How to Farm Istan

After all those events, you'll be loaded down with some good loot. This is usually the point I see the most questions being asked regarding how to turn this into maximal profit, such as:

• What do I do with the Volatile Magic / Kralkatite I got?
• Which shipments are most profitable to buy?
• Do I sell all the Unidentified Gear on the trading post, or open them and salvage / sell the results?

This is where I felt the need for a comprehensive model was greatest. Most players can follow a zerg and open tons of chests without instruction, but since there's a lot of variability in the process of turning that loot into profit, a model / calculator would help tremendously.

In this section, I'll go through each main source of profit you get from the events and what to do with them.

You will get a huge amount of Volatile Magic from doing these events. Most of it drops from the Supply Stashes you open, but you are also awarded some from the event reward bouncy-boxes whenever you complete a phase of Palawadan or Great Hall.

The way to turn this map currency into profit is to purchase material shipments from Alaleh, the NPC vendor next to the Chalon Docks Waypoint. However, there are two shipments that are far more profitable than any others - the Leather Shipment, and the Trophy Shipment.

Leather Shipments turn a good amount of profit thanks to the high TP price of Hardened Leather (Tier 6 material), as well as good prices for lower tiers too. Trophy shipments are profitable thanks to the Tier 6 trophies that drop relatively frequently. Which shipment is more profitable depends entirely on the current TP prices.

The model calculates this for you easily on the "User Dashboard" sheet, and you can reference the model each time you want to purchase shipments to determine which is most profitable.

The chart above is pulled directly from the Google Sheets profit model, and displays the calculated net profit of each kind of shipment. The solid lines represent the expected net profit from 1,000 VM spent on each respective shipment, which works out to 4 shipments since each costs 250 VM. In the model you change the time window to be anywhere from 1 day to 3 weeks long.

Kralkatite Ore (KO) is actually a material that can be used not just for profit-making, but is also required to craft the new set of Astral and Stellar weapons made available for this Living World Season 4 map. If you would like to craft these, then go ahead and save up the KO. If you want to turn KO into profit, you can use it to buy more shipments from Quartermaster Zineb, a vendor in the secret Sunspear base below the Astralarium. This vendor can be a little tricky to find - you need to complete the heart "Help the cause of dissenting Astralarium scholars" near the Astralarium, then talk to the heart vendor to be let in to the secret base.

KO can also be consumed to gain VM, however if your goal is to turn profit from KO, then do not do this. You get an average of 4 VM per KO, and since the cost of a shipment purchased with KO only requires 60 KO, that equates to 240 VM, which is a better rate than purchasing shipments with 250 VM from Alaleh at the docks.

Palawan Phylacteries are straight-forward. Open all of them, safely disregarding your Magic Find level since MF does not affect the drop rates of these bags.

When you open them, you will always get some Unidentified Gear, as well as various crafting materials. For the purpose of calculating profit, the model does not take into account the value of the materials dropped from Phylacteries since the bulk of the profit comes from VM, KO, and Unidentified Gear. Accommodating that source will take a lot more research into drop rates for those champ bags.

Make sure to open them before you handle your Unidentified Gear, since they'll add to the gear you'll have.

This is the trickiest part the model needs to calculate. There is a LOT of variability here, because you have several options to choose from in how to handle Unidentified Gear, and on top of that, the drops you get are affected by your Magic Find level. I'll cover each option below.

SALVAGE UNIDENTIFIED GEAR DIRECTLY, WITHOUT OPENING FIRST OR SELLING ON THE TP

NEVER DO THIS!!! That's as blunt as I can be, but this is always going to be the worst option for profit. If you salvage the Unid. Gear without opening it first, you completely lose out on the potential to get rarer gear in the drop. You'll never get a single exotic from straight salvaging the Unid. Gear, only lots of T5 basic materials and more Path of Fire materials like Eyes of Kormir or Coagulated Putrescence than you'll ever need. You'll destroy one of the main profit centers for this farm, so just don't do it.

Also, be careful when you select "Salvage all" from your salvage kit if you have Unid. Gear in your inventory, as it will include Unid. Gear in the salvage group and you'll lose out on the loot tables from identifying it.

SELL THE UNIDENTIFIED GEAR ON THE TP

This is a popular option, especially if you don't want to go through the hassle of opening all this gear yourself and sorting through the drops. However, if you're looking to maximize your profit, this option might not always make sense. Currently, at time of publication (1/8/2018), yellow Unid. Gear is more profitable to sell on the TP rather than open yourself, but Blue and Green Unid. Gear is more profitable to salvage.

The model calculates this for you as well, so you can easily see which gear earns you more profit which way.

OPEN THE UNIDENTIFIED GEAR AND SALVAGE ALL RARES AND BELOW, SELL EXOTICS

For most Unid. Gear, this will be the most profitable course. Because Magic Find affects the quality of your drops from Unid. Gear, you'll want to stack as much Magic Find as possible before opening the gear. I'll have a section below on how to maximize your MF as well.

