Creature Handler Archive

It seems as though every week somebody posts the obligatory "What's the easiest way to level CH?" post, which is followed by the "Geo Lab" response, and finally an "I can't handle anything there" answer.

Well, as someone who spent considerable time as a pathetic novice CH/Rifleman with no friends, no guild, or anyone else to help me in such a dangerous place, I thought I might share my experiences with this little guide.

*Disclaimer* Several people disagree with the following strategies due to prolific amounts of XP one may acquire in short periods of time in the geo caves. It is rumored you can master CH in 3 days utilizing the caves. I, nor does this guide, condone such activity. I recommend leveling at a leisurely pace throughout the week, by taming and doing missions, and attempting a Geo run once a week or so on Friday/Saturday night when there are a lot of people down there.

This will A) allow you to explore different worlds, socialize, tame new creatures, and do missions most of the time, B) while going to the caves once a week or so for instant gratification and power leveling, giving you an extra box or two. Subsequently, your desire to explore and tame throughout the rest of the week will be reinforced as you are able to handle greater creatures. It's a positive feedback. All this will hopefully keep your head up during the grind.

Ok, enough of that and on with the guide...

II. Preparation:

A. Lets start this off by saying that, if you're not there with friends or your guild, you will die about 50-60% of your attempts (At least this was my experience). It's unavoidable, it is a dangerous place and without mastering an elite combat profession you will stand absolutely no chance against anything you find there.

B. You will need to be as prepared as you can afford. I will list the items in order of perceived importance.

1. Vehicle/Mount: It will be a long, deadly walk from the mining outpost. Get yourself a mount or bike. This could cost you anywhere from nothing (a mount from a generous CH) or up to ~15K for a swoop.

2. Doctor Buff: this is a must and will cost you 10-15K depending on your server

3. Set of Composite (preferably) or Ubese amour: Composite will run you 200K-400K and a set of Ubese will cost ~130K, all dependant upon your server economy. I would also add that amour is a must. You are looking for high stun (Geonosians) and kinetic (Enhanced Kwi's) and resists.

*The following items are not necessary but will make it easier on you*

4. Synth Steak: If you can get your hands on a couple of these, it would be nice. They generally reduce incoming damage by 42% (39 filling?). They normally sell in crates of 25 for about 150K, or 5 for 30K. Try to see if some one will sell you one or two for a couple thousand if you don't have the money, you only need 1 per trip.

5. Won-Won: This will buff your health secondaries. There is another that will buff health. Either will work. It is going to be hit hard if things go wrong, and might mean difference between life and death. Pricing is on par with synthsteak.

6. Stims/Pet stims: Your pet will, more than likely, die before you do. These will bring 'em back, and prevent major headaches.

7. Bofa Treats: They buff pet health. Any added pet health will be appreciated. These are very cheap.

*Super Bonus*

8. Pet Buff: If you can get a doc to meet you at the cave entrance and buff your pet (remember pet buffs poof once you store them), it will be priceless. Pet secondaries are normally capped at 40, hence why it takes so long for them to regenerate. If you can buff their secondaries to 2000-2500 they will become near indestructable monsters. This will dramatically increase your chance of success/survival, andshould cost 10-15K depending on your server.

Very true, I was once in your position. You can't do worthy missions, and are sick of dropping off packages. I'll let you in on an excellent way to get started as a noob.

The best way: Go imperial, even if for just the day. Travel to Bestine (Tatooine), declare imperial at the outpost on top of the hill just outside of town. Enter the building at the outpost, and in the backmost left room there is a man who will present you with a series of four missions. Upon completing the fourth mission he will award you 10,000 credits and give you the "Endor Forest Painting."

This painting is your meal ticket. It is an imperial only perk. Therefore, you can sell it to a rich rebel for more money than you thought possible in your noob dreams. Go directly to the forums and put it up for auction. Place the min bid, or sale price at no less than 800,000 (going price appears to be around 1 million credits; this is what I sold mine for).

If you absolutely despise imperials or the thought of going imperial, there is another option, although less reliable option, as a result of the current theme park frenzy by Jedi wannabees. Go through the Jaba theme park (West of Wayfair on Tatooine). Approximately half way through you will be presented with the "Painting of a Twi'lek" or "Advertisement." I'm not sure about the market for the advertisement, but you should be able to sell the Twi'lek painting for approximately 300K-1 million.

This should get you enough credits to purchase all of the previous, and get you well on your way.

