The Fourth Calamity: Starting with Dungeon Slimes

Chapter 132 New Players Arrive!

The players, who had just completed their evolution, saw Aria and Lilith as soon as they arrived in the commercial district.

"What are these two doing here?"

"I don't know."

"And why are they staring at us?"

"Who cares what we do next? What's our next move?" a new player who had just entered the game asked.

Seeing this, the veteran player next to him thought for a moment.

"Haven't we explored the 59th floor almost completely? Now we're ready to head to the 58th floor."

"We were originally planning to go a long time ago, but the official website update delayed it. Now it seems someone is organizing an exploration trip."

Upon hearing this, the new player nodded.

"I think I get it. So, boss, we'll follow you guys from now on."

"That's definitely not a problem, but aren't you guys going to prepare any equipment or anything? It'll be awkward if you can't beat the monsters you encounter."

"The equipment was ordered from those amateur welding masters, right?"

Upon hearing the new player's question, the veteran player nodded and began to explain things to him.

"Currently, only Sky Dome and Welder are working on the equipment."

"As for which one to choose in the end, that's up to you. Personally, I would recommend Sky Dome."

"As for equipment, the mainstream equipment at present is the long-range mortar. Its advantages are high damage, low price and long range. Its disadvantage is that it can only be used for fixed target shooting, which is not flexible and requires a good output position."

"I recommend that everyone prepare one of these, and buy another one or two hundred rounds as a reserve, as they will always come in handy. Especially since our enemies are not low-level and are very strong, this kind of long-range firepower suppression is the most cost-effective."

As he spoke, the player thought for a moment.

"Besides that, I would recommend the Gatling gun, which is a portable type, the kind you wear on your body. It's the kind that Sky Dome and the others made. This thing has a lot of firepower, but the ammunition consumption is terrifying."

"Well, in terms of sheer firepower, it's not as good as a mortar, but within a certain range, this thing is more effective. Most importantly, it's relatively more maneuverable."

"Of course, besides these equipment, there are also some niche equipment, such as the portable main cannon that Feng Xiaoxiao and the others are carrying."

"However, this type of equipment is best used in conjunction with support equipment. You've seen the support equipment that Feng Xiaoxiao and the others researched on the forums. The main issue is that we're not sure if the official stance is that it can be used legally. We're afraid of being banned for using scripts, so not many people dare to use it right now."

"If you're not afraid, you can consider it."

Upon hearing this, the new player nodded thoughtfully, but then he quickly realized something else.

"By the way, bro, I saw on the forum a couple of days ago that people were talking about armor, but I didn't hear you mention it?"

""

Upon hearing the new player's question, the veteran player shook his head, somewhat helplessly.

"Just listen to what they say about armor; it's arguably the least cost-effective thing you can buy."

"Our current mainstream combat strategy is to maintain distance, provide long-range fire coverage, and rely on saturation attacks to eliminate the enemy as quickly as possible before they can reach us."

"We rarely use melee combat. Firstly, our racial skills are not really suited for melee combat. Secondly, while the skill books we currently possess do contain some offensive magic, they are not very useful."

"It's the same as before. Due to racial reasons, the power of these offensive spells is not as good as expected. At least it is much weaker than mortars."

"It can only be described as a last resort after the enemy gets close. However, if the enemy dares to close the distance and fight us, we will have an advantage in this area because of the abyss magic."

"We just need to hold off a portion of the enemies, while the rest of our teammates keep their distance and keep bombarding this side. This life-for-life approach is the most cost-effective."

After listening to the veteran player's explanation, the new player nodded thoughtfully.

The new players also took the tactics mentioned by the veteran players to heart.

Although he is a new player in this game, unlike many other new players who have just entered the game, he is not considered a top player in other games, but at least he is a mainstay.

He understood a principle very well: when playing any game, it's best to follow the playstyles developed by predecessors. This way, you can level up quickly, spend less money on equipment, and achieve the highest cost-effectiveness.

Indeed, there are many different playstyles in a game, and each playstyle can show its own characteristics. However, the reason why a particular playstyle becomes mainstream is because countless predecessors have tried and failed before finally discovering that this playstyle has the highest cost-effectiveness, so everyone chooses this playstyle.

The tactics mentioned by the veteran player are clearly the most cost-effective strategies they've developed after countless battles, heavy losses, and significant sacrifices. Before his understanding of the game surpasses that of these veteran players, he won't bother researching his own playstyle. He'll focus on leveling up, acquiring equipment, and other things before considering anything else.

"Boss, I roughly understand the situation. Wait a moment, I'll go buy a set right away."

As he spoke, the player hurriedly headed towards Sky Dome and Amateur Welder's factory.

As soon as he arrived, he saw that the place was already surrounded by people.

Meanwhile, the amateur welder is drinking heartily.

"Brothers, come and take a look. This is our latest mortar 2.0."

"Compared to the previous generation of mortars, we have upgraded the raw materials for this generation of mortars."

"We've significantly increased the mortar's lifespan, and most importantly, we've changed the way the magic circle is drawn, increasing its firing range by 30% and its accuracy by at least 50%."

"Of course, if you think that's all, then you're sorely mistaken. This version of the mortar, combined with the new version of ammunition, is 40% more powerful than the original."

"This is the result of all our colleagues working overtime and staying up late over this period of time."

"With this version of the mortar, we believe your strength will be greatly improved. Of course, although we have made so many optimizations to this version of the mortar, you can rest assured about the price."

"The mortar costs 10 gold coins, and the ammunition costs 20 silver coins."

