PLAYER GUIDE

01GETTING STARTED

02THE MARKET - SCARCITY PAYS

Every delivery pays normal vanilla rates plus a bonus driven by two live markets:

• Cargo market: each cargo's share of everything moved (12-month window) is measured against a target share. Under-hauled cargo pays up to 2.5x; flooded cargo pays plain vanilla.
• Transport market: road, rail, sea and air each target 25% of the server's weighted service points (per vehicle: road 1, train 10, ship 15, aircraft 25). Rare modes pay up to 2.5x.
• They stack: a rare cargo on a rare mode compounds - capped at 5x total.
• You can never earn less than vanilla. The bonus is paid monthly straight into your train / road / ship / aircraft income lines - always income, never a charge.

The live board is in-game: Story Book → The Market, including PRICES BY TRANSPORT - the full cargo x mode rate card. Premium rows are money waiting for a route.

03TOWNS - GROW THEM, THEY PAY YOU BACK

• Towns grow when supplied (passengers first; goods at 2,000 pop; a third cargo at 8,000) AND their local industry is serviced - both multiply, up to 6x growth speed.
• Growing towns earn brand-new industries at 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 / 4,000... population - the map starts near-empty and is built by play.
• Town size boosts industry: every local industry's output climbs with population, up to +300% at 50,000.
• Desert towns (Tropic) need WATER and FOOD delivered or they cannot grow - every desert town is guaranteed a Water Tower to deliver into.

04INDUSTRIES - SERVICE IS PRODUCTION

• Keep an industry's transport rating high and it grows: at a 100 rating, an 80% monthly chance of +1% output, scaling to zero at a 50 rating. Ceiling 3x natural; abysmal service (below 30) risks shrinkage - but never below natural output.
• POWER a town: deliver 40+ units/month into its power station, bank vault or water tower and every industry there gets +100% output per powered sink, for as long as the deliveries keep coming.
• Industry windows show it all live: output %, service rating, what its cargo pays right now, POWERED and Town bonuses.

05SCORE, RECORDS, FAME

• Standings: cargo delivered + income + company value + diversity (spread across cargoes and modes). The league table updates live - park it in a corner.
• Session awards: Champion, Cargo Baron, Town Patron, Prospector, mode specialists.
• Records are forever and cross-server: all-time and weekly books for the biggest train / road / ship / aircraft incomes, monthly market bonus, session score, biggest town. Break one and all four servers hear about it.
• Your private Annual Report (Story Book) tracks bonuses, rank, diversity and your bonus-by-fleet breakdown, with a yearly popup you can toggle off.

06YOUR CAREER - IT NEVER RESETS

Sessions last 8 hours. Your career lasts forever - one persistent profile across all four servers, no account needed (your player name is your identity).

• XP and 20 levels: finishing sessions, podiums, wins, records and missions all pay XP. Levels grant real in-game perks next session: starting capital (up to 300,000), a career market bonus (up to +20%), vehicles up to 12 years before their public debut, and veteran stars on the standings.
• 57 achievements across six categories - and the full set demands wins, podiums and records on all four climates.
• Session contracts: every new map rolls 3 random contracts (deliver X of a cargo, power a town, run all four modes...). Complete any of them for +120 XP - all three in one session earns Full House. Story Book → Session Contracts.
• Check anyone's profile at cargostrife.com/players or type !career in-game.

07CHAT COMMANDS

08FIVE TIPS TO NOT BE POOR