Despite only being a few months old, Albion Online can still be a very difficult place for newcomers. Without a clear set of directions, it can be hard to acquire silver and very easy to lose it. There are many things that draw players to Albion Online from the politics to the hardcore PvP, but most aspects of the game require a lot of currency to be effective at it. That’s why I’ve put together this guide for the top 5 ways to make silver in Albion Online.
Expeditions and Arena
The daily Arenas and Expeditions in Albion Online are some of the safest and most consistent forms of farming silver in the game. There’s absolutely no risk in losing gear here and the only cost comes in the form of a repair bill. Therefore, unless you’re in an awful group, these will always have a positive net income.
Expeditions come in solo and group (5-player) varieties that range from Tier 4 to Tier 6. Upon completing an expedition, players will receive a set amount of silver. Once per day, players can receive a silver bonus and a Royal Sigil, which currently sells for around 10,000 silver. It’s recommended to do the highest tier expedition possible because it grants the most silver and provides the most fame.
Arenas are standard 5vs5 battlegrounds that can be queued solo or in a group. The first three wins each day will grant three Arena Sigils that can be traded for cosmetics or sold on the marketplace. Farming Arena and Expeditions definitely won’t make you rich, but it will provide a stepping stone to the more profitable things in the game.
Gathering
One of the first things players are introduced to in Albion Online is gathering. Grab an Ox, some tools, and head out into the wilderness to pick cotton, chop wood, skin creatures, break stone, or mine ore. When it comes to gathering, it’s essential to pick one area to specialize in; trying to level multiple gathering skills will significantly slow the process and be incredibly inefficient.
Before setting out, players should be sure to grab appropriate gather equipment and food (pies). This will increase your gathering yield, which in turn increases profit per hour. There are also varying degrees of risk vs reward when it comes to gathering. Obviously, blue and yellow zones are fairly safe but they’re also crowded and don’t have high tier materials.
Once it’s time to start gathering T5+ materials, it's necessary to start visiting red and black zones. Despite looking scary, red zones are generally safe if you’re paying attention. Instead of taking an Ox to red or black zones, bring an Armored Horse along with a high-level bag and backpack. Gankers tend to go for the slowest or easiest looking targets and will often leave players alone who are gathering on armored horses.
In red zones, it’s easy to tell how many hostiles are in the area. If the zone spikes to more than a handful of red players then it’s time to mount up and move on. In black zones, however, there’s no indication, which means death can always be around the corner. Due to this, many players will only stop to gather high-quality materials ranging from uncommon to exceptional and ignore normal quality.
Players who are only trying to maximize profits should also invest in an island with houses and laborers. Each of the gathering professions has an associated laborer that will trade raw materials for filled books. Keep in mind that that only materials up to two tiers higher will count towards to fame of filling a book and it often requires a lot of time to fill a sufficient amount of books each day. Additionally, raw crafting materials should be sold as is, unless crafting focus is being used to turn it into cloth, hide, planks or bars. Without using focus, each additional crafting step is a loss of money.
Crafting
Even though I just said that turning raw materials into items isn’t economically efficient, crafting can still provide an incredibly consistent income. In fact, crafting is one of the safest, least time demanding, and most profitable professions in the game. However, it requires a lot of silver and startup time before it pays off.
If you want to make money crafting, the most important thing to do is pick only 1 item to craft. Choose something that is popular and is important for organized content, such as Guild vs Guild or Zerg vs Zerg. It’s also easier to pick an item that only requires a single material because it will be less influenced by the market. These are items like Mercenary Hoods, Assassin Shoes, or Knight Armor; try to stay away from weapons because they require more materials and can be heavily influenced by balance changes and game updates.
Once you’ve decided on a specific item, upgrade your island and use every land plot to build houses. Upgraded those houses as high as you can afford, but at least to tier 5, and fill them with tables, beds, and trophies. Now hire laborers associated with the item you intend to craft. For example, cloth armor and mage items use Imbuers while items crafted at the Hunter’s Lodge require Fletchers.
