How to Make Money: Best Methods and Where to Sell, Early to Late Game

Good news for any Keeper with an accountant’s soul: money stops being a problem by mid game. A full run needs only about 3 to 5 gold in total for steel, Special Wood and the story’s various fees and bribes, and most Keepers reach the credits sitting on 5 to 60 gold they never spent. Faith and Likes are what actually run short. So earn hard in the first weeks, buy whatever unblocks you, then switch to the methods that cost the least energy.

Best ways to make money, ranked by stage

Counted per point of energy, the later methods pull far ahead: a Steel Sword returns about 650 bronze per energy spent at the anvil, a gold ring about 150 (about 235 with the Goldsmith talent), a merged gold Story about 80. Certificates and sermons cost almost nothing extra, because they ride on work you already do.

How trader prices work (and why they drop)

The price curve

Every trader values a good from its base price and how much of it he holds right now. The unit price is base × √(usual stock ÷ current stock). When you sell, he pays 75% of that, rounded, never less than 1 bronze and never more than the base price. In practice:

• The first unit you sell at his usual stock pays about 71.5% of base (for a usual stock of 10).
• Each unit lowers the next. Three gold rings sold in a row to the Trademaster pay 75 silver 9, then 71 silver 89, then 69 silver 7 bronze.
• Ten units into a usual stock of 10 pay only about 61% of ten times the base price.
• Buying climbs the same curve the other way: 3 Golden nuggets cost 3 silver 8, but all 20 on his shelf cost 33 silver 96, not 20 silver.

Restock: why 2 a day is the magic number

At midnight every stock line drifts back toward its usual level, by at most one fifth of the usual amount per day. A good with a usual stock of 10 therefore absorbs about 2 units a day at a near-first-sale price. Sell 30 at once and you have lowered the price for every sale after it; a crashed shelf takes about a week to recover. A shop upgrade is the exception: the trader gets his full new shelf at once.

Fixed-price goods ignore the curve

About 52 goods always trade at their full base price, whatever the stock: Burial Certificates, weapons, armor, tools, zombie collars, talismans and fish sold to the Fish Stand. Town Gratitude is fixed-price too, but only Januarius sells it and nobody buys it back. Bags and fishing rods are fixed-price as well, but no trader ever buys them back. That is why forged weapons are the safest big sale in the game: the Smithy pays the sticker price for the tenth sword exactly as for the first.

The Paint exception: marked-up goods

The Trademaster asks 5 silver for Paint, well above its 2-silver base. A sale pays 75% of his own marked-up price on the curve, capped at base, so Paint sells for a flat 2 silver for roughly the first 25 units before the offer slides (to about 1 silver 15 by the 97th). Dump 97 Paint in one trade and, by our estimate, they bring only about 1 gold 55, not the 1 gold 94 a flat price would pay. Lacquer sells for the same 2 silver at his stall, but costs more to brew.

Purses: every trader has a wallet

Those daily incomes look stingy, but they are not the whole story. At midnight a trader also resells part of any surplus at base price into his purse, so whatever you sold him turns back into his cash over the following days. That is the likely reason players find a tier III Jeweler sitting on about 90 gold, and a tier III Smithy holding a little over 5 gold per trade cycle for your swords.

When a trader still cannot pay, settle in kind: fill the other side of the window with goods you will use anyway (ingots, details, nails, potions, keys) until the balance fits his purse. Splitting one big sale into several small trades changes nothing.

Where to sell: who buys what

Nobody buys these

• Steel Axe, Steel Pickaxe, Steel Shovel, Steel Hammer and the Golden Talisman
• Steel Ingots themselves
• trophy fish, most cooked dishes, Moonshine, written books and written prayers
• organs, skin, bones, skulls, blood and fat (Flesh is the only exception)
• raw materials such as Copper Nugget, Tin, Clay, Sand, Coal, Glass, Short Log, Stone and Marble

A trader’s stock list is not his buy list either. The Smithy refuses the hammer of his own tier, the Jeweler refuses talismans and tools at the tier where he starts selling them, and the Tavern will not buy back its Fish soup or Soldier’s stew. If an item is greyed out in your backpack, that trader does not want it at his current tier.

