V 1.0 - 17 May 2024 (Early Access)

First of all, a big thanks to Snowhound Games and Daedalic Entertainment for creating and publishing such a gem of a game.

Update 06 October 2024:
Eventually the game has left Early Access on 4. Oct. 2024.
The present walkthrough was composed during Early Access of the game.
Given the major overhaul announced in the release notes of version 1.0 the information contained in here might or might not be accurate anymore for the full release of the game.

Update 10 October 2024
After finishing my playthrough on Master difficulty I would like to share some more insights:
The basic principles of this guide still hold true. The main change in potion design is the 20% cap on potency which was completely overpowered in early access anyways. You cannot just spam potency to make potions with uber appeal. But that is not a problem at all.
Following the guidelines here and applying them to the updated ingredients should give you enough information to beat the game on any difficulty.

This walkthrough diary contains...well actually is one big spoiler (Early Access). Use at your own risk as it might take away a lot of the fun I had with experimenting and finding the strategies to run a successful alchemy shop.

Our playthrough features an highly aggressive play style where we will be walking at the edge of bankruptcy for the first two weeks.

We will be using the pause button heavily.
Either the game is on pause to plan, build, design, craft, rearrange, etc. or it is in 8x fast forward mode to wait for income, tycoon points or the next action to carry out.

As the learning curve for the game is quite steep, I will explain the game concepts as we encounter them in Excursions

For the purpose of this walkthrough diary, days are defined as the time between 6:00 am on one day and 6:00 am on the next day when daily reports are provided and workers for hire reset etc.
These are not to confuse with the Days in the top right corner of the game screen which last from midnight to midnight.

Suggestion to the Devs: make this in sync and let a day run from 6:00 am to 6:00 am or do the reset at midnight.

This diary explains a lot of the game mechanics which I have applied to win the game but it does by no means explain everything you could possibly encounter.

I hope you enjoy the reading and the diary can support new players in overcoming the steep learning curve. This game really deserves more players and reviews.

Comments and feedback are always welcome.

The Walkthrough Diary is published in the steam community of Potion Tycoon. Reusing parts or all of it is only permitted when you are referring to the source here and are citing the author.

1. We choose the tutorial to get a basic setup of our potion shop and one gardener

Notes:
We will deactivate the tutorial in the settings and still keep the basic potion shop setup. But for your first playthrough I would suggest to do the tutorial to learn the basics of the game. Of course you can build your own shop from scratch, but I like to use the basic setup as a pattern for further expansion.


2. We are going to hire the following staff on Day 1

• 2 alchemists (increased potency (various skills), reduced cooker workload)
  
• 2 clerks (skills to look for: +10% sales chance of potions, 33% to get 1 stamina for each sale)
  
• 2 operators (reduced workload for operating machines (4 different skills))

Workers can be hired in the worker section on the ledger at the top left where we also can switch between current workers and workers for hire.


3. To be able to produce potions we obviously need to start growing ingredients. We do this by assigning all three of our initial ingredients to grow in either a greenhouse (herbs) or a cultivation box (mushrooms). As a last step we reduce the storage amount for all ingredients to 2 (you can do that in bulk by selecting the storage target for one ingredient and choosing the option for "all ingredients")


4. Our next task is to open the construction menu on the lower left of the screen and increase the room size of the shop areas, the production area and the growth area by dragging the white rectangle for each of the rooms to the allowed building boarders left and right. When we are done we purchase the changes.


5. For an efficient basic production setup we need more underground space because production machines can only be build underground, while shops need to be above ground. We we construct a new underground floor U2 with the same room setup as underground floor U1 and add the following furniture.

• two palettes in the new storage area on U2
  
• a bottling machine and a cooker in the production area on U2
  
• two of the processing machines (drying kiln, mortar, kettle, pickler) in the production area on U1
  
• the other two processing machines (drying kiln, mortar, kettle, pickler) in the production area on U2

6. You might have noticed that we are already running out of budget. We take a loan of 1000 coins in the budget ledger on the top left to finance our purchases.


7. We buy 2 additional large oak cabinets and move them with the already existing one in the same room as the cash register in the shop area on the right on floor 1.


8. We add two more cookers to our layout. One in each production area in U1 and U2.
9. And now it is time to design our starter potions. To do so we open the alchemy potion design menu and look at the available potion recipes. The potions which we can create at start of the game depend on our starting ingredients and these are totally random. In this playthrough we can create a strength, a necromancy and a skeleton repellent potion.




10. We select the strength potion to start with.
The potion design screen consists of several sections with the available ingredients to the left of the screen, the ingredients which are used in our recipe in the cooker in the middle and most important the potion statistics to the right of the screen.

Each potion is defined by 2 mandatory properties. When we start the potion design process by choosing a potion from the available list, the basic potion design always consists of two ingredients which contain the two mandatory properties for this specific potion.

In the case of the strength potion the mandatory properties are the fire property and the bone property, therefore Mandrake and Wormwood were added to the cooker when we chose the strength potion.

When we hover our mouse over the potion name on the top right, we will see a list of beneficial properties and detrimental properties for this potion.
Our goal for each recipe is to:

• have both mandatory properties which define the potion
  
• add as many beneficial properties as possible (green properties on the bottom right - here: Antidote)
  
• avoid detrimental properties (red properties at the bottom right – here foul).

Each beneficial property is increasing the base appeal of the potion, while each detrimental property is decreasing the base appeal of the potion.
We want to get all potions as appealing as possible to our customers, otherwise they will not buy from us.


In our case the base appeal of 3% for the basic strength potion is really bad, hardly any customer would want to buy it. The main reason for the low appeal is the detrimental property foul on the bottom right. By hovering our mouse over the property we bring up an explanation screen which indicates that the foul taste property is reducing the appeal by 20%.
The Foul taste It is a combination of the two basic properties bitter and unsavory which are both properties of the regular mandrake root ingredient. While bitter on it's own is a beneficial property it becomes detrimental in combination with the unsavory property.


To improve the appeal of the potion, the goal is to remove the unsavory property from the mandrake root. As we need to keep the bone to create a strength potion, there is only one possible Mandrake variation which includes the bone and the bitter property. We need to keep the lower half of it, while removing the upper half. To get the lower half we select the mandrake root in the cooker and on the left side the ingredient processing screen for Mandrake opens up.


The smileys on the ingredient processing screen allow us to keep one of the four halves of the Mandrake root (bottom, left, top, right). We need the bottom half, therefore we select the smiley on the bottom. This will remove the top half of the ingredient from the recipe. We will loose the stimulant (+) on the upper left (which is in general beneficial to a potion) but more important we will remove the unsavory property on the upper right of the Mandrake which is reducing the appeal of our potion massively.


The result is outstanding (for Day 1 that is :) )
Using the pickled (bottom half) Mandrake instead of the regular Mandrake removed the detrimental foul property and added the beneficial bitter property, leading to an increase of the potion appeal from 3% to 27%.

Note: The potency of the potion decreased from 1.5 to 1.0 as a result of removing the stimulant (+) from the recipe, but for the time being potency is not important at all.
We want to focus on appeal and bring up it as high as possible.
The other ingredient, blanched wormwood is already best in slot as it contains the mandatory fire property and the beneficial antidote property.
The last step in the potion creation process is the bottling and the pricing of the potion on the next screen, tap the arrow on the bottom right.

The last step in the potion creation process is the bottling and the pricing of the potion on the next screen - we tap the arrow at the bottom right.


At the start of the game we do not have any options in terms of bottle design, caps and trinkets. We need to to research these first, which is also true for marketing actions, which will become available after we have researched the marketing desk.

Important: The goal for any potion we create should be to make it superior.
The superior tag is directly derived from the appeal of the potion.
We are playing against 3 AI players and the one player with the highest appeal for each potion gets the superior tag. Superior potions are twice as likely to sell, therefore we want to keep all potions with the superior tag at all times if possible.
If necessary we will decrease the price of the potion to make it superior, or increase the price if the potion still receives the superior tag.

Each step of price increase/decrease changes the appeal of the potion by 5% in the opposite direction. Price increase by one step decreases the appeal by 5%, while a price decrease by one step increases the appeal for the potion by 5%.
Last but not least we give the potion a name, and use the colour of our choosing. I tend to colour the bottles according to their areas (red -> health, purple -> sorcery and green → provisions) and I am using a speaking name for the potion but this is totally up to you.

11. We repeat the above mentioned process for all potions which are available to us at the start and make sure that the potions receive the "Superior" Tag by:

• adding as many beneficial properties as possible
  
• removing all detrimental properties
  
• decreasing the price if a rival has a potion with higher appeal (rivaled property)
  
• increasing the price (maximum to the yellow but not to the red section) if the potion is still superior (pricey property)
  
• Adding beneficial and removing detrimental properties should always prevail over using stimulants (+). However we always should get rid of the impure (-) property.

12. When done we unpause the game and let our staff build all the changes to our alchemy shop
13. Once building is complete we assign each of our 3 potion designs to a different cooker using the autolink mechanic. This will make sure that our operators are creating the correct variations of the ingredients for our potions and the alchemists are brewing the three basic potions in parallel
14. We also assign each of the three potions to a large oak cabinet in the shop area to make sure that all of them are offered to our customers.
15. In this playthrough I ended up with the following three starting potions:

Strength

Necromancy

Skeleton Repellent


16. Optional: Delete the already pre-designed potion in the products ledger on the top left to avoid confusion.
17. This was quite a bit of work for our first day as a potion shop owner and the learning curve is quite steep, but getting past the first few hours revealed a very enjoyable and extremely rewarding game. I really hope there is more to come.

End of Day 1 Summary
Staff

• 2/14 Alchemists
  
• 2/4 Operators
  
• 2/6 Clerks
  
• 1/7 Gardeners
  
• 0/7 Greasers
  
• 0/2 Managers

Seeds

• 3 random ingredient seeds (Wormwood, Nightshade, Wizard's Hat) in our case

Room extensions Underground Floor 1 (U1)
Growth Area U1

• 2 greenhouses
  
• 1 mushroom cultivation box

Storage Area U1

• 2 storage palettes

Production Area U1

• 1 bottling machine
  
• 1 cooker
  
• 1 pickler
  
• 1 mortar
  
• 1 cooker

Room extensions Underground Floor 2 (U2)
Growth Area U2
We will add greenhouses and cultivation boxes when we get additional seeds but this is not needed on Day 1
Storage Area U2

• 2 storage palettes

Production Area U2

• 1 bottling machine
  
• 1 cooker
  
• 1 kettle
  
• 1 drying kiln
  
• 1 cooker

Chambers extension Floor 1 (above ground)
Shop Area:

• 1 cash register
  
• 3 large oak cabinet

Our basic potion shop setup looks like on the screenshot below

1. Our workers have started producing the potions we have designed on Day 1. Once the production of one potion crate has been completed, your staff will stock the large oak cabinets in our with the respective potion and customers can start buying the potion


2.We have to watch our finances! At the daily reset (at 6:00 am) all worker wages are paid which requires us to have excess money directly before the daily reset. Once we cannot pay our debt for 3 days in a row or are getting too far into the red numbers we are bankrupt and will loose the game.

Excursion: Goals
On the right side of the screen we see three initial goals on which we are already working. Goals are pretty basic at the beginning and become more and more challenging and rewarding as we progress through the game. Completing goals is a great way to boost our game progress significantly.
Each goal is related to one of the three potion categories/departments

• Path of Service (Health)
  
• Path of knowledge (Sorcery)
  
• Path of Fame (Provisions)

For each path there are currently 12 Goals at the time of writing. Once we complete the 12th goal in either path we win the game.

Our initial goals are as follows:

• Apothecary (4/12) - Goal I on the Path of Service
  
• Sorcerer (0/12) - Goal I on the Path of knowledge
  
• Supply Depot (0/12) - Goal I on the Path of Fame

Each of these three goals expects us to

• create one potion for the related department (health, sorcery, provisions) - done on Day 1
  
• sell one crate of potions i.e. 12 potions in each department - in progress
  (where 4/12 for the Apothecary goal indicates that we have already sold 4 potions in the health department to our customers)

3. On day 2 we continue the early expansion of our alchemy shop "Bat Alchemy".
To do this we:

• increase our loan by another 500 coins
  
• increase the size of our crew quarters on floor 2 by dragging the white rectangle around the room to the right boarder of our building
  
• buy 2 additional bunkhouses to allow our workers to rest
  
• and finally build a small research lab in the small room to the left on floor 2

Excursion: Tycoon points
Tycoon points is the second important currency in Potion Tycoon. While we can buy all equipment with regular coins, Tycoon Points are required to hire new workers, perform research or start marketing campaigns.
Sources for regular daily Tycoon point income:

• Market Leadership
  
• Happy customers
  
• Hired workers (Managers)
  
• Artifacts

Sources for one-time Tycoon Point income

• completing VIP quests
  
• completing Goals

4. When we have enough Tycoon Points from finishing the first goals (one-time income) we hire additional staff. Workers for hire are reset at 6am each ingame day and may vary in each playthrough. Here we hired 2 alchemists and 1 operator on Day 2 making it 4 Alchemists and 3 operators in total

Excursion: Workers
To successfully run our potion shop we need all kinds of workers who are performing different tasks in our production chains. The following worker categories are available:

• Alchemists - Brew potions in cookers, perform research
  
• Operators - Run production equipment - which transforms raw ingredients into processed ingredients
  
• Clerks - Run cash registers and perform marketing campaigns
  
• Gardeners - plant, grow and harvest mushrooms and herbs
  
• Greasers - Fill potions into bottles, transport all ingredients and products to their required destinations which also includes restocking the oak cabinets
  
• Managers - generate tycoon points, positive impact on global variables, e.g. worker stamina, tycoon point income etc.

All our workers gain experience when they are performing tasks in their profession. After they reach certain experience thresholds they can be promoted to the next Level. Worker levels are

• Novice
  
• Adept
  
• Veteran
  
• Master
  
• Grandmaster

With each Promotion the wages of our staff are rising, where each additional Level increases also the hike from one level to the next. i.e. the wages increase much more when a promotion is done from master to grandmaster, than it rises for a promotion from Novice to Adept. (We have to keep this in mind and stop promotions at certain points temporarily to prevent bankruptcy).