This next step will require the most time, but remember to be patient because this will eventually pay off. Until your laborers reach tier 6, give them generalist trophy journals of the highest tier they can use each day. This will help them to level quickly and is very cost efficient. Generalist journalist can be filled by literally doing anything that accumulates fame. If you’re impatient, they can also be purchased relatively cheaply from the market.
While waiting for your laborers to level, it’s time to level your crafting skill. The best way to do this is to mass purchase tier 4 or tier 5 versions of the item you intend to craft and then studying them at a crafting station. This will destroy the item but will provide 200% crafting fame (even more if focus is used). This is almost always more efficient than crafting your own items. Learning Points can also be used while leveling crafting from tier 4 to tier 6 in order to save money.
Once you have crafting and laborers leveled to tier 6 it’s time to start making money. To start, purchase one T6 crafting journal per laborer. This is a one-time purchase because your laborers will provide you with an empty journal each time they return 22-hours later. How much money you make is also dependent on the tier of your houses with each tier increasing the return by approximately 20 percent.
The simplest strategy is to purchase T6 refined materials (bars, cloth, planks, leather) and craft enough items to fill each of your books. If you use your crafting focus, this should generally allow you to at least break even on a daily basis. Furthermore, crafting should always be done in a city due to the 15 percent return on materials. The profit comes from turning your books into your laborers and then selling the materials they bring back. If you have 24 laborers who bring back 5 materials each that are worth 2,000 silver then that’s 240k silver every 22 hours. Rinse and repeat until you’re rich.
There are also some advanced strategies for crafting, but they require knowledge of the market. Depending on the price of refined materials, crafting 6.1, 6.2 or 7.1 items can be highly profitable. If you notice a gap in the market, try to make a few of these items using crafting focus. Even if the materials to craft a single item cost 200k, by using crafting focus the actual cost is closer to 110k. If you can sell the item for more than 110k, the rest of profit. Another thing to keep in mind is the Black Market in Caerleon, which will occasionally buy items close to, or even higher than, the current market price.
Investment
Once you’ve accrued more silver than you know what to do with, it’s time to invest in Gold. While silver prices on the market will fluctuate on a daily basis due to supply and demand, gold should always increase over time. This doesn’t mean there will never be dips in the market, but investing in gold will always be profitable over a long enough time period.
There will also be certain time periods will gold prices will increase, or decrease, more than normal. Many people started playing Albion Online within about 5 days of each other during launch week. Every month, a large portion of the game’s population will attempt to buy gold at the same time in order to extend their subscription, which drives prices up. During land bidding wars in major cities, many guilds or players will trade gold for silver in order to keep their plots, which will cause gold prices to drop.
Clearly, the best time to buy gold is after a drop in the market price, but long-term investors should purchase gold whenever they can afford it. That being said, the return on investment for gold is generally small and it can be better to keep silver on hand if you have ways to use it.
PvP
The final way to get rich in Albion Online is the most risky. Getting a few friends together and running around ganking players in Red or Black zones can be very profitable. It only takes one lucky haul to bring in millions of silver, but you could also end up dead every time you venture out.
When it comes to ganking, it’s important to learn the terrain and only use gear you can afford to lose. Many players will PvP in T4 or T5 gear because it’s incredibly cheap while not being too much weaker than T6 or T7. Moreover, when it comes to ganking, quantity of players will often be more important than quality of gear.
Other forms of more ‘honorable’ PvP can also be profitable. Running Hellgates in red or black zones not only gives you the opportunity to loot other players but the bosses can drop expensive relic items. In Guild vs Guild battles, players bring their best gear so the winning side can walk away with millions in loot. However, if you’re already winning GvGs then this guide probably isn’t for you.
I hope you found this guide for the top 5 ways to make silver in Albion Online helpful. If you have other tips or tricks that you would like to share, please let us know in the comments below!
