Farming Certs - Tips?

Medic or engineer, medic with upgraded heal tool and pick up triage and don't hesitate to get C4 too since you'll sometimes end up facing enemy vehicles. As for engineer, don't bother with the mana turret upgrades.

from which movie is the gif?

You gotta remember that people are only gonna have fun when they're competing (fairly). You can't compete with someone who outguns you.


Sidenote: almost nothing I've said in this thread really applies to my game play directly (although there's definite indirect results). I don't have a problem getting certs. I have spent money on station cash. I have many 1000 cert cost unlocks. I don't have a problem killing or getting certs. I enjoy the game most when i'm playing with friends..etc. However, the op still brought up a valid point that the devs need to address eventually if they want the game to remain(?) successful. If I didn't make it clear to you, see Mcfatal's post (#17).

Please note that I am, like most of you, a player who doesn't spend money on the game. I might when they fix all the stuff that is wrong with it, but that is beside the point.

So pick a class and deck it out. OR spread the wealth. Are you seriously telling me you can't have fun shooting stuff and be competitive without the weapon improvements?
Remember, most of the people you fight won't have spent money either.

1) This is only true for stock aircraft. If you want to deck those out you will have to save up for a bit. Tanks are completely fine with their default equipment. And most people use them as such.

2) You can make a bomber lib for 1000 certs. You can make a A2A ESP for 600 certs and an A2G one for 1050+ certs. That's not too bad.
The Skyguard Lightnight is of such marginal use that you should really get over it.

I started playing a few days before the double exp event. Now I've a total of about 2600 certs. I spent 1000 of those on the pods, 600 on various basic certs for each class and for my Reaver/Vanguard. And my final 1000 are still unspent, I'm trying to figure out what to do with them.
I think I'm averaging about a 1000 certs a week, with the double exp period compensating for my newbie period where as was truly messing up everything.

I have never spent money on the game. I have never done something just to gain certs. I have never felt that there was a grind. I have never felt that I was lacking content while waiting for the certs to unlock more.
Maybe you lot are just too fixated on what you can't have.

And again: when the average TTK on a weapon is 0.5 seconds I'd argue that reflexes are about a thousand times more important for infantry fights than what upgrades or weapon you have.

It's an acceptable point of view for any free to play game with a cash shop and/or freemium business model. The content you are locked out from is very limited. And if you spend you certs wisely you can unlock it in no time.

You haven't seen utterly unattractive. Trust me, this game is very generous in terms of what you can and cannot get as a free player.

It's from the Music video for Do the evolution by Pearl Jam.

i have alpha squad bonus and a subscription bonus
im in the air 90% of the time in my AA esf , so im not rocket pod farming , just so that's clear.
i play on average 3 - 4 hours a night after i put my kiddo to bed.

that being said i make more certs a night then you did in 10 hours.

while i wont give away all my tactics to cert who reing , support !
support makes me @ 50% of my certs. then base captures , then kills n destroyed vehicles.
want certs ? put the gun down , forget your k/d , support your zerg.
the above formula has gotten me to level 54 so far.

you can thank me later

pretty much this!!!!
too many people don´t support and still care about their k/d and are complaining about low cert-gain.
they should start to realize that planetside isn´t cod or something similiar...... k/d doesn´t matter in ps2, its all about Points (XP) and XP = Cert.
I don´t give a **** about my k/d and got easily up to rank 40 and earned around 7000 Certs allready. Each time most of our infantry camp outside and try to get a shot, i run inside and kill a bunch of guys, make some assist, support my faction and die..... after respawn i do exactly the same...... i can promise you, you make 10 times more xp/cert than camping outside with your rocketlauncher, sniper or tank. You don´t even have to kill someone, simply shooting at an enemy, healing allies, give allies ammo, repair MAX, etc is enough to gain a lot of xp/cert.

Exactly this. Forget your stupid KDR, this isn't CoD. So many more opportunities for certs by playing support.

