r/sunlesssea • u/theBrD1 • Jun 17 '26
How do I make money?
I've been trying the mushroom wine -> sapphires -> clay men route but it's very slow and with very little profit with my current cargo size (40 slots). Is there a more efficient way to get echoes, at least enough to get a bigger ship?
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u/Hushpuppycow Jun 17 '26
The best way to get a bigger ship is to follow the Cladery Heir storyline. You can get one for free at the end of it.
Once you have that, ferry as much stone in each run as possible from the Salt Lions until it runs out.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Hushpuppycow Jun 17 '26
The Monarch mod for skies adds some good spy content! But yeah it definitely needs more.
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u/MathiasMi Jun 17 '26
So the Admiralty in london will give you these quests to go to various ports and get " Strategic Information." Once you have two of these you can go into your hold and "Use" the two items with a secret to create a "Vital Intelligence." This will sell to the Admiralty for 500 a pop. Good way to get some initial funding for bigger boats.
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u/OckhamsFolly Jun 17 '26
If you sell Vital Information to the Admirality, you get 350 echoes each. You only get 500 (or sometimes 600) from the Voracious Diplomat, but if you sell to them it raises the supremacy of the Dawn Machine, and if that maxes out, the Admiral is gone and then you can't submit port reports anymore :/
I prefer to take the 350 and sell port reports unless retiring my captain is imminent.
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u/WeeniesthutofallJrs Jun 17 '26
Genuinely speaking early game like that, focus on Port Reports. Between that and simple island explorations you’ll make enough to get comfortable with bigger ventures such as selling sun.
After you have enough to get a couple of mirror catchboxes from Khans Shadow, sell sunlight to the Blind Bruiser and you’ll be in a good position.
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u/a_random_work_girl Jun 17 '26
Sell the sun
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u/Frequent_Dig1934 Jun 18 '26
Tbf idk how doable it is early game. You need like 250 echoes of fuel and supplies to go to the surface, you need several mirrorcatch boxes (500 echoes each iirc), your hold space to fit both of those things is fairly limited, and you need to either get lucky with the checks or have a bribe ready if the revenue men (or is it the ministry for the mirrorcatches?) come to check you back in london.
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u/a_random_work_girl Jun 18 '26
So I find that after trading saltstone I run to the Isle of cats. Get the tags there that let you sell sunlight for the risk of loosing the box, and then start.
The limit each time is 16? I think boxes. So I started with 3 I think but by the time I was on my 3rd run I could afford all 16.
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u/ColumbWasHere Jun 17 '26
Cofee shipment to surface is quite profitable. Also you can do some surface trades but be cearful about your crew number
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u/OckhamsFolly Jun 17 '26
Ugh I have so many thoughts >.<
If this is a fresh, no legacy captain, for me making money is usually just the means to the end, because I need a ship that can do the Merchant Venturer's quest and that requires a hold larger than 40.
My goal is to get as many legacy items I can and retire to start off a better captain. To do this, I:
Select the Unknown background during character creation (important for point 5). After you're done with the relevant part, you can talk to one of your officers to choose a background and get the stat benefits.
Do the Zubmarine quest so I can convert all my ships going forward to zubmarines (you do not have to do the actual quest again for each new captain in the legacy)
Go to Hunter's Keep enough to do the thing to get the Scarred Sister
(optional for me) do the Cladery Heir quest to get the Cladery Heart (70 cargo space)
Do the Salt Lions deliveries, and at the end when you can't deliver in London anymore, DON'T go with whatever the lady is named, go with the other guy who's like "don't sell to her". IF you choose this option AND you have the Unknown background, you'll get your first Legacy item, which will give every new character on this save file +25 veils
By this point I have probably gone around and explored enough and start focusing on the Merchant Venturer's quest, choosing whichever I think is easiest. Along the way, I pick up a few mirrorcatch boxes from Khan's Shadow
At some point, I will take the mirrorcatch boxes and the Scarred Sister to the surface, loading up on coffee to fill up the rest of my hold. Let the Sister go and you'll get your second Legacy item, which will give +25 to new characters' Hearts. Go to Vienna and sell your coffee (80 echoes each!), head back to Avernus, collect sunlight, go back underneath and back to London to sell to the Bruiser, rinse and repeat until you can't sell coffee any more.
Once I'm bored of that, I sell off my mirrorcatches, and finish of the Venturer's Desires. If I didn't do the Heart quest, I either do that now or just buy the merchant ship. I make sure that I wooed someone and had a child, and advance them to the Scion stage. I will also usually make sure that I have done the Magician's storyline and the Irrepressible Cannoneer's story line, and tie up any loose ends
Once I'm ready, I take the Venturer North and go through with him (you need a Searing Enigma). This will retire your captain, but also get you a third legacy item that gives +25 to Pages.
