Need-to-Know about Chips

This skills-FAQ page, was done before the new VU, so some things have changed. I'm currently working on it, to implement the new VU stuff.
However, most facts on this page are still true and usefull. Enjoy!

This section should help you to answer all your questions about the chip&skill system of Project Entropia. It's a compendium of questions I read many times in forums or things I was unaware when I started to concern myself about the implant issue. The answers or solutions to the problems are a compound of things I found in forums (Entropia Forum, Entropia Pioneers), pe-wiki, common sense (mine and others) or just guesstimations:) I'm sure you can see the difference when you read them.
If you find any mistakes there it would be great if you inform me, so I can fix them. If you have additional questions, be free to contact me, maybe I can help you.

How much skills will I get when I insert a chip?

How full will an implant be when I transfer e.g. 1000 skills?

Which skills are good for hunting?

Which skills are good for my defence?

Chipping, isn't it like cheating?

I am a disciple, can I use a chip?

I read about 10% loss when I use an implant. How, what?

How do I unlock skills?

How much skills will I get when I insert a chip?

Well, that's not so easy to answer. It depends on how much skills you have before inserting and how much the implant is loaded. The easiest way would be to click the stats of a chip, then you can see how much skills you'll have after insertion. I have a chart where the resulting skills are approximated. Someone put a lot of hard work in it, but I copied it long ago and can't remember where from. So if someone sees his own chart here, please contact me and tell me if it's okey for you that I use it here. At least I'd like to publish your name, great work!

How full will an implant be when I transfer e.g. 1000 skills?

This was something I discovered very late, and I can't answer it for fill satisfaction (nobody but MA can).

But I give it a try to explain the difficulties behind this question and why it's impossible to answer. For this purpose I must work out the details how an Entropian-Brain works in its elemental function:). I use an image andyzammy used in etropiaforum.com.

Imagine this is your brain. A black bar means there is empty space for skills.

Now, this is the inner structure of an ESI:

Now, you are a skilled guy, with around 2000 skills. Red bars mean this space is filled:

So, now you transfer them and the ESI is filled completely with your skills and your brain's empty again:

Okey, so far that's easy. But you surely have noticed that the bars in your brain are getting narrower and narrower. That's because you need much more efforts to get the stuff into your brain, the more skills you have. It's easy to learn 10 words in a foreign language, but 10000? That's hard. So let's say you have 3000 skills. That's how your brain will look like:

When you now want to transfer as many skills as an implant will take (19 bars in this case) your brain will look like this, you still have around 2400:

Means: You don't need as many skills to fill an implant when you have 3000 skills at the beginning as you need when you only have 2000.

So, when you want to know how much skills you need to fill a full implant you can use the chart above the other way round.
But I think noone but MA can exactly tell how full an implant will be when you have 4251 skills and transfer 124 of them. (If anyone out there has the complex algorithm behind this issue I would be VERY gratefull:)

So, no matter if you understood this issue now or not, I hope you had fun:)

Which skills are good for hunting?

Well, this question isn't as easy to answer as it seems. It depends a lot on what you want to hunt with what weapon, armor and equipment. But I'll try to give you a clue.
One of the most important skills is, obviously, your primary weapon's skill. E.g. when you hunt with a katana you will need a lot of longblade skills to hit a lot and avoid decay due to misses. Opalo hunters will need rifle skills, if you use a FrienD you'll need handgun skills and so on...
Next comes the supporting skills. With these I mean things like inflict melee damge for blades or inflict ranged damage for firing weapons. The easiest way to see which skills you need for your particular weapon is to search your weopon of choice in pe-wiki. Down below you can see which skills you get by using this weapon. These are usually the ones which will help you with the ease of handling with this weapon.

Which skills are good for my defence?

This one again isn't easy to answer again:) There are some skills which are obvious to help you defending yourself against the nasty mobs of the Entropia Unverse.
Evade and avoidance for melee fighting mobs, dodge for drones and stuff.
And again there are skills which are not so obvious to strengthen your defence. Agility is useful for many abilties of your avatar, including your speed in general and also your defence attributes. Other ones are combat reflexes, combat sense, serendipity, courage, coolness, alertness and athletics. In my opinion agility and athletics are the most important ones here, but that's not a fact, it's just my feeling after I've read about this stuff in forums.

Chipping, isn't it like cheating?

Okey, this one is hard and all of it is my own opinion.
Well, I often read in forums or ingame people stating that guys who use chips don't earn their skills the honest way, so, kind of cheating. I think, well, when somene has the bucks and doesn't want to spend hours and hours hunting the small mobs why shouldn't he buy the skills and immediately slay down the big mobs? By doing this, he supports the Entropian economy in a great way (and makes my shop running:). You can either put your PEDs into your armor again and again after each hunt, or you decide to get yourself an evade implant, so the mob doesn't hit you that much.
However, I must admit that there are some few individuals out there who abuse the implant system in a way. They start playing, stuff themselves with a load of chips, buy a big gun and armor. So far it's okey for me. But these few now believe that they are better than the rest of us (I assume you're not one of these:), look down on us with arrogance and just behave like a*§$%&es.
Okey, enough:) I don't want to whine 'round here. I just want to say that everyone has to decide for himself if he wants to use implants or not (and if yes he should buy at Lazarus' Skill Shop).