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Biolabs, techplants and of course the Crown. (10,000 an hr typically as HA/LA/medic no boosts) Our team medic during double exp with 100% boosts was getting over 50,000exp an hour, revive grenade, LA noob tube when it works/c4ing groups.
Hell engineer rakes it in too, my son in biolab just dropping ammo packs while watching football with occassional repair of a max in the spawn room raked in 6k exp an hour. Now imagine that in a real fight with vehicles and multiple maxes and infantry

Don't worry about K/D and you will roll them in
or do support (not as much fun but great way at lvl 1-10 to get certs for that first scope etc.).

Or spawn camp with a Lib assuming your team is steamrolling the continent otherwise it can be slow.

I see where you're coming from, and I know of many F2P games that are much more harsh, in fact the concept behind the Business model for PS2 is the perfect balance between having paid items and free players with access to content.

Now we could talk about how, compared to other F2P games, PS2 is very generous in terms of what it gives to the free players. However, at some point we have to ask, are the free players having fun? Are they enjoying the rate at which they receive content for their actions in the game?

Now, I personally have invested money into this game, not a membership but still a paying customer. Now, the game is great, and when they improve on mechanics it will be even better. But, I'm not satisfied at the rate that I get content outside of when I'm using boosts. It's a grind, and grinds aren't fun. For people who play very often for 4-5 hours at a time every day, they will have more content sure. But Joe Casual isn't exactly great at the game, and there's way more Joe Casuals. Joe Casual also doesn't play very often, so Joe Casual is not going to enjoy the very slow rate at which he gets content. Especially when Joe Casual gets spawnkilled by the content that paid customers or hardcore gamers have obtained. Joe Casual will realize that it pays to pay money into this game or large portions of time.

Don't get me wrong, I will defend this game to the end of time against people who say this is pay to win, because it isn't pay to win. But for casuals, that will be their impression regardless of how articulate our arguments may be, and they will simply leave out of frustration.

Agreed, and there are definately stuff in the game that is better than the standard equipment available (effectively outgunning you).
But when considering pure infantry fights, the "inbalance" isn't too bad as far as I have seen. I'm not very good at all but I can still get some points to upgrade some basics on my chosen guns. Now I wouldn't currently have any additional guns unless I had bought som SC, so in regards to choices - The game is pretty crap to not paying, "casual" gamers. They won't have the same amount of choices for their weapons and maybe that's enough to make them drop out of the game?

I do however believe that it is good that stuff takes time to unlock, I think I prefer the current model over one that would make me unlock everything after one week of play.

Of course, if the problem here is the choice of weapons, then maybe it would be better if weapons were cheap to cert into, but upgrades for weapons were a bit harder to get. That way people would have lots of choices, but need to focus their resources once they've found the weapon they want...

I would still like for there to be more focus on playing the game as opposed to unlocking more guns and stuff though. But that's the way of gaming right now, even more so for F2P gaming. It's all more or less focused on rewards, unlocking, advancing and leveling up. Sometimes (often?) to such an extent that playing is just a means to reach the actual point of the game - Unlock everything!
This is a mindset more than a game feature, but F2P games do make it very, very easy to fall into that mindset. That's how they make money after all...


Take the Liberator bombers for example, they aren't having an awful lot of fun, but they're bombing in ridiculous amounts of XP, it makes me wonder how many of these players actually sit there for the sole reason of unlocking that sniper rifle. Not enjoying it, not caring what happens to the territories, he just wants those XP!
Of course, bombing people could be fun just for the sake of bombing people, so I guess that would be enough


I'm not accusing anyone of thinking like this here. I'm just sharing some thoughts Everyone is free to play however they like.

I think a whole lot of people have already said what I'm saying so I guess this side of the argument is covered.

you know there's and easy way to make certs. all you need to do is be an engineer, have a friend that's and engineer and shot the wall all day and grab reloads from or friend and you'll be supplying both you and your friend with certs! Note: It mite take a wile.

