Where to get money and gear at early stages?

[Nonomori]

So, currently just escaped Fort Joy and it is really super hard for me to progress because of the battles ahead, my party barely have gear on and I don't have gold at all to gear them up through vendors when 1 piece costs 300 gold and I only have 300 gold x) Literally have to dodge every battle in stealth mode because of how undergeared I am.

Is there any way maybe to get at least somewhat geared at early stages or it is indeed I have to just struggle and play through that portion of the game until I will start making some serious money and gear?

[General Malaise]

You could have been stealing tons of it, but by now - if you've done what you could have in Fort Joy, you'd have pretty good gear for all of them.

[Nonomori]

Originally posted by Leland Stottlemeyer:

You could have been stealing tons of it, but by now - if you've done what you could have in Fort Joy, you'd have pretty good gear for all of them.

Not sure if I done everything then lol, I have like a couple of weapons that I found and recieved as rewards, also I think some bits like hands, legs etc but they are scattered and I wouldn't consider them as good gear haha. And now as I escaped Fort Joy all of the magisters are hostile so there is no way Im going to return lmao, not until Im level 7-8 I assume.

[General Malaise]

Originally posted by Nonomori:

Originally posted by Leland Stottlemeyer:

You could have been stealing tons of it, but by now - if you've done what you could have in Fort Joy, you'd have pretty good gear for all of them.

Not sure if I done everything then lol, I have like a couple of weapons that I found and recieved as rewards, also I think some bits like hands, legs etc but they are scattered and I wouldn't consider them as good gear haha. And now as I escaped Fort Joy all of the magisters are hostile so there is no way Im going to return lmao, not until Im level 7-8 I assume.

Best to kill them all before you leave. Same as Griff and his gang, plus do the Arena.

Pretty important to have someone who can steal, and the higher the level the better. You can only steal from each person once(unless you got 2 stealing). Some of the dealers you might want to wait till you level up to steal, so you can steal more.

I've followed a walkthrough, because you miss so much if you don't. I just don't want to wander around for ages looking for quests and how to complete them. The idea is though, to kill things for experience, and steal things for money and good gear, as well as Skillbooks.

Go back and kill every Magister for a start.

:)

[Nonomori]

Originally posted by Leland Stottlemeyer:

Originally posted by Nonomori:

Go back and kill every Magister for a start.

:)

Yeah, will be hard for me without gear lol but thanks for the tip!

[General Malaise]

Originally posted by Nonomori:

Originally posted by Leland Stottlemeyer:

Yeah, will be hard for me without gear lol but thanks for the tip!

If you're interested in a good route through, and how to do it. He tends to show the fights more than simple stuff like stealing, but he robs everyone blind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11j8Nib6BvU&list=PLrDx_gq2DCNJTk3knEr8GcEJcxu8jnqaK&index=2

[Nonomori]

Actually yeah, I think I dont have a single party member with thieving skill for at least one so that's a good tip!

[General Malaise]

Originally posted by Nonomori:

Actually yeah, I think I dont have a single party member with thieving skill for at least one so that's a good tip!

You really need a thief, someone with Pet Pal, and someone(probably main character) with Persuasion. Loremaster is nice, but really I have to manage without because I take Lucky Charm instead.

[Pyromus]

needle&thread + leather scraps makes finesse armor, cloth scraps for int armor, and metal scraps for str armor. Metal scraps and wood pulp can make shields.

For money, logs and any blade make long branches, then keep combining the wood results with a blade to shave it down to arrow shafts. Tooth and blade gives shocking arrowhead, normal arrowheads and poison barrel make poison arrowheads. Make the actual arrows with them and sell for more money than the pieces cost. Penny mushrooms and bottle make health potions, and potions of the same size can be combined to make bigger ones. Sell those for more money than the cost of the material. Several other crafting combinations can make you a few hundred gold without stealing if you don't want to go that route.