On the positive side, each promotion grants an additional skill to each worker which will make them much more valuable to our shop. e.g.

• gardeners get skills which increase the growth rate of the plants they are growing or which increases the amount of received ingredients when harvesting a plant once,
  
• Alchemists get skills for increased potion appeal, increased potion potency or reduced cooker workload (i.e. faster potion production)
  
• clerks increase the sales chance of potions sold in the same room (great for potion racks which are placed next to a cash register where the clerk is working) or get stamina points back for customers served at a cash register,
  
• greasers are delivering faster,
  
• managers increase tycoon point generation and so on.

There are loads of skills.
I personally always choose skills which are having a positive effect on the workers job over skills which affect only the stamina of the worker.

Speaking of Stamina, our workers have a certain amount of stamina and performing any task reduces this amount. When the stamina reaches zero, workers need to rest which they ideally do in the crew quarters.
If the crew quarters is full, they can also fall asleep where they stand but to recover outside a crew quarter takes much more time and therefore reduces the time in which the worker can actually perform his job. We should avoid that.

5. Important: The play style in this walkthrough heavily relies on 14+ Master or higher Alchemists, therefore we check the workers for hire daily and hire additional alchemists whenever we can afford it. We have to be careful though with promotions as these can ruin us if we promote them too early

6. The target endgame setup in terms of workers for our approach looks like the following:

• 14+ Alchemists (the more the better, but we have to watch our finances)
  
• 4 Operators
  
• 6 Clerks
  
• 7 Gardeners
  
• 7 Greasers
  
• 2 Managers (We were extremely unlucky in this playthrough and saw only 1 (!) manager for hire until we managed to win the game. And we checked staff for hire on a daily basis. So whenever we see a manager, we should hire them for 20 Tycoon points)

7. Ideally we would have enough (10) tycoon points left to start the first research project "Ventilation" by using the basic research table. But we prioritised workers over research. "Ventilation§ let's us place a maximum of 3 air vents in each production room. Air vents are quite expensive when we just start out, but they increase room rating for production rooms by 15 points each.

Excursion: Room Rating
Room rating determines how many action points are necessary to perform an action in any given room. The higher the room rating (cap is 40 to my knowledge) the less action points are needed. Processing machines in turn decrease the room rating and require the workers to use more action points for each task in a production room.
Therefore we want to place Air Vents in each production room, once we have researched them and whenever we can afford them, to reduce stamina drain and increase the up-time of our workforce.

8. On Day 2 we also encounter our first VIP Captain Gutter.

Excursion: VIPs
VIPs are non player characters which show up regularly in the course of the game and ask us for favours (quests). VIPs belong to one of the three customer groups:

• Guards
  
• Wizards/Witches
  
• Rogues

Usually they want us to produce X crates of Potion Y with a potency/grade of Z. This can be quite tricky because they are requesting one or multiple crates of a specific potion. The production of these potions occupies our staff and our production chain, while we cannot sell the result to our regular customers and instead dispatch the crates to the VIP.

However VIP rewards are HUGE and boost our game progress significantly.
They include in the order of usefulness:

• New ingredient seeds, which let's us unlock additional potion recipes or create better potions
  
• Artifacts which almost always provide desirable benefits to our potion shop
  
• Tycoon points
  
• A temporary fame increase, which increases the number of potential customers in our shop
  
• A sack of coins
  
• etc.

So we ALWAYS try to accept VIP quests and complete them as soon as possible. We just need to make sure that our potions match the expectations of the VIP.

During the game we will encounter many VIPs and after we complete at least 2 quests for the same VIP he/she will become an endorser.
Endorsers are regularly supporting our cause by sending us ingredient seeds or articfacts for free which is highly desirable.
Endorsers are also required to win the game eventually.

9. Captain Gutter asked for 2 crates of potency/grade 1 potions of either conjuring, necromancy or summoning to be delivered within 4 days - We accept the quest



10. The only potion which we are able to brew from his list is the necromancy potion and as we have already 4 alchemists busy brewing potions we should be able to fulfil his request easily.
11. After accepting the quest we realise that we already have 2 potions of necromancy in stock indicated by the green question mark next to the VIP on the right side of the screen.



Excursion: Stockpiling and storage target
But for completeness sake we will have a look at the stockpiling mechanic, which is a quality of life mechanic and allows us to stockpile certain potions and prevent them from being sold in our shop.

We open the products ledger on the top left of the screen and select the stockpiling option next to the potion we want to deliver to a VIP. This will allow us to produce potions solely for the purpose of
our current quest and let's us complete it as fast as possible.



We also have to make sure to amend the storage target cap of the potion which we want to stockpile to match or exceed the number of potions requested for the quest, otherwise we will never complete it.
We can do that by opening the production ledger on the top left of the screen and increase the target number for the potion in question (here: Necromancy). For the current quest 2 is enough but for later quests we need to keep that in mind and increase the target.



Important: After finishing the quest, we need to stop stockpiling the potions and return the potion target cap to 2 for all potions again. During multiple playthroughs I was wondering why one of my sales racks was empty for an extended period of time, only to realise that I had forgotten to remove the stockpiling option for this potion after a quest was finished.

Speaking of storage target: The default storage target for ingredients and potions at the start of the game is "3". We reduced this to "2" to save storage space at start. While the potion target will remain at "2" during the whole game, and will only be increased temporarily for quest purposes, the ingredients target will be increased later to facilitate higher production volumes.

12. We finish the quest by tapping on the green question mark next to Gutter and dispatch the 2 necromancy potions he wanted. As a reward we can choose between “hyping” necromancy potion sales for 3 days or a sack of 112 coins. We choose hyping the potion but to break even with the 112 coins we would have to sell more than 11 additional necromancy potions in the next 3 days.



7. Day 2 ends at 6am



End of Day 2 Summary
General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard

Staff

• 4/14 Alchemists
  
• 3/4 Operators
  
• 2/6 Clerks
  
• 1/7 Gardeners
  
• 0/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

Chamber extensions Floor 2

• Basic Research Lab
  
• Increased Crew Quarters size
  
• 2 Bunkhouses

1. After the daily reset we hired our 4th operator spending the last 10 Tycoon Points ("Ventilation" research still has to wait).
2. We encountered another VIP, Hooded Crow, who is looking for 2 provisions crates of potency/grade 1.



3. After accepting the quest we realise that we do not have enough provisions crates in stock to meet the required delivery targets indicated by the red arrow next to the questgiver on the right. Therefore we increase the target storage for skeleton repellent potions to 3 and start stockpiling them. We have three days to complete the quest and with our current setup this should not be a problem at all.



4. Just a bit later Jolene the ingredient trader is visiting our shop and offers a new random ingredient for purchase, here: “Fly Agaric”. Hovering with the mouse over the ingredient shows which properties and potions it would unlock for us. The price of 101 coins is pretty expensive at this stage (remember we still have a loan of 1744 coins to pay at the moment and only 535 in cash) but it will increase the number of potions we can offer in our shop by 100% (from 3 to 6) and this is a huge boost early in the game.



Excursion: Additional Ingredient Seeds
I personally always buy ingredients which I do not have yet when I can afford them (or even take a loan to be able to afford them).
The ingredient trader is however not our only source for seeds, we can also get them from completing goals or quests and there we should take them as first priority when they are in the rewards list. We will also receive random ingredients from endorsers later on.
I would not recommend to buy duplicate ingredient seeds from Jolene unless they are heavily used in many potions later on, or if you have an abundance of money (which is hopefully also the case later).

5. Having purchased our next seed we want to check the ingredients ledger on the top left and here the seeds section. It will show us all the seeds we have and how many of them we are growing. “Fly Agaric” is the new seed we just purchased showing as (-/1) which indicates that we are not growing it yet. Hovering over the name opens an additional infirmation window. Here we see next to it's properties that “Fly Agaric” is a mushroom.



6. Therefore our next task is to purchase a mushroom cultivation box in the construction menu on the bottom left, which we place in the empty growing section on U2



7. After the construction is finished, we plant the “Fly Agaric” seed in the box and once planted reduce it's storage target to 2.
Note: The room in the moonlight city scenario is pretty limited, so we need to keep our stock as low as possible but high enough to not hamper potion production. A target of 2 is fine for the start, later in the game we will increase it.

7. Having a new ingredient increases our sales opportunities tremendously. We can create our next 3 potions (each using two ingredients) following the same logic as described on Day 1.

We need to make sure that the potions receive the "Superior" Tag by:

• adding as many beneficial properties as possible
  
• removing all detrimental properties
  
• decreasing the price if a rival has a potion with higher appeal (rivaled property)
  
• increasing the price (maximum to the yellow but not to the red section) if the potion is still superior (pricey property)
  
• Adding beneficial and removing detrimental properties should always prevail over using stimulants (+). However we always should get rid of the impure (-) property.

8. We ended up with the following additional potion recipes by cultivating the "Fly Agaric" seed:

• Potion of Vitality
  
• Potion of Summoning
  
• Monster Repellent

9. We will have a look at another example of smart potion creation by checking the potion of vitality. When we load the basic recipe the automatic setup suggests to use the upper half of “Wormwood” and all four properties from “Fly Agaric”. However "Fly Agaric" contains the “Toxin” property which is neutralising the benefitial property “Anti-Toxin” from “Wormwood” and therefore Antidote is not a property of the potion as it stands.



10. The potion base appeal of 23% is not bad, but if we remove the upper half of “Fly Agaric” we get rid of the detrimental "Toxin" property (and also remove the beneficial stimulant) which will lead to an even better result. The “Anti-Toxin” property from “Wormwood” increases the appeal by 10% while we loose only 1% appeal for having less potency from the stimulant removal resulting in a new base appeal of 32%.



11. This allows us to set the price at the upper end of the range (yellow section) getting the pricey tag which reduces the appeal by 5% but still leaves us with a superior potion.



12. The next potion, potion of summoning, is interesting as the creation options leave us with the best option at 24% base appeal while a rival potion house is offering the potion with 26% appeal. During the creation process we remove the impure detrimental property.




13. Furthermore we reduce the price to the lowest possible price, which will add the beneficial fair tag to the potion, increase our appeal to 29% and make it superior. At the early game each price step only reduces the profit by 1 coin per potion so having a twice as high chance to sell the potion with the superior tag for 8.5 coins profit is better than selling it for 9.5 coins profit having the rivaled tag.




14. Last but not least we design the monster repellent potion. Again we remove the detrimental property (which is flavourful in this case) to increase the base appeal of the potion from 9% to 33%. We price it to our needs to keep it superior and exit the alchemy screen.




15. After we have started planting the new “Fly Agaric” seed and created 3 additional superior potions, we will assign the new potions to the existing cookers. Don't forget to reduce the target amount for all potions to 2 (game default is 3 but I found this to be too much). Our production setup looks like this and all recipes are auto linked to the four processing machines:

• Cooker 1: Health potions (Strength, Vitality)
  
• Cooker 2: Provision potions (Skeleton Repellent)
  
• Cooker 3: Sorcery potions (Necromancy, Summoning)
  
• Cooker 4: Mixed potions (Monster Repellent)

16. A bit later in the game we will have all 16 potions to create and we will produce 4 potions per cooker. We will also not build any more cookers in this playthrough but we will come to this a bit later.
17. You might wonder why we chose the cooker setup above. Remember our active quest where “hooded Crow” asked for 2 provisions potions? By producing Skeleton Repellent and Monster Repellent in parallel at different cookers we will be able to complete the quest even faster as both recipes fulfil the requirements.
18. Our next task is to add 3 more large oak cabinets in the left shopping area on Floor 1 to be able to sell our newly created potions. We take this opportunity to add decorations to both shopping rooms on Floor 1 to increase the room rating which will benefit our customers and our employees.
Room rating will also decrease the amount of action points spent by customers int he room...Yay! We want one of each decoration in each of the shopping rooms, so we purchase the missing decorations and place them accordingly:

• 3x Large Oak Cabinet
  
• Decor shelf/Decor Shelf
  
• Small Decor Shelf/Small Decor Shelf
  
• Lantern/Lantern (both rooms have already 2 Lanterns no purchase needed)
  
• Small Soul Mask/Small Soul Mask
  
• Infortisement Scroll/Infortisement Scroll
  
• Large Soul Mask/Large Soul Mask

18. We wait for the items to be built and assign the three new potions to the three new oak cabinets.
19. Meanwhile we managed to sell 12 sorcery potions and received another ingredient seed as quest reward as well as 10 tycoon points.



20. We make use of the 10 Tycoon Points to hire our third Novice Clerk ( I wish there were more gardeners to hire as we still only have one and his workload is getting heavy)

21. The ingredient we received was “Nightshade” a herb, which allows us to increase our potion variety even further. It contains the “Water” property and allows us to create two additional potions

• Sleep
  
• Weakness

We repeat the necessary steps to setup the new potion production chains by:

• Building a greenhouse in the growing room on floor U2 to start growing the Nightshade (or if we get a mushroom we build a cultivation box)
  
• Creating the new potions in the Alchemy screen and make them superior (add beneficial properties, remove detrimental properties, play with the price)
  
• Assigning the potions to the cookers to produce them most efficiently (4 cookers, 8 potions → 2 potions each)
  
• Building 2 new large oak cabinets in the shop and assign the potions to them for sale

22. Furthermore we will update our existing two sorcery potions to get better appeal and higher sales prices:

• of Summoning by replacing Wizards Hat (Crushed) with Nightshade (Blanched)
  
• of Necromancy by replacing Wizards Hat (Crushed) with Nightshade (Blanched)

Excursion: Recipe Upgrades
When we want to upgrade a recipe, we go to the Alchemy screen and load the existing recipe instead of just creating a new recipe. Loading the existing one and amending it triggers a lot of quality of life mechanics the game offers.

