Getting coins

[Wolf]

Am I the only one struggling to get money without endless grind?

I'm just starting out after a long time with all the new updates, having a few villagers and a couple of houses. Some produce food for the village and some gather wood to be worked into misc items to sell. Though almost anything that can be crafted right now sells for ridiculously low prices. I remember this being a little different some time ago.

Meanwhile almost everything to progress costs money. New crafting recipies cost a lot of money, gear you can't yet craft yourself costs a bunch, then the annual tax collection... Everything costs a lot but it seems there's little for you to make money early on. Doing side quests for people only gives you rep points but no other rewards, seems kind of pointless.

Am I missing something?

[Oga]

I played 3 to 1 version(s) ago last (in coop).
It took about a year to get more money than we could spend (5 day seasons tho) and used the two most common current tactics I'm aware off.
Did some quests along the way, build the village along the way but those were mainly handy to increase available buildings and such.
Season 1) Stole the iron scythes in Piastovia, made a flax farm, bought all fertilizer/manure we could and planted as much as we could.
Season 2) Farmed the flax, started crafting handcraft tools, refertilized everything and planted whatever we could get our hands on and head out mining tin (excavation shed on copper).
Season 3) Yay a barn, smacking time. Due to lack of seamster options, sold the stalks instead and... hand crafted a lot of tools.
Season 4) Yay a forge, time to start making bronze and.... craft a bunch of tools by hand to get technology... Unlocking bronze axes and spending all bronze bars on those (to sell, obv,)
While selling getting diplomacy to put in barter, start buying all the bronze in all the villages, making more axes.
Season 5) Stockpiling axes by buying all the materials and making them, infinite axe supply made us more than we could spend.

Since we now where (financially) where we wanted to be, we went to taking it slowly.

[Mussidenn]

Hunting is the easiest way to make money. Kill boars with wooden spears. Throw the spears, don't get into melee. U can sell the meat and leather. Maybe u wanna buy a recurved bow and a bunch of iron arrows to onehit boars. Mooses are easy as they won't attack. More meat than boars. If u feel comfy enough, you can go for wisents. You will need 3 headshots to kill one.
Waterskins are made from 2 leather and sell for 40. But it will take time to craft one

[Limmin]

In my playthroughs, the first challenge for my village, when just getting started--maybe 2 or 3 houses, and villagers assigned to chopping wood and hunting for meat only--is basic survival. Are their houses well enough insulated? Is there enough firewood? Meat? Doing some hunting and tree chopping of your own, at this point, can help make ends meet.

After that level of challenge is overcome, about the time I'm expanding the farm, there is a time when taxes are due, and wow, they can be big. Then you don't typically have enough money. You can sell items such as fur, arrows and easily made stuff (stone knives and axes) but what you really need is some extra money. Go visit the trails between towns, and you'll find abandoned logging camps, barrels on the shore, and overturned carts. Loot those. Sell any alcoholic drinks, and grab the moneybags. You can get many hundreds of coins that way, which, incidentally, helped me pay my first big tax bill. (And in the Oxbow map, go find the abandoned houses and buildings here and there, and loot those as well.)

Then, as others have pointed out, farms and forges can be very profitable. Once those sources are activated, you'll have more money generally. And better food. Just don't buy too many recipes / schemes that quickly; take your time with those. The only one(s) that I buy early on are the bucket and wooden bowls, so I can supply water to the villagers and make them soups (incl. the superfood known as Potage).

[Krougal]

Until you are filthy rich, if you mainly unlock recipes under only 2 circumstances, you should be ok with money.
1. You are going to produce the item for sale.
2. You need the item for automation of your village.

A 3rd case could be made for some cheap decorations to improve worker mood. Bird and rat trap should also be unlocked asap; trapping provides good skill xp. Also early food recipes are great to have; potage/stew/soup/gravy depending what you are growing.

Generally stuff you use, unless you are going to make it repeatedly is just a money-sink before late game. Clothing does not deteriorate so it is generally better to buy what you are going to wear. Now the saddle you can make cheaper (although you can find 1 in Oxbow too) than you can buy it, and I highly recommend trousers with cuffs as a money-maker (as well as wearing in the summer) so there are exceptions.

I also highly recommend buying iron tools for your own use since it will be so far into the game before you can get your own. The axe and pickaxe especially. 3 swings per tree and 4 per ore node. Less time and less clicking. The farming tools don't perform any better but it is that many less logs you'll go through replacing them.

Ammo is highly re-useable, 2 dozen iron arrows or bolts will last you a long time. After using the poisoned ammo for some time I am highly doubtful that it works properly, so they are a waste until you are flush with cash. Iron weapons are a no-brainer. Also in Oxbow if you explore you can find pretty much a whole set of good gear for free.

