How to playthe first hour
The first hour of the game, frame by frame: what happens on screen and what to take away from it. The frames come from the live game and the hints on them are real - what is on the frame is what is in the game. No spoilers here: the section does not go past the first hour.
1Intro
The workshop is yours now. The Boss went out for solder and never came back, and WINT - a robot he built out of rejects - has been keeping watch over the garage. This screen appears once, on first launch: read it and press “Open the garage”.
2Science first
Science comes first. The “Hands and kiln” node costs nothing and opens the machines of the first minute. Tap a node to light up the path to it; the card has the “Research” button. Every later node opens with the same gesture.
3Dig
Raw materials are dug up. The “Digging” row in the Workshop opens the sites, and “Dig” puts clay on the shelf. A site tells you its name once you have put a shovel in it.
4Machine and tooling
A machine is an operation; the tooling is the shape. Without a mould the press just squeezes air. Pick “Brick mould” in the tooling row above the slots: it decides what comes out.
5Loading
Loading: tap clay on the shelf and it goes into a slot. The brick recipe isn't known yet, so the button says “Take the risk”: only a run will tell what comes out. Press it: the load goes into the machine, and the green bricks land on the shelf one by one even if you leave the screen - they have shape, not strength. A recipe you already know shows up as an “I know” pill on the result card: a tap lays the whole load, and it stays in the slots after you press - press again.
6Firing
Green bricks go into the kiln, onto the “Firing hearth”. Firing can't be undone: you won't soak a brick back into clay. The shape is chosen before the kiln - a fired piece stays that way for good.
7Bonus
Every new find earns the workshop a bonus: the green brick and the brick together pay exactly for the “Press moulds” node. Science tab → the node → “Research”. No need to sell the brick: the buyer takes surplus only for a share of its value, and the brick will go into a project.
8The goal
Your goal is a project. A blueprint is a parts list plus a cash contribution. On the “Projects” tab open “Counter” and press “Make it the goal”: the list stays in sight in the Workshop.
9On your own
WINT steps aside but stays in the header: the button with his face opens the help window. Hints will still come on their own - at your first encounter with something new.
10Risk
An unknown load is a gamble. The game has no recipe for sand in a brick mould, and the button says so: “Take the risk”. Recipes are reasoned out, not brute-forced: if you know bricks are formed from clay, you already know how to play.
11A miss
A miss costs materials, not your patience. Didn't work - the materials are gone, but every load leaves its machine's scrap: slag, flash, swarf - sold for pennies. The dead end is remembered: next time the button turns red. Right machine and mould but the wrong amount - WINT will tell you so.
12An oddity
An oddity is a legitimate reject. Graphite in a crucible doesn't melt, it sulks: out comes “Very hot graphite”. Rejects have their own museum in the album, and collecting them is nothing to be ashamed of.
13Storage
Storage is counted in places. A full shelf stops digging and the automatons. Sell the extra or put it into a project - science will add room later.
14Contribution
A project takes contributions in coins and in parts. When you can afford it, WINT leads you to the goal card: the “Pay in ₵N” button. Parts go into the project from the same window and free up shelf space.
15Automation
After the “Collectors” node, the “Automation” tab lists collectors. “Buy and assign” buys a robot for the garage and puts it on a raw material: the robot becomes a collector, and clay digs itself while you are busy elsewhere. An automaton works up to its limit and stops by itself; a governor sets a quota below the limit, and the “Regulators” node unlocks it. A collector uses no power; a station robot uses a kilowatt: power comes from projects, the water wheel gives two, and a stopped robot hands its kilowatt back.
16Ask WINT
When you're stuck, ask WINT. The header button opens the help window, and “Open the handbook” brings you here, to the site, with a link for your stage: the handbook shows only what you have reached, no spoilers.
Common questions after the first hour
These questions go past the first hour. With a link from the game the handbook shows only the ones you have reached.
- How do I get more power for more robots?
