How To Make The Best Money In Swtor
Some of the best money I have found in Swtor is made by simply just raising some Crew Skills. Since the game is still very new almost all of the profession materials are still in very high demand. On my server there are almost NO Grade 6 materials ever on the Auction House and all Grade 5 materials sell so fast from everyone raising their Crew Skill it is insane. This guide is so good because depending on how many Companions you have, within an hour you will be able to start seeing profit.
Of course this guide is best for players being able to send all 5 of their Companions out at once, but you don't actually need that for this to work. The more companions you can send out on a task the more Credits you will make by using this guide, that's all. Now I am going to break this guide down into two parts, the first part is kind of the preparation (you don't really need this part, but I am putting it here because by doing this you can increase your income). The second part is the meat of the guide and exactly what you will be doing to make money.
So, for the sake of argument, let's get started!
Prepare To Have Your Credit Socks Rocked!
First step is to drop two Crew Skills and pick up Underworld Trading and Bioanalysis. With Underworld Trading you are going to be running primarily Companion Gift Missions all the way up until you can start collecting Grade 5 and 6 Fabric/Metals. Don't bother running the Silk/Metal missions under Grade 5/6 as you won't even be able to sell them on the Auction House. Any and all Companion Gifts you get give to your Companions to increase their affection level. If you want to see what gifts your Companion likes take a look at my Companion Affection guide here.
While running Underworld Trading missions for the Companion Gifts you will want to run any Bioanalysis missions that reward you with "Bioanalysis Samples" or "Bioanalysis Compounds". Unless you plan on raising Biochem list all of the Bioanalysis materials you gather on the Auction House once their stack reaches about 20 to 30. The main reason you don't want to wait until 99 is because it's more common that people will buy stacks of 20 or 30 than 99. You can wait until 99 though if your Auction House is getting kinda full and you don't have an alt you can send your materials to.
While you're running missions for materials I recommend you don't stray very far from the Auction House. The materials you are gathering sell very quickly so it's important to keep anything new you gather up on the Auction House. Also since you can only have 50 items up at once that makes overcrowding for your inventory a very common issue. At least for the first 200 points you want to stay as close to the Auction House as possible, after that you can head out to Ilum and do your dailies or whatever it is that you do.
TIP: As I mentioned before, just run PvP Warzones while you stand in front of the Auction House to list your items after each Warzone.
As far as pricing goes I usually go with what the Auction House says since it's so damn hard to search for something... The only way I ever change the price that the Auction House gives me is if the item sells extremely quick after a few times of listing it. From leveling Underworld Trading to 320 and Bioanalysis to 320 you should have made about 50k after selling most of the items you got on the Auction House. If you're at all interested in seeing a list of items that you will be gathering from Bioanalysis and selling click here. Also, here is a list of Underworld Trading materials you will be gathering, although you'll only be selling the Grade 5 and 6 materials from that list.
This part is extremely simple since mainly you're just going to be farming missions the entire time. What you want to do is run Bioanalysis missions for Grade 5 and 6 materials until you're blue in the face. Literally. Stock up on about 250 - 300 of all the different materials as well as keeping at least 50 of them up on the Auction House at all times. The main reason you want to do this with Bioanalysis is because of the great Biochem reroll that is going on now. Almost everyone is switching to Biochem since it has tons of Reusable items available to it. If you'd like to learn more about them and what materials they require click here.
While running Bioanalysis missions sometimes sub out a Grade 5 or 6 mission for an Underworld Trading Grade 6 Metal or Silk. For those that get confused by this guide, below is an entire list of the items you're going to be farming with these two professions, it'll make things much easier to understand because it even comes with pretty pictures!
Underworld Trading
Ciridium (Blue Metal)
Mandalorian Iron (Epic Metal)
Denebrillan Star Silk (Epic Silk)
Nanosilk (Blue Silk)
Bioanalysis
Psychoactive Compound (Grade 5 Material)
Red Goo (Grade 5 Material)
Parasitic Microorganism (Grade 5 Material)
Nutrient Gel (Grade 5 Material)
Quick-Growth Agent (Grade 5 Material)
Immunity Cell Culture (Grade 6 Material)
Mutagenic Paste (Grade 6 Material)
Neurochemical Extract (Grade 6 Material)
You want to stock pile tons of these items, especially the Grade 6 materials since most players aren't at endgame yet, meaning the market for these items has not even started!! Also if you're level 50 you can run around Ilum at the same time and gather Bioanalysis materials (also if you have an additional gathering Crew Skill you can gather those materails too!) The best split that I have found to running missions is the following...
2 Companions on Underworld Trading Missions
3 Companions on Bioanalysis Missions
Usually there will always be at last 2 Underworld Trading missions available that will reward you with Metal/Silk but if not run a few for Companion Gifts to open up some Metal/Silk missions. After you've ran enough Underworld Trading missions enough to accumulate at least 100 to 150 of each of the metals/silk it is time to drop Underworld Trading for Diplomacy.
Diplomacy
Now, the main reason we're going with Diplomacy next is so you can max out your Lightside/Darkside points... If you've already maxed the one of them that you want out then completely skip over this section. Much like Underworld Trading you want to focus primarily on Companion Gifts with Diplomacy. Also you'll want to focus on either the Lightside or Darkside options, whichever one of the two you're looking to increase more. Until you reach Grade 5 and Grade 6 missions you will want to be using all of the Companion Gifts that you get on your own Companions. As aforementioned here is a guide to increasing your Companion's affection.
My Companion Affection guide details exactly what each gift each Companion likes. It's your one stop shop for all your Companion likes and dislikes! As far as collecting Medical Supplies through Diplomacy, I don't recommend (much like Underworld Trading) collecting any Medical Supplies until they're Grade 5 or Grade 6 as they're the only ones used in engame recipes. And even then I still have a lot of difficulty trying to sell the damned things!
Really the main reason I recommend going Diplomacy next is solely for Light and Darkside points. Once you've capped your Lightside and Darkside points it is time to move onto Scavenging and or Archaeology, whichever one of the two you want. Cybertech is almost as popular a choice as Synthweaving and Artifice so I have found both of these crew skills to be about equally as profitable. As with Bioanalysis and Underworld Trading I recommend raising whichever crew skill you choose to 400, collecting about 100 to 150 of each the items available to it, dropping it and grabbing something else. Since everything is still new in Swtor people are more interested in the Grade 1 - 5 items more than the Grade 6 items currently.