Basic Mechanics Explained
Basic Mechanics
Passengers board in randomly, number of passengers and train cars depend on your level.
Your level increases as you explore more locations:
- You start at level 1, 1 train car and 2 passengers;
- For level 2 you need to visit 1 location (2 train cars, 4 passengers);
- For level 3 you need to visit 2 locations (3 train cars, 6 passengers) and so on
- Max level 10 requires 16 locations (10 train cars and 20 passengers)
On the screenshot Mr. Lim is level 9 with 9 train cars and 18 passengers. He will reach level 10 after visiting one more locaion.
“If passenger is full” means there has to be 3 passengers in a train car no matter what level/rarity that car is.
Passengers always get in train cars randomly.
In this screenshot 2nd car has “full passenger”.
Clicking on “tasks” will always get you mere 1 happiness and is not really worth it, but it’s something to do if you are bored when there’s nothing else going on.
“Tier” means rarity: bronze 1, silver 2, gold 3, diamond 4. That’s the color of border and circle in the middle of a card.
In this screenshot first card is silver, second card is gold, and third is bronze.
When you combine cards, you increase their level (number in the top middle) – that’s what increases their stats.
Two level 1 cards will become level 2, two level 2 cards will become level 3 and so on.
You get only level 1 cards.
Mr. Lim stats with Tier 2 card (silver), not level 2 card.
It’s better to scrap two level 1 cards than one level 2 card, so don’t merge them if you don’t plan to use them, scrap!
I suggest you try all mechanics yourself, everything is worth exploring.
Factions
“Improvement” increases train speed by a certain percentage:
- Level 1 requires 100 points and gives +3% speed increase,
- Level 2 200 points +7%
- Level 3 350 points +12%,
- Then 21%, 56% and so on.
Usually 3 cards with TrainPower is enough (improve 200% faster) to get to level 8 +137%
Training = points that convert into happiness each cycle.
Cycle = when passengers get into cars and generate happiness. It takes about 10 seconds, you can shorten it with “Central Supply Bureau” (your first card “Debt of Labor” belongs to this category) and “Executive Branch” (diamond card).
“Training” mechanic is pretty strong, but I had more success with “Fuel and Hammer Brotherhood” which is pretty straightforward.
“Zeal” can be good, but you need to invest into it early and before you gain happiness from it, you need a diamond card “Propaganda Station” that converts all your zeal points multiplied by 3 into happiness if only one passenger enters it.
- At level 2 it becomes “only one passenger or when it’s full”,
- At level 4 any passenger entering gives 3x zeal.
So not very reliable until you max level it.
Exploration is also pretty good if you get it early: it generates happiness each cycle based on how many places you have visited, but not 1to1 ratio, a lot more.
Front room level 1 requires 7 cars behind it to trigger, so your train needs to have at least 8 cars! One would think that it’s accumulative, for example first cycle it counts 4 cars, next cycle 3 and adds 2 perma happiness, but no.
Unlocks
After your first win you unlock x5 speed (key “2”).
Then x10 speed (key “3”).
Then 2nd character Mrs. Choi:
The max number of train cars is increased by 2, but only 2 cards are given with drone supply.
Everything else is to be explored!
Nice guide, thanks ! Just a few things :
– Training converts to happiness every 5 cycle until you have all 5 cars, then it’s every cycle
– Explorer starts counting only when you get the 3 cars, so any node visited prior doesn’t appear to count (was pretty disappointed to discover that haha)
– On your second screenshot, it’s the 4th car that is full, you count train cars starting with the locomotive 😉
– The unlocks go x5, Mrs Choi, x10, Mrs Joe
– Blue functions in an interesting way, at fiest you’ll receive 1 random blue, but if you have a blue car upgraded to lvl 5, it is removed from the random pool. So, after a while, you’ll have all 4 blues at lvl 5 easily, then… it gives you a special blue car that gives a good amount of happiness and that can be upgraded too. You’ll keep receiving this one even if it is lvl 5, it is worth nothing when trashed, but you can have multiple of this car to generate a lot of happiness.
Finally went and ran around the entire map with one of the ‘Super OP’ builds, and card selection gets WEIRD eventually. Pretty much completely breaks down, just kept giving me the same 3 cards and sometimes even only a single card to ‘choose’ from. Can confirm that clearing the entire map or ending with a totally absurd amount of points(I ended with 14m) doesn’t do anything special.
how do you get past the freaking stinking lvl?
you just need to figure out a better factions combo (there are several that can win you a game)
Exploration will cap at +1974 per cycle at 44 discovered locations
When you get something like “Small Supplies” or whatever at a town, it says on mouseover “Random Tier 2 Train Car,” but then it just seems to provide you with a choice of three level 1 train cars. Are Tier and Level different aspects of cars?
Yes, it’s explained in the guide.
In short, “tier” is rarity, “level” – is when you combine cards (for example level 1 + level 1 card will become level 2 card)
How do you make use of the passenger mechanic?
Passengers board in randomly, number of passengers and train cars depend on your level. Your level increases as you explore more locations:
you start at level 1, 1 train car and 2 passengers;
for level 2 you need to visit 1 location (2 train cars, 4 passengers);
level 3 you need to visit 2 locations (3 train cars, 6 passengers) and so on
…at max level 10 you’ll have 10 train cars and 20 passengers.