these weapons is typically significantly higher than comparative weapons. There are three main reasons for this:
- The schematics are 3 use and only drop from the world boss. They are often bought/sold for about a million per schem.
- Each weapon requires a special looted component from a boss on kaas.
- Given the two reasons above, folks often save their best vibro units / acklay bones for these weapons.
Ranged weapons in general:
Generally speaking, ranged weapons require significantly more diversity in resources than melee weapons. A weaponsmith's stash of resources is likely to play a much larger role in the outcome of a gun. And with few exceptions (i.e. guns that don't take tissues), most guns are going to be made using krayt tissues / tanrat glands. There are significant variations within damage ranges for each different type of gun, so I will only call out flamethrowers here - but feel free to write me on discord if you want specific info on a specific type of gun.
Flamethrowers:
With flamethrowers, speed is key. Because of the limited +special heavy weapons speed mods available and the VERY high speed cost modifiers on commando specials, the difference between a 1.5 speed flamethrower and a 3.0 speed flamethrower is going to be extremely noticeable.
Making high speed flamethrowers requires a 5+ stack of krayt tissues/tanrat glands with good speed mods (like -1.5 and higher), and, if your budget allows, an imperial stock from the imperial theme park. These imp stocks are usually worth at least 100k a piece.
Due to the variability in resources/tissues I have not included an illustrative example of stats, but generally speaking price will go up (sometimes dramatically) as the flamer gets faster (bonus points if there's high damage as well). Flamers under 2.0 speed will usually have the highest price premium.
Armorsmith
General note: the armor crafting system on SR is different than vanilla pre-cu SWG.
Factory composite minisuits:
The very best factory composite minis will typically have a stat range as follows:
Kinetic: 85%
Energy: 81-85%
Electric: 65-67%
Base: 65-67%
This will be unsliced. An effectiveness slice will bring the base up (potentially up to the 85% cap with a lucky slice), but the electricity resist will remain where it is.
Few armorsmiths are able to mass produce factory minis of that quality because of the resource demands, so the minisuits on the bazaar (misc-->wearable containers) will often have lower stats than the above. For much of the content in SWG, you'll be okay with high kin and high energy resists.
Pricing for factory composite minisuits is typically around 100k / minisuit.
Non-factory composite:
Armor made by hand can be enhanced with looted components (janta hides, nightsister armor layers, gundark hides, etc). These looted components can lead to pre-slice armor that looks like the following:
Kinetic: 85%
Energy: 85%
Electric: 70-75%
Base: 70-75%
Or a variation with a single stun layer:
Kinetic: 85%
Energy: 85%
Electric: 70-75%
Stun: 9-13%
Base: 70-75%
As these are crafted by hand and require looted components, they are typically higher cost than factory composite minis.
Composite made with interwoven schematics
The best armor segments in the game are made with interwoven schematics (a looted drop from Acklay) as they allow for a normal enhancer (i.e. janta hide) and a geo cube. As a result, armorsmiths are able to keep protection high and add in some fun things (like 30%+ stun protection). Given the schematic requirements as well as some additional requirements for each piece (gurk king hide, woolamander bone fragments), costs for this type of armor can be very high (and often hard to find).
R.I.S.
Much like the armor made with interwoven schematics, R.I.S. armor also requires some annoying components (like giant dune kimogila scales), so the price is similarly pretty high (relative to normal composite).
I hope this overview is helpful for some of you who may be newer to the server or who haven't crafted before. Feel free to write me with any specific questions you may have.
