This page will try to give you some basic tips and tricks on how you can earn more platinum. Since Rift is still a relatively new game some of these strategies may not work after some time, and many strategies don’t even exist yet. The game economy is still not developed as many players are just now leveling up their characters and not working on leveling professions. However I’ll attempt to provide as many tips as I can from my experiences playing the game, and if you have any be sure to add them in the comments section below!

In Rift, 100 silver is worth 1 gold, and 100 gold is worth 1 platinum. You can obtain this currency by completing quests and getting it as rewards or by selling commodities like items or enchants to other players or to NPC vendors.

Beginners Rift Gold Guide

In Rift, the highest level of currency is platinum. In this Rift Platinum guide, I am going to teach you some easy ways to get it! Over time, I hope to add new strategies to this guide as more specifics are made available.

New Game, New Economy

The biggest problem with putting together a Rift platinum guide is that the game is brand new. The economy will rapidly change; things that are valuable at release may not be valuable in a few months and things that are worthless at release may become valuable later.

In this Rift platinum guide, I will be revealing some specific aspects to earning gold in Rift so that you can get the edge on your competition and make a little extra money.

Easy Platinum in Rift – Materials

At the start of any MMORPG, materials are always valuable whereas items crafted generally are not. This is because so many players love to level up their professions and will bid each other up on resources. Most crafters will be forced to vendor their wares or sell at a loss.

As a result, one way you can be sure you do not get sucked into this cycle is to pick up all 3 gathering professions (Butchering, Mining, and Foraging) yourself. This way, you can gather minerals, gems, leather, wood, and herbs while you are questing and leveling up.

While these materials will not have much value during the first week, it will not be long before players get some spare platinum and start to buy up stacks of materials.

You can also bank your materials and sell them later. As players move out of the beginner zones and start to level up professions, the price of beginner ores will go up. Alternatively, you can use 1-2 of the types of materials to level up your own profession for free and then sell what you do not use on the auction house.

Crafting

Crafting for profits will be tough. Only those “ahead of the curve” and have a very high level craft will be able to profit while leveling their crafts. Additionally, crafters have to compete with quests when it comes to selling gear.

With that said, there are three item types which players are likely to profit off of: two-handed weapons, ranged weapons (bows and guns) and runes (from runecrafting).

The reason for this is that two-handed weapons and ranged weapons do not come very frequently in questing, whereas 1-handed weapons and staves are constantly upgraded for callings that use those. In particular, from level 20-30 there is a shortage in these weapons.

As a weaponsmith, you craft items like the Iron Hunting Rifle and sell them for significant profits. Even though it is only a green-quality weapon, it is good enough to fetch 75 gold to 1 platinum for the first few weeks around game release.

Runecrafters can also make a bit of money, as runecrafters do not compete with quests for selling runes. The only downside is that many players will not be looking for runes since they replace their gear so frequently.

Leveling up with Runecrafting will be expensive, but the first person to max level will make some good money by selling top-level runes to players just hitting 50 who are outfitting their characters in runes.

Note: armor is also constantly provided by quests so players will have a hard time selling armor pieces.

To wrap it up, do not look to crafts to provide any good amount of money in Rift unless you are a hardcore player.

Dropped Items

Item drops can be very valuable in Rift, especially around release. Players love buying bind-on-equip blue and purple-quality pieces of gear and are willing to spend a good amount on these.

Try to resist the urge to equip these pieces of equipment yourself. Rare and Epic items at a low level are not nearly as good as you might think; within a few levels uncommon (green) quality pieces catch up to rare and epic pieces.

You might as well sell them instead of equipping them and save yourself the wasted money. Once you have equipped bind on equip pieces, there is no turning back!

