Making money at early lvls (1-5)

[danaconda]

This is my first guide, so it might not be so easy to read. I'm saying sorry ahead of time.  :(
This guide is for UNtwinked characters, best if you want to start fresh on a new server.

You need to have Luclin to make this guide work. You also are going to need to leave a computer on overnight in trader mode in the bazaar.

Ok, make your character, any character can do this. Hand in your starting note and run your butt off to the nearest PoK book. You're heading to Shadeweaver's Thicket which is the newbie starting grounds by Shar Vahl (kitty city).

Use your newbie starting weapon, since these are lvl 1 mobs you will be fighting and you don't want to kill them all in one shot because then you wont get many skill-ups.

There are 2 VERY easy quests in this zone that you should start as soon as you get there. Chialle's friendship ring, and garbage collection quest. I'm just gonna sum them up, check other websites to get a better walk-through. The ring grants 5hp and 1svfire, and the garbage nets you a 6-slot GIANT 2%weight red. bag. I know, nothing exceptional, but hey, you're a newb now, and anything is better than nothing.

Also, some people suggest you doing the newbie armor quests in this zone. Don't bother, they take too long and are all rare drops from pointless mobs. You will have enough cash at lvl 3 to buy some DECENT armor in the bazaar, I promise!

As soon as you zone in, look around near the book, there should be 2 small bags within about 100 feet or so of the PoK book. Pick them up, they should be little red things, I forget what they're called. Anyways, you need 4 of them, so keep those, and if you can't find any more, come back after you lvl and grab the same ones again. You hand all 4 of these to a guard that walks the path from Shar Vahl, to the first crossroads. Think his name starts like Faer or something. You'll find him, he's always around. He gives you your bag (have an open inventory slot, so you get the bag).

Now for the ring. After you grab your first 2 bags in the quest above, run towards the city entrance. Pass the path that goes to the city and you will see a hut. This one has the banker (#10 on eqatlas map). You want the next hut (#9 on eqatlas map). Inside the hut are 2 merchants. One merchant, when hailed talks about Payala fruits. These are what you need for the 1st part of the quest. Right outside the hut there are some small trees with blue leaves on top. At the base of these trees spawn little blue mushroom things, that when picked up are Payala fruits. Gather them up, I was only able to find 7 spawns at a time, and for the whole quest you are gonna need 16 total. So I made 3 trips to gather the fruits while I hunted in the zone.

After you collect your 16 fruits, hand them to her 4 at a time and you get a drink from her. Take four of these drinks into Shar Vahl. Right across the first bridge, you will immediately see an NPC merchant named Chialle. Hand her the 4 drinks, and receive your Chialle's Friendship Ring.

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OK.......now on to what to HUNT:

By this point you are in the middle of these 2 quests, waiting on ground spawns to respawn. You ARE doing these quests aren't you?........  GOOD!

Your two main targets are Xakra silkworms, and Needle Clawed Hoppers. Both are easy kills, and both aren't social, so you can kill them in front of their friends. Most newbies in the zone know about the silkworms and how nice the drops are for them, so there is fierce competition for them if you aren't alone in the zone. In case you didn't know, the worms drop silks that sell for 1pp each in the bazaar, sometimes more. Any time you see a silkworm, drop what yoou are doing and go kill it. They are common drops and by lvl 2 or 3 you should easily have 40 of them at least (thats 40pp at lvl 2 on just the silks).

Most newbies don't know about the hoppers. Hoppers drop 2 things of interest: pelts and blood.

The pelts can range a bit. There are HQ hopper pelts (20pp or so), MQ hopper pelts (20pp or so), LQ hopper pelts (5pp or so), and damaged hopper pelts (1pp or so). All of these are stackable, so there's no reason not to collect them. The hopper blood stacks also, and should sell around 1pp each or so in the bazaar.

I usually go to the bazaar around lvl 3. Now here's the tough part..... you don't have enough cash yet to buy the trader's satchel! What I did was /auction that I would sell someone 5 or 10 silks, for 2pp total. It usually makes a quick sale for you, and a great deal for someone already selling them. Use that money to buy your trader's satchel, and then set up shop overnight.

When you get to your trader in the morning, you should probably have in the 40pp range, since not all items sell right away. Use this money to buy yourself some cheap armor (splitpaw hide armor is usually very cheap). Also buy some cheap weapons, but if the damage is greater than 6 don't use that weapon until you get to creatures that are blue to you at lvl 6 or so. Otherwise your skills will suffer.

******One last thing I want to note..... Most people aren't aware of this, but the BEST weapons to buy are ones with ridiculously high recommended lvls. For instance, I picked up a fallen froglock scepter for 8pp. The stats are 13/28 with a recommended lvl in the 30's or 40's. The red damage number makes it ****LOOK**** like a 2/28 weapon, but if you use the weapon, it hits like a 13 damage weapon will (the cap below lvl 10 is 20pts of dmg in a single hit). Don't believe me? Buy a cheap weapon (Weighty polearm - 29/34 2hs rec.lvl 50) and give it to a low lvl character and hit something with it. If I'm wrong, it will hit for 2 or 3 dmg MAX. If I'm right it will hit for full damage, with 20 being the max hit for any weapon below lvl 10.

*******EDIT: Ignore the last part about weapon recommended lvls. It has been fixed.   :evil:

[testarossa]

I've found lately that the worms in the pit around Shar Val sometimes drop more silks than the ones outside - and also sometimes drop small cloth bags which give you a bit more carrying capacity.

Also, if you hunt the pit, collect scorpion shells - turn in I think 4 to get an earring - I'm sorry I don't remember the guy's name - something like Dharr - good earring for a non-twink.

And, as you get a bit higher, kill the whiptail scorps - they drop a no drop tail - BUT you turn in I think 4 tails to the guy at the counter in the shammy shop next to the bank, and he gives you padded cloth armor - which you CAN sell, and which is better than running around naked.

All in all a good guide. Just thought I'd add these little hints. Everything in the pit will be green by level 5 or 6, though these mobs seem awfully tough at level 1.

[Mirna]

Reccomended level has been fixed in the last patch. Weapon ratio will now be what it shows you.

[Toghat]

Thanks for this tip. Worked great for me!  I recently joined the game and have started an ogre BL on Zebuxorek.  The average price for these things in the bazaar is 12-15 plat per Shadeling Silk, and mine sold out almost immediately! (managed to collect about 50 of them).  Also, a lvl 65 helped me out after I initially Auctioned that I was new to the game and new to the server and wanted to sell these for some money. He was so happy to see someone not begging for cash that he gave me some and a couple of weapons. Tarekson is his name, he's a real good guy (hard for an ogre to say that about a gnome, but seeing as how he is a 65 SK, he could wipe me easy if I tried to eat him.....) The pelts didnt drop as frequently as the silks, and sold for about the same amount.

[danaconda]

I have verified that the weapon stats have been FIXED! So now recommended level is correct for weapons.  :x

Oh well, I figured they would fix it sooner or later.

[Shille]

Good guide, and it works.
I will add one thing. At about level 3 or 4 you can start killing lesser shades. They have a rare drop called swirling shadows. Save them, and sell in the Bazaar. Last I did this, they were sellin for 25 to 30pp EACH. I have taken a level 4 toon to hunt these for  2 or 3 hours, leveled up 2 levels, and gotten back 600pp. That goes a long way for a newbie. I kept hunting these into my 30's for money.