Help/Economy

The **Economy** tab is a main topic of the help page in *Horse Isle 3*. It describes the money-making and economic system within the game.

## Sub-topics

### Earning Money

Another great way to earn gold dust is by completing a Server Challenge or winning a Server Spotlight.
**Server Challenges** are fun little server-wide games (catching the most wilds of anyone online, collecting the most essence, or finding the most treasures, or travelling the farthest on horseback.) Compete with other players- the server will keep a tally of your progress and will update as you go. When these server challenges come up, you've got five minutes to complete them!
**Server Spotlights** feature players online that are farthest away from world center (North, South, East, and West,) most horses, fewest horses, and the most barn slots. These are automatically rewarded to those players that qualify for the Spotlight.
**Server Games** are fun, automated challenges put up by the server. These come with a **Free Party Trip** that will allow free fast travel to the club the server chose to host the game.
The Star Search will put out an essence star (worth 250 essence!) Our Trading Card Game will put four of a single type of element card in your inventory and you'll have to trade with other players to get the full set.

The Server Games also include the **Water Balloon Fight**. For five minutes, you'll have the chance to throw balloons at everyone. You'll earn five points for every UNIQUE player hit, but lose a point every time you're hit! For every additional hit on a player, you'll earn a single point. After a number of hits, though, they'll be too soaked to count and you'll have to find another player to soak! The player with the most points at the end of the ten minute mark, wins! Win enough Balloon Fights and you'll earn yourself the Luftballoon award.
We also have an old favorite, the **Trading Card Game**. You've ten minutes to collect all four Elemental Cards (Fire, Earth, Air, and Water) to win a prize and get closer to the Elemental awards!
**Stranger Things** pairs you up with a random stranger, and you're given things by winning! You have five minutes to get within 30 meters of your selected stranger. Winners receive a Wishing Coin and an Esroh Essence! When this game comes up, it'll register in your **Server Chat** as to whom you're meant to meet up with.
**Highest Terrain and Deepest Oceans**- Whoever is at the current highest altitude will win this spotlight! We also have Deepest Oceans, for those with the lowest altitude!
**Essence Anomaly**- sometimes, a magical Essence anomaly will appear up to 30 square kilometers from a randomly selected club! This is a game multiple people can win, and everyone that finds it within 30 minutes will be granted between 150 and 200 essence. Use the %invitetome command to invite more people to your location! Big hint: The sound effects in game will go silent as you near the anomaly.
**Photo Hunt**- Be the first player to capture the image of a random critter! You have 20 minutes to find and take a photo of the requested critter... unless someone else captures a photo first! You'll be granted $5000 for your win and each win is tracked by the Wabbit Hunter award.
**Snowball Fight!** In a "provide your own snowballs" game, you are now tasked with tossing as many snowballs at other players as possible in three minutes. **You must craft your own snowballs!** The server will not provide your ammo here :) But you can score multiple times on one person, no limit. Fire away!

Ways to Earn Money:
**1. Selling horses to Horse Trader.** Don't want that wild you just caught? The Horse Traders in town are always on the lookout for horses for their clients. They'll pay more for some horses than for others, and traders in different towns are usually looking for different things. Travel around! That horse will be just perfect for someone!
**2. Completing Puzzles in the world.** There are all kinds of puzzles and minigames in the world; most biomes have minigames specific to that biome. Keep searching! Infinite Wilds mean infinite puzzles, so if you find one you really, really enjoy, you're sure to be able to fine plenty more!
**3. Finding Treasures.** We don't know exactly who these pirates are, but they bury chests of gold all over the shorelines! And they keep doing it! So follow the shorelines to find riches! You'll find Mother Horse Stones (remember these from HI2) randomly scattered about the place, and fallen meteors containing gold dust!
**4. Mail Delivery Jobs from Post Offices.** These are a great way to earn some gold and find new areas at the same time. But remember to deliver on time! Mail missions also offer quest points.
**5. Achievement Rewards.** There are a number of things you can do to earn these; catch wild horses, hike around on foot, win competitions, play minigames, train horses, and many others. The awards themselves are stars, which you can see by clicking Myself and choosing "View Their Awards." There are many levels of awards, and the higher the level, the more gold dust is awarded for reaching it!
**6. Wishing Well Coins.** If you are a member, you'll get Wishing Well Coins. Toss these into a fountain at any club village that has one, and you'll usually receive some gold dust (though at times, other things may be awarded).
**7. Toss Essence into a Wishing Well.** If you're really strapped for cash, you can always toss some Essence into the Wishing Well, which will exchange it for gold dust. Keep in mind, though, that this should be a last resort: Essences are worth much more than the gold you'll get for them!
**8. Selling Items to Stores.** Most village and player stores will buy items from you. Check around; different stores buy different things, and some will offer better prices than others.
**9. Trading with other Players.** Collect stuff! Other players always need something, and if you can supply that something, you can sell it to them.
**10. Winning Competitions.** Apart from competitions run to benefit a club, you can make a little money by winning a competition, and sometimes by placing or showing as well. Purses are set by the club running the event.
**11. Exporter.** The exporter may be found in a club village, they are usually looking for delivery of certain items and will pay for getting them. You may take on as many Exporter missions as you like; you have 30 hours to complete them before they expire. Exporter missions also offer quest points.