Which market stall to leave empty

The Town has 8 market-stall shops but only 7 Merchant Stalls plots, so one stall shop is never built; the 4 courtyard shops (Builder, Smithy, Tavern, Brewery) always fit. For money, keep the Jeweler (Fine Jewelry, Golden ingots) and the Alchemist (Philosopher Stones and potions), both opened by Market Stalls III. The Fish Stand, which tops out at 1 silver 92 for an Eel, is the usual sacrifice, and Patron of merchants only asks for the 11 plots you can actually fill. Costs and build order are in the town restoration guide.

Likes: the currency behind your sermon income

Likes (the thumbs-up counter) are not coins, but they decide how much your sermons pay. A sermon seats the lower of your Likes and your church quality, and each parishioner spends one Like. Likes are capped by Town quality, which tops out at 200, and anything earned above the cap is lost. The full ways to raise them are in the Town Gratitude and Likes guide.

Likes come from Town orders, Town Gratitude and trading. Januarius, Herm and the 12 Town shops pay Likes for certain goods, up to a weekly cap per trader that resets on Pride: 15, 30 or 50 by tier since patch 1.008 (Herm 2, 30 and 50). Each item has its own weekly allowance on top, so variety beats volume: five different goods fill a bar far faster than one good sold by the hundred. The earners that matter to a money player:

Early game: certificates and sermons

Bury, cremate, sell the certificate

From Certificate, Please onward, every corpse you bury or cremate yields a Burial Certificate, and Januarius buys it at a fixed price: 1 silver for grade I, 2 silver 50 for grade II, 5 silver for grade III. No curve, no saturation. Three things to know:

• Removing organs does not lower the grade, so autopsy first and cash in second.
• Cremation also yields a certificate, which keeps the money coming when the graveyard is full.
• His purse is the brake: he starts with 10 silver and earns 75 bronze a day at tier I, so five grade III certificates (25 silver) can take two visits. Sell a few every time you pass.

The grade follows the corpse’s tier, which the Nun’s quests raise. With her deliveries set to the maximum and gold certificates coming in, around 10 silver a day arrives for very little extra work. The corpse quality guide covers the corpse side. If you take the Treasure Hunter talent, organs removed at the autopsy table add a few coins (about 10 bronze each): small, but it rides on work you do anyway.

Preach every Wrath, with a bronze prayer

The weekly sermon on Wrath pays coins into the church Donation box (empty it by hand afterwards): a fixed amount per parishioner, plus, if the sermon succeeds, an amount per point of graveyard quality. Early numbers are modest. With 10 parishioners and a graveyard of 30, the Basic Prayer (only the bronze copy the Nun hands you exists) pays 3 silver 50, while a bronze Money Prayer averages about 5 silver: 7 silver when it succeeds, which it does 2 times in 3 at that crowd, and 1 silver when it fails. Two habits pay off for the rest of the game:

• Never skip a Wrath. A missed sermon cannot be made up.
• Write bronze prayers while attendance is low. High Book writing mastery produces silver and gold copies, and those need far more parishioners to start: a gold Money Prayer will not start under 50. Money Prayer comes from Religious Writing I; keep one bronze copy of every prayer you write.

Small change from what you already make

Sell the by-products: Boards to Herm, Bronze Scrap to Herm, the Smithy or the Jeweler, and, once Herm reaches tier II, Clay Plates and bronze-quality crops up to his weekly Likes limit. The coins are small, but each different item also fills a Likes bar.

Do not grow silver or gold star crops for cash yet. Herm and a tier I Vegetable Stand only take bronze-quality crops, and the stars have no buyer at all until the Vegetable Stand is upgraded.

