I'm only level 19 right now, but I was taking a look at the D grade armor, and well, I guess I was just wondering how you make money after level 20 in order to afford that kind of equipment? o.o;
Noob question I know. ._.; I just started, sorry.
There are many ways of earning adena. You can look into the Manor, and there are many threads on it in this forum. A good thing to do is find a clan that suits your playstyle. Most of the time they will help you get started. Gear is alot of the grind besides getting levels.
Maybe you should also state the server you are playing. If you're on kain pm me and I can help out.
The hardest part I think is turning in your fruits at the correct time. Basically the rundown is, you buy seeds at a manor manager of a town within your level. You plant them when you hunt mobs within the area of that town and then when you kill them use the harvester to well... harvest fruit. Once you get a good chunk of fruit you turn them into Any manor manager (whichever has the best buyback price). You will get raw materials equivalent to their value. You can then sell them to other players for adena. It can be very helpful to get started.
Here's an example... playing a lvl 24 character in Necropolis of Sacrifice in a duo with a friend, we manored fruit for over 800 mithril ore in about 4 hours. Mith Ore sells for about 1000 adena on Bartz at the moment. So thats 400k each in 4 hours.
The best thing is to try it out in game. Put the seeds and harvester onto your shortcut bar. Target mob, click seed and the seed is sown. Kill mob, click harvester and you gain fruit. Once you have had your fill, return to the manor manager and see what mats are being offered in which towns and then make the trade.
D-grade armor is most easily acquired now through participation/sponsorship in an academy (for a clan). It is pretty good armor and comparatively cheap.
If you don't join an academy you can research a lot of armors in the shops in D-grade. There is a lot of variation.
Basically you are looking to ONLY spend your adena on top D-grade pieces. MANY are for sale in NPC shops (usually except for the completing piece of the set).
For instance, you can buy brig tops and bottoms in Giran--the set completes with those 2 pieces and the brig helm (which sells from other players on my server for around 5 million).
An alternative for melee toons wanting heavy is "mithril heavy"--which completes with top and bottom and a hoplon shield--all available from Giran armor shop.
3 pieces of advice---know the price in lowest npc shop and never pay a player reselling those pieces more than that (you'd be surprised how many people take a 300k brig top and add 3 ead's (at about 40k each) and sell the +3 brig top for 650k!!!).
2nd advice--most of the D-armors are competent even if not complete set. Brig is fine armor for a melee-heavy toon, as an example, without the brig helm.
3rd advice--never overpay for "non-completing" set pieces--they are useless in d-grade. Again, LOTS of folks r selling "brig boots" or "Brig guantlets" for 1-2 million each.... These pieces don't complete the sets and add nothing....paying 1.5 million for brig boots is just stupid (unless you're a junior fashion plate, I guess). Paying ANYTHING for these marginally better craft only pieces doesn't make any sense. U can use npc shop D-grade helms, gloves, and boots to replace non-set-completing components with no problem to lvl 40+....at a FRACTION of the player generated cost.
There you have it....look around, figure out prices, compare armors, go for top in grade only, don't overpay for non-completing sets pieces, and don't overpay other players for stuff sold in npc shops.
Btw--u can use the top ng (if you have it) for a number of levels in the 20's with little worry. Don't feel like you need to get D-grade at 20.