A Begginers Glossary to Plushie Tycoon

Okay….so now what? First of all, any PT players will tell you, there is NO getting around reading, if you want to play this game well, read the guides!! This game is so complex that I have written a glossary to help you figure out what is what, and I have added a few tips along the way. This is only meant to be an explanation and information, not something that MUST be followed in order to succeed. The beauty of this game is the choices you get to make that make’s your game different from everyone else’s.

The reason it is in the puzzle section is because the puzzle is making all three combinations work to make a profit. This game is complex and there are MANY variables. YOU must decide what will bring you a profit.

Glossary of the Basics

Main Page:

This is the page you see when you click on the game. This is your base. It tells you everything, how much NPs you have, when rents are due, what you have in your inventory, how many plushies have been made…..and much more. It will also show you your time zone that you are playing in. I f you did not choose one, you are playing in NST, 9-5. It also gives you a tip on what is selling at low prices that day. This is also where you will meet the TAXMAN.

Updates:

The game runs from 9-5 NST, if you are in another time zone you can change it before paying rents. The only activity in the game is every hour at :01 of the hour. (10:01-5:01) Every hour on the :01 you can check progress of your factory and sales. The warehouse is the only place working 24/7. So you only need to check your game once an hour.

Your Cash on Hand (CoH)

You begin this game with 50,000 NPs in your "business account". Everything is paid with this money and when an ENTIRE batch of plushies has sold...the money will automatically go to your CoH. You must keep enough NPs in your Cash on Hand (CoH) like a checking account, this is what you use to pay for everything. Once this goes into the negative, you loose the game.

Forethought is required in handling of these NPs.

When you begin the game and have not purchased many updates and ads in your store, your plushies will take a long time to sell, and what this means is you will need to keep CoH to pay the manager while you wait. The manager that is ALWAYS at your factory gets paid 74 NPs an hour between 9-5 of the game time, And once your plushies have loaded and are ready to be shipped, you must pay 278 NPs per batch of 100 to ship them, So, keep enough NPs to pay the manager and ship your plushies to the store. Many games have been lost by overspending on items or ads, then went bankrupt waiting for the plushies to sell.

I would recommend keeping 2 days of manager pay (592 x 2=1184 NPs.) in your CoH. Then, take the number of batches you have, and keep the shipping NPs as well. (So if you had 4 batched of 100, you need 1,112 NPs to ship them to your store.) That is 2,296 NPs needed to safety wait for your very first shipment to your store. The average is 8-10 updates, but remember this depends what you buy. You will probably not wait two days, but at least this will ensure you not going bankrupt waiting for your first sale. Then as you buy more ads and selling time decreased, you will not "have" to keep so much NPs around.

As long as you think the whole process through, and plan for the amount that you need, you will stay above water in the game.

How should you begin???

 Begin by reading the guides! Well this is all up to you...let me give you a few guidelines for a good game...

• Choose plushies with accessories. No one can tell you THE plushie, because of the supply and demand page...prices will always change, even while being sold. Make a variety, choose different ones for your next build, this way you find what people are buying and what they are not. (At least today!)

• Vary the plushies you make; some with gems, some with plastic; some with velvet bags and some with paper. These are just a few examples. Remember, even though gems bring in the highest price...not all Neopians can afford a plushie with gems.

• Build at least 6 jobs at first and hire 250 workers and 25 managers. Fire them after the first hour.

• Build batches of 100 to start, so you get your NPs faster.

• Invest in your ads as you make nps...it will pay off.

Purchase Raw Goods:

This is your wholesale store where you will buy your materials from. Cloth, Stuffing, Accessories, and packing. These prices fluctuate through out the 9-5 hour day. Every update the prices will change. If your prices are too high, wait for the next update because they may go down. Sometimes you will have to wait until the next day for your prices to get better.

• Cloth: There are four colors to choose from; red, blue, yellow and green. Green is the cheapest and red is more expensive.

• Stuffing: There are four types of stuffing, again in order of preference; neo cotton, tree floss, neo foam and the Neopian Times. Neo Cotton is the most expensive and the Times is the cheapest.

• Accessories: There are three types of accessories you can use; Rare Gems, molded plastic and used junk. These are self explanatory in order of customer preference. This is the fur, fins, bows, and what ever else is used to make a plushie look more like a neopet.

• Packing: There are three types of packing options; Velvet Bags, Cardboard Boxes or paper bags.

