Money in WildStar is surprisingly easy and yet there are plenty of players on a daily basis asking my how to go about it. Firstly, I’m not the richest player by any standards as I know of several that have hundreds of Platinum thanks to early wealth acquisition through Architect crafting. That aside, I’ve still managed to make around 75 Platinum since launch which I’ve begun to lavish on the best Runes money can buy. Here’s my money making methods.

Salvaging

Large swathes of players still don’t realise the monetary potential of salvaging. If it’s green or higher and above item level 47, it’s always worth salvaging. I will caveat this first by stating that you should always check the Auction House/Commodity Exchange first before salvaging, to ensure what you’re intending to salvage isn’t worth more as the current item. This does tend to only be for items of a blue or higher quality and most greens I just salvage instantly.  The reason why salvaging is so profitable is because even the green items have a chance of returning components to you that have significant value. Runes of varying types, cores and scrap components can all sell for significant values even if your originally salvaged item is worthless. I spent the last few days salvaging swathes of green items (above item level 47) and make around 4 Platinum from landing lucky on the Runes and Cores that dropped. Just make sure once you’ve had a salvaging run that you head straight to the Auction House Create Sell Order page to view your items value.

Maximise Your Elder Gems

When you’ve reached level 50 you’ll be able to accrue Elder Points. These Elder Points can be accumulated by undertaking any activity that would have, before you reached level 50, provided experience. Towards the bottom of your HUD you’ll see that in the place of your old experience bar, it has been replaced with Elder Points progression. Every time you fill up this bar (75,000 Elder Points) you’ll be rewarded with an Elder Gem, which you can then convert to a variety of items. As you can only earn 140 Elder Gems per week once you’ve reached that cap you will instead begin to earn money instead of experience. In terms of the conversation rate is isn’t enormous (around 1-2 gold per Adventure Boss kill) but it soon adds up as you play through a variety of the games content.

Auction House and Commodity Exchange

The Auction House and Commodity Exchange functions like any other (such as the Auction House in World of Warcraft or Trading Post in Guild Wars 2) with the exception that Carbine have split its functionality. The Commodity Exchange allows for the creation of Buy Orders and Sell orders as well as Sell Now and Buy now. Alternatively, the Commodity Exchange only permits the purchase and sale of items for classes (armor and weapons) and housing. In terms of revenue potential, the Commodity Exchange is near limitless based on how much time you’re willing to invest.

There's several things to be aware of when tackling the Commodity Exchange. The first is that you should never use the Buy Now or Sell Now facilities. These two areas are where the Commodity Exchange power-players make their margins as they count on players selling their items cheaply (which they then sell on or use) or buying them at a higher price. You should only use Create Buy Order or Create Sell Order as this allows you to obtain items cheaper than their Buy Now/Sell Now price but your orders can take some time to fill.  Fortunately the positives of saving money and earning more are worth the wait.

As far as using the Commodity Exchange is concerned, I’d recommend at a minimum you download the following two Addons. The first allows you to easily key in monetary values (the default WildStar UI for entering money is awful) and the second is an Addon which shows you the margins you can make on an item you’re viewing including multipliers depending on how many you buy. It really is a brilliant Addon that makes calculating potential profits incredibly easy.

Depending on what you buy and sell on (or just sell on from items you find or salvage) will be determined by your server. Certainly on Hazak the main things that are currently selling are high level Power Cores, Runes, some foods and AMPs. I’ve found that placing Buy Orders for a variety of these items (those with the highest margins in the highest quantities) has earned me a significant sum of money. I tend to max out my Buy Orders and wait 24 hours and if they all haven’t been fulfilled by then, I cancel what’s remaining and list what I’ve successfully purchased.

I really must stress that at times the Commodity Exchange can be a lot of trial and error. There’s a lot of undercutting that goes on (players selling or buying the same item as you a few silver below or above your price) and the 24 hour turn-around can slow things down. It’s also a bit of a guessing game at times as to how the market will react to what you’re listing. I had a spell where I made a fortunate from certain runes and then in a flash the market bottomed out and I’m now stuck with a sizable quantity I can’t yet shift. Evidently practice makes perfect.

Dungeons and Adventures

I’m going to heavily caveat this method and stress that the money versus time is often quite low if your group isn’t optimal. With a guild group of highly skilled players and when Elder Gem capped it’s easy to rattle through an Adventure or Dungeon and earn plenty of loot to salvage or sell in the process. The problem here however is that if there are any wipes or encounters which slow you down it’s more efficient to hit the Commodity Exchange.

Daily Quests

Your bread and butter of income, the daily quests you can undertake at level 50 on Crimson Badlands and Northern Wastes provide around 1 Platinum per day. If you loot everything you kill and utilise salvaging/sales through the Commodity Exchange it can prove significantly higher. It only takes around an hour to complete the dailies and they’re also a brilliant way of allowing you to cap your Elder Gems so that you can begin earning additional money instead. The only downside to doing dailies is the repetitiveness of them and if you’re playing on a PvP server, the likelihood of being ganked.

Battlegrounds and Arenas

When you win a Battleground or Arena you’re rewarded with a chest that contains a variety of items and some money (around 10-18 silver). It isn’t a large amount of income but the main source comes from the weapons and armor that pop out of the reward chests. I tend to salvage all of them (due to their poor Commodity Exchange and vendor sale prices) and then list whatever turns up from the salvage. Lastly, with the Prestige you’re rewarded with I’d recommend that after you’ve acquired all your PvP gear that you purchase the lowest cost armor (above level 47) so that you can salvage it as an additional source of components to sell on.

Grinding

The thought of grinding makes me want to cry and cancel my subscription but there’s a couple of spots in WildStar that are a joy to grind in. The enemies are incredibly easy to kill and respawn almost instantly. Although I’m not willing to share those spots (there’s only room for 1!) they are in Grimvault and Blighthaven. I’ve made significant amounts of money from these spots just in the space of an hour as the loot drops are excellent and relatively pain-free when talking to friends at the same time. I will add though that grinding should always be your last resort.

C.R.E.D.D

Perhaps not the most viable method for many, but C.R.E.D.D is a reliable source of income. If you’re paying real money, it’s an instant boost for your wallet. If you're not, investing in C.R.E.D.D now is an excellent way of securing money in the future. On HazakC.R.E.D.D is around 6 Platinum each, yet if it's anything like Guild Wars 2's Gem system the price of C.R.E.D.D will likely explode in 6 to 12 months time. If you buy them cheap now with the money you earn to convert them later, you're sure to make a significant profit.

Which Of These Should I Use?

Without a doubt it should be a collection of all of them. Grinding is, as I stated, a last resort but all the above are absolutely viable methods of earning significant sums of money when undertaken over a period of time. In terms of efficiency simply salvaging items as you play the game, not spending what you have and the utilising the Commodity Exchange is without doubt the most effective. Learning the Commodity Exchange though is a tough process and it’s something that simply has to be tried and tested in order to maximise your effectiveness. My one warning is if you get the Commodity Exchange bug, be prepared for it to suck away hours of your time!