20 replies to this topic

[Puerto Rock Punisher]

Hello,

I don't know if this topic has been talked to death but wanted to know which are the best ways to accumulate c-bill's the fastest. I'm looking for tips, game modes, tricks other than owning hero mech's....If you have a set bullet proof way, please share it....

Thanks.

[Moldur]

Premium time + (I know you just said other than, but) any hero mech you can do well with other than a heavy in order to take advantage of queue time.

For grinding C-bills I would just repeatedly play matches in my boring stormcrow because it always does well no matter what and gets into matches quickly due to medium queue. 2 c-LPL + 4 c-erML. It is one of the most plain Jane, but also most consistently effective mechs I own. Team, map, mode... all minimally relevant compared to my other mechs.


It was a lot easier back when there were separate queues, but I suppose it might help to know that Assault matches are shorter than the others, and Conquest matches are longer, iirc. C-bill grinding still won't be particularly fast even if you are being as efficient as possible. If you are binge playing MWO, premium time will increase your earnings by far.

Edited by Moldur, 27 May 2016 - 03:40 PM.

[SpiralFace]

Some stuff that is obvious to vets, but not so much for new players.

- Stay alive

Sounds incredibly dumb to say but seriously, lots of people I see have issues with this. Going in guns blazing ultimately does not net you that much money in this game, even if you are doing damage. Some of the "big ticket" money makers are dependent on you supporting your other team mates late in the match. Ultimately, being pragmatic and getting multiple kill assists, savior kills, spotting assists, and even proximity based bonus' will accumulate to much more money then going in guns blazing and dueling that one atlas down and getting a brawling / solo kill boost. Sure, there is a lot of money in those things, but savior kills, kill assists, and other forms of cumulative bonus' will net you more in the end. In the end, the longer you stay alive, the more opportunities you have to make money.

- Don't feel compelled to stick around in matches unless you are either wanting to learn, or only have a handful of usable mechs.

Most know this, but in case you don't, you aren't FORCED to stay in a match after you died. You are free to exit the match and queue up for another game using a different mech. Most people will HEAVILY advise against this, as riding shotgun with other pilots will allow you to observe and learn how to play better. I can't reinforce how true this one point is, but if you are SOLELY looking for an opportunity to grind c-bills, don't feel compelled to stick around. You'll miss out on some experiance watching other people, but you will grind more xp. BE AWARE! This is ONLY if you have already died in a match. If you leave a match before dieing, you earn NOTHING. If you are really trying to grind out XP, be sure to try and stick around and contribute as much as you can to a match (see the first point.) But if you gave it your all and died, don't feel like you need to stick around if you are just trying to grind c-bills.

- Run lights.

Lights are really not as popular as they should be but in reality, they can actually grind c-bills pretty well. Most of their C-bill accumulation relies on things that they excel at like scouting enemies for scouting c-bills, attacking from odd angles to rank up Flanking c-bills, Spotting for LRM carries for spotting c-bills, narcing for narc kills (while dependant on other mechs, if you do it well, this could be a gold mine in of itself.) Running counter ECM for the team (which has its own series of bonus') Not to mention light mech formation bonus' are the best bonus' around. When combined with a light pilot that knows what he is doing and can still rack up just as much damage / kills as larger mechs, lights can actually earn quite a bit of bank per match because you are still racking in the raw damage / kill bonus' while still accumulating currency for all the other things that lights are good at. Don't let the post-match team screen deceive you. If you pilot your lights well, you will be making either just as much or more as your heavier counterparts. Also, queue times are always short, so you'll drop into matches faster.)

- Don't play Assault or Skirmish.

Conquest and Domination are better for c-bills per match because they have secondary "objections" that allow for additional c-bill rewards that the other game modes do not provide. Even if you are just capping a point, your still earning c-bills for that action that you wouldn't be earning in a Skirmish game and Assault might as well be like that as well, because you rarely deal with the objective in that mode.

Additionally, Conquest and Domination have "capture bonus" that are applied in full at the end of match (since you NEED to complete the objective to win those kinds of games.) So its pretty much extra c-bills that you wouldn't be getting in your standard Skirmish or Assault game since there is no meaningful second objective rather then kill the opposing team.

- Don't be stingy during sale times.