I am a disciple, can I use a chip?

Nope:)

I read about 10% loss when I use an implant. How, what?

Yes, it's true somehow. It's not exactly 10% but something similar to that, it alters from time to time. You cannot say if the leakage happens by the up- or the download of the skills, but it happens. The difficulty is that there is nowhere stated something like "This implant contains 1847 longblade skills." There's just how much skills you have now and how much skills you have after the insertion of the chip. And if you used an implant filled with 1000 skills the resulting skills will be different, depending on you current skill level. (see above)
To explain the 10% loss I can say: if someone has 1900 in longblade, and he loads them to a chip and back to the brain again he'll only have about 1881 at the end.

How do I unlock skills?

Okey guys there are 35 hidden skills out there, let's unlock them! Down below I wrote down my experinces gathered ingame, in forums or pewiki, how to unlock those skills. For some I have quite much and detailed information, for some only the short sentences written in pewiki. And for some few of those I don't have any clue at all! So, If you have made any experiences going further than mine, it would be great if you write me, so I can update it.
And, If you now decide to buy some implants which support the unlocking of a skill, you know where to buy it... :)

Animal Taming

This one is quite easy to unlock: Get yourself a whip and an Exasaur. I suggest a Viper (L). Hit the mob with a low-damage weapon, like an Axe 1x0 or an unamped Opalo. When it's life is low, use the Viper and whip it. The respect (red bar) for you will increase, but be carefull, its life will go down. You can't tame a dead mob:)! Also the yellow bar will decrease, it's the Saurs spirit, its will to resist you. Now your goal is to get the life and spirit extremely low, the respect high! Now click the "Attempt Tame" button. I know many people who unlocked their Animal Taming skill in one hour. So, good luck!

Avoidance

Avoidance is kind of a continuation of the Evade skill.
As far as I'm informed one important thing to unlock it is to break over the 3k Evade line. Perhaps, though I'm not sure 4k Serndipity is a hint, too. I read it a lot of times. And some more average skills where avoidance unlocks: Evade: 2800-3000; Alertness: 1800-3800; Athletics: 2800-3500; Courage:3500-5000 Serendipity: 4000

Beauty Sense

pe-wiki: Beauty Sense is a general feeling the avatar has when dealing with procedures concerning alteration of apperance. I have no clue how to unlock it:(

Blueprint Comprehension

Also known as BPC. It's a skill for the crafters amongst us. All activities connected to crafting like Engineering, Mechanics and Manufacture Mechanical Equipment, help to unlock this skill. As all those are linked to Intelligence, too, I assume it also plays a role. Engineering probably is the most important one. Now some data where BPC seems to unlock: Engineering: 1000-1500; MME: 1200-1500; Mechanics: 800-1100.

Calypso Ground Assessment

All miners will love this skill. It increases the chance to find ores and enmatter. pe-wiki states that you need about 2,4k in Perception and 1.2k in Prospecting. I don't think that hits the truth as many people who unlocked it were far away from 2,4k Perception. As statements are quite different here I'm not sure on this, but I think the important factors are Prospecting and Surveying, which should have a sum of about 3,5k. Maybe Geology also plays a role, I guess you need about 1,5k there.

Coolness

Yeah, I like that skill:) As the name says, it states how cool you behave in dangerous situation, in combat I mean. So your hit ability increases, and I guess your defence.
It unlocks with 4.0 in HA, so you must be a specialist in your proffesional standing.

Combat Sense

It's still cooler than Coolness:)
You need 5.0 HA with a combat weapon.

Commando

And again another continuation, better than Coolness and Combat Sense.
You need a HA of 7.0.

Coloring Methodology

You get it by coloring stuff, as the name says. That's all I know I'm afraid:(

Doctor

I don't know much about this one. I guess noone has unlocked this one yet? pe-wiki states you need about 9k First Aid and 10k Anatomy. I think it's a continuation of Medicine and Treatment.

Drilling Expertise

pe-wiki: A measure of how proficient at drilling you are.
Again no more info I'm afraid:(

Equipment Methodology

pe-wiki: Measurement of your overall metal, mechanical and electronical equipment knowledge.
I have found someone who has unlocked it allready, maybe he can help me out:) Waiting for an answer...

Extraction

It's the continuation of Drilling and Mining. The higher your skills are, the faster you can extract stuff. I'm not 100% sure on this, but it doesn't affect you big deposits are.
pe-wiki says you need 2,5k in Mining and 700 in Engineering. I can't believe this:) From what I have heard and read you need about 3,8k of Mining and Drilling in total.