Each piece of Unid. Gear you open is guaranteed to drop one piece of gear at the rarity level of the Unid. Gear or above. That means Blue Unid. Gear has a (small) chance at dropping exotic gear, which net you far greater profits. The more Magic Find you have, the more likely it is you get exotic drops from Unid. Gear.

The chart above shows the expected value from salvaging an IDENTIFIED piece of Blue, Green, or Yellow gear after you've opened the Unid. Gear to see what drops. Blue and Green gear are almost identical in profit, because the material salvage rates are the same for both, and the only real difference is the small chance to get a green rune or sigil from the green gear.

Yellow gear is more profitable by an order of magnitude, thanks to the TP price of Ectoplasm which you'll get in abundance from yellow gear. When you're opening Unid. Gear, you're going to make almost all your profit from those Globs of Ectoplasm, or from selling the exotics you get directly on the TP.

The chart above compares the expected profits from selling a piece of Unid. Gear , and from identifying it and salvaging / selling the drops.

NOTE: The chart above calculates the profit from identifying Unid. Gear based on a user-defined Magic Find level, and so the profitability varies greatly depending on how high you can get your MF. In this chart, my example MF level is 520%

With an MF of 520%, you'll see that it's always more profitable to identify and salvage Green and Blue Unid. Gear, while for Yellow Unid. Gear it's closer, but slightly more profitable to sell rather than salvage (as of publication on 1/8/2018 - TP prices may have changed since then).

If you want to identify your Unid. Gear for maximum profit, you should go through the effort of maximizing your MF before opening. The GW2 Wiki has a good page on how to maximize your MF with food / utility buffs, boosters, and more:

I find this list above to be good, but incomplete and a little outdated. Below is a quick table I drew up identifying the maximum possible MF in the game, as well as what bonuses you get from the Silverwastes event buffs:

First of all, your account can gain a maximum of 300% MF from consuming Essences of Luck. On top of that, certain achievement point levels will reward you with a permanent bonus to account MF as well. Currently, the maximum MF bonus you can get from achievements is 36%, but almost nobody in the game will have the 60,000 Achievement Points needed to get that high.

Next, you can get reliable MF boosts from consumable items. The wiki suggests Chocolate Omnomberry Cream for food, which grants best-in-slot 40% MF, but only while under the effects of a boon. If you play a class like Guardian you may be easily able to keep up permanent boons while you're identifying your gear. For me and my Warrior, I prefer the Spicy Pumpkin Cookie, which gives a constant 30% MF buff. For the Utility slot, all three items come from the Halloween event, so I just choose what's cheapest (usually the Sharpening Skull) and use that.

Additionally, if you have an ascended amulet, you can purchase a Magical Enrichment that gets slotted into the amulet and gives you a 20% MF buff. It does cost 20 laurels, but once you have it you have it forever and can equip it whenever you need.

The Guild Buffs may be easy to come by for those in a guild - I always run to my guild tavern for the 10% buff just before opening Unid. Gear. The banner may be tougher to come by, but if you get into a Silverwastes map with an active zerg running it, there will usually be banners either by the Camp Resolve Waypoint or by the entrance to Red Rock Bastion.

The boosters give a total of 300% to your MF if you use them all at once, but unless you happen to have a lot of them sitting in your bank, they're not easily replaceable. It's up to you whether you want to use these or save them. I occasionally use the Celebration Bonus and Item Booster, but long-term I'll probably stop using those.

Finally, the Silverwastes is the place to be for boosting MF and opening Unid. Gear. Once you're on the map, you'll get a buff called "Perseverance" which gives a 30% MF buff on its own. However, completing any event in the Silverwastes adds another stack of that buff, which can climb up to 5 stacks for a 150% MF buff. That is a huge boost without using premium boosters from the BLTC. In addition, if you participate in the Vinewrath fight at the end of the meta-event, you'll get a second buff called "Hero of the Wastes" which adds another 50% MF buff, for a total of 200% from the map. Stacking MF from these events can make a big difference when you're saving up Unid. Gear for one large identification spree, so I highly encourage people to take advantage of it.

In addition, there's one more line for Perseverance, and that's because when you open a Lost Bandit Chest in the Silverwastes, your current stack of Perseverence is doubled for 1 second, meaning you can get up to 300% total from Perseverence. This is a tedious way of identifying all your gear though, as you'll need to follow the chest train and carefully identify gear in 1-second windows when you open chests. It may be impractical for large stacks of Blue or Green Unid. Gear, but it may be useful for Yellow Unid. Gear, of which you'll have less than the others and which may only require 1 or 2 seconds to fully identify it all.

That should cover it for all the main profit sources in Istan and what to do with them. Now it's time for PROFIT!

• Step 1: Participate in Palawadan Event
• Step 2: Participate in Great Hall Event
• Step 3: ? ? ? ? (Now what?)
• Step 4: PROFIT!