# Player's Guide: Production - The Idle Game Welcome, CEO! Whether you're a seasoned tycoon strategist or jumping into your very first incremental business game, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know to take a modest wheat farm and build it into a multi-billion dollar industrial empire spanning aerospace, microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, and heavy robotics. --- ## ๐Ÿญ 1. What Is the Game About? At its core, **Production - The Idle Game** is all about **interconnected supply chains**. Unlike simple clicker games where money just appears from thin air, in this game every single high-value product needs physical ingredients: * You start by growing raw **Wheat** in fields. * Grind that wheat into **Milled Flour** in a mill. * Mix flour with **Refined Sugar** to bake **Artisan Bread**. * Later on, you'll extract **Silica Sand** and **Crude Oil** to manufacture **Purified Silicon** and **Polymers**, feeding them into high-tech fabs to produce **Microchips**, **Display Panels**, and **Smartphones**โ€”eventually constructing **Commercial Jetliners** and **Orbital Launch Vehicles**! Your role as CEO is to balance production, eliminate bottlenecks, manage cash flow, expand factory lines, fulfill corporate contracts, and decide when to take your company public on Wall Street. --- ## ๐Ÿš€ 2. Getting Started (Your First 5 Minutes) ### Step 1: Launch & Register (or Play as a Guest) * Open the game in your browser. * You can play immediately as a **Guest**! Your game automatically saves in your browser's local storage. * **Creating an Account (Recommended):** Click on your company badge in the top navigation bar to open your Profile. Choose a username and password to create an account. Creating an account backs up your progress to the cloud so you can log in and play across different computers or browsers. * **Backing up your Save:** You can also export your entire game to a `.json` text file at any time (or paste one in to restore) directly from your Profile modal! ### Step 2: Run Your First Batches * On the main **Production Floor**, you'll see your starting facility: the **Wheat Field**. * Click the **"Run Batch"** button a few times to harvest wheat. * Notice your cash and warehouse stock start ticking upward! ### Step 3: Hire an Operations Lead (Automation) * Clicking manually gets tiring quickly. As soon as you have a few dollars, click **"Hire Lead"**. * Each facility has a dedicated Operations Lead (like Farmer Giles for Wheat or Miller Hansen for Flour). Once hired, they will automatically run production cycles for you 24/7โ€”even while you're away! ### Step 4: Expand Lines & Unlock Downstream Factories * Use **"+1 Lines"** to add more capacity. More lines produce larger batches of goods each cycle. * When your balance reaches the permit cost, click **"Acquire Permit"** on the next facility (like Milled Flour or Sugar Beet) to expand your industrial footprint. --- ## ๐Ÿ“ˆ 3. How You Make Money: The Two Revenue Streams Your enterprise earns revenue through two distinct channels: ### 1. Passive Wholesale Distribution (Fleet Logistics) Every facility can deploy a **Wholesale Fleet** (trucks, tankers, cargo haulers). * Each fleet unit automatically sells up to **0.75 items per second** directly onto the open regional wholesale market. * This provides a continuous, reliable stream of passive income ($/sec). * **Tip:** If a downstream factory is starving for raw materials, you can click **"Wholesale Fleet: ON/OFF"** on the card to pause open-market sales and save all materials for your own production lines! ### 2. B2B Corporate Procurement Tenders (Big Contracts) Click the **"B2B Contracts"** tab in the top header. * Giant MegaCorps (like *Apex Resources*, *Titan Heavy Industries*, *Omni Dynamics*, and *Vanguard Shipping*) regularly post emergency requests for large batches of specific commodities. * Stockpile the required amount, hit **"Deliver Shipment"**, and collect: 1. **Massive lump-sum cash payouts** (often hundreds or thousands of times higher than standard wholesale). 2. **Corporate Reputation points (Rep)** to boost your company's standing! --- ## ๐ŸŽ–๏ธ 4. Corporate Reputation (Rep) & The Strategy Hub Located directly at the top of the **B2B Contracts** view is the **Corporate Standing & Reputation Hub**. When you deliver contracts, you earn **Rep Points**. You can freely allocate these points across three strategic departments, tailoring your company's advantages to your playstyle: 1. **Model 1: B2B Procurement Standing** * *The Benefit:* Grants **+0.5% bonus cash payout** on all future contract tenders per point. * *Best For:* Players who love stockpiling goods to cash in on high-value corporate deals. 