XENONOX posted this guide on the official Firefall forums in August 2013. The original thread is preserved on the Wayback Machine, but the screenshots and the thumping videos it showed are gone, so only the text remains.

ARE YOU TIRED OF BEING ANOTHER TOOL IN THE MARKET PLACE?

Let's face it. The market's place have been selling purple at RIDICULOUS prices. From 15 per unit to ∞. But how does one even get that LARGE amount of QUANTITY of something that COST SO MUCH?

Not hard at all.

Here I will tell you how to be YOUR OWN BOSS and how you will BE RICH (or self-sufficient) so you don't have to lick bread crumbs off the table.

1. ARE THERE ANY PURPLE RESOURCES IN THE WORLD?

Answer: Rawr4Firefall Live Feed

If you see anything over 901Q, it is time to skip school or escape from work or even stop your foreplay with your partner and GET TO WORK.

Why? Because there's a time limit on how long a resource pool last and how much you can obtain before it's completely dry from the entire world of Firefall.

There are global pools of resources that are available. These pools are time limited and resource limited. [...] When a new vein is created, it pulls X amount of resources out of the pool and puts it into the vein. That vein sticks around until harvested or the global pool times out.

For this reason, purple resources, in most cases, will be gone in 1-3 days (from my experience). Act fast or get bread crumbs.

2. FINDING A VEIN

How do you find a peak of a vein? Scanhammer? Scan waves? Here you go: Advanced Resources and Thumping Information

This information is relevant in New Eden, but in the Melding Pockets, not so much.

The problem with the melding pockets is that there are usually too MANY veins overlapping each other, often reducing the main % of the vein you want (example: 933Q copper). Sometimes you just have to settle for less, which can be 40%-50% in some cases.

3. TIERS FOR PERSONAL AND SQUAD THUMPERS

It will take you 7 days for a Personal Thumper T3 (P3) and 10 days for a Squad Thumper T3 (Sq3).

Ridiculous research times? Not exactly, considering how ridiculous amount of resources it'll drain from the ground.

Aluminum 928Q - 21524
Copper 933Q - 29037

This only took about 3 hours of thumping game play, out of a 6.5 hour play session. Rough estimate, don't give me your mathematical bullcrap how the time doesn't fit the result.

Here are the amount you get with X player with X thumper. Light = 1 / Medium = 2 / Heavy = 3. (The comparison chart is lost.)

I did not double-tap. I took several breaks. I took it easy while I talk junk in the army chat but in the end I THUMP HARD when the time comes.

4. THUMP

The post showed a Squad III run with 2 players (Tigerclaw and Mammoth), a Squad III with 4 players demonstrating DOUBLE TAP (Tigerclaw/Firecat/Mammoth/Rhino) and Personal III runs with 1 player on Tigerclaw, Dragonfly, Raptor and Firecat. (None of the videos are online anymore.)

5. FRAME CHOICES

This is the part where you must decide what battleframe to equip for your thumping activities. First, before you say "Bastion," let me tell you that the frame choice for thumping is wide and open. Firecat and Tigerclaw are excellent in thumping, if not my top choices, personally. Raptor using the Accord R36 does wonders with a powerfield, and excellent with a Charge Rifle in groups. Mammoth and Rhino are asskickers. Biotechs, not too sure, barely see them in thumping in my army. Recluse are popular. Engineers, well, just Bastion.

But ultimately, you must know that some frames do excellent against certain mob types, therefore, choosing a frame for an area may very have a huge impact on your performance and the outcome of the thump. If you squad with 5, it doesn't really matter what you play. If you're down to 2 players in a Squad III, you may have to think about what you're doing before you embarass yourselves.

I don't think it is require of me to be more in-depth on this, but in the case you do need to know more, just post.

6. CONSTRAINTS & EQUIPMENT

You've got to spend money to make money.

Simple logic.