"While the price of mortars has doubled, we are keeping the original price of ammunition."

"This is the greatest feedback we can give back."

"The quantity is limited, first come, first served. Those who already have some can also buy more to keep on hand."

"6

As the amateur welder finished speaking, upon hearing that the new version of the mortar was so different from the old version, many players couldn't resist and chose to buy it.

New players who don't have weapons will naturally buy them.

As for the gold coins, they weren't worried at all, since they had all bought in-game currency as soon as they entered the game.

Having spent so much time on the forums, I'm naturally aware of the current situation in the game.

No matter how bad your character is when you enter the game, you need to equip yourself with a set of weapons, otherwise it will be very difficult to survive in the early stages.

Although sometimes players will participate in group battles, it feels a bit like everyone sharing the same pot.

This "eating from the same pot" model naturally benefits everyone, but most of the time it's done in small teams.

Players can freely form teams, which leads to a situation where your team members will definitely prefer high-output players rather than those who just want to coast.

After all, if you're not paying to be the boss, who would take in a freeloader in the team? And even if you're paying to be the boss, is it that hard to equip yourself with a set of gear?

Obviously, this is not difficult at all.

Therefore, everyone has a weapon, which has become a consensus. New players typically carry 10 to 20 rounds.

We have a few mortar shells; we'll buy more when we run out.

Including the mortar itself, the total initial investment is around 15 gold coins.

Because everyone is currently acquiring a relatively high amount of in-game currency, its price has dropped to some extent. Compared to when the server first opened, when one gold coin cost five RMB, it has now fallen to three RMB.

In other words, an initial investment of about 45 RMB is enough to make you live very comfortably.

It's just the cost of a meal or a pack of cigarettes. If someone is frugal, it might be two packs of cigarettes or two meals.

Players who can access the closed beta at this price point are naturally happy to accept it.

Furthermore, there are quite a few posts on the forum about planning after entering the game.

For example, the beginner's tutorial posted by "Attack of Salty Fish" has received the most attention.

The overall idea of ​​this tutorial is very simple: get a set of equipment in the early stage, then go with a team to explore dungeons. Basically, you can earn a hundred or two hundred gold coins after each run.

Moreover, we are currently in the pioneering stage of exploring dungeons, and the resources inside are still abundant. Going in and coming out is never a bad deal.

So the most crucial thing at this stage is how to join a team. Not every team will accept you, so if you want to join a team, your initial setup absolutely cannot be low.

And so, while recalling the posts made by Xianyu, the new player began to think about how much equipment he should buy.

There are quite a few players in the same situation as him here.

Seeing the business so booming, both the astronauts and the amateur welders were extremely excited.

"Welder, that's great! At this rate, if nothing unexpected happens, we'll be able to collect enough gold coins to build the mechs in no time."

Looking at the amateur welder bustling around, Tianqiong leaned over and said.

The research and development cost of 5 gold coins is still a significant burden for the two of them. Even if it is split between them, each of them would still have to bear 25000 gold coins.

If it weren't for the fact that the two of them had been running a factory for some time and were currently the only two weapons manufacturing suppliers, they really wouldn't have been able to come up with so much money.

Hearing what Tianqiong said, the amateur welder was very proud.

His booming business today was exactly what he had expected.

"Every time a new race is evolved with an update, everyone's level will be reset to level one, which means that new players and old players are now barely on the same starting line."

"The only difference is that veteran players may have learned some other skills before, giving them a skill advantage; secondly, they have equipment, giving them an equipment advantage; and thirdly, they have some savings, giving them a savings advantage."

The amateur welder paused as he spoke.

"But in reality, these advantages are easily negated. The difference in attributes between the old and new equipment is simply too great."

"In this game, DPS efficiency is very important when killing monsters. If veteran players don't upgrade their equipment while new players do, then in battle, your DPS might be lower than that of the new players."

"That's why the Mortar 2.0, which was developed earlier, hasn't been released yet, just to wait until new players enter the game."

"Firstly, if new players buy it, veteran players, unwilling to give up their advantages, will definitely follow suit and buy it as well."

"As for the second point, it's even simpler: only when we set the price at this point will those veteran players stop complaining."

"If I set the price at 10 gold coins now, and no new players were entering the game, those guys might really boycott it. But now that new players are entering the game, if I set the price at 10 gold coins and they buy it, and they don't, then it would be awkward if their damage output was lower than the new players'. So they'll have to buy it even if they have to grit their teeth."

"As for the old players buying it, some hesitant new players will definitely follow suit after seeing the old players buy it."

Upon hearing the amateur welder's words, Tianqiong couldn't help but give him a thumbs up for his work.

"You still have to be the welder."

"But this is still pretty good. Now the price of a set of equipment is controlled between 15 and 20 gold coins."

"Currently, some new players are choosing to buy the cheaper older mortars, but many others are buying the new mortars."

"I've made a rough estimate, and the average spending per person is at least 10 gold coins."

"Today we earned at least five or six thousand gold coins."

As Tianqiong spoke, he seemed to have thought of something and asked another question.

"Speaking of welders, the first-generation mortars aren't actually that useful anymore. Why don't you take them off the shelves and focus on selling the second generation? If you took them all off the shelves and sold the second generation, our income today might exceed ten thousand."

According to amateur welders' estimates, not all new mortar buyers are purchasing the second generation; some are still buying the first generation.

The unit price is much lower than that of the second generation.

If we were to remove the first generation from the shelves today and force them to buy only the second generation, the price per unit would at least double.

"I did this on purpose, of course."

""

"Don't worry, if I do it this way, I'll only make more money."

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