TK608's Guide to raising a Smuggler!
Compiled July 12th
Author: Cyras "TK608" DeValera of Starsider ( cauchemar@charter.net )
Complete and update form available at http://phreakre.idlegames.com/theden/smugglerguide.txt
I. Introdcution
Welcome to the world of the Smuggler, I promise it will be rich and fulfilling, given you are the right sort of person for the job. The first thing you need to know, THE MANUAL IS WRONG. You only need Pistol Specialist and Master Unarmed Combat to be a smuggler (well, and 50,000 pistol xp). This guide is for the "solo" minded Smuggler, but a group always speeds things along.
II. Race
While most people will say there is no "race" preference for Smuggler, and I agree with them, others will say that the rodians lean towards it with their natural marksmanship bonuses.. I leave the race up to you, honestly it matters not.
III. Starting planet
I recommend Tatooine. Why? It is probably the second most populated planet in the galaxy (on the servers I am on it is probably the most populated), it boasts a fairly low large low level creature population and has a smuggler trainer on it. Mos Eisley is the preferred starting city, c'mon, what is more Smuggler than Mos Eis? Additionally, the material sources you need later are all available on Tatooine. Naboo is a good second choice.
IV. Getting the Pre-requisites out of the way..
Ok, first things first.. when you create, pick Brawler. Besides the cool jackets and boots, Brawlers have more health and are thus, much more effective at taking damage. This is important because you are going to be taking a lot of damage when you work your unarmed skill. Additionally, Brawlers actually deal more damage in the long run with pistols versus marksmen.. test it if you don't believe me. Once you are on your favorite planet, immediately find a marksman trainer and train novice marksman. Then find an engineer or a weaponsmith and ask them to make you a CDEF pistol and a +Dmg% powerup for your remaining 150c. Most of the time, they will do it, as you are new and a CDEF isn't really worth more than 50c. Ok, now you're broke.. lets move out to the killing.
Start with your pistol and kill everything using overcharged shot. This will get you to Intermediate Pistol Skill very fast, and what is more important, give you Body Shot 1 and a DL44 pistol certification. Once you have the experience for intermediate pistol, use your search skill in a city (ctrl+p, then click search) and find another smuggler if you can, else find a pistoleer or bounty hunter and ask them to teach you Intermediate Pistol. (...and ask the BH if he has any spare meat, put this in the bank for later). This is a good way to make friends and customers, the latter of which is very important to a Smuggler, and saves you a ton of money in the long term. Finding another smuggler to teach you things is the best, as you now have someone to ask questions when you run into problems. At worse, shout in the middle of a populated place and you'll get trained up pretty quick, everyone needs apprentice xp (Thank the Dev's and their foresight).
Once you have that done, locate a mission terminal next to the edge of the city (Mos Eisley has them on both the west side right up against the desert and the East side right next to the bank). Find a pair of destroy missions that are both in the same direction and preferably around 750c and in the same meter distance from you. Difficulty 8 is about the highest you can go at this stage. Accomplish your two missions and find a weaponsmith. 1500-2000c is more than enough for a DL44, if it isn't, find a new weaponsmith. The DL44 should be about 3.0-3.5spd and around 100dmg, if it isn't, find a new weaponsmith. With this weapon, you will hit pistol specialist. When you can afford it, find your smuggler buddy and have him slice it for you, this will improve your weapon 10-30%.
Continue to do missions if you like money, I personally just ran from Mos Eis to Bestine, Bestine to Mos Eisley and in any particular direction I wanted and killed everything I came across.
Training as needed, these mobs are your best xp gains: Diseased Bocatts, Kreetles, Mound mites (they swarm, careful), Womp Rats but not Greater or Varigated ones, Jabba's Swoopers, and Valarian's Thieves. Stay away from Smugglers, Greater anythings, Dewbacks, and regular or lesser bocatts. Stay away from the area north of Mos Eisley, the tatooine plateau is not for the weak of heart or the solo traveller. Taking missions north of Mos Eisley always takes you here and they are never worth the trouble. Within about five hours, you should be done with pistol specialist.
