Early game gold can be hard to come by in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (XC1) for the Nintendo Switch. Here's a few tried and true methods for money farming that will help you get enough gold to buy those Art Books.

How to Farm Money

While money (gold) is not all that important in Xenoblade Chronicles, it still has its uses. Here are a few ways to get money reliable in the game.

Quests

Quests will be your main source of income. There are many quests around the Bionis and the Mechonis, which you can take on by speaking to NPCs with exclamation marks on top of their heads.

Some quests only reward EXP, so check the information screen beforehand to see what EXP and Money rewards you get.

Side Quest Guide | List of Side Quests

Selling Items

Old Weapons and Armor

As you go through the game, you will undoubtedly outgrow your weaker armor and weapons as you find stronger ones in your travels. Put them to good use by selling them at the nearest trader!

Old Gems and Crystals

Similar to weapons, gems often get obselete by getting better versions later on. These gems can be sold for so they don't sit around gathering dust in your inventory. Unfortunately they won't go for much, but gems can end up taking a lot of space, so sell off the ones you don't need.

Best Gem Tier List

Crystals in particular will fill up your inventory fast if you don't get rid of them. These are obtained through both mining (harvesting), and defeating monsters. Once you start collecting higher ranked crystals (such as Rank IV and up), you can safely sell off your lower ranked ones (Rank I/II) to free up your inventory and collect some gold.

Materials and Collectables

You can sell loot dropped by monsters as well, and farm these monsters repeatedly to have things to always sell. Materials and Collectables (which are picked up) have various uses such as trading, Side Quests, or Colony 6 Reconstruction, so you may want to hang on to a few. The rule of thumb is to hang on any materials or collectables that have exclamation marks by them in the inventory!

What to Sell | Best Items to Sell

Riki's Skills

Buy Stuff!

Buy Stuff! from Riki's Flexibility Skill Tree allows your party to sell items at a 20% higher value, even if Riki is not in the party, as long as the skill tree is active.

Dream of Money!

Riki's last skill in the Innocence Tree improves your party's chances getting rare treasure drops when fighting monsters, which are worth substantially more than normal monster loot.

Riki Build, Best Arts, Skill Trees, and Usage Guide

Early Game Gold

The following methods are the best ways to earning gold in the start of your game.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 File

Returning Xenoblade fans will receive an (optional) 100,000 G upon starting up the game. All you need to do is have a save game of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on your Switch. This is a sort of 'Thank You' from the developers, and collecting it will let you skip money farming almost entirely.

Colony 9 Quests

Once again, we cannot stress enough how vital quests are for all you gold diggers. Side quests become available from the moment you set foot in Colony 9. Travel around the area, talking to everyone on the map who shows up with an exclamation mark and accept every quest. Be sure to switch times, and do another run through, as some quests are only available during certain parts of the day.

Many of the Colony 9 quests can be completed by collecting some kind of item or defeating a number of enemies, which will help you out with strengthening your characters anyway. The best time to start doing these monster quests are when Fiora joins your party, since you will have three members in your party, which makes it much easier to combat with enemies.

List of Colony 9 Quests and Rewards

Where To Spend Money

Art Books

Art Books are your best way to spend money. They allow you to improve your arts past four levels, and Intermediate Art Books (Levels 5-7) can only be obtained at shops.

Best Arts | Which Arts Should You Level Up?

Weapons and Armor

Alternatively, you can use money to buy weapons and armor from traders, though this is not recommended, except for certain items such as Anti-Mechon weapons in Sword Valley.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition Related Links

Beginner's Guide to Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition