An economy is the cornerstone of any good civ builder game. Farthest Frontier is no exception, and your economy will revolve around earning gold so you can purchase buildings, upkeep your military and keep certain services in operation for your citizens. A deep stockpile of gold will be important, so here is how to make gold in Farthest Frontier.
Making Gold in Farthest Frontier
There are three primary ways to make gold in Farthest Frontier:
The gold supply from each source will fluctuate over time, so you will want to ensure you always have a surplus of gold to account for the short recessions in your economy. Certain buildings like the healer’s hut and military barracks will incur a monthly cost to run, so you want to verify that you won’t go into a deficit if you build those. You can check your gold income and expenses by hovering over the gold bars at the top right of your game.
No Taxation without Representation
Taxes are a passive gold income source in Farthest Frontier. The first building you can construct to generate taxes from is the market. It will provide you with 12 gold a month. Your housing districts will also produce taxes for you once you upgrade them past a shelter. Other tax-generating buildings include the Pub, which you can build in tier 3. Each tax generator will produce more gold for you when you upgrade it.
TL;DR Make Gold with Taxes
- Build and Upgrade Markets and Pubs
- Upgrade homes past Shelters
Mine and Smelt Gold Bars
You can make gold bars directly by mining gold ore and using a foundry to process it. Foundries are tier 3 buildings and will require a gold investment to build. Gold ore may be a scarce resource on your map, so this may not be the most feasible option for generating gold. Nevertheless, you will want to begin mining gold as soon as you spot the resource on your map.
TL;DR Make Gold with Mines
- Find Gold Ore nodes (if they exist on your map)
- Build Mines on them
- Build a Foundry
- Smelt Gold Bars
Buy, Sell, and Arbitrage at the Trading Post
For most players, trading will become the best way to stockpile gold. Once you build the trading post in tier 2, traders will periodically come and visit. Once a trader arrives, they will stay at your trading post for a few days or months. Each trade will arrive with prefined goods they are willing to buy and sell. They will only have a fixed amount of gold to purchase goods. Your trading post will need to be stocked with items that you want to sell. Pay attention to items the traders buy for above-average prices, especially quickly replenishable items such as wood planks. You will want to sell those items if you have them and buy items from traders that are being sold for “far below average” prices. You can potentially sell them for a better price to the next trader.
If you are lucky enough to have two traders arrive at your trading post simultaneously, you can attempt to arbitrage them. See if there is an item that one trader is selling and the other is buying. If the buyer is willing to pay more than the selling trader, you can buy and sell the goods between the two traders. Let’s look at an example:
- Trader 1 is selling Hide Coats for 15 gold a piece
- Trader 2 is buying Hide Coats for 18 gold a piece
- You purchase 10 Hide Coats from Trader 1 for 150 Gold
- You sell 10 Hide Coats to Trader 2 for 180 Gold
- You just made a 30 Gold profit
You rinse and repeat that process until the buying trader runs out of money or the selling trader runs out of goods. Trader arbitrage is a great method to stockpile a ton of gold, but the opportunity will rarely present itself, so make sure you take advantage.
TL;DR Make Gold at the Trading Post
- Buy goods at low prices and store them
- Sell goods at high prices
- Wait until two or more traders arrive at your trading post
- See if one is selling a good that the other is buying
- If a trader is buying for more than the other is selling, swap the good between them and take the profit
If you are going to arbitrage two traders, ensure the buying trader has enough gold to buy the goods before purchasing them.
Now you know all the current methods to make gold in Farthest Frontier. Be sure not to use all of your gold once you get some, and continuously monitor your expenses, so they don’t get out of hand.
For more Farthest Frontier guides, please check out our Farthest Frontier section.
