Melvor Idle 2 Money Making: Every Stage, Ranked
Melvor Idle 2 money making by stage: what pays at level 20, 40, 70 and 99, what each method costs to start, and when to switch.
Melvor Idle 2 is single-player, so there is no auction house, no flipping and no market to manipulate. Money comes from converting time and materials into gold, and the only real question is which conversion is best at your current levels and bank space.
This page ranks methods by stage rather than naming a single gp per hour. Early Access balance will move, and a number copied from the demo is a number waiting to be wrong. What survives a patch is the structure: startup cost, input chain, risk and what caps the method.
The four income stages
| Stage | Levels | Best income | Startup cost | What caps it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1–20 | Selling surplus fish and cooked food | None | Food you still need for combat |
| Early | 20–40 | Thieving easy targets | A few food stacks | Fail rate and jail risk |
| Mid | 40–70 | Thieving, fishing specials, mining gems | Gear and bank slots | Bank space for stacked outputs |
| Late | 70–99 | Dungeon drops, high-tier thieving, processed materials | Gear, potions, food budget | Run time and food cost per clear |
The stages overlap. The important rule is that you should never sell the inputs to a skill you are actively training. Selling herbs to fund a weapon, then buying herbs back for Herblore, is a loss at both ends.
Starter: sell the surplus, not the stack
Fishing and Cooking produce more than you need if you are training them anyway. Sell the excess fish and the lower-tier cooked food, keep a stack for combat, and reinvest in bank slots. This is not a money method so much as a by-product, but it funds the first few hours without a detour. The early game money route→ covers the first 100k in more detail.
The trap is selling all the food. A player with 500k and no food has to buy food at a worse rate than they sold it, because the useful tiers are not the cheap ones.
Early: Thieving is the first real engine
Thieving produces cash directly, plus seeds and unique drops. It needs less setup than Smithing and does not consume the materials other skills need. The fail rate is the cost: failed attempts cost food and time, and some targets carry a jail or stun risk that interrupts the session.
Train on targets you can succeed against reliably, not the highest target you can click. A 70 percent success rate on a high-value target is usually worse than a 95 percent rate on a lower one, because the failure cost compounds.
What to do with the first cash: bank slots, then seeds, then a weapon upgrade. Bank slots are permanent; a weapon is replaceable but accelerates every subsequent hour.
Mid: process before you sell
Raw materials sell for less than processed ones. Bars beat ore, cooked fish beat raw fish, potions beat herbs. The catch is that processing consumes time and sometimes a second skill. The correct choice depends on which skill you are training anyway:
- If you are training Smithing, sell the bars after your gear needs are met.
- If you are training Cooking, sell the surplus cooked food, not the raw fish.
- If you are training Herblore, do not sell the herbs; potions are the point.
- If you are training Mining for gems, sell the cut gems only if Crafting is not part of your plan.
A method that trains one skill and produces sellable output is better than a method that trains one skill and produces a bank-clogging by-product.
Late: dungeons and high-tier thieving
Dungeon runs produce loot, pets and progression in one activity, but each run has a food and potion cost. A clear that costs more in consumables than it returns is not a money method; it is a gear check you are paying to fail.
High-tier thieving remains the most reliable late income because it has no consumable cost beyond food. Its ceiling is bank space and success rate. If you are constantly stopping to bank, the method is capped by inventory management, not by levels.
What not to do
- Do not sell quest items. The Codex tells you what an item is for; check before selling.
- Do not hoard thousands of low-tier materials. Five of each common material is enough for most quests.
- Do not chase a demo-era gp per hour. The launch build changes levels, items and monster tables.
- Do not buy food at the top of the market if you can fish it. The margin is your time, and food is the one input combat cannot skip.
FAQ
What is the best money making skill in Melvor Idle 2? Thieving for reliable cash, Fishing for a mix of food and sellable surplus. Smithing and Herblore are better once their outputs are consumed by your own progression.
Can I trade with other players? No. The game is single-player. The social layer is friends and presence, not trading.
How much money do I need for Early Access? Enough for bank slots, seeds and a weapon upgrade. There is no fixed target because prices and drops will change during Early Access.
Is Township a money method? Township-style passive systems are long-term investments in the first game. If the sequel includes one, treat it as a background income stream, not a replacement for an active method.
Official source: Melvor Idle 2 on Steam ↗ Official source: Early Access announcement ↗ Community source: Melvor Idle wiki money guides ↗