Money Making Strategies

Throughout the game, you will find that having money, or Cats, is convenient in order to survive in the dangerous world of Kenshi. Here are just a few helpful tips and methods of getting rich in this apocalyptic desert.
You may want to think about your future plans when deciding what strategies to employ. If you have no plans on making a base, then you may want to avoid strategies that involve laboring or crafting since you will most likely not be able to take advantage of the skills gained doing this, but concentrating on strategies such as looting or trade will benefit you through more combat exposure and athletics and strength training from all that running with lots of looted or trade goods.
== Finding Places to Sell ==
First things first, you need a place to sell your stuff. Given shopkeepers only have so much money to purchase your wares, it's good to have a plan of where you're going to sell your items. In general, it's a good idea to have a base positioned near enough to Towns/outposts so that you don't spend too long on the road. The area around the Hub is great for trading early game since it is relatively close to many towns. Note also that Western Hive villages have a Robotics Shop and a Trade Goods Trader, making them prime places to sell your wares if you do not mind visiting multiple places. The Hive Trader has a 6 hour refresh time meaning that 6 hours after the shop was loaded in the will restock their inventory and cats.
== Low-Risk Strategies ==
Buying and reselling Trade Goods or Crafting materials to sell can be difficult early game. Players often start out with very few Cats. These strategies should be helpful to new players.
=== Looting ===
Early on, player characters will not win fights. The prevalent strategy to make up for this is luring hostile squads towards a town with town guards. After the guards knock all of the combatants unconscious, player characters should loot the downed characters. To save on inventory space, players should prioritize looting the more valuable items from these characters instead of just stripping them dry. Since the attacking squad was likely members of a Hostile Faction, all vendors should accept items stolen from them. Players should be able to make a few thousand cats off each group. If your inventory becomes full you can pickup a knocked out bandit and store items in their inventory to sell in a shop in town.
Players should lure bandits or wildlife to the town guards for slaughter and looting until the player can afford good equipment. Fighting alongside the guards can be a relatively safe way to train your attack as if hit you simply need to retreat and the guards should keep the other hostiles off you.
=== Looting in Bast ===
Bast has many large United Cities (UC) and The Holy Nation (HN) patrols that fight each other whenever they meet. Wait until all of one side is down to avoid committing a crime and getting attacked and then loot their stuff. Drin in the north-east of Bast has a bar so you can sell some gear and buy some food before you have to travel to a town. Since Drin and the nearest towns are UC, it's best to loot HN gear, so you don't have to worry about selling stolen goods. This isn't much of a problem as UC patrols usually win.
Once the bartender in Drin has run out of money, avoid the skimmers on the run over to Stoat or Sho-Battai to sell the rest, find new recruits and buy backpacks and pack animals so you can go back and carry even more stuff. One good thing to do early is pay c.10,000 to join the Shinobi Thieves in Sho-Battai to purchase Thieves Backpacks and other gear from them at the 50% members discount.
The best is when HN patrols attack Drin itself, as they commit a crime-fighting there and accrue a bounty of (Assault) c.500. In addition, each time they recover and start fighting again, the bounty goes up by another c.500. So, a Paladin can get up to a bounty of c.1,500 that way. There are two prisoner cages on top of a building in Drin, and if they are empty, all you have to do is put them in a cage and automatically get the bounty before having to go to a police station in town. If injured too badly for whatever reason you can use the beds in Drin for free.
Since dead bounties only give you half the monetary reward, you'll want to heal them before a desert crossing to the police station at either Stoat or Sho-Battai. Fortunately, you'll have looted plenty of basic first aid kits. So, in addition to the relation bonus with UC for turning in bounties, you will eventually get some small relationship bonuses with the HN from healing up the bounties you are turning in. Bounty collection gives a relationship penalty that is much higher than the reward for healing. You can heal many people with looted bandages and turn in only a few if you want to maintain neutral relationships. Carrying people is also a great exercise that increases your strength if encumbered.
Avoid wearing any looted gear which has the faction uniform tag as members of that faction may see through your disguise and other factions may be tricked by it which wil also lead to being attacked. Also, you can use any bounties you are carrying as extra inventory space by giving them looted items. "Stolen" gear should lose its status when placed in a specialized container (Armour storage for clothes/armour for example, or Crossbow locker for all items). You can use this to sell items back to a faction which previously owned them.
