A Hunting Guide for Entropia Universe
In this tutorial we will be explaining the basics and somewhat more in-depth aspects to hunting. We will be starting off with the very basics of what you need to start hunting, to more detailed explanations on the numbers you see on the weapons you can use. This guide will show you how to hunt, however it will not tell you what to hunt or how to profit; this is something that needs to be figured out by you. Pay close attention as you hunt and see if you can discover helpful trends.
Basic Weapon Information in Entropia Universe
Entropia Universe contains a wide variety of weapons you can use to hunt your favorite creatures with. Every item in the game has statistics you can use to guide your selection and the weapons are no different. The information given for weapons allows you to select a weapon based on usefulness, economy and plain raw power. Let’s break down the numbers in the following sections.
Efficiency
Efficiency is a number assigned to a weapon that is used by the game as a factor in calculating loot returns after killing a mob. How exactly loot returns are calculated is a closely guarded secret, however it is generally accepted that a higher efficiency provides a better return.
Profession Requirements
Each weapon has two profession requirements, one for hit and one for damage. Each category is affected by professional skill levels, for example the Rifle skill increases your hit ability when using a rifle and Inflict Ranged Damage increases your ability to utilize a ranged weapon to its maximum damage potential. These are paired with tabs for each that say "Skill Progress". If these categories are not 100%, then do not use that weapon. You will not be able to use the weapon with any efficiency and will have a poor hunting experience.
Skill Increase Bonus
There are two types of weapons in the category of Skill Increase Bonus. SIB and non-SIB. SIB weapons once you meet the minimum requirements for using the weapon will give a skill increase bonus until your skills allow you to maximize the weapon. These weapons have much lower requirements to master. Non-SIB weapons never give a skill bonus and do not allow you to maximize until you reach level 100 in both hit and damage professional categories. Both types of weapons have their place in Entropia Universe and should be used accordingly.
We will cover the next sections more quickly as they are rather basic. Category simply tells you whether the weapon is laser based, blp based or which type of melee or mindforce weapon it is. Ammo type will list which types of ammunition is required to fire the weapon or none in the case of most melee weapons. Ammo burn is the amount of ammunition used per use of the weapon. Lastly, durability is a value indicating how much the weapon will decay per use. Ammo burn plus decay equals the cost per use of a weapon and are half the equation when calculating the economy of a weapon. Generally the lower cost per damage done provides a more lucrative hunting experience.
Scrolling down to the rest of the information provided on the weapon information tab, we can see the attack values of the weapon. Let’s go over these in more depth.
Attacks Per Minute (APM)
The attacks per minute are just that, how many times the weapon can be used each minute. Some very fast weapons, the fastest being 100 apm, have specific advantages such as the ability to hit the mob and switch quickly to a healing tool. Nothing is worse when hunting a high damage mob or even being in a pvp battle waiting for your weapon to reload so you can switch to your healing tool or shoot again! Low apm weapons tend to have higher damage value allowing you to use a larger amp and do more damage to your prey. Imagine your opponents surprise in lootable pvp when he gets one-shotted and can only watch you count the loot you just took from him!
The next section covers damage types. For the hunter of mobs, this is not overly useful information. For the hunter of players, this can be the difference between life and death, virtually of course. Players will be wearing armor when they are fighting of course as will you. Let’s compare two weapons that each do 100 damage. If your weapon does 50 burn damage and 50 penetration damage yet the opponent has armor that absorbs 50 burn and 50 penetration damage you can shoot them all day and never win. However if your weapon does 100 burn damage you are on the path to victory. As always in Entropia Universe, do your homework and choose wisely.
Damage Interval refers to the minimum and maximum damage of the weapon. When mastered, the range is always 50% to 100% of the maximum damage. When you have not fully mastered the weapon, you will see a lesser amount that increase as you increase in skill. Range is self explanatory, it is how far away something can be and you still damage it. This value is skill dependant as well and follows the path of the damage interval increasing as you skill up to the maximum value.
Hit ability and crit ability are your most important values for choosing a weapon. You will always have the most success when your weapon is 10/10 on hit ability. This means you are hitting the target as much as is possible with the weapon used. Think efficiency here, even the most economical weapon is a poor choice if you miss too many shots due to low skills. Crit ability is something of a bonus. Occasionally you will hit and also get hit by others with a critical hit. These hits do much more damage and in the case of players, ignore armor effects. As Hit Ability increase so does Crit Ability, so take care of your professional skills and everything else takes care of itself.
