Please give us a better way to get Trade Contracts or decrease costs for some items

[Dreddo.9865]

I have 9k contracts just doing basic staff like map exploration, events I get at, etc but having done those shortly after PoF's release when map where populated with players. This is not about the contracts' rate rather than PoF maps being empty.

[Tasty Pudding.3764]

You get them from Sand Piles which respawn every 5 minutes.

[Rauderi.8706]

I wish I could sell you mine. I have 3000+ and don't find a use for them.

 

Honestly, I've love to see an in-game currency exchange that's similar to the gem store, but for all sorts of currencies. It would give value to the least played content and a bunch of stuff we have in excess can be scuttled off by brokerage fees.

[Kalendraf.9521]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> IMO the trade contract is one of the more underrated currencies. If you have a lot of them, you can **convert a lot karma** into gold at an efficient rate. These contracts are supposed to be rewarded for roaming around the deserts, doing events and opening caches. Problem is, without any central driving meta in any of these maps, most players have abandoned these maps for other, more profitable ones. This leads to the odd situation where there are a lot of people who need stuff to be done in these maps, and yet not enough people to gather together to do this stuff.

 

This is one of the problems with Trade Contracts - by themselves they are largely useless for much other than minis from various PoF heart vendors. If you want to buy recipes or mats with TCs, you'll need to also spend karma. Once upon a time, I was swimming in excess karma, but some of the items in newer LS chapters have started to cost a lot more karma. A prime example is the backpieces in Siren's Landing which cost 315K each, or several minis from LS3 that cost over 100K karma. After buying those, my karma fell considerably, and now I've been trying to conserve it for future needs. Another problem with Trade Contracts is that most of the purchases end up being gated by repeatable heart completions, as well as purchase limits. In order to buy Trader's Keys, it's necessary to do a heart, but then you can only buy 5 max. Many days, I'm short on time and don't have enough to do any hearts to buy more Trader's keys. As a result, I just rack up more unusable trade contracts from my ToPK runs. I wish there was a way to directly convert TCs into some other usable currency or tradeable mats.

[Kalendraf.9521]

> @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> Honestly, I've love to see an **in-game currency exchange** that's similar to the gem store, but for all sorts of currencies. It would give value to the least played content and a bunch of stuff we have in excess can be scuttled off by brokerage fees.

^ This times a million. I'm swimming in currencies that I acquire significantly faster than I can use which other players seem to be unable to obtain enough of. I'd love to be able to sell them my Spirit Shards, Tomes of Knowledge, Transmutation Charges, Trade Contacts, and so forth.

 

[Etterwyn.5263]

As already mentioned, put one unused toon at the 3-chest jackal puzzle, and the rest of your unused ones in TOPK. They build up quick.

[Biff.5312]

I get a whole bunch each time I do the blitz/pinata event at Amnoon. They seem pretty readily available to me.

[LordRhyth.1365]

I really, really appreciate all the input you guys have had. This has been a frustrating venture, I've decided to do as many of you have suggested and go for a couple of the other avenues of obtaining the accessories.

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"LordRhyth.1365" said:

> > @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > > @"LordRhyth.1365" said:

> > > I've spent the last week and a half (on and off) farming these things. I need approximately 4,500 total and I'm not even halfway there. I'm a student who doesn't have a dozen hours a day to work towards these things and the fact that the trinkets and rings with stats that can only be acquired through ETCs take THOUSANDS of contracts to purchase is absolutely infuriating. I think this is totally at odds with your normal minimal-grind-necessary approach to things and it's enough to make me want to take a good long break and hope that when I come back there's a solution.

> >

> > A week and half, on and off?!? It seems you want these items a lot faster than that, what's the rush? Just take your time, play as you normally do and in no time at all you'll have all the trade contracts you'll need. It's a lot easier when you don't worry about obtaining a specific item than it is to set a time line or deadline, they aren't going away so it's not like if you don't get them in a week they'll disappear. Have you considered doing bounty trains? Those are a constant source of trade contracts and you get a bunch of other loot besides(whether it's to your liking or not is up to your taste). Best thing is to just play at your own pace and stop watching them increase in amount, before you know it you'll have all the trade contracts you need.

