Tips for getting lots of money?

[Raikorius]

Hello all, noob to Qud here. I'm on my second "developed" character (One who hasn't died before level 3), currently at level 12. My last character was level 16 but he died pretty much instantaneously to steam, which at the time I was unaware could do so much damage.

I was wondering how one might acquire loads of drams. So far I've only encountered canteens and waterskins for dram storage - are there better storage options that I will find naturally? Maybe ones that won't impede my weight?

Additionally, are there any tips that veterans could give that would supplement my playthrough? I'm currently a mutant and my strongest weapon is a sniper rifle I picked up from an enemy in some ruins. My character is originally built for melee though and uses a carbide two handed axe and some daggers and I put bucklers on each of his arms.

[Collie]

I'm level 14 at the moment. I found a camel bag that holds ~32 drams of water, and it doesn't impede weight.

[Luke]

Do you mean getting lots of money, or storing it?

For getting it, it depends a lot on your ego. High ego characters can sell wine and honey and cider for more than the equivalent volume of water (plus water skin cost). So basically any weep is a source of infinite profit, and the hardest part is buying enough skins and staying clear of spores.

Low ego characters make a loss on those things and can only make a profit on lava. Lava is traditionally only collectible in low capacity and relatively rare Phials, but there are (were?) some abuses that let you extinguish burning containers and transport them safely. You can only really sell a small amount at a time, anyway.

That is just renewable liquid harvesting, honestly I don't really have a problem with money just collecting and selling all the trash-loot from every creature.

As for storing money, you want higher density solutions. Precious metals and gems, for example. They usually do not lose any value when traded, need no container, and weigh less than water. So buy them whenever you see them.

[Luke]

Also: you can drop your money (and other stuff) on the ground.

Some people take over homes with chests or whatever, but you can just drop your extra water skins on the ground right next to where your recoiler plops you out in whatever your favourite town is.

[fulf]

I tend to buy all the trade goods (gems, nuggets, etc) I can find and hoard what I don't need in Joppa. Their value is fixed and unaffected by EGO and the more precious ones will save you a lot of weight compared to water. NPC's won't burgle your goods.

Once you know what you're doing, hunting the jungles is a good way to make money midgame. Carbide weaponry is a common drop from Goatfolk and has a respectable weight to value ratio for that stage of the game, but you need to be wary of sowers and (if your DV isn't very good) yurtwardens. I wouldn't recommend doing it on your first decent characters though, it's a good way to get overwhelmed and die while you're still new.

A few tips - Always grab Wayfaring to reduce the chances of getting lost. The Wings mutation or any other means of flight will allow you to escape an overland tile regardless of if enemies are nearby (as long as you are not lost.) Makes the aforementioned jungle-hunting tactic much safer. Force Wall and Force Bubble will let you use recoilers in much the same way, as long as you completely surround yourself with them. Portable Walls are also handy for this purpose, if you happen to be a physical mutant or truekin, and they have the benefit of not being affected by normality. Definitely worth carrying one around if you find it, despite the weight. Gas used to work the same way as long as it filled all adjacent tiles, but that's less reliable and I don't know if it still works.

[glass zebra]

That is a pretty big question for Qud, since there are many ways to just break the economy with many tricks. If you want something that does not require you to do weird stuff, you might want to check out the flower fields or the jungle (+wayfaring if you want). Your axes can also give you extra loot (e.g. robots drop stuff you can disassemble to bits and start bleeding somewhat high value oil).

Flower fields has a ton of really random high tier loot capabilities (like tier 6 stuff just on the floor), fresh water puddles, honey puddles and Lah petals. Jungle has goatfolk villages with tier ~3 weapons that sell quite well and are already better to carry around for wealth than water per weight (unless you ego is super low I guess).

Slowly forget about water as a currency. It weights too much to care for carrying it after very early game. If you are low on Ego gems/precious metals are another way, since they are the other currency that has a static value. If you have some Ego, daggers are pretty lightweight, most higher tier melee weapons are pretty light for their value and most food is just entirely weightless. Bits are also weightless and tinkering can break the economy a bit as of tier ~3-4, more so in higher tiers There are also ways to carry more stuff.


There are tons of more cheesy ways, but many of them might be spoilering mechanics or doing rather weird stuff, like skipping into late game content. There are also other "cool things to randomly find". As the game progresses there are also more things introduced that can give you excessive amounts of money if you can carry it, with varying patience costs. Tier 5 of the main quest might be the first to do that really ridiculously.


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For what do you really need money though? A lot of equipment can be found and I'd say new players might not be aware/super into some of the really high cost stuff. Raiding Snapjaws for loot and later raiding Goatfolks for loot can already equip you pretty nicely.

[Raikorius]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

That is a pretty big question for Qud, since there are many ways to just break the economy with many tricks. If you want something that does not require you to do weird stuff, you might want to check out the flower fields or the jungle (+wayfaring if you want). Your axes can also give you extra loot (e.g. robots drop stuff you can disassemble to bits and start bleeding somewhat high value oil).

