Heroes' Vow Money & District Economy: Diagnose Lower Income
If an old money route no longer gives the same result, first identify whose balance changed: your character’s money, a city’s Funds or Supplies, or income from private property. These changed in different ways at full release. Use the checks below before replacing your whole income plan.
Which income problem are you solving?
| Balance or symptom | Relevant check | Do not assume |
|---|---|---|
| City Funds / Supplies | If you can manage districts, inspect continuing officer assignments to Commerce / Agriculture. | A personal trading route will automatically fill a city treasury. |
| Personal merchant income | Record version and difficulty; check Protagonist Finances in the custom-difficulty menu. | Another player’s sale result applies to your settings. |
| Private civilian-property income | Check whether you are using the September 24 v1.0.3 correction or later. | A formula from before that correction remains a reliable target. |
| Explore returns less | The full-release notes reduced its yields. Separate that change from city staffing. | Explore produces no income at all. |
When the city treasury is the problem
The release notes place more emphasis on officers continuing Commerce and Agriculture work in districts. This is a staffing check for characters who can manage that system, not a universal command available to every free officer.
- Confirm that the balance you are watching is the city’s Funds or Supplies.
- Inspect the relevant district’s assigned economic work, rather than comparing only an old Explore reward.
- Record the assignment and the displayed income over a stated interval before comparing two situations.
The last step is a comparison method, not a promise about when every payment arrives. Keep role, district and difficulty the same when comparing. No exact staffing count or optimum tax rate is established here.
When your character needs money
The v1.0.4 notes give the menu path System Menu → Difficulty → Custom Difficulty. The setting Protagonist Finances affects how easy merchant earnings are. Changing it is optional; record it if you do change it.
Compare like with like: buying and reselling cargo, income from a Mercenary Agreement, and private-property income are separate methods. The September 27 notes adjust merchant and Mercenary Agreement income on Normal difficulty in different directions. A single “money was nerfed” claim is too broad to explain all three.
For trade-system prerequisites, see the trade checklist in the 1.0 guide. This page does not supply a best route, price table or net-profit calculator.
Private property needs its own version check
The September 24 update reports a correction to private property in urban civilian districts being calculated with public-district logic. Check this version boundary before comparing an older property screenshot or quoted return.
The official fix does not provide a complete replacement formula. Buying land, asking a seller’s price and calculating payback therefore cannot be reduced to a verified return-on-investment number here. Keep the property type and the game’s displayed result in your notes.
Make an income comparison you can actually use
- Build and difficulty, including custom financial settings.
- Your role, location and whether the figure is personal or city-level.
- Starting balance, ending balance and the exact in-game interval observed.
- What you bought, sold or paid for during that interval.
A balance change can include spending or one-off rewards; it is not automatically a repeatable income rate. If the issue occurs only in an upgraded save, use the old-save symptom checklist.
Version changes above are grounded in the developer update notes (external site) for September 23–27. They are developer reports; the comparison record is this guide’s method for separating causes. We have not measured an optimal income route in the game.