Sweating guide

Welcome to my little sweating guide.


As always, feedback is welcome.

Now, why in hell would I write a guide about something as boring and tedious as sweating?

Because Sweating is not only a way to play for free (ran out of ammo anyone?), but it also builds up Psyche and defense skills. Especially when circle-sweating, you can also socialize with other avatars and learn a lot of things from the chat.

Sweating is a very time-consumind and boring process, so think twice before rushing at the first reseller who offers next to nothing for your hard-earned sweat. You could also buy some Force Nexus and make your own Mind Essence, might be easier to sell at a decent price then. Never ever sell sweat to the trade terminal!

Basics
To sweat an animal, equip your VSE (sweat gathering tool), aim at it and use the tool, just like you would use a gun.  Animals will eventually get pissed by you robbing their essence and attack (or flee in the case of chirpys etc).
If you are successful, you will get 1-4 bottles of sweat. If you lose aim on the target, or the animal hits you, the attempt will fail. 

A synchronization chip can help with staying concentrated even when hit. An aeglic ring could be useful when sweating too for the added HP and increased regeneration. Wearing armor is debateable since you will get hit a lot and the decay usually is not worth it.

Each mob carries the same amount of sweat as it has Hitpoints. To find out hitpoints, scan it then multiply its stamina by 10.

Once the mob is drained of all the sweat it had, it is called "dry". It will not regenerate the sweat, but stay dry.

Sweating skill does not matter at all how much sweat over time you will get. Defense skills matter much more. Maximum amount per hour in a circle, maybe with full sync, is considered by many to be around 500 bottles per hour.

Solo sweating
Beginner: pick low-level mob that does not hurt much, like one of those sabakuma hatchlings in Half Moon Cove. When it aggros you, run over to the nearby turret to get it killed. A Puny in Camp Icarus does the same trick, and sometimes there is even a healer at the revival there so you can sweat and get killed, which saves some running.

More advanced player: You can try "swunting", i.e. a combination of sweating and hunting. Heal before getting killed (if not close to a revival with healer), and when the mob is dry, kill and loot it. The sweat might turn a slight loss into a profit.

If you like to sweat solo and happen to be on Rocktropia, try sweating Haters. They have 300 HP and only hit for like 2 dmg.

Team sweating
In order to speed up the sweat gathering process, people have developed some tactics. The first is of course forming a team with friends, maybe even somebody you know wants to skill healing anyway. Spread out so the mob has to ping-pong between team members and run a bit before being able to attack.

Doing this with a larger number of avatars has eventually developed into circle sweating, meaning the people sweating the mob are standing around it in a circle.
Popular spots where this is done almost 24/7 are Boreas (Kerberos) and OLA42N (Ambulimax). From time to time there are also circles at Nea's and Royal Club (both Ambus too). With enough people, you can always start your own circle in the middle of nowhere, of course. 
Note: OLA42N hosts a daily sweating event ("SSI") where you will get 1h of free heals and have a chance to sell 1k sweat for a nice price.
Mon-Fri 21h MA time, Sat-Sun 15.

There is a sister event on Next Island and Arkadia too.


Having a lot of sweaters pulling at it confuses the mob and it will spread its attacks over multiple avatars instead of just one, resulting in less deaths and more sweat per time, if all know and act according to the following rules:

• Circle diameter should be +- the mob size. Thus a circle for an ambu should be as big as the ambu is long, much bigger than a Kerberos circle.
  
• When joining a circle, wait for all avas to have finished loading (can take some time), and then pick a free slot in the circle. Do not just run up and park your butt in the face of somebody.
  
• Do not sweat from inside or outside the circle ("near" or "far" sweating), join in! (That is the purpose behind forming a circle, after all) Else the mob might eventually hop out of the circle, causing a big mess for everybody and also less sweat for you. If you do not understand that, go sweat solo.
  
• The same can happen if you run up to a circle with your VSE on auto-use.
  
• Try to be active when sweating. If you have to go afk, stop sweating, step back slowly to make sure you don't have mob aggro on you, then find a safe spot nearby (turret). Circle position might change with next mob, and a field full of afk'ers makes it harder for all.
  
• Do not run when attacked. Also make sure when you have to run off, that the mob is not on you. Else you will pull it out of the circle, too.
  
• Announce that mob is dry in local chat. If there is more than one circle, announce which circle mob is dry too (during SSI event usually like "heli dry" or "s dry" for circle at sleipnir, e.g.)
  
• Sometimes, especially with Ambus, people will kill the dry ones while a puller runs off to fetch a fresh mob. If you are on the side of the circle the puller will probably come in with the new mob, step aside and open a wide enough gap in the circle that the puller can fit through with the new mob.
  
• Do not start to sweat every mob you see. One mob per circle is enough, also one puller per circle.
  
• If there is no killer around, and the mob aggros you when it becomes dry, run it to the nearby gun turret to get it killed for free. You can also tag them with a few cheap shots from a crap gun to get their aggro if nothing else helps.
  

Showing some patience instead of being overly greedy or even using some kind of illegal 3rd party bullshit will prevent you from a lot of shitstorms.

If you behave like an idiot in sweat circles, it might be a reason for dismissal from our society.

Running a circle
Sooner or later you might end up in the role of healer or killer yourself. Some tips to keep a proper circle:

• Drop a vehicle, preferrably a 4x4 or Pitbull, beween the circle and far sweaters
  
• Kill or tag and turret near spawners. Tagging gets harder if they already aggro some sweater, so be fast if you can't / won't kill.
  
• Move circle position from time to time when the old one is a mess or too many afk'ing. Make sure to move next circle to a position far away enough that the lazy greedy busters from old circle cannot just turn around and continue sweating from far.
  
• Tag the mob when dry and run off into the wild with it, followed by a train of afk auto-toolers. When off far enough, jump into an aircraft and fly back, leaving the suckers behind
  
• Tag a fresh mob and pull it to a new position far enough away, then announce something like "Active sweaters @ /p" in local
  
• Do not heal far and near sweaters and people obviously afk
  
• When healing, can be useful to drag the health bars of each sweater on screen so you can see hits more easily without having to run around.
  

When changing circle positions, it can be worthwhile to not kill the old mob so it can feast on the afk'ers. Risk is that some noob who has aggro on him runs the mobbie over to the new circle instead of the turret.
Also keep wandering directions inside the spawn in mind.