Scout Archive

I just got to CH tonight -actually managed to get the 15k for Hunting 4 and 17.5k for Novice CH in about 5-6 hours. Here's what I found to be the most efficient way to get Scout XP.

Since it's not worth the risk/time to kill large creatures, if you do try to get Scout XP through harvesting, focus on blue creatures. The difference in Scout XP is not worth the extra time (45 -vs- 69/79 per kill). The best way to kill creatures is to focus on the Mind bar since you have 2 traps that affect Mind (Bone Spur and Noise Maker), and then use a weapon that does Mind damage. I can consistently kill blues with one Bone Spur and one hit from my Heavy Axe before they have hit me once.

Note: Bone Spur is supposed to damage both Health and Mind, but it's bugged and it only damages Mind, and in my experience, it does more Mind damage than Noise Maker (which is a higher level trap). So, if you invest some Trapping time to get to even Trapping 2, it makes killing creatures a lot easier.

What is better than harvesting though is to use Mask Scent. The problem is that Mask Scent is not effective until Explore 3 (unless you're a Bothan). Because I feel that Mask Scent is a more efficient way of getting Scout XP, I would recommend that Novice Scouts train up to Explore 4 before working on Hunting at all - since you get all the bone/hide you need anyway even if you do make traps.

Making efficient Mask Scent XP takes some work and understanding though. Here's what you need to know about Mask Scent. It always fails at Explore 2, so don't bother using it then. It works fine at Explore 3 for me (a Wookie). When you use Mask Scent near a creature, there are 2 ways you can get the XP. Every time you enter and exit the animal's Scent radius, and if your Mask Scent works, then you can get the XP, but you can only get one of the two. And you can only get the XP once from each creature on a timer that's about 3 mins.

Here's the tricky part. The enter radius is smaller than the exit radius, which means that if your Mask Scent fails on the entrance, you can put it back on and move away from the mob and you might still get the exit XP. This is tricky because when your Mask Scent fails on the entrance, you are tempted to put it back on and keep moving forward -but you won't get the entrance XP from that creature this way. Once you fail the entrance XP, you can't attempt it again till you move out the exit radius and come back in. However, you can get XP from multiple creatures at the same time as long as your Mask Scent stays up. So if you walk near a camp of red aggro mobs, then you can get 105xp per mob at the same time.

Now here's the homework part of Mask Scent. It makes no sense to keep wandering to find aggressive mobs. So what you need to do is find a large stretch of land that has a good assortment of aggro creatures. I found this NW of Coronet city on Coreillia. Make waypoints near clusters of aggro creatures and then start making your rounds. Because the Mask Scent XP timer for each mob is about 3 mins, you can just keep going through your waypoints and keep getting the XP from all the mobs. Walking near 3 Giant Carrion Spats gives 3 x 98 XP instantaneously= killing and harvesting 6 blue mobs. This sounds easy, but takes work and understanding of how Mask Scent works.

I've noticed that the locations of aggro mobs changes everytime they do something to the server, so you need to find clusters of aggro mobs on your own because it's probably hard to come up with a static list.

Good tip, thanks - I'm still trying to make it to explore 3 to start with MaskScent, but my trapping has improved greatly, which is a big help.

One question- does MaskScent work in groups?

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One question- does MaskScent work in groups?

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Yes, it works. It does't matter what your groupmember makes, even if he celebrates new year with all the fireworks he has, the critter would detect only him but not you if you're masked.

Thanks for the great Scout tips, they've been paying off.

~Gobe

And how did you get up to Explore 3? I guess I need to group or something to get more harvesting scout experience..... but I tell ya it is awefully slow going.

How do you know the scent radius? Is that when the "?" or "!" pops over their head or something else?

Shad156

Let me add something for you folks who are having problems with survival exp. If you stay in your camps for about 30 minutes (while you're surveying, or just chatting) you will get Full Exp on the camp which is 600 at level 1, 800 at 2, etc. instead of 20-50 points for setting it up and then disbanding as soon as you're healed.

In other words, if you're sitting around in a build area, and you don't have up a camp, shame on you .

Bianca Minola

One quick question, when you get to exploration 4, I have read that Mask sent is very good. I am halfway to explortation 4 and the only things I can get XP off of is Sevrots. But that is fine, I get 75 off of them and then 50 for killing them. What are you guys hunting/masking at exploration 4? Thanks!

i found 2 scyk camps right next to each other, 153 each guy and if i manage to kill one its 400 pistol and about 50 combat exp. Harvesting them is 100 scout. Its hard to do though, i usually end up using burst run and kiting 2 of them. For anyone who has trap 3, the Lycaphene (?) darts are very effective at slowing down strong animals if you're a marksman.

Here's how you can figure out the Entrance and Exit radius:

As you approach a mob with MS up, the point where it gives you XP or tells you have failed is the Entrance radius. Now if you failed, and you put MS back on, and you back away from the mob, the point where it gives XP or tells you you have failed is the Exit radius. The Exit radius is always larger than the Entrance radius and appears to be around the same distance for all mobs I have encountered so far.

NW of Coronet, there are a variety of mobs that give between 45-108 for Mask Scent XP.

I'm going to do it by killing LOTS of blues. I can two-shot kill Chubas and I get about 34 scout xp for harvesting them. It'll take me300 kills to get the 10k scout xp I need to get to Exploration III.