Contracts

Contracts are one of the primary money-making methods in HellMOO. They also serve as an XP-farming method and are instrumental to some Jobs.

Overview

There are several kinds of contract, but none of them are complex. Here's a run-down on contracts in general and how to use them.

Usage

In order to use contracts, one must be in a Corporation. This is the most important mechanical advantage of being in a corp. Making money is very possible without contracts and a corp, but it's much slower, and the early game in particular is a financial struggle without them. Even ENEMA has basic contracts!

To view contracts that are currently signed by your corp, type corp cont. There are several different kinds of contract, and all of them have different readouts and mechanics, but here's an example:

Contracts for Wiki-Assisted Negligence Group (WANG):

   Maas Police Contract
   Time: 42 mins left, Credit: $15310 / $30000
   Kill redneck ($145) juicer ($140) chutney ($180) hepcat ($240) mutant bootlegger ($475).

This readout comes in four parts:

• Line 1 is the title of the readout, depicting the name of your corp.
• Line 2 is the name of the contract your corp has. This example only has one, but most corps will have more.
• Line 3 is the amount of time remaining on this contract before it expires, followed by the amount of remaining money that can be earned from the contreact and the total amount that the contract allows from the start.
• Line 4 explains what specific task must be accomplished to gain credit on that contract. Most of the time, that's killing something.

Upon completing any task in line 4, you will immediately get a payout, and a message in corpnet will tell everyone what you have achieved. This can vary, but it often looks something like this:

   [ WANG ]: Western Hunter -- ReadTheFineWiki earned $230 for a huge smelly ice yeti.

If you're tired of getting updates every time some N-tag in your corp kills a crackhead, you can turn these messages off with @prefs corpprogress is 0, but they're on by default.

Contract Management

Eventually, you'll want to add your own contracts. To do this, just have the contract in your inventory and sign it. This will automatically add it to your corp's contract listing. Some notes on practical contract use:

• Contract slots are finite; don't waste everyone's time with dumb or useless contracts.
• It is possible for corp leaders to restrict contract signing priviliges, preventing basic employees from signing new ones. In practice, nobody has time for this kind of bureaucracy in a video game.
• Contracts can be dropped with corp cont drop <contract>. This ability is restricted more frequently; dropping contracts has a negative impact on the corporation's audit grade.

Payouts & Pay Rate

Not all corporations pay 100% on their contract payouts. Type corp sum to see your corp's pay rate:

   Pay Rate ..........: 0.9

WANG's pay rate is 0.9, so ReadTheFineWiki won't actually get $230 for killing that ice yeti. This sum is multiplied by 0.9 first, so the player gets $207 instead. The remaining 10% goes to WANG's corporate funds. Depending on WANG's management, this can be spent on various things or hoarded.

Contract Types

There are nine different kinds of contract, four of them being regular:

• Exterminator contracts. The most common kind of contract. These are purchased from various shops in the game, and effectively add a passive buff to an entire corp while they are active; every time a player in the corp kills a mob covered by the contract, that player will receive an immediate payout to their credit chip. The example in the Usage section is an example of an exterminator contract. Some of these are much, much more popular than others. The Western Hunter contract is probably the best exterminator in the entire game; the Highway Security contract is absolutely the worst. If you're not sure, check with your corp that the contract you're choosing has sensible mobs first.
  • All exterminator contract payouts are reduced by 25% for carebear players, which is subtracted before the corporation multiplier is. After various other financial factors are considered, this is a totally insignificant amount.

• Invasion contracts. These spawn mobs immediately after they are signed in a specific area. The contract's signing message will say what zone the mobs are in, but if it's a big zone like Gangland they can be hard to track down. Each invasion contract has a few consistent spawn points, so they're best memorized. Once the contract is signed, it's a race: find and kill all the mobs. Once every mob spawned by the contract is dead, the contract pays out to everyone who did the killing (and may award job credit depending on the contract). If the contract isn't finished before its expiry time, all the mobs in the contract die, and nobody in the corp receives credit for any killing done. Coninuous readouts will also display how many mobs are left to kill before the contract is completed.
  • Invasion contract payouts are not reduced by carebear status.
  • Typing corp cont reduces the amount of time left on all active invasion contracts in the corp. Seriously.

