Item Profitability (early - mid game)

[billthebad]

I've done some number crunching and have determined the most profitable items to farm or craft for selling to merchants. At this point I am only including items that can be made in hand or in the Sewing 1, Smith 1 and Tavern 2. Nor am I including anything made from domestic animals (wool) as I personally have not progressed that far yet. For farming, I assume that workers are doing the work and so am not considering fertilizer, tool or seed purchase costs.

My method was to take the price that the player can sell an item for and subtract the cost of materials to determine the profit. I then divided the profit by the cost to find the profitability as a percentage. This allowed me to compare items made with similar materials to determine which crafted items return the most coin.

The selling price of any item seems to be 35% of the base value rounded up to the nearest whole number. For example a bow worth 100g would sell for 35g (100 * 0.35) but a feather worth 5g would sell for 2g (5 * 0.35 = 1.75 rounded up to 2).

For my calculations I determined the "cost" of an item to be the total of the selling price of all of the ingredients. For example Shoes cost 20 leather which could be sold for 40g instead therefore the "cost" of making Shoes is 40g.

The profit is then the sell price minus the cost. For example Shoes sell for 35g (100 * 0.35) and "cost" 40g to make, therefore they have a -5g profit (you're better off just selling the leather).

Then the profit percentage is the cost divided by the profit to get a percentage. Example: Shoes cost 40 and profit -5 and have a profit percentage of -12.5%.

So given those definitions here are my conclusions for the most profitable items:

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Rocks:
Rocks individually sell for 1g each.
Throwing Rocks sell for 2g each and 1 rock makes 5 for 10g total at a profit of 900%.

Rocks + Sticks:
Sticks sell for 1g each.
Stone Hoe costs 14g and sells for 32g for a profit of 18g or 129%.
The stone axe requires two less rocks but only has a 17% profit and the stone knife profits at 57%.

Logs:
Logs sell for 1g each.
The Wooden Shovel costs 2g but sells for 18g for 16g profit or 800%.
The next are Fire Wood at 700% and wood spears and cudgels at 600%.

Feathers:
Feathers sell for 2g each.
The only thing that currently uses feathers are stone arrows. Stone arrows are made in batches of 50 and sell individually for 2g each or 100g per batch. The batch costs 115g for a profit of -15g (-13%). Unless you need stone arrows for use in hunting you are best off just selling your feathers until you can unlock iron bolts at which point make those instead.

Iron:
Iron sells for 4g each.
The Iron Hammer costs 9g and sells for 70g for a profit of 61g (678%).
Iron arrows are a close second at 600%. Both work out to be 30g per iron so take your choice between number of iron per item vs weight of each item.
The Scythe (483%) and Iron Ax (418%) are next.

Linen:
Flax stalks sell for 2g and Flax Seeds for 4g.
Linen Thread sells for 18g and costs 20g for -2g (-10%) profit.
Linen Fabric sells for 28g costs 20g for 8g (40%) profit.
But for 1 thread and 1 log you can make a bow that sells for 35g and costs 22g for 13g (62%) profit. Long bows are also profitable but only 52%.
So if you are making linen don't sell the threads, sell fabric, or better yet make bows.
From what I can tell no linen clothing is profitable. For example the Linen Shirt sells for 44g but costs 448g (16 fabric at 28g each). If you sell a shirt instead of just the 16 fabric you just lost 404g. That trend looks true for all linen based clothing. That might be different for top tier (noble) or wool items but I haven't got that far yet to know their base values.

Leather:
Leather sells for 2g each.
The Simple Bag sells for 11g and costs 6g for 5g (83%) profit. Against all other leather items the simple bag has the highest profit per leather.
Fur boots (22%) and Boots (17%) are profitable but not as much as the bag. Shoes sell at a loss.
The larger Bag and Waterskin both sell at large losses due to the linen requirements.

Food:
Meat and Cabbage sell for 2g each.
Wheat Grain sells for 4g.
Rye Grain sells for 2g.
Flour sells for 4g but costs 20g (5 wheat grain) or 16g (8 rye grain) for a loss of -16g and -12g respectively.
Potage sells for 14g and costs 4g for 10g (250%) profit.
Soup and stew are also profitable but not has much because of the increased carrot and beet requirements. All breads take a huge loss. For example flatbread sells for 4g but costs 12g for -8g (-66%) profit. The other breads become even less profitable once you count in eggs.