- A station robot uses a kilowatt, a collector does not: power comes from projects, and a stopped robot hands its kilowatt back. The «N of M kW» pill next to the tier on Automation shows how much is taken, and a tap on it opens the project that adds power next. In the demo the only source is «Water wheel», 2 kW.
- Why does the button say «Take the risk»?
- The recipe is not discovered yet: only a run will tell what comes out. A miss costs materials, and the scrap is left to sell.
- Why is a recipe locked by a node?
- Science opens machines and tooling, and inside a shared device it opens single recipes too: alloys in the crucible, aluminium in the bath, machines on the workbench. Such a load does not burn: the panel says «Recipe locked» and names the node, the materials are safe. The item card names the same node, and «Science on the way» lists everything before it.
- How do I set a quota below the limit?
- A collector and a robot know only «up to the limit» and «stop». A quota below the limit takes the «Regulators» node and the «Centrifugal governor» part on the automaton, but never below what a shop, a plant or a robot at a machine takes at once. When they need the whole limit or more, they set the quota: the automaton card says so, and the governor has nothing to do there. A shop and a plant are regulated from birth.
- What does the full version give?
- Everything up to electricity is free. One purchase opens the remaining nodes and projects and removes the ads, no subscriptions: sponsored orders open without videos, and shops, plants and the night shift live past that line. The purchase comes with a gift: coins and parts for the shelf.
- Does the game work while I am away?
- Collectors and robots fill their quota without you. Shops and plants work offline only after the «Night shift» node. Projects with income keep earning while the game is closed, up to 8 h.
- What do I do with scrap?
- Slag, flash and swarf are left after a miss: the buyer takes them for pennies, nobody makes them on purpose. Rejects go to the museum.
- Where can I see what built projects give?
- On the «Projects» tab, in the «Active effects» block: one row per effect - power, machine speed, storage - with the total and the projects behind it. What an access project unlocked is written in its card.
- Why does the item card say «Assembled in a shop»?
- It is a big machine: it does not fit in four slots, so a shop runs its series, and a plant runs plant-grade ones. You make the first piece yourself from the blueprint, as a prototype: after the «Shop floor» project («Factory» for a plant-grade item) press «Make a prototype» in the item card, or pick the «Prototype · …» pill on the empty slots of its machine - the prototype needs no slots and takes the parts from storage. After the prototype, you build a shop or a plant for the item.
- I have the blueprint, but the shop won't build. Why?
- Shops and plants only repeat what you have already made yourself. Make a prototype - one piece from the blueprint: the «Make a prototype» button in the item card or the «Prototype · …» pill on the machine panel. If something else holds the build, the build screen names it under «Waiting on».
- More parts than slots. How do I make it?
- A shop-grade item is not made by loading slots, and it needs none: pick the «Prototype · …» pill on the machine's empty slots and press «Make a prototype» - the prototype takes the parts from storage. Put part of the blueprint into the slots, and the panel names the item and links to its pill, while «Take the risk» stays a probe.
- Why won't a robot take a generator or a crusher?
- A robot is garage automation: it repeats what you discovered by hand, and that includes machines that fit in four slots - a pump, an electric motor, a controller. A generator and a crusher do not fit in four slots, they are shop-grade: you make the first piece yourself, as a prototype, and a shop runs the series.
- What does it take to build a shop?
- The «Shop floor» project and then the «Shop automation» node, coins, parts (Steel section ×2, Bearing ×2) and a kilowatt of power. You make the item yourself first: a garage item by hand, every link of the chain at least once, a big one as a prototype. Robots on the links of the line join the shop: what you paid for them counts toward the price, and their kilowatts come back. Whatever the shop doesn't make itself it takes from the shelf, and that needs a supplier, or the build screen warns: «Will stall without suppliers: …».
- Why is the «Build a shop» row red?
- A shop is short of power: there is no free kilowatt, and no chain has robots joining the shop that would give back as much as it takes. The row's caption says how much is short and where it will come from: the next project with power, or pausing another automaton.
- A shop is slower than my own hands. Why bother?
