Ore Nuggets make the world go round in Gothic 1 Remake. These purple rocks are the main currency you’ll need to use as money in the Colony in order to level up, pay trainers to teach you skills, or buy ingredients, magic scrolls, weapons, armor and more, but at the start of the game these Nuggets are incredibly difficult to find. Here are some of the best ways to find Ore Nuggets early when you’re starting out as a greenblood.
If you want to jump straight to the fastest way to make money in the early game, use the links below to jump to the Sell The Essence Of Spirit tab.
Pick Up Everything to Sell Later
You have so many inventory slots, to the point where you don’t really need to worry about how much you’re carrying. Make sure to pick up everything you see, including berries and herbs on the ground, loot from free chests and defeated enemies, and even bits of junk from random places in camp. Not all of it is sellable, but a lot of it is, so grab whatever you can just in case. If the text is beige, it’s free for the taking!
Food Is Valuable
It’s hard to find or grow fresh produce inside the dome, so any meat, fruit or vegetables that you come across can net you a good chunk of change. You may not want to sell all of these items, because food will also help to heal you if you get hurt in combat, but if you’re set on making the most money possible, hoard whatever you find and then sell to the traders in Old Camp to make a few bucks, or uh… rocks.
You’re going to need a place to store any Ore Nuggets or valuable items you collect so that they don’t get stolen off of you in the future. We recommend talking to Guy behind the Arena and taking advantage of the free Hut he’ll give you. You can find more details about this in our How to Get A Free Hut and Bed (in Old Camp) guide.
Cooked Food Is Even More Valuable!
If you’ve got any meat from Molerats or Scavengers that you’ve killed, you may want to make use of the next cooking fire and pan you come across. There are several of these dotted around Old Camp. There’s one just outside the Hut that Guy gives you, and another near where Diego hangs out by the front entrance. Cooking fresh meat that you’re carrying will give you cooked items that will heal you for much more when eaten, or sell for much more when sold, so it’s worth doing whenever possible.
Stealing Is An Option…
Items marked with the normal beige-colored text are free to take no matter what, but anything marked with red text is something owned by someone that you would be stealing if you pick it up. Entering someone’s hut in Old Camp will get you in trouble if they notice, and if you steal something from the hut and they go and investigate, they’ll demand you give it back. If you don’t drop the stolen item/s within 10-15 seconds, they’ll start a fight with you, and if they knock you out, they’ll not only take every item you’ve stolen off of your body, but also any Nuggets you’re carrying or even valuable items like Magic Runes, if you’ve got them.
When I had my Firebolt Rune stolen, I thought it might be worth knocking out the person who attacked me to get it back. Turns out, throwing the first punch will result in nearby campers getting angry at you alongside the person you attack, and if you lose all of your health again, instead of knocking you out they’ll just kill you. So, turn to a life of crime at your own peril!
Sell The Essence of Spirit
You can find a really valuable potion early on. If you leave Old Camp via the South Gate, you should see a cave in the rock wall slightly to the right of you.
Further to the right of that cave (away from the Molerats) is a tiny alcove. Inside this alcove is bottled Essence of Spirit.
This is a valuable potion in more ways than one, as consuming it will increase your Mana pool by 2. 2 might not sound like a lot, but your Mana starts at 5, so at the beginning of the game this represents a 40% increase. Because of the potion’s potency, it also sells for ~150 Nuggets (depending on who you talk to). It’s up to you whether you’d prefer to sell the potion or use it, but selling it is one of the best ways to make your money problems go away as early as possible.
How to Sell High-Value Items
Unfortunately, none of the vendors in Old Camp have 150 currency to spare, but you can use the potion to then purchase other items in the same transaction so that you don’t lose any value. Fisk and Torrez are traders who offer a bunch of valuable equipment that could make use of that much currency. Fisk and Dexter are also the vendors in town who have the highest amount of currency in their pockets to give back to you in a sale. We recommend purchasing some items, and then keeping the rest of the value of the potion as change to use at other vendors or purchase skills with.
What to Do With All Those Nuggets
Having 50+ currency will allow you to do a number of things. You could talk to Scatty at the Arena and ask for one-handed combat training (if you have LP for Leveling Up, as well as Nuggets), or you could buy the ingredients for a number of quests that require certain items, like The Price of Magic or The Forgotten Recipe. With your initial purchase, you could also trade for a bow and some arrows from Fisk. Having a ranged combat option will help you out a lot in the early game. The choice is yours!