Rift Platinum Guide Conclusion

To conclude this Rift Platinum guide, remember the following things:

• At a bare minimum, grab all 3 gathering professions so you can earn extra gold while leveling up
• If you pick a craft, do not plan to make money on it unless you play all the time
• Weaponsmiths and Runecrafters have the most potential to make money. Two-handed weapons and ranged weapons are rarer than 1-handed weapons, shields, and wands.
• Sell your bind on equip rare and epic pieces as you can upgrade them quickly from questing

By following these simple strategies, you can earn a lot of extra platinum and hit level 50 with some money in your bags!

Rift Planarite Guide

Want to know what to do with all your planarite and source stones? Perhaps you want to get more? In this Rift planarite guide, I will be going over everything you need to know about Planarite and Sourcestones.

What is Planarite

Planarite is a special type of currency in Rift. It comes from sealing Rifts, defeating Invasions, and destroying footholds. While the primary source of Planarite is from planar invasions (hence the name) you can earn some for destroying enemy PvP footholds as well.

Uses for Planarite in Rift

Planarite can then be exchanged for goods at the planar vendor. Planar vendors can be found both in zones and in the main cities of Sanctum and Meridian.

Click Here for the #1 Rift Guide

Different planar vendors provide different rewards. For example, just south of Argent Glade in Silverwood, Guardians can exchange Planarite for low-level rare and epic pieces of equipment.

I do not have a complete list of Planarite vendors as I do not feel it is necessary. This is because the best use of Planarite is to exchange in Sanctum (Guardians) or Meridian (Defiant).

In town, you can exchange large quantities of Planarite (up to 7500!) for an upgraded planar focus (the best one currently in game). The planar focus lets you equip planar essences, which provide nice stat bonuses.

Note that Defiants have a different name for this item (they are called sourcestone engines instead of planar foci) so just keep that in mind as you read this article.

Your starter planar focus only lets you equip 2 lesser planar essences. The fully upgraded one will let you equip 4 lesser planar essences (which provide stat buffs) and 2 greater planar essences (which often have cool effects like +damage on melee hit).

As a result, you will want to save your Planarite for this upgraded planar focus. Do not waste it on lowbie gear which you will just replace shortly.

After getting the best planar focus, you can buy ascended powers and other items which will come in handy.

Earning Planarite

While planarite does drop from all sorts of enemies in Rift, you only get it when you adequately participate. In other words you do not get planarite at random nor does it happen just because you are near an enemy.

Additionally, the while the rewards you get for participating in events is random, it is only partially random. It is based off of the enemy type and participation.

Whenever you are engaged in a rift battle, notice the meter that appears right under your mini-map (same spot you collect your planar loot from). This bar fills up as you “participate” in the battle.

The bar must be at least 1/4 full for the current monster or rift-wave you are battling in order to earn planarite. The higher the bar is filled, the more you will earn! Doing damage or healing increases your participation meter.

Sourceshards and Sourcestones

In addition to Planarite, you can earn other currency types known as sourceshards and sourcestones. While planarite is awarded for any type of invasion, you can only earn these types from tougher enemies.

Sourceshards are of rare quality and drop off of small bosses. In particular, these seem to be common from beating the final boss of a Rift in the second bonus round (stage #5) and end-bosses of smaller invasions.

Sourcestones are of epic quality and only drop off of large bosses. The only time I have found these is when beating the final boss of an invasion event. By final boss, I am referring to the special enemy which spawns after completing all of the objectives of an invasion.

In particular, though, I have only gotten sourcestones when killing the final boss of “big” invasion events with at least 1/4 of a participation bar. As a result, when doing invasions it is important to find the final boss as soon as he spawns (check the map), and then race over to the right spot so you can get your participation up other players finish the boss.

Note that not all events are the same. For events where you just defeat some invasions and then a final boss spawns, you usually get a sourceshard. For events with several waves, you usually get the sourcestone.

Sourceshards and sourcestones a tiered as well. You will get a different type of sourceshard off of level 15 enemies then you will off of level 25 enemies. There are multiple tiers of these items.

These high-quality rewards can be used for various items. For example, you can exchange 15 higher-end sourceshards in town for powerful lesser planar essences which you can equip to your planar focus for massive stat boosts.