- Per piece a shop does not one operation but its whole line: the item and the links under it. The same steps by hand take longer: a shop's cycle is ×0.45 of their hand time, a plant's ×0.2, and one setup covers the whole batch. The shop card does the sum for you: how long a piece takes by hand and how long in the shop.
- Why is my shop or plant idle?
- The row names the reason in the game's own words: «quota full - idle», «storage is full - nowhere to put it», and when something runs short, the first thing missing: «no raw materials: …», or «out of stock: …» for a link the shop doesn't make itself. Shops and plants neither dig nor buy: the «Supply» section of their card shows who is short and why. The quota is set in the same card, and a sale frees the shelf.
- How do I move a shop to another blueprint?
- The «Move to another blueprint» row in the shop card: the building, the parts and the kilowatt stay, you pay the refit - 25 % of the price of a shop for the new blueprint, minus credit for the robots that join the shop on the new line. A shop can't move to an item without a prototype: make one by hand first.
- Why does a shop take a link from the shelf instead of making it?
- A shop runs one line: the thing itself and down its main input, 3 links; science nodes make it a step longer. Side inputs and everything below the line it takes from the shelf. The line also stops earlier: at an operation not yet under flow (a project opens it), at a plant-grade link, and at a link another of your shops or plants already makes - all of these come from the shelf too. The build screen shows the line and names what will lengthen it.
- I bought the link from the supplier and the shop still won't build.
- Buying opens the item in the album, not the recipe: every garage link of the chain has to be made by hand at least once, and until then the chain is missing from the «Build a shop» window. A link hands can't repeat is marked «waits for a link» without a name; the build screen names it under «Waiting on».
- I pressed «Start» and the automaton stays idle.
- Starting needs a free kilowatt, and the card stays silent about it. The «N of M kW» pill next to the tier on Automation shows what is free, and a tap on it opens the project that adds power next. Pausing another automaton frees its kilowatt at once.
- After the update a robot is gone and I have more coins. Why?
- A shop now takes in the robots of its line. A robot that stood on the same item as your shop joined it when the save loaded: its price and fitting came back as coins, and its governor went to the shelf. The «Rebuild» card showed what changed, once.
- Why is no shop offered for this item?
- A garage item becomes a candidate when a shop would run at least two steps: a single operation is cheaper with a robot. A link another of your shops or plants already makes comes from the shelf and does not count. Shop-grade items are always offered, plant-grade ones never: only a plant runs them.
- Is a plant more expensive than a shop?
- Yes, on any item: a plant's price covers the shops of its whole tree plus the building. Your shops and robots in that tree join the plant and count toward the price, but the building is always paid. On the same work a plant is more than twice as fast: its cycle is ×0.2 of hand time against a shop's ×0.45. But it runs the whole tree and takes only raw materials from the shelf, so a piece can take longer than in a shop on the same item.
- My plant with a dispatcher sits idle.
- The dispatcher only uses free passes: the plant fills its own quota first, then makes goal parts from its own tree. No goal, the goal needs none of its parts, or they are already in stock - the plant stays idle and its row says why.
- Does a raw-material buyer on Automation spend my coins?
- It does: a raw-material buyer, like the soda buyer, pays the list price for every piece out of your purse. Out of coins - it stops and says so in its row.
- Why does each next robot cost more?
- The robot itself always costs 100 ₵; what grows is the place in the garage: the first is free, each next one costs 50 ₵ more. «Buy and assign» on a raw material or recipe row buys a robot and puts it to work, fitting included. A robot taken off a job waits in the garage, uses no power and keeps its fitting; the «Retooling» node moves it to another job.
- Right machine, right tooling, and still nothing. Why?
- Listen to WINT after the miss. «The measure is off» means the wrong amount: one handful is not always enough for a mould. «The material is too raw» means it needs one more process first: wire, for one, is drawn only from cathode copper, plain copper is still too dirty for current.
- The buyer pays little. How do I earn?
- The buyer takes the surplus for a share of its value: it frees the shelf, it doesn't feed you. The real money is orders on the board, they pay more than the thing is worth. The first steps are paid by the premium: every new item found by a probe brings coins at once.