Early-mid game: the Paint loop at the Port

Once Crystal Clear (3 Lens) opens the Trademaster’s shop at the Main Pier, Paint becomes the best hand-made earner before gold. Each one costs about 4 bronze in flasks and sells for 2 silver.

What you need:

• Laboratory I with a Flask shelf
• the Paint technology (20 red, 20 green), which stays hidden until the quest Safe Harbor (Linda) reveals it
• Water studied once at the Study Table
• Alchemy Flasks I: 2 Glass + 10 Fuel make 2, and each one placed on the shelf becomes 5 flasks

The loop:

1. Draw Water at a well: 10 per draw, 20 with the Garden Well upgrade.
2. Mix Water + Water (0 red, 2 green, 0 blue) at Laboratory I. Two Leaves work as well.
3. Sell to the Trademaster: a flat 2 silver for roughly the first 25 units.
4. When his offer dips, top up at the Alchemist (about 1 silver 40, plus 1 Like each up to his weekly limit) and come back to the pier another day.

Keep a few Paint aside: Safe Harbor asks for one, and Printed Money and Church Shrine III use it too. Never sell it to a tier III Furniture Maker: he pays 1 bronze.

Mid game: gold rings and iron

The gold ring loop

Precious Trinkets, the gold ring, is the backbone of mid-game income: about 1 silver 54 of gold becomes about 75 silver.

1. Buy Golden nuggets from the Trademaster in small lots (he stocks 20 and the price climbs as you buy).
2. Smelt 3 nuggets + 30 Fuel at Furnace II with Bellows into 2 Golden ingots (3 with the Fireman talent). The recipe comes with Reanimation II and runs on its own, so a zombie can keep it fed.
3. Turn each ingot into Precious Trinkets at the Jewelry Table: Writing Tools II, Smithing 12, 48 energy per ring (32 with the Goldsmith talent). The Talented jeweler talent adds 4 Smithing at that table.
4. Sell 2 or 3 a day to the Trademaster: 75 silver 9, 71 silver 89, 69 silver 7 bronze for the first three.

Once the Jeweler reaches tier II he also buys Golden ingots, at 68 silver 47 to 71 silver 51. Sell ingots to him and rings to the Trademaster on the same day and you double the gold you can move at a good price. The gold guide covers every route to nuggets and ingots.

Nuggets come from four places: the Trademaster (3 cost 3 silver 8, all 20 cost 33 silver 96), Davy the Dagger’s Valuables crates after Wharf Rats (ordered on Lust, paid in Keys for Looters, up to 30 nuggets and 6 ingots), the Gold Digger talent at the Sluice Box, and a Philosopher Stone on an Iron Ingot. The crate ranges, the Key sources and the one-off Press for Cash chest are in the gold guide. One big Valuables crate is gold enough for roughly 13 to 26 rings.

Iron gear for the Smithy

Iron weapons and tools are fixed-price goods, so the Town Smithy pays full price from his tier II, every single time:

One ingot makes 6 Iron Detail at the Iron Anvil. The sword comes with Iron Equipment, the shovel and axe with Iron Instruments I, both at Smithing 6. Raising the Smithy to tier II costs 6 Furniture Kit I, 4 Marble Kit and 6 Advanced Detail, and he still refuses the Iron Hammer at that tier. The Trademaster sells Iron Ore, but the real play is free ore from a Zombie Miner (see the automation section below).

Reanimation Liquid on the side

Reanimation Liquid (2 red, 1 green, 4 blue at Laboratory II) sells for about 4 silver 55 to Gunter and about 5 silver to the Alchemist. Gunter’s usual stock is only 3, so his offer falls fast. Keep what your Envy resurrections need and sell the surplus one or two at a time.

