Work Phase Staff Allocation Guide
If your work year keeps turning into a tiny office fire drill, that is not just you. Overwork Empire splits the year into a preparation phase and a work phase, so the clean fix starts before the alarms do. In the preparation phase, you pay rent, salaries, and taxes, then use cards to build, hire, and assign talent to departments. In the work phase, your boss and management staff use skill cards that cost AP, or action points. AP comes back one point per second, so the goal is not panic-clicking. It is building a setup that can survive the year.
Start with survival, then scale. The official store description says outsourced projects are the early money plan when manpower and funding are thin, while in-house projects come later once you meet the needed conditions. So your staffing question is simple: cover the parts of the company that keep the lights on, then push harder once the studio stops wobbling.
Quick Reference
- 1: Bills and income plan. You pay fixed costs at the start of the year, and a loan cannot be chained into another loan until it is repaid.
- 2: Core departments. R&D, food, and server rooms all need talent assigned to keep the company running.
- 3: Project choice. Outsourced projects help build funds early; in-house projects are better once your manpower and cash can support them.
- 4: AP plan. Work-phase skill cards cost AP, and AP refills over time, so you want a clean plan before the year starts wobbling.
Use This Order Every Year
- Check whether your cash can survive rent, salaries, and taxes before you chase growth. If you are already scraping the floor, build a smaller year and remember that a bank loan cannot be stacked with another one until the current loan is repaid.
- Staff the departments that keep the company running. The official page names R&D, food, and server rooms, so cover your weak link first instead of betting everything on one flashy project.
- Pick project type by runway, not ego. Outsourced work is the cleaner stabilizer when manpower and funding are short. Move into in-house projects after the game's conditions are met and your staff can actually support them.
- Plan your AP use before the work phase starts. Bosses and management staff are the ones using skill cards during the year, so set them up to support the plan you already built instead of trying to invent a rescue line mid-collapse.
- Spend AP on steady value first once the year is running. Because it refills over time, calm sequencing usually beats a frantic click storm when the office starts doing its grim little comedy routine.
Tip: If a year opens ugly, pull back instead of forcing a hero turn. Keep the bills covered, keep the core departments staffed, and take the safer outsourced line until the company stops wobbling. Boring and solvent beats stylish and broke.