* Of course all of this is subject to change in future updates.

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Conclusions:
Throwing Rocks and Stone Knife are the best starting money makers. Next are stone hoes and wooden shovels. Do not just sell the rocks and sticks, you're losing money and missing out on skill progression.
Having a hunter active and planting cabbage for potage is the best option for food. Cabbage can be harvested twice per year by hand and potage can be made in the simple small house and is a filling food source. One 10 plot cabbage field plus enough meat to match (hunted by the player or from a worker in a hunting lodge) will solve your food needs and make 1000g+ per year. Berries sell for 1g each and it only takes a few minutes to collect 100's of them but in my opinion they are better for feeding your workers than selling. A few minutes at the end of summer (4-5 berry patches) can feed six workers for the fall and most of winter.
Flax is far more profitable than any of the grains. For every 10 flax harvested plus 1 log you can make a bow and 10 flax seeds for a total of 75g whereas 10 wheat will only get you 50g (40g grain + 10g straw). I make 1000's every year just from selling flax seeds. However, I have not counted how much of each is harvested per field square so it might be different if you are calculating profit per field. Do not refine grain into flour in order to bake bread unless you plan to eat it (even then potage is more efficient). You make much more if you just sell the grain.
Sell all of your feathers unless you need stone arrows or can make iron bolts. Fur is currently not used (probably unintentional) so should just be sold. *Fur clothing recipes have been fixed to require fur.
Bows are the best use of Linen thread and Simple Bags are the best use of leather. Only make clothing for yourself to wear, there is no profit in clothing better than just selling the raw materials.

It was surprising to me to find that the more complex or material expensive items rapidly became significantly unprofitable. I strongly recommend to the devs that they adjust the selling percentage based on item tier or types so that items that require a lot of materials or time to produce are still profitable over simply selling the raw materials. For example keep the base materials at 35% of the base value but increase that to ~45% for leather/fur/feather items, ~50+ for pot cooked food / sewing 1 / smith 1 items and ~65+ clothing / baked / iron goods, etc.

[Aquila]

Nice! Post it to Guides

[Lieutenant Commander Data]

Well this is helpful. I've just been selling pottage all this time, now I know what to expand into. Thanks for this!

[omnidextrious]

Gathering that many berries to feed your workers, in my opinion, is inefficient. I make around 2,000g during the summer just selling berries, and my food storage always has over 6,000 food units in it because I stuff it full of meals. And that only needs a top up every year.

If you keep a stock of your cooked meals and then sell the excess, you can net a greater profit per year by selling berries rather than using them to feed people. In my experience, anyways.

[Dracon]

You forgot to mention that all in all the Iron Hammer is the best one in your conclusion. It needs the least amount of runs from your home to the villages, while having the highest profit margin of all.

[Fortus Victus]

Originally posted by Dracon:

You forgot to mention that all in all the Iron Hammer is the best one in your conclusion. It needs the least amount of runs from your home to the villages, while having the highest profit margin of all.

Don't think he was talking about iron. Iron arrows are the single most profitable thing ever in the game I think, especially if you factor weight (the reason stone knives>stone axe)

That being said, this is quite temporary as Farming is slated to get a rework before the end of the year and no doubt crafting and cooking will get reworks in a future quarter as well.

[Espindola]

Feathers are used in iron bolts too. So I do not advise to sell them. There are 10 feathers for 10 iron bolts. If you intend to use the crossbolt in the future, keep your feathers.

[vyraka]

Yes, I concur with Espindola - only 10 feathers are needed for iron bolts.