• When having crates in stock for the legacy potion, we can upgrade them to the superior potion version by spending 5 Tycoon points each (expensive at the start of the game, but awesome later on)
  
• Cookers and oak cabinets producing/offering the legacy potion will be automatically updated to produce/sell the superior potion (we would have to assign a completely new potion of the same type manually to cookers and oak cabinets when we do not load the legacy recipe)

Excursion: Indefinite Production
As we are still working on completing the quest to send 2 provisions crates to “Hooded Crow” and we have assigned two potions per cooker now, we should make use of the indefinite production option which allows us to produce the same potion in one cooker until the storage limit is reached. In regular mode once a potion has been produced it moves to the bottom of the production list for this cooker and production of the next crate of this potion will only resume once all other potions scheduled for this cooker have also been produced once.



The Skeleton Repellent potion will be produced until the target storage limit of 2 crates is reached. Sleep potion production will only resume afterwards.

23. In the night Lady of the Moon (VIP) appeared asking for the delivery of one sorcery crate of grade 1 within 3 days. We accepted and luckily we had another necromancy potion crate in stock, which allowed us to finish the quest immediately.



24. The Lady of the Moon offers to spread the fame of our house, increasing the fame and the number of potential customers temporarily or to give us an artifact.



25. We chose the artifact and received the "Crown of Rebirth"



26. While checking the artifacts section in the building menu I realized that we already had received an artifact as quest reward earlier which I did not notice. We have the following artifacts:

• Crown of Rebirth (increases the crop size of each mushroom in the same room, i.e. whenever we harvest the mushroom we receive two crates of raw ingredients instead of one)
  
• Solar Crystal (increases the growth rate of all herbs growing in the same room by 25%)

Both artifacts affect the growth of our ingredients so we move all three of our current greenhouses to the same growing room on floor U1 and place the solar crystal there, while we move all two mushroom cultivation boxes to the growing room on floor U2 and place the Crown of Rebirth in the same room as the mushrooms. The new growing room setup looks like this:



End of Day 3 Summary

General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 5/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated
  
• 8/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 8/16 potions are available for sale in our shop

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan: 1666 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing
  
• Liquidity is running low (-42 coins after daily reset)

Staff

• 4/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 3/6 Clerks
  
• 1/7 Gardeners
  
• 0/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. After selling a few potions to get out of the red numbers on Day 4 we spent 20 tycoon points to hire two additional staff: 1 gardener and 1 greaser

2. The next quest also awaits: Wizard Sorbus is asking for 2 crates of grade 1 sorcery potions within 4 days.



3. We accept and check the products ledger by filtering for available sorcery potions. Unfortunately none of them is in stock. Therefore we decide to stockpile summoning potions and at the same time set the summoning potion production in the cooker 2 to indefinite to produce the two crates of summoning potions as fast as possible and to prevent them from being sold until the quest for Wizard Sorbus is done.



4. After a few more minutes the yellow arrow on the “Crow” VIP turns green as we have one of each skeleton repellent and monster repellent potions in stock. We pause the game, and use the opportunity to finish the quest for “Hooded Crow”. We remove the indefinite potion creation tag for skeleton repellent and also remove the stockpiling tag for the potion to allow selling them again in our shop. As a reward we chose hyping skeleton repellent potion for 3 days over a sack of 112 coins.

5. A few hours later we again have earned 10 tycoon points and in the absence of valuable staff to hire we start our first research project “Ventilation” in the small research lab. One of our alchemists will go to the research lab and start researching (here: Floor 2 on the left)

6. Furthermore we have 2 medium department stores in our shop offering 2 different potions in two different categories (here health and provisions) which started the 48 hour countdown for the department store quest.



7. A bit later the "Ventilation" research task is complete.



8. In the very early morning shortly before the daily reset, we have produced enough summoning potions to finish the quest of Wizard Sorbus. Remember to stop stockpiling in the potions in the production ledger and also stop the indefinite production on cooker 2 for the summoning potion.



9. We choose an artifact over temporary fame as reward and receive a Two Headded Taurus which increases the fame of our house permanently by 10 points. We place the new artifact immediately in a free room (here: in the research room).

End of Day 4 Summary

General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 5/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated
  
• 8/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 8/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 3 Artifacts placed
  
• First research complete

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan: 1588 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing
  
• Liquidity is running low

Staff

• 4/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 3/6 Clerks
  
• 2/7 Gardeners
  
• 1/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. We check available staff to hire at the beginning of each day, even if we cannot afford it yet. Tycoon points will keep coming

2. We start promoting our workers on day 5 but do not promote them higher than Veteran for the time being.



Excursion: Worker Skills Deep Dive
The following skills are worth taking, ordered by priority
Alchemists:

• Acclaimed (increases Appeal of all potions by 3%)
  
• Spellbinder (increases potency by 5%)
  
• Optimiser (Potency increase by using Stimulants)
  
• Herbalist (increase potency for any potions using herbs)
  
• Fungi Connoisseur ( increase potency for any potions using mushrooms)
  
• Hot Pot (workload for operating any cooker reduced by 2)
  
• Arcane insight (can use +1 ingredients in Alchemy)
  
• Enchanter (increase potency for sorcery potions)
  
• Healer (increase potency for health potions)
  
• Mercenary (increase potency for provisions potions)
  
• Scholar (reduced workload for research) - we only take this once or twice and let these guys do the research

Operators:

• Scrounger (20% chance to produce two processed ingredients in one batch)
  
• Curing expert (workload for drying kiln and fermentation tank reduced)
  
• Preserver (workload for operating any pickler reduced by 2)
  
• Grinder (workload for operating any mortar reduced by 2)
  
• Pan Handler (workload for operating any kettle reduced by 2)

Clerks:

• Potion whisperer (increases sales chance of any potion in the same room by 10%
  
• Welcoming (restores 12 action points to any customers in the room)
  
• Go-Getter (33% chance to receive 1 stamina for each customer served at cash register)
  
• Seer (All marketing actions by this character have 10% increased success chance) - we take this only once and assign this clerk to the marketing desk later
  
• Influencer (increases fame for all customer groups by 3%)
  
• Guerillia (Marketing campaigns are 15% cheaper)
  
• Gossiper (Recent sales fame cap increased by 3%)

Gardener

• Green Thumb (increases crop size of all herbs harvested by this gardener)
  
• Spore Finger (increases crop size of all mushrooms harvested by this gardener)
  
• Botanist (increases groth rate of all herbs and mushrooms planted by this gardener)
  
• Forager (50% reduced time to plant and harvest herbs and shrooms)
  
• Zen (Mood increase by 15 per hour in a room with a greenhouse or cultivation box

Greaser

• Tag (increases the stamina of all workers in the room by 5 when entering the room)
  
• Speed Bottler (workload for bottling reduced by 2)
  
• Hauler (speed penalty for carrying goods is halved)
  
• Sprinter (+25% movement speed, -25% stamina)
  
• Marathoner (Stamina consumption for deliveries reduced by 33%)

Manager

• Diligent (increases Tycoon point production for this worker (2x))
  
• Entrepreneur (increases Tycoon point production of the house by 15%)
  
• Administrator (increases Tycoon point production of the house by 10%)
  
• Motivator (increases stamina of all workers by 10%)
  
• Organiser (increases movement rate for all delivery tasks by 10%)
  
• Contractor (prize of construction is reduced by 15%)
  
• Famous (increases Fame for all segments by 3%)

3. Alfons the Artifact trader is visiting us and offers a fallen hero memorial. It increases stamina of all workers entering the room by 25%. We decide to purchase it and place it in the crew quarters as the production rooms are entirely filled with production machines. Similar to Jolene the ingredient trader, Alfons is visiting every few days and offers a random artifact. It is up to you whether you buy it or skip it depending on your needs and funds of course as the artifacts are also not very cheap.



End of Day 5 Summary

General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 5/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated
  
• 8/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 8/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 3 Artifacts placed
  
• Department Store goal is about to finish in 12 hours

Points of Attention

• Loan is decreasing
  
• Wages and material costs increasing
  
• Liquidity is running low - as always

Staff

• 4/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 3/6 Clerks
  
• 2/7 Gardeners
  
• 1/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. Daily Routine: check available staff to hire

2. We completed the basic goals already by selling twelve potions each. After one goal is done, we will automatically move to the next goal in the related path. Currently the following three goals are active for us:
1. Get Noticed (Provisions)


For the provisions goal we are going to start the next research project: Office Basics (15 Tycoon points), which enables us to construct the marketing desk and perform a marketing action.


2. Art and Science (Sorcery)


Art and Science requires us to complete three research tasks (we just started our seconf reseachj project: office basics to complete the Goal “Get noticed” above.

3. Department Store (Health)


The Department Store goal is on track. We have only 12/48 hours left to maintain at least 2 potions for two different departments in our shop. When one potion is sold out, the timer will reset and once 2 potions from 2 departments are available again in our shop again the countdown will start at 48 hours again. We keep an eye on this and prioritise potion crafting if needed.

4. Around noon Jolene the ingredient trader joined us again offering “Catnip” a herb which will increase our potion variety by another 50%. Four additional potions to create is huge, although the price of 124 coins gets us back into the red numbers. We are still walking at the edge of bankruptcy, but we cannot decline this offer.


5. We want to continue our aggressive expansion strategy, but our funds are running low. Therefore we take another loan of 500 coins loan to a total outstanding loan of 2260 coins

6. Having a new herb seed we want to build an additional greenhouse and plant the “Catnip” herb there. We build it in the growth room on floor U2 together with the shrooms. It will not benefit from the crown of rebirth, but for now we cannot afford to extend our production capacities to floor U3 yet.

7. The “Catnip” again increases our sales opportunities tremendously. We create our next 4 potions to a total of 12 potions for our shop. Each of the potions uses two ingredients and the recipe creation follows the basic potion creation logic we already have used for our other potions (see below):

• Sleep
  
• Slow
  
• Mana
  
• Warding

We need to make sure that the potions receive the "Superior" Tag by:

• adding as many beneficial properties as possible
  
• removing all detrimental properties
  
• decreasing the price if a rival has a potion with higher appeal (rivaled property)
  
• increasing the price (maximum to the yellow but not to the red section) if the potion is still superior (pricey property)
  
• Adding beneficial and removing detrimental properties should always prevail over using stimulants (+). However we always should get rid of the impure (-) property.

The table below shows all important information for each of the twelve potion recipes which we have created so far:


8. We distribute the four new potions evenly among your four cookers to setup the production chains. Each cooker will create 3 potions now.

9. To be able to sell the new potions we need to expand our shop by adding a third floor above ground. We start by adding a staircase, move the research chamber and the crew quarters including all items from floor 2 to floor 3 by just dragging the whole room to floor 3. Items stay in the moved chambers. Then we create 2 new shop rooms on Floor 2 and extend their size to the building boarders. In the new room on the left we add 2 oak cabinets and a cash register, while we add two oak cabinets in the right room as well. As our funds are running low again, we will skip decorations for now and add them a bit later.


10. When ht new shop floor is built, we add our brand new potions to the oak cabinets in the shops on floor 2.

11. After a bit the Office Basics research is finished and after completing the department store goal we are going to add air vents to our production rooms to increase the room rating. We can install a total of three vents but they are expensive (75 coins each). Due to the 500 coins reward for the department store quest we can afford them and also the decoration for the two new shops on floor 2 (purchase the same decorations as for the shops on floor 1.

12. The 10 Tycoon point reward from the department store goal is just enough to start our third research project: "Oddities" in the bottles area.

Excursion: Total Potency Limit and Bottle Research
It is mandatory to research better bottles and caps early on as the main limiting factor for increasing total potion strength/potency/grade are the bottles, caps and trinkets which we are using.
Total potion potency is capped at 2.0 when we are only using clay bottles and regular bottle caps which are available at the start. Therefore we would never be able to complete our sorcery goal where we have to create a potion with grade 2.3 without performing bottle research.

13. We received a message from a rival that our necromancy potion is not superior anymore which we immediately need to address because only superior potions allow us to stay on the top of the leaderboard and receive more Tycoon points daily.


14. Luckily we have researched "Oddities" which completed just an hour ago. We go to the alchemy screen and load our existing necromancy potion


15. We do not have additional or better ingredients yet so we can only influence the appeal on the last page of the potion creation screen. Here we see that the rival appeal is 27% while our current appeal for the necromancy potion is 24% with 1.8 potency. On the left side we see our newly researched cap: Curiosity caps (Oddities research)


16. By replacing the regular cap with the curiosity cap, the total potency of our necromancy potion increases from 1.8 to 2.3 and the appeal increases to from 24% to 29% making our potion superior again.


17. Additionally the increase of potion potency to 2.3 is just enough to fulfil the last requirement to finish the “Art and Science” goal. We completed the other missing task by finishing our third research (Oddities) earlier today already.


18. The screenshot above also indicates that the production line for the necromancy potions have been updated automatically because we loaded the recipe before designing an upgraded version of the potion, instead of creating a new potion from scratch which would have to be assigned manually to cookers and oak cabinets. This a is a great quality of life feature! Thanks for this :)

19. As a reward for the "Art and Sciences" goal we received 10 Tycoon points and the night crystal, an extremely powerful artifact which allows us to use a third ingredient for each of our potions. We build the night crystal asap in the research room.

20. For now we do not need to add further ingredients to our potions yet, but it will come in handy once other houses increase the appeal of their potions removing the superior tag from our current potions.

21. Still before the daily reset, Captain Gutter asks for a new favour. He needs one crate of health potions with a target grade of 2 in 3 days. We accept and realise that we have 2 strength potions in stock but only with target grade 1.3

22. Next we go to the Alchemy screen, load the strength potion and try to increase it's overall potency to 2. Luckily we just built the night crystal artifact and are able to add a third ingredient, indicated by the third moon symbol on top in the middle of the screen. We add Fly Agaric (dried) which adds a stimulant to the potion increasing the potency from 1.0 to 1.8 and also the tasty property which in combination with the sweet property makes the potion flavourful increasing appeal from 27% to 38%.


