Bio Engineer Archive

Grind time now gone! Thanks devs from now on I can fully mouthly say: if you want to sample DNA you really have to love it. If not, there are no holos, no hidden professions nothing to oblige you. If not it will be no longer a game, only a self - imposed torture.

And yeah, yeah I'm not pretending not to know. Some of you out there do this for money. Some of you heard chefs' cries not finding tissues, or you're yourself a chef whose sales would go much better having additives made for free (you'll soon realise how "free" are they), or, even more recently, want to catch up with the craziness of wearing BE clothes (as if they were not here for more than a year now) and being a tailor want to buy nothing that you can do yourself.
Either way i'm not discouraging anybody. Try it even if it's only for credits. You may arrive to do it only for love.

My best idea about finishing this long tree of DNA sampling is to enter the story. Remember you're not here to be a cynical, analytical, realistical adult, you're here to have the fun. Therefore at this very moment you cease to be a player who wants to grind the BE and become a weirdie, lonely scientist walking the waste empty spaces where only the best of the warriors dare to walk and even so, only with their best weapons at hand, with their best chemical enhancers science offered them.
And you? You have only the good mask scented suit your BE master offered as present when you left the civilised world.

Why couldn't you use that great combat features you already have? Because your combat skills, with little exceptions, are a pretty bad addition to your BE operations.
There will be precious species to sample. They will more than once attack you. Not defending your life is then the most important issue but preserving that animal alive so that it can give you its DNA.

Learn to run in time. Learn to run around the lair so that it doesn't disappear when you are out of combat and come back. Learn to be defenceless and fearless all the same.

If you really want some combat use, the only one really good is the meditate line from TKA, maybe some ranger.You will not have the skill points to have enough doctor to heal disease and master BE ever, so meditate after each diseasing bite you happen to get. To this Power Boost is a perfect free buff you can always have.

Even if your loving mum does not understand your crazyness to moving into the wild, her care hopefully will place in your bag (your large large bag) some brandy to clear your thinking, some canape, some jawa beer for lowering even more your scent and even some sweet blue milk just in case.

And you will also have a friend with you. One that should never leave his BE master: the medical droid, medic 110, private crafting module and, just in case also, some 10 storage space for your forgotten armor or whatever you find good to take with you.

5 samples make a DNA template. They do not stack! Your inventory and backpack (almost empty when leaving home if you really are in business) will very soon become a mess. As you are still a student you will not have pending orders so you are not interested in finding a certain level, a certain number of special attacks and so on. You are simply interested to finish that sampling tree that gets in your way to really make nice pets. Therefore, whenever you need healing, emptying your stomach or only give a break to your nerves, just get that droid out and start working templates. This will also give you some xp in the other trees of BE and, what's most important, will divide to 5 the heavy contents of your bagages. If you were careful enough to take some flora and some crappy meat with you, you can try making pets, gettin xp as well and... let's confess, an inventory full of pets however bad as stats, will always be more encouraging than an inventory full of templates.

If it's really your first day of sampling, don't go too far. You may work for hours and either the animals will aggro you, or they will die instantly from your clumsy attempts to get their DNA profiles. My favourite place for begining was the nice lawn in front of the Theed Starport, but Eisley's nunas and rills can be as rewarding as chubas after all. In this first day you can get your droid right away (have enough batteries with you) and let it follow you while sampling. When your mind gets completely drained, remain "on follow"-ing the next chuba, or flewt or whatever this level of victims and start crafing till your mind comes back in place. Of course drained mind can be easily corrected by a musician friend who may want to give you a buff but that's not really necessary, especially at this level where most of your attempts will be failures.

Patience and a good sense of humour will eventually lead you to the phase where your master (ah, there are no more masters in SWG? there will be again, I am sure of it) will let you go a step higher where at least you could almost successfully chase kaadus. But kaadus even if they might be sampled now are not the best choice you can take. If you sample a female and she aggroes you all the lair will be attacking, if you'll try a male, your chances to failure will be so big that it doesn't worth the pain of trying anymore.

No herd animal is good for you yet. But you can try a nice trip to Endor. You'll go often to Endor as master BE. More often than you think. Best poisons, best dizzy, best strong diseases and best light armors easy to find, to sample and to combine are there. Have you imagined nice kimogilas come from Lok, rancors from Dathomir and mereks from Endor? Nothing is mandatory here. Your powers to create are more than you may think now. Few people imagine that best kimos come from Dath, and best angler, no, not from Yavin4 but from Endor, a lot of dewbacks have kaadus or chubas as parents, and a lot of carrion spats can be actually the kids of some tiny little very tatooinian nunas.

