Money makes fighting, building, and ruling possible with money in Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord. The expenses are plenty, but cash may run thin. To keep up with costs, we need to find the best way to obtain money. These are useful and important throughout the entire game. That’s why we’ll teach you how to make money in Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord.
Loot and steal
The tried and true method of making it in the world of Mount and Blade 2 is taking everything possible from the corpses of the foes you slay. The items and gear they had on them will be easy to snatch after a fight. Most of the gear is going to be useless for our companions and us, but equipment can still sell it.
Finding a merchant to sell these items to is a worthwhile deal. There is rarely a fruitful use for the gear, so selling them is the best option. Furthermore, as battles grow, so will the number of items you receive. The looted equipment can then be forwarded to merchants, making bigger battles extremely profitable.
The loot increase is good, as it will often offset the cost of your army’s upkeep. Think of it as a return on investment. Depending on the battle’s difficulty and the enemies’ equipment, the value of loot could increase tremendously.
This scaling of loot means taking on strong armies is worth the risk. But, of course, this intense cash flow is something you won’t be capable of achieving early on. Cashing in on minor combats will be worth it, though. Never an odd time to get some denars.
Fiefs
Those wishing to get some passive income should opt to increase their fiefs’ number and quality. For this purpose, any settlement or fortification under your control is considered a fief. Each one pays taxes which will immediately show up in your inventory.
Each fief is a new opportunity to get funds. No matter their size, they are eligible for taxes. It’s also possible to manage and improve fiefs, making them more worthwhile sources of denars. Spending denars on upgrades for the fief will eventually pay off, as they generate money from taxes each day.
The prosperity of the fief is important, keeping people happy and money flowing. Not doing quests in the fief could cost you in the long run. The prosperity of your lands gets affected by letting quests expire, so doing a few as you go through is a smart move. However, these quests can consume a lot of time so keep that in mind.
Village Quests
Speaking of quests, they can garner quite a bit of cash. So it’s fruitful to jump onto some of these to get a spike of cash early on. Two specific quests that can earn you money fast are Family Feud and a Deliver the Herd quest. These two will put out the most money for little effort.
Family Feud is a quest that easily yields between 1000 and 2000 denars. The quest has you tracking down an NPC and taking them to another. After doing so, you’ll either have to duel or talk it out. Either option is short and simple, the brevity making this a great source of cash.
Deliver the Herd quest is somewhat worse with rewards, granting 400 to 500 denars. The advantage it has over Family Feud is that it’s repeatable. This quest is more involved, requiring you to escort a herd to a specific settlement. At this point, there are two options: escort the herd yourself or send a companion with a few men to do it.
The companion always has a chance of running away with the sheep, which is why it’s risky to go for this option. Not only will you lose the reward but a worthwhile member of your party too. If you escort the herd, it’s also possible to steal the herd. This action yields more money but ruins relations with both merchants involved.
Trade
Of course, trading is always an option. You can take some time to set up trade caravans by contacting NPCs in the cities. Once you’ve found them, you can leave a companion with them, along with a few troops. The effectiveness of this venture will be pricey to begin, as a caravan is expensive to initiate. However, it’s a great source of consistent and passive income.
Pay attention to the skills your companions have. Certain companions excel at being put in caravans better. Two of the most potent companions for this are those with titles “the Swift” and “the Spicevendor”. High trade skill is welcome when manning a caravan, which is something these two companions have in spades.
If a war breaks out, make sure to reinforce your caravans. They will be the first targets of raiders and brigands. The cash you’d receive attracts many unsavory people, so put up some warriors around each caravan when wars occur.
Prioritize trade during character creation
Early on, it can be hard to raise your Trade skill. It requires you to sell goods at a profit. This doesn’t include the loot and sell approach shown above, but it will make the loot worth more. Even though you’ll eventually be trading, there’s still quite a bit of dead air where your skill will stagnate. It’s fruitful to max out the Trade skill as much as possible during character creation for this reason.
Your profits will be affected significantly by having an early boost in Trade. Selling things will be one of the key sources of income, be it looted or created items. By picking up the Trade skill early, you will make each of these sales pay out more. Getting access to some of the powerful Trade perks early will also help quite a bit in earning money.
Become a mercenary
Early on, you won’t have much of a party to take enemies on with. That’s why you’ll need to enter another lord’s employ. After reclaiming your clan, the Clan Tier will be set to 0. This Tier will require 50 renown and allow you to become a mercenary.
Once we find a lord that we fancy, it’s time to join their cause. Becoming their mercenary grants you multiple benefits. You’ll get to fight in huge battles no matter the size of your party, which will pay out quite a bit of loot. Along with the loot, you also get prisoners. These have multiple uses, but they can be sold too, if you wish.
Selling off the loot from mercenary work puts us back in the previous looting mindset. However, we can get higher on the social ladder and achieve more cash by becoming a Vassal to the kingdom we serve. As we discussed, this position will grant you fiefs that pay taxes and offer passive income.
An experienced mercenary can earn quite a bit of cash. It starts at a couple of thousand and goes up to 10,000. Of course, this does include all the sold loot and ransomed prisoners, but it is worth the fight. If you can keep winning fights, there will be no end to these resources.
Tournaments
We suggest the tournaments for those who are decent at Bannerlord’s combat. These events are worth seeking out throughout the world. It’s possible to find some in the towns of Caladria, which makes them possible to stumble into as we go about our business.
Competing in the tournament isn’t the only way to earn money as these unwind. It’s easily possible to get quite a bit of extra cash by betting on yourself as well. It’s a high-stakes engagement, but you will profit quite a bit if you do.
The overall stash will come up to a few thousand denars. Anything more will come from selling the items we get from the tournament as well. However, tournaments can go either way. Therefore, it’s usually smart to make a save before a tournament to avoid losing progress.
War
Battling it out is only made more profitable by involving more people in it. War is the largest level of conflict you can reach in a game of Mount and Blade 2. Considering how wide the conflict will stretch, you’ll need thousands of troops to wage war. The looting of foes in small battles is good and useful. However, when entering a war, you’ll get far more rewards initially.
While thousands of warriors may partake in a war, the huge battles these cause could earn you enough for thousands more. If the power of the lord we face is high, we will be granted more cash and better loot.
War is often going to be the last out of all the possible sources of cash. The high commitment it requires means focusing on the ongoing conflict as long as it lasts. The last piece of advice for wars is to never get involved with ones you cannot win, and gauge the power of other lords before engaging.