[billthebad]

Thanks everyone.
Personally, I find picking berries to be tedious so I limit picking to just a few patches at the end of summer. A few minutes of work to feed my workers for a couple seasons seems worth it to me. But to each their own. In my game I'm profiting nearly 3k/year after taxes just selling flax seeds and surplus potage with one hunter and a four person field team.
For the iron ax vs iron arrows the profit is the same per iron. The difference is the 10 iron minimum for arrows vs the weight of each ax. If you have 10 iron make arrows as they are lighter and easier to carry to market but if you have less than that make axes. Mix and match as makes sense.
I didn't consider iron bolts since you can't unlock the crossbow until Smith 2. I haven't gotten that far yet so I didn't know the base value. However, Chaneya posted a "Sales list" guide which lists the sale price of a iron bolt at 7g. So for 5 sticks, 1 iron and 10 feathers you can make 10 bolts. That's a cost of 29g for 70g sale price or 41g (70%) profit. If you make 10 batches of bolts (to equal the 10 iron) you make 700g. If you make one batch of arrows and sell 100 feathers you make 350 + 200 = 550g. So yes, iron bolts are absolutely worth saving feathers for once you have unlocked that technology.

[Dracon]

Originally posted by Espindola:

Feathers are used in iron bolts too. So I do not advise to sell them. There are 10 feathers for 10 iron bolts. If you intend to use the crossbolt in the future, keep your feathers.

That's probably a bug though, as in the lower recipes bolts don't need feathers while arrows do, so there was probably a mixup with the item IDs.

[voelkerman]

Hunter's lodge torches are another profitable use of leather.

[billthebad]

Originally posted by Dracon:

Originally posted by Espindola:

Feathers are used in iron bolts too. So I do not advise to sell them. There are 10 feathers for 10 iron bolts. If you intend to use the crossbolt in the future, keep your feathers.

That's probably a bug though, as in the lower recipes bolts don't need feathers while arrows do, so there was probably a mixup with the item IDs.

Agreed. Many of the recipes don't make sense. I suspect that many will be corrected eventually (some arrows/bolts not needing feathers, fur clothing not using fur, etc). Until then...

[Razbitor]

if you want to make a lot of money, just plant fields of wheat and sell the seeds you get from!
You get 1000 gold for 250 seeds

[billthebad]

Originally posted by Rex | Razbitor:

if you want to make a lot of money, just plant fields of wheat and sell the seeds you get from!
You get 1000 gold for 250 seeds

For every 250 wheat you get 1000g from seeds and 250 straw. Useful and almost worth growing a small batch of wheat just for a steady source of straw. (You can also make the straw into 12 flat straw hats for 216g.)
But for 250 flax you get 1000g from seeds plus 25 linen threads. Combine that with 25 logs for 25 bows and you make an additional 875g. Don't want to deal with the logs? Just make the threads into fabric for 700g.

[SumEdd]

Originally posted by voelkerman:

Hunter's lodge torches are another profitable use of leather.

2 Leather, 2 Sticks, cost 6g, for 18g sale price. So 200% increase.

Also to the original poster, in your wheat/grain analysis, making flat straw hats (they sell for more than straw hats) with the straw is an additional money maker (had them in my last game, don't currently have the sale price).

But, to the point with the straw hats and otherwise, would be good to discuss weight of each item, as that determines how many runs to make.

Potage is of course a standby, but it's often the cause of multiple trips. And to that point, hunter's lodge torches weight 1 lb, while small backs weigh 0.35 lbs (another tip, if you're on a long hunting trip, convert leather to bags to reduce weight if you get encumbered).

Overall though, really great and thorough guide.

Thank you!

Edit: And you posted about the flat straw hats rights as I was making this comment!

[SumEdd]

Originally posted by billthebad:

Originally posted by Rex | Razbitor:

if you want to make a lot of money, just plant fields of wheat and sell the seeds you get from!
You get 1000 gold for 250 seeds

For every 250 wheat you get 1000g from seeds and 250 straw. Useful and almost worth growing a small batch of wheat just for a steady source of straw. (You can also make the straw into 12 flat straw hats for 216g.)
But for 250 flax you get 1000g from seeds plus 25 linen threads. Combine that with 25 logs for 25 bows and you make an additional 875g. Don't want to deal with the logs? Just make the threads into fabric for 700g.

Can you comfortably carry 25 bows though? I think they are 1.25 lbs (longbows are anyway, only one I use). While flat straw hats are I believe 0.2 lbs or thereabouts.

The linen fabric may be lighter though.

That being said, I like the idea of selling seeds directly as they are very light.