The monsters don't drop anything and if they did I have no idea how to search. I imagine it's because this game is played more realistically so the Slimes and Giant Bugs wouldn't carry cash? (Unlike the first where EVERYTHING drops gold regardless) Because I killed quite a few and I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything, as the manual says nothing of gold. At least not how to get any.

Thank you :)

Though my only issue currently is that Cure Light Wounds (Which would be very useful) cost 600 gold. I have about 350 due to paying 200 to revive a fallen party member, and (regrettingly) paid 150 gold for my entire party to enter the guild despite really only my magic users are required. And 100 for my leader to learn map making.

Well, if you are lucky, you can get Plate Armor from Blue Cubes/crates. It sells for 1000 (or 2000? not sure atm) Gold. A tiny bit of reloading and you will be able to afford buying more spells from Guild. Later on, Plate Armor made from gems will be much more lucrative, you'll be able to cash in for 30k+ per Armor - it will be one of the ways to make gold (getting gems from Darkside mines, crafting armor, refilling caves, rinse & repeat).

Turns out, after the first quest, I got 4000 gold, and 5000 EXP so I'm pretty satisfied :D

It's worth visiting the bank when you have a lot of gold to spare to get some interest.

To be honest, as soon as I left Vertigo I went to a weird pyramid that took me to darkside of Xeen, I ended up going to a town and ridding it of gremlins, and eliminating the rats in the sewers, and doing two of the three chest puzzles and then I ended up doing various quests on both worlds. Killing The Count in Nightshade? (Can't remember the name of that town) getting the Alacorn horn from the witches' tower, among a few other quests, I even found quite a few quest items for quests I haven't even gotten yet. I have tons of expensive weapons and armour and am rolling in exp and dough :D and I never did find the Dwarf Mine ;)

Though while I have about 120,000 gold, I'm still not investing in buying the run down castle for 50,000 until I have way more.

But yeah, I'm totally enjoying this :D

Well, you have broken sequence. Doing quests on Darkside means wrecking the whole balance on Clouds of Xeen. Especially if you chose "Adventurer" difficulty (which is easy one, and "Warrior" is normal). You will have to buy castle for story purpose, you can't finish Clouds without this castle.

Yeah the games are kind of weird that way. If you hop around between Clouds and Darkside, (even though the selling gimmick is going between the two), you could over-level and find it to be kind of easy. Yeah you tend to get money and experience in big bursts for finishing main quests. Chests also contain a lot of money. Everything else is pocket change.

On other hand, Darkside without Clouds was quite difficult. When I played Darkside first time, it was standalone (smth didn't work to merge it with Clouds), and I was stuck on Armadillo road. Avoiding road was out of the question because Cobras in the forest were several times stronger than Armadillos... It wasn't difficulty spike, it was difficulty wall.

Fortunately, Armadillos are beasts and have a low index number, therefore a certain spell that can paralyze beasts works well on them.

Also, at high levels you will eventually reach the point where gold, not experience, is the limiting factor with leveling up. You will have enough experience to gain plenty of levels, but not enough gold to actually train for them! (I actually consider this a design flaw, especially when there's a dungeon that demands something like 4 million gold which you might not have because of training expenses.)

Gold might not be that big of an issue with Gem Caves, so you can always scrap some 4 mil gold for dungeon. By the time you are in situation that you need millions for leveling, game is no longer difficult at all.

thanks :) I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to get ripped off like in Earthbound.