=== Mining Deposits ===
Across Kenshi, there are Iron and Copper deposits. Iron deposits can be ignored because Raw Iron is worth half as much as Raw Copper. Mining either is inferior to almost every other money making method but can be done without needing to be actively playing. These ore deposits can be used by 1 to 3 workers, depending on the size of the deposit. Characters can be given mining jobs by shift-left-clicking the deposit. Each deposit will stack only five items before it is full, and workers will stop working. If these miners were assigned a Job, they would resume it as soon as the extracted copper is transferred to their inventories. It's a good idea to use a stacking Backpack to transport the copper as backpacks decrease encumbrance while worn and greatly increase the carrying capacity of characters.
Mining characters should not be left alone since these deposits are in the wilderness, and workers are left exposed to attacks by wild animals and Hostile Factions. If they are attacked, players should quickly move their backpacks to their primary inventory or simply drop them on the ground. This is recommended because backpacks can lower melee combat stats by up to 10, depending on the type of backpack (note, the Small Thieves Backpack provides no penalty).
Players should find a town that has a price markup on copper higher than 100%, then find the nearest copper deposit of reasonable quality, preferably 100. Players should mine as much copper as they can and sell it to the town's trader. This method will increase the characters' Labouring and Strength stats due to their mining and carrying large amounts of copper.
If players want to take a further step of copper mining, the player should research Electrical Crafting and build an Electrical Workbench next or near your copper storage and put a worker on the workbench. The ratio is 1:1, 1 Raw Copper for 1 Electrical Component, which nets around 40 cats extra (216) per component, and it also trains the Science skill. However, it needs a power source.
=== Wandering Traders ===
This requires a bit of capital to get started. Players should find the Trader in their starting location and buy up whichever Trade Goods items have low markups until they run out of Cats. They should then head to next nearest town and sell whatever they can make a profit on. Players should next buy up the cheapest items again and proceed to either the previous location or a different one. Players can repeat this until they can purchase quality equipment and move on to fighting or until they can afford to build a Player Outpost where they can Craft items for trading. Important to add that markup will not change by a massive amount over short distances and for the best markup changes travel far. (If you go from Stack to Bad Teeth the markups will not change by much on items purchased, but from Stack to Heng the markups will (On average) change by a lot)
=== Manufacturing ===
Through Industry Buildings, players can give character's jobs to create Outpost Items, which are worth more than their unrefined ingredients. These Buildings are primarily exterior-type buildings, meaning that they cannot be built in Player-Owned Buildings in Town.
Players can also manufacture vices such as Hashish and Alcohol. These buildings are listed on the Crafting page along with their primary inputs. Hashish production requires rarer Research Artifacts, and selling Hashish is covered in the "High-Risk Strategies" section of this guide.
=== Crafting ===
Crafting weapons and armor can be an efficient way to make money. While very profitable, weapon crafting can takes a lot of Technology research, Research Artifacts, and Blueprints to really pop off. If the player has already set up their outpost for the production of their own equipment, it can provide some great revenue. Once players have reliable sources of Raw Iron, Iron Plates, Steel Bars, Fabrics, and Leather, it is worth assigning a full-time machinist to both trainntheir skills, and eventually produce profitable items.
While it will take some time to get an Armour Smith who can consistently produce quality goods, one of the cheapest, quickest, and easiest items to mass-produce for sale is the Bandana. Quick and straightforward to make, its Standard grade sells for c.175. This number will increase significantly with a more experienced craftsperson; at the Specialist Grade, a simple Bandana (regardless of color) costs 0.4 fabric to make and sells for c.692 per unit. So to make 10 it would cost you 4 fabrics (c.252 average on total) and you would receive c.60/c.460/c1,750/c.3,910/c.6,920/c.9,750 (Proto/Shoddy/Standard/High/Specialist/Masterwork) worth of bandanas. Once you reach around level 40ish Armoursmithing you should purchase/find an Engineering Research (Purchase from Scraphouse for c.8,000) and pivot to crafting Heart Protectors. They are the best crafting money maker in the game. They take a little over 3x longer to craft when compared to Bandanas but have well over 3x the profits that they provide as well as taking longer to fill up your storage boxes.
For players hoping to profit off of Weapon Smithing, Desert Sabres are highly recommended. It costs c.675 to craft each one at a Weaponsmithing 1 table and sells for c.942 at the lowest quality, meaning you are able to make a profit right at the start. The blueprint is rather expensive however at c.12,000 and can be found at (Weaponshops mostly) Shark's Smithy, Mongrel, Unities Cities and the Scraphouse.