• Protection contracts. These are available from most shops; when signed, they will give you a percentage of the proceedings from whatever shop they belong to. If you have a protection contract from a very popular store (a place where Implants are sold, for instance), then this can become profitable quickly. Unlike most contracts, protection contracts cannot be purchased; instead, they must be beaten out of the shopkeeper (or taken from their unconscious body). Once the shopkeeper hits about 25% health, they will offer the contract for their store. Only one corp can hold a protection contract for a store at a time, so they can change hands frequently. All protection contracts have a time limit of 30 days and a credit limit of $100,000.

• Tracker contracts. The least common kind of contract. These are similar to invasion contracts, but only spawn one mob at a time, and give credit as soon as the mob is killed. Their time limit is also much less restrictive, and continually spawn a new trackable mob after each preceding one is killed. True to the name, use of the track command and skill are instrumental in completing these quickly.

Miscellaneous Contract Types

There are five unusual types of contract that are totally different from those previously listed:

• Soda contracts. These produce a soda machine kit when signed, which can be deployed into a soda machine whereever the user desires. Whenever someone (sometimes a player, but usually a random citizen of Freedom City or another settlement) buys a soda from the machine, the contract will pay out, from a total credit limit of $15,000. Soda contracts are one of the most passive money-making methods in the game, and work reliably in the background, a lot like buying bonds. Strategic machine placement is its own topic; areas with lots of NPC traffic will naturally make more money. Soda contracts can only be purchased from the Weyland-Utani Building.
  • Soda machines can be disrupted by kicking them over, and must sometimes be fixed, but they can't be outright removed by other players.
  • There cannot be more than one soda machine on one tile.
  • Unsigned soda contracts delete themselves one real-life hour after being purchased, to prevent people from hoarding a mountainous soda machine empire.

• Simulator contracts. These produce simulator kits, which build simulators that are used in crafting. Only two simulator contracts can be in use by one corp at a time, so it's impossible to cover all four simulator types in one corp. Unlike every other kind of contract in the game, Simulator contracts have no time limit; they can be kept as long as the corporation doesn't want to swap them out for another sim. Simulator contracts can only be purchased from the Weyland-Utani Building.

• Rescue contracts. These begin an NPC escort mini-quest on signing. The contract will name the location of an NPC who must be tracked down and escort them back to a safe zone (also named by the contract). These are time-limited, but the limit is generous. They pay on completion and give credit for jobs, and automatically fail if the NPC dies en-route.

• Freedom City Enforcer contracts. These are an oddball contract; when signed, they provide payouts to anyone in your corp who kills someone that has stars in Freedom City, and also provides a bonus in FC/W-U faction rep. The catch is that if anyone in the corp violates the law and gains stars, the contract is automatically cut off. This contract is rarely used and mostly just good for noobs; farming sky pirates and raiders is a much faster and more consistent method of increasing rep.

• Business expansion contract.. These increase the number of contracts that a corporation can have at once. The cap is 10.

Contract Listings

Here's a listing of contracts available in HellMOO, organized by contract type and then purchase location. Protection, soda and simulator contracts are not listed on account of their lack of distinguishing information.

Exterminator Contracts

Exterminators are probably the most used contracts in the game, and with good reason. A passive money gain for doing stuff that everyone in your corp was doing anyway is very strong!

Greater Freedom City

FC has the greatest number of available contracts, but only a few of them are actually useful (or used). The Eugenic Cleansing and Sewer Cleanup contracts are newbie staples. The top-tier Western Hunters are also sold here, and Hall Monitors are sometimes used as well.