23. On the following screen we add curiosity caps which increases the overall potency of the potion to 2.1, just enough to fulfil the request of Captain Gutter. We also increase the price to 13 while the potion is still superior. Since we have 2 crates in stock, we are asked to spend 10 Tycoon points to upgrade both crates. We accept because this will allow us to finish Gutters quest instantly.


24. The next Goal in the health department (Wise Friends) requires us to make Captain Gutter an endorser. This will happen when we finish his second quest which we received just now and are about to complete with the upgraded strength potion.

25. As a reward for finishing the goal “Wise Friends” we get the 10 Tycoon points back which we just spent on upgrading the strength potions and also an artifact called moonlight city spirit which increases the appeal of any selected potion.

26. Furthermore Gutter offered to increase our Fame for 5 days as reward or to give us a random artifact. We chose the artifact and received a moonlight amulet which increases the growth rate of any shrooms by 25%. Due to limited space at the moment we keep both artifacts for later.

End of Day 6 Summary

General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 6/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated
  
• 12/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 12/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• Research Project 3: "Oddities" complete
  
• New shop floor 2 added above ground and moved crew quarters and research to floor 3

Points of Attention

• Loan increased to 2152 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing
  
• Liquidity is running low - as always

Staff

• 4/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 3/6 Clerks
  
• 2/7 Gardeners
  
• 1/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. After receiving a bit of cash from potion sales we hire 2 new staff

• 1 Alchemist
  
• 1 Gardener

2. The fourth research goal (fine pottery) from the bottles research section costs 25 tycoon points and has to wait a bit.

3. I think I forgot to mention that I have added a fourth bunkhouse to the crew quarters to allow more crew resting in parallel.

4. The next VIP quest from Wizard Sorbus popped up. Deliver 1 crate of Grade 1.4 skeleton repellent within 4 days. We accept.

5. We do not have any crates in stock, therefore we stockpile the Skeleton Repellent Potion until we can fulfil the quest and move it to the first position in the cooker which can produce it to make sure the quest is resolved as fast as possible.

5. We hire our fourth Clerk and finish all available promotions to Adept rank according to the prioritisation list of skills described ion Day 5.

6. The goal ”Get noticed” requires a marketing desk and a successful marketing action. Therefore we build a new room on floor 3, next to the research room, where we plan to conduct our marketing activities and place the marketing desk inside.

7. After finishing the skeleton repellent potion for Wizard Sorbus we complete the quest and dispatch the potion. As a reward we chose an artifact over temporary fame and received again the crown of rebirth enhancing our shroom crop size.

8. We remove the stockpiling in for the skeleton repellent potion after the quest is done.

9. Wizard Sorbus now also became an endorser by completing his second quest, which also allowed us to finish the Goal “Wise friends” from the sorcery department. Here we received a soul mirror, which duplicates one available worker at a time. When running low on workers, we could simply place the mirror and duplicate any of our best workers to work for us. We can make the best use out of it for duplicating managers or high level alchemists later on.

10. The Lady of the moon (Witch VIP) asks for a favour and we accept to deliver any Grade 1.6 potion which could help in repelling summoned monsters.

11. We delivered a necromancy potion and failed the quest. I guess she was more interested in a monster repellent potion ;). Nonetheless we received 5 Tycoon points.

End of Day 7 Summary

General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 6/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated
  
• 12/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 12/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 2/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• New marketing office constructed on floor 3

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan 2044 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing
  
• Liquidity is running low - as always

Staff

• 5/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 4/6 Clerks
  
• 3/7 Gardeners
  
• 1/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. After selling enough potions we hire new workers:

• 2 alchemists
  
• 1 gardener

2. Captain Gutter just popped in and left an artifact, the Captain's Hammer, which increases stamina by 15 for each worker resting there. We place it in the free spot in the crew quarters immediately. This is the main reason why we want to complete VIP quests as soon as possible and make the VIPs to Endorsers. They will provide regular benefits to our shop, usually in the form of artifacts or Ingredient Seeds.


3. To finish the last task for the Goal "Get Noticed" we need to perform a successful marketing action. In the marketing room on floor 3 on the left side of the building we see a clerk “checking the papers” (the first marketing action in the desk), which will create Tycoon points and is sufficient to complete the Goal which brings us one step closer to victory.

4. We are also already on track for the Shopkeeper Goal which requires us to sell 40 crates of potions, i.e. 480 potions in total.

6. The "Checking the papers" marketing action rewarded us with 11 Tycoon points to a total of 40. This action can be started every 24 hours and is a good method to increase Tycoon point income. When we remember to start it ;)

7. With the abundance of tycoon points we start the fourth research project “Fine pottery” (Bottles)

End of Day 8 Summary

General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 6/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated
  
• 12/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 12/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 2/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 4th research (Fine pottery) in progress
  
• First marketing action “check the papers” completed

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan 1936 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing
  
• Liquidity is running low - as always

Staff

• 7/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 4/6 Clerks
  
• 4/7 Gardeners
  
• 1/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. Jolene the ingredient trader appeared and offered "Stinkhorn" a mushroom which will allow us to complete our recipe list and create all 16 potions in the game. Although being expensive we decide to take the opportunity and buy it.


2. However we need to consolidate our finances before expanding our shop any further. Therefore we just keep the ingredient seed in stock as is for a bit.

3. Hooded Crow appeared and asks for 2 crates of Grade 2 provisions potions within 4 days. We do have 2 crates of skeleton repellent in stock, but the grade of 1.6 is not sufficient. We decide to upgrade the recipe, open the Alchemy screen, load the skeleton repellent potion recipe, and add the newly researched trinket “embossings” which brings our potion to a total potency of 2.0. Just enough to fulfil the request for Hooded Crow.


4. Eventually we spend 10 Tycoon points to upgrade the 2 crates of grade 2.0 skeleton repellent potions and dispatch them to Hooded completing his request.

5. As a reward we choose an artifact and received a Fortune Teller which is a very important artifact as it increases the action points of customers visiting it and at the same time it increases the sales chance of potions in the same room by 5%.

6. Finishing his quest also turned Hooded Crow into our third endorser (second quest finished for him) which will net us 10 Tycoon points again and an artifact, the marketing shrine, which lets us perform additional marketing actions.

7. We reshuffle our shop layout to fit the Fortune Teller in the shop on floor 1 and move one of the oak cabinets from floor 1 to floor 2. We also place the marketing shrine in the marketing area on floor 3.


8. After "Fine Pottery" research is finished, we start the next research project “worker safety”. Our near term research goal is to reach “Lab Equipment” which will allow us to create any potion with up to three ingredients without processing the ingredients beforehand. It only works for ingredients which are either dried, blanched, pickled or crushed but this will be still a huge time saver. Alchemists need to be at least level veteran to create potions on the Alchemy Lab. Good that we anticipated that and already have 7 alchemists in training at the regular cookers ;)


9. Wizard Sorbus (Endorser) gifted us an additional artifact the “Wisebeak”. It will increase the action points of all customers who stop by it by 12. We change the layout of the shop on floor 1 at the left side of the building and place the artifact there.


Excursion: Customer Action Points
Each customer visiting our shop has a set number of action points. Performing actions, like entering a new room or buying a potion, decreases the number of action points. When they run out of action points, customers will leave our shop without buying a potion which makes them (and us) unhappy. The follwoing three ways are countering the issue of customers running out of action points:

• Increasing the room rating (cap is 40) will reduce the number of action points a customer has to spend to enter this room
  
• Placing artifacts which are restoring a number of action points to each customer visiting them
  
• Hiring staff with the
  
• Training a clerk in the "Welcoming" skill during promotion which will increase customer action points by 12 when customers enter the same room as the clerk - Good that clerks are working on cash registers which have to be visited by all customers wanting to buy a potion.

10. After the “Worker Safety” research is finished we continue with research goal six "delivery mechanics" and also check the papers again in the marketing desk.

11. The lady of the moon (VIP) is back and asks us to help with a skeleton problem in her lodge. Let's see if we can find a skeleton repellent potion for her


12. We do not have a skeleton repellent potion in stock, so we start stockpiling them in the production ledger and prioritise their production in cooker 3.

End of Day 9 Summary

General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 6/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (1 additional seed in stock)
  
• 12/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 12/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 3/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 4th research (Fine Pottery) done
  
• 5th research (Worker Safety) done
  
• 6th research (Delivery Mechanics) in progress

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan 1828 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing
  
• Liquidity is running low - as always

Staff

• 7/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 4/6 Clerks
  
• 4/7 Gardeners
  
• 1/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. We hire an additional Alchemist and another Gardener as soon as our funds allow it.

2. Alfons the Artifact trader offers a grim pumpkin for sale for 82 coins, which also replenishes 12 customer action points. We buy it, as we are still getting complaints about low action points on customers and place it in the shop on floor 2.

3. Ilisabet offers the opportunity to participate in the potion exhibition on Day 14. We accept and and decide to upgrade our necromancy potion for the exhibition.


4. We increase the total potency of our necromancy potion to 3.1 by adding "Fly Agaric" (blanched) and embossings. As we do not want to spend Tycoon points to upgrade the necromancy potions in stock, we rename our potion to necromancy v2, produce one crate of it and send it to the exhibition.


5. Eventually we were able to dispatch a skeleton repellent potion to the Lady of the moon which successfully helped to fight the skeleton mess in her lodge. As a reward we received an additional ingredient seed (Wormwood) which we already have. So we just store it away.

6. The research “Delivery Mechanics” is done and we started immediately “Lab Equipments” which is our seventh research goal.

End of Day 10 Summary

General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 6/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (2 additional seed in stock)
  
• 12/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 12/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 3/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 6th research (Delivery Mechanics) done
  
• 7th research (Lab Equipment) in progress
  
• Necromancy Potion with grade 3.1 sent to potion exhibition on Day 14

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan 1720 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep promoting our staff to Level Veteran
  
• Liquidity is running low - as always

Staff

• 8/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 4/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 1/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. The Endorser “Hooded Crow” sent us a mystery object which also replenishes 12 action points for customers. We place it in the shop on floor 2 to make our customers happy.

2. Eventually we finished the early game shopkeeper goal which netted us 500 coins and 50 Tycoon points.


3. We also completed two additional sorcery path goals

• Sorcery Superstore (sell 4 different types of sorcery potions at the same time)
  
• Superiority (sell 5 superior products at the same time)

for an additional 20 Tycoon points, reduced research workload, 50% more witch and sorcerer customers and the sorcery superstore branding action on the marketing desk. Wow!

4. The following two goals are also not far away from completion. Both will increase potential customers (Rogues and Guards) by 50% as well.

• Adventure Arcade (sell 4 different types of provisions potions at the same time)
  
• Pharmacy (sell 4 different types of provisions potions at the same time)

4. Hooded Crow turned up asking for another favour. He needs a strength potion of unknown grade (as high as possible).


Our delivery of the grade 2.4 strength potion was successful after also adding embossings to the bottle. As a reward we received a unicorn shoe which, you might have guessed it, increases customer action points by 12 and we place it in our shop.

5. After the "Lab Equipment" researched is done, our Mid-Term research goal is now “Advanced Alchemy” which will allow us to research the more advanced technologies. The basic research lab only works for basic and adept research goals. Therefore we start researching "sales tools" next.

6. Having 800 coins allows us to expand our business aggressively now. We will perform the following tasks:

• 1. Build a new production floor U3 using the same pattern as U1/U2
  
• 2. Start growing Stinkhorn in U2 to profit from the shroom artifact and move catnip (herb) to U3
  
• 3. Take another loan of 500 coins to a total of 2520 coins
  
• 4. Build a new shop floor 3 and move marketing, research and crew quarters to floor 4
  
• 5. Build 2 more cash registers on floor 3 and build 4 more oak cabinets to a total of 16
  
• 6. Create four new potion recipes making use of "Stinkhorn" with 3 ingredients maximum (see below)
  
  
• 7. Distribute the four new potions to the existing 4 cookers and start producing them
  
• 8. Start selling the four new potions in our shops
  
• 9. Add a bottling machine to production floor U3 and build an alchemy lab as well
  
• 10. Start producing the 4 new potions in the new alchemy lab
  
• 11. Our expanded shop and new layout looks like this:

7. In the meantime we finished the pharmacy goal which will increase our guard customer base by 50% in the future...Yay!


8. The Librarian, a second Wizard VIP request the delivery of 3 crates of grade 3.5 exorcism potions. We decline for now as we are not able to reach grade 3.5 with our current setup.

9. “Sales Tools” research is complete and we continue with “Lab supplies”

10. Eventually we complete also the "adventure arcade" goal by selling 4 different provisions potions in our shop which will increase our customer base for rogues by 50%, similar to wizards/witches and Guards before-

End of Day 11 Summary

General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 7/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 3/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 7th research (Lab Equipment) done
  
• 8th research (Sales Tools) done
  
• 9th research (Lab Supplies) in progress
  
• Necromancy Potion with grade 3.1 sent to potion exhibition on Day 14
  
• New shop and production areas created
  
• First Alchemy Lab enhances our production capacities tremendously

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan 2380 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep promoting our staff to Level Veteran
  
• Liquidity is running low - as always

Staff

• 8/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 4/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 1/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. Doctor Philby (VIP) requests 3 crates of sorcery potions with at least grade 3.0. We accept and take the opportunity to upgrade all of our potions using a third ingredient, curiosity caps and embossings where necessary to bring the grade of all potions over 2.5 (requirement for the “Emporium” goal which is already underway) and at least some sorcery potions to 3.0 or better. Below is detailed list of recipes using 3 ingredients each:


2. To fulfil the quest for Philby we start stockpiling conjuration and mana potions in the production ledger and build indefinite conjuration potions in our Alchemy Lab until the quest is done.

3. During the upgrade of all our potions we also applied a small marketing campaign to one of the potions for which we received a 3 star review to complete the “Limelight” goal which rewards us with 20 Tycoon points and a 10% marketing boost chance

4. Ingredient Trader Jolene visited us offering another “Fly Agaric” seed. We decline all duplicate seeds from now on.

5. Research 9, “Lab Supplies” was completed and once we have 40 Tycoon points again we start “Advanced Alchemy” which will open up high level research.