Mindforce Weapons
The mindforce based weapons can be rather effective hunting tools either by themselves or as supplements to other gear. They exist as mindforce (MF) chips that are equipped with the aid of a MF implant that is inserted into your avatar's head. For the lower level ships a Neopsion 10 implant from the trade terminal is sufficient, but as you level up and use more powerful MF chips you will need higher level implants. You only need to insert the implant once and it will always be ready to enable you to use a MF chip. Simply purchase a Payne Inc. implanter form the trade terminal, drag and drop the implant on the inserter, equip and use the tool. You will see what looks like a painful animation and you are now ready to equip a MF chip.
MF weapons use mind essence or universal ammo to fire but have a different decay structure. Your MF implant not only lets you use a higher level chip, it also will absorb differing amounts of decay allowing the chip to last longer before it needs repaired or replaced. This is especially useful when competing in contests such as Merry Mayhem or when using a chip with a high markup cost. As always, research and make wise choices in gear.
MF gear includes weaponry that does damage all at once, damage over time and damage over an area. You can also use MF chips to heal yourself, increase health, slow an opponent, speed yourself up and teleport to another place on the map. It is always advisable to do some mindforce hunting and gain these skill, you never know what new ability will be introduced in the future.
Healing
When hunting you will take damage, take too much and your hunting trip ends up at a revive terminal. The dynamics of healing are truly a nuance that can tip the scales in your favor or cause you to become really good at teleporting back to your hunting location. There are a wide variety of healing tools available both passive and active. Passive healing can be a ring with increased regeneration or a lifesteal buff that heals you a percent of the damage you are inflicting. Active healing is using a first aid pack or a mindforce chip. Mindforce chips and most first aid packs are all at once healing tools, meaning they give their heal instantly, you wait for the tool to be able to be used again and heal some more. There are some rather desirable first aid packs that heal over time as well. As always, depending on the situation you might want to use one or the other. Some people even invest in a high end first aid pack such as an Improved or Modified First Aid pack and sell their healing services to hunters. Many a fortune has been seeded in Entropia Universe by finding profitable niches just like this.
Armor
Surviving combat is not just a matter of healing and damaging, it is also absorbing damage. We touched on armor briefly when talking about damage types of weapons. So to build on that we just need to remember to choose armor based on protection provided and the opponent you are facing. It does no good to use Salamander armor with its insanely high burn protection if you are hunting Thorifoids who do 100% cold damage!
Armor can also be plated, there are endless armor and plate combinations you can create to make that perfect setup for whichever creature you plan to be hunting. Plates add to the armor’s protection and decay per hit just like armor does.
Both armor and armor plates come in limited and unlimited versions. Limited has the advantage that it maintains its protection no matter how decayed it is. It does however have the drawback that once it decays completely you must purchase more of it. Unlimited items lasts forever as you can repair them endlessly, but in the case of armor it gives less protection as it decays. Once again, choose appropriately.
Weapon Attachments
An ever increasing variety of weapon attachments are available for your use in Entropia Universe. There are attachments that increase damage, reduce decay, help you evade, increase your crit hit ability and most likely more will be introduced by the time you read this guide. The most common attachments are scope, laser sights and damage amplifiers. As you might imagine the damage amplifiers do just that, they increase the damage output of your weapon. The scope and laser however are a little more subtle yet useful. They increase your ability to hit a mob at range and slightly increase your skill received for using that weapon. The coveted Omegaton Ranger Scope MkII even increases your crit ability!
Enhancers
Enhancers also come in a variety of flavors for you to tailor your weapon to your needs. They include damage, range, economy, and accuracy enhancers each doing more or less what their name implies. They do not however have a predictable cost of use. Enhancers decay a whole enhancers at a time at seemingly random intervals, sometimes not for thousands of shots and sometimes in back to back shots. Enhancer crafting is a lucrative and profitable profession, so hunters must be purchasing enhancers and finding them useful. A great example of enhancer use is during the Mayhem events normally held at Halloween, Christmas and Easter. Hunters will load up on damage enhancers to kill as fast as possible, economy of course goes out the window!
Pills
Pills are a way of obtaining temporary buffs to your avatar for a variety of situations. The most basic pill is an autoloot pill, useful for those who do not want to take the time to stop and loot the mob the are hunting but would prefer to begin killing the next one immediately. Pills can be complex as well containing a mix of crit increase, health regeneration and running speed or a variety of other things. Particularly valuable are skill increase pills. They are single buff pills that increase your skill gains by up 100% for anywhere from 1 to 10 hours. Pop one of these and go out for a hardcore grinding session and watch your avatar grow before your eyes!
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This concludes our basic guide to hunting in Entropia Universe. There is much more depth than could possible be covered in a basic guide, but this information should get you started. We wish you success, fame and fortune along your journey through Entropia!