Your Factory:

This is where your plushies are made. Once materials are bought, this is where you chose the species of plushie to make and decide which materials you will use. Here you will hire workers, check their progress, and decide how many batches of plushies you will make and when.

• Start New Job: Clicking here will give you a dropdown box that lets you select the species of plushie you can make. If you bought accessories and if you have enough materials, the name of the species you bought accessories for will be listed, allowing you to select it. You can choose to make plushies without accessories, but be warned; having accessories increased the amount the plushie is ultimately sold for. Once you select the species, you will see a list of the materials you have that you can choose from. Select the color cloth that you bought along with the stuffing, accessory and packing then click start. Then you will see another drop down box, this will tell you if you have enough to make a batch of just 100, or if you have enough to make more, such as 200 or 300 at one time. If you bought 3 batches of accessories, and enough supplies, you could make 1 job of 300 plushies. But another warning, you have to wait for all 300 to be built, then shipped, and all 300 sold before you receive the money. I recommend starting will batches of 100.

• Existing Jobs: This tells you what plushies you ordered to be made, so once you click “start job”, click here to make sure they processed the order. Then you click here to check your employee’s progress at every update. You will see the amount they made of each order. Once the order is filled, it automatically goes to the warehouse, where you need to click on warehouse to start the loading time.

• Personnel: Okay, here is the real puzzle in my opinion. How many workers do you need? Well, the one thing we know for sure is we need 1 manager for every 10 employees we hire. If not, your employees are likely to sneak off and play Neopets instead of making your plushies. Managers keep them in line, but do not make plushies.

When selecting the types of employees you want, there are 4 to choose from.

DO NOT USE DROP OUTS; not hiring them will encourage them to go back to school to get real jobs. Hiring them just gives young Neopians false hopes for their future. Journey men are experienced plushie makers who eat sleep and breathe plushie making, but you pay for their expertise as they are paid 21 NPs per hour. Then come Trainees, who train to become journeymen and then graduates, who graduated, but have little experience. One guide suggests for 6 jobs of 100 each, to use 250 workers and 25 managers (24 since you already have one). There are no other suggestions that I have found. The employee ratio is critical because not only will more workers create more plushies, but too many will take to much NPs You do not need 250 workers for 100 plushies. THIS PART IS WHERE YOU CAN SAVE OR LOOSE NPs Unfortunately, I have nothing more to suggest.

Your Warehouse:

Once your employees make your plushies, they will automatically go to the warehouse. This trick is, the clock does not start on their loading time, until you check it. To begin to load a batch of plushies, you must click on “your warehouse” and see it there, and then the clock starts. Loading times vary, but typically starts at 3 hours and 10 minutes for one batch of 100 plushies. What does this mean? That you will not be able to ship them to the store for 3 hours and ten minutes. This does delay the time they could be selling. The best strategy would be to build later in your day so they ship overnight while everything is closed and you are not paying for your manager.

When you make more NPs…you could expand it and every expansion cuts your time by approximately half an hour. The largest is size 9 and time to ship is 21 minutes for one batch of 100 plushies. Every additional batch lengthens the loading time. Yes, the warehouse works 24 hours a day. Just check 10 min before your first update and ship them to your store. Shipping costs you 278 NPs, per 100, and takes 5 minutes before the truck arrives at your store to deliver them. So not only must you reserve NPs for your manager, but to ship your plushies as well.

• Ship: When plushies are ready for their ride to the store, there will be a clickable box next to them. Click the box to check it and the hit ship to send them off. From here, they will take 5 minutes to appear in your store, barring traffic of course!

• Expand: This is where you will click to expand your warehouse. It will tell you how much more rent you will have to pay. Remember, so not expand too soon as you will have to pay rent at the beginning of every week. The bigger your warehouse, the more your rent will be. So, patience is not only a virtue, but a NPs saver too!

Your Store:

This is your place of business, the actual site where your plushies will sell to the customers. You must decide what it will look like and how you will advertise it. These two items are very important in the sale of your plushies because if no one knows about your store, they will not come. If another store is more “beautiful”, customers will go there to buy their plushies. Out of both, Advertisements are the most important.

Sales | Upgrades | Expand | Advertisements

You do not have to buy upgrades or Advertisements, BUT, if people do not know about your store, they will not come. If they cannot se in the dark, they will not stay to buy. When you first open the store, purchase one level at least, then as you sell your batches of plushies, invest some in another level....the more ads you have, the FASTER your plushies will sell.

I hope this answers some of the many questions out there. Good luck and happy Tycooning!