• Eugenic Cleansing - In City Hall.
  • Kill crack baby ($30) crackhead ($70) crackfiend ($125) scumbag ($80) gangland citizen ($95) old fart ($70).
• Eugenic Cleansing 2 - In the Weyland-Utani Building and Rough Trade.
  • Kill babymomma ($210) serial killer ($350) mutant firefighter ($340) toxic freak ($260).
• Sewer Cleanup - In the Unemployment Office.
  • Kill sewer beetle ($40) chud ($70) red chud ($135) sea chud ($85) chobo ($100).
• Sewer Cleanup 2 - In the Unemployment Office and the Weyland-Utani Building.
  • Kill alligator ($115) crocodile ($135) arachno ($230) arachnotron ($360) caiman ($95).
• Chomo Killer - In City Hall.
  • Kill chomologist ($145) chomo guard ($175) tankboy ($210) chomoninja ($530).
• Scrapper - In Dope Jack's.
  • Kill drilliac ($120) jigsurgeon ($120) grindroid ($120) mob enforcer robot ($65) exterminator ($65).
• Beachcomber - In Bait & Switch.
  • Kill molegull ($50) lobstrosity ($210) carnie ($150) mutant shark ($210) bull stingray ($165).
• Atheist Enforcer - In the CSICOP Operative Shop.
  • Kill yacatisma cultist ($100) satanist ($100) juicer ($140) satanist nun ($150).
• Ghostbuster- In the CSICOP Operative Shop.
  • Kill poltergeist ($160) apparition ($200) romper ($300) necropolis spectre ($260) great old one ($300) junker ($850).
• Mythos Buster - In the CSICOP Operative Shop.
  • Kill yacatisma cultist ($100) satanist ($100) shoggoth spawn ($165) deep one ($260) tentacle raper ($420) monstrosity ($320).
• Western Hunter - In Rough Trade.
  • Kill chukka ($80) porcuswine ($85) tusker ($145) yeti ($200) treeman ($420) bladefish ($65) bonepanther ($300) ant larva ($495) giant ant ($495) antopotamus ($700) river squid ($210) Jacob sheep ($120).
• Zombie Hunter - In Zombie Hunters Inc.
  • Kill zombie ($100) celebrity zombie ($125) phagelab zombie ($160) boomer zombie ($180) mall boomer zombie ($245) mall zombie ($140).
• Hall Monitor - In Commander Andy's.
  • Kill karnivore punk ($340) karnivore senior ($400) mutant footballer ($400).
• Kakuri Assassin - In Rough Trade.
  • Kill nipposervulant ($135) nippoinitiate ($160) nippoacolyte ($180).
• Abomination Killing' - In Rough Trade.
  • This contract gives credit for killing player abominations.

Crater Rim & South-East HellMOO

Most of these go unused. Lammergiers are double-covered, but nobody bothers to trek up Fisty to kill them. Maas Police is the only one that sees regular use, to capitalize on profitable bootleggers.

• Rim Hunter - In Blastarms.
  • Kill chukka ($80) beefalo ($80) armordillo ($160) lammergier ($190).
• Desert Hunter - In the Society for the Conservation of Interesting Species.
  • Kill rattlesnake ($80) scorpion ($160) vulture ($145) radscorpion ($210) sandworm ($1060).
• Maas Police - In the Society for the Conservation of Interesting Species.
  • Kill redneck ($145) juicer ($140) chutney ($180) hepcat ($240) mutant bootlegger ($475).
• Mountain Climber - In the Quonset Hut.
  • Kill thunderbird ($700) lammergier ($190).
• Chomo Terrorist - In Clear Supplies.
  • Kill citizen ($180) K-9 enforcer ($200) C3-50 ($400).

Botany Bay & Ocean Cliffs

The Telegraph Office sells two very popular contracts. Dino Hunter can single-handedly carry rifles users through the midgame and much of the endgame, and Western Hunters are useful to almost everyone throughout the midgame. The other two contracts here are mostly unused.

• Highway Security - In the Telegraph Office.
  • Kill mountain pass bandit ($180) blue screamer ($230).
• Dino Hunter - In the Telegraph Office.
  • Kill small dinosaur ($260) adult dino ($530) large stormfront dino ($1060) basilisk ($800).
• Western Hunter - In the Telegraph Office.
  • Kill chukka ($80) porcuswine ($85) tusker ($145) yeti ($200) treeman ($420) bladefish ($65) bonepanther ($300) ant larva ($495) giant ant ($495) antopotamus ($700) river squid ($210) Jacob sheep ($120).
• Mine Safety - In Rockhound's Hut.
  • Kill cave spider ($50) cave chukka ($80) bat ($80) vampire bat ($115) cave rat ($115) chuman ($115) cave slug ($140) giant cave spider ($190) cave bandit ($210).

