Starting Scenarios and Difficulties

Nine names, not nine balance sheets

The launch post on Steam lists nine starting scenarios: Apprentice, Water Merchant, Fence, Gunsmith, Chemist, Hydroponic Farmer, Aquafarmer, Rat Wrangler, and Rock Bottom. It also says there are four difficulty options, from beginner friendly to a super hard mode, and that you can combine that hardest mode with Rock Bottom. The store description uses a shorter list of the same idea: gunsmith, chemist, water merchant, fence, farmer, or absolute rock bottom. It says weapons bring inspections, chemical goods bring addiction, water brings liability, and contraband brings raids. Some trades need heavy machinery and permits. Others need a hiding spot. That is the official description of what you are choosing. It is not a spreadsheet.

Starting money and the opening rent for each of those nine names are Not verified yet. This site will not invent a 'best start' by guessing a bank balance. The rent planner already has the weekly rise, the cash price, the mortgage, and the permit for the four difficulties in our data file. It leaves the current-rent box empty on purpose. If your Apprentice run and your Rock Bottom run do not open on the same rent, type the number from the game. The difficulty labels in our data file are Cozy, Normal, Hard, and Challenge. A wiki index uses different words, including Mark Up, for at least one 12,000 cr buyout. We have not verified which of our four labels that word maps to, so this page does not rename them.

What we can say about three of the starts

Chemist is the start this site can actually calculate. The seven lab products, the blender loss, and the finisher contamination are on the recipe pages. Nothing in the launch post says the Chemist start begins with a particular module count. Assume zero modules until you see otherwise in your own run. Water Merchant lines up with the water guide: you are selling a liquid whose grade is a purity percent, and the store page says that trade brings liability. The patch notes later cut the purifier, the filter, and the moisture farm prices, which is the cost side of that start after 1.0.0.2 and 1.0.0.5. Aquafarmer, in the fish notes, begins with an adult tilapia pair and a fertilized tilapia roe. The tank rules, the 12,000 mL limit, and the suffocation line are on the fish page. Gunsmith is named, and patch 1.0.0.2 says the 3D printer in the Gunsmith start now comes with its instruction note. A weapon price list is Not verified yet.

Rat Wrangler is a named start, and the achievement We Have Rats! is 'start the game with the hidden scenario.' The public text does not say the hidden scenario is the Rat Wrangler start, so this page does not merge them. Patch 1.0.0.5 says the Inventor also stocks the Gene Scanner once Rat Ranching is unlocked, and that a Spanish tooltip for animal age covers rats and fish. A rat growth table, a feed table, and a sale price are Not verified yet. Hydroponic Farmer is a named start. The only hydroponic result we can cite is the Green Thumb achievement: produce a Huge Nutrifruit from the Hydroponic. BloomBerries for wine also grow in that system. Yield per plant is Not verified yet. Fence and Apprentice are names on the launch list. Their opening inventories are Not verified yet.

How to use the calculators on day one

Pick the product you can actually make on that start and run it through the batch calculator before you buy a module. A Water Merchant who is not in the lab yet should use the water calculator instead. Either way, open the rent planner and type the Sunday bill from the game. The launch post says the ending screen, once you buy the store, shows full stats, your most profitable sale, days survived, total worth, and perks earned. It does not say a particular start reaches that screen sooner. Four difficulties change the rent rise and the buyout price. Nine starts change what you are holding on the morning of day one. The missing piece is the opening balance, and it stays blank until someone measures it.