Black Market: Prototypes, blueprints and XP

[Gillsing]

I've been trying to figure out what determines when the Black Market Dealer becomes available ("Blackmarket available", as the message says). So far I haven't come to any conclusion beyond that it seems to be a combination of total agent XP and researched/acquired blueprints. My extreme results vary between 31279 XP and 7 blueprints (including the Silencer from the tutorial), and 94056 XP and no blueprints beyond the three weapons at the start (purposefully avoiding the Silencer by not freeing the Hacker).

'Blackmarket available' when completing research on Body Armor: Light
Soldier 1 skill point 726/5384 = 6017 XP
Support 1 skill point 1951/5384 = 7242 XP
Hacker 2 skill points 4066/5384 = 9357 XP
Infiltrator 1 skill point 3372/5384 = 8663 XP
Total agent XP = 31279 XP
Silencer $9,550
Lincoln .405 Revolver $12,150
12XL 'Boom Stick' Shotgun $13100
5X 'Morte' Plasma Revolver $14,350
BM: 'Lacertus' Leg Bio-Fibres V1 $10,000
BM: Cranial Bio-Plating V1 $12,450
Body Armor: Light $9,700

'Blackmarket available' when Support got the 6th skill point:
Soldier 6 skill points 526/5871 = 33694 XP
Support 6 skill points 26/5871 = 33194 XP
Hacker 2 skill points 2909/5478 = 13584 XP*
Infiltrator 2 skill points 2909/5478 = 13584 XP*
Total agent XP: 94056 XP with only the starting weapon blueprints, and no Silencer
* XP slightly higher because some unavoidable post-Black Market XP activities before these agents were free. So it was slightly lower at the exact moment when Black Market was made available.

By reloading a saved game where the Black Market was just about to be made available I've also been able to trigger it with the F.R.E.D. Designator blueprint from completing the 'F.R.E.D. Triangulation' mission, and trigger it with the HK-4 Attack Drone blueprint the Hacker gets from the first level of Drone Puppeteer. I also tested with the entire team doing nothing but earning XP, and they had the Black Market become available at 86400 XP, which is 7656 points lower than the two agents without the Silencer blueprint from the tutorial.

Not sure how that relates to the $9550 cost of the prototype on the Black Market, or the 15m 16s it takes to research it ($1,832 with one hired researcher), but it seems clear that more expensive prototypes/blueprints are worth more 'Black Market points', because I had one game with a lone Soldier getting the Grenade: Fragmentation Grenade blueprint early on, and in that game 'Blackmarket available' came at 78917 XP, which is 15139 XP lower than the 94056 XP without acquired blueprints. But the ratios between 'Black Market points' and prototype costs don't seem close when comparing Grenade: Fragmentation Grenade ($23,950/15139 XP = 1.582) with Silencer ($9,550/7656 XP = 1.247). So how these 'Black Market points' are calculated is a mystery to me.

Since I usually get the Black Market message right after an agent has gained a skill point I thought that skill points were key to the requirement. But the team of agents with the many blueprints could trigger the 'Blackmarket available' message without gaining a skill point at the moment (at 37447 total agent XP, without researching the 'Body Armor: Light').

Also, here's an interesting thing to note about buying prototypes from the Black Market Dealer: When you lose the prototype by starting to research it, the game will happily set it as a mission reward if you pause that research. This can happen either when you 'purchase item information', or when you breach a facility for which you haven't already 'purchased item information'. So if you don't want to see your expensive purchase turn into just an expensive copy of that prototype, make sure that research isn't paused while you're setting mission rewards by purchasing item information or breaching a 'mystery' facility.

It also seems that the game inevitably starts out setting lower tier prototypes and blueprints as mission rewards when purchasing item information early on, but with each prototype/blueprint set as a reward, the maximum reward tier is increased, so that higher and higher tier items become possible. So even if a player starts purchasing item information very early in the game, a low tier item can manage to dodge the system and make it all the way into one of the last picked facilities. I had that happen with the lowly 4xOptical Scope, which is the first of the prototypes that require two researchers.

The Black Market Dealer always starts out offering the following prototypes, unless the player doesn't already have them:

Gear
MEP 'Magic Wand' $9,000
Body Armor: Light $9,700
Body Armor: Heavy $26,750 (Corporate sabotage*)
Shielding: R60/5 $23,200 (Corporate sabotage*)
F.R.E.D. Designator $12,500 (F.R.E.D Triangulation*)
* these items never appear as random rewards for other missions

Weapons
Silencer $9,550 (tutorial)

Plus any prototype/blueprint which has been set as a mission reward when the player has 'purchased item information'. Beyond this it seems that offerings are determined by agent total XP and acquired prototypes and blueprints. I once did playthrough where I only ever acquired prototypes by purchasing them through the Black Market Dealer, and sometimes merely purchasing a prototype would make new prototypes appear for purchase. Maybe acquired prototypes also make the Black Market available sooner? But I don't think I've ever had that happen. (That was also back in v1.07.06 I think, and I believe the Black Market becomes available sooner in v1.13.06.)