[Chaoslink]

Yeah, stealing is usually the best way. Though good use of barter is another. Personally, I leave act one with 120-200k gold, 80-120 res scrolls, 2-6 copies of every available skillbook, all the potions and scrolls or other consumables I could want, all the best gear vendors could offer and plenty of crafting materials and the like. But to do that I use my characters with thievery and every one of the origin characters I’m not taking with me also with thievery and thievery gear so I can steal a ton per vendor every time they reset. By the end of act two I usually have 1-2 million gold. It’s often enough that I don’t steal again for the rest of the game and just buy everything. I even stop selling old gear and just pile it up in the stash chest.

[Nonomori]

Originally posted by Pyromus:

needle&thread + leather scraps makes finesse armor, cloth scraps for int armor, and metal scraps for str armor. Metal scraps and wood pulp can make shields.

For money, logs and any blade make long branches, then keep combining the wood results with a blade to shave it down to arrow shafts. Tooth and blade gives shocking arrowhead, normal arrowheads and poison barrel make poison arrowheads. Make the actual arrows with them and sell for more money than the pieces cost. Penny mushrooms and bottle make health potions, and potions of the same size can be combined to make bigger ones. Sell those for more money than the cost of the material. Several other crafting combinations can make you a few hundred gold without stealing if you don't want to go that route.

So basically thieving + craft is a way to go?

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Nonomori:

So basically thieving + craft is a way to go?

For the easiest results, yeah.

[★REM★]

Or kill everyone on sight. I never leave Fort Joy if there's anyone alive. I literally wipe every living form and loot their cold corpses for gold and equipment.

[bli-nk]

There are some random pieces of good armour laying around in chests and graves but usually those are best left for just prior to leaving Ft Joy so they will last you a few levels.

Crafting armour is cheap and is crafted to your current level so every level you can get improved gear for free which is the best solution if you don't want to spend an inordinate amount of time stealing.

I did have one thief in each playthru I've done but I left Ft Joy with only 20k and arrived at Act 4 with 400k despite never stealing more than once from most merchants and nearly entire skipped all other characters- every Act pick 1 merchant to level up to 100 attitude by paying gold with your persuasion character (usually that costs less than 2,000 until Act 4) and then sell all the gear you find to that merchant- ideally with +barter gear loaded.

You will easily make +30-50% more for every piece of gear you sell as well get an equal discount so gear that might sell for 100 will sell for 150 and gear that might cost 400 will only cost 200. that means just by taking gear you find laying around you can usually equip a couple pieces of gear that boost stats for every character if you craft the basic armour without having to spend time setting up thievery on every merchant/character you encounter.

Crafting potions and arrows is also an easy money maker- every 3 levels I simply open up crafting menu go to the recipes section and craft every single thing I can and then sell them to the 100 attitude merchant until Act 3 where I start saving things like source orbs or pixie dust.

In Ft Joy I find the Lizard merchant in the Elves cavern the best to spend some gold on getting to 100 attitude as he has higher quality gear that will replenish with gear matching your level periodically and being in the caverns is out of the way if any fights start between you and the magisters or other citizens. There is another merchant behind the castle the offers very high level (for Ft Joy) gear that can be worth visiting before you go far into the swamps and is part of Ifan's personal quest as well as an interesting fight for a starting party if you decide to rob him.

I think it is quite possible to leave Ft Joy with 10-40K just running around the map and selling items found with lucky charm to a 100 attitude merchant if you have a few points in barter without even engaging in fights or thievery. That takes a few hours of real time though so to play more efficiently having 1 thieving character and selling most of the gear from fights while crafting basic level armour for free nets the most gold with the least amount of time involved.

[Nonomori]

40k just after Fort Joy? oO guess ive been playing this game super wrong to only have 300 gold after escaping haha. Guess I have to start again with a walkthrough this time.

[bli-nk]

300 is a little but low but probably doable if you at least have mostly party level gear- what level is your party? The main thing about gold it that every level it gets easier to accumulate a lot more so if you exit Ft Joy with basically nothing within a couple quests you should have a few thousands.

I don't personally exit Ft Joy with 40k but since I spent what I consider relatively minimal time trying to build up gold and usually end up with 10-20K I think 40K is very possible with some effort and there are plenty of guides showing people leaving with over 2 million which is basically pointless in my opinion as you'll never spend that much in the game unless you just don't loot anything after fighting.