New player, money issues.

[Raf]

Hi guys, new player here. I have played for a few hours (up to level 3/4), completed the three easy jobs from the tavern and starting to struggle with money to sustain my party that is made of the four original characters and a wolf. I have tried the first medium mission, the rat extermination, and been exterminated good by the rats, obviously I don’t meet the required level for that yet.
So I google a bit about it and what I found is more or less always the same borderline exploit tricks such as selling to refugees and killing them to retrieve the stuff or other stuff related to stealing. So my question is, is it possible to survive in this game without slaughtering refugees and stealing everything you come across and if so, how? I don't want to do play like that at all, I don't want to use exploits, and I was under the impression that this game would give you some freedom when it comes to that, is it not the case?
Another question, is it possible to capture people with a rope alone or the shackles are necessary?

[The X Makes It Sound Cool]

Some quick tips
- always cook foods and eat food at higher tier, buy salt to cook early game, later buy recipes, the starting area has an ok recipe, mutton stew I think
- if you are desperate, take the cannibalism trait, to save up food
- dedicate 1 guy for cooking
- others guys go with useful jobs like lumber, tinkerer and miner, sell those materials early game to make ends meet
- try to finish the first area, then go to another place, then you can start trading
- pick perks to reduce paying wages
- hoard everything you see
- and yeah, shackles are for people, ropes are for capturing animals, but jails takes maximum 6 people inside it, so don't exploit ;)

Don't give up, the early game is kinda hard, but after the first area, I guarantee that you will like the game. Check Steam's guide, there are lots of good one to follow along builds.

[vault_dweller]

Answering your last question first, it is mandatory to have shackles in order to capture opponents. Also, delivering captured outlaws to prison, is a good means for gaining money early on. In order to gain money, apart from the tavern contracts, sell everything that you don't need. Mine ore, craft weapons and sell them. Craft bunches of trinkets (e.g. lockpicks) and sell them. Find roaming bunches of outlaws and defeat them / capture them and sell their stuff. Even in extreme level, money won't be a problem as you' ll advance in the game.

[Raf]

Originally posted by The X Makes It Sound Cool:

Some quick tips
- always cook foods and eat food at higher tier, buy salt to cook early game, later buy recipes, the starting area has an ok recipe, mutton stew I think
- if you are desperate, take the cannibalism trait, to save up food
- dedicate 1 guy for cooking
- others guys go with useful jobs like lumber, tinkerer and miner, sell those materials early game to make ends meet
- try to finish the first area, then go to another place, then you can start trading
- pick perks to reduce paying wages
- hoard everything you see
- and yeah, shackles are for people, ropes are for capturing animals, but jails takes maximum 6 people inside it, so don't exploit ;)

Don't give up, the early game is kinda hard, but after the first area, I guarantee that you will like the game. Check Steam's guide, there are lots of good one to follow along builds.

Thanks. I have not tried to cook food as none of my characters had a cook profession and it keeping up with food was a struggle. I will start from scratch trying to focus more on quality food. The blacksmith is not useful as a profession?

[Raf]

Originally posted by vault_dweller:

Answering your last question first, it is mandatory to have shackles in order to capture opponents. Also, delivering captured outlaws to prison, is a good means for gaining money early on. In order to gain money, apart from the tavern contracts, sell everything that you don't need. Mine ore, craft weapons and sell them. Craft bunches of trinkets (e.g. lockpicks) and sell them. Find roaming bunches of outlaws and defeat them / capture them and sell their stuff. Even in extreme level, money won't be a problem as you' ll advance in the game.

OK. Sounds like crafting and selling stuff is profitable. How do I understand that enemy parties are outlaws? Do the have the icon with the face with a red eye patch?

[The X Makes It Sound Cool]

Originally posted by Raf:

Originally posted by The X Makes It Sound Cool:

Some quick tips
- always cook foods and eat food at higher tier, buy salt to cook early game, later buy recipes, the starting area has an ok recipe, mutton stew I think
- if you are desperate, take the cannibalism trait, to save up food
- dedicate 1 guy for cooking
- others guys go with useful jobs like lumber, tinkerer and miner, sell those materials early game to make ends meet
- try to finish the first area, then go to another place, then you can start trading
- pick perks to reduce paying wages
- hoard everything you see
- and yeah, shackles are for people, ropes are for capturing animals, but jails takes maximum 6 people inside it, so don't exploit ;)

Don't give up, the early game is kinda hard, but after the first area, I guarantee that you will like the game. Check Steam's guide, there are lots of good one to follow along builds.

Thanks. I have not tried to cook food as none of my characters had a cook profession and it keeping up with food was a struggle. I will start from scratch trying to focus more on quality food. The blacksmith is not useful as a profession?

As soon as you have extra money, dedicated 1 guy for blacksmith as it is recommended mid game onward. And by the way, remember to keep them at their jobs, or at the very least, don't change their jobs when they are gaining xp, as if you changed jobs, the progress will be reset. The xp will be deleted, but the job level will not (e.g., apprentice lumberer 100xp changed to novice fisherman will lost the 100xp, but keep the apprentice lumberer). Also search the forum for unique companions, as they are unique recruitable people with story, and you can assign them their lore-wise jobs.
When you fight, right click on the enemy people, they will have level and info if they are outlaws or not. In the map, they are usually the skull symbol.

[HunterSilver]

Yeah, you can avoid being unscrupulous and still make quite a bit of money. General rule is that the more you do something, the better you become at it.

Buying and selling trade goods is a great source of money. You can gain access to other regions without buying a border pass through various means, and then move trade goods between them. This will unlock path bonuses that reduce the price of buying trade goods, and increase the price of selling trade goods.

Going to bandit camps like the Lakeside Camp near Stromkapp lets you buy stolen goods for cheap. Stick them in your camp chest and have your Thief launder them and then sell them for a profit. Or just use them. Cheap food that's marked as stolen is no worse than normal food you buy. None of this is considered a crime in-game and will not raise suspicion.

Unlock the perk to negotiate for better bounty board payouts using influence. Spending a little bit of influence can increase your payouts by A Lot. If you don't want to do a bounty for any reason (such as it being too hard), just remove it. The board will refresh with a new bounty after some time.

If you don't mind taking prisoners, any time bandits or deserters attack you on the map you can use shackles to capture them and then turn them in to the prison for a reward. Shackles are for human type enemies, Ropes are for most animal type enemies, and some units have special capture requirements such as mosquitos.

Visit mines and camps regularly and they'll respawn their resources. Your miner will start to gather rarer materials, more gems, etc. as they improve their skill. Even just mining up iron lets you craft things to sell too. The wood chopping blocks and hemp in camps will respawn, allowing you to get other crafting materials for free too. You can unlock paths that increase how much crafted items sell for as well.

Just keep trying things out and surviving and you'll find lots of ways to bring in steady profits without exploits and cheats.

[Raf]

Thank all, I will try to put your advice to work.