Sermons in mid game: switch to Prayer for Storms

From about 25 parishioners, Prayer for Storms (from the Reanimation technology) out-earns the Money Prayers: 20 coins a head, 30 per graveyard point, certain success at 40 parishioners. With 40 parishioners and a graveyard of 200 it pays 68 silver, against 58 silver for Money Prayer II, and a successful sermon throws in a blessing that lets the Resurrection device work on any day for a while. The church guide covers attendance and the success roll.

Late game: steel, jewelry and big sermons

Steel Swords: the best trade in the game

Steel cannot be smelted. Start Man of Steel and the Bishop at the Royal Foundry sells Steel Ingots through dialogue at 1 silver each, in lots of 1, 10, 50 or 100. A Steel Sword takes 2 Steel Ingot + 3 Steel Detail + 2 Stick at the Steel Anvil (Steel Equipment, Smithing 12), and 1 ingot makes 4 Steel Detail (6 with the Engineer talent). That is about 2 silver 75 of steel for a sword the tier III Smithy buys at a flat 2 gold 50: about 650 bronze per point of energy.

The same buyer pays the same way for:

• Steel Armor: 2 gold 50 (4 Steel Ingot + 4 Steel Detail + 4 Fabric, Smithing 12)
• Knight’s Spear: 1 gold (1 Steel Ingot + 2 Steel Detail + 4 Stick, Smithing 11)

The limit is his purse, a little over 5 gold per trade cycle, which is about two swords. Take nails or details as change, or come back the next day. Smithy tier III costs 8 Furniture Kit II, 4 Building Kit II and 12 Steel Screws. Before selling armor, keep 5 Steel Armor for Not in Shining Armor Yet, and never forge steel tools for sale: no trader buys them. The steel guide has the full supply chain.

Fine Jewelry, before Jeweler III

Add a Gem to a Precious Trinkets at the Jewelry Table (Smithing 14, recipe from the Jeweler talent) and you get Fine Jewelry. A tier I or II Jeweler pays 3 gold 57 silver 55 for it, about 2 gold 80 more than the ring alone. Gems come from the Trademaster, from copper veins with the Jeweler or Miner talent, from a Zombie Miner with the Magpie’s Eye perk, and 8 come in the Press for Cash chest. An early Jeweler may not have the cash for even one piece: settle the difference in kind.

The Alchemist III rotation

A tier III Alchemist buys high-rune products you can brew at Laboratory II from cheap ingredients. Each line refills about 2 a day, so brew a little of everything instead of a lot of one.

Rotating all six comes to roughly 1 gold 80 a day by our estimate. You need Alchemy, Advanced (200 red, 100 blue) for the Philosopher Stone, and the Alchemist’s tier III costs 10 Furniture Kit II, 4 Building Kit II and 4 Blank Hardcover Notebook. Do not sell Berserker Potion III there: he pays 1 bronze.

A Philosopher Stone is worth more as gold than as a sale. Combined with an Iron Ingot at the Formulation Bench (Anatomy 8) it becomes a Golden ingot, and that ingot becomes a 75-silver ring: twice what the stone fetches. Never use it on Iron Ore, which only returns a 1-silver nugget. Formulas and rune values are in the alchemy guide.

Gold Stories for the Tavern

A tier III Tavern buys gold Stories at about 35 silver 75. Buy two silver Stories from it at 5 silver each, merge them into one gold Story at the Writing Desk with Improve story II (Book writing 8, Storytelling I, 32 energy) and sell it back: about 25 silver profit per merge, around 2 a day. Nobody has confirmed this sale in play yet, so test it with one Story before you invest.

If they are still ahead of you, keep one gold Story for Gunter’s Rhyme and Printed and three more for a late quest. The Tavern’s tier III costs 12 Furniture Kit II, 6 Building Kit II and 20 Blueberry Cider.

