How to Make Money Fast in Jagged Alliance 3

by Fernando Diaz / Articles, Jagged Alliance 3 / 17 May 2020

In Jagged Alliance 3, managing your finances is key to your survival and progression. You start the game with a limited budget, and you’ll quickly find that your initial capital depletes faster than expected. Several strategies can help you earn money quickly in this game, including controlling diamond mines, intercepting diamond transports, managing mercenary contracts effectively, looting relics, and skillfully hacking hardware. In this guide, we’ll walk you through these techniques and offer tips for effective money management.

Diamond Mines:

Your biggest regular source of income in the game comes from diamond mines. As early in the game as possible, it’s important to capture the diamond mine located at H7. You can identify the potential yield of a mine before taking control by simply hovering your mouse over the diamond symbol. This symbol appears on the strategic map, which you can display by clicking the corresponding button at the bottom right of your screen.

However, your income from the mines doesn’t depend solely on their inherent production. The amount of money a mine generates daily is also influenced by the loyalty of the citizens in nearby cities. This means liberating these cities will directly increase your income from the mine. To ensure your mines continue to operate efficiently and prevent enemies from recapturing them, always secure them with militias. A pro tip: using mercenaries with the “Negotiator” skill, such as Buns, can help significantly reduce costs when recruiting militias.

Intercept Transports:

Throughout the game, your enemies will occasionally transport diamonds from their mines to port cities. On the satellite map, these groups are depicted as mobile diamond symbols with their troop strength also displayed.

Long-Term Contracts:

Mercenaries, your key assets, come at a cost. And while you may be tempted to hire them for short periods to conserve funds, in the long run, it’s more cost-efficient to set up long-term contracts. For instance, the explosive specialist Fidel costs $6,000 for three days ($2,000 per day) but only $21,000 for 14 days ($1,500 per day). It can save you time and effort if you align the contract expiration dates of multiple mercenaries. This way, you can extend all contracts at once instead of having to constantly negotiate new ones.

Looting Diamonds and Relics:

Engaging in battles around Grand Chein and confronting members of the Legion will provide you with opportunities to loot valuable items. Some places will contain interactable sites that require certain skill checks, usually dexterity or strength, to unlock. Successfully unlocking these sites allows you to loot valuable relics, which can be sold for a modest amount of cash.

Diamonds, which are more prevalent than relics, are typically found in the possession of enemies in diamond mines. Be on the lookout for a small white diamond sigil against a red background on a lootable body. These diamond stashes can provide considerably better rewards, especially when the gems are of high quality or found in large quantities. If you prefer not to sell the smaller diamonds, you can use them to unlock loot boxes from Lalee Leywaylender. On the other hand, intercepting a shipment and selling a box of diamonds usually yields considerably more money than selling smaller stashes, often amounting to around 10-12k.

Hacking Hardware:

For mercenaries with hacking skills, interacting with hackable devices like phones and computers in the game can yield valuable intel about the surrounding area and operations, or even cash. The more experienced the hacker, the higher the potential earnings, though it should be noted this method doesn’t generate much income, usually several hundred to a few thousand dollars.

Unlocking Loot Crates:

You can find Lalee Leywaylender in sector H9 by heading southwest from the Fleatown Flea Market. She trades loot boxes for diamonds. These boxes usually contain a higher quantity of diamonds than what you traded. However, after 5 turns of purchasing loot crates, your chances of getting diamonds diminish, so make the first 5 tries count.

Finding Hardware:

Throughout your travels, you’ll encounter enemy encampments. After you clear these encampments, you may find phones and other electronic gadgets. You can sell these for cash, though the amount you usually get is not substantial.

Finding Relics:

While relics can be sold, they don’t yield as much as diamonds. While exploring diamond mines, you might come across tombs housing these relics. Raid these tombs and then sell the relics for additional cash.

Using Cheats:

If the methods above do not work for you, you can use the dev console to make money quickly. The following guide explains how to use cheats in Jagged Alliance 3:

Jagged Alliance 3: Cheats and Console Commands

Fernando Diaz

Fernando is doing what he always did, sharing his honest opinions about games whenever he can. The difference is now he is writing and not talking about it.
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