The golden question of any game.
When playing any game, it's a common phenomenon to see players trying to do everything in the best possible way. You'll see players debating hotly over what the best class is, and which of the available races is best for it. Making gold is no different. Gold is used in many different things—you need it to train skills, buy gear from vendors and the AH, and even to pay your rent—so you always want to make sure that you have more than enough gold on-hand.
There are many ways to earn gold in lotro, and the best thing you can probably do is to combine them. A fair warning though: just as there are plenty of ways to make money, there are also lots of ways to spend it, but we're here to talk about earning gold, so let's focus on that.
- Gather resources
Lotro has a lot of crafting professions which are grouped into vocations. There are 3 professions in each vocation. If your goal is to make a lot of gold, you should pick a vocation that has at least one gathering profession like forester (wood, leather) or prospector (ore). I would advise going for the explorer vocation since it will get you both professions.
- Learn and use the Auction House
Browse the Auction House on a regular basis to learn the prices and the supply and demand for various items. Pay special attention to consumables, class items, decorations, cosmetics and crafting resources, which are almost always in demand.
- Travel light and sell often
You will want to make sure you have enough inventory space in your bags. Free and Premium accounts get 3 bags, while VIP accounts get 5 bags. In addition, accounts of all types can have up to 6 bags by purchasing additional bags from the lotro store. Each bag has 15 slots. If you sell resources in the AH often, and vendor items after every adventuring session, you should see your wallet getting steadily fuller. If your bags fill up, take a break from your travels and start heading towards a vendor. While lotro has a temporary loot bag that will hold up to 50 stacks of items, it is only temporary and its contents will start to get deleted 60 minutes after being looted, so make sure to visit the vendors, the vault and the AH as needed.
- Spend some to make some
The same principle from real life finances often works in the game, too. To maximize your gold, you will want to make sure you can manage and utilize it correctly, so if you a free account struggling with a strict gold cap, consider unlocking the gold cap so you can have more gold. More gold means you will be able to buy more things in the AH in order to sell them at a markup. For that same reason, you should also consider unlocking additional AH slots, to streamline your sales process, and may also want to consider upgrading your personal vault to the max to be able to stack some items before selling them, since sometimes the market fluctuates and its best to wait before selling. Because most of these features are bought with TP, it is also advised to read about how to earn TP without buying them.
That's it for the basics. If you would like to learn more about making gold in lotro, I suggest buying the following guide, which includes more detailed methods, and comes with free updates as the game evolves.