When you start unarmed, the first thing you want to buy is a vibroknuckle. Weaponsmiths make these and generally sell them for 4000, but the price is dropping. A good vibroknuckle is about 2.5spd and 71 max damage, pre-slice. Find your smuggler buddy again and get him to slice it for you, you will like the results. Now repeat exactly what you did to get pistol specialist, when you get in trouble, pull out your pistol and go to work. You should make short order of even a swarm of mound mites with your pistol. Once you have done a few missions to work your unarmed, you can afford an FWG5 and these are really nice guns. A good FWG5 is about 145-150 damage, and is about 3.0spd, preslice. (The one i'm using now is 184/2.3 after a slice and I have put one below the 2.0spd margin for a friend). They generally cost 5-6k, but are well worth the investment, as you'll be doing another 50,000 in pistol xp, which will go a lot faster than specialist did, because of your improved gun, body shot 2, and you need 20,000 less experience points.
Once you're done with this, Congratulations, you're ready to become a Novice Smuggler.
IV-b. Things to hasten this..
Something you might want to consider, based on your potential spec, is getting scout. Scout enables you to run up hills faster, harvest resources from what you kill for sale, and more importantly, make camps. You don't need survival IV, just the basic scout profession to make camps. Camps give a +65% healing regeneration modifier, making your downtime about 50% shorter. While in camps, you can summon pets, receive doctor treatment, and when its fixed, get a dancer to kill your battle fatigue, or dance yourself to cure your own. Scout + Exploration is a very valuable tool and I recommend it to everyone.
Grouping is always good for experience. If you're an imperial, doing the faction missions with a buddy out of the retreat generally got me 500xp/kill, bring atleast a buddy or check my other guide "TK's Guide to the Emperor's Retreat Mission Set" available at SWG Center ( http://www.swgcenter.com/PointSystem/PS_Quest.asp ) or on Allakhazam ( http://swg.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=92 ) depending on your preference.
V. Novice Smuggler
Novice Smuggler costs you 6000 creds at the trainer. No one can teach you novice smuggler but a trainer, so don't bother asking your smuggler buddy. The Smuggler Trainers are available in the following locations:
- Mos Eisley, Tatooine by the Cantina at 3401, -4879
- Keren, Naboo by the Starport at 1361, 2835
- Keren, Naboo by the Cloning Station at 1846, 2772
- Daeric, Talus at 167, -2892
Once you have this, you should consider which tree you want to work first and skip to the appropriate catagory.
VI. Underworld/Dirty Fighting
Raising the Underworld/Dirty Fighting Skill just involves using a pistol. Your FWG5 is your best friend for a while and finding a group headed to Lok or preferably Endor is a good idea. Most raids on Tatooine for the Tuskan King are also good, so is a nice large Krayt raid, though Krayt Raids tend to be slow and have high casualty counts. Lok and Endor are prime high experience planets as long as you have a good leader in charge, if the group is milling about and not really doing anything, find another group. This is a place where having that high skill Smuggler buddy pays off, as he can tell you where he hunted on your particular server. Additionally, a PA can help here as every good PA does hunts.
Congratulations, you're now a "Fixer".
VII. Slicing
Slicing is your bank account credit card. With slicing, you are able to do very valuable things to people's most treasured objects, their weapons and armor. This guide takes a non-grind and a pro-grind approach to Slicing, switch to the section that best applies to you:
VII-b. Non-grinder's approach to Slicing
When you first reach Novice Smuggler, the best thing you can do is buy the largest supply of copper you can afford off of the bazaar (a large supply is about 2000 copper). I'm a big fan of interdependence and supporting your local miner is always a good thing. Once you have this large supply, quickly make about ten laser precision knives and find your favorite bank. Knives are made from 16 bits of metal, if you have a large chunk of copper, use it.
Why the bank? The cantina is generally too crowded for this kind of work, the bank is always close to the cantina on Tatooine, and everyone who stores containers usually stuffs them in their safety deposit boxes. Immediately start shouting that you are able to slice containers, you'll do it for free, and that they get to keep whatever is inside, (you keep the containers for later, trust me). When someone says they have a container, trade with them, they have to actually give you the container to work on it.
