A Business Economics View on EL
This guide will explain the basics for analyzing the cost-effectiveness of producing and harvesting stuff in EL.
Time is money
Yes, it is. In EL you can convert time to money indirectly by harvesting stuff and selling it. One of the most efficient ways to do so is to harvest blue lupines in Portland and selling them at the flower shop. Depending on your harvesting level and maximum load you can make 3600 gc or even more in one hour.
That's why an EL second is worth at least 1 gc
Using the time/money equivalence you can assess any production plan. For example, does it pay off to harvest Cotton and make your own thread?
Time to harvest 150 cotton (harv level 74, with excavator cape): 150 seconds Time to harvest a veg: 1 sec Time to mix 30 thread: 10 sec, result: 28 thread (2 crits) Overall calculation: 161 sec for 28 thread
In the same time, we could have made 161 gcs from flowers to buy 80 thread!
But wait, what about the XP we get?
Experience vs. Money
Many items in EL sell less than the sum of their ingredients. This is because people make them for the XP. So can we express XP in time or money? Yes we can!
But first be aware that there are different types of XP, one for each skill. Some of them are more easy to get, like Att XP, Def XP, Alch XP, Harv XP, others such as Tail XP or Rang XP are very costly.
Note that the following calculations all heavily depend on assumptions of your levels. Therefore, most likely you will have to do a recalculation with your own values.
Fighting XP
This heavily depends on how much XP you can make in one hour and how valuable are the drops vs. your losses on degrades.
For a crude calculation, I assume I make 60 kXP in defense and 30 kXP in attack in one hour on polar bears and that the drops are 1k more worth than degrades/breaks.
Then we have:
Time cost: 3600 sec = 3,6 kgc Drops - degrades = 1 kgc Cost per hour = 2,6 kgc Att XP = 30 kXP Def XP = 60 kXP
If we split the costs by attack and defense, we arrive at 30kXP/1,3kgc = 23 XP/gc for attack and 46 XP/gc for defense.
Harvesting XP
Assuming Excavator Cloak and harvesting level of 75:
Average harvest time of 1 mullein: 2,2 sec (minimum time is 2 sec, 10% more to consider events) Walk time for reselling 1 mullein: 0,2 sec Reselling in Irsis flower shop: 1 gc Total cost: 1,4 gc Base XP: 45 XP
32 XP per "gc" in harvesting when doing mullein! The gc value comes from the time loss when harvesting mullein instead of grinding gold via blu lupines. Try other harvests for different results, however in general, besides fighting, harvesting is the most cost-effective task.
An interesting aspect is that you can get a higher number if you harvest minor stuff, since the time loss is less. If you want to go for more harvesting XP, the efficiency drops as you consume more and more time for just a few XP.
Thus, from an economical point of view, one should not spend too much time with harvesting heavy stuff, if you can use the time better. This does not take into account that harvesting can be done while being (partly) afk. More afk time won't improve any other skill.
Alchemy XP
Magic XP
Using the good old shield spell:
Mana cost 8,25 gc (assuming that the cooldown duration is used for something else) Ingredients 7 gc Time cost 0,25 sec Total cost 15,5 gc Base XP 40 XP XP/gc 2,6
or, as a better alternative, Life Drain (the time investment ist greater here because you must aim at your victim each time)
Mana cost 15 gc (assuming that the cooldown duration is used for something else) Ingredients 15 gc Time cost 5 sec Total cost 35 gc Base XP 120 XP XP/gc 3,4
For both calculations I did not account for the time lost due to SR cooldown since I assumed this time is productively used for something (eg. harving or fighting)
Potioning XP
Summoning XP
Manufacturing XP
Also, the ability to make XP in a particular skill depends what level you are. If you just started with manufacturing, you have to make your XP with fur scarfs, later you can do leather helmets.
1 fox fur + 1 thread = 1 scarf Market cost of 1 fox fur: 8gc NPC cost of 1 thread: 2gc Mixing time: 1,75 sec = 1,75 gc Selling them (45 sec run for selling 180 fox scarfs): 0,25 gc Sell price of a scarf (NPC): 10gc
So, assuming no fails, we have 2gc deficit for 12 XP (base experience) - quite good. The problem is that fox furs are not that often offered in the market in bulk.
