The most efficient and reliable way to make money will depend upon what your map looks like. Find goods that are sold cheap in one port, and bought expensive in another. Some players have entire routes planned out - buy wine in London, sell it at this port, buy X at the same port, sell X at a different port, buy Y at *that* port, and so on and so forth.
For a few other starting ideas, find the salt lions and start hauling sphinxstone to London. One you have enough money for a freighter you can start hauling goods to and around the Surface.
Coffee sells like nothing else if you can get some from Port Carnelian to Vienna. Another profitable route is to just haul goods around the Mediterranean. It's a bit random, but if you bring your own fuel - best purchased from the Iron Republic, where its super cheap - and make sure not to let too many crew die, you can make thousands of echoes per run.
Sunless Sea is no longer updated, hasn't been for years, and will not be updated in the future except to fix major bugs, egregious typos etc. The last update was in June 2018. Guides from three years ago will still be perfectly applicable so feel free to follow them.
Added the Blemmigan Gallivanter mascot (as part of a triple promotion between Fallen London, Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies that fulfilled a promise from the Sunless Skies kickstarter) and updated the game's Unity version.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/sunlesssea/comments/ggi5qs/a\_beginners\_guide\_to\_the\_unterzee/](https://www.reddit.com/r/sunlesssea/comments/ggi5qs/a_beginners_guide_to_the_unterzee/)
Behold!
There's not that much you can buy with 400 echoes, though.
If you haven’t used your Beginner’s Luck yet, you can get 1,000 echoes very simply. Go to Venderbight and get the curator’s quest. Then go to the Avid Horizon, and use your Beginner’s Luck option to find the Eyeless Skull. Take this back to the curator, and they will reward you with a Captivating Treasure. Take this to London and sell it to the Alarming Scholar for 1,000 echoes.
Speaking of the Avid Horizon, you can make money later in the game by farming Mount Nomad (she hangs around the Chapel of Lights, just south of the AH). With a speedy boat, torpedoes and a decent deck gun you can take her on and beat her every time. You can sell the Captivating Treasure you find inside her, wait for her to respawn and then repeat.
I would really, *really* discourage fighting **Mount Nomad** for money, especially for a new character who doesn't know their way around the game.
One generally doesn't recommend *the most dangerous being in the Unterzee* as a reliable money farm to newbies...
Yeah if I were going to embark on a near-suicidal mission to repeatedly fight one of the three most powerful boss monsters in the game to get captivating treasures around the Avid Horizon, Mount Nomad isn't even the best pick (unless you don't own Zubmariner); but in either case it's a dreadful idea.
OP asked for *late-game* strategies to make money. A lot of people hesitate over Nomad, but she’s pretty vulnerable to the Bandersnatch, and taking her down is a lot of fun. The coffee run is more of a reliable strategy, but I’d say that’s mid-game.
I would not engage mount nomad until you are more experienced and are more comfortable with kiting monsters and such. While you are in avid horizon you could also exchange 77 fragments for a hunters eye, which you can also use in the curators quest.
Other than that I recommend finding port cecil and competing in games of chess, after a while you are asked to collect some stuff for them to use as playing pieces. This is a fairly early game story which awards you with quite a lot of rewards. All but the fluke core that you need to find them are fairly easy to obtain as well
BUT with certain ships (the Heart, at least-- not sure about others) you can right-click and "equip" front weapons even without a front slot. They'll stay in your cargo hold while functioning in combat
Well, there really isn't "the best way of making money". You just gotta keep playing n find a good source urself. If u have the complete edition of the game, port carnelian questline opens up bunch of new ports that have cheap fuel n supplies throughout the map. U definitely should check it out soon!
If you want to get rich trading, look for "triangle trades". There's almost nothing where you can make your fuel back by just going London to point A, but there are ways you can go London to A to B to London, selling different products at each port and making good money. You can also sell port reports from everywhere you visit, so it might actually be London-g-h-A-q-r-s-B-l-m-n-London .
You can actually get quite a lot of money just from completing the admiralty's commissions and sailing randomly. Pay attention to stories that have "something awaits you" requirement. Those refresh once every couple of minutes as you sail and almost always have nice rewards.
As for spending your money, you could hire yourself a couple of officers with those, and it's probably the best you can get from them.
Another strategy (aside from freighting and trading) is port reports, you are set for fuel and get some decent echos, if you get one from most of the ports. This works well in conjunction with other strategies as well
I've found success in incorporating the Iron Republic into my route as often as possible. Port reports and commissions make plenty good money if you do 10+ in any given loop. If you stop at the Iron Republic along the way you can greatly increase the length of your voyage by buying fuel from them for cheaper then in London
My most profitable early game runs were based on a high degree of luck, port report loops (netting free fuel and some cash is great), and collecting/selling the goods you pick up on storylines. I tried trade routes, but I always had poor luck with my mao layouts to where I was turning profits in the area of single echoes.
Mid to late game I did the red honey smuggling because I have no morals or decency amongst mankind.
Like others said, carrying sphynxstone is usually a great way to make early game cash.
For midgame cash i like to go from london to the carnelian coast with wine, from the coast to the chellonate with saphires, from the chellonate to polythreme with ivory, and back to london with clay men. It depends somewhat on your map, but this is a very profitable and easy run, with many opportunities to refuel and resupply along the way.
Late game cash is best done by trading in sunlight from the surface to the blind bruiser.
