The Secret World Massively Multiplayer Online game is not very different compared to other MMOs when it comes to their use of gold or money (in-game currency); it allows you to purchase in-game items you can use in your adventures. But in the Secret World, the main use for money so far would be the costumes that players can wear, rather than useful consumables (as the best ones need to be crafted). Maybe when the auction feature becomes available, money will have more use, but for now the use for money is simply for aesthetic purposes and some crafting essentials.

The Secret World has a modern day setting and three different factions that are based in different regions of the globe; you can see how this creates a currency problem if the developers decided to make money more realistic. There are the Illuminati who are based in New York (Dollars), the Templars who are based in London (British Pounds), and the Seoul-based Dragon (Won). Because of this divide, and the nature of the game which tells of a hidden world, a secret world where everything is real, all ghost stories and legends are true, the developers decided to have a common currency, the Pax Romana. Pax Romana literally means "Roman Peace" which is maybe homage to the long history of Rome and Italy when it comes to myths and legends and their relation to the church, science, Templars, and the Illuminati.

Making money in this game is straightforward; you simply kill a monster and pick up whatever it drops. This is the most basic way of acquiring money in any game, that and selling useless monster loot. However, this game does not contain useless monster loot but the bulk of your money will be coming from quest rewards, which can be substantial depending on the difficulty and nature of the quest. Early on when you start the game, you do not have much need for money. You are simply interested in going on with the cool quests and the epic story line, which keeps you busy enough that you do not notice how much Pax Romana you are actually earning.

You will be surprised as to how much you accumulate this early in the game; so much money and nothing to spend it on. There is almost literally nothing to buy in this game that you might need a lot of, and would require regular purchase. Costumes are relatively expensive but you never really need to change outfits regularly in the game, but if you do, you can purchase more. The only real use for Pax Romana is for buying equipment and other items at the auction or marketplace, which are represented by banks in London, Seoul, or New York. You have to get to Kingsmouth first before you can access the marketplace.

Now, enough of my random prattling and let us get on to the guide part. No matter which faction you choose, your first real mission would be in Solomon Island, particularly in Kingsmouth Town. You are sent here to do whatever it is your faction values and to investigate what is causing the horrors in the town - there is a zombie outbreak and you will discover that there is a lot more going on as you move along with the story line and quests. There is enough here to keep things interesting and keep you glued to your PC to keep exploring the town and unraveling the secrets and mysteries surrounding it. Everything is really interesting and the mystery just keeps you moving forward.

This kind of storytelling really sets the game apart from other MMOs where you just skip all the text because you know whatever the NPC has to say is not interesting at all and will even be poorly translated (from Korean or Japanese as most cookie cutter MMOs come from there).
And I really have not gotten to the guide at all, bear with me. As I have mentioned, the easiest way to make money in this game is through quest rewards, that means you need to do the repeatable quests, and there are a lot of them. We will have to weigh the complexity and the time it takes to complete the quest, plus its rewards so that we will know which ones we need to keep repeating to get rich.

Well, obviously the earlier parts of the game will not yield much in terms of monetary rewards; that is why we need to be done with it quickly so you can start farming and questing away on areas with more loot and money. Because we rely on the missions or quests for the bulk of our money, this guide may come off as more of a quest guide rather than a money making guide, but oh well, the end justifies the means.
Note: If you are just starting in the game, this would also serve as a good beginner's guide, but if you simply need to know what missions yield the best loot, money or XP, then head on to mission specific sections. This guide will be numbered continuously to allow you to follow step by step starting from the "For a Fistful of Zombies" mission.