Invest in 1 frame to max constraints. Yes, Mass/Power/CPU. Don't you dare go around and upgrade 3+ frames because in that case, your spending > income. Don't whine about how poor you are when you clearly shouldn't be spending money at things you shouldn't be spending your money on.

When upgrading constraints, I'd suggest getting all constraints to at least a single blue node first, which is known as Tier 8 by many; Tier 10 being max, which is a red node. Generally, it is prefer to upgrade mass first, followed by power, and lastly CPU.

Mass > Power > CPU, respectively.

I'm not going to do the XP/CY/AMP math for you. We've got enough crap about that. However, I will tell you that the market place (T by default) has many valuable pieces of gear that can be bought cheap (reasonable price) that will get you more money than the initial price you've paid for.

• An awesome Chosen Crater IV for 4200 CY. The most I'd pay for one is at 8000 CY.
• An acceptable Chosen Fusion Cannon IV for 20,000 CY, I'd personally pay for one that's 15,000 CY, but this is a grab.
• Not into Crater? Try the Chosen Overcharge IV instead for 5,000 CY to powerup your damage output. The most I'd pay for one is at 8000 CY.
• Accord Elite Heavy MG IV for 7000 CY? Sold.
• Accord Elite Bio Needler IV for 5000 CY? Sold again.
• Chosen Biotech Plating IV for 500 CY? Sold once again. Of course, the most I'll pay for one is 8000 CY and anything below 250 mass is a buy for me.

The key to shopping on the market place is patience. You want it now? You'll most likely pay more. You don't need one immediately? You'll find great deals all the time.

Remember, no good gear? No thumping. Pay to get rich; strange isn't?

7. PLANNING (THUMPER)

BadlyBurned has several videos explaining how to thump.

Here are the main points to keep in mind when you throw your thumper.

• Location
  > How close is it to an object (rocks/tree trunks/house/debris)?
  > High or low area?
  > Do you know where the enemies typically spawn in the area?
  > Too open?
• Your frame
  > AoE or single target?
  > Burst?
  > Sustain?
  > Utility?
• Thumper size
  > Can you chew what you bit off?
  > Able to reach 100% capacity for x2 bonus?
  > How many members in your squad?
  > More for me or more for all?

Here are things to keep in mind during your battle for your thumper's safety.

• Aggro
  > What's aggro?
  > How to keep aggro?
  > What is easy to aggro and what is NOT easy to aggro?
• Priority
  > Who to kill first?
  > What's dangerous? What's not?

8. SUMMARY

It is easy to find and thump purple. In fact, you're typically good with just 2K-3K of high quality in a certain resource to craft your gear. The prices are on the market are absurd, so why take the hard route and be a TOOL and buy things that are EASY to get yourself? Currently resource > equipment in price.

You do not need to be fully decked out to thump, but certainly helps if you focused on a single frame as your income/results will be amazing. Basically, don't be a stock warrior. Grow out of it. Eat your vegetables.

Don't let it control you. Take control. Be your own BOSS.

FROM THE THREAD

What path (what to get or what to upgrade first) do you recommend for a starting tigerclaw?

Mass first, Power second, and CPU last. Make sure you reach to the first blue bar (8th upgrade) on each one before you working on maxing a constraint.

Afterburn IV and Chosen Crater IV works off each other like a charm. If you do not want to use Chosen Crater IV, swap it with Chosen Overcharge IV instead.

I personally prefer Burn Jets I to save on constraints (mass/power) and to use it to not only hover/shoot, but also to recharge my jump jets energy so I can continuously stay in the air.

Silenciaco on why double tapping works:

The vein only goes dry after you pull the thumper from the ground. So if you set a new thumper down before pulling the previous one up, you will be able to get one additional thumper worth of resources from a vein that has gone dry. When you scan next to the new thumper after pulling the old one, you will no longer see the resource, but you will still be thumping it out of the ground.

And XENONOX, a few weeks later: "Sadly enough, double tap has been adjusted. I don't know if double tap is as viable as before."