City of Heroes/Influence

Influence at early levels can be hard to come by, and for many new players, this can be annoying. But there are several ways to gain influence quickly.

Exemplar
For those of you who have no debt, this can be a great way to go. For those of you with debt, this is a way to get rid of it. The best way to pull this off is to find someone around level 2-5, and ask them to exemplar you. Tell them to right click on you and select "Invite Exemplar". Many of your powers will be greyed out, they won't be usable. The reason why you choose someone in such a low level range is because missions go quickly and you get that ending xp in no time. Another reason is because you get to help out a new player a bit – some people actually consider this a benefit.

"Sell" missions
When you get the "missing fortune teller" mission (from a magic contact around level 10-15), head to the green line and make a full round of all the stations, yelling out in broadcast that you have the find the missing fortune teller mission, the one that gives the spelunker badge, and then go back to steel canyon and head for Perez Park. By the time you get there, you should have a full team asking to join you. Don't outright ask for influence – it's implied. At the end of the mission, you'll have at least one of the team members come up to you and invite you to trade. You can make up to 1 million influence from this mission alone.