Dear upcoming oil tycoons,

My name is Mayor and in this guide written down by my trusty assistant I will give you some tips to becoming a grand oil tycoon. These tips are also available in-game but for some of you for ease of access it might be useful to have them as a guide. I hope they are useful to you on your way to becoming an oil extraction and sales expert.

Screenshots provided where necessary

- Pipes do not need to reach the bottom of an oil patch. Once connected, the oil pocket will be completely emptied. But I am sure you figured that out yoursefl.

(click on image to enlarge)

- Make sure to always visit the Daphne's saloon in the city. The offers there change every year. Among other options you can pay bribes to get better prices or decrease loan interest.


- Oil is pumped as fast as the narrowest pipe in a chain can handle. Make sure all pipes in a chain are sufficiently upgraded for the most efficient oil flow. Gaps in oil flow indicate unused capacity.

(gaps highlighted in the screenshot to the right)


- If you don't see oil in uncovered ground below a waving dowser, wait a while for the ground level to rise higher. Yes, it rises gradually.

- Earn 1000 dollar bonuses for pumping out all the oil, selling all the oil and withdrawing your land lease early.

- If a dowser with all the depth upgrades walks out of the screen, it means that there are no more untapped oil pockets in the ground. You can see the dowser walking off to the right in the screenshot.



- If you are running out of sile space, do not forget you can also use your wagons to store oil.

- Drilling around rocks cam be cheaper than spending money on the rock drill upgrade for the rig. Keep in mind that longer pipelines are more expensive to upgrade. Sometimes on some maps there may be oil patches that are enclosed in rocks.


- Connecting pipes from an upgraded rig to pipes from a non-upgraded rig will copy all the upgrades to the new network. This can be cheaper than paying for the upgrades separately.

(a cheeky move)

- Cancel a scan in progress or any undeployed object (dowser, rig, wagon) by clicking the right mouse button.

- Using gas to boost the oil price is most effective when you connect multiple gas pockets at the same time to Left or Right Inc. Using just one gas pocket at a time gives you only a short boost to the price. When buying the Left or Right Inc. gas upgrade it is useful to get the valve upgrade as well.

- Try to build efficiently, leaving no empty space between silos, rigs and the factories. The less space you waste, the more will be left for oil storage in silos.


- Gas is not only useful to boost the oil price, you can also dramatically increase the speed of oil flow. Connect a gas pocket to a pipeline that is getting oil and make sure to have enough wagons to prevent spillage. Very useful if you are running short of time at the end of the year.


- Depleting all gas pockets gives you 1000 dollar bonus. So even if you do not use all gas pockets, it can be profitable to empty them.


- Anthony is an expert on the location of the parcels with the most oil. He can be best used at the start of a new area, so try to save up a diamond so he can point out an oil-rich area in the middle of nowhere.

(useful in the 3rd or 4th campaign map)


- This is how gas pockets grow using the Thermal upgrade: first encircle a gas pocket with pipelines (1), then lock the individual valves (2), and then sit back and watch it grow! (3)

(4th campaign map)


- Gas pockets will not grow if you encircle more than one gas pocket with a single loop.

- The ultimate way to profit from gas boosting is to store up as much oil as possible, empty multiple gas pockets at the same time, and make use of the existing pipe network as much as possible.

- At the end of the campaign, the player with the smallest share in town has to leave. Their stock are them auctioned off among the remaining players. This is repeated intil someone has a 50% share or more.


- When using the Thermal upgrade the size of your loop is important. Give the gas pocket enough room for growth but if the loop is too large the gas pocket will grow more slowly.

- Save some money when you are close to the end of the 4th map. There will be an auction of shares and you will need to have more money than your competitors

If you have more tips not included in this guide, add them in the comments below and I will copy and reference them in this section.
Constructive comments and corrections are always welcome.

Compiled by KrisJay
Text and screenshots from the game