Three places it shows up
Thrifty touches three separate systems, and only one of them is obvious from the trait card.
Oath renewals. When a Thrifty hero’s Oath comes up, their renewal ask is multiplied by 0.9. The discount stacks with the contract trait the game checks first:
| Contract traits | Renewal ask vs normal |
|---|---|
| Thrifty alone | ×0.90 |
| Loyal + Thrifty | about ×0.79 |
| Oathbound + Thrifty | about ×0.56 |
The ask still includes origin, renown, morale and any unresolved refusal; the oaths guide shows how it is built, and the oath negotiator gives the full quote.
Kit. The game periodically checks how each hero feels about the gear they carry. A Thrifty hero gets +1 morale if any piece of their kit is plain, shabby or battered, as long as their morale is below 80. It tops up an unhappy hero rather than inflating a happy one, and it makes Thrifty heroes the right people to hand second-hand gear.
“A Glut at Market”. A Thrifty, Coin-Minded or Hard Bargainer hero on the roster adds a choice: send them to haggle for 90 gold, where the quartermaster’s option costs 180. The haggler gains 3 morale. See the events page.
What the wage saving is worth
The saving compounds. On a mid-table hero it is a few gold per six-day settlement; across a long career and two or three renewals it adds up to a meaningful share of a season’s wage bill, with no downside attached. Wages are the guild’s biggest recurring cost, so a permanent 10% off one hero’s is worth more than most “economy” traits. The economy planner shows how wages sit against income.
How a Thrifty hero leads
At a dungeon fork, a Thrifty leader chooses for the hall, like Loyal, Oathbound, Dutiful and Kin-Proud leaders. With the treasury low they always take a treasure side room and nothing else; otherwise they always take the “Lair” of a named foe. They never take the Sealed Door. It is a fixed rule, so it applies whether the party is fresh or hurt.
Jobs and flavour
- Expedition jobs like it. Expedition postings list Thrifty among their liked traits, adding 5% to the hero’s suitability. Two weeks far from any market suits someone who makes things last.
- Flavour. Quest reports have Thrifty lines, and on pair duty the hero speaks with the “coin” voice shared with Coin-Minded, Hard Bargainer, Greedy and Light-Fingered.
Thrifty has no combat effect and never appears in a delve report. The hero card shows no linked attribute for it.
Conflicts and rarity
Thrifty can never appear on a hero who is Greedy or Coin-Minded.
- Rarity: common, positive · draw weight 100 of 6,365 · about 1 recruit in 25
- Founding draft: any card.
- In the wiki’s archive: first present in the 2.1.8 build (absent from 2.0.7).
Recruiting
A clear positive on any hero you plan to keep. Treat it as a few percent off their real cost over a career, worth most on a long-term starter you expect to re-sign two or three times.