Okay so real quick, just want to warn that this method can be used and looked at in several ways. If used properly, this is honestly just a way to occasionally make some extra money on the side by "outwitting" the rich or asking your friends to be generous. If abused, this is a broken system that abuses your friends and takes advantage of the "kindness and generosity" of others. Basically, you can use this method to occasionally pull yourself out of a tight spot, or you can pretty much straight up cheat the game without using a third-party program. This may or may not kill the fun of your game as you can literally buy out pretty much everyone using it, have armies filled with the most expensive units, never have to build with the intention of making money, etc...so do this method at your own risk!!!

Now let's get started. For the sake of walking through, I'm going to do this step by step as though you were about to play on a new Legendary Campaign.

Step 1: Pick any character, anyone will do except Dong Zhuo and the members of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. You may be able to get the Yellow Turbans to work on turn 1 but it won't happen consistently so be warned, however you can definitely get them to work later if you do it right. Personally, I like to choose Liu Bei because Kong Rong is a good early friend for money and Liu Biao is the best for money later on. The best people to do this with in the long term are Liu Biao, Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, Kong Rong, and Liu Bei. Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shao require you be best friends with them in order for you to not lose money when you trade with them. They are weird in the way that they will give you a great deal when you Request Regular Payments but a really bad deal when you Request Payment unless you are Best Friends.


Step 2: Earn as much money as you can by the end of your turn. This applies to turn 1 as well as turn 100. More money is better but for practical reasons, I recommend Loot and Occupy rather than Sack and Withdraw.

Step 3: Find your richest and bestest friend (in Liu Bei's case this is Tao Qian) and then make them into a Best Friend by raising their attitude toward you to +150. This can be done by negotiating a No-Aggression Pact, Military Access, Trade Route, declaring war on their enemies or gifting them Ancillaries, Land, Marriage and/or Money. This is also why the Yellow Turbans have such a difficult time doing this. They don't have enough stuff to trade to become best friends on turn 1, but they certainly can be in later turns.
If you want extra info then skip to the 'How to Make Friends' Section of this guide.

Step 4: Now Negotiate again and this time go straight to Request Regular Payments. See what the Negative Factor is, 1.5 and below is generally a good sign but not always. Go ahead and click on the right arrow to bring them up 10% and do it until you see a rise of several numbers ex. -2.1 suddenly becoming -3.4 means stop.

Step 5: From there go down 1 or 2 gold at a time until the number stabilizes after multiple decreases. This usually happens around -2.2 to -2.3 but can be higher or lower sometimes.

Step 6: Once the number is stable, REMEMBER THAT NUMBER, then click Make This Work. If this is done correctly, your screen should look like this


Down at the bottom I requested regular payments of 117 for 10 tens turns which ends up as 1170 gold at the end. To make this work I have to pay around 690. This number fluctuates from the minimum required to make it work, to the maximum before it goes .1 over the requirement. That means in 10 turns I make a profit of of around 480 gold!

Step 7: Now use that same number from the last step and it will be the exact same as last time. Click Make This Work again and repeat this until you don't have enough gold to make the deal work anymore.

So now you are broke but you will be rich in a few turns. You gave your friend a loan and he is paying you back with interest. But what if you are greedy?....Well why not try asking for some of that money back?

Step 8: Negotiate again and choose Request Payment. This time start at a number that results in -2.2 and click Make This Work. Your monthly payments show result in you paying less over 10 turns then you are receiving this turn Ex. You pay 89 gold a turn for 10 turns resulting in 890 gold while they pay you 950 gold meaning that you earn a 60 gold profit. Something like this


Now you have the drugs AND the money!!! But what if you want more?

Step 9: Instead of accepting that deal, click the X on your payment and raise their payment by 10% and Make This Deal again. Are they still paying you more? Is your profit higher than before? If the answer to either of these answers is no, then go down -0.1 and try again. When both of these answers are Yes, then you are making maximum profits.

Step 10: Now Just repeatedly do this until you are making enough money to make you satisfied. I know the numbers don't seem like much, but as the game goes on and people get richer, you can request higher regular payments. The highest I've gotten so far is 350 while paying 1800 gold (1700 per transaction). Then I am so friendly with them that I buy 25555 gold back for payments of 1450 per turn (10k Gold Profit) At this point, I had 51k gold to work with because of my spending so I was able to raise profits by 6k per turn every 5 minutes. So 60k gold every 5 minutes put in.


If you look at the left, you can see my profits and expenditures.