6. The Guildmaster (VIP) requests the delivery of provisions crates of grade 3.0 or above in unknown quantities. Luckily we have just upgraded all our potions. Therefore we are able to deliver a silence and a weakness potion which was enough to complete the quest. The reward is awesome:30 Tycoon points, and two further artifacts (fallen hero memorial and another unicorn shoe). We place the unicorn shoe in any of our shops, reshuffle the shop layout to make sure that we have artifacts increasing customer action points in each of our shop rooms.

7. Lady of the moon (VIP endorser) sent us the “Wheel of Divination” Artifact as gift and we place it in one of our shops as well. It increases the sales chance of potions in the room and restores customer action points.

8. The Hag (VIP) requests one sorcery potion crate of unknown grade (as high as possible). We accept and deliver a grade 3.0 mana potion which was enough to receive the reward. We chose another artifact, the “Petrified Skull” which again increases customer action points by 12.

9. During the day we are making great profits which allows us to build the staircase to floor 4, move the research room to floor 4 and increase the size of both the research room and the marketing office. We need more space for artifacts and new equipment in these rooms soon.


10. Research of "Advanced Alchemy" is done, which let's us build the advanced research lab, an ingredient rack and an alchemy cabinet in the newly expanded research room.

11. Furhermore we build one more alchemy lab and three air vents in production room U3.


12. For now we start with indefinite mana potion production in the second alchemy lab to fulfil Doctor Philbys quest.

13. In terms of research we go for “WorkerSsafety II” and “Harvesting” next to be able to build work lights for even better production room ratings and growth lamps which will increase the growth rate of our ingredients.

14. Finally we hire another alchemist and our second greaser.

End of Day 12 Summary


General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• All 16 potions upgraded to use 3 ingredients
  
• 7/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 3/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 9th research (Lab Supplies) done
  
• 10th research (Advanced Alchemy) done
  
• 11th research (Worker Safety II) in progress
  
• New floor 4 built and room sizes for research lab and marketing office increased
  
• Second Alchemy Lab built

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan 2240 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep promoting our staff to Level Veteran
  
• Liquidity was running very low today (-309 coins after rest)

Staff

• 9/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 4/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 2/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. We keep the shop running for a while to earn some coins

2. Eventually we are able to finish the request of Doctor Philby who offers 2 random ingredient seeds as reward or an artifact. We go for the ingredients and were very lucky. because we received two new mushroom spores

• Dead Mans Finger
  
• Asporeus

3. We stop stockpiling the conjuration and mana potions, remove indefinite production for both from the cookers and Alchemy labs.

4. Now we can add three more potion recipes to Alchemy lab 2, which produced only mana potions so far to complete the quest mentioned above.

Excursion: Factions, Customer Groups and Potion Demand
To decide which potions to add, we go to the factions ledger on the top left of the screen and check the potion demand of different customer groups. We can switch between different groups by using the arrows on the ledger.


5. We decide to produce additional potions based on their customer demand. Demands may vary in different games, for us the high demand potions are as follows

• Wizards and Witches prefer Conjuration and Mana potions
  
• Guards prefer Speed and Sleep potions
  
• Rogues prefer Silence and Slow potions

6. In Alchemy Lab 1 we produce Speech, Silence, Exorcism and Conjuration potions

7. In Alchemy Lab 2 we produce Mana and add Speed, Slow and Sleep potions

8. The next research project "Worker Safety II" is but we are lacking Tycoon points for the moment to research our next goal “Harvesting”

9. A bit alter the Librarian (VIP) asks for 3 crates of grade 3.5 Monster Repellent potions, we decline for now. Although we could have designed a potion with 4 ingredients to fulfil his request, we focus on getting coins for the day. He will come back later.

10. We managed to finish the "Emporium" goal which granted us a huge jump in coins (1000) and tycoon points (20). We had to maintain 3 large departments (3 potions for each department at any given time) for 48 hours and all potions had to be grade 2.5 or better. Luckily we pimped our potion recipes a day before


11. Having enough coins now, we build the two cultivation boxes for our new mushroom ingredients and also place a shroom artifact, the crown of rebirth in the growing room on U3.

12. We start growing our new shrooms “Dead Mans Finger” and “Asporeus” and increase the storage target for raw ingredients to 5. The Alchemy labs only use raw ingredients so we need a steady supply of them.

13. Next we hire an adept alchemist and a novice alchemist for training purposes.

14. And also build our third Alchemy Lab in the production room on U3. Here we add potions with medium demand on the factions/customer ledger.

15. Alchemy Lab 3 will produce Monster Repellent, Skeleton Repellent, Vitality and Warding potions

Note: Keep in mind that the Alchemy Labs can only produce potions with up to 3 ingredients (that's why we did not design any with more ingredients yet)

16. I did not experiment with the loading palette in previous playthroughs yet, therefore we added a loading palette between Alchemy Lab 2 and 3. Let's see where it takes us.

17. The abundance of coins today let's us invest heavily in the future expansion of our business.

18. We build the following:

• 3 worklights in each production room on U1, U2, U3
  
• a new underground floor U4 (same pattern as above)
  
• We move the greenhouse from U3 to U4 and add another shroom artifact which increases growth rate of shrooms by 25% in the U3 growing room temporarily
  
• 2 palettes in the U4 storage room
  
• A bottling machine and 2 air vents in the U4 production room
  
• Alchemy Lab 4 in U4 production room with the remaing four potion recipes (Necromancy, Summoning, Weakness, Strength)

End of Day 13 Summary


General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 9/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 3/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 11th research (Worker Safety II) done
  
• Heavy investment in production capacities on underground floor U4
  
• Alchemy Lab 3/4 built

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan 2100 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep promoting our staff to Level Veteran
  
• Liquidity is still running low

Staff

• 11/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 4/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 2/7 Greasers (however all other staff is levelling up greaser as second mastery as they have to carry a lot of stuff around without a greaser taking over the task)
  
• 0/2 Managers

1. On day 14 the heavily anticipated carnival starts (if you remember we sent a potion to the exhibition a few days ago). The carnival lasts for 24 hours and features 99% increased customers.

2. Jolene the ingredient trader offers a Dead Man's Finger which we already have as a seed, therefore we decline the offer.

3. Doctor Philby (VIP) asks for one crate of conjuring or summoning potions with unknown grade (as high as possible). Having doctor Philby as an Endorser is also one of our current goals (Secret Pact). We accept the quest and see how we can help him. We start stockpiling conjuration and summoning potions and bring them to the top of the production list on the Alchemy labs.

4. A summoning potion of grade 3 did the trick and rewarded us with either ingredients or an artifact. We go for the ingredients and received one new ingredient Thyme (herb) and another Nightshade.

5. Finishing the quest successfully made Doctor Philby an endorser and also completed the Secret Pact goal which increases guards budgets by 20%. Yay!

6. In the meanwhile we start the 12th research project "Harvesting" and wait for additional coins to build a greenhouse and grow our new Thyme seed in the growth room on U4.

7. The next goal after “Secret Pact” is the “Tycoon” goal which expects us to stay on top of the leaderboard for 48 hours. Given that we are on top of the leaderboard since day 1 this should be achievable :). Rewards are 1000 coins and 75 Tycoon points.

8. After our funds are positive again we take the opportunity to hire our first manager on Day 13 who will increase Tycoon point generation (Managers are pretty expensive but they are worth it in the long run).

End of Day 14 Summary


General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 10/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 4/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 12th research (Harvesting) in progress
  
• Tycoon goal is underway (stay on top of the leaderboard for 48 hours)

Points of Attention

• Outstanding Loan 1960 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep promoting our staff to Level Veteran
  
• Liquidity is still running low

Staff

• 11/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 4/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 2/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers

1. At the start of Day 15 we receive word that we won the potion expo trophy. Additional fame, tycoon points and more are the rewards.


2. The newspaper praises our shop “Bat Alchemy” for winning the potion exhibition and for helping the Rogues to win the strength contest against the Guards (thanks to our potions)


3. "Harvesting" research is done and once we have enough funds we can place some growing lamps in our growing rooms to increase the growth speed of herbs and mushrooms.

4. Our friend the Librarian (VIP) is still asking for a skeleton repellent potion grade 3.5 we decline for now again. He might come back.

5. Alfons the artifact trader pops in and offers a cursed doll which increases the success chance of all marketing actions by 10%. 146 coins is quite a price but we accept. and place the cursed doll in our marketing office.

6. We also take the opportunity to place the potion expo trophy which adds 25% stamina to any working entering the room in our crew quarters.

7. Now we hire an additional clerk approaching step by step our final worker setup

8. Towards the end of the day the “Monster Mania” event started. It will last for 11 days, increases overall customers by 40% but 44% of all customers will only enter your shop when you have a potion of summoning for sale. Additionally the potions of Summoning is in “hot” demand, has 15% increased appeal and all customer groups are looking for this potion.


9. We check the Alchemy lab which produces the potion of summoning, bring it to the top of the production list, increase the storage target of the potion to 4 and let it produce indefinitely until the storage target is reached.

10. Recent potion sales allow us to build growth lamps in each of the four growing rooms and also some air vents in the shroom growing rooms to increase room rating.

Excursion: Room Rating Advanced
You can see the current room rating by clicking on the tiny magnifying glass in the top left corner of each room. The screenshot below shows the room rating of one of our shroom growing rooms where we have added the growing lamp and two air vents. Room rating is capped at 40 (to be verified) and reduces the action point cost for customers in our shops and workers in the respective rooms.


End of Day 15 Summary


General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 10/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 4/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 12th research (Harvesting) done
  
• Tycoon goal is in progress (stay on top of the leaderboard for 48 hours)

Points of Attention

• The Monster Mania Event started (increased customers, everyone is hyped and wants to buy summoning potions
  
• Outstanding Loan 1820 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep promoting our staff to Level Veteran
  
• Liquidity is still running low

Staff

• 11/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 4/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 2/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers

1. Doctor Philby (Endorser) grants us a spirit trap artifact, which increases customer action points by 12. We keep placing these artifacts in our shops until we run out of space and replace them later on with Wheels of fortune when we get our hands on them.

2. Jolene the ingredient trader offers a Stinkhorn seed and we keep declining duplicate seeds.

3. After 48 hours (actually 16 days) as No. 1 on the leaderboard we finish the tycoon goal and receive our rewards.


Excursion: Worker assignment to specific machines

Our strategy in this playthrough relies heavily on a lot of trained alchemist workers. As we keep hiring alchemist novices we remove veteran alchemists and also managers from the workers list of the regular cookers. We want the veteran alchemists to operate the Alchemy labs and to train the novice and adept alchemists on the cookers with priority.
We can assign workers to each machine by hovering over it with our mouse and click on the “assign workers” field. In the following screen just remove the check for each veteran or higher alchemist and manager to make sure the regular cookers are only operated by low level alchemists. Rinse and repeat for all four cookers.


4. We hire one more greaser to a total of three

5. And we start the next research project “Glass Manufacturing” for 75 Tycoon points (woah research is getting expensive).

Note: We have to keep in mind that the bottles are our limiting factor when it comes to total potion potency which directly influences the price for which we can sell a potion. Later on we will create potions with high amounts of basic potency, but if we only have clay bottles, curiosity caps and embossings our overall potency will never exceed 3.5.

6. Now I am a bit annoyed by myself since I forgot to remove stockpiling from conjuration and summoning potions since we completed Doctor Philbys quest on Day 14. I was wondering about the empty racks and unhappy customers in our shops...now I know what happened.

End of Day 16 Summary


General Achievements

• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 10/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 4/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 13th research (Glass Manufacturing) in progress
  
• We are a Tycoon (stay on top of the leaderboard for 48 hours)

Points of Attention

• The Monster Mania Event is in progress - keep restocking potions of summoning and really do it, not like me keep stockpiling them for nothing)
  
• Outstanding Loan 1680 coins
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master and Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster)
  
• Liquidity is looking good after daily reset for the first time (+811 coins)

Staff

• 11/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 5/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 3/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers

1. We hire two more alchemists to a total of 13.

Excursion: Worker Promotions Advanced and Promotion Caps
To successfully apply our strategy we need a lot of high level Alchemists. However promotions increase the daily wages massively. Therefore we fine-tune worker promotions and fit it to our strategy. Below are the principles we applied

• 1. Promote every worker to Veteran
  
• 2. Do not promote Operators further than Veteran (We will not be using high level processing machines)
  
• 3. Promote all Greasers to Grandmaster (Greaser promotions are pretty cheap and increased delivery speed is always a plus)
  
• 4. Promote all Alchemists to Master/Grandmaster (We need all 14 Alchemists at least at Master Level and one Grandmaster for high level research. I promoted all of them to Grandmaster eventually but this is not mandatory)
  
• 5. Promote Managers, Clerks and Gardeners to Master at least and depending on the available skills also to Grandmaster.

Note: When a worker has reached it's maximum Level in his main profession he can be promoted further to increase other professions. Greaser promotions to increase movement speed or Manager promotions to help with additional Tycoon points are welcome additions for Grandmasters in other professions.

2. "Glass Manufacturing" research is complete.

3. The Librarian (Wizard VIP) is asking for an ancient manuscript artifact within 16 days. We do not have one yet, but we will most likely get one in the next 16 Days therefore we accept the quest.

End of Day 17 Summary


General Achievements

• Day 17 was our most successful day so far, customers are very happy and we sold lots of potions
  
  
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 10/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 4/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 13th research (Glass Manufacturing) done

Points of Attention

• The Monster Mania Event is in progress - keep restocking potions of summoning and really do it, not like me keep stockpiling them for nothing)
  
• Outstanding Loans 1540
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master and Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster
  
• Liquidity is looking awesome (+2077 coins after daily reset)

Staff

• 13/14 Alchemists
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 5/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 3/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers

1. We are going to repay all loans today. Yay!!!

2. Next we hire one more alchemist to a total of 14.

3. Jolene the ingredient trader offers a new seed: Elven Saddle (mushroom) we buy it of course.

4. To cultivate it we build a new cultivation box in the shroom growing room on floor U3 and we move the artifact moonlight amulet temporarily to the growing room U4.