Crossbow Smithing is the least recommended branch of equipment crafting. The easiest, least tedious Crossbow to produce is the Junkbow, which, at specialist grade, sells for c.1004. That said, it requires a Hinge, Steel Bars, and 10 hours to produce it, making it a bit more tedious than standard weapons crafting. The other crossbow models sell a little to significantly better, based upon quality; however, they also require Crossbow Parts, which need more subsequent parts to craft, increasing time crafting spent per item. In general, you're better off with armor or even weapons smithing. The only real reason to train a character in Crossbow Smithing is if you need a lot of ammunition.
=== Alcohol Trade Route ===
​This trade route has three stops; it's a trade route I discovered myself, which has proven to be very profitable as I accumulated (on average) 7000 Cats after just one full rotation. First, go to the Hub and begin purchasing as much Cactus Rum as you can. Next, travel into the swamps and sell all of it to the swampers. Then, buy Sake and head toward the United Cities; keep in mind that there is a possibility of getting stopped by corrupt patrols and guards. Unload all of the Sake and load up on Grog. Then trek back to the Hub and sell it all. After about an hour of repeating this process, I had made quite a profit.
===Hashish Trading===
One way to better make money from Hashish that isn't illegal. Is simply to take a mountain of drugs (or however many you buy) from Shark (and the surrounding swamp villages) and selling it to the Tech Hunter's Settlements of Mourn and Flats Lagoon (Other settlements do work, yet these are closest). After making the slightly dangerous journey of avoiding Swamp Ninjas, Blood Spiders, and most importantly, Beak Things. You'll be quickly swimming in cats.
Hashish and alcohol trading can be combined into a single trade route going counter-clockwise around central Kenshi. Starting at Blister Hill, go through Holy Nation cities buying any Bloodrum you can find. Then head to Squin and the Stenn Desert Waystation and buy Cactus Rum, then go through to the towns in The Swamp selling the Cactus Rum and buying Hashish and Sake. Take your preferred route to Flats Lagoon, unload the Hashish and buy more Sake, then head north to the Grey Desert Waystation and buy their Sake as well. Head over to Heng, sell the Bloodrum to the Shinobi Thieves and the Sake to the bars, buy more Cactus Rum, then head west back to Blister Hill through Okran's Shield to start the cycle again. (If you don't want to smuggle the Bloodrum, take a detour to the Smugglers Bar during the Swamp-Flats Lagoon leg and sell it there instead.) Grog has no special discounts/premiums from trade culture, so buy it from whomever sells cheap and sell it to whomever buys dear along the way (if you have the free space – always prioritize goods with better profit margins). For best results, use a trader with enough Strength and Athletics to run at over 22 mph while carrying a teammate holding the goods in backpacks; this will let you trade a maximum amount of goods and smuggle with impunity while still being able to outrun any problem that isn't a Beak Thing.
== High-Risk Strategies ==
These strategies primarily involve either crime against Factions or attacking a Hostile Faction.
=== Stealing ===
Stealing valuable items can be preferable to purchasing them, especially when players can't afford the items to begin with. Items that are recommended for stealing and reselling are blueprints and alcohol. Most valuable items are kept inside locked Storage containers, so this method will require training Lockpicking, Thievery, and Stealth. The single best place to steal from is the Bank in Trader's Edge. Stolen items can be cleared by placing them in a specialized container or an Item Furnace/Crossbow Locker. They can then be sold at full price. 
A more in-depth guide to thieving for new players can be found on the page Getting Started. 
=== Smuggling ===
After joining the Shinobi Thieves, characters can sell smuggled goods to a Shinobi Trader. While several items are illegal in Kenshi, the most reliable item to smuggle is Hashish. Hashish can be purchased from most town in The Swamp, primarily from Fish and Drugs Sellers. The Shinobi Trader only buy at half the local price. This means that in Heft, Heng and Sho-Battai, where Hashish has a 1200% illegal goods markup, Shinobi Trader will purchase Hashish at 600% markup. No other vendor will buy illicit goods.
Players can risk being caught carrying illegal items by town guards, or they can put all unlawful things into a Backpack and hold the backpack in their regular inventory.
=== Looting Ancient Locations ===
If players want to advance the buildings in their Outposts, they are going to need Research Artifacts to study. Strategies for clearing the dangers in the locations in which these Artifacts are found can be learned in our Combat Strategies page.
Ancient Labs contain more than just Artifacts and can be extremely profitable. It is recommended that players bring multiple stacking backpacks or an animal player character with a backpack to collect all the items in storage.
Once you're all kitted out, head over to an Ancient location of your choice and proceed to take everything that isn't nailed down. Though prices may vary, based on where you sell your loot, many ruins have a several valuable Robotics Components, and other similar, valuable items. CPU Units are worth 6,000 Cats, Robotics Components 2,838 Cats, Power Cores 3,000 Cats, and Skeleton Repair Kits 4,341 Cats; all of these items (and more) can be found in various Ruins scattered across the continent.