>

> As Obtena stated, you can get 3-10 Trades from a bounty. That's an average of 6.5 Trade Contracts per bounty, at that rate you would be able to afford the items I'm after after doing just under 700, yes that's seven **hundred,** bounties. That is unbelievable. Lets just throw in the odd ones you'll get here and there, that's still many many months of playing to get these THREE items that for all intents and purposes have no right being this difficult to obtain. I challenge you to find any other example of Ascended gear being so blatantly difficult to acquire.

 

700 Hundred bounties...so given that there's approximately 70 bounties in the PoF core maps that would be 10 bounty tours before getting enough Trade Contracts to get your set...and considering you can rotate amongst the bounties without stopping you should be able to get enough Contracts in under a week or two(and you'll no doubt get Trade Contracts from other sources along the way), however, your mileage may vary. Hardly what I could consider a grind, but if you don't like doing the bounties, well then, that can be an issue.

 

As an aside, from roughly 6 months of bounties, only doing 2 sometimes 3 maps at a time, 4 or 5 days a week(and having spent quite a few as well), I still have 11k TC and still accumulating...of course, I also have over 1k Treasure Maps to be used during the Treasure Hunt in Desert Highlands, which I have been able to collect at the most 10 in a 20 minute span.

[casualkenny.9817]

If there are noticeably easier ways to obtain something, it may suggest that there is room for parity. Agree with the op.

 

Also, think the demand for harrier (and other) trinkets is rather niche, so there's fewer people being affected, and thus fewer people giving their opinions.

 

As for parking other toons at the tomb, thanks for this tip

[Miellyn.6847]

> @"Kalendraf.9521" said:

> > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > Honestly, I've love to see an **in-game currency exchange** that's similar to the gem store, but for all sorts of currencies. It would give value to the least played content and a bunch of stuff we have in excess can be scuttled off by brokerage fees.

> ^ This times a million. I'm swimming in currencies that I acquire significantly faster than I can use which other players seem to be unable to obtain enough of. I'd love to be able to sell them my Spirit Shards, Tomes of Knowledge, Transmutation Charges, Trade Contacts, and so forth.

>

 

Everybody swims in Spirit Shards or Tomes of Knowledge after a relativ short amount of time. That suggestion would straight up kill half of the game.

Map specific currencies exist to populate content and lure players into specific areas.

One of the worst ideas this forums have seen.

[Kaththea.5079]

I use both tomes and spirit shards. I'll happily take yours!

[Rauderi.8706]

> @"Miellyn.6847" said:

> > @"Kalendraf.9521" said:

> > > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > > Honestly, I've love to see an **in-game currency exchange** that's similar to the gem store, but for all sorts of currencies. It would give value to the least played content and a bunch of stuff we have in excess can be scuttled off by brokerage fees.

> > ^ This times a million. I'm swimming in currencies that I acquire significantly faster than I can use which other players seem to be unable to obtain enough of. I'd love to be able to sell them my Spirit Shards, Tomes of Knowledge, Transmutation Charges, Trade Contacts, and so forth.

> >

>

> Everybody swims in Spirit Shards or Tomes of Knowledge after a relative short amount of time. That suggestion would straight up kill half of the game.

> Map specific currencies exist to populate content and lure players into specific areas.

> One of the worst ideas this forums have seen.

 

Sadly short-sighted. smh

 

It would give *value* to the places people *don't* go. It would *revitalize* many areas of the game that go ignored because "they're not worth it."

And it would be a purely player-driven sink for all the stuff that's piling up in inventories. The stuff that feels *unrewarding* to get because it's worthless? Yeah, that stuff.

All those currencies would hit their own equilibria, with value weighted to content that needs more participants. And if there's a reason they're *not* popular, go figure, it's because they're bad. Dry Top is an excellent example. It's a lame map with few rewards, but if Geodes could be converted 1:10 (probably way more than that, because Dry Top is teh suck) into Mistonium, *more* people would actually go there.

 

And if "everybody swims in Spirit Shards", guess what? *They won't be worth much*, but hey, guess also what... *They'd still be worth **something*** instead of being the thing that some players only care about for Legendary crafting.

[zombyturtle.5980]

> @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > @"Miellyn.6847" said:

> > > @"Kalendraf.9521" said:

> > > > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > > > Honestly, I've love to see an **in-game currency exchange** that's similar to the gem store, but for all sorts of currencies. It would give value to the least played content and a bunch of stuff we have in excess can be scuttled off by brokerage fees.