Bows are a waste to buy the recipe, I've been using the same recurve for several years and I will get several more out of it. There is a free iron crossbow to be found as well,

You might be tempted to start making potions when you unlock them. Resist! You can buy a lot of potions for what the recipes cost.

Do not be afraid to buy things you need from the merchants. At some point you'll find yourself doing it anyway so they can buy more bronze axes or trousers or whatever you are producing for cash.

Avoid going down rabbit holes and never spend all the money you have and you should be ok.

[Maehlice]

Originally posted by Wolf:

Am I the only one struggling to get money without endless grind?

...

Am I missing something?

Yes and no. The gameplay loop in MD is very small, so it can start to feel "grindy" quickly as you rapidly and frequently repeat the same behaviours.

What you may be missing or not have realised yet is that most things sell for more than their materials cost to buy.

You don't even need a "proper" village to unburden the land of its coin. Just build 3 or 4 Lumberjack Huts to gather Sticks & Logs, buy from a vendor all their available Ores & Bars, then craft a bunch of tools/weapons for resale. The same thing also works with the Sewing Hut.

[Wolf]

Thank you all for your tips, I guess I need to be a little more patient after all. Esp. with waiting to buy all the unlocks, there's so much stuff I'd like to have, esp. decorations, but I guess you're right, I should focus on only the necessary first.

Anybody know if side quests become viable later throughout the game though? Just gaining a couple of dynasty rep still seems pointless.

[Shintai]

Remember, never sell meat and leather. Sell simple bags and roasted meat instead.

I have my game at 1000% taxes because I feel money is way too easy.

[Krougal]

Originally posted by Wolf:

Thank you all for your tips, I guess I need to be a little more patient after all. Esp. with waiting to buy all the unlocks, there's so much stuff I'd like to have, esp. decorations, but I guess you're right, I should focus on only the necessary first.

Anybody know if side quests become viable later throughout the game though? Just gaining a couple of dynasty rep still seems pointless.

The main value of doing them is always for the dynasty rep, especially on Oxbow where there is no other way, once you do all the quests, the only new ones come from the notice board and your own villagers. When you suddenly can't recruit that next villager, dynasty rep becomes very important.

I know early on it is a bit painful to do these quests where you are just losing money, which is a lot of it. The npcs are like poor lazy relatives that come to you with their hand out all the time.

[Wolf]

Originally posted by Shintai:

Remember, never sell meat and leather. Sell simple bags and roasted meat instead.

I have my game at 1000% taxes because I feel money is way too easy.

That’s actually a good point. I just used to sell everything from a hunting trip to the nearest village right away. Missed opportunity.

Originally posted by Krougal:

The main value of doing them is always for the dynasty rep, especially on Oxbow where there is no other way, once you do all the quests, the only new ones come from the notice board and your own villagers. When you suddenly can't recruit that next villager, dynasty rep becomes very important.

I know early on it is a bit painful to do these quests where you are just losing money, which is a lot of it. The npcs are like poor lazy relatives that come to you with their hand out all the time.

Haha right. Will be good to know once I play Oxbow, I’m on the OG campaign right now and the chapter quests just flood you with rep.

[Mussidenn]

Don't forget you have to invest time to roast the meat ;)

[Wolf]

Time is money! Literally, in this case.

[Mussidenn]

With a hunting lodge II or higher, you can craft salted meat. 10 meat + 1 salt sells better than roasted meat and is crafted faster

[Maehlice]

Originally posted by Mussidenn:

With a hunting lodge II or higher, you can craft salted meat. 10 meat + 1 salt sells better than roasted meat and is crafted faster

If you have a Mine, you'll make more Coin having all of your villagers mining Salt to be sold raw than having them hunting for Meat -- even if you roast or salt it for them.

EDIT: If you're not using villager labour and are hunting/mining/crafting separately for profit, hunting is one of the least efficient/profitable ventures.

[gussmed]

If you’ve got a mine, seems like selling metal tools would be more profitable than salting meat. I haven’t unlocked mining tech, but I’m making a lot of money selling copper tools from copper ore gathered by villagers.

[Maehlice]

Originally posted by gussmed:

If you’ve got a mine, seems like selling metal tools would be more profitable than salting meat. I haven’t unlocked mining tech, but I’m making a lot of money selling copper tools from copper ore gathered by villagers.

It is. I was more making the point that salting meat for profit is pointless when selling the Salt raw is more profitable.

By my calculations, Bronze Axe is the most profitable item in the game for NPCs to craft and sell without player involvement.

But the standout winner of the unbalanced economy contest is Honeycomb by leaps and bounds.