Starting Out Without Knowing What to Do

I didn't know where to start either

It doesn't take long for Entropia to leave you asking:

“Okay… what do I actually do now?”

You'd think that would be easy to answer. Then you look at everything you could be doing.

There's Hunting, Mining, Fishing, Gathering, Crafting and Trading. You can also just head out and explore while you work out what kind of game you've joined.

And right from the start, there's another thing to keep in mind: PED have value.

For some players, that's the attraction. They're interested in the real-cash economy and the possibility of making money in the game. Others come for the sci-fi world, the mobs, the equipment or the things they'll be able to do as their avatar develops.

Knowing what brought you here doesn't necessarily help you choose what to do first.

I had that problem too. For a long time, I thought I needed to find “my profession.” Hunter, miner, crafter, trader: I felt I had to pick one before I could really get on with playing.

What changed was realizing how much I still had to learn about my avatar. Before deciding what I wanted to specialize in, I was already developing it and finding out what it could handle.

That gave me a different reason to try an activity.

I thought I had to choose a profession first

Entropia doesn't give you one level that tells you how far your entire avatar has progressed. You can be well along in one area and barely started in another. The different skills and professions don't all develop at the same pace.

For me, Hunting did the most to build a broad foundation.

That's how my own progression worked out. Mining, Fishing, Gathering and Crafting develop their own areas too. My experience doesn't make Hunting a required first step, or the best economic choice for everyone.

While hunting, I was working on more than the attack. I also had to survive the mob. Both the offensive and defensive sides of my avatar were developing, along with different skills. I was getting familiar with mechanics I'd later need to understand costs, equipment and progression.

That's how I remember the early game: I could explore and try other things, but it kept bringing me back to Hunting and combat.

I didn't take that to mean I had to hunt forever. I started asking a different question. Instead of trying to decide immediately what kind of player I was going to be, I wanted to understand what I was developing.

The activities aren't completely separate, either. Crafting alone has different branches, different kinds of production and different skills involved. It isn't one thing that all levels up together. Mining, Gathering and Fishing have their own progression as well.

What you develop now affects what your avatar can do comfortably later. Choosing an activity was part of building that foundation, even before I knew where I wanted to take it.

Of course, telling someone who's just arrived to “develop your avatar first” leaves a fairly obvious question unanswered:

“Sure. With what PED?”

“What if I don't have any PED?”

How you start makes a difference here. You can deposit, or you can try to get going F2P. That choice alone doesn't make anyone a better player.

A deposit puts those first PED within reach sooner. You're paying to skip some of the time you would otherwise spend getting them in the game.

It doesn't teach you what a hunt costs, which mob makes sense for your avatar or what to do with the loot. A larger balance doesn't teach you how to manage a bankroll, either.

You can get started sooner and still burn through your PED before you understand where they're going. That part of learning the game is still ahead of you.

With an F2P start, you usually have very little PED to work with. The time you spend collecting resources matters much more. I began to see that those resources could become a first bankroll, once I'd sold them.

Fishing for Baitfish, gathering Sweat and picking up fruit are examples that come up in that conversation. You put time into getting resources and try to turn them into your first PED.

But getting the resource isn't the end of the job. You still have to sell it.

An inventory full of Sweat, Baitfish or fruit can leave you with the same immediate problem: you don't yet have the PED for what you want to do next. You need a buyer.

Sometimes that means waiting. Nobody may be buying right now, or there may be more activity at a different time of day. Players in Europe and the Americas aren't all online at the same hours. You can notice that when you're trying to sell.

Community events and players who buy particular resources at certain times can matter too. Finding out about them is part of learning how to sell what you've collected.

It's worth asking other players ordinary questions:

“Who's buying this?”

“What does it sell for?”

“Is there an event coming up?”

“When are buyers usually around?”

That's no different from asking where to find a mob. You learn how to get the item, and you learn what you can do with it afterward. Talking to other players is part of both.

At first, time was what I had to work with

“Free to play” doesn't quite describe everything you're putting in.

You might spend hours collecting enough resources for those first PED. You haven't deposited money, but you've spent that time. How much it's worth to you is your call.

You may enjoy starting that way. You may prefer to deposit and skip part of it. I don't think either choice needs to become advice that every player is supposed to follow.

What helps is being clear about the choice you're making. F2P puts more of the early work into getting resources and finding buyers. Depositing puts money in up front so you have PED available sooner.

Either way, you eventually have to decide what to do with what you've got. Almost every activity needs resources to keep going.

In Hunting, there's weapon decay or repair, and ammo where applicable. Depending on the mob and your equipment, armor, healing and other costs may be part of the hunt too.

Mining needs its own tools and resources. Resource Gathering uses tools; gathering Sweat and picking up fruit are different activities. Crafting consumes materials that already have value. Trading needs capital for the purchase before there's anything to resell.

That's why I wouldn't usually send a brand-new player straight into Crafting without a specific reason. I'd be concerned about them consuming materials before they understood what those materials were worth or what they were doing with them.

If you bought the materials, you paid for them. If you got them through Hunting, Mining or something else, they still have value. Getting them by playing doesn't make them free to use in Crafting.

That distinction keeps coming back: what you own, what you can sell, and what you're spending to keep playing.

Once you have those first PED, the question starts to change.

You've been asking “How do I get PED?” Now there's another question:

“How do I keep from spending them without knowing where they went?”

You can have enough to start an activity without knowing whether it makes sense to keep doing it with your current avatar and bankroll.

That was one of the lessons that took me longest:

Being able to kill a mob doesn't mean you're ready to hunt it.