Necropolis

The Necropolis Heart contract is very popular; nullianacs are popularly considered to be the midgame and early endgame XP source, so making money from them is a sensible choice.

• FCEF Scout - In Crime Mart.
  • Kill FCEF scout ($800) FCEF commando ($1200).
• Necropolis zombie exterminator - In the Command Post.
  • Kill necropolis zombie ($250) necropolis boomer zombie ($500).
• Necropolis' heart - In the Command Post.
  • Kill nullianac ($1100) gulfhound ($420) glass tree ($280).

Tracker Contracts

There are only two of these. Both are exclusive to the Freedom City area (purchased in the City Hall), and neither are very popular, but both mobs are rarely seen outside of their respective contracts, so they're sometimes signed for people to get kill journals.

• Chomoninja Tracker
  • 5 hrs long. Track down chomoninjas for $1500 each.
• Tankboy Tracker
  • 5 hrs long. Track down tankboys for $1800 each.

Rescue Contracts

There are only two of these, both bought in City Hall. Both have their own job attached, and are fairly popular, thanks to their high payout in comparison to the effort they require.

• Broken Arrow
  • Find the bureaucrat, who can crash-land in a few zones. Bring him back to City Hall. This is most efficient with a plane.
• Mine Rescue
  • Find the geologist, who is lost in the Aphotic Grotto. Bring him back to a bar. The Wide Stance, Any Port and Clara's place in Lurleen all work. The geologist can't swim very well and is prone to fear, but the mobs in the grotto won't aggro him.

Invasion Contracts

Most of these contracts contribute to jobs, and are used as an XP and money source combined. Some of them also have their payments stack with exterminator contracts for even more money.

Greater Freedom City

The first two invasion contracts here are newbie staples, and both contribute to their own jobs. The chud invasion contract can also contribute to the sewer butcher job, which helps out with job efficiency. Racist hunter is less popular because racists are stronger and spread out over a very large area. All three are bought in the City Hall.

• Chud Invasion
  • 2 hrs long. Kill all the invading chuds and chobos.
• Prisoner Invasion
  • 2 hrs long. Kill all the prisoners.
• Racist Invasion
  • 2 hrs long. Kill all the racists.

Botany Bay

The Tree of Life shop is home to the jiang shi invasion contract, which spawns a dozen powerful zombies in the adjacent Ocean Cliffs. This contributes to a job.

• Jiang Shi Invasion
  • 2 hrs long. Kill all the jiang shi. Make sure to not get swarmed by all 12 at once.

Luskentyre

Lamprey invasion contracts are sold here. This used to be a more popular grind, but lampreys have been buffed and are less popular now thanks to their extreme damage potential. Still, the contract does contribute to a job.

• Rock Lamprey Invasion
  • 2 hrs long. Kill all the rock lampreys. They spawn throughout Luskentyre and the mansion, but will not go into the Adamant Canyon.

Necropolis (Gate and Southern)

The most popular contracts here are corpsegrinder invasions, an easy but slow XP source in the midgame, and gulfhound invasions are also used in the endgame. FCEF invasions are almost never played; their invasion mobs are widely considered overpowered and not worth the effort to fight them. All of the shops here restock randomly and very slowly, so it's difficult to get a consistent grind from them.

• Corpsegrinder Invasion - Bought in the Command Post. Not available to freaks
  • 2 hrs long. Kill all the corpsegrinders. They can spawn throughout Southern Necro (including behind a locked door), but will never enter the gate.
• Gulfhound Invasion - Bought in Crime Mart. Can only be purchased by chuds, zombies and freaks.
  • 2 hrs long. Kill all the gulfhounds and gulfbitches, which roam throughout Necropolis Gate.
• FCEF invasion - Bought in Crime Mart. Can only be purchased by chuds, zombies and freaks.
  • 2 hrs long. Kill all the FCEF sarges and freeballas. Good luck.

Beatrice Acres

• ZANT Invasion Contract
  • Information on this contract is very scarce since Beatrice Acres is so obscure. This entry is WIP.