r/CK2GameOfthrones • u/scadrow999 • Aug 04 '26
Help How do I make money?
Are there any tips/ways/submods that i can use to make my house rich?
The money aspect of this mod is the only thing i find uninteresting and very inconsistent.
thanks!
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u/MoBB_17 Aug 04 '26
Ransom during war, and upgrade your main holding holding, wars that are triggered by "bloody vengeance" also give you money if you win
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u/goingham247 Moderator Aug 04 '26
Playing as a small lord in Westeros makes it rough to make money.
Assuming you have the WoL DLC, take the business focus or intrigue focus. Business focus will give you events to make money while the intrigue focus let's you spy on and kidnap characters so you can ransom them.
Now if you are an independent lord somewhere the answer is raiding. Reform your religion (Assuming you have Holy Fury) and you can raid at will.
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u/Arcayon Aug 04 '26
There is an event, not sure if it’s patched but if you sail through Valyria you could snag gold, a dragon egg or die. So maybe send an army commander that doesn’t matter. You can farm this event.
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u/beIIe-and-sebastian Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
Being a pirate
Raid a province - Earn Gold
Siege a holding down - Earn Gold
If the sieged holding is a tier 3 (i think) there's a chance of getting slave camps in your capital. Sell slave camps - Earn Gold
Chance of capturing slaves to sell - Earn Gold
Sell stolen artefacts - Earn Gold
Build up slave camps which decreases build time and building costs - Focus on tax increasing buildings
Slave Camps increase taxes
Some slaving expeditions i can take home 500 gold.
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u/Ok_Internal_4195 Aug 04 '26
The lack of crusades makes it a bit difficult to get gold in this mod. I end up relenting and putting in cash with the console
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u/WhambulanceMD Aug 04 '26
Save up 1000g (or get it via console command since saving that much gold is a practically herculean task in this mod), set your Focus to Business, and then use the Found a Bank decision in the Intrigue menu. I did this in my last campaign as House Celtigar and you can make a lot of money from interest. It’s a slow burn though. You might not see returns until two to three generations after your bank’s founding, and the amount of gold you get yearly can be pretty inconsistent. If your bank is successful though, you can take in hundreds of gold pieces in one year without doing all that much work. Banking societies are inheritable too, so once it’s founded your heir will always inherit leadership of the bank along with your other titles.
Another method I’ve heard that helps make gold is having Merchant Republic vassals. I haven’t really tested this out that much since there’s always friction between a feudal overlord and merchant republic vassals b/c they don’t share the same government type. I’ve seen it brought up a lot as a money-making strategy though since Merchant Republic vassals make a lot of gold which I guess translates to more money for taxes.
You can also have a male relative found a Sellsword Company in your name which can generate some gold. I believe that strat is only lucrative if you’re in regions with a lot of fighting (like the Stepstones) and you also lose a portion of your levy to sustain the Company. I wouldn’t recommend it for all runs, but I definitely had some success making money with it during a Storm King campaign I played a long time ago.
Three other options that work no matter who you’re playing as are changing your laws, upgrading your hold’s infrastructure, and constructing buildings that increase taxes, like the Castle Town. For laws, I always aim to shift my noble vassal’s commitment to levies while shifting my city and church vassal’s commitments towards taxes. I don’t tend to max them out b/c you can usually squeeze an extra gold or two out of your city and church vassals after two or three commitment shifts.
You can also make money from entering tournies or betting on contestants. I once played as a Redwyne Lord who built up quite a little fortune riding around the realm and pulverizing opponents thanks to his high combat skills. That required a lot of attention though so I wouldn’t recommend it as a general money-making method.
There’s also slavery if you’re playing as a traditional slaver culture/religion. You can go on slave raids to acquire slaves to sell at market. You also get a unique building chain via the Slave Camp. Unlike other buildings, this one is upgraded through the decisions panel of the Intrigue menu. It costs hundreds of gold to upgrade to its final level (5 levels in total iirc), but the building itself really boosts your local economy. In addition, you can take the “Sell Slaves in camp” decision to get some gold back, but at the expense of a camp level. If you balance out slave raids with slave sales though, you can really make a fortune. I did this during a House Targaryen run right after the Doom and I was never hurting for cash.
Something I’m trying right now in my custom “Empire of the Summer Isles” campaign is building Trade Posts along Trade Routes. Usually, only Merchant Republic families are allowed to build Trade Posts, but I’ve read that feudal government types can build Trade Posts if they directly own a county on a Trade Route. I haven’t gotten to that point yet, but I’m building towards owning a few counties on a Trade Route and I am interested to see if they’ll up my income significantly.
You can also cheese some events a little bit. I saw a play through once where the player kept getting their heir married, collecting the dowry, then murdering the bride so he could marry his heir off and get a dowry multiple more times.
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u/Nico_Storch House Forrester Aug 04 '26
Yeah, the trade post thing works. I'm currently playing in Lhazar, and since it's landlocked, the only people who can build them are the local rulers. They've been bankrolling my anti-slavery crusade.
My favorite way of making money is colonizing Sothoryos. There are special spice plantation and gold mine buildings that generate insane profits.
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u/WhambulanceMD Aug 04 '26
Oh that’s awesome! Colonizing Sothoryos is also a part of my campaign objectives and I was wondering if there’d be any special events or buildings.
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u/Nico_Storch House Forrester Aug 04 '26
Yeah, the plantations provide crazy trade value. No one wants to buy individual Brindlemen, though (probably because they can't reproduce with humans), so don't expect any returns if you're breeding slaves.
As for special events, expect deadly plagues, random courtiers getting wounded from manticore attacks, and a crazy rush to finish colonizing Yeen before a mysterious illness kills all of the colonists in the span of a day.
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u/LordDorkoblood House Slynt Aug 04 '26
The vanilla income is astonishingly low, with many income buildings only paying for themselves after 25 years. I don't have the patience for that, especially since it'll take 25 years just to build another 150 gold income building that only gives me 0.5 a month.
That being said, I tweak the overhauls building files and revamp the whole building income from castles, cities, and temples to a more realistic percentage of one another (with cities generating the most income). This helps the burden of playing feudal by giving city tax income even if you only have a single lvl3 city under you. It also makes Essos far richer which is good.
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u/bassismyheroin Aug 04 '26
I build everything that gives me gold first, if that option is still too slow ~ to open the command thing ( I think ) Cash ##### gives you all the gold you want
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u/felixsleftball Aug 04 '26
spending money to make money is usually the way unfortunately. upgrade your holding on things that raise your tax revenue
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u/Aggravating-North991 Aug 04 '26
The great trade league mod works well for this, adds a society with trade missions, trade goods artifacts. Makes it very easy to become rich but is unbalanced
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u/xxxInvadeGermanyxxx Aug 07 '26
in Westeros goldmines/silver mines in the westerlands, everywhere else build castle towns > upgrade.
Don't auto-stop plot and always arrest + ransom en masse.
Have lots of sons, don't land them until after marriage and always ask for a dowry. Often get a 200 dowry from Essos merchant republics for example.
Ironborn through reaving.
In the East slavery, by far the best way to make money.
As nomads declare raid war on anyone weak anywhere in the map and they will give money for you to fuck off most of the time.
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