Sample DNA 5 (Source)

DNA Sampling Part 1: What to Grind and How Be aware that there is no "practice" mode and that each successful DNA sample will be placed in your inventory. That really puts the kibosh on your sampling rapidly. Combat is likely as most critters get irritated after some time of being poked with a needle and will aggro. And, it seems that some of our needles are laced with InstaKill as many critters fall over dead after anywhere from 1-6 samples. Note that if you sample a critter to death, you CANNOT then extract resources from it. So, apparently the DNA needle also simultaneously sucks out all of the hide, meat, and bone from the critter. Go figure. I'd recommend several things:

1. Buy armor...But get it sliced because the encumbrance will ding your mind pool and you need that for sampling

2. Buy three vehicles for quick escapes when the critters aggro. You can then disengage them, return, and resume sampling. Right now all vehicles need to be called from camp, so buying crates of camps is a good idea to call vehicles as their maintenance is used up. However, there is a patch in the works that will relieve this requirement and the camps will no longer be needed. We'll see if and when that happens.

3. Get yourself some food or spice. Muon Gold has always been a staple for bolstering the mind for uninterrupted sampling. However, it has a nasty withdrawal and the chef food Smuggler's Delight is still buggy and doesn't seem to lessen the downer. Nowadays there is also Vasarian Brandy made by chefs: no withdrawal at all and can bolster the mind up to 300 points per serving (more or less). The problem is it's pretty expensive by the crate, so make a deal with a chef to provide them your tissues and they'll probably cut you a deal. Vagnerian Canap is also great since it bolsters willpower. Also, be sure to get some Ornachek as it can bolster your XP per sample for about 20 samples. Not too shabby.

4. Go up the Scout skill tree to Scout 4: mask scent is essential for getting higher level DNA samples (=higher XP), and the terrain negotiation can help you burst run (in case you can't remember where you parked your vehicle).

5. Have a MBE make you two tissues of something called Scent Neutralization. The combined bonus of the two tissues should be sewn into clothes; they provide a bonus to mask scent. However, that bonus caps at +25 no matter how many items of clothing with bonuses you wear! So, be aware of that.

6. To improve your DNA XP, use your sampled DNA and craft Generic DNA Templates but make sure it's in practice mode. It will give you 10% extra XP and will empty your inventory. For whatever reason, there is no command in the Ctrl-A menu for sampling DNA. So, you'll need to create that first. The command is /sampleDNA. You cannot sample babies, pets, humanoid types (ie, the Nightsisters), dead critters, or creatures (in general) with >13k HAM (which usually are >CL70) (again, you may get the occasional sample, but for a grinder these will be too few and far between). The three major sampling techniques are:

• Outside cities, sample all the trash. It regenerates quickly. It's widely available. It's low risk. But, do remember that each DNA sample counts against your inventory, so your inventory will rapidly fill. XP is slowly accumulated (about 50-100xp/successful sample). Mirrl advises: If sampling "trash" get yourself a guard trained pet and use it. Don't bother trying to sample anything tougher than "trash" until you get to Sampling 2/3. Then I'd suggest Picket Longhorns on Dantooine. With longhorns always go for the non-females first as they are social and the females are not. In addition I'd suggest running over fighting. They don't DB and generally you'll waste less time being knocked unconscious than trying to kill a lair full. (They don't DB)

• Adventure planets, sample aggros. This is not recommended until you've made it to DNA Sampling 3 since your success rate will be lower in the beginning and your risk of aggro is much higher. Aggro equals decay now, so be cautious. There is a cap on CL sampling, though; avoid anything >CL 70 (and really, you shouldn't sample that until you have DNA 3). Death is common, but the reward per successful sample is great (>300xp/successful sample).

• Running missions is a third option that has become viable courtesy of creature mounts and vehicles. You get a lot more creatures to spawn at a consistent CL and get money as well.