Various ways to both make gold and save it, in no particular order.
Capitalizing on Town Events
There’s a chance at the beginning of each week, or after you complete a certain mission, there will be a town event. Some of these are extremely beneficial in saving you gold.
Bumper Crop & Supply Run
Bumper Crop reduces the prices for supplies and provisions by 100% (free), while Supply Run only halves supply and provision prices.
Both events save you a good deal of gold on items, especially on medium and long missions.
Lost and Found & A Job Well Done
Lost and Found gives you one free weapon upgrade for a hero, and A Job Well Done gives you one free armor upgrade for a hero.
With higher tiers of weapons and armor, you’ll save a lot of gold getting the upgrade for free.
Labour Force
Labour Force gives you one free building upgrade.
While this doesn’t immediately save you gold, as building upgrades cost heirlooms and not gold, this can save you gold in the long run if you use the upgrade on a cost-reduction upgrade.
Trade-Off Stress Discounts
There are many of these events to name, but here is the general theme between them: At one of the stress relief facilities, one of the options will be unavailable, while the other options have their cost reduced by half.
This can save quite a bit of gold on stress healing, unless the hero(es) you want to treat has a quirk that makes it so they can only visit the closed activity.
Mardis Gras & All Saints Day
Mardis Gras makes all Tavern activities free, and All Saints Day makes all Chapel activities free.
The better versions of the previously mentioned trade-off events, guaranteeing to save you gold.
Medical Breakthrough & Caregivers Convention
Medical Breakthrough makes curing diseases at the Sanitarium free, and Caregivers Convention makes all Sanitarium activities free.
Convention is especially powerful, as you can both lock good quirks and purge bad quirks at the same time for free.
Nomad New Year
Nomad New Year reduces all trinket prices at the Nomad Wagon by half.
Really only useful if there is a trinket you want in stock that day, but you’ll save quite a bit of gold on the purchase.
Town Fair
Town Fair makes all stress relief facilities free, as well as making all Sanitarium activities free.
The holy grail of town events. Not only do you get free stress heal for your heroes, you also get to treat diseases and quirks for free.
Torch Manipulation
Torch Manipulation is when you purposely snuff out your torch before a fight ends in order to get the bonus loot from pitch black light. If you plan on doing this, bring a few more torches than would you would normally bring (if you bring like 8 torches for short missions, bring around 14 instead).
Similarly to stalling for heals, you should wait until there is a stunned low-health enemy or an enemy that is assured to die from blight/bleed before snuffing your torch.
You shouldn’t be doing torch manipulation for every fight, however, as you’d need to bring even more torches than you’d normally bring. A good time to do so is when you’re in a room fight with a treasure curio, even better if there’s a loot curio right before or right after the room.
Cost-Reducing Upgrades
Each building in the Hamlet have upgrades that reduce the cost of using it. Purchasing these upgrades can help you save a lot of gold.
The mindset behind this is that while a reduction of, say, 1,000 to 900 may not seem like a lot of gold saved, think about it in the long term. That 100 gold saved over a period of 10 visits equals to 1,000 gold saved. This saved gold increases the more discount upgrades you purchase.
The Abbey & Tavern
Each of the Abbey and Tavern activities have their costs reduced with their 2nd and 5th upgrade ranks. All of them reduce the cost by 15%, for a total of 30% for that activity.
The Blacksmith, Guild, Nomad Wagon, and Survivalist
The Blacksmith, Guild, Nomad Wagon, and Survivalist each have separate upgrade paths specifically for reducing their Equipment, Skill, and Trinket costs. Each rank reduces the cost by 10% over five ranks, for a total of 50%.
The Sanitarium
The Sanitarium has two upgrade paths for each of its activities, but they act a bit differently from each other. The Treatment Library upgrade reduces the cost of quirk treatment by 10% over five ranks, for a total of 50%. The Medical Devices upgrade reduces the cost for disease treatment by 13% on its 1st, 3rd, and 5th ranks (the 2nd and 3rd ranks increase the chance to cure extra diseases), for a total of 39%.
Knowing the Curios
The best way to get loot during missions is to know what each curio you encounter does and how to search them safely. While I won’t go into each curio and their interactions, where is a list of ones that are good for finding loot and you should look up.
General Curios
- Discarded Packs
- Heirloom Chests
- Sacks
- Unlocked Strongboxes
Ruins Curios
- Alchemy Tables
- Decorative Urns
- Iron Maidens
- Locked Display Cabinets
- Locked Sarcophagi
Warrens Curios
- Dinner Carts
- Makeshift Dining Tables
- Piles of Bones
- Racks of Blades
Weald Curios
- Beast Carcasses
- Eerie Spiderwebs
- Left Luggage
- Mummified Remains
- Old Trees
- Shallow Graves
Cove Curios
- Barnacle Crusted Chests
- Fish Carcasses
- Giant Oysters
Courtyard Curios
- Bloodflowers
- Forgotten Delicacies
- Hooded Shrews
- Wizened Shrews
- Piles of Strange Bones
- Thronging Hives
Farmstead Curios
- Stockpiles
- Mildred
The Right Districts
With Districts, you can spend some gold, heirlooms, and blueprints to build buildings that provide various benefits. Here are four that can help you in making/saving gold.
1. The Bank
The Bank costs 15,000 gold (0 in Radiant mode), 50 Paintings, and 1 Blueprint.
The bank allows you to gain interest on your gold each week, at a rate of 5%. For example if you have 1,000 gold at the beginning of a week, you’ll be given 50 gold.
