Oil Tycoon! factory guide
The factory is where Oil Tycoon! stops being a single conveyor and becomes a plant: base plates, second branches, hired hands and eventually the permit office and CEO side of the map.
The factory pages
- Factory guide: input to profit — layout, limiting stages, worker balance.
- Factory upgrade costs — full price list, checked against the live game.
- Asphalt factory — the second production branch.
- Permit office — what it unlocks and when to build it.
- Budget calculator — put in a budget, get the purchase tier out.
What these pages cover
The factory is the half of Oil Tycoon! that sits between the collection pit and the sell point. Five pages split it up:
| Page | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Factory guide | Layout, the limiting-stage method, balancing workers |
| Factory upgrades | Every purchase, its price, and whether it earns or just looks |
| Asphalt factory | The second branch: when to open it and what it costs |
| Permit office | The late-game zone, the rebirth gate, and what it unlocks |
| Budget calculator | What to buy right now, given what you have |
The shape of a good plant
A working plant in Oil Tycoon! has three properties, and you can check all three without opening a menu:
- It runs backwards from the sell point. Every stage you add was placed because something downstream was ready to receive it. Sprawl — plates laid with no route — is the most common way mid-game cash disappears.
- No stage starves the next. Items should be moving in every segment when you watch for ten seconds. A gap between two stages means the earlier one is too slow; a pile means the later one is.
- Workers cover the stops. The stages that empty when you walk away are the ones worth a worker first. Workers do not fix a bad route — they run a good one while you are gone.
When to expand instead of upgrade
Expansion adds capacity; upgrades add value. Expansion wins when a stage is physically full — the pit overflowing, canisters queuing at the upgrader. Upgrades win when everything moves but the money line is flat, because the constraint is then value per unit, not volume. The factory guide has the full limiting-stage method for telling the two apart.
The factory pages in reading order
Start with the factory guide for layout and the limiting-stage method, keep factory upgrades open for prices, open the asphalt branch only when the main line is saturated, handle the permit zone after your first rebirth, and use the calculator whenever a balance is burning a hole.
FAQ
What is the factory in Oil Tycoon!?
The factory is where raw oil becomes sellable product — base plates, conveyors, the upgrader and workers all live here.
How do I expand the factory?
Place base plates to extend the route rather than to sprawl. Start from the sell point backwards so every new stage already has somewhere to feed.