If we cannot go for fux furs, lets make leather helmets (I assumed a walk from VOTD store to Trik, carrying the ings for 100 helmets):
3 leather + 4 thread = 1 helmet cost for 3 leather: 14 gc cost for 4 thread: 8 gc time to walk to Trik, mix and sell: 3,2 sec = 3,2 gc included cost for food: 1,8 gc critical failure rate 5% (at manufacturing level 39) average revenue (selling to Trik): 19 gc
So we spend 8 gc per helmet for 45 XP (base experience) which makes 5,6 XP/gc, roughly the same as with fox furs.
Let's try the manufacturing school in WS as an alternative:
cost for 3 leather: 14 gc cost for 4 thread: 8 gc time to walk to School and mix: 4 sec = 4 gc included cost for food: 1,8 gc total cost: 27,8 gc
Assuming again a 5% critical failure rate, we get 90*0,95 base experience for 27,8 gc (135*0,95 XP on Day of Schools) which makes 3 XP/gc and 4,5 XP/gc on Day of Schools, respectively - still below the value of making business with Trik.
Crafting XP
Polishing Sapphires:
cost for 1 raw sapphire: 3 gc cost for 1 gem sander: 10 gc cost for 1 water essence: 7,5 food: 3 gc time to mix: 3 gc
cost for making 1 polished sapphire: 26,5 gc market price 23 gc exp gained: 60 XP -> 17 XP/gc
Or let's go the easy way here and check the Big Book of Crafting: at the NPC, it is 15kgc, you get 60 kXP for it. Thus, you get only 4 XP/gc this way. In other words, buy the book if you get it for 3500 gc or less.
Engineering XP
Let's first try ashes:
cost for 1 FE: 3,5 gc cost for 3 Wood branches: 1,5 gc (it takes 3 sec to harv 6 with cape) time to mix: 1,5 gc cost for making 1 ashes: 6,5 gc market price 4 gc exp gained: 5 XP (or less) -> less than 2 XP/gc
We conclude that ashes are only good for starting engineering. If you need them later, try to buy them. Now we do the calculation for making saltpeter. Dung and ashes costs are calculated according to their market price.
cost for 5 dung: 5* 3 gc cost for 2 ashes: 2* 4 gc cost for food: 2,4 gc time to buy and mix: 3 gc critical failure rate 5% cost for making 1 saltpetre: 30 gc market value of product: 28 gc exp gained: 25 XP (12 XP/gc)
Tailoring XP
Tailoring is most likely the most expensive skill. Following the Guide to Tailoring, you will spend roughly 90 kgc until you reach Level 23 (69 kXP). Thus, we have 0,77 XP/gc. Since the costs account only for ingredients, but not for the time you spend to mix them, the actual number is even lower.
Ranging XP
The following calculation assumes, that ranging is trained in the ranging area at Grubani Peninsula and a crossbow is used, ranging level around 20.
cost for 800 bolts: 8000 gc cost for arena ticket: 3500 gc time to shoot 800 bolts: 2620 sec = 2620 gc XP earned: 8000 XP (since not all bolts will hit)
Thus, we get 0,6 XP/gc, on Robin Tell special day the double amount, 1,2 XP/gc.
Instead of arena, we can chose for the traditional way, I tried shooting rats in IP cave getting the following result:
cost for 160 arrows: 1600 gc time to shoot 160 arrows: 1000 sec = 1000 gc revenue from rat DB: 400 gc (this deducts from the overall cost) XP earned: 1250 XP
Note that we need much more time here to shoot all arrows, since we have to re-aim at our targets all the time.
This way we get 1250XP/2200gc, interestingly again 0,6 XP/gc or 1,2 XP/gc on special days.
Summary
Comprehensive XP calculation roster:
| Skill | Task | XP/gc |
|---|---|---|
| Attack | Polar bears | 23 |
| Defense | Polar bears | 46 |
| Harvesting | Mullein | 25 |
| Crafting | Polished Sapphires | 17 |
| Engineering | Saltpeter | 12 |
| Magic | Life Drain | 3,4 |
| Manufacturing | Leather Helmets | 5,6 |
| Tailoring | White fabric, red+orange dye | 0,7 |
| Ranging | Arena or IP cave rats | 0,6 |
We conclude that time is money (1 second of your time accounts roughly for 1 gc) and that XP has different cost for different skills. Fighting and harvesting XP is cheapest, while Raniging and Tailoring are the other extrem being very costly.