Taliv,
Nah... I haven't spent a nickle of real money on the game.
I got lucky on a few drops and loot pick-ups. I have a good loot path that gets me right up to Death Row. I die a lot though.
However, each loot run nets me about $2,000 even with me scraping most of what I get for the cheap, fast cash.
I bought my saber for $5000 and I sold my Mastercraft Flak Jacket for about $4000 to buy the next Mastercraft Armor for about $14,000
I think I have around $28,000 in the bank right now.
The key to money it to get off the first 2 screens. I go North until I can't go North any more and then start heading East.
The key is to not kill any more than you have to on a loot run. If you start killing you get massive aggro. I only worry about killing when I have to, or when I am on a experience run.
What I would do is start making runs as soon as I could into those screens off the newbie screens. Start looting every body and object you can. If you die at low levels it is no big deal. Later, it bites.
I started moving out when I got to level 3. What you want to do is get rid of that pen knife as soon as possible. I swapped it out in this order:
pen knife
MC chef knife that I looted
MC Baseball bat that I looted
MC Nail Bat that I looted
Trench Knife that I bought for $1,000 (LOVE the Trench knife)
Machete that I bought for $2000 (Over-rated compared to Trench knife)
Saber that I bought for $5,000
My secondary weapons are a Mastercraft Combat Knife and a Mastercraft Nail Bat. I have them for the stats that they give.
That's what happens when you used to be an Everquest powergaming junkie.
-- John