Revision 4

Overview

Silver is the primary currency in Crimson Desert, and you will burn through it faster than you earn it. Weapons, armor, camp upgrades, crafting materials, cooking ingredients, and horse equipment all cost silver. The game uses a three-tier currency system: copper coins at the bottom, silver coins in the middle, and gold bars at the top. One gold bar is worth 500 silver when exchanged at a bank, though regular merchants only pay 190 silver for the same bar. Knowing which methods to prioritize at each stage of the game makes a significant difference in how quickly you can afford upgrades.

This guide ranks every reliable money-making method from the earliest available options to late-game passive income streams. Whether you prefer honest work or a life of crime, there is a path to wealth in Pywel.

Early Game: Rob the Hernand Bank

The single fastest injection of silver in the early game comes from robbing the Hernand bank. The bank sits west of the inn in Hernand's northwest district. Before you attempt the heist, you need two items from Grimrak, the Back Alley Merchant, who can be found behind the farmhouse east of Muckroot Ranch: a Mask (10 copper) and an Iron Key (30 copper). You can also loot masks from defeated bandits.

Empty your inventory as much as possible before going in, because every slot counts. Save your game manually, then enter the locked left door of the bank and close it behind you. Open treasure chests and steal boxes until your inventory is full. Each item stolen from the treasure chests nets you 40 or more silver, making this one of the most lucrative activities available in the first few hours.

Keep an eye on the theft meter in the top right corner of the screen. Wait for it to disappear before leaving to avoid being spotted. If guards catch you, you will receive a bounty. The boxes inside the bank reset every three in-game days, so you can return repeatedly. Chests are one-time only. Be aware that every stolen item costs 5 Hernandian Contribution EXP, which penalizes your reputation in the region.

For a detailed walkthrough of the heist, see the Bank Robbery Guide.

Bounty Hunting

Bounty hunting is the most consistent and repeatable legal income source in the game. Bounty boards are located inside major towns throughout Pywel, including Hernand. Walk up to any bounty board and accept contracts, which assign named targets or groups of enemies scattered across the surrounding region.

Most bounties pay around 10 silver and take between 10 and 20 minutes to complete. The real profit comes from the combat loot you collect while hunting down your target. Enemy drops, coin purses, and equipment all add up. Stacking multiple bounties in the same general area turns a single trip into several payouts.

Look for purple page markers on your mini-map to locate bounty targets. After defeating or capturing a target, return to a constable in any town to collect your reward. Capturing targets alive can yield between 1 and 25 silver depending on the bounty, so weigh whether the extra effort of a live capture is worth it for each specific contract.

Gambling at Five-Card

Gambling is, by far, the fastest way to accumulate silver once you have a starting bankroll. The Five-Card minigame is available in Beighen Village, north of Hernand City in the Pailune region. You can access it during Chapter 7: Homecoming, but the village is reachable earlier if you travel there manually.

The buy-in costs 150 silver. The strategy that most players rely on is straightforward: create a manual save before sitting down, then go all-in immediately when dealt your hand. If you win, you collect 300 to 400 silver depending on how many NPCs also go all-in. If you lose, reload your save and try again. This save-scumming approach removes all risk from the equation.

After winning a round, leave the table, save your game, rest at the nearby bonfire to cycle the NPC lineup, then sit back down for another round. Players using this method report earning 200 to 300 silver per hour consistently. A strong pair (seven or higher) is generally enough to justify going all-in without reloading.

For more on card game rules and strategy, see the Duo and Five-Card Strategy Guide.

Ore Mining

Mining is one of the most reliable passive income methods. Ore veins are scattered across the map of Pywel, from the Hernand Highlands to the Steel Mountains. To start mining, you need a pickaxe, which you receive by completing Rhett's Request from Rhett outside the Smithy in Hernandia.

