Getting started: settings, trucks and a first route

Read the New Game panel before you press Start

A store screenshot of the New Game panel, checked 4 Nov 2026, shows Seed (the example on screen is 48555) with a Random button, a Look dropdown, Size 0.80×, Granularity 1.25×, and River set to None, One, or Confluence. River size on that screen is 6.00×. Goods is Custom, Goals is 6, and a town code reads 1QCB-FK4P-XTD9 with Copy, Paste and Apply. The preview line says 9 factories, 8 sources. The corner reads 0.10.

I treat that panel as an official example of the opening settings. I do not invent a best seed. The choices None, One and Confluence are visible labels; the screenshot does not establish a best river setting. The New Game goal count and the six goods shown on one Boomtown panel are separate observations.

Where most people are after the opening

Unlock rates are not a timer, but they show the path people actually finish. On the public list: On the Road 95.0% (buy the first truck), Region 2 93.5%, Hauler Fleet 87.7% (ten Haulers), Pocket Money 79.3% ($1,000 per minute), Trade-In 72.1%, Freighter Fleet 68.8%, Region 4 67.5%, fifty trucks 65.1%, $3,000 per minute 64.0%, Region 5 53.3%.

The largest drop on that ladder is region 4 to region 5, 14.2 points. These cumulative unlock rates show completion, not elapsed time. A Tchelow chapter marker puts region 2 at about four minutes in one 17-minute first look. That is one player's clock, not an average.

The first profitable line I can actually quote

Drop Press 2, on a store screenshot, shows the recipe 1 Dot + 1 Wedge → Drop at 6.2 per minute. Speed is $1,400, Buffers $4,800, Bays $2,000. Three outgoing routes show +$152, −$14 and −$26 per minute. A negative line is on the panel, so a route can lose money.

A second screenshot shows 2 Dot → Moon on Moon Cut 1. I will not draw the other 42 shapes. Their tiers and recipes are blank in the goods table because no public panel lists them.

• Buy the cheap Hauler first. The store calls it that, and 87.7% of players field ten of them.
• Watch per-minute profit on the route, not the cash pile. The Brembüttel bar on one screenshot reads +$2,289 per minute beside $59,307.
• If trucks queue at a factory door, open the bays upgrade before you add another road. The bays page is the deadlock guide.

Is there a tutorial?

Patch 1.1 added info cards for Boomtown and the road tools. Reviews at 0.1h, 0.3h, 1.6h and 1.9h still say the opening explanation is thin. I am not calling those four reviews a majority of the research snapshot of 65 reviews.

What is a town code?

The New Game panel shows a code with Copy, Paste and Apply. I can quote the example 1QCB-FK4P-XTD9. I cannot say what each character encodes.

How fast is region 2?

93.5% of players have the Region 2 achievement. One YouTube chapter list reaches it around the four-minute mark. I keep both facts and do not average them.