I am currently doing nullsec explorations, and have a couple hundreds millions ISK in my wallet. However, digging treasures in deep space is very luck-dependent, and I am also looking for something more… sustainable and scalable.
My current plan is to train an alt to eventually do manufacturing and trading.
Just wondering, in terms of “scalability”, are these methods what I should aim towards?
I would say both can be scaled up to a point. After that point to keep increasing the scale of your operation will start to have diseconomies via your time. But those two are pretty good in that they can scale for quite a bit before you hit the decreasing returns part.
Just curious, how do the more experienced players make up their PLEX money within short of periods of time?
Cuz as an inexperienced player, I feel that sometimes my entire perception of “how wealth is created” might be aiming too low to even comprehend how they rack up such a pile of money.
I first went for an ISK infusion via GTCs (that was the pre-PLEX days) then used that money to get into invention, and then later PI. I also helped our alliance run reaction POS farms, and did PI. Later I also added on selling SP from some of my alts. I really dislike missions and ratting and mining I was rather “meh” about mining and would do it in HS semi-AFK in a skiff. I did it so I could avoid the transactions costs of buying minerals off the market for my invention work.
I only started buying PLEX once I got a certain amount of ISK and just couldn’t find anything to do with it, so I parked it into a pile of PLEX given that the long term trend for the price of PLEX is upwards…so count that as adding some market speculation as well.
So if I understand correctly, the suggested routing is to do high-end manufacturing (provided that I have enough starting capital) and to eventually funnel everything eventually into trading in a hub?
Which makes sense to me tbh, since I have played many other MMOs beforehand, and trading always seems to be the end-game money machine.
Pretty much this, I also started with a couple of PLEX to have a quick start, then relic exploration, and finally production and market speculation. May add, that I like the semi-passive independent way, for other players Super carrier ratting or multibox Rorqual mining is the end-game ISK making activity.
I had little patience for trading, but if you do then yeah go that route if you like. It isn’t necessarily a recommendation…just what I did. If it works for you great, if not well good luck. Hopefully others will reply with more options. And don’t be afraid to try new things either.
Edit: @wllen2020, also don’t get fixated on making enough to PLEX your account every month. The idea is have fun, not turn the game into a second job. Most of the time, I rarely bought PLEX, but instead bought multiple months at a time. When buying a year at a time, IIRC it is like $11/month or $132 for the year which isn’t that bad for many people in terms of a price…but if PLEXing your account is a goal, well okay. But don’t forget…have fun too.
that’s the best isk making I’ve ever done. Just flipping stuff in jita makes some decent money, I was aiming for a 10-20% margin on most items, high volume stuff typically had lower margins, where the low volume stuff would be at the higher end. Taxes/fees are a little over 3% with skills, so that pretty much sets your minimum margin. Can get a bit higher with some regional trading, and then with manufacturing I was making around 100m/char/day. I maxed out at 4 accounts with 2-3 chars each. I was plexing my accounts, running multiple pilot training certs, and buying skill injectors, and my net worth just kept going up.
these days I cba to manage all that and just set big buy orders of stuff I know will move eventually. Don’t really have any immediate need for isk, so I can just let orders ride and wait it out.
Good point, didn’t see the OP’s intention to PLEX the account. I’m paying the subscription, if I make ISK in game it’s for funding ships, fun and challenge only. This makes a huge difference, whether you must do something to keep playing or you can be lazy and just pick what comes along.
Trading can easily scale to 50 or 100 bn per month, so PLEX is not an issue eventually.
There is no real difference in trading for those amounts or for 100 mil ISK, so in my opinion you don’t need to label trading as an “end game”. And even though in the short term maybe other forms of income can be more effective, trading is also a craft, so I recommend starting before you have 50 bn to lose
(and good traders have challenged themselves to grow 10,000 ISK to billions in very short time)
These plans are my mid-longterm considerations, as of right now I am doing exploration in nullsec with my T1 stuff hahaha.
It’s lots of thrill, but eventually I have to settle down with something else. I have always liked to do manufacturing, but it seems like something requiring lots of initial investment, so I have to plan things out now.