Even when you’re able to ride a flying dragon and romance goddesses, money still makes the world go round. Thankfully, in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, earning money from any one of your many villages proves approachable with the right plan. Whether you’re solely focusing on farming, grinding out levels in the wilderness, or becoming an impromptu beekeeper, there’s gold in them there hills, so long as you know how to find it.
Slaying monsters in the field
While the act of slaying monsters doesn’t necessarily net you any gold, the items they drop often make up for the challenge. Many of the game’s beasts will drop horns, teeth, fur, skins, etc. If you bring these items back, either for the request board or to a merchant, you can make a boatload of money. A single run to the wilds can easily net you thousands of gold, simply by selling the monster drops you farm.
If you progress down the Social Activities skill tree, specifically the bottom unlockable option, Skilled Merchant, you’ll sell items foreven more gold!
Growing crops
Farming is one of the earliest skills you’ll learn in Rune Factory. It makes sense considering this game is a spin-off of Story of Seasons; it’s a farming game at its core. That said, you likely won’t specialize in farming for every village, but I do recommend you prioritize crops in Spring Village and Autumn Village. They both offer abundant space and the ideal climates for crop growth.
In Autumn Village, the sprawling development zone just down the hill from the shrine is large enough for a few shops, houses, and rows upon rows of crops. In Spring Village, there are multiple development zones, two of which are quite large, with enough room for tilled fields in all three.
When planting crops, prioritize those with the highest return in the least amount of time. Anything over 30 gold per crop is a sound strategy, so long as they don’t take too long to mature. Some crops to prioritize include:
- Rice
- Corn
- Pink Melon
- Strawberry
- Mandarin
- Carrots
- Golden Anything (Cabbage, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Turnips, etc.)
Herding bees
As you finish up the first part of Autumn Village, you’ll unlock the Herding mechanic, which allows you to construct stables in your villages and then defeat and capture monsters out in the wild. Most of these monsters will drop usable goods in the stable once you assign someone to manage the herd, and then you may sell said items.
Not all monsters are equal, though. If you want to optimize the mechanic for money-making potential, then opt for bee monsters. They’ll produce high-quality honey that sells for large sums, making you a thousandaire daily!
Completing requests on the board
Early on, you’ll unlock the request board. But it’s soon forgotten, as the main story pushes you in so many directions to save the gods and goddesses, restore the villages, and build relationships with men and women from around the land. When are you meant to help the villagers?
As it turns out, some of those requests pay quite well. Some offer gold, food, raw resources for crafting and construction, and even rare materials. A few pay really well, though. They’ll net you thousands of gold upon completion. The more challenging the task, the better the pay.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is available now on Nintendo Switch and Windows PCs.