Weekly Challenges:
Every week, we run three different challenges for the entire game. These are entirely random, and can be anything from most export missions completed to most essence collected to furthest ridden distance on a horse.
**Standings**
Use the chat command %CHAL to see the current standings, or just click Players and then Challenge at the bottom of the window :)
The Top 10 placements will get four Esroh Essence, and the Top 100 will get 2 Esroh Essence. You'll also get 100 gold dust for every challenger you've placed higher than (though this is maxed out at 10k.)
In the event of a tie, the tied players will get the same placing, but push back others. So you might see a dozen people tied for first and then 13th place!
Placement changes can take up to a minute to update after you've added to your score, so don't worry if it takes a minute to catch up.
May the games begin!

Where to Find Gold Dust:
Gold dust can be found almost everywhere in the Wilds, so keep an eye out for the following:
**Pirate Treasures.** We don't know who they are or what they're up to, but pirates keep coming to the shores of the Wilds and burying treasures here. (Must be very philanthropic pirates to mark their treasures' locations so obviously!) Dig up the treasures and open the chests to earn the gold dust inside.
**Pots of Gold.** Pots of gold at the ends of rainbow arcs can be found all over the Wilds. Unlike HI1 and HI2, you can't collect these by simply riding over them; you need to click on them to collect them. These will reward you with varying amounts of gold dust.
**Mother Horse Stones.** You may remember these from HI2, where they were found exclusively in the desert. In the Wilds, you can find them anywhere. Sometimes they are standing upright, and sometimes they've been knocked over, so keep a sharp lookout for them.
**Meteorites.** Yup, they hit the ground a lot around these parts, and you'll find them lying in small craters. Picking one up will turn it into gold dust. Pretty cool, yes?
**Water Fountains.** You can toss some essence in for gold dust if you're desperate (though the payout is often pretty low.)
**Gold Panning.** You can pan for gold in rivers, provided you've unlocked the Gold Pan tool in Equipment.

Where Are the Banks?:
Unlike HI1 and HI2, there are no banks in the Infinite Wilds, nor are there windmills. This reduces greatly the inflation of the economy. Much more gameplay is required to earn currencies in HI3. So, while you may miss "easy" money, it will definitely make the economy more fair in the long run.

### Villages

Once a club is established, a village can grow up around it. As club members invest in their clubs, the club can add new buildings. These buildings offer all the standard services that a normal town might provide; clubs may build them in any order they wish.
Buying and selling your items found during explorations is done here, and you can also pick up missions at post offices and Exporters to make a little extra gold dust, provided the club town has these facilities available!
You can find out more about how villages work in under the Clubs topic.

### Currencies

Essences carry the Magic of the Infinite Wilds, and each biome has its own unique kind. You'll see them as floating, bobbing spheres or crystals with glowing yellow cores. A certain number of essence are needed to do almost everything in the Wilds, from talking in Global and Ads Chat, unlocking equipment, competition course slots, travel journal slots, and making more room in your store. It's really rather important!
Unlike other forms of currency in the Wilds, Essence cannot be bought, sold or traded. When you gather Essence (by running over to it, or just standing still near it, it will come to you!), it is yours exclusively until you spend it.
On the right side of the screen, you'll see a golden ball with the number of Essence you currently have unspent. If you mouse-over that ball, you'll see a breakdown of the total Essences you've collected since you joined. Purchasing some tools requires that you have collected a certain number of Essence from a particular biome (for example, purchasing a kayak requires you to have collected 250 Mediterranean Essence in your time in the game, although you do not have to have all those same essence when you buy the kayak).
Subscribers earn 3 Essence for each one they run into--or that runs into them--as a reward for supporting the game and those who work on it. Non-subscribed players earn one.
Making an **Adventure Party** shares collected essence by making more! Each Adventure Party Member nearby will get the essence as well.

