An amusing gold farm experiment

[Jinkers]

So I've been trying to work out some stats for different gold farming methods based on what I have access to at level 70. So far I have tried three four five methods:

The Methods
#1) the old faithful - Red slimes in Hurnscald mines - Due Upwards from Hurnscald one finds the mines, and situated just up and left from where you first enter the mines (though to get there you need to go right, up, and then around left). Mostly Red Slimes with some intruding Black Scorps and Spiders. The objective: murder all the things! Red Slimes drop Miner's Gloves, Hats, Boots and Daggers which makes them our priority target. The Scorps can drop Leather Shirts, and the Spiders Coin Bags, but the rates are lower and the slaying harder, so we only bother with them while waiting for Slime spawns.

#2) a yearning I can't ignore - Bifs in Tulimshar - Time for some classic mining! Leaving Tulimshar and heading Down Left we enter the mines, then we go Right and Up, entering the mineshaft proper. Inside we run loops around the main mine to smash Bifs and Slimes. Bifs drop gem powders (and very rarely gems) amongst other useful ores, and each slime drops ore of its kind or other useful stuff. Money-wise we hate to see the Coal Slimes and Iron Slimes, but they prevent other slimes from spawning (and still drop useful stuff) so they must die too.

NOTE: There might be a better place for Bif mining, but I find this loop tends to consistently have Bifs all the way around whereas in other places Bifs that spawn in offshoot rooms or connected caves seem to count towards some kind of 'total Bifs available' for the whole system... slows the whole process down.

#3) a lot of new tribesmen - A raging reception in Nivalis - This one started as an amusing experiment that surprised me with its effectiveness... So there's a quest one can find if one leaves Nivalis Downwards, veers Down Left to the snowfields, follows the path Down-Left, then Up, and finally wraps Right around the cliffs. The camp you find there has a man named Kimarr with a quest to slay some hungry fluffies. The number you need to slay is based on your level, and it turns out the number is set when you *start* the quest, not when you finish it... So of course I had to see if a level 1 character with "inherited" gear could do it, and yes, they can. 2 apples dropped, 2 fluffies slain, 2 Youtube Shorts watched, and you find yourself the proud owner of a new Yeti Shirt worth 10,000gp!

#4) rats with wings - Arkim's Asylum - (Recommended by ThinkSome and Kao1) - Wandering Left of Hurnscald, turning Downwards just before the River and following the near shore Leftwards one comes across a cave containing Arkim the hermit. Asking after Arkim's interests lets you hand over 3 Bat Wings to earn 600 gp and 100 xp. This quest is repeatable a number of times per day based on your Daily Points (DP). You get DP per day equal to your level (these can be checked with the command "@dp" in-game), and the quest consumes 4 for each completion.

#5) a marathon by any other name - Orum and Waric follow-up quest - I blame asuratva for getting me to try this.
Worth noting that prior to my attempting this the wiki page did not include any mention of the random component in step #5. I have not included in my calculations the spent fetching more materials for my failed attempts at this step (I made the trek between Tulimshar, Nivalis, and Blossom three times in total fetching new materials for just this step).

"Well Jinkers, these methods are all... er.. *mostly* well and good, but you promised me stats!"

Fear not, here they are! With peer-^unreviewed, completely infallible accuracy, I spent 10 minutes each on method #1 and #2 during a 150% drop rate window and this is what I got:

The Results

Method #1 - This one may have been a little padded as I only thought to start a timer (and this experiment) when I saw some Miner's Gloves drop. Nonetheless, this route pulled in an impressive 9,400 gold worth of sellables for 940 GPM (gold per minute)

Method #2 - Results possibly could have been better - I slapped a few more scorpions and slimes than I'd like while trying to target slimes or bifs - still, 8,600 gold of sellables (860 GPM) is nothing to sneeze at, especially with the relative safety of this area!