Additionally, in each zone, there is a rare planar goods vendor in each quest hub in the zone (Argent Glade, Gloamwood Pines, etc.). These sell rare and epic goods for players of that zone’s particular level and use the tier of stones that drop off of rift enemies in that zone.

Rift Planarite Guide Conclusion

I hope you benefited from this Rift Planarite guide. To summarize, do invasions to earn planarite, and then save it up. Once you get 7500 you can buy a really good item which you can use at any level and is the best-in-slot even at level 50!

Making easy platinum in Rift

In Rift, “platinum” is the highest level of currency. In this article, I’m going to explain to you how to get hold of it in the easiest way possible!

As Rift is a relatively new game, it is difficult to predict at this stage what will and will not be valuable as the Rift economy naturally evolves over time. Something that you may consider to be worthless now may become invaluable in the future, or vice versa.

Easy Platinum in Rift from Materials

As a general rule, at the beginning of a MMORPG like Rift, crafted items are generally less valuable than materials. This happens because at the beginning players will try to outbid each other for different resources so that they can level up, and as a result most craft items will initially be sold at a loss.

One great way to avoid getting involved in this vicious cycle is to get all 3 of the gathering professions yourself. That is, “Foraging”, “mining” and “butchering”. With these professions in hand you will easily be able to pick up your own materials while you are questing. If you have no immediate need for the materials you are gathering, you always have the option to bank them for use or sale later on in the game.

As the game progresses, other players will accumulate some spare platinum and will want to start buying up materials.

The value of beginner ores will increase as other players start to level up their professions.

Making Platinum from Crafting

If you have a very high level craft, you will be able to make money from your crafts. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to make any money. The main problem is that crafters are in constant competition with gear that come in questing.

But if you want to give it a try, you should focus on ranged weapons, like guns and bows, two-handed weapons and runes.

Two-handed and ranged weapons do not pop up very often in questing, unlike 1-handed weapons which are constantly being upgraded for callings that use use.

Despite the fact that it is only a green-quality weapon, as a weaponsmith you can craft the Iron Hunting Rifle which you can then sell on for huge profit. You can fetch as much as 1 platinum for it, especially shortly after the initial release of the game.

You can also potentially make a lot of money as a Runecrafter as there is no competition from quests. Having said that, a lot of players may not want runes themselves because they already get new gear on a regular basis.

Tips for Easy Platinum

Rift is a game about many things, and unlike some recent MMOs, a lot of stock has been placed on the economy – a relatively standard interaction between players with crafting and gathering professions and an auction house. But, how do you put those tools to use to make the most possible Rift Platinum – the in game currency of choice? Here are three tips to get you started:

1. Choose Professions Wisely

In Rift, you can choose three professions from the 10 available. There are 7 different crafting professions and 3 gathering professions. Each crafting profession will need different materials from two of the three gathering professions (though usually primarily from just one). As a result, you should choose either one or two crafting professions and then a gathering profession to support them. However, before you reach level 30, it is a good idea to steer clear of the crafting professions altogether as they take too much gold and platinum to level up.

2. Use the Auction House for All Sales

The auction house is perfect to make sales to your fellow players, but it requires you to spend time carefully analysing the needs and demands of your fellow players. Always remember, buy goods when prices are low and sell them only when prices are high.

3. Track Demand for Top Items

With a brand new game, there are very few tools to help you determine what sells and for how much. So, to make sure you are getting the best deals possible, start keeping track of prices in a spreadsheet or document on your computer. When they rise, make sure you are selling and when they dive (assuming they are not diving due to a nerf of some sort), but things up.

Making platinum in Rift will inevitably involve plenty of other methods that will allow you to farm for ores, plants and skinnable mobs, but if you want to make the most possible currency in the game, make sure you are using the tips above and the auction house liberally.