Welcome to the Smuggler's Slicing mini-game.. your options are "cut the blue wire", "cut the red wire", "apply a molecular clamp", and "apply a Flow Analyzer Node" (FAN). I generally pick the red wire, as we proceed down, you will understand what the rest of the options are. Pick your favorite wire and just hit ok. You have nothing else really to do right now. Once you have 20 successes, you can talk to your smuggler buddy and get him to save you 7000 creds by teaching you slicing I.
Once you have Slicing I, stand next to your favorite mission terminals, which are also very close to the bank and the cantina usually (and sometimes the starport!) and start shouting that you can slice containers again. Containers are the best source of experience in slicing you can get until you can slice weapons. While you are busy shouting this, in periods of lull, slice the terminals behind you for random bits of 100 experience, when you are successful, make sure you open the terminal and hit "refresh" a few times so you can slice the terminal again in two minutes. You need 5000 slicing experience, so this can take a while, but it is also the longest stretch in the Slicing line, after this, if you seriously want slicing experience, utter the only known Pavlovian phrase "/shout Slicing Weapons for Free at the Bank" and watch people dogtackle each other to be first in line.
Slicing weapons is fun. Infact, its the most fun I've had with Smuggler. You give people a permanent upgrade to their weapon for virtually nothing (as long as you succeed). When you hit Slicing II, find a buddy that is a weaponsmith with a factory and have him run you about four crates of weapons upgrade kits (WUK), I say crates because Weaponsmiths are the only ones able to do this and because crates save a lot of inventory space (20 spots for 4 crates, vs 100 for 100 WUK's). The crates generally cost about 500creds each and you will get a lot of money out of this. Slicing III requires 25,000 slicing experience, so find your favorite bank and keep shouting. When you can't find anyone to slice weapons for, switch cities, or persue another skill for a while, though this really is only limited by how much copper you have to make slcing knives and Flow Analyzer Nodes (FAN).
FAN's are great little devices that take your ability to slice from 50/50 guess land to 75% certainty land. They cost 40 copper (well, 20 metal and 20 copper) to build each one and I recommend using one on every slice you perform from here on out. (Remember when I said to buy the largest amount of copper you can afford? Do so again now if you can.) The FAN, when applied using the fourth option in the Slicing Mini-game, will tell you "High Probability of power flow on X wire".. where X is either positive(blue) or negative(red). That is the wire you cut first. It is 75% likely to be the right wire and that is where your xp is resting. Do this about 100 times and you will make a nice little sum of money and get Slicing III (armor).
I generally charge anywhere from 1000c-2500c to slice a weapon. I do make bargains, but I don't do so outloud and when I got close to another level (say within 10) I usually shouted "NEXT 10 WEAPON SLICES ARE FREE!" so I could have a nice crowd around me when I got my upgrade. I also encourage making a business agreement with your favorite weaponsmith where you will slice weapons for him in exchange for crates, and if you're a good businessman, copper as well. (Gunsmiths need copper to make several high skill powerhandlers, so they all have it). This will cut your overhead considerably, make you a friend that has a lot of control over your damage potential, and after you master slicing, keep you in the gravy while you work your other skills and go about the life of your character.
Once you get to armor, repeat the exact same thing you just did, except make a buddy with an Armorsmith and have him make you about five crates of Armor Upgrade Kits (AUK's). Armorsmiths cannot make AUK's in their wearable's factory, you need to find an Armorsmith with access to an Equipment Factory (usually player cities and PA's are the best place for this). While a lot less popular (and currently less productive) than weapon slicing, armor slicing is nonetheless a very nice thing to have. It reduces the encumbrance of armor or improves its resistance 10-30% and that is a nice little bit when you're being jabbed for 100 health 50 action and 30 mind for every piece of armor you wear (30pnts health, 15pnts action, and 10pnts mind saved on every piece!). This will make all of your customer's happy. Once you have sliced 200 pieces of armor or weapons successfully and made yet again, a nice little sum of money, you will own the coveted title of "Slicer". Congratulations.
VII-c. A Grinder's Approach To Slicing
I only recommend this path if you have money. Your first duty is to build a copper harvester and a chemical harvester. You will need it. Buy your first large set of copper off of the bazaar so you can get started right away and basically follow the Non-grinder's approach to Slicing until you get to weapons. At that point, invest in Novice Artisan. You should then go milk your copper and chemical harvester for what they have and start "the Loop".