I mostly play as an Engineer driving around in an -AMS/Vehicle resupply- upgraded Sundy. I got both default guns on it with base optics and ammo pack upgrades.

I hang out in heated fights and deploy copious amounts of troops as well as resupplying vehicles.

I occasionally wander out to repair folks and lay down ammo packs for the guys who are gunning enemies down.

If I'm driving a Sundy, my sole purpose is to keep it running and deploy it as often as possible even if it means deploying for 20 seconds while I repair it. I move often and I'm not scared to close the shop when the combat gets too close.

My lives last long and the XP just keeps going up as we take zones. It isn't rare that I die after 20 minutes of play with 40+ certs solely because I'm a combat support hero.

I have heard being a medic is a great way to get certs fast but it doesn't interest me so I have never really tried. If you want to try that you should cert up your medical tool and use it to cert farm. Try a lot of biolab fights.

Step 1: Get Liberator with Zephyr and Bulldog
Step 2: Go to the Octagon when the enemy is being spawn camped at the walls out side spawn
Step 3: Rain bombs
Step 4: $$$$$

Hmmm well I think you're better off just having fun and not worrying about certs, which you seem to be leaning towards anyways.

That said, that seems like an abysmally low amount of cert income. If I'm having a decent time I'll expect about 60-100 certs an hour, without any boosts or membership .etc Sometimes more than 100, very rarely less than 60. Mostly infantry work.

From the sounds of it, you're following the zerg, which is both uneventful and unprofitable. You should be seeking out battles where ideally the enemy has a slight pop advantage, though if your command of the battlefield isn't up to snuff yet you might want battles that are more even.

Though even in a zerg you can find a source of easy xp through ammo resupply and repairs. While a zerg may not accomplish anything tactically or strategically, they do tend to use alot of ammo and get hurt, so there's a profit to be made if you aren't bothered by contributing to the sillyness. Zergs will also tend to blow up all the base turrets out of boredom, so once the battle is over there's many certs worth of repairs to be had there.

If you're more of a driver you'll have to be alot more proactive and strategic with your movements, you'll need to get a feel for where the battles are going to be and what kind of forces you can expect at each stage of the battle, you'll need to know where it's safe to travel and how to get there, and how to be effective once you get there.... it's a bit more complicated and involves more downtime as you travel between locations, but once you get the hang of it the cert rate at any battle will usually be vastly superior, though you then find yourself in a position where winning the battle is no longer advantageous.

Edit: And I think the whole medic argument is largely fallacious, unless you're lobbing rez nades into an absolute massacre, and the people getting massacred are all complete idiots who will actually accept rez.. The medic of course does have assault rifles and excellent survivability due to heals though.

Res grenades + bandolier is way more efficent than just using the medic tool. I usually earn about 30-40k xp/h easy just by healing at a stalemate biolab fight

I didnt even spend a cent on the game(shameful) but i never found certs to be that difficult to get.

My best advice find a loadout/playstyle you like with existing guns/abilities you have.Play until auraxium medal and dont spend a single cert.Make at least 4000 certs and start getting things,and always have 1000 certs spare for new things that you might want.

If you have fun and dont care about certs k/d all are going much better than when you do.Just enjoy the game and get things slowly not only the game will last longer for you but also will play for free!

Playing the game without 100% boost is a waste of time in my opinion, becuase you earn CERTS extremely slow.

With 100% boost you can easily get 100 CERT per hour with normal gameplay if you stay in populated areas. When you do cheap kill farming (i.e. camp a tower with HE tank) you can get 200-400 CERT per hour.


Also, redeploy is your best friend when you want easy XP. Look at the map, if a base is close to being captured, redeploy there, get the cap XP, then return to your fight. The whole process takes about 30s if you time it right. With boost, factilities give 500, 1000 or 2000XP - easy earned CERTS.