5. We make sure that the storage cap for all raw ingredients including the newly cultivated ones is set to 5 (default is 3).

6. “Crystal Art” research is next on our list. We start it once we have accumulated 60 Tycoon points.

7. Eventually we have promoted 3 Alchemists to Master level. Now we need a potion with grade 7 to complete the “Alchemy Authority” goal. Quite a few alchemists received the arcane insight skill during promotions which let's us add an additional ingredient each time the skill is taken. Currently we were theoretically able to add 8 ingredients to a potion, but 6 ingredients is enough to get the base potency to 9.2. Here the spellbinder alchemist skill helps as well which increases the potency of all potions by 5%.


8. As mentioned before the limiting factor for the total potency is not the base potency, where we will see big numbers later on, but the bottles. Only after completing the Crystal Art research, we are able to increase the potency of our potions to reach a grade of 7 or higher.


Excursion: Premium Potions and multiple potion recipes

A potency of 7 allows us to sell the potion as premium potion. Premium potions is where the actual money is. While profits for bulk and regular potions are just differing by a few coins, a single premium potion can net us a profit of 45 coins. Of course these potions sell for 50 coins per bottle and customers will need high budgets to be able to purchase these potions.

Important: We loaded the skeleton repellent potion from our recipe list, but we want to keep our old production chain going. Therefore we rename the new potion with 6 ingredients before saving it. This way we will create a new potion only for the goal and our regular potion stays in production and in our shop. We do not want to brew potions with that many ingredients as they cannot be processed in Alchemy labs and require loads of processing time.

9. Luckily we are just about to finish the “Alchemy Authority” goal which increases all customer budgets by 25%.

10. The Librarian is asking for a delivery of 18!!! Death Cap raw ingredient crates within 3 days. We accept the quest, as we will get our hands on two Death Cap seeds which we do not have yet and which will allow us to finish the goal in time.


11. Since we have an abundance of funds we decide to build another underground floor U5 and set up a temporary death cap growing room with two shroom cultivation boxes, 2 artifacts, a growth lamp and two air vents and also the storage room with 2 palettes following the same room patters as on the floors above. Production equipment will follow later.


12. After everything is set up, we start planting the Death Caps and make sure to set the storage target for death cap to infinite (storage target options are 1-9 and infinite). Once done, we need to make sure to reset the storage target to 5, as for all other raw ingredients.


13. We also take the chance to add a new crew quarter room on the top floor next to the research room giving our increasing workforce the chance to rest.

End of Day 18 Summary


General Achievements

• We need 18 crates of Death Caps
  
• Customers are very happy and we sold lots of potions
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 12/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 4/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 14th research (Crystal Art) done
  
• Heavy investments in underground Floor U5 and an additional crew quarter on Floor 5 above ground

Points of Attention

• The Monster Mania Event is in progress - keep restocking potions of summoning
  
• We are debt free - Wohooo!!!
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master and Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 5/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 3/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. The Hag (VIP) requires 2 crates of speech potions with the properties sweet and toxic of unknown grade. We decline for now, she will come back.

2. Captain Gutter (Endorser) rewards us with "Fly Agaric" spores, a duplicate mushroom. But it's for free...hey.

3. That was fast, the production of 18 barrels of Death Cap are done. We dispatch the ingredient crates and lower the storage target to 5 for all raw ingredients. As a reward from the Librarian we can choose between a sack of coins (we do have enough coins currently) and +15% fame for 9 days. We take the temporary fame to get even more customers visiting our shop.

4. Doctor Philby (Endorser) asks for 2 crates of grade 3.5 monster repellent. This will stop the “Monster Mania” event. The decision is up to us. Currently we are making great profits from the increased customer base but if the event lasts too long, the shop might become overrun by monsters decreasing the customers in the shop. We decline for now and keep Monster Mania going.

5. The Lady of the Moon (Endorser) rewards us with a duplicate Thyme seed.

End of Day 19 Summary


General Achievements

• We delivered 18 crates of Death Caps to the Librarian
  
• Customers are very happy and we sold lots of potions
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 12/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 4/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• The Monster Mania Event is in progress - keep restocking potions of summoning
  
• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master and Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 5/6 Clerks
  
• 5/7 Gardeners
  
• 3/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We hired one additional gardener to a total of 6

2. Alfons the artifact trader is in town and has an ancient manuscript for sale. What a coincidence :)...the Librarian asked for exactly this artifact in our open quest. We buy it and finish the quest.


3. The Librarian is so happy to get his ancient manuscript back that he becomes an Endorser, which finishes the Arcane Ally goal. Rewards are a 20% budget increase for wizards and witches, 20 Tycoon points and an artifact. We received another punpkin and place it in one of our shops.

4. We start our next research goal "Exquisite Fillings" for 90(wth!!!) Tycoon points.

5. The Librarian is asking for 2 crates of potions of summoning with grade 3.6. And guess what, when we complete his quest the Monster Mania will be prolonged by another 5 days. We accept and upgrade our 3 ingredient summoning potion to fit the wizards requirements which should not be an issue with the new bottle research. Having 4 crates in stock allows us to upgrade the crates immediately by spending 20 Tycoon points and complete the quest instantly. As rewards we choose two random ingredient seeds and we receive a new seed: Lupine (herb) for which we build another greenhouse in U4 to start cultivating it.

6. You might have wondered about the "The Place to Be" be goal which looks almost complete by selling 1800 potions. But we need a successful branding marketing campaign and the only available branding campaign is for bulk potions. We need some further research to get additional branding actions. But this can wait a bit.

7. The same goes for the "Philanthropist" goal where we need to sell 600 health potions at a bargain. We will do that once we do our next potion overhaul in a few days moving from bulk to premium potions.

End of Day 20 Summary


General Achievements

• We completed the Librarians quest and prolonged Monster Mania by 5 days
  
• Customers are very happy and we sold lots of potions
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 4/12 VIPs turned to endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 15th research (Exquisite Fillings) in progress

Points of Attention

• The Monster Mania Event (prolonged) is in progress - keep restocking potions of summoning
  
• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 5/6 Clerks
  
• 6/7 Gardeners
  
• 3/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We hire one gardener to a total of 7 and a greaser to a total of 4.

2. To make good use of our money we extend our production capacities to the maximum and build another two underground floors U6 and U7. Growing rooms and production rooms will stay empty for now but we can already build some palettes in the storage rooms.



3. We also built 2 air vents in each of the empty production rooms in U5, U6 and U7 as well as a regular bottling machine.

4. The research for Exquisite Fillings is done. Once we have enough tycoon points (50) we start Advanced Bottling next.

5. Jolene the ingredient trader offers a duplicate Asporeus...we decline.

6. The Hag (VIP) asks for 3 crates of 3.5 grade monster repellent. We accept, upgrade our monster repellent potion, start stockpiling it, increase the storage target to 3 and move it on the top of the production list in the Alchemy lab.

7. After finishing the quest, the Hag becomes an endorser and rewards us with an artifact (a fallen hero memorial) which we place in the new crew quarter. This time we really stop stockpiling the potions ;) and reduce the storage target to 2 again.

End of Day 21 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are very happy and we sold lots of potions
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 5/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 15th research (Exquisite Fillings) done
  
• 16th research (Advanced Bottling) in progress
  
• Two new underground floors U6 and U7 asdded following the same pattern as all otehr production floors

Points of Attention

• The Monster Mania Event (prolonged) is in progress - keep restocking potions of summoning
  
• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 5/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 4/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We hire one more clerk to a total of 6.

2. The Librarian(Endorser) rewards us with the artifact Forbidden books which increases our Arcane power by 1 allowing us to use a total of 9 ingredients.

3. The Hag (Endorser) grants us “An Old Friend” another artifact restoring 12 action points to our customers

4. The Advanced Bottling research project is complete

End of Day 22 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are very happy and we sold lots of potions
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 5/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• 16th research (Advanced Bottling) done

Points of Attention

• The Monster Mania Event (prolonged) is in progress - keep restocking potions of summoning
  
• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 4/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We hire one more greaser to a total of 5.

2. Jolene offers a duplicate wormwood for sale, we decline.

3. We were warned and now it happened. Monster Mania turned into Monster Emergency. All these customers buying summoning potions...one could have expected a worse outcome:

• 1. Customers are reduced by 49%
  
• 2. Customers are in panic looking for monster repellent
  
• 3. The event will last for another 10 days if we cannot stop it beforehand
  

End of Day 23 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are scared...potion sales are decreasing
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 5/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• The Monster Mania Event (prolonged) turned into an Monster Emergency is in progress - Monster Repellent Potions are hyped - keep restocking them
  
• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 5/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. At the very edge of the screen there is a Troll which prevents customers from reaching our shop and buying our potions. We banish him with a monster repellent or warding potion.


2. We start the next research task Delivery Automatons and apart from that we keep running our shop generating income without too many investments.


End of Day 24 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are scared...potion sales are decreasing
  
• We banish a Troll scaring away our customers
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 5/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• Research 17 (Delivery Automatons) - in progress

Points of Attention

• The Monster Emergency Event is in progress - Monster Repellent Potions are hyped - keep restocking them
  
• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 5/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. Jolene the ingredient trader offers a duplicate Catnip herb. We decline the offer.

2. Alfons the artifact trader offers a fertility Icon artifact which increases the crop size of herbs by 1.

Excursion: Crop Size
Crop size is the number of raw ingredients you receive when the plant is harvested once. Increasing the crop size massively reduces the time you need to produce raw ingredients. Instead of growing the same ingredient 3 times with a crop size of 1, you only need to grow it once with a crop size of 3. Whenever you can promote your gardeners to increase crop size of shrooms or herbs do so and always buy and use artifacts with the same effect.

3. We place the fertility Icon in a room with 3 green houses as it only works for herbs and not for mushrooms (the related mushroom artifact is the crown of rebirth).

4. The research Delivery Automatons is complete, but we we do not use them in this scenario. When playing in the swamps outside the moonlight city gates there is plenty of room for construction. I have used Automatons there in previous playthroughs. Each Hub builds 5 delivery drones which are performing simple delivery tasks replacing greasers partly who can in turn focus on bottling instead of transportation.

5. The Guildmaster (Rogue VIP) is asking for two crates of grade 2.2 monster repellent potions. This will stop the monster emergency once we have delivered them and we definitely want to do this. We do have enough crates in stock as we increased the monster repellent storage target to 4 at the beginning of the monster emergency event (good that we planned ahead).


6. Benefits from completing his request are great:

• 1. The Monster emergency event stops on the next day
  
• 2. Monster repellent receives a classic tag increasing it's appeal
  
• 3. A stone ogre artifact which will increase the appeal of all monster repellent potions by 10% (we place it in any room)

7. As a reward we choose 2 random ingredients seed over a sack of coins and receive

• 1. Catnip (herb)
  
• 2. Thyme (herb)

8. Bad luck this time, both seeds are duplicates but we are still missing a total of 3 seeds (13/16) therefore we continue looking for them.

4. Eventually the Guildmaster becomes an Endorser for finishing his second quest.

End of Day 25 Summary


General Achievements

• Monster Emergency is about to end the next day
  
• Customers are scared...potion sales are decreasing
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• Research 17 (Delivery Automatons) - done

Points of Attention

• The Monster Emergency Event is in progress - Monster Repellent Potions are hyped - keep restocking them
  
• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 5/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. In the late morning the Monster Emergency has faded newspaper says.


2. The Lady of the moon (Endorser) sends us an artifact. The grim pumpkin increases the stamina of customers visiting it by 12. We do not have any more room for these artifacts in our shops but maybe we will rearrange the rooms at a later stage. Not sure though.

3. Once we have accumulated 75 Tycoon points we start researching Industrial Tech. This research will open up our final potion setups for us. However we need a Grandmaster Alchemist to research it. Luckily we planned ahead and hired any alchemist we could (currently we have 14 working for us) and trained them on the cookers and on the Alchemy labs.

4. The Guildmaster (Endorser) gifts us a world map artifact which increases the success chance of marketing actions by 8%. We place it in our marketing office.

End of Day 26 Summary


General Achievements

• Monster Emergency has ended thanks to our potion delivery
  
• Customers are super happy with our shop
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• Research 18 (Industrial Tech) in progress

Points of Attention

• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 5/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1.Jolene the ingredient trader offers another Thyme seed duplicate – we decline.

2. Captain Gutter (Endorser) sends us a Fortune Bone artifact which increases the success chance of marketing actions by 5%. We thankfullyplace it in our marketing office.

3. Eventually the "Industrial Tech" research project is done and we will start working on our final potion setup. Keep in mind that we are still missing three ingredients so we will most likely not have the perfect setup, but it will be good enough to win the game. We exceeded 10k coins for the first time when Industrial Tech research was complete and we need loads of coins to build the Autolabs.


4. Autolabs are an improved version of the Alchemist lab production units where we are able to create potions with a maximum of 3 ingredients. But the potions created in the Autolabs are not limited to the basic processed ingredients (dried, crushed, pickled, blanched), here we can use also the advanced processed ingredients (fermented, infused, extracted, refined). Advanced ingredient processes all have their own research and machines but using the Autolab we can skip all of them and directly brew outstanding potions with the drawback of only using 3 ingredients. But this is good enough for our purposes.

5. We build our first two Autolabs on underground floor U5 where we already have placed two air vents and a bottling machine. As you can see the two Autolabs are huge and are fitting perfectly to fill the whole room. Furthermore they are extremely expensive costing 2750 coins each to a total of 5.5k coins for both of them.


6. Now it is time to overhaul our potion recipes:

Important: We are creating 16 NEW potions!!! We are not upgrading the existing potions because the new potions will contain highly processed ingredients which will prevent us from creating these new potions in the regular cookers and in the Alchemy labs. But we still need regular cookers and Alchemy labs to finish training of all our 14 alchemists to at least Master level.