Money Prayer III and graveyard quality

Late game, sermons become your biggest passive income. Coins per sermon without perks, with the best money prayer for each crowd:

Money Prayer III overtakes Prayer for Storms somewhere between 50 and 70 parishioners, depending on graveyard quality (about 63 at graveyard 200). With Money Prayer III every graveyard point pays 30 bronze per successful sermon, every week, for the rest of the game, which makes graveyard quality the best long-term investment you can make (graveyard quality guide). Two talents lift the ceiling: Cardinal adds about 20% per parishioner and Performer up to 20% per graveyard point, taking the maximum sermon to about 6 gold 31. More on them in the talents guide; every prayer’s numbers are in the prayers list.

Surplus Faith to Homobonus

After Homobonus II, which needs the south of Town made safe, Homobonus buys 10 Faith for 5 silver whenever you like: 50 bronze per Faith. Faith is scarcer than coins for most of the game, so sell only what your inspirations no longer need.

Automation income: what zombies can earn for you

Start with what does not pay: Town order crates. Each crate is paid at its base price (Supply: Iron 50 bronze, most tier I supplies such as Supply: Fabric 1 silver, tier II supplies, Supply: Wine and Supply: Steel Tools 2 silver), so a 10-crate order is worth 5 to 20 silver plus its Likes. Crates that sit in the Town Warehouse without an order are sold at base when Pride starts. Orders are a Likes engine, not a cash machine.

The automated money route is metal:

1. A zombie with a pickaxe on the Zombie Miner in the Old Mine produces 1 Iron Ore + 2 Coal every 8 ticks (6 with the Zombie Miner perk), plus a 10% Gem chance with Magpie’s Eye. Zombie Mining (60 red, 10 blue) stays hidden until both ends of the Old Mine are open.
2. Ore and coal go to a Factory Smithy I: 1 Iron Ore + 1 Coal = 1 Iron Ingot, no Fuel. The Miner’s two Coal per ore cover that with coal to spare.
3. Anvil zombies with the right mastery turn ingots into Iron Detail, then shovels or swords, while you get on with digging.
4. You carry the finished gear to the Smithy, a few pieces per visit.

A money week

Every day: certificates to Januarius, 2 or 3 of each curve-priced good per trader. The full calendar is in the weekly calendar guide.

What money is actually for

The Royal Postbox will happily take 2 silver 50 in taxes and give you nothing in return: let the Crown wait. Everything else on this list is a one-time or occasional cost, which is why a few gold covers a whole run.

Common mistakes

• Upgrading the Jeweler to tier III with Fine Jewelry in your bag. 3 gold 57 becomes 1 bronze per piece.
• Dumping one good on one trader. 800 carrots sold to Herm left his offer at 1 bronze for weeks. Spread sales and rotate buyers.
• Crating Wine. Supply: Wine pays 2 silver for several bottles worth about 54 to 75 bronze each when sold loose at the Brewery. Crate goods that sell badly or not at all loose: Iron Ingots and Iron Kit I have no buyer, and Fabric fetches only about 26 bronze.
• Delivering crates without an order. They are sold at base when Pride starts and earn no Likes. Accept orders first, then switch porters off once an order is full.
• Too many zombies on Wrath. Excessive zombies takes 60% of the sermon’s coins.
• Writing only gold prayers. A gold Money Prayer cannot start under 50 parishioners; keep bronze copies.
• Crafting for sale without checking the buyer. Steel tools, the Golden Talisman, trophy fish and most cooked dishes are worth nothing to any trader.
• Growing star crops for cash before the Vegetable Stand upgrade.
• Buying Town Gratitude with a full Likes counter. Anything above the cap is lost.
• Using a Philosopher Stone on Iron Ore (a 1-silver nugget) instead of an Iron Ingot (a 1-gold ingot).
• Selling to the 1-bronze buyers: Paint to a tier III Furniture Maker, Berserker Potion III to a tier III Alchemist.
• Finishing Inflation before gold Wine is steady. The deal switches mercenary hires to 3 gold Wine each. The quest data says the switch is permanent, while some players report coins still work. Plan as if it is permanent, and do not risk it early.