Eh? You could've made most of that 5-10k in a day back when you had an Arc-130. Or even lower. If you invested all that FP you spent to take your arc from 130 to 180 in whatever you're looking to invest FP in now you'd be ahead. Arc 180 is not the beginning of some grand new economics. It's the same thing people have been doing since Arc 80, just bigger. And quite possibly not going to pay itself off (Arc 130->180 costs ~1.4M FP. Even if you're making 10k FP profit off threads, and ascribe *all* of that to the last 50 levels, that's 1400 days = 3.8 years - are you still going to be playing in 4 years to enjoy the "profit" from those last 50 levels?)
More to the point though, to make that 5-10k FP involves stalking 1.9 threads all day; possibly checking all the hoodies for snipes too. To make say 2k a day from collection involves logging in, collecting, and logging out. And does not preclude you from the 1.9 profits as well. *And* doesn't involve 1.4M in investment that has to be paid off before you can really have a return on your investment. And are you going to stay motivated and active at stalking those 1.9 threads for all the time it takes?
So if for instance your justification for the level 180 Arc was to make the FP to make level 202 AO for instance (for the unique crit effect, not the FP which will never ever pay itself off
), you're better off just going straight for that AO probably.
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Now there's the broader question : "why FP?" to which my only answer personally is "what else?". Yes there's boosts too to a point - but at some point you have more boost than you need for what you actually want to do too. And some people use the justification on boost past that point that it comes back to making more FP... But how many more fights are you really getting in moving from say 1500%->2500% boost? Oh yea, *and* you have to actually do the clicks for all of them too.
So ultimately small, efficient FP collections matter because they are the *laziest* way to continue progress in the game - while they might be a fraction of the more powerful methods in an ideal situation (Arc profits, GBG), it takes very little to maintain them! And will be much closer in a theoretical comparison when you work in time-off from your chosen grind.
Which isn't to say I recommend rebuilding those Art Exhibitions - they are no longer top FP producers by any stretch, but things that *are* still top-FP collections do still matter!
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On my ex-main world my answer to "what else?" became turning it into a diamond farm so I could spend them on places I still have fun!