Flower fields has a ton of really random high tier loot capabilities (like tier 6 stuff just on the floor), fresh water puddles, honey puddles and Lah petals. Jungle has goatfolk villages with tier ~3 weapons that sell quite well and are already better to carry around for wealth than water per weight (unless you ego is super low I guess).

Slowly forget about water as a currency. It weights too much to care for carrying it after very early game. If you are low on Ego gems/precious metals are another way, since they are the other currency that has a static value. If you have some Ego, daggers are pretty lightweight, most higher tier melee weapons are pretty light for their value and most food is just entirely weightless. Bits are also weightless and tinkering can break the economy a bit as of tier ~3-4, more so in higher tiers There are also ways to carry more stuff.


There are tons of more cheesy ways, but many of them might be spoilering mechanics or doing rather weird stuff, like skipping into late game content. There are also other "cool things to randomly find". As the game progresses there are also more things introduced that can give you excessive amounts of money if you can carry it, with varying patience costs. Tier 5 of the main quest might be the first to do that really ridiculously.


---

For what do you really need money though? A lot of equipment can be found and I'd say new players might not be aware/super into some of the really high cost stuff. Raiding Snapjaws for loot and later raiding Goatfolks for loot can already equip you pretty nicely.

I traveled to the Six Day Stilt and saw that there were a bunch of stuff being sold for super high prices, and wondered how I could have that much money in my inventory without being overencumbered. I didn't think to buy any trade goods so I will start doing that in the future. For the most part I've sold them whenever I could but I guess that's not good in the long run since I've always exchanged them for drams of water. Right now my inventory has 203 lbs of it taken up by water so I'll start buying trade goods to reduce the amount I have lol

I'm level 14 now and I tried exploring a ruins area but almost died to a horde of goatfolk and other creatures I've never fought so I feel like I have to grind a little more to comfortably farm them.

[glass zebra]

How much AV do you have that goats scare you? (except for the sowers, where that does not matter) As a melee, getting armour early on is pretty important. Do you hit quite well and hard (str+agi) with those axes? Sniper rifles are really not good for anything but long range shooting (which also needs high agi) or burst, due to their single bullet chamber.

[Pixel Peeper]

Level 12 is still very early game, so don't worry, you'll start finding valuable items later.

First thing to know is... water isn't money, water is pennies. Do you run around with a dozen sacks full of pennies? I hope not. The economy in Qud is mostly trade-based, with water being used as pocket change. You want an item worth 820, offer some items worth 850, and the merchant gives you 30 pennies (30 drams of water) to compensate for the difference in value.

Wealth is basically calculated in the value-per-weight of your items. Trade goods (like nuggets and gems) have the additional advantage of always having the same value. Usually, in the early game, you're going to want to convert your water into nuggets and gems.

Late in the game you'll only be carrying things that weigh little and are worth a lot. Floating Glowspheres, Gravity Boots, Nullray Pistols, Flawless Crysteel Daggers and the like.

Weightless wealth is amazing. Food items are weightless, and Taco Supremas are a great way to carry wealth. Bits are weightless, and so you can disassemble a lot of what you find and just reassemble them to trade when you need to.

[McFuzz]

If you're lucky, you might encounter an artifact weapon that has a chance to turn an enemy into a gem, then you will become the embodiment of money.

But as others have said, turn your water into copper or other trade goods, as it's a 1-to-1 transaction almost all of the time.

Additionally, mid game artifacts, like laser rifles, are basically everywhere and trade for a lot; though as a tinker you'll probably want to disassemble them instead. But pistols and such, are better as the item, weighs less than its value, so I like to just hoard stuff in a chest at one of the recoiler locations so I can trade them after traders refresh their trade goods again.

If you are trying to trade your way thru the early game, you should stick to grinding caves once you have a recoiler (so you can't get lost)

[Raikorius]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

How much AV do you have that goats scare you? (except for the sowers, where that does not matter) As a melee, getting armour early on is pretty important. Do you hit quite well and hard (str+agi) with those axes? Sniper rifles are really not good for anything but long range shooting (which also needs high agi) or burst, due to their single bullet chamber.

ATM my AV is only 10, with my DV being -7. I have 29 STR, 21 AGI, 30 TOU, 13 INT, 12 WIL, and 12 EGO. And yeah I mostly use the Sniper for things that run away from me while I'm out of sprint lol. With my build I can get lucky and hit a few times in one turn thanks to multiwep training and multi arms

[Raikorius]

Originally posted by Pixel Peeper:

Level 12 is still very early game, so don't worry, you'll start finding valuable items later.

First thing to know is... water isn't money, water is pennies. Do you run around with a dozen sacks full of pennies? I hope not. The economy in Qud is mostly trade-based, with water being used as pocket change. You want an item worth 820, offer some items worth 850, and the merchant gives you 30 pennies (30 drams of water) to compensate for the difference in value.

Wealth is basically calculated in the value-per-weight of your items. Trade goods (like nuggets and gems) have the additional advantage of always having the same value. Usually, in the early game, you're going to want to convert your water into nuggets and gems.

Late in the game you'll only be carrying things that weigh little and are worth a lot. Floating Glowspheres, Gravity Boots, Nullray Pistols, Flawless Crysteel Daggers and the like.

