Fastest ways to make easy money in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
Here's how to get Groschen fast in the early days of KCD2
What are the fastest ways to make easy money in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2? It might come as a shock to the system once you're past the opening few quests in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and (without too many spoilers) Henry finds himself more or less having to start from scratch, with no gear, no reputation, and not a single Groschen to spend. Early on in the game, it's very hard to make money quickly unless you know exactly where to go and what to do.
With such a deep and wide-ranging series of life sim mechanics, there's no shortage of money-making methods available to you in KCD2. But some methods are going to get you hundreds or thousands of Groschen a lot quicker than others! In this guide, we'll walk you through all the very best ways to make easy money fast in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, from treasure maps to thievery, from selling perfumes to competing in fistfight tournaments. Time's money, so let's get started.
Fastest ways to make easy money in KCD2
If you want to earn lots of spending money as quickly as possible early on in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, then - just like in real life - you should aim to set up multiple revenue streams. Don't just rely on one method to earn Groschen, but branch out and look for every opportunity to earn a bit more gold, no matter how small the sum.
To get you started, here are several of the very best ways to get easy money fast early on in KCD2. Don't just pick one or two; pick several (or all of them!) to really kickstart your Groschen reserves!
Here are the fastest ways to make money in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2:
- Report the cabbage thief to Bailiff Thrush
- Sell stolen horses to Horse Handler Mikolai
- Kill bandits and sell their armour
- Follow Treasure Maps for big rewards
- Prioritise side quests
- Upgrade Thievery early and steal everything
- Forge and sell Longswords
- Brew and sell potions - particularly Lion
- Track down Gules' bandits after "The Jaunt"
- Compete in fistfighting tournaments
- Poach animals, and cook their meat before selling
Below we'll walk you through each of these money-making methods in more detail, so you're left with no doubt about how to earn Groschen as quickly as possible.
1. Report the cabbage thief to Bailiff Thrush
Here's a favourite strategy of mine for getting a lot of spending money early on in KCD2. Explore the south of the Trosky map a little bit and you'll find a wide river stretching left to right. Due south of Semine Castle, there's a little road below the river that disappears into the forest. Just around there, you'll find a man hiding in a cave. His name is Pepa, and he's been stealing cabbages in order to turn it into special Sauerkraut. If you choose to leave him be, then you can return to him whenever you like to exchange cabbages for Pepa's Sauerkraut, which is a food item with strong healing benefits.
However, the Sauerkraut's usefulness declines later on as you start using potions for healing instead. Knowing this, I like to head straight there as soon as possible, meet Pepa, and then report his cabbage theft to Bailiff Thrush in Troskowitz. Pepa and his infinite supply of Sauerkraut will disappear from the map, but you'll earn around 800 Groschen from the Bailiff for reporting the theft. That amount of money makes the first few hours of open-world travel in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 a lot easier.
2. Sell stolen horses to Horse Handler Mikolai
It's really all too easy to steal a horse in the dead of night in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. As long as you take your time with the horse when you first get on it, it'll happily allow you to ride it anywhere. And to make lots of easy money, the best place to ride is straight to the Nomad Camp in the west of Trosky, to find Horse Handler Mikolai.
Mikolai is a godsend for players look to make lots of Groschen early on. Ride your stolen horse into his territory and then speak to him, and you'll get the option to enter the "Horse Black Market" dialogue option. There, you can sell your stolen horse - usually for hundreds of Groschen at a time. You can only do this once every 24 in-game hours, but the rewards speak for themselves.
3. Kill bandits and sell their armour
Everyone's favourite money-making scheme from the first game is also a strong strategy in KCD2. Bandits on the road will often leave you no choice but to fight, and once they're dead, you should make sure to loot every bandit corpse for their armour and weapons. These will almost always be the most valuable items on their person, and they only increase in value as the game progresses and starts to throw better-equipped enemies at you. As an example, towards the end of my Trosky travels I was wearing some gauntlets worth 2080 Groschen.
Of course, traders won't pay full price for anything you have to sell, but you're still likely to rack up several hundred (or thousand) Groschen if you make a habit of regularly stripping defeated bandits for any armour or weapons worth more than 100 Groschen. You may just want to pick up some Perks that increase your carrying capacity if you want to avoid overencumbrance!
4. Follow Treasure Maps for big rewards
As you delve deeper into the random side quests and activities of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, you'll start to see treasure maps appearing. These abstract scribbled maps are deliberately unhelpful, so it may take you a lot of chin-scratching to figure out where to go to find said treasure - but as the name indicates, the rewards are well worth it.
The earliest treasure you're likely to get your hands on is the Vidlak Bandits' treasure, a map for which can be found at the camp that you deal with in the early side quest, "Lackey". Follow the map to the hollow tree north of Vidlak Pond, and just a short trek downstream you'll find a washed-up chest in the reeds with 300 Groschen and a Golden Crucifix worth 1,430 Groschen. This chest is available to find from the very start, and it's a fantastic way to give your income a big early boost.
5. Prioritise side quests
Side quests will generally pay you quite well for your troubles early on in the Trosky region. So it's a good idea, once you start the "Wedding Crashers" main quest and the world opens up, to just explore and pick up every side quest you can find before dealing with them one by one. Early on you'll be paid sums of 20-50 Groschen for completed tasks, but this can extend to nice paydays of 200 Groschen or more, particularly if you're speaking to nobles or more affluent questgivers.
