Skyrim: How To Invest In Stores
Gold can be hard to come by in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. There are plenty of valuable items in the world to find, loot, or steal, but these items can quickly weigh the Dragonborn down and not every merchant accepts every kind of item. Even worse, every merchant has a limited supply of gold, and so players may have to visit several towns or wait several days to unload a big haul.
Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate this problem. One method is to invest in shops, an action that costs 500 gold but gives that merchant 500 more gold to spend on player items every day. On top of that, this action improves the merchant's disposition and counts as helping the population during most Thane quests. But how exactly does investment work?
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How To Get Access To Investment
The first step to boosting the Skyrim economy is to get the Speech perk "Investor." This perk is on the left side of the Speech perk tree, and it requires 70 Speech to take. The surrounding perks are also very useful: Merchant lets players sell any item type to any merchant, Fence lets players sell stolen goods to merchants who aren't fences, and Master Trader gives every merchant in the entire world 1000 more gold to spend on player items.
Of course, 70 is a high number to reach, and players may need to practice their Speech skill first. Here are a few quick tips for doing so:
Speech goes up when selling or buying an item based on the real value of that item (the number in the inventory screen). Players with money to burn can buy and sell an item repeatedly to train their Speech.
When players buy or sell stacks of items, the game only counts it as one item for the purposes of Speech practice. Selling items one at a time has a bigger impact on Speech.
Items that increase Speech or haggling ability don't change the underlying skill value, but they will make sure players lose less of their money during Speech practice.
The Investment Method
Once the Investor perk is active, players can visit several shops across Skyrim and a new dialog option will appear: "I'd like to make an investment in your business." The Dragonborn can then pay them 500 gold on the spot, and from then on they'll have 500 more gold than usual at the start of each day.
However, players can't invest in every merchant they come across. For instance, most marketplace merchants who own stalls instead of buildings aren't investable, and players can never invest in taverns or inns. Merchants in smaller locations like longhouses and forts also won't get this dialog option. On the other hand, the list of investable merchants can expand if players install certain mods or unofficial patches.
Investor isn't the most useful perk in the Speech tree, but it can help make selling off loot more convenient.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available now on PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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Source: GameRant
