Empire of Sin – How to Build a Very Strong Empire (Synergies and Economy)

This is a guide for optimal racket synergies and building a very strong empire.

Guide to Build Strong Empire

All credit goes to BedlamBetty!

Synergies

A synergy bonus is obtained when enough rackets to fulfil the requirements have been taken.

What is needed for each synergy can be viewed from the neighbourhood overview panel and hovering over the synergy itself.

While five of a kind is certainly the best bonus, the straight is second and will be the first to get so it is important to start it off well.

Most importantly, each racket that becomes a part of a synergy will move up the synergy ladder but won’t leave the synergy ladder unless it is sold (disrupting the entire synergy).

The Economy

• A fully upgraded small speakeasy serving whiskey costs 50 a week and takes in about 500-550, maybe a bit less or more depending on boss.
• A fully upgraded small brothel, also serving whiskey, although not necessary to serve booze costs 33 a week and takes in about 300-350, again with fluctuations.
• A fully upgraded small casino serving whiskey costs 100 a week and takes in anywhere from a loss to 1200-1500, I honestly can’t be bothered to sit watching the fluctuations between weeks for hours on end to give a more accurate average than 700-900 as it doesn’t change my point.
• A fully upgraded small brewery producing whiskey costs 30 a week (using max storage figures, storage being useless most of the game so 4$ can be saved no problem) and produces 16 bottles of whiskey at a whopping 50 $ per case through standing orders or a minimum of 40$ per case as sold to minor factions or a take of 800 (I see no purpose in selling straight up to the minors until every faction has a max standing order).

Every racket consuming booze to function requires the booze to get max take.

Starting Off

That all said we get to the meat and potatoes, gaming the game.

Sell the brewery immediately and buy it back as a brothel, the safehouse can produce the necessary booze for the speakeasy at the moment, but make sure it is supplied or it will not gain any income.

Hire 2 gangsters, player’s choice, but Grover and Maria are incredible to start.

Start exploring the map (all neighbourhoods) with the two teams, one the boss alone the other the 2 hired gangsters and check how many large buildings there are in the starting neighbourhood.

If there are more than five large buildings in the starting neighbourhood, capture a derelict large building once enough combat comfort and loot boxes are gained to face 8-10 thugs (dependant on difficulty) and make it a brewery, if there are five or less, take over a medium building).

• Upgrade alcohol to max, rushing immediately to get to whisky, start producing it and then work on getting production to max while finishing exploration.
• Rush as money permits on production while tanking a neighbourhood through attacking every derelict building in it and ransacking them to get loot and money (tanking the starting neighbourhood is not a bad idea as it reduces racket costs in the neighbourhood and the vast majority of rackets will be breweries).
• Capture or purchase a small racket and make it a casino.
• Capture or purchase a small racket and make it a hotel.

Congratulations, you now have a brewery churning out a little over 70 cases a week, that’s 3500 a week for those uninitiated, continue upgrading deflect and security on your brewery and only the brewery, we want that badboy toight…

• Capture or purchase the five large buildings in your starting neighbourhood and make them breweries, increasing the alcohol to whiskey through rushes and then the production, also through rushes as money allows.

Congratulations, you hit a five of a kind large brewery synergy and are now producing about 430 barrels a week (it’s actually more based on how the hotel and possible boss or gangster bonuses work) that’s a lot of money, all dependant on how many bosses and neighbourhoods are in the game (neighbourhood count determines minor faction count, all standing orders with minor factions also pay 50 per barrel per week).

• Get another eight breweries in starting neighbourhood, all medium and large as available, starting with large if any are still available and get another 2 small rackets of any 2 other racket types available (have at least 8 breweries before going after the other 2 pairs).

Congratulations, you have now filled every synergy with breweries, they will be churning out somewhere around 700 barrels a week once fully upgraded, always rush alcohol quality, it is paramount to produce whiskey, then production to max income potential.

FAQ

Why do you sell the starting brewery if breweries are so important?

• The starting brewery is small, a small brewery produces 16 a week at max, a medium 32 and a large 64. The bonus for a straight is 10% production for the brewery. If the small brewery is allowed to be a part of the straight it would give an extra 1.6 barrels, the large gives 6.4, simple math and the fact that i would need to sell the small one anyway to move something else into the position so might as well do it early and earn income with a no worries brothel

What should I build to fill the full house and two pair slots?

• That’s up to you, depending on your boss and gangsters and their bonuses, but i’d say just go for 2 brothels and 2 speakeasies unless you have a serious bonus to casinos. You don’t want to be worried about bottom line fluctuations early game and if you read all through the guide you may have noticed that you can get any one pair (2 speakeasies or 2 brothels or 2 casinos) immediately after hitting the straight without worry. If you tanked your own neighbourhood, i’d suggest 2 brothels, but if you haven’t go for speakeasies, either way, you can have 3 non-brewery rackets and two other different non-brewery rackets immediately after hitting the straight so it’s still quite early and you may be looking to get the bird in the hand rather than the chance at two in the bush.

Why get anything other than breweries at all?

• To max out the synergies on breweries, otherwise only three and five of a kind can be had. Synergies are very important, a 64 large brewery can hit over 80 when all synergy requirements are met.

What do i do after that?

• Watch the game eventually have a meltdown from whiskey production and do some wacky stuff with accounting. Honestly, anything you want, either you have won before this point or you are playing this game as a grand strategy game, slow and steady, which I have tried and unfortunately the game handles this very poorly, the devs apparently didn’t predict someone who would try to supply all of america and produce over 3000 barrels of whiskey a week… Take over everything methodically, hire every gangster you ever wanted, see how OP R or Elsie Williams or Harry Adams are (Harry is best advisor in game and Elsie is tied for best underboss), buy every purple weapon you can find in trade and shop, become honorary deputy and purchase stuff from them too, the sky’s the limit since you have no more financial woes and are sitting on hundreds of thousands a week allowing you to rush every upgrade to max as you get the racket…

Why breweries?

• They outperform every other racket in the game by a pretty far margin except for casinos, but they are stable, where casinos will fluctuate wildly week to week no matter what you do.
• Their upkeep is the cheapest amongst all rackets and their max income is cheapest to reach since it costs the same as a speakeasy or a brothel to max but doesn’t increase suspicion by maxing. Breweries rule and should never have been included in this game.