Fashion Design

pe-wiki: Fashion design is a measure of your ability to creatively design clothes.
I didn't find much information on that. Nisse unlocked it and said she had about 1,5k in average in Engeneering, Make Clothes and Tailoring. That's all I'm afraid...

Glamour

pe-wiki: Glamor is a measure of your sense of beauty and manners.
I don't have a hint when it unlocks...

Industrialist

pe-wiki: A composite skill level reflecting your overall knowledge of manufacturing and constructing.
Again no clue what you need:(

Intuition

Intuition is an uber defence skill. I don't know what exactly it contributes. pe-wiki says it unlocks at 9k Evade, couldn't find any more information about that unfortunately...

Kill Strike

Hehe, I like this one. The name says all:)
It unlocks when you have about 45% minimum damage on a weapon. So, you'll need around 8k in the main combat skills like Inflict Ranged Damage, Ranged Damage Assessment, and stuff, depending on you specialisation.

Manufacturing Methodology

pe-wiki: This is a measurment of your overal manufacturing skills.
Hmm, again no more information available.

Marksmanship

Probably the first skill you'll unlock if you're fighting with ranged weapons:) It will increase your hit ability with your gun...
You need more than 1k in your weapon's skill.

Martial Arts

Yeah, a real cool skill. It rocks! :) It will increase the hit ability and damage of your melee weapon!
It unlocks when you reach a HA of 2.0 in your melee weapon. That's about 3,5k in your weapon's skill.

Medical Therapy

pe-wiki: This is the ability to administer medical therapy as a form of healing.
No more info on that unfortunately...

Medicine

For all the doctors amongst us:) But I'm not really sure what it's good for I'm afraid. When you unlock it you allready heal 100% almost every time with a good FAP. One point could be that you need it when you use one of the real good FAPs, so only then you can use it to full capacity. I'm quite sure it doesn't increase your healing speed.
Here some data when it unlocks: Anatomy: 4800-5000; Diagnosis: 1700-2200; First Aid: 2400-2800; I think Anatomy is the most important skill there, but as allways, noone can be sure on that.

Melee Damage Assessment

It increases the damage you make with your melee weapon.
I don't have much info on that, but it seems as it unlocks when you have a sum of about 3,6k for all your melee weapons.

Miner

pe-wiki: This is a measure of your proficiency in mining.
That's all:(

Mineral Sense

This one is an important skill for all miners, it increases your chance to find deposits.
I'm not sure what you need to unlock it. As a hint I guess you need about 4k in Prospecting and Surveying (together). Geology and Calypso Ground Assessment also could be important...

Power Catalyst

Yeah, that's a cool skill, too, I'd really like to have it:) When you have it your an uber in Mindforce. However, it's a pity, I don't really know what it's good for:)
pe-wiki says you need an average of 1,5k in mindforce related skills and this was endorsed by everything I heard and read about it... with one exception, a guy who only hat 450 in psychotropy and not much more... I can't explain this...

Quickness

I think this one is a continuation of the Evade skill and increases your defence abilities, I don't know exactly how.
It's getting unlocked at about 5k Evade. That's what pe-wiki says. I think you can get it earlier when you have a lot in Athletics, Alertness and Avoidance.

Ranged Damaged Assessement

It's a skill for the gunfighters amonst us. It increases the damage and your HA, too, I guess.
It unlocks at about a hit ability of 2.5 or something. I think also usefull skills are 3k LWT and maybe also 3k BLB.

Robotology

pe-wiki: This is a measure of your accumulated knowledge about robots.
I don't really know what it's good for, I'm afraid...
To unlock it you must be "Great" in your Professional Standing in scanning robots. Crafting some mechanical or electronical stuff also can help to unlock it.

Scientist

pe-wiki says: This is a measure of your accumulated scientific knowledge.
Unlcocks when your marvelous in any scanning or whipping. Sorry, but I couldn't find any additional information on that...

Serendipity

pe-wiki: A measure of how fortunate you are.
Well, so as the name says, I guess it affect every activity in the game. To unlock it you must be great in any profession. Means you must have 3k there...

Treatment

And again a skill for the doctors amongst us. Increases your FAPping possibilities.
I'm really not quite sure when you get it: I think you have to unlock medicine and reach a level of about 1k there.
This is what I found in forums: Anatomy: 5700-7100; Diagnosis:1400-2000; First Aid: 2800-3500; Medicine:800-1900

Wounding

Yeah, Wounding rocks! As the name says it affects your damage!
pe-wiki says it unlocks when you have 36.25% as minimum damage on any weapon. I'm not quite sure on that. I found people who unlocked it with 5k in their weapon's skill, other had 8k. I'm quite sure the supporting combat skills like Inflict..., ... Damage Assessment, and stuff also affect the unlocking of this skill.

Xenobiology

pe-wiki: This is an indication of your knowledge of Xenobiology and its relation to the entities of that class.
To unlock it you must be a great animal investigator. Means 3k there. It also could help if you craft besides scanning animals or mutants.