6. Upgrade Thievery early and steal everything
If you want to play Henry as straight as an arrow, then you probably won't want to walk the path of the thief in the night, stealing everything that isn't nailed down. Even then, there are no laws against stealing from "bad guys" like bandits and ruffians. But if you really want to earn money fast, it's a good idea to head down to Lower Semine Mill early on, learn all you can about lockpicking and pickpocketing, and then go on nighttime sneak-raids of people's houses.
Just remember that stolen items will be recognised if you're near where they were stolen from. So it's best to select one place (ideally with lots of traders) as your hub which you return to for selling, and then go around looting all the nearby villages and towns for their most valuable belongings. Plus, it's great for earning lots of Thievery experience, which could really help you later on in the story!
7. Forge and sell Longswords
After Trosky opens up, pay Blacksmith Radovan a visit in Tachov and get him to teach you the basics of smithing. Blacksmithing, to me at least, is one of the most relaxing and enjoyable minigames in KCD2, and it's no hardship at all for me to spend a day or two hammering away crafting valuable works of steel to sell to Radovan or others.
My go-to money-making strategy is to earn enough money to purchase the Common Longsword recipe from Radovan (for around 300 Groschen). The Longsword is one of the most valuable early-game items you can craft, and the material requirements are quite low. With haggling, I generally earn a net profit of around 150 Groschen for each Longsword I craft, which adds up to an awful lot early on in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. It also means you only need to sell 2 Longswords before you've recouped the cost of the recipe.
8. Brew and sell potions - particularly Lion
Potions will sell for less than swords, but they have two important benefits: the ingredients are easier to find; and you can brew potions without having to learn the recipe for them! You also get access to an Alchemy Bench extremely early on at Bozhena's abode, and at Troskowitz.
Perfumes tend to sell for higher prices than other potions, and my favourite to sell in bulk is Lion. This extremely simple but potent perfume requires just 2x Sage and 2x Mint, and you can sell each bottle for around 18 Groschen. Remember also that you get multiple bottles from a single crafting, so with haggling and fresh herbs I'm selling 4x Strong Lion for around 80-90 Groschen each time - all using just some Sage and Mint.
Here's the recipe for Lion if you want it:
- Prepare 2x Sage and 2x Mint.
- Add Spirits to the cauldron.
- Add the Sage and boil for 2 turns.
- Grind the Mint and add to the cauldron.
- Finally, pour.
9. Track down Gules' bandits after "The Jaunt"
You know what I said about side quests being very profitable early on? Well, in particular, I highly recommend you beeline to Trosky Castle after meeting Blacksmith Radovan, so you can get on with "The Jaunt". On its own, this side quest doesn't earn you very much (although it does introduce you to some rather influential people, like Lord Semine). But completing "The Jaunt" opens up a string of small side quests involving tracking down bandits - and those quests can be very lucrative for an early-game Henry.
Once you've completed "The Jaunt", go find Gules in Semine Castle. He'll ask you for help tracking down his former bandit comrades. You'll gain a reward from Gules for each one, and it's also a great opportunity for stealing tonnes of valuable armour from various bandits. What's more - once you find the final bandit in this chain of quests, Casper, you can loot the keys off his body and use them to open the chest in his camp. This chest contains - brace yourself - a whopping 1,739.4 Groschen. You're welcome.
10. Compete in fistfighting tournaments
If you head to Lower Semine Mill to speak with Miller Kreyzl and his people, you'll discover after joining their band that they like to engage in good-natured fistfighting tourneys with one another. There are three combatants to defeat in Lower Semine Mill (for 10 Groschen each), and once you've defeated all three, you can speak with Kreyzl and he'll give you 150 Groschen with which to enter the larger tournament at the Zhelejov Wagoners' Inn to the north.
You can of course just take the Miller's 150 Groschen and run. Or you can use 100 of it to compete in the Zhelejov fights. There's another 3 opponents there; each one will give you 10 gold for a win, and after beating all 3 you can speak with the Innkeeper to get 200 Groschen as a reward. So all in all you'll earn 310 Groschen for a bit of fairly easy fistfighting. Not bad!
11. Poach animals, and cook their meat before selling
Poaching will get you into a lot of trouble if you get caught doing it; the only animals you're allowed to butcher and sell are wolves. But there's a bit of a cheesy workaround which Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 inherited from its predecessor. See, if you cook the poached animal's meat, then it immediately loses its "stolen" status, allowing you to sell it as normal. Plus, cooked meat is more valuable anyway. Win win!
A single deer will drop a metric deer-load of meat, which you can magically cook instantly at any campfire or cooking station. After that you can sell it all off together, and the sheer quantity of meat means you'll be getting a decent payoff. The very first time I went poaching in the night, I killed 3 deer, took all their meat and other bits back to the merchant in Troskowitz, and sold it all for 50 Groschen. That's not a huge amount, but early on in the game when you're looking to earn money as fast as possible, every little helps. Just remember that meat weighs a lot, so you should empty your inventory (or use a horse's inventory) to make carrying the meat easier.
That's everything you need to know about making easy money fast in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. For more help with KCD2, head to our guides on how to get a horse, how to play dice and how to heal. We've also got guides on the Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 best class and how to pick hard locks.