Method #3 - I tried a few (literally three) builds and settled on 10 starting Vit and Luck with 4 Dex for best effectiveness (dying is a much greater setback than dps). I saddled up with Infantry Helm, Forest armor, Bone Knife and misc other gear. My best time was 7 minutes 54 seconds to Create char > Collect gear > Finish quest > Stash gear > Delete char, and the boats were far from perfectly aligned... Giving a whopping 1,250 GPM! My slowest time was still only ~1 minute slower for ~1,111 GPM when I died to Fluffy crits after dropping three apples at once... EDIT: With the addition of a pre-prepared Red Towel (Credit to ThinkSome for the idea) one can skip the whole journey, teleporting straight from outside Candor's bank to the tribe camp. This brings my best time down to 4:58, delivering near 2,000 GPM and removing the risk of Wolverns en route! 1 in 15 odds of bleaching the Red Towel and needing to take 2 Ruby Powder and 1 Water to The Lost Hitchhiker for a new one.

Method #4 - At level 70 one has 70 DP per day, giving 17 completions that cost a total of 51 Bat Wings to net 10,200 gp. I was able to gather those Wings in Arkim's cave in ~7 minutes in a normal drop-rate window. This gives us an approximate GPM of 1,457 with the caveat of only being repeatable once per character per day, requiring more moderate- to high-level characters to continue this income stream. (extrapolating to a 150% drop rate window we could reasonably assume the gathering time would reduce to ~5 minutes, giving a staggering GPM of 2,040)... still a ways shy of ThinkSome's claimed 5,000 GPM though so we'll have to stay tuned to see if he divulges his secrets...

Method #5 - I went into this with the assumption that such a long quest chain would have poor returns and it was my first time doing this quest, so I didn't speedrun this. I included some time spent gathering bifs, slimes, silkworms etc during the many journeys this quest requires, and got briefly lost more than once. I did not include time spent gathering materials (of which there are many), so I think this still balances out quite generously in this method's favour. Total time spent was 59 minutes to finish the whole quest chain (starting from meeting Orum in Hurnscald tunnels to getting the 100k gp at the end). If one is willing to sell the hats you get then the total returns are 103,000 gp from the quest itself, giving approximately 1,745 GPM. Adding in the time to fetch pearls, flowers, and the various scorpion stingers that Aidan and Ishi won't give you, I'd wager the total time increases dramatically.

The Conclusion:

Method #3 remains a clear winner for flat GPM BUT these stats don't cover the other gains from these methods.
Method #1 gives the most xp, has a chance of rubies and infantry helmets, and also gives you some stingers and keys. Not to mention it's right next door to skulls for more xp, yellow slimes for iron, and super slimes (if you can kill 'em).
Method #2 also drops the likes of coal, iron ore, has a chance for other gems and Bromenal Gear, and you can casually collect bug legs, slimes, ash, and sulfur powder if you feel like it. The 10 minutes also disappeared fastest here I'd say, plenty to do and think about as you navigate the mines.
Method #3 leaves little room for error or deviation, it will get you 10,000 gold upon completion every time, but you get no xp (unless you keep the character), no other drops save maybe a white fur or bottle of milk, and if you die (feasible if the fluffies are lucky or wolverns occupy the route) or are otherwise delayed your GPM drops.
Method #4 Has excellent returns but can only be completed a finite number of times per day.
Method #5 Is surprisingly worthwhile overall if you have the materials on hand already. Regardless, I recommend other methods for the sake of your mental health.

The Summary:
Method #1: 940 GPM + a little xp
Method #2: 860 GPM + useful ores
Method #3: 2,000 GPM - requires a Red Hitchhiker's Towel for best results
Method #4: 2,040 GPM - subject to daily points cap
Method #5: 1,745 GPM - does not include time and cost of expended materials

[ThinkSome]

Ahahaha earning money by selling quest items from fresh chars, that's a refreshing take on income! Tip: you can make a towel that takes you closer to nivalis, to optimise this. Should cost a few hundred gp per use, averaged out, but saves the two boat rides and part of the walk.