And while the Black Market can make all prototypes available eventually, purchasing item information is probably the fastest way to make specific items appear. But there are missions for which the player can not 'purchase item information', so if 'purchasing item information' for all missions in all districts won't show the prototype/blueprint you're looking for, it should be hidden in one of these missions:

The Grid: Dracogenics Guard Station
Eternals Induction Clinic (including Secure Storage Room)
Eternals Research and Development: Eternals Researcher Extraction (always a blueprint)
Eternals Missionary Administration Office: A Break in the Supply Chain ('purchase item information' only available once the player can already pick up the packages)

Uzy Korp. Main HQ: Main gates access keys

Metacortex Prison Administration: both Weapons dealer and Wardens Locker

Prototype costs at Black Market:

Researchers: 1
Lincoln P97 (start)
UZ1-MP (start)
RS01 'Lance' Sniper Rifle (start)
Silencer 9,550 (tutorial)
MEP 'Magic Wand' $9,000
Body Armor: Light $9,700
BM: 'Lacertus' Leg Bio-Fibres V1 $10,000
Hauser TR Machine Pistol $10,800

Researchers 2:
4xOptical Scope $11,350
Laser Targeting $11,700
Castigo 7 Plasma Pistol $11,850
Lincoln .405 Revolver $12,150
Kumasaka LP-35 Laser Pistol $12,150
Extended Clips $12,200
Ammo Pack $12,300
Plasma Muffler $12,300
Laser Silencer $12,300
Atlas: Full Leg Replacement $12,400
BM: 'Brachium' Arm Bio-Fibres V1 $12,450
BM: Cranial Bio-Plating V1 $12,450
F.R.E.D. Designator $12,500 (Ronin - F.R.E.D Triangulation)
Grenade: Sonic $12,850
12XL 'Boom Stick' Shotgun $13100
Stealth Generator: Mk I $13,200
Ammo Vest $13,450
Grenade: Sound Dampening $13,550
Shielding: AE30 Light Shields $13,800
CR12 Assault Rifle $13,900
BM: Subdermal Fascia Plating V1 $13,950
Xaxisian Industries: Ocular Upgrade $14,100
Zip Claw $14,350
5X 'Morte' Plasma Revolver $14,350
Iron Lung $14,550
Extended Plasma Cannisters: R-2D2 $14,550
Medi Pack $14,800

Researchers: 3
Extended Ion Batteries: C3p-O $15,000
Atlas: Full Arm Replacement $15,050
Shielding: R7 Light Shields $15,150
Grenade: Smoke Grenade $15,150
Energon Storage Cell: AAA $15,250
Proxy Hacker $15,300
2xP3W Laser Repeater $15,350
Energy Generator V1 $16,300
EMP Charger $16,850
High Impact Rounds $16,850
LS19 'Thanatos' Laser Sniper Rifle $17,550
Body Armor: Medium $17,650
A4-33 Ammunition Cavity $17,750
Grenade: EMP $18,000
Nanofiber Muscle V1 $18,050 (Legs)
Nanofiber Muscle V1 $18,150 (Arms)
Wetcorp: Support and Stability $18,300
Plasma M8 Shotgun $18,300

Researchers: 4
Wetcorp: Weapon Slot $18,700
Sprint Legs V1 $18,800
Rapid Fire (Suppression Rounds) $18,900
Wetcorp: Water Coolant Systems $19,100
Remote Satchel: Explosive $19,150
Wetcorp: Self-Destruct $19,400
PE: Dual Core Response Processor $19,550
BM: 'Brachium' Arm Bio-Fibres V2 $19,850
BM: 'Lacertus' Leg Bio-Fibres V2 $19,850
Remote Satchel: EMP $20,350
HK-4 Attack Drone $21,250 (Drone Puppeteer)
H4D35 'Lucifer' Flamethrower $21,500
Shielding: AE100 Heavy Shields $21,600
BM: Subdermal Fascia Plating V2 $22,050
Plasma M41A Rifle $22,050
RS09 'Chimaera' Laser SMG $22,050

Researchers: 5
Shielding: R60/5 $23,200 (Corporate sabotage)
Shield Booster $23,250
BM: Cranial Bio-Plating $V2 23,700
HK Drone Controller Chip $24,600
Grenade: Fragmentation $23,950 (Explosive Specialist)
Energy Generator V2 $26,450

