I noticed that there weren't any guides here on how to do this, so I have decided to dispense the knowledge which I have violently assimilated into my bones over the course of playing this game. Most of this information comes from digging around on the internet. In particular, the Recettear wiki and some of the other Steam guides are great and should definitely be relied upon. This guide is mainly targeted towards new players, people who are struggling to be the very best, and people who haven't done this before.

This is a guide for clearing the game without ever going to a dungeon. Dungeons offer you all sorts of free loot, but hardcore turbo-merchants such as ourselves don't need such a crutch. Do keep in mind that you can't get most of the unique characters without dungeoneering, though. You won't even see Louie with this guide.

I'll start out by going over the basic principles and obscure mechanics that you need to know in order to get started. I'll follow that with a rough outline of my current strategy. If anyone has an objectively better way of doing this, let me know.

It turns out that the little girl was right all along. If a customer can't afford something, it's your fault. Each customer has a budget to work with and will never bring up an item that costs too much. Furthermore, a customer's budget becomes limitless after it brings something to you. For example: A man might have a budget of 1,800 pix and bring up an item that costs 1,700 pix, then wind up paying 1,900 pix. As long as the item was within the customer's budget when it got brought up to you, it doesn't matter if the final price is too high. A customer's budget will be multiplied when requesting multiple items, so someone with a budget of 1,800 could afford 3,600 when ordering two items.

Note that the customers' budgets are not limitless when you suggest an item, hence that the little girl cries a lot. Be a sensitive soul and kindly leave some walnut bread around for the poor. This is especially true because...


Not only your own XP, actually. If anything, your customers' XP (called "Reputation") is more valuable. Every time a customer levels up with you, a heart mark briefly appears above its head and that character's budget is permanently increased by around 10% of its MAXIMUM budget. This is very important. The customer's budget doesn't increase by 10%, it gets 10% of the MAX budget added onto it. This means that a man's budget will go from 1,800 to 61,800 with just one level up! You can transform your customers into big spenders in less than a week. Your goal should always be to get your customers to level up.


A man buying Golden Scales of his own accord on day 12.

Your customers will level up slowly if you haggle, however. This is because you get a relationship boost with them whenever the first price you offer is the one they're hoping for. For most customers this price is 105% of the base price when selling to them, and 70% when buying from them. This grants you the "Near Pin +15" and "Just Bonus +30" XP boosts. Not only do these boosts give you more XP, they also give you reputation points with the customer you sold to. Check the guide on prices if you need to. Take note that the customers' desired prices fluctuate randomly by a few percentage points, so you'll often not get any bonus even for offering the right price. Sucks, doesn't it?

Customers will also bring up better items as they level up. You can expect these items to be around their own price ranges, as well, so it's a great way to stock your shop. Most of them will settle at 50% of the base price, too, so you're making a killing even selling it back at 105%.

Your own levels matter a lot, too. Leveling up gradually gets you cheaper prices at the stores, more expensive items, unbelievable abilities like being able to use vending machines, and other assorted privileges. Your goal starting out should be to level up as quickly as possible so as to gain access to more expensive stuff. For this reason, you need to be getting the...


No, not the other Just Bonus that I just mentioned earlier. That's a Just Bonus, not a Just Bonus. Confusing, I know. It's actually very simple. Getting a sale done on the first offered price gives you an XP bonus called a Just Bonus. As to why the devs decided to use the exact same name for the perfect pin bonus, the world will never know.

The bonus XP from a Just Bonus gradually goes up as you form a streak of Just Bonuses! It doubles each time, to a maximum of 128 XP per purchase. Because of this, it's crucial that you sell and buy as much as possible. Even if the items are cheap, it doesn't change the XP boost. Cheap items will actually serve you best for this, as their prices won't deter anyone. Note, however, that different kinds of items are more popular than others. Food will always fly off the shelves, but not treasure. Weapons and armor are popular among men, but not women. In other words: Stocking your shop exclusively with medicine is going to make you poor. If you need a stocking stuffer to keep your Just Bonus chain going, use food. Almost everyone likes food.