7. I am going to explain the potion creation process using highly processed ingredients step by step for the strength potion so that you get an idea of how it works. For the remaining 15 potions I will do the same and add the final table with the information on ingredients, bottles, prices etc.

Excursion: Endgame Potion Creation Process

We bring up the alchemy screen and select the strength potion from the list of recipes


We will receive a basic strength potion which contains both mandatory ingredients (Bone + Fire in the case of strength).


This is a good time to remember the basic potion creation principles to make superior potions. By hovering over the potion name on the right we bring up the window with beneficial and detrimental properties for the strength potion and we want to

• 1. add as many beneficial properties as possible
  
• 2. remove detrimental properties
  
• 3. add as many stimulants which will be converted to catalysts (this is new for the high level potions as it needs advanced ingredient processing)
  
• 4. decreasing the price if a rival has a potion with higher appeal (this will be of no relevance to the highly processed potions as our potions will be unrivaled)
  
• 5. increasing the price if the potion still stays superior

Looking at our strength potion, the two basic ingredients (Mandrake and Lupine) both contain

• a mandatory property (Bone and Fire)
  
• one detrimental property (toxic and unsavory)
  
• one benefitial property (tasty and bitter)
  
• and one stimulant each (+).
  

First we check whether there is a better ingredient with the mandatory fire property in our ingredient list (we can filter the list by selecting/deselecting the required property on the left hand side of the screen)


We realise that Wormwood also has the fire property and the antitoxin property, as well as the bitter property and the earth property which we need to get rid of. However it does not have a stimulant.

Now we have two options for the fire ingredient: Lupine or Wormwood

Option 1. We start by pickling the Lupine, i.e. using the lower half only (Fire+stimulant) and refine it to mirror the lower half to the upper half and finally extract it to turn the stimulant into a catalyst (+ to x) which adds less potency for a single catalyst than for the stimulant, but it adds a multiplier to potency which will outweigh the reduced added potency when we use multiple catalysts in our recipe. The highly processed ingredient is now a Lupine(Pickled, Refined, Extracted) with 2x Fire property and 2x Catalyst.


Option 2: The second option for the Fire ingredient is the Wormwood. We use the blanched version to take the upper half only (Fire+Anti-toxin) and refine it, to mirror the upper half to the lower half resulting in a highly processed Wormwood (Blanched, Refined)with 2x Fire property and 2x Anti-Toxin property.


Comparing both options ceteris paribus (Mandrake stays the same for now) we see:
Option 1: Lupine(Pickled, Refined, Extracted):

• Basic appeal stays the same (33%)
  
• Increased Potency (6.6 to 9.2)

Option 2: Wormwood (Blanched, Refined):

• Increased basic appeal (33% to 46%)
  
• Antidote+ property
  
• Reduced potency (6.6 to 5.3)

For the purpose of this walkthrough we will use the Wormwood (Blanched, Refined).

Next we check whether there are better options for the “Bone” property removing the filter for Fire and adding the Filter for bone on top of the ingredient window on the left. Unfortunately it turns out that we do not have a second ingredient available which contains the Bone property, so we have to work with Mandrake.


The basic Mandrake contains the unsavory property which leads to the overall detrimental foul tag. We have to get rid of it by processing the Mandrake, so we first pickle it to use the lower half only and refine it in a second step to mirror the lower half to the upper half.


Using Mandrake (Pickled, Refined) in our recipe leads to the following results:

• Increased basic appeal (46% to 68%)
  
• Detrimental Foul property removed
  
• Reduced potency (5.3 to 3.9)

Eventually we need to find a third ingredient (remember Autolabs are limiting the number of usable ingredients to 3) which will boost potency to be able to sell the potion for a higher price and ideally create a premium potion.

The best way to increase potency is to use stimulants/catalysts. Therefore we remove the Bone filter from our ingredients list and add the stimulants filter on the bottom of the list.

We see quite a bunch of ingredients having stimulants (+) and also impurities (-). While impurities had to be avoided in the early game, now we have a processing option which will turn impurities into stimulants making them extremely valuable. For the potion in this walkthrough we use the highly processed Asporeus, but we could use any of the ingredients containing an impurity next to a stimulant.

First we pickle the Asporeus, taking only the lower half with the stimulant and the impurity, next we refine it to mirror the lower half to the upper half resulting in 2 stimulants and two impurities, next we ferment it to turn the impurities into stimulants resulting in 4 stimulants and finally extract it to turn all four stimulants into catalysts.


Using the highly processed Asporeus (Pickled, Refined, Fermented, Extracted) as third ingredient in our recipe makes the potion End Game viable

• Increased basic appeal (68% to 96%)
  
• Increased potency (3.9 to 18)

Coming back to the second option for the fire property, using the Lupine(Pickled, Refined, Extracted) instead of the Wormwood (Blanched, Refined) we realise that we will loose the Anti-Toxin+ property, however the Lupine also contains 2 catalysts which will boost potency to the roof and overcompensate the appeal loss of the potion thanks to the multiplicative potency increase of the catalysts. However in past playthroughs I realised that customers do not find a potion appealing in some cases even when the appeal was close to 200% when I am only increasing appeal by pushing potency as high as possible instead of adding the beneficial properties to the potion like anti-toxin in this case. Just for completeness sake below is the potion with maximum potency and appeal from our available ingredient list.


Using the highly processed Lupine(Pickled, Refined, Extracted) instead of the Wormwood (Blanched, Refined) for the Fire property in our recipe makes the potion even stronger and more appealing, but we lose the Anti-Toxin+ property

• Increased basic appeal (96% to 116%)
  
• Increased potency (18 to 38)

We go ahead with the Wormwood potion and add Stoppers, Glass Phials and Fillings which will increase the total potency/grade of the potion to 10.5 making it a premium potion. We are going to sell it for 30 coins with a profit of 24 coins having the bargain tag because we have the goal Philanthropist which requires us to sell 600 health potions with the bargain tag. This is the opportunity to do so. The total appeal of the potion is 106% now.


8. So all premium health potions we create now are being created with the bargain tag until the Philanthropist goal is reached. Afterwards we can increase the price to 50 coins and a profit of 44 coins.

9. All premium provisions and sorcery potions created the same way will be sold for 50 coins each with a profit of 44 coins.

10. For completeness sake I am also adding the potion using the Lupine which actually looks pretty similar. It has 20% more appeal but in terms of total potency it does not make a difference whether the base potency is 18 or 38. Both result in a total potency of 10.5 because total potency is limited by the bottle we are using.

Note: In the products ledger section of the main screen we will see 100% appeal for both potions, therefore I am wondering whether appeal is capped at 100% or if values above 100% actually do make a difference. Devs to confirm.


11. Now that we have created one perfect (max) strength potion we rinse and repeat for the remaining 15 potions. This might seem to be a lot of work but when you get the hang of it, it just takes a few minutes to finish all of them. Remember to sell your health potions for a bargain for now and sorcery/provisions potions for the maximum price.

12. Below is the table of my end game potions considering the 13 available ingredients we currently have. Of course there are hundreds of possibilities and this is not a min/max list, but a list which will definitely let us win the game:


13. Our next objective is to start producing these potions in our Autolabs. Given that we are working towards the Philanthropist goal, we just start producing all 5 health end game potions in both of the Autolabs and reduce the storage target to 2 for all potions after assigning them (default is 3). In the screenshot you can also see the appeal of 100% while all our potions actually exceed 100% appeal.


14. We will produce a few of the potions and store them. Once we have at least one of each health potions in stock we can start replacing the previous health potions in our shop.

15. Let's also take the opportunity to hire one more greaser to a total of 6.

16. Apart from a second manager which simply did not show up in the recruiting screen, our staff setup is now complete. Just keep promoting them to the desired grade. Operators stay at veteran level and all others go to grandmaster and beyond if it makes sense.

End of Day 27 Summary


General Achievements

• Heavy investments in Autolabs
  
• Customers are super happy with our shop
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Endgame Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions
  
• 16/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 regular potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• Research 18 (Industrial Tech) completed

Points of Attention

• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 6/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. After most of the work is done, i.e. all End Game potions have been designed, we will heavily invest in Autolabs. To do this we need lots of coins and therefore we will see quite a few days with not that many events, where we just go 8x forward and wait for enough funds

2. The Guildmaster (Endorser) sent us an additional nightshade seed

End of Day 28 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are perfectly happy, not a single unhapoy customer today – Yay!!!
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Endgame Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions
  
• 16/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
• 16/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
• 16/16 regular potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• Research 18 (Industrial Tech) completed

Points of Attention

• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 6/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We remove the regular health potion production from all our cookers and Alchemy labs to perform kind of a dry-out approach for these legacy potions. We keep selling the regular potions in our shop to make use of the potion crates we already have in stock and once we are running out of stock for one of them we replace it with the superior versions we are already producing in our Autolabs.

2. We can afford to build a third Autolab which we place in the production room on U4 and start producing producing all 5 max provisions potions

3. Jolene offers to buy another Dead Man's Finger – we decline duplicates

End of Day 29 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 1 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 11/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
• 11/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 16/16 regular potions are available for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• Research 18 (Industrial Tech) completed

Points of Attention

• We are debt free
  
• Wages and material costs increasing - we keep Operators at level Veteran, promote all other workers to Master, Alchemists as well as Greasers to Grandmaster and other to Grandmaster as we see fit
  
• Liquidity is looking great

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 6/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. After having accumulated 50 Tycoon points we start the “Advanced Offices“ research

2. We ran out of regular strength and sleep potions in our shop and replace them with their premium max version. With placing the max versions for a bargain price we eventually started selling cheap potions for the “Philanthropist” goal.

3. Alfons the artifact trader offers a moonlight amulet artifact which will increase the growth rate of our shrooms. We accept, although we do not really need it now and prefer the crown of rebirth which is increasing crop size of the shrooms.

4. Advanced Offices Research is complete which was the first of three tasks to complete the “Inventor” goal


End of Day 30 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 1 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 11/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
• 11/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 2/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 14/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• Research 19 (Advanced Offices) complete

Points of Attention

• n/a

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 6/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. Today we remove all regular provisions potions from our cookers and our Alchemy labs, using the same dry-out approach as for health potions. We move production of all sorcery potions from the Alchemy Lab on U4 to other Alchemy Labs on U3.


2. We discard/remove the Alchemy Lab on U4 to make room for another Autolab to also produce all 5 premium provisions potions


3. Jolene offers a duplicate Stinkhorn seed - we decline.

4. We ran out of regular vitality and speed potions in our shop and replace them with their premium max version.

5. After Tycoon points are back up to 60 we start the next research goal “Quality of Life II”.

End of Day 31 Summary


General Achievements

• 1 Alchemy Lab discarded
  
• 4th Autolab built
  
• Customers are happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 4/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 12/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• Research 20 (Quality of Life II) in progress

Points of Attention

• n/a

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 6/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. Doctor Philby asks for 3 crates of target grade 5 potions to support their brawl – we accept and dispatch 2 strength max and 1 weakness max potions which was sufficient to complete the quest. As a reward we receive 30 Tycoon points.

2. Research “Quality of Life II” is finished and we immediately start researching “High-Level Offices” for another 70 Tycoon points.

3. The dry-out approach for health potions is complete. We sold the last regular speech potion and replace it in our shops with the premium speech Max version.

4. In the products ledger we can now clean up the health recipe list by removing all regular health recipes. We will not need them anymore.


5. Our regular slow potion is already out of stock as well so we replace it with the premium Slow Max version in the shop.

6. The High-Level Offices research is complete and we place the newly discovered crystal ball into our marketing office. This allows us to perform a “Rebranding to Premium Boutique” marketing action. It costs 100 tycoon points which is quite expensive but it will increase the number of premium customers in our shop. This will come in handy as we are currently in the transition to sell premium potions only. Furthermore we need a great success (just completing it is not sufficient) in a branding action to finish “The Place to be” goal which is waiting for its completion for quite some time now.


End of Day 32 Summary


General Achievements

• Crystal Ball built in the marketing office
  
• Customers are happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 6/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 10/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests
  
• Research 21 (Quality of Life II) done
  
• Research 22 (High-Level Offices) done

Points of Attention

• n/a

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (remove Veteran and higher Alchemists from the regular cookers)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 6/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. Eventually all 14 Alchemists are promoted to master or higher. We do not need the regular cookers and processing machines anymore, therefore we clear out the production rooms in U1 and U2 completely to make room for Autolabs. Only the bottling machines and 2 air vents stay in these rooms. Additional air vents and working lights can be moved to the storage rooms


2. We build another Autolab in U1 after removing the basic production chains and assign all 5 health potions to it. Autolab production is quite time consuming, therefore we need many of them.

3. Jolene the ingredient offers duplicate Catnip seeds - we decline.

4. At noon on Day 33 the Calling the Ghosts Event started which increases the number of customers in our shop and increases the appeal of conjuration potions by 15%. Conjuration potions are now sought after by all customer groups.


5. We increase the production target for conjuration potions to 4.

6. All regular weakness and monster repellent potions have been sold, we replace them in our shop with the premium version weakness max and monster repellent max.

End of Day 33 Summary


General Achievements

• All four cookers and all four regular processing machines have been removed on Underground floors U1 and U2 to make room for Autolabs.
  
• 5th Autolab built
  
• Customers are happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 8/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 8/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• Calling the Ghosts Event is up
  
  • 39% more customers
    
  • 15% increased appeal for conjuration potions
    
  • All customer groups are buying conjuration potions
    
  • Event is about to last for 10 days

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (All of them Master or higher)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 6/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. The Guildmaster (Endorser) sent us another artifact. The solar crystal increases the growth rate of all herbs in the room by 25%.

2. Nothing special on Day 34, just piling up Tycoon points for the branding action and funds for additional Autolabs.

3. We are checking the papers on the marketing desk daily to receive additional Tycoon points right?! Well...let's not speak about it...

