The very swift rise in popularity of TCG Card Shop Simulator caught many by surprise, and even now, a whole dang month after it first came out, it’s still gaining a lot of traction. Though the premise of the game is simple, there are a few things that new players might not be aware of.
Watching those numbers go up is the main aim of the game, but the beginning can be a bit rough if you have literally no idea what you’re doing. These tips will try to help you get past some of those early hurdles, especially when it comes to making money to upgrade your little shop.
(Try not to optimize the fun out of it too much though… Unless you’re really into hyper-efficiency like a Runescape player, I suppose.)
Tip #1 – Open Lots of Card Packs!
RNGesus is both your friend and foe in TCG Card Shop Simulator. While the actual playable card game component is still in the works, opening packs still has a purpose outside of just growing your collection. With a card table in your shop, you can sell individual pieces at whatever prices you desire.
Every now and then, you’ll find a high-value card that you can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Shortly after I started, with just a bunch of rare packs, I got lucky enough and made a few thousand from a couple of good variant pulls. Stuff like this will let you buy new licenses and other upgrades for your shop much earlier.
Don’t be afraid to pick up some packs from your shelves or even just buy an entire box of the stuff for yourself. It’s still a gamble, of course, but that’s just part of the fun. You can also sell these in bulk later on once you unlock the workbench!
Speeding Up Pack Opens
One huge quality of life option that you might have missed is the “Open Pack Speed” setting. Put it at maximum speed and you’ll be breezing through them. Trust me, not adjusting anything will make the process painfully slow.
In addition to that, you can also hold the left mouse button to skip past all the junk cards. It’s the efficient way to burn through a lot of packs in a short period of time, and you’ll automatically stop for a moment if you find something valuable and new.
Check out my top 5 mods for the game to further customize your pack opening speed, among other QOL changes such as faster workbench bundling and better collision/snapping for shelves.
Tip #2 – Don’t Hire The First Employee
The first possible employee you can hire is mostly a waste of cash, so don’t bother hiring him. Stocking is the only thing he’s okay at, and this is incredibly easy to do on your own at this stage of the game. If you rapidly click instead of holding down the mouse button while filling up a shelf, you’ll deplete a box in no time.
A better use of money early in your ingame career will be to hire somebody who isn’t slow on the register, which the first guy unfortunately is. The other potential early game employee, Terence Fay, has a “normal” checkout speed.
His speed is still pretty slow compared to what you can do, but when you get to the point where his fee is hardly noticeable, hiring him can be worth it until you can get the next upgrade. With that guy on the counter, you’re completely free to open packs, stock up shelves, or redecorate the store at your leisure!
Later on, hiring Clark Cash and other employees with a “very fast” working speed should be your goal. “Fast” is perfectly fine for employees assigned to restocking shelves too.
Tip #3 – Deal With Smelly Customers
Sick of all the customers coming in with their horrible BO? Your other patrons hate them too, and they’ll occasionally leave if you don’t deal with these troublesome individuals. If you weren’t sure how to do it, you just need to buy some cans of cleanser (deodorant, pretty much) under the accessories tab.
You don’t need to stock these up if you don’t wanna sell them, but I’ve found that customers tend to buy a lot of cans every now and then, so feel free to put some in your shelves. To manually deal with those customers that have the dreaded green aura, pick up one of the cans and press R to activate spray mode. Just point and shoot until the stench goes away!
Automatic Cleansers
Later on, you’ll have the option to set up some “Auto Scent” machines. The first type you can buy is the M100, which can be loaded with two cans of deodorant. When charged up and powered on, it’ll automatically spray at nearby bringers of BO.
If you want to be very efficient with these and not have to manually spray anyone anymore, place two M100s near the entrance. It’s not going to look pretty, but it’ll ensure that you’ll never have a problem with such customers anymore.
You’ll have much better alternatives at higher levels, but I’m sure you can figure the rest out on your own from that point. Here’s a basic setup that works for me:
Tip #4 – Add Tables!
Allocate some space for play tables in your store. They provide you with passive income, and players will often buy stuff after they’re done too. Yes, they’ll continue shopping after playing even once the day’s over, as long as you wait for them to stand up.
One extra feature that you can play around with is the ability to change the current “event” that the people are participating in whenever they use your tables. You can do this by interacting with any of your play tables or just clicking on the “Manage Event” app in your smartphone.
I’ll let you experiment with that on your own, but long story short, you can kind of manipulate the prices of specific card types through this feature. Changing events also lets you adjust the amount that players are willing to pay in order to use them.
Tip #5 – Pay Attention to Customers’ Comments
In the current version of the game, it’s a bit unclear if product variety is truly necessary, since you’ll continue to make money even if you just stock a single product in your store. However, that won’t stop customers from complaining and falling under the “dissatisfied” statistic at the end of the day.
Pay close attention to the comments that appear above their head. They’ll usually give you hints as to whether or not your products have fair prices, or if you are missing items that they’re looking for. If you see the same complaint enough times, it’s probably best if you address it as soon as possible.
For example, I’ve had so many customers walk in and complain about the lack of D20s in the store. After a few days of seeing people walk in and immediately leave after being disappointed by the lack of dice that I never stocked to begin with, I finally caved in and started selling them. Surely enough, they get picked up a lot by customers.
Seriously, some people will come into your store and check every shelf or rack just to complain about how you don’t have a certain item.
EDIT: As of version 0.48, the developer has made slight adjustments to the customers’ AI. They seem to complain much less about the lack of variety nowadays, but they’ll still occasionally look for certain items that you might not have.
Closing Tip – Just Have Fun With It, Really.
TCG Card Shop Simulator is still very much in early access, and if the roadmap is any indication, a lot of new features are still in the works. Like I said at the start, just enjoy what’s in it for now and try not to burn yourself out by sweating about efficiency too much.
At its core, the game’s insanely simple with just a few kinda unexplained mechanics. Hopefully, these tips can help you deal with some of the early problems that you might encounter so you can earn a decent chunk of cash to buy major upgrades as soon as possible.
If you need a goal that’s a little more “midgame”, consider working towards unlocking the “storage room” beside your shop!
This article was incredibly helpful! Especially the part about opening and selling cards. Thank you!