If you play it just right, you’ll be able to develop a keen eye for what sells and how much it sells for. If you want to be successful as a trader in Rift: Planes of Telara, you must first know what people want and how much they are willing to pay to get it. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be well on your way to a nice fortune of Gold and Platinum so you can dominate your server.

When you first start playing Rift and finish your first few quests you’ll get a few silver coins. One hundred silver coins gives you 1 gold, and 100 gold gives you 1 platinum.

There are also other types of currencies in Rift such as planarite and valor: planarite is gained by participating in rifts and invasions and valor is gained by fighting other players in either open world PvP or Warfronts. We’ll probably not be discussing those currencies in detail here but rather focus on just platinum.

Easiest way to get more gold in Rift

One of the most simple and easiest ways you will have more platinum in Rift is by making sure your bags are always empty. Often times when you’re doing quests and participating in Rifts you don’t have enough room to pick up all the items dropped from monsters. Even worse, I’ve been known to sometimes destroy green quest rewards because I had no room for some better items.

It’s absolutely the worst thing you can do. Sometimes you simply have no choice though as you have to prioritize: I’d rather destroy a 1g worth of item than a 2g item, but it’s still just a huge waste. I definitely recommend you fill out your bag slots as soon as you can.

Where to get bags?

1. Quest rewards – certain quests will award you with bags
2. Monster drops – although not very frequently and you can’t count on it really, you will get bags even from random monsters you kill
3. Vendors – you can always go to the nearest “General Goods” vendor and purchase bags
4. Auction house – auction house is also a source for bags, and quite frequently a lot cheaper than vendors. If you’re passing by make sure to take a look, you might just strike a very cheap deal.

Inventory space can be a significant problem especially if you take all three gathering professions in order to make the most money. In that case you will have tons and tons of materials with you at all times which you definitely won’t be selling to vendors. It’s easy with random green, white and gray quality items which you can sell whenever you’re at a quest hub, but these stacks of materials are worth far more on the auction house.

In conclusion, this is the most newbie and also the most important platinum making tip I can give you. Make sure your inventory is never full so you can always loot EVERYTHING. Even the gray quality items which sell for decent amounts and if you’re serious about making platinum, every silver counts.

Making platinum with gathering professions

There are three gathering professions in Rift: butchering, foraging and mining. Needless to say if you want to make the most money while leveling up it’s no doubt the best to take all three of them. You’ll have TONS of materials to pick up all the time (assuming your bags are empty), and with a huge number of players leveling up their crafting professions all the time you have a decent demand for the raw materials.

If you do decide to take all gathering professions make sure you save some of the materials so you can level your own crafting professions later on. If you want to take only one or two gathering professions however you probably want to know which ones are the most profitable, and I’ll try to do a small analysis below.

The only resource I’ve been able to find on the popularity of certain professions is this professions guide. There are polls embedded and the current results are as follows:

1. Mining – 36,6%
2. Butchering – 31,5%
3. Foraging – 20,7%

The other 11,3% are haters who either don’t like gathering or whatever else. Based on this we can assume most players are picking up mining and butchering, and by a significant percentage.

On the other hand, and from the same guide, we know the popularity of crafting professions as well:

1. Apothecary – 20,6%
2. Outfitting – 17%
3. Weaponsmithing – 15,6%
4. Armorsmithing – 15,6%
5. Runecrafting – 13,5%
6. Artificing – 12,1%

Mining gives materials mostly for weaponsmiths and armorsmiths which in theory gives you access to the biggest pool of players looking for them: 31%. It’s also a bit useful for runecrafters, thus increasing this number to almost 45% of the player base.

Butchering is used to provide materials for outfitters, and a small bit for armorsmiths and apothecaries, thus having the demand of roughly 55% of the player base.

Lastly foraging gives materials for apothecaries, artificers and even weaponsmiths. Those three crafting professions combined roughly equal to 46% of players.

From these statistics we can conclude the following: while butchering is seemingly profitable it doesn’t have enough players with the appropriate crafting skills: most of the demand is from outfitters and far less from armorsmiths and apothecaries. A lot of players are also taking butchering because it’s easy to gather materials since you’re killing beasts most of the time, but that also reflects the prices on leather and hides.