I know many people are dismissive of spending money in a f2p game, but seriously, there are times when its good to be pragmatic and spend money when rare opportunities come around.

The tournament support package being a good example. 10 bucks for a 10% boost for now 6.5 more months of benefits is a ridiculously good deal. You could care less about the bonus little trinkets, but at the end of the day, 10% buff for 7 more months is a pretty great deal even if your just a casual player. And on events like this weekend, having a hero mech that gets EXTRA bonus' on top of its already static bonus just compounds on its value more (especially when an event like this comes around again later.)

I know many f2p players tend to be dismissive of spending money in a f2p game, but seriously, 10 bucks is less then the cost of a movie ticket these days. If its something that you know you'll get enjoyment out of for many hours, seriously consider opening up the wallet every now and then when good sales or opportunities come around. I'm not saying you need to buy mechpacks or anything, but there are some sales that a few bucks here and there can greatly aliviate the grind in the game if your willing to throw out 5-10 bucks every now and then.

Those are probably the biggest factors that can help you grind c-bills faster.

[Audacious Aubergine]

To add another point, don't be too afraid to spend c-bills to earn c-bills. I almost always carry a UAV and artillery strike as my consumables, mostly so when or if I find myself steamrolled by the entire enemy team, I can pop the UAV and accumulate juicy bonuses from detecting the 6+ mechs that killed me, and sometimes I'll try to drop the artillery strike as well to try and get some damage beyond the grave

[TooDumbToQuit]

MWO has a 50% off sale of Heros and Champions.

Of course, I paid full price for my Stormcrow Prime (C) a week ago. I was returning it, it was a mistake buy but then I decided to keep it. I'm telling myself that the guy that was helping me did not know that in five days it would be 50% off......

Hero and Champion 'Mech Sale and Event
STARTS: Thursday May 26th at 11:59 PM PDT (Friday 6:59 AM UTC)
ENDS: Tuesday May 31st 11:59 PM PDT (Wednesday 6:59 AM UTC)

50% off the MC price for all MC-available Hero and Champion 'Mechs

ALSO, FOR THE DURATION OF THE SALE

20% BONUS TO 'MECH BOOSTS!

All Hero 'Mechs will gain an additional 20% C-Bill Boost to bring it to 50% C-Bill Earnings!
All Champion 'Mechs will gain an additional 20% XP Boost to bring it to 50% XP Earnings!
(The Archer and Kodiak Hero 'Mechs will also receive the increased Boost, but are not available for purchase with MC)

Edited by LikeUntoGod, 27 May 2016 - 05:36 PM.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Puerto Rock Punisher, on 27 May 2016 - 03:26 PM, said:

Hello,

I don't know if this topic has been talked to death but wanted to know which are the best ways to accumulate c-bill's the fastest. I'm looking for tips, game modes, tricks other than owning hero mech's....If you have a set bullet proof way, please share it....

Thanks.

First, AVOID CONSUMABLES. Even if they DO buff your total CBill take for a match, they also eat CBills to replenish, to the tune of 10-40 THOUSAND CBills each. While the UAV spotting, locked damage, and counter-ECM bonuses are cool, they may not add up to what you spent to burn the UAV. Best to leave 'em off when trying to grind cash.

Second, Premium Time is great. Especially since there's so much of it going around for free, between FW rank rewards and various weekend/personal challenge events, it's not unusual for a player to spend a good portion of the month playing on PT without ever BUYING PT. And even if you DO have to burn IRL $$$ for it, it's worth it for both the XP and CB boosts.

Next, the various special edition mechs. Not just the heroes, but also Resistance variants, Invasion variants, Origins variants, Phoenix variants, Steam Special variants, Collector's edition Special variants, and I'm sure I've missed one. If you own any mech with something in parenthesis after its name, other than a Champion variant, then it pays a CBill bonus. Be sure to use those.

