Economics of Ammunition

For those thinking they won't want to craft their ammunition, or think that it is just as cheap to buy their ammunition allow me to break a few things down for ya.

Basic light pistol ammunition:


Weak Biological Material = 31 chips average to buy.

Weak Geological Chemicals = 31 chips average to buy.
or you can buy gunpowder already made for between 61 and 80 chips. though it is cheaper to craft it.
scrap Lead = 17 chips average to buy.
scrap Copper = 7 chips average to buy.


Total Cost to buy the materials: 86 chips
This will build one stack of 80 light pistol ammunition.

To buy the same amount of ammunition in the shops? around 240 chips... thats 60 chips roughly for a stack of 20 light pistol ammunition.

Medium Pistol ammunition:


1 weak Geological chemical = 31 chips to buy

2 weak biological chemicals = 62 chips to buy
Or you can buy medium gunpowder for around 110 chips average to buy.
2 scrap lead = 32 chips
1 scrap copper = 7 chips

This will build one stack of 80 medium pistol ammunition for a total cost of 132 chips

To buy the same amount of ammunition in the shops: around 440 chips
that is roughly 110 chips per stack of 20 medium pistol ammunition.

The costs may seem to go up if you are using the efficient ammunition recipes but in actuality your costs go down by quite a chunk. An example of this is below:

Efficient Medium Pistol ammunition:


1 weak Geological chemical = 31 chips to buy

2 weak biological chemicals = 62 chips to buy
Or you can buy medium gunpowder for around 110 chips average to buy.
4 scrap lead = 64 chips average
4 scrap copper = 28 chips average

This will build one stack of 160 efficient medium pistol ammunition for a total cost of 202 chips roughly. To purchase the same amount of medium pistol ammunition from a shop will run around 880 chips average. Hell of a savings.

Now not everyone will be able to build the ammunition when they need it. You may not have the skills to build the ammunition as you have gone with a pure combat build and wont have the skills when you need them. This is no problem you should be able to buy your ammunition from players. DON'T buy it from the shops. You will go quickly poor that way.

The only time it should even be thinkable to buy ammunition from the shops is if you are in some podunk town that doesnt have an auction house nor the nodes to harvest the materials to make it yourself. In that situation then I would suggest first calling out over the regional chat to see if anyone has spare ammunition or mats to make it for sale. If this is not feasible due to no one being anywhere near you and you cant make it to another town, then and only then should you consider purchasing your ammunition from a shop.

This was a little excersize I did in trying to figure out some of the economics of crafting. Similar attention to the material cost vs the shop cost of a finished product combined with the given point at which the shop item becomes available will show a clear advantage to the crafting minded player.

Now that last sentence may seem a bit odd. To explain it as simply as I may. the point at which you can craft an improved bit of armour or weapon compared to what you currently have will almost always be far and away sooner than that Item will become available in the shops. This means that the crafter can provide weapons and armour much sooner than a shop can and usually at comparable prices. Yes, the crafter will have to sacrifice some combat ability to do this but it is a small price to pay to support your local crafter.