On the other hand there is a rather high demand for ore. Both weaponsmithing and armorsmithing are popular professions and require a lot of ore for crafting. While low-level ore is relatively easy to come by and the prices are cheap, high-level ore like Platinum or Orichalcum sells for quite a lot. It’s also popular to take both armorsmithing and weaponsmithing as a warrior so having mining is a must, otherwise you’ll be spending a ton of money buying overpriced ore from other players.

Foraging is clearly the least favorite gathering profession but also possible one with the most potential for making platinum. Apothecary is the most popular crafting profession, and if you look at the numbers closely you’ll notice there’s almost the same number of apothecaries and foragers. Potions and elixirs are always wanted commodities and if you can craft high-level ones you’re bound to make plenty of money. A lot of higher level players are also dropping gathering professions and focusing on crafting only so there will in fact always be a demand for herbs. Additionally, you can sell wood to artificers and weaponsmiths.

When picking gathering professions you should 100% first figure out which crafting profession you’ll take along with it. These are some basic recommendations:

• Warriors: Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing
• Clerics: Armorsmithing, Artificing, Apothecary
• Mages: Outfitting, Artificing, Apothecary
• Rogues: Outfitting, Weaponsmithing

Your first gathering profession should thus definitely be picked according to your preferred crafting profession.

Basically all of the three gathering professions are profitable, even though I’d rank them like this:

1. Mining
2. Foraging
3. Butchering

You should not actually look at this ranking but rather think about which crafting professions you’ll be picking later on, because most of these platinum-making profitability factors will be irrelevant if you end up buying materials from other players.

My recommendation: pick all three gathering professions and make the most of it. Take a look at roughly how many raw materials you’ll need in order to level up gathering professions and save it in your bank for later on, and sell the rest. By the time you hit level 50 and decide on crafting professions you’ll have a ton of materials to level up any crafting profession you like, and more than enough platinum to purchase any additional mats you might need.

But hey, that’s just my opinion. If you have better ideas be sure to post them in the comments below!

Platinum making tip: get a banker alt!

Banker alts are nothing new. If you ever played an MMORPG before you most likely know what I’m talking about, and how much easier they can make your life.

A banker alt is basically a character you make in order to utilize additional inventory space and get easier access to the auction house. If you took all three gathering professions to make platinum it’s very likely that your characters inventory and your bank combined is simply not enough for all the materials you gather. In that case your options are to either get rid of those mats on the auction or create another character to hold it for you.

The latter is a preferable option, because you should never feel forced to sell items. You’ll often sell them underpriced in that case and waste even more platinum. Fortunately creating a banker alt doesn’t require a lot of work. Basically you make another character and get him to your faction’s capital city. Park him near a bank or a mailbox for convenience sake. You can then easily use his inventory to store items, as well as quickly relog from one character to another if you wish to sell some of the items on the auction house: it saves a lot of time since you won’t have to travel with your main character.

Just as with your main character, you should buy additional bags on your banker alt as well. They don’t have to have 16 slots immediately, but having additional space is always beneficial. Consider how much space you need and buy bags accordingly. You can even start with several 4-slot bags you get from quests or just buy them off the AH. They will pay off quickly.

Make sure you utilize the mailbox as well. It can be used as temporary storage if you need it. Also, if you run out of inventory room on your banker alt you can always make another. It might get a bit difficult to keep track of all items across several different characters, but if you keep for example ore on one character and herbs on another you’ll get used to it soon.

Auction house flipping basics

Flipping items on the auction house basically means buying them for low prices and reselling for higher in order to make a profit. It’s not an exact science and it’s hard to say what works and what doesn’t. Basically it requires good knowledge of the market and your server’s economy, as the prices can often vary from shard to shard.