2. **Model 2: Client Strategic Relations (MegaCorp Synergies)** * *The Benefit:* Deepens ties with the four corporate giants to unlock four simultaneous perks: * **Apex Resources:** Increases raw extraction yields (+0.2%/pt). * **Titan Heavy Industries:** Gives a discount on building new lines (+0.2%/pt, up to a whopping **50% off**!). * **Omni Dynamics:** Accelerates factory speed and cycle times (+0.15%/pt). * **Vanguard Shipping:** Increases wholesale logistics fleet throughput (+0.25%/pt). * *Best For:* Industrial optimizers looking to build massive production complexes at lower cost. 3. **Model 3: Wholesale Brand Premium** * *The Benefit:* Boosts the baseline open-market wholesale sale price by **+0.25% per point** across all fleet sales. * *Best For:* Idle enthusiasts who rely on continuous, set-and-forget passive cash flow. > ๐Ÿ’ก **Pro-Tip:** You can click **"Reset Allocations"** at any time with zero penalty to recall all your points and re-invest them! --- ## ๐Ÿ” 5. Facility Dossier & Smart Controls Want to know why a factory is paused or how much money it's making? Click the **blue info icon** or the title on any card to open the **Full Facility Intelligence Dossier**: * **Detailed Financials:** View exact revenue per second, projected earnings per hour, and total asset valuation. * **The Net Flow Calculator:** Shows transparently: `[Production Rate] - [Downstream Consumption] - [Logistics Sales] = [Net Stock Change (ฮ”/s)]` * **Production Throttling (100% / 75% / 50% / 25% / Paused):** If an upstream factory (e.g. Purified Silicon) is running out because downstream chips are eating it too fast, dial the consumer down to 50% or 25% to restore balance. * **Emergency Stock Liquidation:** Need fast cash to buy a critical permit? Instantly sell 50% or 100% of the facility's stockpiles at market rates. * **DAG Navigation:** Click on any required input or downstream consumer in the dossier to jump straight to that facility! --- ## ๐Ÿ‘๏ธ 6. Standard View vs. Compact View At the top right of your production floor, you'll find the **View Mode Toggle**: * **Standard View:** Generous, card-based cards featuring rich, cropped photographs of your finished commodities, interactive input chips, and full operational switches. * **Compact View:** A dense, high-speed summary grid designed for rapid scanning. It shows square thumbnails, real-time batch progress bars, line counts, and quick-purchase buttons so you can manage dozens of factories at a glance without endless scrolling. --- ## ๐Ÿ›๏ธ 7. Initial Public Offering (IPO) & Wall Street Prestige Eventually, your company will reach an astronomical valuation. When you're ready to cement your legacy: 1. Click on the **"Boardroom"** tab. 2. If your lifetime revenue exceeds $100,000, you can authorize an **IPO (Initial Public Offering)**. 3. **What happens during an IPO?** * Your current factories, inventory, and cash are liquidated. * In return, you receive permanent **Venture Shares ($V-Shares)** based on your lifetime earnings! 4. **The Boardroom Tech Tree:** Spend your $V-Shares on permanent corporate upgrades that persist across all future runs: * **Automated Supply Routing:** +15% raw yield per level. * **Industrial Robotics & AI:** +20% faster cycle speeds across all factories. * **Fleet Optimization:** +25% higher wholesale sale prices. * **State Subsidies:** +35% larger payouts on B2B contracts. * **Venture Capital Syndicate:** Start your next company with up to **$5,000,000** in starting capital! * **Brand Legacy & Heritage:** Keep **10% to 50%** of your accumulated Corporate Reputation across IPOs instead of starting from scratch! --- ## ๐Ÿ’ก Quick Tips for Aspiring Tycoons * **Watch the Flashing Alerts:** If a facility shows a yellow **"Starved / Bottlenecked"** badge, check its input chips. It's waiting for an ingredient from an upstream supplier! * **Use the Multiplier Switcher:** In the top header bar, switch between **1x**, **10x**, **100x**, or **Next** (buys just enough lines to reach the next speed milestone). * **Speed Milestones:** Every 25, 50, 100, and 200 lines you buy doubles or triples that facility's speed multiplier! * **Offline Progress:** Need to step away? Go ahead! When you return, the game calculates up to **8 hours of offline production and logistics sales** automatically. Good luck, CEO. The global market is waiting for your supply chain!