The most profitable ores to target depend on where you are in the game. Here is a breakdown of common ore values:

Diamonds are the most valuable common ore. The Hernand Highlands Cavern, located southeast of Hernand and west of the Specter's Hideout, contains about a dozen diamonds plus stalactites worth additional copper. That single cave run yields approximately 40 silver. Other diamond deposits can be found in the crater southeast of Howling Hill, southwest of the Demeniss region, south of Tashkalp, and north of the Trader's Expanse. For detailed locations, see the Diamond Locations article.

Minerals respawn very slowly, roughly one in-game week for standard deposits. Mark locations on your map after discovery and revisit them periodically. Along the main road to Varnia, clusters of Scolecite and Azurite deposits together can yield 60 or more silver per trip.

Red Croton Flower Farming

Red Croton flowers grow in fields deep in the woods roughly 1,000 meters southwest of Hernand, near a fast travel point. The flowers stack in groups of 50 per inventory slot, making them space-efficient to gather in bulk. Sell them to any merchant for a quick return.

While picking flowers, you can also catch small insects that spawn between the plants. These sell for extra copper at any vendor. After filling your inventory, fast travel back to Hernand or skydive from a sky island to sell everything quickly. The flowers regrow after approximately one in-game week, so combine flower runs with other activities between harvests.

Selling Loot and Equipment

Every enemy you defeat has a chance to drop equipment, coin purses, and crafting materials. Coin purses can be opened directly from your inventory for instant copper or silver. Equipment drops, especially weapons and armor from tougher enemies, sell for meaningful amounts at any vendor. As you progress, enemies drop higher-tier gear worth more at the shop.

Inventory space is limited, so prioritize keeping the most expensive drops and discarding cheap items. You can unlock additional inventory slots through faction quests that reward bags. Duplicate recipe pages also sell for modest amounts, so check your inventory periodically for extras.

Stealing and the Black Market

Crime pays well in Crimson Desert, especially in the early game. Beyond the bank heist, you can steal from homes, faction buildings, and unguarded drawers throughout towns. Puzzle boxes in certain buildings contain valuable artifacts. Selling stolen goods to legitimate merchants is possible, but Black Market merchants buy everything without questions and are often the only vendors who will purchase certain contraband items.

Nine Black Market locations exist across the map, including one on Hernand's west side, southeast of the jail. Stolen goods trigger the Wanted System and damage your faction reputation, so weigh the silver gain against the contribution level penalty before committing to a life of theft. Each stolen item costs 5 Contribution EXP, which can add up quickly if you strip entire buildings.

Bandit Camp Liberation

Liberating occupied bandit camps across Pywel rewards you with loot from every enemy in the camp. Camps that require a boss fight for liberation are especially lucrative because the sheer number of bandits means dozens of lootable bodies. Stick around after the boss goes down and loot every corpse before leaving.

Items with higher refinement and rarity sell for significantly more, so liberation runs in tougher regions yield better returns. Combine these runs with bounty contracts in the same area to maximize silver per trip.

Bank Investment

Once you have accumulated some wealth, the bank investment system turns idle gold bars into passive income. To open a bank account, visit Grover at the Hernand Bank (north side, near the castle entrance) and purchase a Personal Strongbox Permit for 100 silver. This single permit works at all four banks across Pywel.

Deposit gold bars into your strongbox and choose one of three investment strategies. The bank recalculates your returns approximately every 3 in-game days. You can switch strategies every 15 in-game days.

High Risk is effectively risk-free if you are willing to save-scum. The investment outcome is rolled fresh every time you load a save. Create a manual save 30 to 60 in-game minutes before the refresh timer, check the results, and reload if you get a loss. For long-term passive income without constant save management, Medium Risk offers the best balance.

You can find free gold bars hidden throughout the world. Lioncrest Manor contains one of the earliest available gold bars, worth 500 silver at any bank. Always exchange gold bars at a bank rather than selling to merchants, since merchants only pay 190 silver per bar.

Trading Wagons

The trading system is the most involved money-making method but offers strong profit margins for patient players. To get started, you need to develop the Greymane Camp to Level 2, complete the Embers of Return questline, and recruit Brice as your wagon manager by finishing the quest "A Rumor in Glenbright Farm."