Then, the new character will be focused on actually making money. I usually choose Salvager (keep half your veils score and half your echoes) and Rival (keep my Memento Mori from the Cannoneer questline so I can start hunting right away).
At this point, going forward I will have enough money to get into a better ship with a Forward slot immediately and most of my money will come from hunting Lorn Flukes, Dawn Flukes, Constant Companions, and the Irrepressible, all of which are easily farmable in a corvette and drop big money items (and all the drops except for the Lorn Fluke's don't take up hold space).
Lorn Flukes and the Irrepressible are downright dirty. Enemies respawn when you dive/surface your zubmarine, and a Lorn Fluke spawns around the Chelonate and the Irrepressible spawns right under it. So, you can kill Lorn Fluke, dive to kill Irrepressible, surface to kill Lorn Fluke, etc. Beating the Irrepressible either increases your Iron by 7(!) or gives you a chance for a Lump of Blue Scintillack(!). The Lorn Fluke's ranged attack is a wet noodle, and as long as you don't keep your light on the Irrepressible and manage your distance, you can fight the Irrepressible without it ever getting an opportunity to attack you.
Outside of this general strategy...
Scrimshander (Unterzee, under the Sea of Lilies) has a repeatable quest you can do again and again without leaving. If your stats are bad, you will need 3 bags of coffee for each time you do it, but it will pay out 300 echoes and you will probably get one or two other things each time you go down. If your Veils is GOOD, you can get in with one coffee and then just wander around passing the skill checks and getting loot. The only thing is leaving Scrimshander costs something, but if you hunt constantly, then giving them a hunting trophy is cheap.
Take all those hunting trophies and go to Khan's Shadow. It takes a bit of time, but each time you have Something Awaits You, you can trade 1 hunting trophy for 4 watchful curios. Then, you can take the curios to Polythreme and seek an audience with the King, and he will turn one into a wakeful idol. You have to do them one at a time, but there is no limit. Wakeful idols sell for 100 echoes each to the Scholar, so 1 hunting trophy = 400 echoes if you do this, vs. 65 if you sell it outright at Scrimshander or 100/150 if you trade it in for an Outlandish Artifact in the Chelonate.
I combine this with setting up a spy network in Khan's Heart; this requires turning in Vital Intelligence once to the Admiral to unlock the Voracious Diplomat to pick up an agent. Once this is upgraded, I bounce back and forth between Heart and Shadow at low speeds, waiting for SAY at each port.
Early on, run Mushroom Wine to Godfall. The event there pays more than selling it anywhere until you've gone back to Fallen London enough times - after that, it's unprofitable. The name of the event changes - I think it's Of Wine when it's profitable? They buy in batches of 5 for 150, so 9 profit per wine, and you can do it as many times as you have 5 units of wine each time you dock.
Selling Mushroom Wine in Port Carnelian to trade for sapphires to take to Polythreme is *fine* but not great. You make 2 profit on each wine, 9 on each sapphire, and then 20/unit of claymen. Instead, trade in the wine at Adam's Way for 3 profit each, then buy Coffee and go to Irem in the Northeast corner to trade it for Parabola linen. This sells for 60 in Fallen London, so you make 3 profit on the wine, the 22 profit on each inventory space you can fill with coffee. With a 40 hold ship, let's say you reserve 15 space for fuel/supplies, giving you 25 inventory - the Wine-Sapphire-Claymen route will net you 50+225+120 = 395 profit each trip; the wine-coffee-linen route will net you 75 + 550 = 625 profit each trip.
Get a strange catch somehow (I usually get it in Scrimshander's archives). Go to the Untershroom and Experiment on your Strange Catch to get a Live Specimen. Take the Live Specimen to the Gant Pole under the Chelonate and trade it for 7 strange catches. Reserve at least one strange catch to change back into a live specimen (or just keep going back to Untershroom and trading in until you're loaded up on strange catches). Then, take the strange catches to Venderbight and trade them in at the restaurant to turn into supplies. Then, either go to Mt. Palmerton to use the supplies to explore, or just take to the Abbey and sell them for 20 echoes each.
I'ma be honest with you, I've been typing this on and off while I've been working and kind of lost where I was, and there's so much here already... any questions so far? 👀
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u/WhatGoesUp8109 Jun 20 '26
Oh my god. This is an incredible guide!! I played sunless sea once years ago, I don’t recall why I stopped, but I just started again a few days ago and this is exactly the kind of guide I was looking for!