C. Choosing the right pet: for the Geo caves you'll want a CL 15-20 with a ranged attack. This hits the "Sweet Spot" for creatures you'll be facing, and will give you 1,000-1,200 CH XP per kill/kite. Any CL significantly lower or higher will drastically reduce your XP. It is important to have a creature with a ranged attack so it can sit back with you and nail the bad guys as they appear. Without a ranged attack they'll get mixed up with the fight and die real quick.

Considering the previous, my pet of choice was the kliknik. They can be found on Yavin IV, coincidently, along the beach from the Mining Outpost to the Geo caves. Klikniks are CL 18, which will present you with the greatest CH XP per kill in the caves, and appear to default to a ranged attack as long as their health is adequate (maybe it was just mine). If you can find a BE'd CL 15-20 pet with high health and a ranged attack, that will work. And if you don't have the appropriate taming skill (vicious creatures), get a pair of taming pants/shirt. These sell for about 12K.

If you have some extra cash I reccommend taking this recipe to your local BE:

1st generation:

Physique: Merek Harvester (obtained from the Merek Harvester static spawn 3900 5750 on Endor)
Prowess: Voritor Dashor (8k missions on Dantooine)
Mental: Sevorrt (600cr cl7 missions on tatooine)
Psych: Remmer Dune Scavenger (also from endor though anything similar will do)
Aggression: Sevorrt

Experimentation: Max Physique as high as it can go, 2 points in prowess, 1 in mental.

Take 3 samples from the 1st generation.

2nd Generation:

Physique: Merek Harvester
Prowess: Merek Harvester
Mental: 1st Gen
Psych: 1st Gen
Aggression: 1st gen

Experimentation: Max Physique

You should end up with something like this:

10/7/4 HAM
Light Armour
60% Kinetic
Speed 2.31
to-hit 0.26
Damage 120-130
Intimidate
Ranged

While this pet does not have stun resists (my BE's and I are working on that), it does have light armor, and high kinetic resists, which will get you past the Enhanced Kwi's along your journey to the first room. Additionally, it's a CL 19-20 pet with a ranged attack so you will be getting sh!t loads of XP per hour. If you don't have money, I would suggest taking this toa BE without a recipe for similar pets; he or she may provide you the pet for minimal to no cost, because you gave them a great recipe (just a thought).

D. In short, no. At this level, you're not killing ANYTHING in there. Your strategy is survival. At most, a weapon like a rifle or heavy axe will just slow you down while you're trying to run away.

E. You'll want to create a /tellpet attack macro so you don't spam the hell out of the players in the cave. So first, train your pet to attack on a word such as "attack," because /tellpet does not work with single letter commands. Second, (CTRL-A), click on "Macro" along the top line of selections, and then hit "create new" on the bottom.

1. Name it "Attack" or whatever suits you.
2. Select an icon.
3. In the body type
/tellpet attack
4. Save it, and place it in your toolbar.

F. Ok, you're all set, it's time to go.

*Disclaimer* Time to remind you again, that you're gonna die! Sometimes, no matter how prepared you are, it'll be a quick trip to the cloning center. Just don't get discouraged.

A. Buy a ticket from Coronet to Yavin IV (Southern most starport); it will cost you 1,300 credits. Once you land, whip out yer bike or mount, and head north to the Geo Caves (-6494 -418). I recommend first heading west to the beach, and ride over the sea north as far as you can go. This will help you avoid a ton of nasty things along your way. You'll only have to mess with them for about one third of the trip.

B. Once you arrive, park your bike in front of the cave and leave it out. You may need to evacuate later while under attack.

C. Now you need to start being very careful. This is where events supercede your control. So from here on out, if sh*t happens, well, sh*t happens. Additionally, you may need some patience. Usually, the entrance is void of nasty things, but occasionally there will be a Geonosian or Enhance Kwi hanging out who was brought up by another on the run. If so, hang out on the outside.

D. First you want to walk just inside of the entrance (only a step or two) and bring up your overhead map (CTRL-M) and zoom out (CTRL-Mouse Wheel). Now you can see the long and winding road down to the bottom. Occasionally there is a spawn near the top, but usually you can walk down the spiral cave and not have to worry about anything until you reach the two Enhanced Kwi's in the first straightaway. These will appear as one red dot (they are usually standing on top of each other) on the overhead.