> > > ^ This times a million. I'm swimming in currencies that I acquire significantly faster than I can use which other players seem to be unable to obtain enough of. I'd love to be able to sell them my Spirit Shards, Tomes of Knowledge, Transmutation Charges, Trade Contacts, and so forth.

> > >

> >

> > Everybody swims in Spirit Shards or Tomes of Knowledge after a relative short amount of time. That suggestion would straight up kill half of the game.

> > Map specific currencies exist to populate content and lure players into specific areas.

> > One of the worst ideas this forums have seen.

>

> Sadly short-sighted. smh

>

> It would give *value* to the places people *don't* go. It would *revitalize* many areas of the game that go ignored because "they're not worth it."

> And it would be a purely player-driven sink for all the stuff that's piling up in inventories. The stuff that feels *unrewarding* to get because it's worthless? Yeah, that stuff.

> All those currencies would hit their own equilibria, with value weighted to content that needs more participants. And if there's a reason they're *not* popular, go figure, it's because they're bad. Dry Top is an excellent example. It's a lame map with few rewards, but if Geodes could be converted 1:10 (probably way more than that, because Dry Top is teh suck) into Mistonium, *more* people would actually go there.

>

> And if "everybody swims in Spirit Shards", guess what? *They won't be worth much*, but hey, guess also what... *They'd still be worth **something*** instead of being the thing that some players only care about for Legendary crafting.

 

It might revitalize 1 area of the game which has the maximum farm/h. It would, in exchange kill off most of the living world and pof maps. Even if the exchange was balanced to give equal rewards, players would only farm the easiest method and ignore challenging areas.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

I originally asked the deal was for why Trader Keys in Domain of Istan heart vendors were updated to ask for trade contracts on top of their only-karma cost. Now its a complete loss to buy keys even though they were limited and encouraged me to farm living world hearts daily.

 

Just have a character open the chests every day at the end of the Sanctum of Nabka JP since they're a solid source of contracts.

[Dante.1763]

> @"Miellyn.6847" said:

> > @"Kalendraf.9521" said:

> > > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > > Honestly, I've love to see an **in-game currency exchange** that's similar to the gem store, but for all sorts of currencies. It would give value to the least played content and a bunch of stuff we have in excess can be scuttled off by brokerage fees.

> > ^ This times a million. I'm swimming in currencies that I acquire significantly faster than I can use which other players seem to be unable to obtain enough of. I'd love to be able to sell them my Spirit Shards, Tomes of Knowledge, Transmutation Charges, Trade Contacts, and so forth.

> >

>

> Everybody swims in Spirit Shards or Tomes of Knowledge after a relativ short amount of time. That suggestion would straight up kill half of the game.

> Map specific currencies exist to populate content and lure players into specific areas.

> One of the worst ideas this forums have seen.

 

swims, if they do pvp or wvw you mean right, cause you dont get many tomes doing just PVE, havent used one in quite awhile and i only have 249 tomes which wouldnt be enough to even level up the characters i have made but dont play, wouldnt mind being able to buy enough to do that from somebody who is swimming in them.

[Reverielle.3972]

The Treasure Hunt in Desert Highlands is quite good for contracts.

 

Also, I think it's worth noting, that if you play the game in the way the developers intend it you will end up with thousands without even trying. Basically that means a couple of things: Helping out where you can (NPCs/PCs/events/etc), being curious and aware or your surroundings, and harvesting/looting everything you come across. I know this is somewhat cold comfort to you, but it's food for thought for future so you won't be in quite such a frustrating situation again.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

I never gave a shit about them and don't use them actively. I am semi-casual-sometimes-more gamer with bigger breaks (since about 2013) in this game. I just checked my account and I have nearly 4500 contracts. Seems not _that_ of a big deal. Be patient, MMOs won't run away.

[sorudo.9054]

> @"zombyturtle.5980" said:

> > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > > @"Miellyn.6847" said:

> > > > @"Kalendraf.9521" said:

> > > > > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > > > > Honestly, I've love to see an **in-game currency exchange** that's similar to the gem store, but for all sorts of currencies. It would give value to the least played content and a bunch of stuff we have in excess can be scuttled off by brokerage fees.