So, go to Endor and try to find some bolle bols. (Always examine your next DNA provider... at least make sure it doesn't DB) Not the bark biters yet, those will be good for the next level, but the calves, colts and you may try even some stompers. Have in mind they attack together so find small groups, ideally one alone and keep some ithorian mist handy since you can get so dizzy as not to be able to run anymore.

Where from do I know all these beasts? Ah, I see you haven't done your theoretical work yet before anything else, even before reading this long story, type please www.creatures.com and go to the advanced search section. Then start a bit to imagine. What if you want to hunt for some avian meat while sampling? Swgcraft.com told you already there might be some good one on Yavin. Should you hunt for the ugly bats? Surprise: they have no avian meat, they are very, very carnivore. Or imagine a customer wants a terrific beast with light armor, max lvl 35 and, nasty poison and even nastier disease, where should you go to take sample form all these?

Oh, well, talking, pinching bolls on Endor, making samples... all these should bring you to the next level, or so I hope you mastershall agree. However if yes, then either you should come back to Endor, or for a change let's make money. Not that sort of money we will soon talk about but, some money anyway, all this travelling costs a lot.

How? Taking missions. I recommend gurk missions on Lok. Gurks are nice to sample and give good results. Of course no BE wants to really kill the animal he's sampling but science /sigh asks for sacrifice. Without your failures we will not have any BE masters and your failures are those that kill the beasts. Now, as they are killing anyway, why not making some profit out of it. You won't get any meat or hide from a DNA sampling victim anyway. One advice though: keep your bikes away from gurks. If you run and they are somewhat upset with that lonely bike owner, the bike might not have a long life near their lair. And having in mind the pollution I can only understand them. Being on Lok you could come accross some snorbals herds. These can bring you good xp also but mainly on the third level. And no money, they are not in missions anymore.

You can follow these ideas or try new ones. On any planet you'll probably find something to sample. Just have an eye open for them. However it's a very bad idea to try to sample malklok when your team is attacked by enraged bull rancs, it's also a bad idea to try to sample ATSTs, and even worse with NS and spider clan guys... not that I wouldn't do it from time to time

4th level says your master? Pheew. Good. Rancors? Maybe... but in my view let that pleasure after you get master. Right now you'll lose quite a lot of time and get respectively little xp. Have you tried brackasets? Not bad xp indeed. Or... for a better collection, try the spiders of Endor again (oh, don't tell me you haven't tried and died a lot before whatever advice you might have gotten). Now it's your time. Well... maybe not quite that merek battlelord but some arachne warriors might worth a try, or two, or three, or... err, are you cloned?

Tired of trying and dieing or having failures, or running in circles? Look at that beast. Is it aware of your presence? Oh, don't tell me it's only AI. Enter the story I said and I mean it. Is it standing or sitting as if aslept? It's obviously easier to sample if sitting. Use your good sense. You managed to take a sample but now it had a yellow question mark above its head? Give it some time. Oh, well I didn't say you should ./pet it. But stay still for some seconds then sample again.

Are they dieing too quickly? If it's a herd, sample one then go to another. Of course poor beasts die of exhaustion after your 7th sampling in a row.

Has your mask scent gone and you're surrounded by bark mites burrower queens and workers? Stay still and put your mask scent again. Even a better idea is to refresh it yourself at certain intervals.

In my experience the longer you manage to stay inside a mobs group the least is the probability that the animals will aggro you. Do not start sampling right away. You may as well wait staying still for some 10s before beginning your work.

And comming back to money. A lot of people still want some mounts. They are usefull in a lot of situations. And of course before mastering you cannot make them very good yet, but people want to have them anyway. Take a bunch of dewbacks, kaadus, whatever and try selling them in Eisley. You'll make a lot of people happier even if you'll get small amounts of money.

Another kind of potential customers are people who are decorating large rooms, like cantinas, guild halls, city halls and even the large Naboo houses. Make decoration animals. Give them names according to the customers orders. Talk to people. Explain what you can do, what you will be able to do, and what they can get from you now. Do not expect them to know your profession. A lot of mayors will want some nice guardians to their city halls, a lot of entertainers will want tiny cute pets to accompany them to their concerts, a lot of tailors and architects would want some life forms in their shops. Contact them.

Last but not least - I'm sure you will come with new ideas -is: make gifts. Is it Christmas? Make some nice kitties with Christmas names. Is it Easter approaching? Make some bunnies. Give them funny names. Make some alive love signs. Place them on the bazaars, have in mind to use as many languges as you can to make happy as many people as you can. People like them, will buy then, will take care of them and you will not only get some money but also some merchant xp, because you'll want some vendors in your shop after mastering, isn't it?

Oh dear, I am talking and talking and your master says: you're ready, son, nothing more to learn from an old man like me. Good luck then to you and...
./shht don't ask me to persuade that mutant not to kill you again.