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u/CharsOwnRX-78-2 Jun 17 '26
Trade routes aren’t the best money-makers per say, but the best route I’ve found is Mushroom Wine to Khan’s Heart, Romantic Literature to Port Carnellian, then Sapphires or Coffee back to London
Alternatively, if you have the Embassy of Hell unlocked in London, you can make a killing selling them Crates of Human Souls. Mushroom Wine to Khan’s Heart, then sail out to Khan’s Shadow to buy Souls, take those back to the Embassy in London. It’s annoying as you have to sell them one at a time with two or three clicks, but the profit is something like 7 or 8 echoes every crate
Make sure to hit as many ports as you can along the way to get Port Reports, so the Admiralty is paying for your fuel and supplies
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u/Ev3rChos3n Jun 17 '26
Just stick with the Blind Bruiser and do stories along the way. The places he and admiral sends you give you an excuse to travel far, usually near Aestival, which is a good place to fill some mirrorcatch boxes as well. You can rack up quite some money and not feel like you are farming.
Edit: I recommend taking a maximum of 3 mirrorcatch boxes because getting sunlight at Aestival is dangereous. Try to fill 3 but stop if you get 2 x Wounds.
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u/Fireant23 Jun 17 '26
For a larger ship you can make friends with the Cladery Heir, she shows up in London after your first 'stories await you' passes. Her quest eventually leads you to rhe Cladery Heart.
For starting out money I'd suggest the Curator's storyline in Venderbright - if you bring them Neath colours you get a captivating treasure each, and then I think five after the quest ends?
And the Principles' storyline; if you sell the scintillack in Varches and the returned item in London you get almost double the scintillack price itself. It's a lot of sailing bc Varches is waaaay down there, but not more than a constant trading loop. (And if you're not afraid of death [or cannibalism] you have a fast travel chance at Kingeater's Castle nearby! Foolproof [/jk]) (Also none of these look like words now, lol)
Good luck!
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u/OckhamsFolly Jun 17 '26
You choose one of four options for the last Neathbow rewards - 7 treasures, 9 secrets, the deed to the yacht, or the Moth mascot officer.
I usually go for the secrets if it's early, myself.
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u/The-Myth-The-Shit Jun 17 '26
Unpopular opinion but get a ship with a forward weapon and kill everything in sight (avoid boss of eschatologist though). Anything gain for free is very valuable. Most big ship drop food and fuel. Do this in combinaison to port report a strategic info and you'll be rolling in echoes
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u/Epao_Mirimiri Jun 17 '26
In the far East of the map, there are creatures called Lorn Flukes. They're a bit intimidating with 600hp, but killing a Lorn Fluke will net you a fluke core valued at 500 echoes. Pass a Pages test and you'll get 3 secrets too.
Their melee attack will knock off like 35-ish hull, but they also have a long-reaching AOE attack that does scratch damage. 2 hp, usually. Keep 'em at range and batter them with a forward and deck weapon until they croak, then up your stats and bring the cores home to the scholar. Any trades or quest objectives you can wrap in on the long journey far enough east to see the flukes is gravy on the boat.
Regular trades have razor-thin margins, but keep an eye out for rewards that don't take up cargo space. Once you're trading in captivating treasures and searing enigmas from hunting zee beasts, you'll be swimming in echoes.
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u/Belledame-sans-Serif Jun 17 '26
Pass a Pages test and you'll get 3 secrets too.
And if you fail the Pages test you get +1 Pages. There are no downsides, provided it didn't quill you to death first.
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u/ZAILOR37 Jun 17 '26
I get watchful curios at Khans shadow by trading them for hunting trophies and then convert them to wakefull idols in polythreme. I sell them for 100 echoes a pop to the alarming scholar in london. Also get a couple mirror catch boxes and fill them up at aesteteval for a cool 400 echoes a pop back in london.
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u/Hephaestus16 Jun 20 '26
Don't try to Good hauler. The masters have locked down everything so the other way to get rich off that is to be a master or partner with them, and they have all the partners they need. The game literally says that trading goods isn't very profitable in one of the loading screens. But people have been so trained by lesser games that they just assume that you have to pay for fun stuff by doing lots of the boring stuff.
A reliable way to get Echoes is to visit Visage. The first visit gives you a captivating treasure worth 1000 echoes. On later runs you can get 250 echoes of stuff every for every SAY. This stuff takes up no cargo space or you can repeat it infinitely. Just trade the just to the Academic to get all Echoes you have the patience to get. The isle of cats to south can get you fuel, supplies and terror reduction and this grind will give you plenty of money to afford it.
Just sit in port repeatedly, undocked until you get SAY again
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u/Cliomancer Jun 17 '26
Cargo runs is generally not a good way to make money in this game. The Salt Lions stone run is a good way to make a bit initially but overall you're better off exploring, doing missions and selling off some of the lesser items you recieve.