You will also absolutely want to keep a small stockpile of the cheapest items in each item category. Keep 5 hats, for example, in case an old man comes asking for a hat. This way you won't lose your Just Bonus chain. The most commonly requested item categories are armor, weapons, food, books, bracelets, hats, and treasures. Also keep in mind that bracelets count as armor.




AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Less customers will show up if your shop's atmosphere is far in one direction. You get the most customers from having it dead center. Your shop by default is slightly plain, but changes based on the items you stock in it. Some items make it gaudy while others make it light, for example. Stocking too many of the same item can also make your shop plain. To account for this, you'll need to buy different floorings, wallpapers, and shelves in order to properly manage your atmosphere. For more information, check out the awesome atmosphere guide. In practice: Snatch up the red flooring and some heretical decorations, because your shop will almost always be too plain or too light.

WARNING: Treasures have TRIPLE the atmosphere effect of other items. Unthankful Statue, a common treasure, is a PLAIN item. So stocking Unthankful Statues on your shelves will make your shop very plain and should generally be avoided.


No really. Recette naturally buys items from the market and guild at lower than their base price. This means that even if you're selling all of your items near the base price, you're still making a profit. You can even buy items when they're marked up and sell them to your own customers for way more.

If you want to know what prices you should set for marked up goods: It's 236% for almost everyone. For the rest, I remember it like this: A Woman is wise with her purse, so she'll only go up to 233%. An Old Man has accumulated enough wisdom to be her equal, so he'll also only take 233%. Little Girls, practically 7 years old, take it down to 227%. Prime, worse than a Little Girl, chops it down to 207%.

For buying marked up items: Everyone takes 157%.

This is the hardest part of the game as far as I'm concerned. You need to make your customers rich as fast as possible while also leveling up as fast as possible. There are many ways to go about this, but here's my most recent approach:

We sell a few expensive items on days 1 and 2, netting enough profit to BUY LOTS OF WALNUT BREAD!!!!


BEHOLD

Walnut Bread is overpowered. It's one of the cheapest items in the game, making it easy to stock, and it's also food, which means that everybody wants it. The perfect stocking stuffer. Filling your shop with it will make it easy to go on long Just Bonus chains and level up rapidly, which is all that matters in the early game. The real challenge is transitioning out of this strategy. Walnut Bread alone won't carry you to 10,000 pix. Below is a bullet-point of my exact method of getting there, followed by a detailed explanation.

Day 1: Buy Crafter's Knife

Day 2: Sell knife, then buy as much Taiyaki as possible, then an Old Muffler.

Day 3: Buy Walnut Bread, then Apples or Candy, then good cheap stuff.

• Good cheap stuff = Food > Hats > Bracelets > Weapons > Clothes > Armor.

• If a customer offers to sell you something, buy it at 70%. If the item costs ~20% of your budget, buy at 50% (51% for Little Girl). Turn down pricey items if necessary.

• If you don't hit level 4, you may want to buy an expensive good cheap item tomorrow.

Day 4: Buy 2 of each of the cheapest items in the basic categories (weapons, clothes, bracelets, hats, treasures). This is a stockpile for customers with requests. Always start your day by refreshing it. Next buy Taiyaki if possible, followed by lots of Walnut Bread.

Day 5: Buy good cheap items. If a customer leveled up and you can afford it, then buy an expensive item too.

Day 6: Buy expensive stuff for your richest customers, then good cheap stuff, and then the rest goes to Walnut Bread. (Rich budget is initially 1800-3600 pix, but effectively infinite upon first level up).

• Good expensive stuff = Mufflers (from Fleece onwards) > Weapons, Armor > Food > Boots (from Eskimo onwards), Capes, Charms.

Day 7 Onwards: Gradually increase your stockpile of basic category items to 5 each. Consider adding books. Keep it up.

So, as for the detailed explanation:
We need to sell as many items as possible without much regard for price. Different item categories have different appeals. Women don't like weapons and armor, but men do. Little girls like books, and seemingly nobody else does. Some item categories, however, have universal appeal. That's where the "Good Cheap Items" list comes from. These items are more commonly purchased than others. Since food is the most popular category, we start out by prioritizing it. Our goal is to reach level 4, at which point we will be able to buy Walnut Bread in unlimited quantities.