While the example I gave made it sound like a small effect, this is actually huge, especially when you start making larger sums of gold.
2. The Cartographer’s Camp
The Cartographer’s Camp costs 5,000 gold (1000 in Radiant Mode), 300 Crests, and 1 Blueprint.
The camp increases the benefits of all levels of Torchlight:
- +50% Loot Chance
- +1% CRIT
- +2.5% Scouting Chance
- +5% Chance Monsters Surprised
- -5% Chance Party Surprised
The biggest benefit is that +50 loot chance. Meaning you’ll get more gold, gems, and heirlooms.
3. The Granary
The Granary costs 2,500 gold (0 in Radiant Mode), 60 Busts, and 1 Blueprint.
The granary increases the healing party members get from eating by 15%, and also gives you around 4-10 free food each week.
While this doesn’t directly impact your gold gain, you will be saving quite a bit on food when provisioning. Again, like with the cost-reduction upgrades, you’ll save more gold in the long run. The extra healing is a good bonus too.
4. The Geological Studyhall
The Geological Studyhall costs 125 Comet Shards, and as such can only be built when the Color of Madness DLC is enabled.
The studyhall increases the stack size of gems by one, including Puzzling Trapezohedrons.
While a seemingly minor buff, keep in mind that a stack of six Jades, the second most common gem, is worth 2250 gold. Being able to carry that additional gem will be incredibly handy in both gold making and inventory management.
Selling Trinkets
Believe it or not, a good way to make gold quickly would be to sell your trinkets, especially weaker ones. Here’s a the prices for each rarity and a list of weak trinkets that would be good to sell.
Sell Prices
(Very) Common: 750
Common: 1,125
Uncommon: 1,500
Rare: 2,250
Very Rare: 3,750
Very Rare (Collector/Madman): 2,250
Ancestral/Crimson Court: 7,500
(Very) Commons
- Critical Stone
- Dodge Stone
- Debuff Stone
- Move Charm
- Stun Charm
Commons
- Deteriorating Bracer
- Lock of Patience
- Sturdy Greaves
- Sturdy Boots
- Defender’s Seal
- Healing Armlet
- Sly Eyepatch
- Rotgut Censer
- Virtuous Chalice
Uncommons
- Bloodthrist Ring
- Book of Holiness
- Gambler’s Charm
- Shimmering Cloak
- Bloodcourse Medallion
- Carapace Idol
- Double-Edged Pendant
- Longevity Eyepatch
- Haste Chalice
Rares
- Quick Draw Charm
- Sun Cloak
Very Rares
- Barristan’s Head
- Mantra of Fasting
Ancestral/Crimson Court
- Tyrant’s Fingerbone
- Subject #40 Notes
Prioritizing Gems
For some gems, a full stack of them are worth more than a stack of gold, and are worth collecting during a mission.
Which Gems Are Worth It?
Citrines? NO. In all circumstances Citrines are not worth collecting, unless you find no other gems. A full stack of five is only worth 1,250 gold, 500 less than a gold stack. Even with the studyhall built, a stack of six is still only worth 1,500 gold.
Jades and Onyxes? Maybe. A stack of five Jades is worth 1,875 gold, 100 more than a gold stack. But, with an Antiquarian in your party, it’s not worth it to collect them since you carry more gold, even with the studyhall built. The same is true for Onyxes, except a stack of five breaks even with an Antiquarian gold stack. Unless you have the studyhall built, where in that case a stack of six Onyxes are worth more than an Antiquarian gold stack.
Emeralds, Sapphires, and Rubies? Yes. It is always worth it to collect these, as stacks of them are worth a lot more than even an Antiquarian gold stack. Collecting these are made even better with the studyhall built.
The Geological Studyhall, Again
As said in the Districts section, building the Geological Studyhall increases gem stacking by 1, including Puzzling Trapeohedrons. Being able to carry that extra gem will increase your gold gain significantly. It even allows you to make collecting Onyxes worth it when you have an Antiquarian in your party.
The Antiquarian
The Antiquarian is by far the strongest tool in your gold making plans, as she has two unique abilities that are all about getting more loot.
1. Larger Gold Stacks
For each Antiquarian in your party, you can carry up to 750 more gold in gold stacks. With one Antiquarian, you can carry 2,500 gold in a stack, and with a party of four, you can carry 4750 gold in a stack (although I wouldn’t recommend bringing more than one, as Antiquarians are the weakest heroes in terms of dealing damage).
With only a single Antiquarian, full stacks Jades and Onyxes are worth less than a single 2,500 gold stack (unless you have the Geological Studyhall built, then it’s still worth it to collect Onyxes). So, with an Antiquarian, you should only keep Emeralds, Sapphires, and Rubies. This not only helps with collecting more gold, it also helps with inventory management since you don’t need to carry worthless gems.
2. Antiques
Whenever you have an Antiquarian search a curio, you’ll get antiques in addition to any loot you find.
The Antiquarian must be the one to search the curio in order for you to get antiques.
You also get antiques as loot from battles. There are two kinds of antiques:
- Minor Antique. Worth 500 gold each. Can be stacked up to 20 (total value 10,000).
- Rare Antique. Worth 1,250 gold each. Can be stacked up to 5 (total value 6,250).
By collecting these antiques, you’ll be able to make even more gold during missions. And, since you won’t be carrying worthless gems, you can use the inventory space to carry the antiques instead.
The End
Thanks for reading, and I hope you get filthy rich.