Building a wagon requires a Dispatch Mission and an Engineer comrade. Complete the Grounds of the Sunrise faction quests to unlock the Gathered Will rumors, which eventually lead to recruiting Arnold as your Engineer through the quest "A Rumor in St. Halssius." Once Arnold is at camp, dispatch him on the Timberturner Wainwright wagon crafting mission.

To package trade goods, visit Karl, the Provisions Keeper, at your camp. Packaging costs 100 camp funds per item. You can also convert 1,000 camp resources into a single packaged trade good. Packaged goods cannot be unpacked, so verify what you are wrapping before committing resources. Importantly, Trading Posts require a minimum of 25 packaged items of the same type per transaction.

Before driving your wagon to a Trading Post, open the map and inspect distant posts to see which ones are buying your specific goods at a "High" price percentage. Selling at a high-demand post maximizes your margin. After completing a sale, purchase local goods at the destination to transport and sell at the next stop, creating a continuous profit loop.

Dispatch Missions

The Freesword Dispatch System at Greymane Camp lets you send comrades on timed missions that reward camp resources, silver, and occasionally rare items. Dispatch missions become available in Chapter 3 when you gain access to Howling Hill.

Missions require a set amount of in-game time to complete, typically 6 to 18 hours. Strategic use of the rest mechanic to skip time accelerates mission completion. Assign comrades whose skills match the mission requirements for better rewards. Dispatch income is modest compared to active methods, but it accumulates in the background while you do other things.

Hunting and Skinning

Hunting animals in the woods and open plains yields hides, meat, and horns. These materials sell at any vendor, but the real value comes from crafting with them. Take excess leather to a blacksmith and upgrade leather armor, then sell the finished product for significantly more than the raw materials would fetch on their own.

Golden Piggy Bank

The Golden Piggy Bank generates passive offline income. While you are not playing, it slowly accumulates pouches of silver that you can collect when you next log in. It is not going to make you rich, but it provides a steady trickle on top of your active earning methods.

Golden Apple Hedgehog Farm (Tinkerton)

A fast money loop revolves around the Golden Apple Hedgehog spawn at the Golden Field near Tinkerton, between Deinis and Hernand. The farming spot is the bottom-right corner of the middle field above Tinkerton, marked by a slanted water tank. A cluster of three bushes at that corner spawns up to 20 animals, including the rare Golden Apple Hedgehog variant.

Farming Steps

1. Put on a Mask from a back-alley vendor (easiest in Hernand) to avoid reputation loss when stealing.

2. Walk through the cluster of bushes to trigger the spawn. Shoot the Golden Apple Hedgehog and pick up the dropped apple (red ring means theft, so watch for NPC witnesses).

3. Run about 10 feet away from the bushes, then return. Every animal respawns instantly.

4. Repeat until inventory is full. Middle of the day yields the most hedgehog spawns.

Crafting and Selling

Convert each Golden Apple into a Gold Bar using the Alchemy Formula: Gold Bar at any Witch vendor. The recipe is 1 Golden Apple + 3 Gold Ore. Sell the finished bars at any Bank for 500 silver each rather than 190 silver at regular vendors, or invest them through the bank menu for passive returns. A bonus-yield Pickaxe makes the required gold ore much easier to keep stocked.

Money-Making Tier List

The table below ranks each method by how much silver it earns per hour of active play, its availability, and how early you can start using it.

Tips for Maximizing Income

• Always sell gold bars at a bank. Merchants pay only 190 silver; banks pay 500.

• Stack bounty contracts. Pick up multiple bounties in overlapping areas before heading out.

• Unlock inventory space early. Complete faction quests that reward bags so you can carry more loot per trip.

• Save before high-stakes activities. Manual saves before gambling or bank investment refreshes eliminate all downside.

• Check vendor restock after midnight. Merchants restock at 0:00 in-game time. Sleep past midnight to buy out healing items again before tough fights.

• Combine methods. Mine ores on the way to bounty targets, loot camps during liberation, and sell everything in one vendor trip.