"The Loop" consists of using two generic crafting tools and repeatedly using GCT#1 to make a CDEF pistol with no modifications. Using GCT#2 to make a FAN. Then slicing the CDEF, applying the FAN, then destroying the CDEF, regardless of the result. You need 7750 copper and 800 chemical to reach Slicing III and an additional 15,500 Copper and 1600 chemical to reach Slicing IV. This goes towards the cost of making the CDEF, making the FAN, and making the laser precision knives for the 10 charges of slicing. (its actually 5820 copper and 600 chemical if you have a 100% success rate, but you only have a 75% one at slicing II and slicing III.) You can skip the FAN and make it pure luck, but that wouldn't be the grinder's way. =) After you have finished Slicing IV, if you want, get rid of your artisan skill, but keep your harvesters, you'll need them for spices.
Congratulations, you are now a "Slicer".
VIII. Spices
Spices require not so much crafting time as they do materials. You'll want to be good buddies with a master scout (bounty hunters always have meat on them) and make sure you have your Smuggler buddy handy to teach you as you go. At this point in the game, there isn't really a market for spices, but they are incredible at helping a smuggler get out of tight situations, so you'll want this skill. There is no grind/non-grind method to Spices.. its a real crafting section.
We start spices by buying as much Organic/Meat/Wheat/Cereal and Copper/Metal as we can afford. Buying a large chunk of copper is also preferable, as you can work slicing and spicing at the same time with it. Our first recipe is Shadowpaw. To make spices, you need a generic crafting tool that any Novice Artisan can make (and preferably two of them to reduce downtime). Once you have this, open it up and click the "food" tab. Your spices will all appear here. I recommend the GCT over the Food Crafting Tool because the GCT can also make slicing equipment that the FCT cannot, and experimentation does nothing to spices at the present time.
Load up your 25 organic whatever and your 5 copper and craft it up with the GTC. Repeat this 300 times (you will need 7500 wheat/meat/cereal/organic and 1500 Copper for this exercise). Once you have done this, training as you need it, you will have Spices III. Some people ask: why Shadowpaw? Well, it has two ingrediants that are readily available on the bazaar and it gives 120xp/combination which is more than any other recipe in the bag until Spices III.
After you have Spices III, load up on Gas, Meat, and Chemical (remember that Chemical harvester? Well, you can destroy it after collecting for this). Meat you can get in bulk from a bounty hunter, ranger, squad leader, or a creature handler (and sometimes a doctor or bio engineer). They have to do large amounts of harvesting of creatures to get to their professions and they have meat in excess usually. I got all of mine from a bounty hunter in my PA, he had 2000 bone, and 2000 meat on him when I asked. For our purposes, we need 2000 Meat, 2000 gas, and 2000 Chemical to finish out Spices IV, which is 20000 spices experience. Our recipe is Thruster Head. At 175xp/combination, it is the best bang for the buck and you only have to make 115 of them, which is a breeze compared to the 300 shadowpaw you just muscled through. Now, don't go complaining, just check out a real crafting profession and how much they have to make, then sit back and relax, because you have finished your own crafting profession and can now make the very best.. Neutron Pixie.
Congratulations, you're now a "Fence".
IX. Master Smuggler
Remember all of those sections where I said "talk to your buddy Smuggler"? Well, now you're one of those people. If a lower smuggler or aspiring to be smuggler comes to you asking questions, try to answer them. Once upon a time, you were that smuggler.. oh, did I mention you need 620 apprentice experience to be a Master Smuggler? All of that teaching just paid off. Welcome to Master Smuggler, you're one of the elite now.
X. Credits
Thanks to Asieth for his meat and bone, it got me through Spices. Thanks to Rikako for letting her copper harvester feed my slicing habit (and for living through my marathon pistol sessions and proofreading my reports). To Esigia for letting me get crates of Weapons Upgrade Kits off of her until she was running a set just for me at times. Thanks to Aikri for giving me the recipe for CDEF Pistols when I was writing this guide. Thanks to the Smuggler Community in general for their feedback on my site, The Smuggler's Den ( http://phreakre.idlegames.com/theden/ ). You've all helped me write this.
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