Ore Nuggets are the only currency in the Colony. They pay for maps, training, weapons, and armor upgrades, and the supply is tight enough early on that you have to chase several income streams at once. The remake also runs a living merchant economy where prices move as you buy and sell, so where and how you trade matters as much as how much you gather.
Mining ore veins
With a 
Pickaxe equipped you can work ore veins directly. Each vein gives a fixed yield before it runs dry, so it pays to know exactly how many swings are worth your time.
| Swing | Nuggets gained |
|---|---|
| Swings 1-4 | 3 each (12 total) |
| Swings 5-7 | 1 each (3 total) |
| Full vein | 15 nuggets, then depleted |
The Old Mine northwest of the Old Camp has two unattended veins right by the entrance, and the Free Mine south of the New Camp holds more. At 15 nuggets per vein, the two entrance veins alone net 30 nuggets for a few seconds of work.
Early money sources
Beyond mining, the Old Camp's chests are an easy early haul. Picking the chests belonging to 
Scatty, Mud, the Arena, 
Diego, and 
Gravo yields 81 Ore Nuggets in total, plus sellable food and junk. The owners leave their huts unattended at set times, so wait for those windows to lower the chance of getting caught.
Two Brotherhood quests pay out far more than scattered loot. New Camp's Canvassing of Customers hands over 100 Nuggets, and the Swamp Camp's 
Swampweed Harvest can be sold to a dealer rather than turned in to 
Cor Kalom for a 600 Nugget profit.
| Source | Yield | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Old Mine entrance veins | 30 Nuggets (2 veins) | Northwest of Old Camp |
| Five named chests | 81 Nuggets | Old Camp (Scatty, Mud, Arena, Diego, Gravo) |
| Canvassing of Customers | 100 Nuggets | New Camp quest |
| Swampweed Harvest (sell to dealer) | 600 Nuggets | Swamp Camp quest |
Selling the swampweed to a dealer instead of handing it over can change how the Admission interactions play out when you join a Chapter 1 camp. Decide whether the 600 Nuggets is worth the side effects before you commit.
Crafting and hunting for profit
Once you have spare Learning Points and Ore, two skills turn raw materials into steady income. Smithing, learned from 
Huno in the Old Camp or 
Darrion in the Swamp Camp, lets you forge weapons to sell. Hunting skills let you pull trophies off creatures you kill.
- Forge weapons at a forge or workshop and sell them to
Sharky in the New Camp, who pays more than most buyers. - Learn Hunting skills by delivering bestiary books to
Cavalorn, or by buying them from 
Drax (north of the Old Camp) or 
Aidan (the hunter camp on the way to the New Camp). Each skill is tied to specific creatures. - Sell trophies to Wolf in the New Camp, who pays more, with the exception of
Scavenger Teeth and 
Lizard Claws, which fetch only 1 Ore each from any merchant.
There is also a lure trick in the Old Mine where you pull 
Minecrawlers onto guards or Templars and loot the bodies afterward. It carries real risks: many of the felled NPCs are only knocked down rather than killed, you forfeit the XP you would earn from personal kills, and you can accidentally kill key merchants. If the trader 
Viper dies he does not drop the roughly 204 Ore Nuggets he holds in trading reserves, and you lose the ability to trade with him at all.
The dynamic merchant economy
Prices are not fixed. The more copies of an item you sell to one merchant, the less they pay for each additional one, and repeatedly buying the same item from a merchant drives its price up. Dumping a stack of identical loot on a single trader is the slowest way to convert it to Nuggets.
Merchants also carry limited Ore reserves. Those reserves refill over time or at the start of a new chapter, and they grow as the merchant's inventory expands. When one buyer runs low, move your goods to another.
Spread your sales across several merchants and camps. It keeps each merchant's prices from sagging and avoids draining any one trader's Ore reserve, so you walk away with more total Nuggets.
What to buy first
Your first purchase should be the 
Map of the Colony. 
Dexter in the Old Camp marketplace sells it for 24 Ore, which is cheaper than 
Graham's 44 Ore at the north gate, though Graham is the only source for the detailed 
Map of the Old Camp.
After raising Strength and Dexterity with Diego, put Ore into combat skills. The first tier of One-Handed Combat costs 10 Learning Points and 50 Ore, and the first tier of Acrobatics costs 10 Learning Points and 60 Ore. From there, hold your remaining Nuggets in reserve.
- Save for Chapter 2 weapons such as the Judgement Sword or
Longsword, both high damage. - Save for faction armor upgrades, which add Physical Damage Resist, rather than spending on expensive early-game armor.
- Use alternate quest choices to avoid wasting Ore: you can threaten Graham for the Old Mine Map for free with no repercussions, and paying off
Jackal carries more benefits than paying off 
Bloodwyn, which is a waste of Ore.
Do not max out armor upgrades early. Better armor arrives later, so if you are struggling, upgrade once instead of overspending.