They are in a long skinny hall, followed by a smaller room, which is connected to a hallway, which leads to the first intersection (look for the intersection on the map, this is where you are going) of halls. The southern (Turn Right) path is short and leads right into your target room. On the overhead map this room should be filled with red dots.

E. While still standing at the entrance of the cave look into the target room with your overhead map and attempt to distinguish how many player controlled (blue) icons you see. There are three likely scenarios.

1. You see no blue icons in the room, it is filled with red. At this point you do not want to enter the cave, just wait.

2. There is one, maybe two blue icons. But they are moving around from room to room. I recommend you do not enter at this point. It can work, but more than likely you will die.

3. The room is filled with blue icons while red ones disappear as quickly as they appear. Yahtzee! This means you are close to the jack pot. You can interpret this as multiple Jedi Padawan, TKM, and other elite melee players ripping through the spawns. Now you need to get down there…

F. At this point your final concern is getting past the 2-3 spawns on your way to the room. Once again, pull up the overhead map, locate the spawns on the way to your destination and see if there are any blue icons engaging them. You are presented with four more options to aid you in your journey to the first room.

1. IF, all red icons on the way to the first room are engaged by player (blue) icons: Quickly eat your synthsteak, feed your pet the bofa treat, group, /burst, and get down there as fast as possible without losing your pet, while the more adept combat players are fighting the nasty's.

2. IF, all the red icons are chillin by themselves, stand at the entrance and wait for a Tera Kasi artist, swordsman, or Jedi to show up and follow them down to the bottom.

3. IF, all of the red icons are chillin by themselves, and you've got a little hair on your balls (pardon my French), you can Mask Scent, put on your mask scent clothes (assuming you own a set), and as long as they are Enhanced Kwi, not Geonosians, you can try to crawl past them with mask scent on. This is VERY dangerous and has only been effective for me once or twice.

4. IF, there are several blue icons in the target room, yet all of the red icons are chillin by themselves, you can /burst and sprint through it to the first room. You will drag everything along the way with you into the target room, and hopefully once you get there, everyone already in the room will be kind enough to kill them off for you. Beware, lots of times they will just let you die. It all depends on who's down there, and what mood they're in.

Obviously option 1 and 2 are the best choices, but sometimes you get impatient and are lookin for excitement.

G. On the way down: After you pass the first set of baddies, you will run into a door requesting a pass code. The number is…

32281

Then, you will enter a room, you should be safe in here if you need to regenerate health or heal your pet, unless someone dragged something in there…

Continue on, you will need a pass code to leave this room…

12872

H. You're almost there: Walk through the door, down the hallway to the intersection (occasionally there is a droid (white icon) sitting here, just drag him onto the room and pray whoever is in there will kill it for you), turn right…You've made it!

I. Now, camp out in the back of the room with your kliknik (or BE pet) sitting right next to you. Jedi and TKM will be taking these things out faster than you will imagine. Just get one hand on tab (to cycle through the nearest enemy), and the other on your /tellpet attack macro. Then for the next hour or so, just TAB then MACRO, TAB then MACRO. They will be coming as fast as they're going so you'll have to be quick. Repeat and rinse. If everything goes right you should be pulling in around 100K CH XP per hour.

J. Two last things: A) Once you get there, ask for an invite. The group of people there may let you in, this is bonus, and should pay for your buff at the least. B) If people start taking off, you need to follow them. You don't want to be left there alone or with only a couple other people for its certain death.

IV. Conclusion:

Hopefully this will answer many of your questions and help you on your way to Master CH. If I forgot something let me know, and if you're on Kettemoor /tell Chroniculous VanBrinks and we'll go down together…

Happy Hunting.

Nice guide.

ZuL'ri, MCH / MBE

Gorath Galaxy

Mondo Migill,

In through the Out door

Helpful information.

Thanks, spent all day at work doing it.

Does anyone know the name of the food that buffs your health? I couldn't remember.

Wanted to fill in a couple holes.

Ahhh...found a few typos, how long til I can edit? I can't find the post outlying the new forum positions.

you should be able to edit right now....

november 5th 2005- greatest hotfix ever
" you may now board shuttle while burstrunning, running normally, shuffling, walking, standing, sitting, prone, hopskipping, jumping, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, YOU MAY NOW BOARD SHUTTLE WHILE BREATHING!!!!"

interesting

Excellent. This will help a lot.

Itharr
Master Rifleman, Master Pistoleer, Alliance Ace Pilot
Ajihad Garrow
Master Architect, Master Artisan