From only looting the Skeleton Muscles off of the Security Spiders, players can earn roughly 1,944 Cats per muscle. There will likely be 6 Security Spiders per Lost Armoury. Ancient Tech Labs can contain anywhere from 6 to 14 Spiders as well as more Skeleton Muscles inside of Storage Containers.
=== Bounty Hunting ===
Characters with high bounties can be learned through their Wanted Posters. These characters are often leaders of Hostile Factions and will be surrounded by a group of relatively strong characters protecting them. Knocking them unconscious or picking them up while they are sleeping should not be difficult for skilled fighters or a character with very high Stealth. Bounties can also be found among randomly generated among characters such as Grass Pirates and Empire Peasants. Turning in a dead body for bounties will still reward you half the original amount.
=== Fog Prince Head Hunting ===
Due to the danger of being downed in the Fog Islands, it isn't recommended for early game squads to hunt Fog Deathyards. However, Fogmen frequently attack the city of Mongrel. Mongrel's Shinobi Guards are more than capable of defending the town. Before being defeated, Fog Princes usually reach the Mongrel Barracks; however, some Princes can be defeated before even entering the city gates. Fog Princes can be difficult to spot in large piles of Fogmen, but their distinct yellow blood helps.
Fog Princes don't seem to be attracted to the Mongrel Barrack's prisoners anymore. However, Fog Princes can still be a good source of income for players with good Stealth and Assassination. Players can sneak into a Fog Deathyard, assassinate a Fogman, pick them up, and put them on a Prisoner Pole to attract a Fog Prince. It may take a while for a Prince to arrive, but players who are within the dialogue range of the Fog Deathyard can quickly tell when feeding is happening. Players should sneak back to the Deathyard and stealth KO the Fog Prince. Often, a failed attempt does not alert fogmen because the desire to feed and worship is too strong.
After looting their heads from their bodies, the bounties can be earned by merely selling the heads to any vendor. A Fog Prince Head is worth 6,000 Cats.
=== Leviathan Pearl Factory ===
Leviathans are arguably the most tanky enemy in the game and possess devastating attacks, AoE, high health regen, and massive hit points. Even well-equipped, high-level squads can be devastated. However, each body drops one Leviathan Pearl worth 12,000 Cats. There are a few strategies for hunting these beasts:
* Early on you can build a base in the Leviathan Coast. With several wall-mounted turrets facing the gate in a U shape, you can quickly take them down (and train your Turret skill).
* Younger leviathans drop the same pearl but are significantly weaker, less tanky, and slower and are therefore recommended as prey.
* If you have a source of iron and can make crossbow bolts, you can attack with long-range crossbows taking advantage of the slow movement speed of leviathans. Their slow speed and high hit points make this a good way to train crossbows, but their high health regeneration rate may make this very time-consuming.
===Raid Animal Nests===
Beak Thing Eggs are worth a good amount of money, c.4,200 each. They can be found in a Nest of Beak Things, which spawns randomly in many zones. Players can easily send in fast or stealthy characters to pick the eggs up off the ground and run from the nest. It is not recommended that players, especially in the early game, attempt to kill the Beak Things before looting the eggs. Note that Beak Things will eat your knocked out characters, even if they're still alive. Players should ensure their characters are prepared in the following ways:
* Athletics: High athletics makes it much easier to get away from Beak Things, but most characters are going to be slower than a Beak Thing. However, the Beak Thing attack animation is very slow and can easily be kited, allowing you to get away.
* Strength: Beak Thing Eggs weigh 6kg each. A full inventory (4 eggs) weighs 24kg.
* Stealth: Players can attempt to sneak into and out of the camp undetected. It is recommended that players sneak into the Nest at night to aid in this.
* Equipment: Players should equip their characters with Backpacks to carry more eggs and reduce encumbrance. Characters should consider wearing Wooden Sandals to boost their athletics, as well. A character with a single Scout Leg is significantly faster than a character with normal legs. If players are attempting to use stealth, wearing stealth boosting equipment (such as Ninja Rags or Dark Leather Shirts) is helpful. Note that Thieves Backpacks are especially useful here, as they do not penalize the Stealth skill.
Crab Eggs can be raided in the same way but would earn significantly less money. Collecting just 10 Beak Thing Eggs in one raid can earn players c.42,000. Sneak in, steal their unhatched children, sneak out, and run like angry dinosaurs are going to eat you for stealing their babies if they spot you. Because there will be, try at your own risk.
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Category:Strategies