Weightless wealth is amazing. Food items are weightless, and Taco Supremas are a great way to carry wealth. Bits are weightless, and so you can disassemble a lot of what you find and just reassemble them to trade when you need to.

I've begun buying all the trade goods I can afford and have been converting my water to trade goods. I've actually found a few glowspheres! Sold them when I could. I don't think I've found any bits yet, and I haven't made any food items, but I occasionally harvest some while auto exploring. Should I invest into tinkering for the bits? I've found plenty of little fragment things but have never found a use for them since I never thought to do tinker stuff.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Raikorius:

ATM my AV is only 10, with my DV being -7. I have 29 STR, 21 AGI, 30 TOU, 13 INT, 12 WIL, and 12 EGO. And yeah I mostly use the Sniper for things that run away from me while I'm out of sprint lol. With my build I can get lucky and hit a few times in one turn thanks to multiwep training and multi arms

That sounds both tanky enough and high in physical attributes to not really have much issues with Goatfolk (except for the sowers). I assume you also took related combat skills (despite your super low int)? A carbide 2h axe should be pretty good against them.

Originally posted by Raikorius:

I've begun buying all the trade goods I can afford and have been converting my water to trade goods. I've actually found a few glowspheres! Sold them when I could. I don't think I've found any bits yet, and I haven't made any food items, but I occasionally harvest some while auto exploring. Should I invest into tinkering for the bits? I've found plenty of little fragment things but have never found a use for them since I never thought to do tinker stuff.

With that low ego of 12 buying anything but trade goods can throw away quite a bit of value (almost 80%), so unless you are overloaded, probably try to stick to static value trade goods. That also means that you have to pay almost 5 times the value of items, so you are better of raiding for stuff for now (dismember can help a bit with trading). With an int of 13 you can pretty much forget about tinkering for now. The tree cost quite a bit of SP and you need at least 15 int to unlock it and 19 int to build anything with bits.

[Raikorius]

Originally posted by McFuzz:

If you're lucky, you might encounter an artifact weapon that has a chance to turn an enemy into a gem, then you will become the embodiment of money.

But as others have said, turn your water into copper or other trade goods, as it's a 1-to-1 transaction almost all of the time.

Additionally, mid game artifacts, like laser rifles, are basically everywhere and trade for a lot; though as a tinker you'll probably want to disassemble them instead. But pistols and such, are better as the item, weighs less than its value, so I like to just hoard stuff in a chest at one of the recoiler locations so I can trade them after traders refresh their trade goods again.

If you are trying to trade your way thru the early game, you should stick to grinding caves once you have a recoiler (so you can't get lost)

I think I got a recoiler from the guy at Joppa thanks to a quest, but I haven't used the recoiler yet. Is it just like a free teleport device or something? I haven't interacted with it cuz I feared it was a one time use kinda thing :\

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Raikorius:

I think I got a recoiler from the guy at Joppa thanks to a quest, but I haven't used the recoiler yet. Is it just like a free teleport device or something? I haven't interacted with it cuz I feared it was a one time use kinda thing :\

It uses what is slotted into it to teleport you to said location.

before I forget, I repaired an old recoiler for you. Use it whenever you wish to hop back to Joppa quickly.

The item itself is not used up, but it is not "free".

[Raikorius]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

Originally posted by Raikorius:

ATM my AV is only 10, with my DV being -7. I have 29 STR, 21 AGI, 30 TOU, 13 INT, 12 WIL, and 12 EGO. And yeah I mostly use the Sniper for things that run away from me while I'm out of sprint lol. With my build I can get lucky and hit a few times in one turn thanks to multiwep training and multi arms

That sounds both tanky enough and high in physical attributes to not really have much issues with Goatfolk (except for the sowers). I assume you also took related combat skills (despite your super low int)? A carbide 2h axe should be pretty good against them.

Originally posted by Raikorius:

I've begun buying all the trade goods I can afford and have been converting my water to trade goods. I've actually found a few glowspheres! Sold them when I could. I don't think I've found any bits yet, and I haven't made any food items, but I occasionally harvest some while auto exploring. Should I invest into tinkering for the bits? I've found plenty of little fragment things but have never found a use for them since I never thought to do tinker stuff.

With that low ego of 12 buying anything but trade goods can throw away quite a bit of value (almost 80%), so unless you are overloaded, probably try to stick to static value trade goods. That also means that you have to pay almost 5 times the value of items, so you are better of raiding for stuff for now (dismember can help a bit with trading). With an int of 13 you can pretty much forget about tinkering for now. The tree cost quite a bit of SP and you need at least 15 int to unlock it and 19 int to build anything with bits.

Yeah I've been able to tank a lot of stuff, I just sprinted through and destroyed 3 chaingun turrets cuz I encountered a chainturret linker in the caves (almost died though :\ ). And yeah the accumulation for the points is a slog but I've grabbed skills for the weps I've been using. And yeah I think there was a sower among the horde of goatfolk and they were the one that started taking actual chunks out of my health lol. I will stick to buying trade goods then and selling what I don't need to keep my inventory from overloading. I'm assuming since my guy is borderline braindead I should stick to scavenging for cells instead of buying them?