Assassin's Creed Syndicate: how to make money quickly

There are a lot of upgrades and cool weapons on offer in Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and you want 'em all. Unfortunately, murder doesn't pay as well as it used to, and you're skint. What's an up and coming assassin to do?

You have three options. First, you could just grit your teeth and wait for your coffers to fill in dribs and drabs - but who has the time? Second, you could hand over real cash for in-game currencies - but who has the money?

Third, you could follow our expert guide and rake it in, in great teeming piles. I see no downside to this one.

Overview

Almost everything you do in Assassin's Creed Syndicate makes you money, but if you start out right you'll end up with more than you'll ever need instead of scraping together coins for much-needed equipment purchases in the game's final, high-level missions. This guide is designed to take you from zero to millionaire by dint of planning and effort, helping you avoid pitfalls and mistakes on the way that slow down your money-making efficiency.

The basic flow of our money-making scheme is: make money as you play. Never buy anything that doesn't make you richer. Get to Sequence 4 ASAP. Buy Gang Upgrades to earn money. Make more money. Invest all your money in more Gang Upgrades. Profit endlessly.

These points are explained in detail in the slides that follow. Don't worry if you've strayed from the path on your journey so far; just start now and you'll be doing the Scrooge McDuck swim in no time.

1. Unlock all the money and resource skills straight away

As soon as have some skill points, use them to grab the skills that automatically loot baddies and increase the amount of resources you receive from drops. The little bit of time you save not looting bodies may seem negligible, especially as you get a very small bit of cash from kills, but it really does add up. Later in the game resources become super valuable, too, and every little bit you can stash away as you play normally now will save you grinding later.

I know you want to invest heavily in stealth and combat skills, and who can blame you? But trust me; you'll have more than enough skill points to buy everything you want by the time you actually need them. If you're really worried about it, remember that Jacob and Evie have separate skill trees; you can stack one twin with mission skills, and use the other as your open world money maker.

Anyway, to help your bank balance rise, stab every Blighter who shouts at you in the streets. You can knock over a dozen or so baddies as you stroll from one mission to the next, and each one is money in the bank. I worry about us sometimes, don't you?

2. Push through to Sequence 4 immediately

Don't bother trying to make money in Whitechapel; keep doing story missions until you reach Sequence 4. Don't go chest hunting. Don't buy or upgrade anything. Just do story missions.

I say this because a number of the more important money-making techniques are gated. Anything you spend money on in Sequence 3 means less in your bank when Sequence 4 begins, meaning less time making money efficiently - meaning more time spent making money instead of using it buy much better things than you can in these early areas.

Although you can make a little bit of cash in the early missions, it's far more efficient to push on. Don't worry! You won't miss anything by doing so.

3. Don't buy or upgrade anything unnecessarily

The great secret of making money in Assassin's Creed Syndicate is not to spend it on anything but making money until you hit close to peak efficiency.

If you check out the inventory and crafting screens you'll see heaps of cool looking items, but the truth is you don't really need any of them. Every few missions you'll receive a new piece of gear suitable to your level, and all the others are just variants. You can buy all these when you're a millionaire; leave them alone for now and stick to the basics.

It's especially important not to waste your resources upgrading low level gear when something better is around the corner for free. Save it for end-game!

4. Invest in money-making Gang Upgrades first

Right, now we can really get going. You've made it to Sequence 4. You haven't wasted money on unnecessary purchases and upgrades. You've got a nice little bit of cash from stabbing every fool you meet.

Now that you have a train hideout, you can invest in Gang Upgrades, either by interacting with the poster opposite Evie's desk or via your menu. Ignore the two lefthand branches and focus on the group of upgrades on the right; the far right column is your real money maker. Each one of these you invest in means more money filling your train's safe, and more room in the safe between collections. Make these your first priority, and max out the whole column. Make sure you return to your train when the safe is at 75% or full, and reinvest the funds.

Once your train safe is at maximum income generating capacity, buy all the other upgrades in right branch, too. One reduces the price of all other upgrades, which is a huge help, and the others lower the price of items bought in shop and more importantly new weapons and gear purchased in your inventory. Nice.

You probably won't be able to afford all those Gang Upgrades as soon as you start Sequence 4, so you need to make some cash quick. The next few slides suggest ways of gathering extra capital in a hurry.

5. Go chest hunting

One of the easiest ways to make a buck is to buy a chest map from a shop vendor, and clear out an entire district in one go. Do this one district at a time, starting with easiest and working up, until you get bored and tired. Then do something else.

This isn't as bad as it sounds - especially once you have the Rope Launcher, which is available part way through Sequence 4. If you plan your route methodically using the map there'll be very little backtracking, and you'll learn your way around. You'll also spot loads of other collectibles, which you can pick up to save time later or for the XP boost. This is especially helpful when it comes to Helix Glitches as there's no map available.

You'll also receive loads of resources by opening chests, which is really important as almost all upgrades, and absolutely all crafting, comes at a material cost.

6. Unlock and complete highjack activities

Open your map and look for the capital N symbol indicating the position of Ned. This sharp businessman suggests you help interrupt Blighter business interests and further your own, which unlocks a variety of income-generating activities around the map.

These activities spawn all the time, are very quick to complete, and offer a whack of resources and cash on completion. When you're on your way from A to B and see a train, boat or cargo highjack, or a cargo defence, consider having a go. You'll rarely go far out of your way.

You need to get through Ned's first three loyalty levels to unlock unique materials for use in upgrades, and you'll do this in no time at all if you just pick up an income mission here and there as you play normally.

7. Complete optional objectives

When you get sick of making money by chest hunting and highjacking, you may want to actually play the game. Good news! Doing both main and story missions rewards you with money, and you can boost your cash (and XP) rewards by completing optional objectives. Try to do them whenever possible.

In story missions failing an optional objective is a pain, as there doesn't seem to be an easy way to restart the mission from the in-game menu. But if you're doing side content you can often just leave the area so the activity resets, and try again. Sweet.

8. Wait

In the end, time is your friend. Let Evie idle on a rooftop while you make a sandwich and do the dishes; come back and empty your safe. This is usually enough to get you that next Gang Upgrade. Rinse and repeat a few times (make sure your console power settings are compatible with this plan first!) to sidestep Ubisoft's cunning plan to drain your time or money, and get all your homework or chores done. Life hacks? What is wrong with us. Why do we do this.

Anyway. Once you have all the Gang Upgrades in place, gathering money is really just a matter of checking your safe on the regular as you go about the business of playing the game. You already know most of the stuff you can buy is cosmetic, so you won't be wasting cash trying to get it.

At the end of the game you should have so much money and resources lying about that you can go into your menu and buy absolutely everything. Dress your assassin in whatever you fancy and go forth to clear out the dregs of the map in style; you've earned it, after all.