Researchers 6:
Firewall Protection $26,450
Body Armor: Heavy $26,750 (Corporate sabotage)
Stealth Generator: Mk II $27,800
Shield Recharger $27,900
Ballistic Minigun $29,000
c-BN BDs 'Rhino Skin' $29,500
Overclocker $29,650
Speed X $29,750
Sprint Legs V2 $29,850
Plasma Minigun $30,100

Researchers: 7
Nanofiber Muscle V2 $30,350 (Legs)
Laser Minigun $30,450
Energon Storage Cell: AA $30,550
Nanofiber Muscle V2 (Arms) $31,300
R57 Super Heater $31,300
Plasma Furnace Inducer (PFI) $33,550

Researchers 8:
Super Particle Accelerator $35,200

Researchers: 9
Mantis Rocket Launcher $40,000
5-L5 Plasma Cannon $40,000
N18-56 'Tesla' Laser Cannon $40,000
P.A.B.L.O Laser Beam $40,000
MB-P 'Zeus' Plasma Beam $40,000

[Caldor]

Wow... you sure have been digging into this.

I suspected that what unlocks it is just "after playing x minutes" or something like that, but it would make sense that it was something else. I could look over the source code and see if I can find something about it maybe. Sounds likely that it might be more than one thing that could unlock it.

[Gillsing]

It's definitely not the time, because I had one team spend a lot of time getting into CBD early on, while also leisurely running around investigating/collecting clones and researchers, and they didn't get the Black Market until sending the replican into the Eternals Comms Tower, which got them all three blueprints, but not the three prototypes. And it was the second blueprint that set off the 'Blackmarket available' message, clearly showing that blueprints are one of the things that matters. Though I suppose my next experiment will be getting only prototypes, and not research them, to see if they matter to a similar extent.

My most recent gang just did some city stuff in Downtown before running into the Dracogenics Military Compound to raise hell. They got their Black Market quite quickly. And then they died in an attempt to get away from a Dracogenics Light Infantry who'd stopped inside a building rather than coming out of a transport door. The cheater could shoot at my agents from inside, and apparently called for reinforcements as well.

[Caldor]

Interesting

[Gillsing]

I failed my experiment by not paying enough attention to when my agents got access to the Black Market. And by the time I noticed, they already had 64k total agent XP, and 12 prototypes. I guess I'll have to do it again. Though it does show that even prototypes give 'Black Market points', since the other team without even the Silencer blueprint needed 94k XP for the Black Market.

I had also forgotten (if I ever really knew) that I needed the infiltrator to get the prototype from the Dracogenics Guard Station in Downtown. I'm so used to always breach facilities with all agents, when it doesn't really matter. Though of course, they do get XP for moving to the facility inside each restricted area, so that is always something. But this time I was trying to get as little XP as possible, to let the prototypes show how much they're worth for the Black Market.

[Gillsing]

I reloaded the prototype game a couple of times. The first time I managed to catch the 'Blackmarket available' message, and merely had to calculate how much XP the Hacker was supposed to have at that point. The second time I managed to trigger the message not with XP, but with acquiring a couple of prototypes, just to make sure prototypes really matter for the Black Market Dealer.

The message was also shown before/above both prototype messages, so I'm assuming it was the first one that brought the 'Black Market points' over the line. I base this on the fact that when I acquired three blueprints the message was shown after the first two, and before the last one, so the game is clearly able to show the 'Blackmarket available' message right inside a general 'mission completed' list of messages. At the time I interpreted it as the second blueprint being the one to trigger the message, since it made sense to me that I get the message first and the consequence afterwards. But if the message is shown before the acquisition that triggers it, then I guess it was the third blueprint that set off the 'Blackmarket available' message that time.

'Blackmarket available' with:
94,056 XP and no prototypes or blueprints (beyond the three starting weapons)
86,400 XP and the $9,550 Silencer blueprint (1 blueprint $ = 0.80 XP)
40,323 XP and 9 prototypes costing $106,000 on the Black Market (1 prototype $ = 0.51 XP)

For example: 37447 XP + 6 blueprints at $71,600 = 94,727 'Black Market points'. Close enough to 94,056 XP I guess? That was the one time the message was triggered by XP and not skill point, blueprint, or prototype.

Another example: 78,917 XP + 1 blueprint at $23,950 = 98,077 'Black Market points'. Not very close, so blueprints and prototypes might be valued in a more complicated way, or a simpler one, and the only reason the numbers work out better in Downtown is because all the blueprints/prototypes are worth roughly the same.

I haven't accounted for finishing the Gate Pass 1 for The Grid mission, which happened right before the Soldier in the prototype game went in to raid the vaults in The Continental Haven, and two agents gained a skill point each as the alarm went off. I suppose all these skill points, blueprints and prototypes could be measuring general progress in the game, and so completed missions could perhaps matter as well. Hard to say for sure.