So for those wondering why this works, when you Request Payment or Request Regular Payment, the other character always has a -1 because they dislike the idea while the other negatives come from dislike of you, your respectability, and their own economic power.

I have found that the Request Regular Payment has a different rule than the Request Payment.

When you Request Regular Payment, the economic power is only influenced by the amount of money the character had when your turn started. So before you even opened the trade window, their economic power was set.

On the other hand, Request Payment's economic power is based off of the highest amount of money the character has had this turn. So when you Request Regular Payment and then pay them until you are broke, you are giving them money and thus lowering the negative influence in Request Payment. They have more money now and so feel like they can afford to give you more.

So for example, lets say you have 10k gold, and the other guy has 10k gold and you are neutral towards each other. He is willing to pay you 200 gold per turn while you pay him 1000 gold so you get 1000 gold profit after 10 turns. However he is only willing to give you 1000 gold if you pay him 220 per turn. This is obviously not in your favor at all. But if you Request Regular Payment 10 times, then he is paying you 2000 gold per turn and now has 20k gold. If you Request Payment from him now, he is willing to give you 2000 gold for only 150 gold per turn. Even when you continuously make the deal, he is still willing to pay 2000 gold for 150 per turn even when he only has 2000 left. So now you have your 10k, his 10k, and he is paying you 500 gold per turn and that is from when you only had 10k gold at the start. Now do the same deals again, giving him all the gold then taking it back. It turns into you having 20k gold and him paying you 3000 gold a turn. Again and it is 4500 gold a turn. Then 6000, 7500, etc... And you can do this infinitely.

Here is the math to make the explanation simple.

(You) 10k + 0 per turn | (Him) 10k + 0 per turn

(You)10k/1000(in payments) = 10(transactions) * 200(per turn) = 2000(per turn)

(You) 0k + 2000 per turn | (Him) 20k - 2000 per turn

(Him) 20k/-2000(in payments) = -10(transactions) * 150(per turn) = -1500(per turn)

(You) 20k + 500 per turn | (Him) 0k - 500 per turn

(You) 20k/1000(in payments) = 20(transactions) * 200(per turn) = 4000(per turn)

(You) 0k + 4500 per turn | (Him) 20k - 4500 per turn

(Him) 20k/-2000(in payments) = -10(transactions) * 150(per turn) = -1500(per turn)

(You) 20k+3000 per turn | (Him) 0k - 3000 per turn


By doing this, you potentially get infinite money.

So you are tired of being lonely and want to make some friends huh? No? You just want to extort them for cash? Don't worry, I can help!

Now, there are 7 stages of Friendship!

The first stage is Hostile. This is when your "friend" hates you with every fiber of his being. This increases his negative opinion of everything you request of him by a HUGE amount so he probably won't let you come hang out at his castle or marry his daughter (looking at you Sun Jian). This stage occurs when someone's attitude towards you is -150 or below.

The second stage is Very Unfriendly. Instead of giving you a friendly punch in the face, now your "friend" just spits at you. Progress! His negative opinion on everything also got a little lower, but it's still really high on everything so he'll still probably a no..... This stage occurs when attitude is -50 through -149.

The third stage is Unfriendly. Your "friend" finally gave you a nickname! But it's a secret..... At this stage his negative opinion decreased again to only a slightly worse disapproval than normal and now he is about as willing to lend you money at the same rate as every other random person! This stage occurs at -10 through -49.

The Fourth Stage is Neutral. Now your "friend" doesn't know whether to laugh at your jokes, or slap you for them, he could go either way. His negative opinion on everything is on a normal person's level now and will make his judgement based purely on what is offered. This occurs from -9 through +9.

The Fifth Stage is Friendly. Your friend finally waved back! He now is willing to give you a better deal and be more open-minded when you ask for something, but you should probably start with small things and work your way up. This occurs from +10 through +49.

The Sixth Stage is Very Friendly. Your friend is now "Glad to see you" and considers you "A welcome sight." Now he is willing to give you special discounts on all his property, including his children! But even friends are still wary of exchanging money, so you won't get any leeway on that just yet. This occurs from +50 through +149.

The Seventh Stage is also the final stage. I now pronounce you....Best Friends!!! Your bestest buddy is practically giving you the shirt off his back now. You get the "Best Friend" price on all his property. He'll even give you a discount on money, what a guy! It's a good thing you're such good friends and would never, EVER take advantage of him to further your own agenda.....right?..... oh, and in case you haven't noticed the pattern, this occurs from +150 onward.

