Welcome to Swords & Potions! an online shop management game in which your goal is to become the greatest shopkeeper of Tomagar by taking care of all kinds of customers in an RPG-like world. Indeed, you will meet Knights, Healers, and many more, browsing through your store and willing to buy your valuables to make their quest expeditions easier.
In this third part, we will guide you through your first game day.
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8 AM: Choosing a worker[]
You just started playing, and you are already faced with the most important choice to make in the whole game. Although none makes the games impossible, some might make your game easier than others. There are a couple of things to know before choosing:
- All crafters have the same stat distribution: 8/8/7~15/8
- You will start with some items of the chosen crafter, and a random recipe for one of those items
- You will be allowed to choose a second crafter on Day 3
Let me introduce you to the 4 different craftspeople in the order I would recruit them:
Blacksmith: Main weapon crafter, his items are widely accepted and in great demand, however they are rather long to research and produce. The main reason you would want him first is the above-average price his items sell for, and his large involvement in the early quests.
Tailor: Main armor crafter, her items are more various than the blacksmith's and are faster to research and produce, but the average price is also lower. She's nice to start with because she can spam items and help you keep up with the customer flow. She also pairs nicely with the blacksmith for quests and cooperative items.
Carpenter: Poor standalone crafter, he excels at cooperative crafting, particularly with the blacksmith. On his own, he's only good for bows, staffs and flutes, which are almost never asked for. He's widely involved in the early quests and that's the reason he beats the last crafter in the early game.
Sorceress: If there was a good reason for hiring her, you'd probably pray and restart until you get the Fireball scroll she might bring along. Otherwise, although her items -consumables- can be suggested to every customer, the acceptance rate (and the success chance) is very low; failed suggestions will decrease your daily experience gain, which can hurt your early development. And furthermore, she isn't involved in any starter quest, which will slow you down even more.
I'll assume you started with the blacksmith.
9 AM: Encounter with the demon gauntlet[]
For the rest of the day, follow the instructions from that... thing (reminds me of the Addams Family) if you feel like it, and while you do, have a look around the different menus, but don't craft anything; instead, start researching a new item with your worker while customers buy your items for the usual price.
You should research the Knife or the Toy sword (depending on which one you got first) immediately.
Meanwhile, you might have seen your inbox icon glowing at the top of your screen:
If you accept the reward right away, your research speed will be boosted for a couple of days. As this won't be used to great efficiency for now, you'd rather keep it there for a time when you think you'll really need it. To keep it really safe, select the mail, then archive it (button under the red arrow on the picture) so you won't delete it accidentally.
10 AM and after: clickety clickety click[]
Keep selling stuff for the rest of the day, obeying the mighty gauntlet and filling the star in the bottom right corner. Once it's yellow, it means you will level up at the end of day report. If you see a customer going anywhere in your shop without a question mark above his/her head, don't bother, you won't get anything for interacting with him/her. You will also probably get a few more achievement rewards in your inbox. Archive them.
8 PM: End of day report[]
Your shop is now closed for the night. you'll go through a couple of screens that will sum up your activity of the day.
- First screen sums up your daily spendings, production, and income.
- Spendings will never show your daily resource refilling fees.
- Second screen shows workers' morale, amount of customers, amount of people you interacted with, and how many sales you made. Rather pointless.
- Third screen is the most important one. There you can spend your skill points awarded for level ups and some quests. More info on skills here. Mercantile and Fame will be your best bets for a moment.
- Fourth and optional screen is the Guild Challenge. We'll talk about it at a more appropriate time.
- Last screen is the Resource refilling screen. Don't bother: click on "Fill All" and then "Finish" to get a new day started.