Merchant Archive
Thread: Merchant Xp Grind IS possible (details inside)
Warning: This isn't fun, but it is possible. And well, maybe it's an exploit. But they shouldn't have Holocron's telling people to be Master Merchants.
Here's how you do it. 1. Gather friend(s) around, or multiple accounts, whatever.
Deed a house. Set it public, give it an access fee. Have all your friends pay the access fee. Re-deed the house, start over from the beginning.
Even though they just paid an access fee, this is a new house, and it's a new access fee, so you'll get 50 xp per hit without waiting the 15 minutes.
The downside is you pay 800 credits to redeed a house. So if you assume 50 xp per house (1 friend), then you'll end up paying 16 credits per experirence point you make this way. Naturally.. if you can get jsut 4 friends to help instead of 1, then that comes down to a much more resonable 4 credits per experience point.
Also, it's not exactly fast. And at the moment, whenever you get forced out of a building, it appears to stick you in place for a bit of time before dropping you to the ground. Assuming, again 4 friends, and you can cycle through this in a minute, you can crank out 4*50*60=12,000 xp per hour. Of course, if you have a guild of 40 people that can dedicate some time to help... that's (wow), 120k xp in an hour!
Another way to help out that isn't clear in the FAQ:
It appears you can setup 5 houses, and give them each an access fee, you'll get xp for each access fee paid.
PS: I'm sorry I'm treating this class that you love as nothing more than an xp grind.
Yajedi wrote:
PS: I'm sorry I'm treating this class that you love as nothing more than an xp grind.
This is a great thing with the horribly bugged state of merchant exp, and all the poor folks stuck at business 4 will be very happy.
I am almost at master merchant 3/4/0/4. only about a week left. I honest kinda want to keep eff 4 just for the merchant tents.
If you havent thought of this yet, get management first for all of the vendors. then get eff 4. set up 10 merchant tents (they only take up one space), thats crazy xp if you have friends or an alt.
Wow! We're trying to GRIND Merchant?!?!? I've heard of weirder. But really, all that work for 50XP? I make more than that just by running my stores and selling stuff.
My suggestion: Just sit back and enjoy the game. Making Jedi is not a requirement to beating the game, as the game has no end. Just enjoy it, it's not going anywhere for a while. And maybe you'll find something that you like doing. It happened to me with Merchant. I still can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm 2 skills away from making Master Merchant! And I never even wanted to take this class to begin with. Just shows you can't knock a class until you give it an honest try, and if you're only playing this game to be a Jedi, try playing Knights of the Old Republic. You can be a Jedi all you want. 
I find joy in going for jedi. I don't sit back and enjoy, I lean forward, go at the game 110%. Trust me, I am enjoying it... we just enjoy it differently 
But the merchant class isn't for me, no matter what the Holocron said.
Puck_Starfire wrote:
Wow! We're trying to GRIND Merchant?!?!? I've heard of weirder. But really, all that work for 50XP? I make more than that just by running my stores and selling stuff.
Once you have an established business, the exp flows in at a decent rate, but for a new merchant who isn't lucky enough to be next to popular vendors, grinding would save them a lot of time and effort. If the shop is in the middle of nowhere, the merchant has to choose between standing in his house all day so the bugged vendors will generate exp, or shout-spamming in town and hoping that people run out to the house.
Getting adv 3 would take an hour or two of access fee grinding, or weeks of bugged vendor exp and shout-spamming.
LLJK_Griz wrote:
Once you have an established business, the exp flows in at a decent rate,
But from the Holo-merchant view, there is no business. I am a Pistoleer/Merchant. I have nothing to sell. The best I can do is make surveying tools for free.
I guess I could take up a trade skill. Attempt to become "established" really fast. But wouldn't it be easier to just access-fee grind out merchant?
Yajedi wrote:
LLJK_Griz wrote:
Once you have an established business, the exp flows in at a decent rate,
But from the Holo-merchant view, there is no business. I am a Pistoleer/Merchant. I have nothing to sell. The best I can do is make surveying tools for free.
I guess I could take up a trade skill. Attempt to become "established" really fast. But wouldn't it be easier to just access-fee grind out merchant?
Even if you had something to sell, it'd take weeks to build up business to a level that would make decent exp. Grinding to adv 3 will be a great help to new merchants, grinding the entire tree will be best for holocron grinders who can pull it off.
I have a very busy shop, and even with three vendors, a 1cr access fee, and being listed at the top of the Weapons category on the planetary map, it still took three days to get 40k exp. That'd be like two weeks to master merchant, and most shops don't have 1/4 of this volume.