IIRC I've used red slimes when I was very new, but quickly dropped them as they filled up my inventory rather fast. When that happened, I started putting less-valued drops on ignore to extend farming time and the gp income dropped as well. Plus, the good spots had no resting space and red slime are aggro.

For reference, current method gives me about 5000 GP/min (bats).

[Jinkers]

Tip: you can make a towel that takes you closer to nivalis, to optimise this.

Ooh, that's a fun idea. The 2 Ruby Powder for towel dying can reasonably be acquired through Method #2 so there's a backup plan if it does bleach on use.... Aaaand yep, with a Red Towel prepped (sending you straight to the tribe camp) I got a new best time of 4:58 from creation to deletion, bringing this method all the way up to 2,000 GPM while the towel lasts.

For reference, current method gives me about 5000 GP/min (bats).

A new method enters the lab.... Thanks ThinkSome!

[asuratva]

I made my first 1m back in the day by grinding the orum+warric quest chain on new characters. It gives 100k per completion. Need lots of items, but most of them can come from monster points. But it's most likely more effort than it's worth, definitely would not recommend

Monster points also give decent GP. It's often overlooked. Just need to remember to cash out every once in a while.

[ThinkSome]

I remember that one; it was so much walking that I have it done on one character, only.

[asuratva]

I remember that one; it was so much walking that I have it done on one character, only.

ugh, that brings back some traumatic memories

Having the nav window open and alt-tabbing to auto-walk to the next warp every minute or so.

[Jinkers]

I made my first 1m back in the day by grinding the orum+warric quest chain on new characters.

Well that got me curious, so of course I had to add it to my experiment... I now have regrets!
I have updated the main post with my findings.

Monster points also give decent GP. It's often overlooked.

Including the Monster Points sounds interesting, but I think there's probably too much randomness to really be worth trying to measure GPM on monster points... For the sake of my sanity I will consider them a passive income stream instead of trying to work out the most efficient mob to farm for points... Though if someone else wants to do that I'll happily feature their findings.

[ginosuper]

It's nice seeing these GP grinding methods listed!

I'd say completing the Illia Sisters quest is the best GP grinding method in the game, after you've received the 2 main rewards (which are also worth a lot!).

With a good team, you can complete Illia within 15 minutes, granting you 100k GPs (and 120+ BPs for good measure!).
The materials to start it cost roughly 19k (if you were to buy them at my shop), which would put the profit at 81k per 15 minutes.

During the quest, monsters will drop stuff as well. You'll probably walk away with drops worth at least 5k in total, which would put the profit at 86k per 15 minutes.

I would take the concentration/iron potion costs into account, but you'll be able to collect them during the quest. As for heals, a good runner will heal you when you need it during the final stage, so I will not calculate heals into the equation either.

So, taking that 86k and dividing it by the amount of minutes the quest takes; 86,000 : 15 = 5733,33GP per minute, and that is for everyone taking part in the quest.

This will only be the rough profit with a good, experienced, strong team in mind. I trust you'll be able to test this method yourself soon when reaching level 90, and perhaps you can give us some more accurate numbers. I'm looking forward to see what GP grinding methods other people try out as well

[Ledmitz]

Stats matter when discussing fighting for GP and the mob type matters. Also, you can get more DP by joining more battles; Candor, Terogan, Razha, Krukan and Cindy all award extra DP. You may not be able to solo many at your level, but joining as many as you can and just surviving them builds up fast. As for GP per DP, Arkim is generally considered the best. With the right stats, it takes little time to max your normal DP. There's a lot more to consider though, like the exp you may be missing out on while you grind for DP. In that case Yeti seem to win as good pay from presents and good exp, depending on your build and level, but they aren't so great of an option at level 70. I find black scorpion stingers is a decent compromise at level 70. You can stat to kill them fast, but you may need some slow poison pots, or you become poison immune and get stingers much slower. Cave snakes are a better option than they've been in the past, when you find the right location to hunt them in and they still give okay exp at level 70 with little risk. I'm not sure if hunting terranites is an option at level 70 for their ore, but an often overlooked method of getting GP is to collect terra ore, make terra arrows and sell to NPCs. You may be able to sell for more to a player if you can find the right buyer. Collecting BP also takes time to acquire a 4BM item and though most of us would rarely choose to sell any of those, if GP was your main goal you could easily make money far faster than any other method by selling those items since 1 can be worth over 10M. It may help to find a buyer and what they want first though. I won't bother with mentioning Illia since you have to be level 90 to join, but that becomes another great way to get fast GP.