> > > > ^ This times a million. I'm swimming in currencies that I acquire significantly faster than I can use which other players seem to be unable to obtain enough of. I'd love to be able to sell them my Spirit Shards, Tomes of Knowledge, Transmutation Charges, Trade Contacts, and so forth.

> > > >

> > >

> > > Everybody swims in Spirit Shards or Tomes of Knowledge after a relative short amount of time. That suggestion would straight up kill half of the game.

> > > Map specific currencies exist to populate content and lure players into specific areas.

> > > One of the worst ideas this forums have seen.

> >

> > Sadly short-sighted. smh

> >

> > It would give *value* to the places people *don't* go. It would *revitalize* many areas of the game that go ignored because "they're not worth it."

> > And it would be a purely player-driven sink for all the stuff that's piling up in inventories. The stuff that feels *unrewarding* to get because it's worthless? Yeah, that stuff.

> > All those currencies would hit their own equilibria, with value weighted to content that needs more participants. And if there's a reason they're *not* popular, go figure, it's because they're bad. Dry Top is an excellent example. It's a lame map with few rewards, but if Geodes could be converted 1:10 (probably way more than that, because Dry Top is teh suck) into Mistonium, *more* people would actually go there.

> >

> > And if "everybody swims in Spirit Shards", guess what? *They won't be worth much*, but hey, guess also what... *They'd still be worth **something*** instead of being the thing that some players only care about for Legendary crafting.

>

> It might revitalize 1 area of the game which has the maximum farm/h. It would, in exchange kill off most of the living world and pof maps. Even if the exchange was balanced to give equal rewards, players would only farm the easiest method and ignore challenging areas.

 

you assume everyone only farms in games....

[Rauderi.8706]

> @"sorudo.9054" said:

> you assume everyone only farms in games....

 

Even for map farmers seeking the best reward/hr, currency exchange would shift which maps are most profitable over time. (Granted, Istan farm is more about materials and raw gold than

Istan currency would be too easy to turn in and quickly lose exchange value, where lesser played maps (haha, hi, Lake Doric...) could eventually grow enough in value to be worth attending. For a while, but that's okay. The cyclical nature of it means those maps get *some* attention as opposed to be barren almost constantly.

The most critical part of the balance would be dependent on what rewards come from those currencies. Siren's Landing Pearls aren't all that useful, so it's likely more would be traded out than traded for, until there are so many that it makes trading for them to get Unbound Magic profitable.

 

[zombyturtle.5980]

> @"sorudo.9054" said:

> > @"zombyturtle.5980" said:

> > > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > > > @"Miellyn.6847" said:

> > > > > @"Kalendraf.9521" said:

> > > > > > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > > > > > Honestly, I've love to see an **in-game currency exchange** that's similar to the gem store, but for all sorts of currencies. It would give value to the least played content and a bunch of stuff we have in excess can be scuttled off by brokerage fees.

> > > > > ^ This times a million. I'm swimming in currencies that I acquire significantly faster than I can use which other players seem to be unable to obtain enough of. I'd love to be able to sell them my Spirit Shards, Tomes of Knowledge, Transmutation Charges, Trade Contacts, and so forth.

> > > > >

> > > >

> > > > Everybody swims in Spirit Shards or Tomes of Knowledge after a relative short amount of time. That suggestion would straight up kill half of the game.

> > > > Map specific currencies exist to populate content and lure players into specific areas.

> > > > One of the worst ideas this forums have seen.

> > >

> > > Sadly short-sighted. smh

> > >

> > > It would give *value* to the places people *don't* go. It would *revitalize* many areas of the game that go ignored because "they're not worth it."

> > > And it would be a purely player-driven sink for all the stuff that's piling up in inventories. The stuff that feels *unrewarding* to get because it's worthless? Yeah, that stuff.

> > > All those currencies would hit their own equilibria, with value weighted to content that needs more participants. And if there's a reason they're *not* popular, go figure, it's because they're bad. Dry Top is an excellent example. It's a lame map with few rewards, but if Geodes could be converted 1:10 (probably way more than that, because Dry Top is teh suck) into Mistonium, *more* people would actually go there.

> > >

> > > And if "everybody swims in Spirit Shards", guess what? *They won't be worth much*, but hey, guess also what... *They'd still be worth **something*** instead of being the thing that some players only care about for Legendary crafting.

