How to Make Many Mon (efficiently)

A guide to making money in WotS4

Intro

Making money in this game isn't really complicated. You do stuff for people, and they give you money for it. Easy, right? You can get jobs from specific NPC's, or just from talking to random passer-bys - and you'll even get paid for doing the basic story-missions.

But... there's a LOT of stuff you'll want to buy, too. Forging a weapon up to the limit costs a bundle. Laying in a decent stock of Medicine and other high-value healing-items for high-difficulty runs can wear a hole in your bank-account. And then there's the HUGE number of clothing-items, haircuts and accessories you'll want to buy - including a heap of accessories earned from the Casino, where you'll wind up buying thousands upon thousands of Chips. (Unless you feel like spending a few years playing Poker, that is.)

So, you'll also want to earn a whole lot of money. Which makes doing so EFFICIENTLY a priority! And that's what this guide is for.

Basic Advice

Firstly, a Mon saved is a Mon earned! Pricing varries according to the crime-rate in town, so never make any major purchases unless the rate is 'Great', which ensures minimum pricing. Having the Hospital open also adds an independent 10% onto every price, but you need that open for a number of things (AND they have a decent selection of healing-items), so it's probably not worth it to shut that down just to go on a shopping-spree, since you'll have to reopen it again later... still, if you want to shut it down anyway for some reason, that's a good time to go shopping!

Secondly, you can only carry 99999 Mon at a time. Keep an eye on your cash, especially if you're doing a lot of side-jobs, and make sure to visit the Treasury (in your Dojo) if you're getting near the limit. Anything you earn above that limit is simply wasted, and that's a shame, no?

Thirdly, you'll want to do the big Amihama Eight mission at least once - just for the experience - and probably also the 'Four Samurai Lords VS Yakuza Quartet' mission that is, essentially, an abreviated version of that. Either of those requires you to go through the entire job-list of all four job-giving NPC's, which will make you a bundle - and each of those 'final' missions also has a hefty payout by itself. So if you're short on funds and have been meaning to get around to one of those... do it!

Nodobotoke's Quests

This is the core of the guide. If you want to efficiently make a lot of Mon(ey), go through Nodobotoke's quest-line (he's the one at the Magistrate's) on every run-through of the game. Of the four quest-givers, he is ideal for several reasons:

He had no (unavoidable) 'massacre' style missions - those will slow you down a lot.
The bonus objectives of his missions are easy and quick to complete, compared to the alternatives.
All his missions can be completed very quickly, and mostly with a minimum of talk.
Being one of the two 'orderly' quest-givers, doing his missions will improve the crime-rate (or keep it Great), ensuring low prices and a good selection.

Mind, I say 'on every run', but that's a generalization, of course. If you're just doing a speed-run to rack up Samurai Points with the 'As a Demonscale' ending, skip it. If you're on a high enough difficulty that you'd prefer avoiding unnecessary combat, skip it. But if you're just doing a run for some specific style, or weapon, or Night-Crawl, or whatnot - make the trip to the Magistrate's, no matter what faction you intend to side with. Try to do it on the first day, during the day or evening - if you aren't siding with the Magistrates, you'll lose access to Nodobotoke after the third day.

Quick Walkthrough

Here's how you can get through Nodobotoke's Quests at a dead run...

1. Subpoena - Go to Town, and search out the three Bounties - guys dressed in black, with black conical hats. They'll either be walking around randomly, or standing in various hidden corners. Don't bother talking to them - just attack and cut them down. Once you've killed all three, head to the north side and find the target samurai surrounded by two women. Talk to him, then to them, and tell them you work for the Magistrates. Then talk to him and pick "Didn't you kill a government official?", "I'm taking you in to the Magistrate's" and "The scary constable will be mad at me!". That will complete the mission without a fight.
   
2. Demand Note - Go to the Harbor, find the three Bounties (you'll soon learn their hiding-places, especially since you'll be making repeated visits to the harbor), then head up to the raised platform to find the target. Don't bother talking to anyone - just attack the bodyguard with your best shot, and take him down quickly. Only then talk to the merchant, who'll pay up immediately.
   
3. Plea Bargain - Go to the Cemetary. It's a tiny place, so finding the three bounties will be dead easy. Then run up to the target and attack him, killing him as quickly as you can - he doesn't have anything interesting to say anyway.
   
4. Warning - Same as Demand Note. To the Harbor, track down Bounties, attack Bodyguard, talk to Merchant, done.
   
5. Shadow of What Once Was - Go to the Back Roads. Finding the three Bounties here can be a bit of a pain, so if you find two of them near the west side where the targets are, you may not want to bother tracking down the last one. Go talk to the target, and select (abreviated) "Nenza Tsumasaki...", "We'll call that...", "I'd like to chat...", "You hate the Prajnas...", "Do you have...", "Why not just...", "Must be tough..." and finally "What do you plan to do now?" Bang, mission complete without further combat.
   
6. Time to Pay the Tax Man - Here we go again... to the harbor, finding Bounties in their usual haunts, then go ambush the Bodyguard. Only this time, you can follow up by cutting down the merchant, with no need for talk. All done!
   
7. Highly Desired Secret Weapon - For once, I recommend you ignore the Bounties. You need to destroy all the boxes QUICKLY, or it'll turn into a massacre-type mission. Take out the huge pile of boxes in the centre, and the one caught in the brances of the tree, with particular priority - since they'd be tough to do during combat, if it comes to that. If you move fast and make good use of both your weapon (particularly a vertical cut) and the unarmed running kick, you can easily take them all out before the time runs out. Mind, if you don't mind taking out the last few boxes while under attack by the Prajna, you CAN take the time to off the Bounties for an extra payday... 's a small area, after all.
   
8. True Culprit - To the Inn in the central square! Find the Bounties - one of them may be on the second floor - and then kill your way past the two guards heading to the luxury room. Now, this is ONE place where I'd suggest actually talking to the target - if you just pull your weapon, the nearby minions will attack instantly, followed by a steady stream of them, while HE ignores you until hit. So instead, talk to him and go "Get in mah ropes..." followed by "Resistance is futile..." to start a fight, and quickly take him down. Once he goes down, all the other minions piling in will surrender too. Feel free to kick 'em over and take their weapons for a bonus!

A full run like this will make you 'bout 50.000 Mon, and can be done in minutes once you know where the Bounties are likely to hide - particularly if you have a powerful grapple-type attack to open each battle with.

Final Words and Attributions

This is a method I've found to be efficient during my runs through the game. If you have any suggestions for better money-making methods, or other economic advice, please leave 'em in the comments and I'll add them to the guide.

Also, credit is due to EVERYTHING69, whose FAQ/Walkthrough on GameFAQ's was useful for the job details.

[Archone]

I actually found a better way - at least for me it is. I do the Yakuza massacres while armed with a custom spear. With triple Midas. I lucked out and got the right pieces... but needless to say, the dropped mon is unbelievable.

[bobhome2]

Nice guide. All of the quest-giver missions add bonus money, but Nodobotoke's and Gramps' missions will keep your crime rate safe. And Nodobotoke's certainly seems the most lucrative.

I've also been making a good amount of money doing the Yakuza massacres while mastering styles. It's not nearly as fast, but it can balance out usefulness with money-making to a degree.