Damage pays. Sure, kills and KMDDs and solo kills are nice, and even assists help, but at the end of the day it's DAMAGE that PGI is wrapped around the axle over. I hate to say it, but LRMs are a great way to rake in the damage, even if they ARE sandblasters. I see you're at Tier 4, so you should be able to still pull some decent damage numbers with them. So load up some LRM-10/15 love on your mechs, and go nuts! If you're an in-your-face kind of dude, SRMs work well for damage. Also, small and medium PULSE lasers are cool. If it's Clan mechs, the various LB-X autocannons work wonders up-close in late game. Also, play to what has the best cooldown quirks on your mech, in order to buff that DPS by raising the fire rate. If the mech has a ballistic cooldown quirk, then focus on high-damage ballistic weapons, and use only smaller, faster-firing weapons of any other type if you mount them.

Avoid equipment that doesn't pay. Jump Jets are a big one. Great for when you're focused on positioning and all, but they're not at all a necessity. If you can live without them on a capable variant, then do so, and use the extra weight/space to mount something that will help you do more DAMAGE. More heat sinks? More ammo? More SPLs? Sure, whatever! Any of those things will help you do more damage over the course of a match, than will JJs. Same for BAP/cAP on a non-missile mech. Unless you're boating Streaks or LRMs, leave the AP in the garage. That's 1-1.5 tons, and 1-2 slots, that can be used for something more useful to your final damage number in the game.

BUT, if you can manage NARC or TAG without compromising your ability to do good damage, then the bonuses that they bring are good for a little extra cash. DO NOT FOCUS ON THOSE SYSTEMS, but use 'em when you can and IF you can. If it's a matter of having a more heat-suitable build for better sustained DPS, or taking a TAG, then forego the TAG. If you've got that heat thing covered and just have one slot and ton, and you need to fill it with something, and other 1-ton energy weapons just aren't cutting it, then go ahead and throw the TAG in there, and REMEMBER TO USE IT WHEN YOU HAVE GOOD OPPORTUNITY.

Take EVERY opportunity to do damage. This is some GMan129 advice, straight from metamechs.com, but it's worthwhile here. If you're on resting heat, or at least have the heat available, then doing SOME damage is always better than doing NO damage. This is best applied with energy weapons, of course, as others still represent an expenditure of ammo. But for instance, if you catch a glimpse of an enemy mech hauling tail into cover, and you can't get the full burn on him before he gets into cover, but you have plenty of space under your heat cap, then go ahead and do the damage that you can. Every point counts, and every point pays. Never mind that it COULD be the difference between a killing blow and just a good shot, later on in the match. Every kill, every assist, still pays.

Make sure to GET some damage in on EVERY enemy mech that you can. Don't get too focused on just one mech, and spend most of the match dueling that one KDK. Dip out, and put a little damage on some other targets. Each one of them that is subsequently killed is at LEAST an assist for you, and that's more CBills.

NOT the best advice for every match, but it's focused on grinding CBills. You may not win quite as often this way, and at the least, you'll count more on your teammates to carry. In the long run, it's not clear that you're any better off playing any differently, really, because you will likely lose a little more often, and die a little more often, and that means less money. So, my best advice to you, which trumps ALL of the above:

PLAY YOUR GAME, PLAYER!

Play to win, and the money will come. Because WINs always pay better...

[Ano]

SpiralFace, on 27 May 2016 - 04:40 PM, said:

Some stuff that is obvious to vets, but not so much for new players.

- Stay alive

{ snippety}

- Don't feel compelled to stick around in matches unless you are either wanting to learn, or only have a handful of usable mechs.

... BE AWARE! ... If you leave a match before dieing, you earn NOTHING. ...

Some further thoughts on Spirals points:

Stayin' alive (ooh-aah-ooh-aah) is actually a big deal, and added to that is "keep shooting things". One of the things you might notice if you watch a few twitch streams is the players who consistently get high damage scores are always taking potshots. Now, that doesn't mean alpha-ing at max range so you're heatcapped all the time, but it does mean using ranged weapons at range, and not "tunnel visioning" a single mech in search of a kill and ignoring other available targets while you wait for your target dummy to reappear. Not only does raw damage directly translate into Cbills, but you'll also inevitably pick off a few components (good for extra damage plus the component destruction bonus) and the occasional kill.

Stickin' around (ooh? aah? err? eek!) isn't necessary, but there *are* some reasons you might want to. If you leave early, you'll get credit for the raw damage you did and any mechs you actually killed. BUT (and this is the kicker) you won't get assist credit or kill most damage done credit for any mechs you shot, but didn't kill, which die *after* you quit the match.

