[HELP] How to go about making tokens.

[Firedog118]

I need to start making them.
How do most people collect the items to upgrade? Challenge rewards? Or just play survival until something viable turns up?

[Zarfax]

Start by making 200mils. Around 2.5mil base value and 150ups (just to be sure). Then start dumping into base dmg. Challenge rewards like big stick and the retribution work well. If your play "high wave" survival, your will get alot of useless trans weapons, those are fine too etc.

[Loperz]

Start by running insane alt pack 1 and getting retributions.

Any retirubtion you get with 115^ or so can become a 200m token.

[chpoit]

http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?50422-Sticky-me!-Mana-Token-Guide

here you go

[lolofaf]

whatever you do DONT make tokens over 200mil (ie. 400mil and 600mil tokens). there is just no point in my mind in wasting more mana if you can get the same reward from using less mana

[aaradon]

Any tokens over 200m value are useful if you are trying to save space as alot of forum traders are. I personally use the everflames of nautalius for making tokens. They are easy to aquire, 3 a run in about half an hour, with a good chance of having nice tower stats for my ev waller or trapper, and they seem to have a very nice base value of average 5m with 180^ making 600m tokens possible sometimes.

Edit: everflames come from the challenge riddles of the deep on nmhc for best value

[DoomAngel]

2.5m or more (i usually pick 3.5million+ weapons).
112up to 120 -> 200m token
155 to 170 -> 400m token
225 or more for 600m token

[Jano]

2.5m or more (i usually pick 3.5million+ weapons).
112up to 120 -> 200m token
155 to 170 -> 400m token
225 or more for 600m token

Give me some Doomy :)
For me: +2.5 mil with +120up -> 200mil token

[Kirro]

Ogre party hats are good for making tokens, and the challenge is easy. Retributions and big sticks are good, but you need better stats for assault runs. Note with party hats: You need around 138 ups to make a 200m token and 183 to make a 400m token. Despite the difference in the number of upgrades required, the cost to produce is the same.

Despite what the token guide says, 400m tokens are pretty widely used now. Some of the richest traders will only accept 400m tokens or more due to space restrictions. The cost to produce is about the same. 200m tokens are around 280-285m to make, 400m tokens are around 580m to make, which is close enough to 2 times as much. I recommend starting with a 3m+ item with 180+ ups. If you're in doubt, export to open and test it in a local game. That way you can see if you're losing too much money.

[Grimmbles]

Guh, why do people still suggest Rets, or even worse random drops?

Get 1 friend, 2 is even better but 1 is enough for speed. Do Assault Pack 2 on NM for Mythical Big Sticks. Should take MAX 50 seconds a run with two people. Any Big Stick over 113^ will work for a 200m token. Any over about 4.9mil value will get there in exactly 112 ups. Any under that with the ups will get there in 113. In my experience about 75% of them are good for 112^ and closer to 85-90% within 113^.

If you have 2 good DPS friends it will take about 35 seconds a run. Assault Pack 2 is easier than 1 also, less random fails due to flukey spider BS. If you don't have friends but you do have a faster running DPS char that can handle it solo you're looking at about 1:15-1:25 to solo it.

*edit: To be clear, Rets and randoms will work, I just find that if you are specifically setting out to get token fodder the Big Sticks are more reliable and faster.
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As for the 400-600m token thing: Someone said recently that challenge rewards scale evenly and random stuff does not always. Hence why some items are costing people 2x or more for 400/600 ones.

http://www.reddit.com/r/dungeondefenders/comments/tht1w/making_400_and_600m_tokens_is_a_waste_of_mana/

I'm not positive if the Big Stick is one of the good scalers beyond 200m. Just dumped all my cash in to 200m tokens, shop is up so I'll test it in the morning probably.

[Kirro]

Yeah, random drops are not reliable. Big Sticks are good for 400m as long as you have enough upgrades, same for rets and party hats. For 600m, I wouldn't know.

[Cremate]

whatever you do DONT make tokens over 200mil (ie. 400mil and 600mil tokens). there is just no point in my mind in wasting more mana if you can get the same reward from using less mana

Dont listen to this advice. There is a trend of buyers that are starting to take only 400 and 600mil tokens on the forums due to bag space constraints. It is becoming more and more frequent. Now, to start, 200m tokens are fine. But if you find a weapon that upgrades really well... dont be afraid to up it.

Some tips....

Hover your mouse over the damage stat of your token prospects in pro mode. You will see how much the damage is projected to increase with one upgrade. The more points you get per upgrade, the less mana you will need to spend to reach the desired token amount. It is a bit different for certain types of weapons. But for a weapon like swords... If it is over 120 points... it will upgrade well. Below 100 points... average. Below 80 points... dont use that weapon as a token. The more points per upgrade, the higher your return on investment... or in other words, it will go up in value at a cheaper ratio.

You dont have to go token hunting in challenges, as some people suggested. Just keep an eye out for weapons with a high start value and number of ups when you do survival runs. All my tokens are just random drop swords.... because i solo misty survival every night on my squire. As you loot, just snag up any weapon that already has a starting value of close to 3,000,000+, and 200 upgardes. Thats usually a good sign for token upgrade quality. You can inspect the points per upgrade thing later.

[Kirro]

You dont have to go token hunting in challenges, as some people suggested. Just keep an eye out for weapons with a high start value and number of ups when you do survival runs. All my tokens are just random drop swords.... because i solo misty survival every night on my squire.There are some equips that drop that can't be made into tokens without a larger loss of value. Mostly monk weapons, since they have both melee and ranged damage. Like I mentioned, if you're not sure, export your data to open and test it out in a local game. That way you can see exactly how much it will cost without risking your mana.

[Grimmbles]

Just for reference a Big Stick worth ~7m got to

200M = 278,851,998 mana spent
200-400M = 286,212,754 mana spent
565,064,752 total

So the % went up a little but not much. 147^ to get to 400. I've noticed some lower starting value ones take more ups though, so it might not be worth using them for 400m tokens if not near the high end in starting value. Next shop set up I'll test that specifically.