The easiest way is probably Smithing. Just sit back and click a bunch. You don't have to worry about combat.

Gameplay wise, battle loot is the best way to make money. Bigger battles mean bigger loot and prisoner ransoms. Be a mercenary and fight. Factions on the backfoot pay more, stronger factions are easier battles.

Raid vans. I was raiding the arabs with my lighting fast blitz 40 man butter raiders then Emir Hashan just happened to be faster and with a follower army to boot. Lucky for me he was full Salahuddin and mercy peaced the lowly Buttercross clan for free. Massive respect. Arab vans are nice but don't let the big boys catch you in the desert. You may not get Salahuddined...

A great way is to offer your service to a ruler as a mercenary. The pay itself is fine, but you get to keep tons of loot (based on I think % of troops in the fight that were yours rather than allies if that makes sense). You make tons of money selling it all, not to mention able to equip your characters with any of the good stuff. I dont think you get trade experience from selling it though unfirtuantely, i think that's been fixed to only be from items youve purchased then sold, not looted then sold. but still worth it. And not much risk if you're smart about it and pick your battle (since you dont care if the nation you marcenary for actually loses their war/battles)

the best easy way is the breeding perk.

it gives 1% of your current stock of horses per day.

you can win some veeeery valueble horses from winning tournaments that are worth 15k- 20k each.

once you won a couple of those.. the perk will grow you more..
(if you aint selling them.. it will take about 70 days to double the stack you currently have.

so lets say you do 4 tournaments per week... (do a bit of save scumming to get the valueble horse types).. than you get 40 in the first 70 days.

after that no more tournaments needed.. 70 days more you have 80... 70 days more you have 160.. 70 days more 320.. and so on.

now if you REALLY want to profit from this you just ignore your travel speed load up as many horses as you can in your inventory (totally ignoring the herding penalty decreasing your party speed down to 1)

but I fully understand if you don't want to do that.. in that case having an infantry only army.. is advisable.. so you can carry 2 horses per troop.. (1 riding, 1 cargo)

i now am just over 200 army size and have 200 wotan hotbloods.. who generate me about 2 more each day.. which I can sell for over 20k each.. so thats veeery easy 40k/day.. and it took me not long at all to reach that.

(for food.. you can butcher the cheaper types of horse.. aka the cargo horses when they breed... so you won;t even have to buy that.. unless you want variation)
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the second best moneymaker is smithing.. but it will take a considerable investment first to get going. (if your not as obsessed like me with getting "it all" buying 2000 wood and 1000 Pugio daggers... will do the trick to train you up.
**
melt the daggors for materials.. and use the wood to craft into charcoal (make sure to pick the 2 wood -> 3 charcoal perk asap!

now craft 2 handed spears..and melt them down again... keep doing that until you unlocked all blueprrints for 2 handed spears..

once you have you should be able to craft spears that sell for 20-30k.. which should make you a tidy profit.

(as smithing needs a lot skipping days while in a city.. can be combined with the breeding horses one)
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โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Almo:

I've been making quests for NPCs, but they pay too low.

I'm trying not to pillage villages for easy expensive loot, seems like the best easy way.

At the same time I didn't do it yet because I'm trying to be a good guy in the game.

By not being a nice guy:)

You got the right idea. Just provoke villages to fight using forced recruitment/demand supply and within a few days you will have amassed a competent fighting force that is ready to take on lords.

After that you will not want for money.

well i mean i reached around 2 mil making tons after i managed to take a city from rebels and then defending that said city i was printing prisoners and loot now i have a bunch of clans under me and started conquering

Hunt down medium to large bandit parties & clear hideouts, sell everything you don't need.
Tournaments bets and sell the rewards you don't need/want.

For the early game, that'll get you some money.

For mid to late game Smithing will definitely be your money maker but be ready to travel a lot.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย kristianjakob:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Almo:

I've been making quests for NPCs, but they pay too low.

I'm trying not to pillage villages for easy expensive loot, seems like the best easy way.

At the same time I didn't do it yet because I'm trying to be a good guy in the game.

By not being a nice guy:)

You got the right idea. Just provoke villages to fight using forced recruitment/demand supply and within a few days you will have amassed a competent fighting force that is ready to take on lords.

After that you will not want for money.

Pillaging villages can piss off your companions and other family members though. If their standings drop to low they could even leave your party. Companions and family with like cruel trait wouldn't mind, but others could.

