Skip to content
Harrison Homestead

Search is only available in production builds. Try building and previewing the site to test it out locally.

Open a business

Goal: turn a gap in the town’s market into hourly income.

  1. Scroll to Wanted in town. Note the settler count and the milestone at the top.

  2. Find a card marked Underserved. Skip locked cards (“Opens at 15” and so on). The unlock sizes are 0 settlers for Saw filing and Freight hauling, 15 for Cedar shakes and Seedlings, 30 for General goods and 45 for Room and board.

  3. Read the card: wanted per hour, number of sellers, price, perk and requirement.

  4. Check the cost. Opening takes the full cost in lumber at once. Upkeep is charged every hour afterward.

    Business Cost Upkeep/hr Needs
    Filing shop 600 45 nothing
    Teamster stable 1,200 100 a barn
    Shake shed 900 60 redcedar logs to split
    Tree nursery 800 60 nothing
    General store 2,500 40 nothing
    Boarding house 3,000 70 a cabin

  5. Click a cleared parcel on the map. It cannot be the landing, a river meadow parcel (A8 to C8), a building or standing timber.

  6. Click the button on the market card, now reading “Open a … on ”.

  7. Read the new line on the card: “Your … sells N an hour, netting +X bd ft/hr after costs and upkeep. Earned Y so far.”

Perks: the filing shop files your saws free, the teamster stable halves your haul share to town mills, the tree nursery makes replanting free, and the boarding house makes your crew rest 25% faster.

What can go wrong

Section titled “What can go wrong”

The button stays grey. Common causes are no suitable parcel selected (the card says “Select a cleared parcel to build on”), not enough lumber, or a missing barn or cabin. Only the first cause gets a message, so check the other two yourself.

A shake shed needs redcedar logs on your deck or in your mill yard. With none, the card says “Out of redcedar logs” and you pay upkeep with no sales.

A competitor can arrive after you open and turn the market from Underserved to Balanced. These changes are worked out in half-hour steps and tend to show up after you have been away or used Grow timber 12 hours, so check the card when you come back.

Upkeep keeps running. If the net figure turns negative, your lumber drains. There is no way to close a business, and the parcel stays occupied.

Business earnings do not count toward the deed.

Rules and numbers: town and markets.