Gold (XC2)

Gold, often called G in-game, is the primary currency of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Torna ~ The Golden Country. It can be used to buy items in s and to stay at inns. The player's current gold can be seen near the bottom of the main menu.

Overview
Gold can be acquired in several ways:
 * Upon being defeated, most enemies will drop gold. Enemies also drop gold upon being ed; the amount dropped in this case is typically similar to, albeit less than, the amount dropped by defeating them normally.
 * Items may be sold at s for a certain amount of gold that depends upon the item. This applies to boosters, s, Core Crystals, Pouch Items, unrefined and refined Aux Cores, accessories, Core Chips, cylinders, and treasures. The sale price depends upon the area's development level (see below).
 * Specific sets of treasures may be sold at traders for (typically large) amounts of gold.
 * s, both those permanent in the overworld and those which appear when salvaging, may drop gold when opened. If the salvaging is particularly unsuccessful, the gold may appear directly in the overworld instead, without any treasure chests.
 * Completing s and merc missions typically yields a certain amount of gold. As with other rewards obtained, merc missions with a light-blue label may be completed multiple times to repeatedly receive gold, whereas those with a purple label will only yield gold on the first completion of the mission.

Gold in the overworld
When gold appears in the overworld due to killing/ing an enemy or opening a, it takes the appearance of a set of coins or piles of coins which may be collected automatically by having the player-controlled character walk over them, similarly to how other loot may be collected. The appearance of these coins is related to how much gold they 'contain': If an enemy is defeated (causing it to drop gold) and the defeat of the enemy triggers a cutscene, the gold (and all other items on the field) will be collected automatically before the cutscene begins.
 * Bronze coins yield 1-9G when collected.
 * Silver coins yield 10-99G.
 * Gold coins yield 100-999G.
 * Piles of gold coins yield 1000-9999G.
 * Piles of gold coins with light brown bags yield over 10,000G.

Development level
In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, performing transactions on the s Argentum, Gormott, Uraya, Mor Ardain, Leftheria, Indol, and Tantal will raise the development level of said Titan. This applies to both buying and selling, and the total progress towards the next development level depends upon the gross amount of gold that has been acquired/given in transactions. Raising a Titan's development level means that items can be bought for a lower price, among other benefits.

Story
In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, 200 gold is received upon speaking to Melolo for the first time, and 100,000G upon speaking to. Subsequently as part of the main story quest Big Job Preparations, the player must purchase an Abyss Vest for 5000G, send 90,000G to Corinne via speaking to Max, and spend a minimum of 120G at Fishy Fishy, to continue the story early in. Thereafter, the player must also spend 100G to rest at Lemour Inn. In total, the player receives 4980 net gold from the story.

In, Rumors of a Battleship must be purchased from Torigoth's Informant Turuni for 3000G to complete the main story quest The Race to Find Nia. In, 3000G must be spent purchasing tickets from Murmur to get to Mor Ardain.

At several other points in the story, it is possible to spend gold to complete story objectives (e.g. to acquire parts to build Poppi in ). However, there are always alternate methods of completing these objectives. Moreover, the player must stay at several inns to progress the story at certain points, but past the first instance, all such required stays have the fee waived.

Salvaging
The most effective way to earn gold in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is through salvaging. A small amount of gold is provided directly upon salvaging, but the main payoff comes via the treasures acquired. Treasures may be sold directly at any shop, but it is much better to trade sets of them at traders. The following procedure results in the most effective salvaging: Choosing an appropriate salvage point is nontrivial. In the early game, the salvage point near Abble's Fountain in Torigoth has easy-to-kill enemies, easy button challenges, and the treasures acquired can be traded at Masnach Exchange nearby in Torigoth for a healthy profit. Midgame and lategame, the salvage point at Port Anangham in Mor Ardain is very efficient when the treasures are sold at Martietta Trading in Alba Cavanich, and the enemies spawned via salvaging consistently drop Core Crystals as an added bonus.
 * 1) Equip as many s with the Salvaging Mastery  as possible.
 * 2) Purchase a large number of cylinders; these should be as high-quality as possible. Premium cylinders are the best but can be difficult to come across; Gold cylinders are also sufficient but not quite as efficient. In all cases, at least 10 cylinders of the kind should be bought. Purchase in the region where development level is highest for the best value. (If capital is needed for this, see Selling accessories below.)
 * 3) Choose a specific salvage point for which the available treasures complete a valuable set to trade at the area's traders, the player can easily defeat any enemies spawned via salvaging, and the salvaging button challenges can be consistently performed.
 * 4) Use all cylinders on hand at the same salvage point. (Collect all the contents of all treasure chests acquired.)
 * 5) Go to the area's traders and trade in sets of treasures for gold. Trade as many sets as possible, starting from the most valuable and proceeding in decreasing order of value. (If sets are traded for boosters as well as money, the boosters will need to be sold once the player reaches the cap on the number that can be held in the inventory.)
 * 6) Repeat as necessary.

Postgame, the salvage point at Jubilee Gate in the Cliffs of Morytha yields Stratospheric Hoops, 5 of which may be traded as the Salvager Spirit at Mermerry Trading at the Cliffs' upper level for 120,200G. This is the most efficient way of grinding gold in the game, but it cannot be done until very late in the story: the quest Souvenirs from Morytha must be completed before the trader opens up shop, Salvager Spirit is not a trading option until midway through, Premium Cylinders are required to consistently obtain Stratospheric Hoops, and the Jubilee Gate salvage point may spawn Squoods which can be particularly troublesome for unprepared parties.

Selling accessories
A way to farm gold which is less effective but which requires a much lower time commitment than salvaging (and which is also possible in Torna ~ The Golden Country) is selling accessories at any shop. A very limited number of accessories can be equipped at once, but they drop from many enemies; therefore, the player will very often have many more accessories than they have use for. Selling unwanted ones can quickly provide the player with a reasonably high amount of gold.

Selling unwanted accessories every once in a while is advisable even if the player does not lack for gold; it is easily possible to reach the cap of 999 accessories through normal play, and any accessories which are dropped past this point will be wasted. Periodically selling off unwanted accessories reduces or eliminates the risk of this happening.

Spending gold
There are many things to spend gold on; however, some are more effective than others. In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, arguably the best use for large amounts of gold is in purchasing effective Pouch Items, the best of which may require substantial gold to buy in bulk but which improve one's combat abilities massively. Core Chips, likewise, are worth keeping up-to-date on all active s, and the best may be expensive if they cannot be found in s or as loot from battle. In contrast, good accessories are comparatively easy to acquire through regular play, and one need not worry about spending large amounts on them in shops.

The Sheba requires a very high gold commitment (several hundred thousand G) both to awaken and to increase trust with. She can be very strong in combat; however, without dedicated grinding, the gold required to awaken and level her will likely not be accumulated until lategame. Speaking with Kassa after purchasing her Core Crystal will result in half the cost of the Crystal (250,000G) being returned, which makes the cost sting significantly less.

Minor spending on the order of 100G, e.g. the cost of inns, is trivial and may be done without caution. The price of an inn may be avoided by skip travelling to Corinne's House but this is largely unnecessary.

Trivia

 * In Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, the player will start the game with 100,000 more if a save file for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 exists on the same Nintendo Switch. This is likely a reference to Rex's windfall of 100,000G at the start of XC2.