Day 3 is the real crunch point. Your level will still be so low that you can't buy the cheapest food items as much as you want. You want to hit level 4 by the day's end. I've found that the most consistent way to do this is to sell 2 Taiyaki on Day 2. This gets you enough money to completely fill the shop with food and good cheap items. If the muffler sells then you can hit level 2 on Day 2.

I've managed to hit level 4 on Day 3 even after getting asked for treasures (which I didn't have) 3 times, so it's VERY doable, but if you don't hit level 4 then you'll have to delay building your stockpile. The stockpile is there to cover customer requests and stop them from destroying your chains. It's rough to go without it, but you may have no choice. By the way: Bracelets count as armor.

Customers will start selling things to you by Day 3. This lets you make a killing, as they're terrible at setting their prices. This supplements your store catalog throughout the day. Furthermore, customers tend to sell you items within their own price ranges. This helps you gauge their budgets and acquire ritzy stuff for cheap. You'll want to get the Near Pin bonus for most of these, but items costing around 20% of your budget should be bought for less or outright avoided. Don't be afraid to turn down expensive treasures. They're unnecessary and risky in the early game because they take long to sell.

You'll start hitting your strides on Day 5 or 6. A customer will probably have leveled up by then, and you'll probably be able to afford expensive stuff to sell. If men have leveled up, buy expensive weapons and armor. If only women have leveled up, buy expensive food. You can get by just with expensive food, but selling expensive weapons is a huge boost. Every "more items" level up will make a new set of weapons and armor available, and their prices will always be great for where you are. The only thing that really beats them in terms of popularity and price are the mufflers, but mufflers don't start being good until you hit the Fleece Muffler. Remember to keep selling good cheap items for your poorer customers.

If you can make it past 10,000 pix before the day of the first debt payment, then you've basically already beaten the game. Exponential growth should carry you through the next debt payment in only a few days. Aim to have about 10,000 pix or so left over on your first debt payment.




From this point onward, all the way to the end of the game, you'll easily cruise past the debt payments if you just keep doing what you've been doing. Just buy some expensive swords and armor, keep some cheap stuff around to maintain your Just Bonus chain, and keep buying what the customers are selling. You should be easily capable of making enough money to pay back your debt with several days to spare.

If you want to CRANK UP THAT SCORE, here's a phat tip. When your customers have leveled up, and an item's price is temporarily high, buy a bunch of that item (~15). If you stock your store with ONLY the high-priced items, your customers will be forced to buy them. Note that if you fill your counters with other stuff like Walnut Bread, your customers will try their hardest to buy that instead of your expensive stuff. That's why this only works if every item you stock is high priced. Doing this will crash the price of what you're selling, but it's more than worth it. Buy some other stuff to throw onto the shelves once the price crashes, and double your stock of basic items since you'll want to dedicate as much time as possible to selling this stuff.


It really, really, really works.


It's a good idea to completely avoid all events in the town square so as to prevent Euria from ever entering your shop. This will stop her from ruining your combos.
To prevent Euria from ever being able to come to your store, avoid the town square at morning and noon if you have more than 100,000 pix. Thanks, Scholar-at-Arms.


Suffer not the Euria to live.

Your level is the best way to tell how well you're performing in the early game. I'm marking down the levels I reach for the first few days so that you can tell how rapidly you're supposed to be leveling up. There is a bit of RNG as to whether you get +15 Near Pins or +30 Just Bonuses, but it doesn't matter that much. It's best to hit level 4 on Day 3, but you can still win without it.

Day 2 (the first real day): Level 2.

Day 3: Level 3 (6 (?!) is possible).

Day 4: Level 4 (6 is possible).

Day 5: Level 5+.

From this point on you should have no trouble stocking pricey stuff to pad your pockets, and fodder to cater to the poorer customers.

If you get tired of going easy on these plebeians, unleash your true power by selling vending machines out of your vending machines. Vending machines are very expensive yet don't seem to be disliked by your customers, so they'll sell like hot cakes. I've heard that this exploit was fixed in some versions, but not in the Steam version sooo...~


The system works.