[Jinkers]

I'd say completing the Illia Sisters quest is the best GP grinding method in the game, after you've received the 2 main rewards (which are also worth a lot!).
...
So, taking that 86k and dividing it by the amount of minutes the quest takes; 86,000 : 15 = 5733,33GP per minute, and that is for everyone taking part in the quest.

Love the overview, thanks Gino! I look forward to testing this myself once I hit 90. I won't include it in the main post at this stage as I did specify there that this is based on what I can access at ~70 and (as you pointed out) this is a level 90+ quest.

Stats matter when discussing fighting for GP and the mob type matters.

Very true, I should clarify this is my experience with a Level ~70 Tank Mage build: max Int, 30 Agi, the rest between Vit and Luck. In general though I think the methods I've outlined will work for any build around that level. Warrior builds are the most likely to have poorer results for methods #1 and maybe #4 imo, depending on how quickly they can kill mine mobs and bats respectively.

Also, you can get more DP by joining more battles; Candor, Terogan, Razha, Krukan and Cindy all award extra DP.

The server's most active time falls at about 4 am for me so I rarely see battles ongoing myself. In other words, I'm going to be relying on estimates and contributions. I wish I'd measured how long each Razha took us yesterday to get an exact number, but I'd estimate with the two of us it took at least 10 minutes per run.
Using that estimate: 1 run = 10 minutes = 50 DP = 12 more Arkim quest completions, plus the estimated 3.5 minutes to gather the 36 bat wings, giving 13.5 minutes for 7200 gold, meaning a GPM of ~533. Plus whatever loot you get from Razha, but with more players the loot drops get split/taken so I don't think they're worth noting on average.
Of course, this would be more fun than just grinding GP and also provide BP and XP, as you say. This post, however, is about pure GPM, so fun is not a measured metric

I'm not sure if hunting terranites is an option at level 70 for their ore, but an often overlooked method of getting GP is to collect terra ore, make terra arrows and sell to NPCs.

As a mage yes I can hunt terranites, though it's a slow process and has high risk of death if anything else in the cave notices me... Unfortunately to make terra arrows it looks like you need to be level 80 and have made the whole terra armor set first, so that removes it from my initial premise of level 70 gold farming (and it'll be a while before I can test it anyway).

Collecting BP also takes time to acquire a 4BM item ... 1 can be worth over 10M.

Sounds interesting! If we use the Razha estimate from before we get 50 BP per 10 minutes, and we need 20,000 for a 4BM item. So, 400 Razhas (and 4,000 minutes) later we can sell an item for a low-ball 10M, giving 2,500 GPM. That said, you'll also need the items to summon the boss 400 times which is going to hurt that figure a lot in either GP or time. Once you hit 90 you can do Illia which looks like it'll have better returns, but as mentioned above in response to Gino I won't include level 90 quests in a level 70 guide.

[Ledmitz]

to make terra arrows it looks like you need to be level 80 and have made the whole terra armor set first

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure you only have to be level 70 to start the terra set, but yes, it takes a fair bit of time to do that. Ideally, players should be doing that and the beheader at the same time and it tends to take a similar amount of time, depending on your luck.

you'll also need the items to summon the boss 400 times which is going to hurt that figure a lot in either GP or time.

Also true, but only one player pays and they can take turns so you surely don't need to do all that grinding on your own and you can start at level 60, but it's tough to survive unless you take a huge hit to your DPS which slows down levelling.