Hunting is a big part of playing Entropia Universe. It’s one of the three primary professions. And it’s likely to be what you start out doing to learn the game. Knowing how important hunting is we thought we should go over the basics. Once you’ve mastered the basics you can enjoy your first few months while learning the game.
What Is Hunting?
The Entropia definition of hunting is pretty basic. Anytime you kill a creature you are hunting. It doesn’t matter if you kill one creature or a thousand in a row. The only exception is when you are able to kill another player in a Player vs. Player zone. Other than that if you use a weapon on it and it dies; it’s hunting.
What Kind of Creatures Can I Hunt?
There are two distinct classes of creatures in Entropia Universe. First there are robots. The name is self-explanatory. If it resembles a machine more than an organic creature it’s classified as a robot. All other creatures are classified as Mobs. If it resembles an animal, zombie, mutant or human it’s a mob. A Mulciber is a giant metal robot spider. It’s classified as a robot. A Caudatergus somewhat resembles a blue buffalo dinosaur. It’s classified as a mob.
What Is The Point of Hunting?
Once you have successfully killed a creature you are able to Loot it. Loot can be anything from shrapnel, hides and oils to rare or unique weapons. You won’t know exactly what loot, or what value, you will receive until you loot the creature. Creatures can only been looted once they have been killed.
What Is Melee Hunting?
There are two distinct types of hunting: Melee and Ranged. Melee hunting means that you are hunting using Melee weapons. This category of weapons would include clubs, swords and knives. These weapons do not usually require ammo. If they were real world versions they definitely would not use ammo. These are the weapons that you use at close range to stab, slash and hit.
What Is Ranged Hunting?
Ranged hunting is hunting with ranged weapons. As you have probably guessed this would include rifles, pistols and rocket launchers. These are the weapons that we expect to use some form of ammo. They allow you to attempt to kill a creature from further away. This is also the first type of hunting new players are likely to attempt.
Which Is Better: Melee Hunting or Ranged Hunting?
For a new player ranged hunting is hands down the best option. This is also a choice that tends to cost new players a lot of money when they incorrectly think melee hunting is cheaper. Most new players start hunting with the starter guns and small amount of ammo they get during the tutorial. What they quickly find is that they keep running out of ammo.
In fact new players are much more likely to run out of ammo than they are to have their guns break. This leads new players to think that Melee is a cheaper alternative. It’s logical since the starter melee weapons do not burn ammo when used. But it is flawed thinking that can cost you big.
What Is Decay?
Decay is one of the principles that allows the real world economy of Entropia Universe to function. As in real life everything wears out. This means that your weapons, tools, vehicles and armor will all break. Once they break they are no longer useable until they are repaired or replaced.
This is deceiving for new players. New players realize that they are running out of ammo before their guns break and assume that melee would be cheaper than ranged since there is no ammo cost. The problem is that melee weapons decay much faster than ranged weapons. In fact they decay so fast that it is actually cheaper to purchase more ammo than it is to purchase a new melee weapon or continue paying to repair a melee weapon repeatedly.
What amazes me is experienced players can explain this to a new player and most of them will still do it anyway. They always come back later and admit everyone was right but sometimes people have to learn from experience. Save yourself some money and listen now. Melee is more expensive due to decay. It is cheaper to simply buy more ammo and do ranged hunting. This is especially important when you first start and have little to no PED.
What Else Should I Know For My First Hunt?
When you loot a creature you are very likely to receive shrapnel. This is true regardless of the hunting method. Shrapnel can be converted into Universal Ammo at a 100:101 conversion rate. This means when you convert shrapnel to ammo you get 1% more ammo for free! If you are hunting and run out of ammo simply open your inventory using I. Go to your materials tab and find shrapnel. Right click and hit convert to ammo; now you can go hunt some more!
Also keep in mind that some players will sell shrapnel. If you are buying it for 100.3%-100.5% it may be a better option than buying ammo directly from the Trade Terminal since you are still getting a 0.5-0.7% conversion bonus when you turn it into Universal Ammo. This is especially handy later on when you are needing hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of ammo.
Will I Make Ped Hunting?
You are not going to make a profit hunting. Especially when you first start. If you use 100k ammo hunting you will likely end up with 50k-70k in shrapnel. You can turn this back into ammo and go hunt again. After your second round of hunting you will probably have 30k-50k in shrapnel. You can turn this into ammo and go hunting again.
You can repeat this process until you are completely out of ammo or your gun breaks. Now you have to buy more ammo and possibly figure out if you need to replace or repair your weapon. The reason this happens is because you get more than just shrapnel in your loot. You will also receive oils, hides and other items which are important but which do not immediately further your hunting sessions.
In future articles we will look at how to hunt more profitably. If you’re hunting because you’re trying to earn PED as a new player or a non-depositor you’re destined to fail. Instead why not Join Us here at earnPED and use our Offers and Videos to grow your PEDCard! Don’t forget to use our Affiliate Program to share this information with other players who may find it helpful!