So: if you rounded a corner and walked straight into the enemy's main force, dying in a spectacular pile of trash moments later with 130dmg done, then by all means leave the match (saying "oops!" entirely optional). However if you've been playing well for 5 mins, your death summary screen says 500 dmg done and not too many solo kills, then it might be worth sticking around if it looks like your team will win, as those bonuses for assists, KMDD etc might add up.

[SpiralFace]

Ano, on 27 May 2016 - 06:23 PM, said:

Stickin' around (ooh? aah? err? eek!) isn't necessary, but there *are* some reasons you might want to. If you leave early, you'll get credit for the raw damage you did and any mechs you actually killed. BUT (and this is the kicker) you won't get assist credit or kill most damage done credit for any mechs you shot, but didn't kill, which die *after* you quit the match.

So: if you rounded a corner and walked straight into the enemy's main force, dying in a spectacular pile of trash moments later with 130dmg done, then by all means leave the match (saying "oops!" entirely optional). However if you've been playing well for 5 mins, your death summary screen says 500 dmg done and not too many solo kills, then it might be worth sticking around if it looks like your team will win, as those bonuses for assists, KMDD etc might add up.

This is actually false to my understanding. From what I remember was confirmed by support, if you participate, and leave the match, your full earnings will be awarded to you at the end of the match. If you leave before you are dead, or DC, you earn nothing.

People are free to contact support for verification, but I think this was confirmed quite a bit ago that you only need to participate and die of combat to be awarded full rewards whether you stuck around the whole match or not.

[p4r4g0n]

Puerto Rock Punisher, on 27 May 2016 - 03:26 PM, said:

Hello,

I don't know if this topic has been talked to death but wanted to know which are the best ways to accumulate c-bill's the fastest. I'm looking for tips, game modes, tricks other than owning hero mech's....If you have a set bullet proof way, please share it....

Thanks.

Damage accounts for a significant amount of match score and match rewards.

To max damage you need to stay alive AND continue fighting as long as possible.

Which also adds kills assists and saviour kills.

Personally, I use consumables not to increase earnings but to help win a match since that pays the most. However, if it is clearly a lost cause, do not use it during that match.

SpiralFace, on 27 May 2016 - 06:29 PM, said:

This is actually false to my understanding. From what I remember was confirmed by support, if you participate, and leave the match, your full earnings will be awarded to you at the end of the match. If you leave before you are dead, or DC, you earn nothing.

People are free to contact support for verification, but I think this was confirmed quite a bit ago that you only need to participate and die of combat to be awarded full rewards whether you stuck around the whole match or not.

You have done damage to all 12 enemy mech but only 3 have died at the time your mech is destroyed.

You leave immediately

You will only get kill assist rewards for the 3 mechs even if all 12 of the enemy are subsequently destroyed.

Similarly, if you have a UAV up at the time you leave, ECM counters, targeted damage rewards are only applied up to the point of disconnection.

AFAIK, the above still applies.

Match win/loss will be paid as well as rewards for actions prior to destruction. With the recent change to conquest resource collection, not sure if you get the full amount based on 750 but I suspect that you do.

[Rogue Jedi]

my secret to earning cbills at an acceptable rate is to not worry about earnings, if I just ignore my cbill balance it just seems to accumulate far more quickly then if I obsess on my earnings.

admittedly part of this could all be down to the fact that I usually have premium time running (with 10 months worth banked) and a Mech with a cbill bonus, and I also purchased the tournament supporter pack which means I am usually bringing in cbills 90% ^{(50% for premium, 30% for Mech and 10% for tournament pack)} faster than the average player without any of the boosts.

the earning criterion depends on which mode you are playing, there is a bonus for surviving and even if you fail to survive if you last the match you will usually make far more cbills for contributing through the whole match than dying early.
in most modes damage helps, but the real earners are the assist types, especial things like saviour kill ^{(firing on an enemy which is attacking an enemy and it dying within 10 seconds of last attacking an enemy and you hitting it)} , Kill most Damage and solo kill ^{(you get both kill most damage and killing blow)} are other good ones, things like Lance in formation ^{(all your lance is together)} protected Light/Medium ^{(your Light/Medium Mech is close to a freindly Mech at least 2 weight classes heavier when taking fire)} scouting, Flanking, hit and run, counter ECM, Tag Bonus, NARC bonus ect do not pay out much per instance but you can get those many times during a match and they can add up.

find out what pays out and try to exploit it as much as possible would be my advice.