But how do you go about making friends? Well, friends do nice things for each other. They do things like sign Non-Aggression Pacts and Military Access agreements, they create Trade Routes so they can visit each out often, and they love Gifting things to each other! So make sure to give your new friend money, armor, weapons, land, and people to serve them!~ Friends will also go to war for each other and create secret clubs called Coalitions and Military Alliances. So get out there and bribe some strangers!....I mean make some friends!!!!

Friendship changes at attitude levels -150, -50, -10, -9/+9, 10, 50, and 150
From left to right the relationship levels are Hostile, Very Unfriendly, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly, Very Friendly, and Best Friends

Now the way that this works is when you raise your propose deal to +5.0, the other faction will think positively of you and their attitude towards you will rise by a small amount. This amount won't change after +5.0 until you hit +15.0, so there is no point in going to +5.1 through +14.9 at all. The amount the attitude will raise +15 for a small increase, and +50 for a large increase. This means that if you are trying to become best friends with someone, a +15 Propose Deal is always better than 3 +5 Propose Deals. One thing to note though is that a +30 Propose Deal is equivalent to two +15 Propose Deals, so if you are gifting land that is worth more than +15, just raise the it to +30 in order to maximize the attitude gained.

If you are trying to do this on turn one, I recommend doing the following things to the person you are trying to become friends with....

* Negotiate Non-Aggression Pact and a Trade with it if you can. If these are positive proposals then do Make Payment and raise it until the Propose Deal says +15.0 and if it isn't Positive then just Make Payment until you make the deal work.

* Negotiate Military Alliance and do the same as above. If Positive then +15.0, if Negative then Make This Work.

* Trade Ancillaries and gift them to get it as close to +15.0 as you can without going over, use Make Payment to get it to +15.0

* Trade Lands and do the same, aim for +15 but if your land is worth more than +15 then go to +30 for maximum effect.

* Make Payment and get to +15. If you can't then use Make Regular Payment to get it the rest of the way.

* Make Regular Payments to +15.

* If they still aren't Best Friends with you yet, declare war on their enemies. Be warned that this can actually be a terrible idea if you aren't good at combat and your army isn't strong yet.

* Form a Coalition or Military Alliance if they'll let you. This can be hard to get out of though as you have to wait 10 turns to stay trustworthy and it makes people generally hate you either way.

* Finally, and this is a last resort, become their vassal if you can. Again, this is a last resort as they will take 20% of everything you earn from then on, and I am currently unaware if this will affect the payments you request so this may actually end up costing you any money you would earn.

Now that you have all this money, what do you do with it? Here is a list of some possible options

Buy the highest quality and quantity army possible: Simple, self-explanatory and if you play well then you can win the game with ease.

Upgrade your cities: You will never need to worry about not being able to upgrade again!

Buy Food: ALL THE FOOD!!!!

Buy More Gold: Who says you have enough gold?!!!

Buy land: Land is cheap when you have infinite money, though you can technically only afford land that costs up to -30 unless you use other things like equipment to sweeten the deal.

Buy Peace: Pay off anyone who hates you with money, land, and equipment, then buy back the land and equipment.

Buy friends: Friends like gifts, especially gifts of gold. Give them enough gold and anyone will be your friend!

Buy China!: Once everyone is your friend, buy their lands, their food, their service. Anything and everything they have is yours to buy. Do this until you are crowned Emperor and then watch the sun rise on a grateful China. All of China unified without bloodshed.....magical.

This patch is meant to get rid of some of the exploiting going on with the money system. Specifically, it's supposed to make the AI not give away money for free. I patched my game and tested this new system and have made the following findings...

1. This method STILL WORKS. It works completely, utterly, and 100%. This patch has done
NOTHING to make this method harder.

2. There is only 1 thing that I had to go back and change in the guide and that is that the 'Best
Friends' opinion of +0.0 on Request Payments and Request Regular Payments has become -0.1
which makes it impossible to get money without paying anything. All this really does it make it so
we have to pay 0.1 more worth of money to do this method, which keeps our profits around 50%
per deal and honestly doesn't stop this method at all.

On a personal note, I think that this update just made it slightly less realistic. A friend may be willing to loan you money, but I think a Best Friend would give you the change in his pocket if you asked. It should just affect your relationship with each other a small amount each time you do it so that you eventually can't ask for more. But that's just my opinion.

TLDR; This guide still works completely and you don't need to change anything you were doing. Have fun and enjoy your hard earned gold!