Now that you’ve got your start in Old Camp, check out our guide for the Best Things to Do First for help with gaining favor to enter the castle. The Vanished Warder or Whistler’s Sword quests are great places to start. There are still more ways to earn money though, if you’re keen to keep earning.
Work in the Old Mine
Once you’ve leveled up a couple of times, you might be ready for a trip to the Old Mine, the place where Old Camp gets the majority of its Ore Nuggets from. You’ll be directed to the Old Mine as part of the Test Of Faith quest for Diego, but you can also go to the mine on your own. Here’s how to get there from Old Camp.
How to Find the Old Mine
The path to the Old Mine is littered with deadly creatures like Bloodflies and Scavengers. We recommend only attempting this journey once you have leveled up a few times for more health, acquired a ranged-combat weapon like a Bow, or once you’ve trained in One-Handed Weapons by training with Scatty by the Old Camp Arena.
Alternatively, if you still want to travel to the Old Mine, you can try to run past all the enemies, or you can walk with any well-armed NPCs that are walking the same path as you towards the Mine, and rely on them taking out the enemies for you.
From the North Gate entrance to Old Camp, travel straight on the path until you cross over the stone bridge, then take an immediate left to follow the path that travels alongside the river.
There are quite a number of Bloodflies, Molerats and Scavengers ahead, so save your game as soon you see any nearby enemies, just in case they defeat you.
A Bloodfly’s attack has a lot of range, as it thrusts its stinger towards you with most strikes. To dodge these attacks effectively, it’s best to dodge sideways rather than backwards. I took out most of these flies with arrows, but some of them may get too close for comfort, so be prepared to get your melee weapon out.
Continue straight along the path. As you pass a nearby broken-down cart, you should see a small group of Molerats. If they burrow underground, make sure to dodge just as they emerge to avoid being struck. Molerats get stunned by most attacks and don’t have much health, so they’re a bit easier than Scavengers or Bloodflies. Remember to take your time so you don’t get surprised by their attacks.
You should see some Scavengers to your right in the forest beside the path. If you stick to the left side of your path, you should be able to avoid their detection. Continue following the path alongside the water, and then keep following it as it turns to the right into the forest. As the road curves, off the path to the left is a small group of Goblins. There’s quite a number of them, so try to avoid their detection too, as they’ll all get angry at you if one of them sees you.
The path continues forward, with a few side paths branching off, as marked by sign posts. You may attract the attention of a nearby Scavenger near one of these posts. It’s stronger than a Juvenile, but not by much, and you can fight them in much the same way.
Ignore these branching paths and continue following the main road. Before too long, it will slope upwards and curve to the right, and you’ll soon find yourself in the working yard outside of a great cave entrance. This is the Old Mine. Head inside to start making Nuggets!
How to Make Money in the Old Mine
The Old Mine is a massive area. There are some parts of it that you won’t want to explore until you are much stronger (I’ll point those out in a minute), but all of the central shaft is safe to explore. You can collect a whole bunch of free items throughout the place to sell to vendors, you can mine Ore Nuggets yourself with a Pickaxe, and you can also just find a bunch of stray Nuggets on the ground in here as well.
If you don’t have a Pickaxe on you, about halfway down the central shaft is Ian, talking to Alberto. Right beside the table where they are talking is a Pickaxe holder, with one of the tools free for the taking.
The glowing purple walls are Ore deposits. Most of them are already being worked on by Diggers, but if you find an Ore deposit that doesn’t have anyone else standing there, equip your Pickaxe and you should be able to have a go.
For most deposits, you should earn 3 nuggets the first 4 times you mine a deposit. On the fifth try, this will decrease to 1 nugget per activation for a further 3 times. The total number of Nuggets you should be able to mine out of each healthy deposit is 15.
Along walkways, near Ore Deposits and especially down the bottom of the central shaft near all of the Ore processing equipment, watch out for loose Ore Nuggets on the ground. Items are free for the taking if their item text isn’t red, and nearly nothing in here is anyone else’s. There are dozens of little nuggets in this mine, so all of this loose change adds up!
The side paths near the entrance to the mine are perfectly safe to plunder, but as you descend further into the Mine, the branching shafts will contain ferocious beasts called Minecrawlers.
My level 4 character didn’t make a dent in their health bar when attacked, so these creatures are best left alone. If you do aggravate some Minecrawlers, back out of the place you are in and run towards the nearest Guard or Templar. They’re stationed outside the front of most Minecrawler mineshafts and can give them a good run for their Nuggets.
If you’re looking to acquire more items for sale through less-than-legitimate means, make sure to check out our Lockpicking Guide for help with accessing locked chests and doors throughout the Colony.