Lots of players try to do this but frequently fail. Many are lazy to do the proper research and end up wasting more platinum than they earn, or earn so little it’s not even worth the effort. A few years ago, back in my WoW days I used to make literally thousands of gold weekly just by spending 10-15 minutes per day browsing the auction house. It’s not overly complicated and you don’t have to have a degree in economy in order to turn a profit, but some basics are necessary to know before you get started.

1. Start slowly

Don’t expect you can just visit the AH, buy a random item and sell it for a fortune. In most cases that will turn out badly and you’ll end up desperately trying to sell the item in order to get your investment back. Which brings me to…

2. Be patient

Patience is the key. You also shouldn’t expect to sell an item 5 minutes after you purchase it. The prices often fluctuate a great deal, and what may be cheap one day may be expensive another, even a week after. It also depends on the supply as well: if there are 10 identical rare Daggers listed all the time it’s unlikely you’ll be able to (re)sell it for a substantial amount.

3. Sell what you know

Don’t try to flip rare items (blue or purple) if you don’t know the prices. And I don’t mean the current prices, but rather how they fluctuate through a week or even month. Stick to selling items you are confident you know prices on, for example if you have all gathering professions and always sell raw materials then. If you have armorsmithing you most likely know the prices for crafted items so start there, and later on when you memorize the prices of related items you’ll know for how much to buy or sell.

Those are the three key things you should known about auction house flipping. It’s not hard, but can sometimes be time consuming. If you’re serious about flipping then make sure you log in and browse the auction house for at least 10 minutes a day: you’ll quickly get the hang of it and within a week or two you’ll know which items sell easily and for how much. If you use a banker alt you don’t even have to bother traveling to the capital city.

Making platinum with Weaponsmithing

Currently one of the most profitable crafting professions can be weaponsmithing. The reasons are actually quite simple: there’s a lack of decent weapon rewards from quests.

This is especially true for warriors and rogues which are highly dependent on quality weapons and they do increase their DPS by a decent amount. It’s important to upgrade them frequently for these callings so you should definitely do your best to monetize it as much as possible.

Selling on the auction house however might not be as profitable as advertising your crafted items in chat channels, so take that into consideration as well.

Making platinum with Runebreaking

From my experiences so far runecrafting is extremely profitable. A bunch of players are just now leveling up so there isn’t much demand for enchanting items yet, but it soon surely will be. As soon as more players hit level 50 and start doing instances and raids, thus getting better gear, they will start investing a lot of money in order to put quality enchantments on them.

But this post won’t really talk about making platinum with runecrafting, but rather runebreaking. Runebreaking is a skill you get when you learn runecrafting which enables you to destroy green or better quality gear and get shards, essences and other items required for runecrafting. All the time the quest items I receive and don’t need, or the gear I replace I runebreak to gain materials needed to level up the profession. As such leveling runecrafting can be expensive since you don’t sell those items to vendors, but I’m sure it’ll all pay off many times once I hit the cap.

Anyway, the materials you get from runebreaking your items are quite often worth twice as much if you sell them on the auction house. At lower levels you’ll typically sell green items for 1-2g, and these raw materials can be sold for 3-4g easily. I expect the prices to increase as well as soon as more players start hitting level 50 and leveling their professions, of which runecrafting will surely be popular as well.

Another way you can earn plenty of gold also is by buying green items on the AH and then runebreaking them. Sometimes you’ll find green items sold for such cheap prices that vendors will actually give you more money than it costs you to buy it from the auction house — there’s always players who don’t check the actual price of the item. Auction house flipping suddenly gets a lot more profitable for runecrafters! Lots of players don’t know what to do with crafted items as well and will gladly get rid of them for no profit at all: be sure to check the chat channels from time to time as well for good offers.

In most cases runebreaking an item can yield a decent profit and takes very little work.

Have you found an item you can consistenly runebreak in order to make a profit? Did you find runebreaking to be as profitable as I did, or do you consider runecrafting as a profession just a drain on your income? Answer these questions and tell us what you think in the comments below!