How to Earn Em$

[Entih]

Having been on this game for about a month now, I have noticed that it does not have a particularly stellar reputation here on Steam. I can not really blame you who don't like its monetization style: Em$ is pricey! However, in my time, I have found some ways to earn Em$ (legitimately, mind you) without dropping any actual hard earned cash. For me, this let me play until I knew well that I like the simulation-style play of the game enough to buy in for a membership (since I have my Em$ needs all covered), and if you like the game you may find it useful too. If you do not like the game, I do not expect to change your mind with this.

Method 1: Competitions

Most straightforward way to earn yourself small amounts of Em$ is to run in competitions. These are, often enough, ridiculously difficult to win, and the "beginner" tier on the high score or weight competitions will offer no Em$ incentive; you need at least 50 animal harvests to qualify for the "intermediate" level, instead.

Method 2: The Offerwall

Simultaneously useful and intimidating, the "Earn Em$" offerwall is an additional button not on the Steam version of the game launcher (log in to www.thehunter.com to see it there instead) that allows you to Earn Em$ by way of fulfilling third party offers. This offerwall has about as bad a reputation as the monetization system does here, it seems, and for decent reason: a number of the offer are premium (pay-for-something) offers, and a number of the surveys are thinly veiled attempts to advertise directly.

There are, however, also a lot of GOOD surveys that will very willingly pay out to you! What you want to keep an eye out for are legitimate market research surveys, and they will pay out in the range of 100 to 300 Em$.

I have identified that the two best providers to look at surveys from are "SuperRewards" (which WILL require you to put in some information to narrow the survey offers) and "SupersonicAds". While the first one does require some info, it is also sadly the top survey provider that I have found, often putting a large cluster of valid surveys at the top of the list. The second, while not requiring info, tends to mix legit survey offers with veiled ads. These surveys I call veiled ads typically proudly spout a brand name, and/or offer some kind of gift card. They will ask for your full info, with the fine print reading that you give them permission to telemarket to your phone, and send you mail.

Avoiding those, however, you will find a fair amount of decent surveys from these two providers. Unfortunately, you will not qualify for 90% of them, as they are performing market research. Perhaps a dog food company is testing the waters for a new type of treat, and wants the opinions of dog owners on the possible item, for example. One of the surveys I have completed was from Walmart, concerning Walmart customers' thoughts on the accessibility of the layout of their cleaning product aisle.

Assuming you avoid anything offering a gift card, or asking you to "pick your favorite [BLANK]", you can attempt every visible survey offer. It is wise to try a wide range of Em$ reward amounts, as the legitimate survey providers will often try to find alternative surveys in a similar reward range when you are disqualified from one.

While the vast majority of these surveys are very quick and easy, and will never ask for more information than your zip-code (to organize research results by region), there are a few other caveats to go over.

- First, always disable ad-block before a survey, and enable it after. You will never experience an advertisement in a survey that is not a PART of the survey, but the survey uses cookies to track progress through the survey. They can't credit you if they don't know you finished.

- Second, always check that you have been credited for a complete offer, and always check this BEFORE you close the offer completion page. I have had a select few times where an offer failed to complete (always with SuperRewards survey provider "Precision Survey", oddly). You can check progress by clicking the "support" button or "get help" button on the prover's offerwall page, which lets you see past completed offers, and the status of pending offers. If a survey does not credit within an hour, you can dispute it and get it hand-credited by support: just take a screenshot of the completion page (I put the full page URL in a visible notepad window as well) and upload it, sending the link to their support in the description when you open a claim on the offending offer.

That is pretty much all I can tell you on this process! It is long, tedious, occasionally frustrating. However, I like the game, so I am somewhat willing to put up with the nonsense, especially now that I have it distilled down to a simple process. If you feel like going through all this, you too can earn around 8300 Em$ in about a month (what I have earned through the system thus far), and get much more out of the game!

[Maverick]

Brilliant stuff mate. I will link to this to my F2P thread in the relevant area. Kudos.

[Alf Tupper]

Thanks for taking time to write this up. I tried it just so I could say I had tried it; 6,000 em$ arrived promptly and all I had do to was bet on a horse. It lost. But I won.

Addendum: surfing back through previous threads, there are posts from at least three trustworthy sources stating a virus/malware/measles free income of anywhere between 2,000 em$ to over 10,000 em$.

Mods - this man deserves a sticky thread! And a sticky bun....

[Entih]

Those premium offers do tend to offer a better value on your buck than just buying Em$ outright, but I stick with my surveys; limited income and all that.

[MysticOne578]

THx

[NotSid]

Any respectable game wouldn't resort to these shady things to try and get money from their players. They DO get money from this. They get ad revenue.

Inb4 fanboy mods delete this post.

[Entih]

Originally posted by NotSid:

Any respectable game wouldn't resort to these shady things to try and get money from their players. They DO get money from this. They get ad revenue.

Well yes, they do obviously get revenue, as the providers pay them for fronting the services. Wouldn't call it shady though, so much as should not be necessary; its like a bandage on the existing system.

I put up with it because I like the game, and I don't expect others with more middling opinions to do the same.

[Gilbert Huph]

Not even gonna try these surveys cause they either spam your Inbox, hack your stuff, or destroy your computer.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Jakey344:

Not even gonna try these surveys cause they either spam your Inbox, hack your stuff, or destroy your computer.

If that's what you think is gonna happen and you can't stop it, best you turn off your whole damn computer because it's ALREADY infested.

[Gilbert Huph]

Originally posted by Maverick:

Originally posted by Jakey344:

Not even gonna try these surveys cause they either spam your Inbox, hack your stuff, or destroy your computer.

If that's what you think is gonna happen and you can't stop it, best you turn off your whole damn computer because it's ALREADY infested.

Didn't even finish one and besides, just warning you it could potentially harm you.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Jakey344:

Originally posted by Maverick:

If that's what you think is gonna happen and you can't stop it, best you turn off your whole damn computer because it's ALREADY infested.

Didn't even finish one and besides, just warning you it could potentially harm you.

I've been in IT for 25 years as a professional. I was also an educator.

If you think the service is going to "spam your Inbox, hack your stuff, or destroy your computer." then you are OBVIOUSLY not protected and your machine is ALREADY compromised.

I'm just warning YOU.

[Entih]

Originally posted by Jakey344:

Not even gonna try these surveys cause they either spam your Inbox, hack your stuff, or destroy your computer.

No, no they don't. If you do it the way I described they do none of these things. If you are looking at surveys that spam you or hack you, you obviously did not read my post and take the advice in there.

A proper survey won't even ask for your email address, so I am not sure how it would ever spam you.

[hobogus]

So I'm wondering since things like ammo and scent can give us a gm to em ratio, why not allow us to trade currency equivalents here on steam. Is that anywhere near possible?

[Maverick]

Originally posted by hobogus:

So I'm wondering since things like ammo and scent can give us a gm to em ratio, why not allow us to trade currency equivalents here on steam. Is that anywhere near possible?

The gm$ to em$ "ratio" is simply to allow choice. Neither currency is a commodity here or in the non-Steam version.

[Alf Tupper]

Originally posted by hobogus:

So I'm wondering since things like ammo and scent can give us a gm to em ratio, why not allow us to trade currency equivalents here on steam. Is that anywhere near possible?

Interesting - it's feasible but probably too hard to do for the devs.

[Torhrolfr]

You guys are aware that those surveys make it legal for companies to sell your name and call your home phones forever with their ads?