What is Mobia?:
Mobia is the way the game is supported and expanded. As such, it is purchased via real money at $1 USD = 100 Mobia (so each Mobia equals a penny). These can be purchased via the Mobia Store on website, and spent via the **Shop** tab in game. Mobia can be bought, sold and traded in the game.
Mobia is used for:
**Purchasing Memberships.** A one-month membership costs 500 mobia; a one year membership costs 4,000 mobia.
**Ordering Horses.** You can order a purebred horse of the breed of your choice for 700 mobia. A Super horse order costs 1200 mobia and you'll get the chance to see the color, height, and age of the horse before purchasing, a bit like window shopping.
**Purchasing a Club.** A club costs 8,000 mobia. Purchasing a club is a one time fee, you do not need to pay more to maintain it.
**Purchasing Amulets.** Amulets are put on a horse for a number of reasons: make the horse live forever, shorten foaling time, age faster, or protect against injury. **Amulets are forever, they do not expire or vanish off of your horse or account unless purposefully traded away.**
**Purchasing a Magical Wild Horse Whistle.** This is **a one use item** that will summon eight wilds specific to the biome you're in. Check the library's biome information for horses native to specific biomes!
**Changing Your Username.** After your initial free username change, it'll cost 100 mobia to change your username.
**Making a Certification.** You may create a sort of registry in game for whatever your heart desires- certain personalities, looks, colors, or breeds? Maybe you want to make your own horse breed!
**Gaining a Higher Horse Max.** You may increase your account's horse slot limit to greater than 300 with this special Horse Max Extender item. Please see the Horse Slots section for more details on this.
**Purchasing a Server Boost Party.** This fun purchase gives everyone online a 1,000 point boost to Travel, Focus, and Energy, and gives you the adoration of the players.
If you are not an adult, be sure you have parent or guardian's permission before trying to purchase anything on the internet!

What is Gold Dust?:
Gold Dust is the main inter-player currency of HI3. Gold dust is also the currency you'll use to purchase things from clubs and club stores. You can earn it by selling things, either to stores or other players. You can also find it "in the wild;" Mother Horse Stones, Meteorites and Pirate Treasures are scattered throughout the wilds, and clicking on them to collect them will reward you with some gold.

### Esroh Fund

The Esroh Fund is a global collection of gold dust, taken from every player. On the first day of in-game year (about fifteen days), a small percentage of gold dust will be collected and used for In-Game Upkeep (someone's gotta take care of all those wilds, keep up the roads and ancient ruins...!)
**Wait... isn't this a tax??**

It is! However, it is an even tax- everyone gets the same percentage taken out. While this doesn't hurt players with very little money, a player with a very large amount of money likely won't notice much is missing, either.

Additionally, this will keep things more fair for newer players in the long run by ensuring the economy doesn't have trillions of gold dust in circulation.
**What do I get out of it?**

These global Fund collections will add up over time, unlocking the Big New Features we have planned for the future! Super fun things, like special emotes (player animations, other fun things- the possibilities are endless!)
**Where do I see the Esroh Fund?**

The Esroh Fund can be seen in any Post Office, including how much you've contributed to the Fund. There, you can also see how long until the next Fund Collection takes place!
**How much will be taken?**

Between 1% and 5% will be taken out every 15 days, adjusted depending on what the Esroh Fund feels needs to be taken.

### Stores

Stores run by clubs import goods which cannot be found in the Wilds, such as seeds, wool, and iron, so prices for items in stores reflect both the import price (the price the stores paid to import what they're selling) and whatever additional amount the club is charging. Proceeds from club stores directly benefit the club.
Prices in player-owned stores, for both buying and selling, are set by the store owner.
In either case, prices for the same goods can vary widely, so be sure to shop around for the best deals.
When operating your own store, strongly consider offering to Buy and Sell items, as this can have the benefit of refilling your store as well as making more money if lots of buying/selling takes place in a busy village.

Who May Own a Store?:

There are no "ranch stores" in HI3 as there are in HI2. Instead, stores are part of club villages. Club owners can set out store slabs for their club members to build stores on. Once a member builds a store (pays a gold dust build fee), they are free to buy and sell goods, horses and Mobia for whatever prices they choose.

Each store comes with 4 free slots to buy and sell- after that, it costs Essence to unlock.

You may unlock the Merchant perk at a club library to double your available store slots.
You may use a club's Shopping Board to find what you're looking for in any club in the world.
Note: a club member has to be a copper member or higher to purchase a club store.