Zeny vs Mats Farm
Endgame for most users (pre-minmax enchants) is becoming too stale as a lot of players are just Zeny farming in Geffenia, waiting to buy the game's most desirable materials, equipment (and MVP cards). Although I do understand that Zeny is important to the economy, there seems to be a strong mentality of 'why should I farm x materials when I can just buy them off with the money I farmed from Geffenia as it less time consuming to do so.' The same kind of mentality is being passed down to newer players, which in a sense is quite reasonable as it saves a newbie from experiencing long tedious grinds.
Now I do understand the sentiments that the game should not be rushed and could be enjoyed through grinding. There are players (especially those who play solo and/or play the game for nostalgia purposes) who enjoy the grind and the satisfaction of personally farming your own gear. Though as a practical and sensible person, I honestly question the need to farm materials when others can do it for me, and I can buy them even at an absurd 150% market value considering that the ratio of Zeny to time I spent at Geffenia over farming materials at Dungeon X/Y/Z is 1:3 (not accurate, but you get what I mean).
Take Gray Wolf Armor for example. Gray Wolf Armor with full enchants costs around 450 ~Amethyst Fragments~(previously 5500 I think). When I was starting out, I could easily one-shot mobs found in Oz_dun02. With that said, average Amethyst Fragments I would earn with 30mins bubblegum would range from 350-500. Time being put into the equation, one person would need to farm said dungeon for 8-10 hours, depending on how lucky they are with the amount fragments they receive. Based on experience, raw zeny you would get ranges from 10-15m per BBG alongside 200+ ores.
Farming Geffenia as a starter with Biolo, I would earn around a realistic 35-40m per BBG with factors, such as number of players farming in the same map and which map you're currently farming, taken into account.
A visual is provided below containing the figures between the farming methods. Take note that the Biolo farming here would be a starter. Do take note that as a starter, it is almost impossible to one-shot an Inucbus (this is our ceiling as killing Abysmal Knights actually do result in diminishing returns) without a transformation scroll and/or The One potion and possibly even without the help of a Red Herb Activator.
As stated, the Biolo farmer that earns 35-40m is only a starter one. I personally could farm 70-80+m per BBG with my gear (will not state for obvious reasons). I also have personally farmed 1.5B in less than 12 hours which is quite crazy considering the best armors in game that are +12A are near that value. As the Biolo farming method scales, the mats farming does not. Do also take note that this applies to multiple dungeons with mats that are valuable to game progression such as Nif_Dun02, CBD and JorDun.
And with this, I ask, why do I need to farm mats when I can literally buy them even at overpriced amounts?
With everything said, I would like to propose some solutions to combat Geffenia farming:
- Decrease droprate in Geffenia / remove raw zeny in Geffenia / Remove droprate effect in Geffenia
- Increase droprate in valuable mats map such as OzDun, Jordun (excluding CBD because mat prices here are very volatile)
- Incentivize doing dailies and events better
- Dilute farmers in maps through improvement of Happy Hours
- Nerf Doping
I did not specify my take on the proposed solutions as I'm currently farming Geffenia.