> >

> > It might revitalize 1 area of the game which has the maximum farm/h. It would, in exchange kill off most of the living world and pof maps. Even if the exchange was balanced to give equal rewards, players would only farm the easiest method and ignore challenging areas.

>

> you assume everyone only farms in games....

 

I dont assume. I base it on the trend in this game over 6 years. Things which are rewarding for time vs effort are played. Things which are not rewarding are almost dead content.

[Rasimir.6239]

This really is a non-issue if you just go out and play the maps, instead of looking to farm one specific item. Like pretty much everything else in this game, trade contracts can be gained through a variety of different avenues, like map rewards, containers, and more.

 

Personally I next to never play PoF bounties unless I positively stumble upon them. I have done roughly half of the bounties available on PoF maps, probably even less, according to my achievement log. I have bought a bunch of stuff for trade contracts, like the mounts as well as all of the heart vendor minis. I currently have about 5k trade contracts left in my wallet, that I picked up while playing on the PoF maps with different characters, just casually exploring and taking in the sights.

 

If you really play the maps rather than tunneling to a specific activity while ignoring everything around you, you'll find that trade contracts do pile up at a generous pace. Just like the game has always been, where playing is pretty much (if not more so) as rewarding as farming when you take into account all that you gather and gain on your travels. It's one of the main design choices of this game to reward you for playing rather than farming, and ANet has really managed to keep to this idea and perfect it with each update.

[sorudo.9054]

> @"zombyturtle.5980" said:

> > @"sorudo.9054" said:

> > > @"zombyturtle.5980" said:

> > > > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > > > > @"Miellyn.6847" said:

> > > > > > @"Kalendraf.9521" said:

> > > > > > > @"Rauderi.8706" said:

> > > > > > > Honestly, I've love to see an **in-game currency exchange** that's similar to the gem store, but for all sorts of currencies. It would give value to the least played content and a bunch of stuff we have in excess can be scuttled off by brokerage fees.

> > > > > > ^ This times a million. I'm swimming in currencies that I acquire significantly faster than I can use which other players seem to be unable to obtain enough of. I'd love to be able to sell them my Spirit Shards, Tomes of Knowledge, Transmutation Charges, Trade Contacts, and so forth.

> > > > > >

> > > > >

> > > > > Everybody swims in Spirit Shards or Tomes of Knowledge after a relative short amount of time. That suggestion would straight up kill half of the game.

> > > > > Map specific currencies exist to populate content and lure players into specific areas.

> > > > > One of the worst ideas this forums have seen.

> > > >

> > > > Sadly short-sighted. smh

> > > >

> > > > It would give *value* to the places people *don't* go. It would *revitalize* many areas of the game that go ignored because "they're not worth it."

> > > > And it would be a purely player-driven sink for all the stuff that's piling up in inventories. The stuff that feels *unrewarding* to get because it's worthless? Yeah, that stuff.

> > > > All those currencies would hit their own equilibria, with value weighted to content that needs more participants. And if there's a reason they're *not* popular, go figure, it's because they're bad. Dry Top is an excellent example. It's a lame map with few rewards, but if Geodes could be converted 1:10 (probably way more than that, because Dry Top is teh suck) into Mistonium, *more* people would actually go there.

> > > >

> > > > And if "everybody swims in Spirit Shards", guess what? *They won't be worth much*, but hey, guess also what... *They'd still be worth **something*** instead of being the thing that some players only care about for Legendary crafting.

> > >

> > > It might revitalize 1 area of the game which has the maximum farm/h. It would, in exchange kill off most of the living world and pof maps. Even if the exchange was balanced to give equal rewards, players would only farm the easiest method and ignore challenging areas.

> >

> > you assume everyone only farms in games....

>

> I dont assume. I base it on the trend in this game over 6 years. Things which are rewarding for time vs effort are played. Things which are not rewarding are almost dead content.

 

that's still assuming, if you look at the whole picture a significant portion of the player base doesn't farm all the time, they just play story content and have fun doing instance game modes.

[MithranArkanere.8957]

> @"Dante.1763" said:

> well given that its been nearly a year and they havent reduced the cost, and honestly this is the first complaint ive seen about the cost, i doubt it will happen.

 

The reason why you don't hear many complains about it is that people have already given up on them. Everyone I know will just use S4 trinkets instead.

 

I suspect whoever set those prices wasn't given the right information on how many trade contracts players were expected to earn.