End of Day 34 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 8/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 8/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• Calling the Ghosts Event is up
  
  • 39% more customers
    
  • 15% increased appeal for conjuration potions
    
  • All customer groups are buying conjuration potions
    
  • Event is about to last for 10 days

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (All of them Master or higher)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 6/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. On Day 35 the Shieldbreakers Bowl event is up and lasts for 23 hours. It increases Guard customers by 273% (WTH???) and all are looking for sleep potions.


2. We increase the storage target for sleep potions to 4 and assign the potion to additional Autolabs.

3. Jolene offers a duplicate Asporeus seed - we decline.

4. The regular skeleton repellent potion is out of stock and we replace it with the premium max version.

5. Alfons the artifact trader offers a book of wisdom which increases worker experience in the room by 50%. Great that almost all our wworker levelling is done already. We accept just for having one in this playthrough, not that we needed it now after all training is mosre or less done.

6. After accumulating 100 tycoon points we start the rebranding marketing campaign to premium boutique.

7. The rebranding was a Great Success and we complete the “The Place to Be” goal eventually.


End of Day 35 Summary


General Achievements

• The Place to be goal completed
  
• Customers are happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 9/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 7/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• Calling the Ghosts Event is up
  
  • 39% more customers
    
  • 15% increased appeal for conjuration potions
    
  • All customer groups are buying conjuration potions
    
  • Event is about to last for 10 days

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (All of them Master or higher)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 6/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We build a new autolab on floor U2 and start producing all 6 premium sorcery potions.

2. We reduce the sleep storage target back to normal (2) again and remove the sleep production from the provisions Autolabs again.

3. The guards won the bowl newspaper says.


4. Doctor Philby is thankful for our support to win the bowl and he offers as reward either 25% more guard customers (New garrison) or a 25% increased budget (promotions) for guards. We are selling highly priced premium potions so we go for the increased budgets.


5. We start researching our way through the Production tree to get to “Advanced Machinery” which is one of the tasks to complete the “Inventor” goal. None of the research will be actually used in this playthrough.

6. The Guildmaster asks for 3 crates of grade 5 speed potions - We accept. Luckily speed potions were hot the day before and we had increased production capacities and the storage target to 4, so we have enough in stock to complete the quest instantly. Our delivery was successful and we receive either an artifact or 15% fame for 9 days. We choose the artifact and get a crown of rebirth which we place in the mushroom growing room on U5.

7. The research task “Worker encouragement” is complete and we start “ancilliary machinery” immediately.

8. The regular potion of silence is sold out and we replace it with its premium max version leaving us with only premium provisions potions in our shop.

9. The Librarian is asking for 2 crates of grade 3.4 exorcism potions to end the Calling the Ghosts event. We decline and keep the ghost event for a bit more.

10. After also completing the “Ancilliary Machinery” research task we start the Next task: “Generic Processing”.

11. We hire an additional greaser to a total of 7.

End of Day 36 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are super happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 1 Autolab producing premium Max Sorcery Potions
  
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 10/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 6/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• Calling the Ghosts Event is up
  
  • 39% more customers
    
  • 15% increased appeal for conjuration potions
    
  • All customer groups are buying conjuration potions
    
  • Event is about to last for 10 days

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (All of them Master or higher)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 7/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We build a second Autolab on U2 to produce all 6 premium max sorcery potions.

2. Research “Generic Processing” is complete and we start “Ventilation II”.

3. Jolene offers mandrake duplicate, we decline.

4. This was not planned for now, but the regular necromancy potion ran out of stock and we replaced it with the premium max version. We also remove the regular necromancy potion from our Alchemy labs.

5. Research "Ventilation II" is complete.

6. Having an abundance of funds we build another Autolab on U1 to produce all 6 premium sorcery potions as well

End of Day 37 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are super happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Sorcery Potions
  
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 11/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 5/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• Calling the Ghosts Event is up
  
  • 39% more customers
    
  • 15% increased appeal for conjuration potions
    
  • All customer groups are buying conjuration potions
    
  • Event is about to last for 10 days

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (All of them Master or higher)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 7/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We start the “Potency Boosters” research.

2. Finally we completed the Philanthropist goal. Customers receive 50% more action points. YAY!

3. Hooded Crow (Endorser) rewards us with a grim pumpkin artifact.

4. The Guildmaster is asking for 2 crates of grade 3 conjuration potions. We accept and deliver instantly and the ghost event is prolonged by 7 days. Uhoh!

5. Potency Booster research is complete and we can start the advanced machinery research project eventually to finish the second task of the “Inventors” goal

End of Day 38 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are super happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 13/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 2 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Sorcery Potions
  
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
• 6/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 11/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 5/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• Calling the Ghosts Event is up
  
  • 39% more customers
    
  • 15% increased appeal for conjuration potions
    
  • All customer groups are buying conjuration potions
    
  • Event is about to last for 10 days

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (All of them Master or higher)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 7/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. General Bullfort asks for 5 crates of target grade 6 conjuration, necromancy or summoning potions – we accept.

2. We build another 2 Autolabs on U6 now and produce conjuration and summoning max potions there until we reach the target of 5 crates. Increase the storage target of both to 5.

3. Hooded Crow asks for 3 crates of target grade 3 strength, vitality or summoning potions – we accept and deliver instantly – and take some increased fame over a sack of coins.

4. We increase the storage target of all raw ingredients to 7. Increasing the amount of Autolabs increases also the consumption of raw ingredients massively. We need tp keep our Gardeners busy to not run out of stock on these ingredients.

5. Jolene offers a second Asporeus spores – Asporeus is highly used in our final potions setup therefore we accept and plant it in new cultivation box on U6.

6. We deliver the 2 crates of conjuration max and 3 crates of summoning max potions to General Bullfort and choose artifact as reward - we receive two artifacts:

• 1. Ancient Manuscript
  
• 2. Cursed Doll (increased marketing success chance 10%)

7. We place the Cursed Doll in our marketing office immediately and move non-marketing related artifacts to other rooms. Eventually we reduce the potion storage target for conjuration max and summoning max potions to 2.

8. We assign all 6 premium sorcery max potions to one of the Autolabs on U6 and all 5 premium provisions max potions to the second Autolab on U6.

8. Having 4 Autolabs producing premium sorcery potions we disable production for all alchemy labs and cookers which were only producing regular sorcery potions and follow the above mentioned dry-out approach for sorcery potions as well.

9. The regular mana potion ran out of stock and we swap to it's premium mana max version in our shop.

10. Wizard Sorbus (Endorser) provides us with a seed we do not have yet: Sage (herb). Only 2 more seeds to go.

11. The Advanced Machinery research is done and we completed task 2/3 for the Inventor goal. The last remaining task is to research Fine Art Bottles which we are going for next. To do so we need to research Fine Tunings first which costs another 90 tycoon points.

12. The regular summoning potion ran out of stock and we swap to it's premium summoning max version in our shop.

End of Day 39 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are super happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 14/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 3 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 4 Autolabs producing premium Max Sorcery Potions
  
• 0/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 6 sorcery potions from production in cookers
• 0/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 6 sorcery potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 13/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 3/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• Calling the Ghosts Event is up
  
  • 39% more customers
    
  • 15% increased appeal for conjuration potions
    
  • All customer groups are buying conjuration potions
    
  • Event is about to last for 10 days

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (All of them Master or higher)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 7/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We build 2 more Autolabs on U7 and assign all premium health max potions production to one of them and all premium provisions max production to the second one.

2. We ran out of stock for regular exorcism potions and replaced them with their premium max versions.

3. Alfons the artifact trader offers a ring of power which generates 5 tycoon points per day – we accept and place it in any free spot - we could have used that earlier though.

4. After having enough Tycoon points we start researching "Fine Tunings" for 90 TP.

5. The Hag (Endorser) sent us another Cursed Doll – can't have enough success chance for marketing actions – we place it in the marketing office.

6. We ran out of stock for regular conjuration potions and replaced them with their premium max versions – only warding is left as a regular potion

End of Day 40 Summary


General Achievements

• Customers are super happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 14/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 4 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 4 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 4 Autolabs producing premium Max Sorcery Potions
  
• 0/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 6 sorcery potions from production in cookers
• 0/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 6 sorcery potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 15/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 1/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• Calling the Ghosts Event is up
  
  • 39% more customers
    
  • 15% increased appeal for conjuration potions
    
  • All customer groups are buying conjuration potions
    
  • Event is about to last for 10 days

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (All of them Master or higher)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 7/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. We replace the last regular potion warding with its premium version warding max.

2. “Fine tuning” research is complete.

3. The Guildmaster (endorser) sent a moonlight amulet artifact as sign of his gratitude.

4. We were able to complete the Pilgrimage Goal in our first try by maintaining 3 royal departments (selling 4 potions of each department health, sorcery, provisions) at any one time – all potions need to be of grade 5 or higher. This can be tricky at times when customers keep depleting your stock of potions too fast but with 16 Autolabs going it was pretty easy. Rewards are as follows:

• 30 more potential customers
  
• 10 house mood
  
• 30 Tycoon points

5. Completing the Pilgrimage goal unlocked the final goal for the current version of Potion Tycoon “Cult Following”. To complete it you need 3 endorsers of any of your customer groups (guards, rogues, witches/wizards) by turning any of the following VIPs into an endorser: General Bullford, Elder Sage Mordella, Lady Anna Bones)

6. We start researching “Fine Art Bottles” for 95 Tycoon points.

7. Our Alchemy shop is prospering and we are currently making roughly 5k coins profit a day


End of Day 41 Summary


General Achievements

• Final Goal: Cult Following unlocked
  
• Customers are super happy
  
• Our shop "Bat Alchemy" is on top of the leaderboard
  
• 14/16 Ingredient seeds are cultivated (duplicates in stock)
  
• Massive Potion Overhaul to create 16 End Game Potions - done
  
• 4 Autolabs producing premium Max Health Potions
  
• 4 Autolabs producing premium Max Provisions Potions
  
• 4 Autolabs producing premium Max Sorcery Potions
  
• 0/16 regular potion production chains are setup in cookers
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in cookers
    
  • removed 6 sorcery potions from production in cookers
• 0/16 regular potion production chains are setup in Alchemy labs
  
  • removed 5 health potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 5 provisions potions from production in Alchemy labs
    
  • removed 6 sorcery potions from production in Alchemy labs
• 16/16 premium potions for sale in the shop
  
• 0/16 regular potions for sale in our shop
  
• 6/12 VIPs turned into endorsers by completing at least 2 of their quests

Points of Attention

• Calling the Ghosts Event is up
  
  • 39% more customers
    
  • 15% increased appeal for conjuration potions
    
  • All customer groups are buying conjuration potions
    
  • Event is about to last for 10 days

Staff

• 14/14 Alchemists (All of them Master or higher)
  
• 4/4 Operators
  
• 6/6 Clerks
  
• 7/7 Gardeners
  
• 7/7 Greasers
  
• 1/2 Managers (remove Managers from the cookers)

1. The Black Market Event is up which massively increases rogue customers and also other customers.


2. Jolene the ingredient trader offers a duplicate Thyme seed, we decline.

3. General Bullfort requests 1 crate of grade 7 speech potion within 2 days. Luckily our potions are all out of bounds now. We accept and dispatch the potion immediately.


4. As a reward we choose ingredients and he provides us with the following 3(!!!) ingredients:

• Lupine (herb)
  
• Dead Man's Finger (mushroom)
  
• Fly Agaric (mushroom)

5. General Bullfort became an Endorser and offers to make our house the Royal Potion Supplier when he will become King.


6. We accept and …


7. ...win the game on Day 42.

I hope you guys had the same fun reading my Potion Tycoon diary as I had creating it.

A big thanks goes to the Developers at Snowhound Games and the publishers at Daedalic entertainment for creating such a gem of a game. I really hope that development continues and we will be able to play the next chapter as Dale Duchovny mentioned.

The playstyle in this walkthrough is based on potions with a maximum of 3 ingredients. We want to increase appeal and potency as much as possible while still being able to create all potions in Autolabs.

We assume that we have access to all 16 ingredients. However we are not using all of them because some ingredients do not offer the possibility to add 2 properties which we want in our potions at the same time.

The following 4 ingredients are not used in our endgame setup:

• Fly Agaric
  
• Mandrake
  
• Sage
  
• Stinkhorn

The Screenshots below contain multiple ingredients which will lead to the same result for each ingredient slot but the actual potions always consist of 3 ingredients only. Choose one when there are multiple mentioned per ingredient slot.

I Did not add infused ingredients at all. These would increase the possible combinations even further which is actually not needed when we assume that we have access to all ingredients anyway.

Below are two possible min/max endgame potion setups which I have come up with but of course there are more.

Potion Setup 1 (3 Ingredients):
Required Ingredients: 10 (works with less if you have all three ingredient slots covered for each potion)

• Asporeus
  
• Anise
  
• Thyme
  
• Catnip
  
• Dead Man's Finger
  
• Wormwood
  
• Elven Saddle
  
• Nightshade
  
• Death Cap
  
• Wizard's Hat

The general idea is to have the following 4 properties for each ingredient:

• Ingredient 1: 2x Mandatory Property 1, 2x Catalyst
  
• Ingredient 2: 2x Mandatory Property 2, 2x Toxin/Antitoxin
  
• Ingredient 3: 4x Catalyst

Potion Setup 2 (3 Ingredients):

Required Ingredients 12 (works with less if you have all three ingredient slots covered for each potion)

• Asporeus
  
• Anise
  
• Thyme
  
• Catnip
  
• Dead Man's Finger
  
• Wormwood
  
• Elven Saddle
  
• Nightshade
  
• Death Cap
  
• Wizard's Hat
  
• Lupine
  
• Pluteus

The general idea is to have the following 4 properties for each ingredient:

• Ingredient 1: 2x Mandatory Property 1, 2x Catalyst
  
• Ingredient 2: 2x Mandatory Property 2, 2x Catalyst
  
• Ingredient 3: 4x Catalyst