Dinkum is an open-world farming and life simulation game set in Australia where you can create the town of your dreams. The game was created by the sole developer James Bendon, and inspired by Aussie wildlife. As the protagonist stranded on an island, you will be able to meet new people, fish, farm various crops and lots more. Of course, you are going to need money to do certain things, such as buy items from shopkeepers once you unlock them. It’s a good idea to get this as soon as possible, so here’s how the Best Way to Make Money Early in Dinkum works.
Once you begin your life at Dinkum, you will be able to decorate the island the way you want. While you can forage for food and fight a diverse range of creatures, you will need to gather money for the necessary items. For the business-minded, there are lots of opportunities in the game for you to make more money. As you play the game, you will unlock more shopkeepers in the Visiting Tent who you can buy items from. These will help you progress a lot quicker in the game, so make sure you have enough cash for them. Without further ado, let’s find out the Best Way to Make Money Early in Dinkum.
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Best Way to Make Money Early in Dinkum
The first thing you should know is that money in Dinkum is called Dinks. There are plenty of ways to get Dinks in the game, but you will need to be prepared to grind a little. Some methods are more effective than others, and you might prefer a certain type depending on your playstyle. If you like exploration, you can use the Metal Detector for useful items. Or, you can collect fish and bugs to sell, which will fetch you a decent amount of money and fill your pockets. Whatever the case may be, let’s go through all the methods and find the Best Way to Make Money Early in this farming and life simulator.
Selling wood
You might think that the best way to make money early in Dinkum is by collecting wood, but it is indeed the earliest resource you have. Any item in the game will fetch you some Dinks at John’s shop. Wood might seem like a good option at first, after all it’s only about chopping trees up. You can even increase your profit as you find better ways to make money, such as turning them into planks. However, you should hold onto these materials as you will need them later for building.
Cooking food
You can collect lots of food from the different biomes in the game, but perhaps the most abundant one is the cactus plant. You can find them all over the desert, and harvest cactus fruit. They are worth more when they are cooked, so one strategy is to spend an entire day combing the desert to collect these fruits. At night, you can cook the fruits at your camp, and sell them to John in the morning.
If you’re up for a challenge, you can even farm other types of fruits of meat in this way, and repeat the cooking process. Cooking food will enhance its quality as well as raise its price. Never sell an uncooked food item as you’re probably losing out on money.
Selling bugs, shells and fish
As you explore the island looking for the Best Way to Make Money Early in Dinkum, you will find lots of shells on the shore, as well as bugs and fish. All of these can be sold to John, but make sure to keep one specimen of each of the bugs and fish for the Museum. You can collect bugs and butterflies by buying a Net from John’s shop. Keep in mind that the type of spawn depends on the biome that you’re in. When you spot a bug, you can swipe your net to collect it. The net has limited uses, but you can always buy one from John each day.
Bugs and fish take up one space in your inventory and cannot be stacked, so you might need to make several trips to the store. One tip is to store them in your room when your inventory is full but John’s shop is closed, so that you can sell them the next day. They will show up in boxes when you place them down. As for shells, they are stackable but they don’t sell for a lot. For the early game, it’s quite a good haul, and this might be the Best Way to Make Money Early in Dinkum for you.
Treasure Hunting using the Metal Detector
After you have crafted John’s Goods, the general store, you will be able to buy the Metal Detector for 7,000 Dinks. It’s worth the price, because you can make multiple times of this amount with the help of this handy tool. The detector helps you find hidden treasure understand. Some of these items will be useful to you in repairing the Tele-towers at the edges of the island, which you can use later for teleportation. Note that you will also need the Metal Detecting License and Excavation License from Fletch to begin metal detecting.
However, be careful not to sell any Old Keys or Shiny Discs as these are immensely useful later. Old Keys are used to open gates in the Mines to get more valuable items. Meanwhile, you should save the discs so that you can sell them to Franklyn the scientist when he comes to visit your island. Selling these discs to Franklyn will fetch you a lot more money, and also unlock buildable items.
Collecting Amber
If you’re looking for the Best Way to Make Money Early in Dinkum, you might need to get lucky. A part of the metal detector experience is finding large chunks of Amber hidden under the earth. However, it’s very rare and you need to keep trying and digging up items to find Amber Chunks. These can be carried in a cart or on your back, and John will buy them from you based on their weight. All you need to do is bring them to the store and place them on the scale. They will easily fetch you thousands of Dinks.
Trapping animals
With the help of the Trapping License from Fletch, you can begin trapping any type of animal. For beginners, this might be the best way to make money early in Dinkum. All you need is to craft the Simple Animal Trap to catch the unsuspecting animal, and the Animal Collection point to drop it off. Once you have gathered an animal, it will fly into the sky. The next day, you will receive the bounty in your mailbox.
The best animal to trap is the Croco. Crocos are relatively easy to lure and reward you handsomely. You can craft multiple traps and place them around the shore when you spot a Croco. Bait the animal into the trap and pick it up immediately before it escapes and attacks you. Make sure you keep the Animal Collection point close by too, so that you can drop off the creature as fast as possible. Keep repeating in an area until all the Crocos are gone.
Mining Rubies
Mining is a mid-game strategy, as you will need to have unlocked quite a bit and played several days to unlock the Mines. This might not be the best way to make money early in the game, but you will eventually get there. For every mine trip, you will need to spend 25,000 Dinks to purchase the Mine Pass. This might seem excessive, but you’ll make it back and we’ll tell you how.
Underground, you will be able to find Rubies that you can collect and haul onto your back one by one, to carry back to the ground level. These sell for very high prices, so make sure to head into the Mines as early as you can. You should collect each Ruby and place it into the elevator so that you can take multiple gems back.
Like the Amber Chunks, you should place the Ruby on John’s scale and let it measure the weight of the gem. These sell for around 50,000 Dinks. Thus, you can easily make back the money that you spent on the Mine Pass.
Conclusion
That’s all for our guide on the Best Way to Make Money Early in Dinkum. We hope that some of these tips were useful and helped you understand how to make more Dinks quickly in the early game. There are more methods to get rich later in the game, as you will come across more NPCs who want to buy things from you.