Black Smith. you can make a couple thousand pair sword

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Ruffio:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย kristianjakob:

By not being a nice guy:)

You got the right idea. Just provoke villages to fight using forced recruitment/demand supply and within a few days you will have amassed a competent fighting force that is ready to take on lords.

After that you will not want for money.

Pillaging villages can piss off your companions and other family members though. If their standings drop to low they could even leave your party. Companions and family with like cruel trait wouldn't mind, but others could.

Nahh, that is raiding. You are free to use force recruitment/demand supply no one will care.

Early game/small party (20-50) go for hideouts and bring 9 potent archers along (command follow me, fire at will and let them finish off the boss). Very easy and no risk for a rather average reward. It is not like there is a hideout around every corner though.
Recruiting the Smith, Coalbiter or the Ill-Starred will give you decent companions that you can use for smithing. No risk, very high reward. If you train them in archery (xbow, for the smith) and two-handed weapon they also make excellent captains for a fian based playthrough. AND they can craft their own otherwise rare and expensive weapons for it.

Smithing is pretty much money printing in this game. By far the fastest way to get rich, but also pretty boring.

You'll generally make enough to get by simply by fighting as much as possible. Even if it's just a few looters. Doesn't take that long to get clan tier high enough for mercenary contracts and from there you get more than enough money to sustain your party and buy nice toys for your characters from towns.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Azunai:

Smithing is pretty much money printing in this game. By far the fastest way to get rich, but also pretty boring.

You'll generally make enough to get by simply by fighting as much as possible. Even if it's just a few looters. Doesn't take that long to get clan tier high enough for mercenary contracts and from there you get more than enough money to sustain your party and buy nice toys for your characters from towns.

Honestly Idk how people get their smithing up enough to make anything good and make money. The fact that you need to specifically wait and let time pass to get that energy bar back up is terrible and makes it take so damn long and mind numbing. Its not like trade where you can just buy and sell a bit as you pass through and let it tick up slowly throughout the game. You got to actually put the entire game on hold for ages and do nothing but it to get it anywhere. It was one of the elements I was looking forward to in this second game but I'd be surprised if I've ever gotten my smithing up to even the second trait point (50) with the way they implemented it.
TLDR yeah merc work is just so much funner, you make money and actually get to play the game.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย 2tecs:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Azunai:

Smithing is pretty much money printing in this game. By far the fastest way to get rich, but also pretty boring.

You'll generally make enough to get by simply by fighting as much as possible. Even if it's just a few looters. Doesn't take that long to get clan tier high enough for mercenary contracts and from there you get more than enough money to sustain your party and buy nice toys for your characters from towns.

Honestly Idk how people get their smithing up enough to make anything good and make money. The fact that you need to specifically wait and let time pass to get that energy bar back up is terrible and makes it take so damn long and mind numbing. Its not like trade where you can just buy and sell a bit as you pass through and let it tick up slowly throughout the game. You got to actually put the entire game on hold for ages and do nothing but it to get it anywhere. It was one of the elements I was looking forward to in this second game but I'd be surprised if I've ever gotten my smithing up to even the second trait point (50) with the way they implemented it.
TLDR yeah merc work is just so much funner, you make money and actually get to play the game.

Smithing is poorly implemented overall. Way too much payout for very little investment. The only way it's a 'challenge' is the amount of time it takes. I don't use it because it's way too boring, but it's there for those that can't figure out how to make money any other way.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Action Man:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย 2tecs:

Honestly Idk how people get their smithing up enough to make anything good and make money. The fact that you need to specifically wait and let time pass to get that energy bar back up is terrible and makes it take so damn long and mind numbing. Its not like trade where you can just buy and sell a bit as you pass through and let it tick up slowly throughout the game. You got to actually put the entire game on hold for ages and do nothing but it to get it anywhere. It was one of the elements I was looking forward to in this second game but I'd be surprised if I've ever gotten my smithing up to even the second trait point (50) with the way they implemented it.
TLDR yeah merc work is just so much funner, you make money and actually get to play the game.

Smithing is poorly implemented overall. Way too much payout for very little investment. The only way it's a 'challenge' is the amount of time it takes. I don't use it because it's way too boring, but it's there for those that can't figure out how to make money any other way.

Best way to make cash and develop your character is imho start Merc as soon as possible.