Crusader Kings 3: How To Easily Make Money

Crusader Kings 3 is a very dense game with a lot of things to learn, especially when it comes to making money. You can have the most soldiers in Europe, but good luck trying to maintain a long war campaign without the coffers to back it up.

There are many ways of earning coin in Crusader Kings 3, from extorting your vassals to having many holdings and many other moneymaking schemes. However, there is one way that is more effective than almost any other in the game, and it’s also one of the easiest: Blackmail.

Here’s how to make money the easy way in Crusader Kings 3.

 

Golden Obligations

One of the most useful perks throughout the whole of the game is Golden Obligations, which can be found as part of the Stewardship lifestyle under Avaricious. Even if your character isn’t suited for Stewardship, it’s absolutely worth going over to the skill tree just to unlock this particular trait.

Golden Obligations allows you to sell the hooks you have on anyone in the world of Crusader Kings 3, as long as they are within your diplomatic range. Yes, that even includes your children.

 

Gaining Hooks

Hooks can be earned through random events, but the best way to do it is to send your Spymaster off to find secrets in a foreign land.

To do so, just go to Council and then select the find secrets option at the bottom of your Spymaster. You will then be able to assign your Spymaster to uncover secrets in any council across the world, though you may want to stick close to home.

Once the Spymaster has found something on a character, you will then be able to blackmail that character by clicking on their character portait and selecting blackmail. The bigger the secret, the likelier they are to accept a hook on them.

 

Selling Hooks

Being able to sell a blackmail hook depends on how rich and important the recipient is. If you have a hook on a king, for instance, they will be far likelier to have the necessary money.

To sell the obligation/hook on a character, click on their portrait and then select demand payment. If a character does not have enough money, you may have to wait until they do before you can sell their obligation.

You can expect to earn anywhere upwards of 200 gold while demanding payment through Golden Obligations, though this varies depending on how big the secret is and also how rich the person is.

With a weak hook, you can only sell their hook back to them one time, but you can do it over and over with a strong hook for years, potentially for as long as the character is alive.

This is the easiest way of earning money in Crusader Kings 3 by far, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if Paradox nerfed it at some point down the line. Until then, though, make the most of Golden Obligations and make yourself a small fortune.

Crusader Kings 3 is now available for PC.

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