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 28 May 2016 - 02:57 AM.

[SpiralFace]

p4r4g0n, on 27 May 2016 - 07:48 PM, said:

You have done damage to all 12 enemy mech but only 3 have died at the time your mech is destroyed.

You leave immediately

You will only get kill assist rewards for the 3 mechs even if all 12 of the enemy are subsequently destroyed.

Similarly, if you have a UAV up at the time you leave, ECM counters, targeted damage rewards are only applied up to the point of disconnection.

AFAIK, the above still applies.

Match win/loss will be paid as well as rewards for actions prior to destruction. With the recent change to conquest resource collection, not sure if you get the full amount based on 750 but I suspect that you do.

Last time I remember someone contacted support and asked them, they said that if you leave a match after you die you still get full rewards for the match. You just don't get the match end screen to confirm how those rewards are divided up. (Its also why the rewards are injected AFTER the match is over and your mech is freed up.)

I'm not sure where this entire thing about the assists and lack of other rewards comes from, but this sounds bunk.

Admittedly, this was years ago that someone asked support about this, so for all I know they changed it since then. But I have never heard of them changing it to this way, so I'm going to assume that the full rewards is still the way you go about it unless you can point me to an official source that can clarify this as "at time of match leaving only."

Edited by SpiralFace, 28 May 2016 - 05:50 AM.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Bring coolshots!

Bring heavies or assaults ment to rip open your opponents via high damage alphas.

Profit

[Rogue Jedi]

Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky, on 28 May 2016 - 06:31 AM, said:

Bring coolshots!

Bring heavies or assaults ment to rip open your opponents via high damage alphas.

Profit

do the extra earnings outweigh the 40k cbill ^(each) cost of coolshot? I have literally never used one, it seems doubtful that it would be helpful because you are paying 40k cbills for at most 1 more alpha strike before overheat.

[p4r4g0n]

SpiralFace, on 28 May 2016 - 05:50 AM, said:

Last time I remember someone contacted support and asked them, they said that if you leave a match after you die you still get full rewards for the match. You just don't get the match end screen to confirm how those rewards are divided up. (Its also why the rewards are injected AFTER the match is over and your mech is freed up.)

I'm not sure where this entire thing about the assists and lack of other rewards comes from, but this sounds bunk.

Admittedly, this was years ago that someone asked support about this, so for all I know they changed it since then. But I have never heard of them changing it to this way, so I'm going to assume that the full rewards is still the way you go about it unless you can point me to an official source that can clarify this as "at time of match leaving only."

The reason why it is believed to work the way I described was that this method of calculating rewards was originally introduced way back to counter farming wherein a player would start the match in a fast mech, run in tagging every target it could with at least 1 damage and after dying, disconnect and jump into another match.

However, this was way back in the days of the Match Rewards 1.0 system. The ambiguity under the current system is due to the phrase "earned rewards" used in a response to a query on this matter which in itself can be interpreted in 2 ways.

In any case, this is not a significant issue unless you are trying to deliberately farm c-bills by churning matches as fast as possible.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Rogue Jedi, on 28 May 2016 - 07:48 AM, said:

do the extra earnings outweigh the 40k cbill ^(each) cost of coolshot? I have literally never used one, it seems doubtful that it would be helpful because you are paying 40k cbills for at most 1 more alpha strike before overheat.

Yes, the extra earnings easilly outweigh the 40k cbills, and i rarelly leave home without it.

Reasoning:

i tend to like mechs that can sustain 2 alphas back to back, bringing me close to the threshold of overheat shut down (99-95%).

If a third alpha will destroy my target, I will use my coolshot. By doing so can win an engagement, allowing me to live longer. This does two things:
1) since I am alive after this engagement; it allows me to create more situations in this match to create more c-bills. (This also keeps me from overheating- staying moble helps to stay alive).
2) removing enemy mechs improve my teams chances of winning due to the snowball effect created by numerical superiority.

In the event that that third alpha does not destroy my target, it allows me a fourth alpha, (which will over heat me). If four alphas is not enough to destroy your target, then you either need a higher damage alpha, need to working on aiming, or he is crippled enough that you basically won the engagement anyway.

The more people on your team using consumables in the correct situations improve your teams chances of winning- which leads to a greater amount if cbills earned.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

How to make money

step 1: damage
step 2: more damage
step 3: profit

[Puerto Rock Punisher]

A lot of info, thanks everyone who gave there two cents. So I'm going to ask another question, what weapons do you think make the most money (capable of stripping or tearing the enemy apart). I personally have had some good success with the clan er ppc, it seems to take limbs off nicely, also the clan streak srm-6 seems do do a good job.

Leave a comment and maybe a build.

Thanks.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

It really just depends on what works for you.
Traditionally #1 will be high laser alphas. High alpha SRMs and high DPS balistic builds follow.

[Rogue Jedi]

Puerto Rock Punisher, on 29 May 2016 - 09:18 PM, said:

So I'm going to ask another question, what weapons do you think make the most money

To make money you want to do a lot of damage before killing the target, in low tiers the LRM is probably the best damage dealer weapon, precisely because like Streak SRMs they spread damage all over the enemy Mechs, the more precise the weapon the less damage you are likely to use to kill the Mech thus the higher your damage and match score (provided you survive) but the lower your chances of winning and surviving the match.

My best weapon combo for a lot of useful damage is Machine Gun and Medium Pulse Laser on a Mech moving 130+, use the MPLs to open up a rear torso and the Machine Guns to remove it, aim for side torsos rather than centre torsos and you get credit for the health of the arm as well ^{(although I usually just go for CT to kill the Mech, doing that takes the enemy Mech out of the match fast, increasing your chance of surviving but seriously reducing damage done)} however 2 LPL backed with 6 MPL on a Black Knight gave me my only 1100+ damage match ^{(which is coincidently also my only 950+ damage match)}

imprecise fire ^{(as in spread all over the enemy Mech)} with lasers is a good way to get lots of damage, but a bad way to kill enemy Mechs, and the faster you kill the enemy the more likely you are to survive.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Puerto Rock Punisher, on 29 May 2016 - 09:18 PM, said:

A lot of info, thanks everyone who gave there two cents. So I'm going to ask another question, what weapons do you think make the most money (capable of stripping or tearing the enemy apart). I personally have had some good success with the clan er ppc, it seems to take limbs off nicely, also the clan streak srm-6 seems do do a good job.

Leave a comment and maybe a build.

Thanks.

So, the ERPPC is PPFLD (pinpoint front-loaded damage). Hit-or-miss, all-or-nothing. Great as long as your aim is true, but if you have issues with hitting moving targets at long range while they're changing direction at high speed over uneven terrain, then it might not be the A-1 best idea. Also, due to a relatively long cooldown time and high heat, the DPS isn't the greatest.

And Streak SRMs do plenty of damage, sure, but it's sandblasting. That is, you can't pick a component to focus down with them. They hit where they hit and there's LITTLE you can do to influence that. Small trade-off for that they WILL hit when within range and with clear line-of-sight--they don't miss. But it's not really EFFECTIVE damage. You'll score plenty of DMG per match, but you'll also have to do more damage/kill. What you want is to minimize that damage/kill while still scoring SOLO kills.

Look HERE. Check the DPS/t column. What are your best deals for scoring DPS/ton? Those are your money makers. Load up on UAC/5s or AC/5s, and back 'em up with SLs and SPLs.

Seriously, while it requires significant face time, dakka is probably THE way to score mad SOLO kills and get high damage/match. You can't really do it at under 45 tons (IS- BJ-1/1DC BARELY) or 50 (Clam- HBK-!!C/!!C-C). By the time you get around to 70-tonners (65 for Clammers), though, you've got some FINE options. And for assault mechs, there are some SUPERB ones out there already for CBills--Mauler and Dire Wolf both ROCK at dakka, and the not-yet-available-without-IRL-$$$ Kodiak KDK-3 is also a dakka monster.

So, best recommendation is to do a Mauler, Dire Wolf, or Kodiak, with as many UAC/5s or AC/5s as you can stand, with SL/ERSL/SPL to back it up. You'll rake in the damage and solo kills, and CBills will rain from the sky.