In Heroes’ Vow: Three Kingdoms, earn personal income through cargo trading while keeping any city you govern funded through district work. For trading, buy cargo from a General Store’s gallery, sell it in another city, add a wagon to carry more, then unlock a Trading House at Commerce Level Tier 1. If you control a city, its Funds and Supplies need a different kind of attention: officers must keep working district Commerce and Agriculture. The September 23, 2026 release changed both systems, so an Early Access money route is a poor starting budget.
You can follow the trade route as a Free Officer; the Steam store describes trade convoys and estate management as part of that role. The city-budget sections apply once you already govern a city as a Ruler or Governor.
Adjust Protagonist Finances before planning your income
In v1.0.4, open System Menu → Difficulty → Custom Difficulty and check Protagonist Finances. It affects manual trading, Trading House income, private property income, income from hiring out family retainers, and mercenary contract income. Use the same setting when comparing returns from cargo runs, automated trade, and property.
Lowering Protagonist Finances difficulty makes merchant trade easier. The v1.0.4 update also slightly increased merchant trade income and slightly reduced income from Mercenary Agreements on Normal difficulty. Check the difficulty setting before using an older payout figure to plan a purchase.
Make a small cargo run before filling a wagon
Open a General Store’s gallery and buy cargo. Travel to a different city to sell it. On the first trip, carry a small quantity and note what you spent; compare it with the money received before buying a larger load of the same good. If the return is poor, change the cargo or destination next time.
On an older save, the v1.0.4 fix restores the Peddler at the General Store as soon as you load the save. You do not need to re-enter the city or wait for a shop refresh before the Peddler becomes available.
Older community guides recommend buying discounted goods and reselling them immediately in the same city. That is separate from the new cargo loop. In v1.0.1, item selling prices are half their former level, Board Funds rewards are lower, and item prices also fell. Those changes do not prove every old trick is impossible, but its 2025 margin is no basis for a new budget.
Carry more with a wagon mercenary
Wagon-type mercenaries increase cargo capacity when assigned to your Accompanying Party. Add the wagon to that roster before buying beyond your normal limit. The party can hold up to five members, so a full roster leaves no slot for a new wagon until you change it.
The world map can bring robbers, bandits, and other encounters. Your Accompanying Party also joins you in Combat, which makes party slots a real choice when carrying goods. Keep the companions you want for the journey rather than filling every available slot solely around capacity.
An older save may load onto the world map overburdened under the new cargo rules. Open Settings, then Advanced Options, and set maximum Cargo Capacity to unlimited to recover that save. The option makes the game easier without affecting achievements or other economic difficulty checks. A new run does not need the override.
Set up the Trading House after Commerce Level Tier 1
Commerce Level Tier 1 unlocks the Trading House. Build one in a city, choose its Trading House Leader, and route wagon convoys to that house. A family member can manage it. The structure alone is not the full setup: the leader and convoys are part of the automated trade sequence.
If the house is unavailable, check Commerce Level before looking for a construction bug. If it has been built but has not produced the automated return you expected, check the leader and dispatched convoys. Check the returns in your own save before investing in another house; the patch does not give a fixed payout amount or interval.
Keep city Funds and Supplies growing
A city is not funded by the same steps as a personal cargo run. In v1.0.1, districts need officers continuously assigned to Commerce or Agriculture to maintain strong Funds and Supply income. Start by checking which of those two resources your city is short of, then keep the corresponding district work staffed. Recheck the city panel after the next period instead of assuming that one completed task will keep paying indefinitely.
Explore now yields less, and the update places more value on officers with high POL. If you pull every capable officer away from Commerce and Agriculture for Explore, expect weaker district output. Put politically skilled officers where you need sustained development, then compare the displayed income after changing assignments.
District Commerce and Agriculture also grow more slowly than before. Continued work can still push their values above the district cap, up to 150% of the normal maximum, with slower progress past the cap. Reaching the displayed cap therefore does not automatically make an officer’s assignment useless. Whether to keep that officer there depends on the city’s Funds or Supply need and what else the officer could do.
Spend city Funds with the new building costs in mind
Advanced buildings now cost more Funds but fewer Strategy Points. Before committing to one, look at both costs and the city’s Funds trend. A healthy Strategy Points balance no longer tells you that the treasury can carry the project. The update also makes large city Funds and Supplies surpluses harder to build, so old plans that assume quick recovery after construction need a fresh budget check.
If you are also raising an army, watch Supply as well as Funds. A Ruler can spend city surpluses on troops and technology. Sustained Agriculture work now helps maintain the Supply side of that budget. When income is weak, restore the relevant district assignment before paying for another advanced building or expanding the force.
Buy property with family competition in mind
Free Officers can also manage estates. Property purchases call for a different decision from buying cargo. The full release lets players buy land and build in county civilian districts, while NPC families can buy land and houses in cities and counties themselves. Friendly families give a discount when you purchase land or houses from them. Before buying for an estate, check who owns the plot or house and what it costs in your current game.
Sources: the official Steam store page for roles, party and estate context, and the developer’s v1.0.1 update for trade, districts, building costs and old-save changes.