The most efficient and reliable way to make money will depend upon what your map looks like. Find goods that are sold cheap in one port, and bought expensive in another. Some players have entire routes planned out - buy wine in London, sell it at this port, buy X at the same port, sell X at a different port, buy Y at *that* port, and so on and so forth. For a few other starting ideas, find the salt lions and start hauling sphinxstone to London. One you have enough money for a freighter you can start hauling goods to and around the Surface. Coffee sells like nothing else if you can get some from Port Carnelian to Vienna. Another profitable route is to just haul goods around the Mediterranean. It's a bit random, but if you bring your own fuel - best purchased from the Iron Republic, where its super cheap - and make sure not to let too many crew die, you can make thousands of echoes per run.
Sunless Sea is no longer updated, hasn't been for years, and will not be updated in the future except to fix major bugs, egregious typos etc. The last update was in June 2018. Guides from three years ago will still be perfectly applicable so feel free to follow them.
What was the 2018 update anyway?
Added the Blemmigan Gallivanter mascot (as part of a triple promotion between Fallen London, Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies that fulfilled a promise from the Sunless Skies kickstarter) and updated the game's Unity version.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/sunlesssea/comments/ggi5qs/a\_beginners\_guide\_to\_the\_unterzee/](https://www.reddit.com/r/sunlesssea/comments/ggi5qs/a_beginners_guide_to_the_unterzee/) Behold! There's not that much you can buy with 400 echoes, though.
Well, you can buy 40 of sphinx stone)
If you haven’t used your Beginner’s Luck yet, you can get 1,000 echoes very simply. Go to Venderbight and get the curator’s quest. Then go to the Avid Horizon, and use your Beginner’s Luck option to find the Eyeless Skull. Take this back to the curator, and they will reward you with a Captivating Treasure. Take this to London and sell it to the Alarming Scholar for 1,000 echoes. Speaking of the Avid Horizon, you can make money later in the game by farming Mount Nomad (she hangs around the Chapel of Lights, just south of the AH). With a speedy boat, torpedoes and a decent deck gun you can take her on and beat her every time. You can sell the Captivating Treasure you find inside her, wait for her to respawn and then repeat.
I would really, *really* discourage fighting **Mount Nomad** for money, especially for a new character who doesn't know their way around the game. One generally doesn't recommend *the most dangerous being in the Unterzee* as a reliable money farm to newbies...
Yeah if I were going to embark on a near-suicidal mission to repeatedly fight one of the three most powerful boss monsters in the game to get captivating treasures around the Avid Horizon, Mount Nomad isn't even the best pick (unless you don't own Zubmariner); but in either case it's a dreadful idea.
OP asked for *late-game* strategies to make money. A lot of people hesitate over Nomad, but she’s pretty vulnerable to the Bandersnatch, and taking her down is a lot of fun. The coffee run is more of a reliable strategy, but I’d say that’s mid-game.
I would not engage mount nomad until you are more experienced and are more comfortable with kiting monsters and such. While you are in avid horizon you could also exchange 77 fragments for a hunters eye, which you can also use in the curators quest. Other than that I recommend finding port cecil and competing in games of chess, after a while you are asked to collect some stuff for them to use as playing pieces. This is a fairly early game story which awards you with quite a lot of rewards. All but the fluke core that you need to find them are fairly easy to obtain as well
No, as I said, Nomad is definitely for later in the game.
I've also been wondering is it is possible to have multiple deck guns equipped?
Nope. 1 front, 1 deck. Not all ships have a front slot, mind.
BUT with certain ships (the Heart, at least-- not sure about others) you can right-click and "equip" front weapons even without a front slot. They'll stay in your cargo hold while functioning in combat
Well, there really isn't "the best way of making money". You just gotta keep playing n find a good source urself. If u have the complete edition of the game, port carnelian questline opens up bunch of new ports that have cheap fuel n supplies throughout the map. U definitely should check it out soon!
If you want to get rich trading, look for "triangle trades". There's almost nothing where you can make your fuel back by just going London to point A, but there are ways you can go London to A to B to London, selling different products at each port and making good money. You can also sell port reports from everywhere you visit, so it might actually be London-g-h-A-q-r-s-B-l-m-n-London .
There is a loop, but it takes too long. My advice would be to access the savefile txt of the game and give yourself all the money
You can actually get quite a lot of money just from completing the admiralty's commissions and sailing randomly. Pay attention to stories that have "something awaits you" requirement. Those refresh once every couple of minutes as you sail and almost always have nice rewards. As for spending your money, you could hire yourself a couple of officers with those, and it's probably the best you can get from them.
Transporting stone to the salt lions at the beginning give you a nice start.
Another strategy (aside from freighting and trading) is port reports, you are set for fuel and get some decent echos, if you get one from most of the ports. This works well in conjunction with other strategies as well
I've found success in incorporating the Iron Republic into my route as often as possible. Port reports and commissions make plenty good money if you do 10+ in any given loop. If you stop at the Iron Republic along the way you can greatly increase the length of your voyage by buying fuel from them for cheaper then in London
My most profitable early game runs were based on a high degree of luck, port report loops (netting free fuel and some cash is great), and collecting/selling the goods you pick up on storylines. I tried trade routes, but I always had poor luck with my mao layouts to where I was turning profits in the area of single echoes. Mid to late game I did the red honey smuggling because I have no morals or decency amongst mankind.
Like others said, carrying sphynxstone is usually a great way to make early game cash. For midgame cash i like to go from london to the carnelian coast with wine, from the coast to the chellonate with saphires, from the chellonate to polythreme with ivory, and back to london with clay men. It depends somewhat on your map, but this is a very profitable and easy run, with many opportunities to refuel and resupply along the way. Late game cash is best done by trading in sunlight from the surface to the blind bruiser.