Robot in Jail › How to play

How to play Robot in Jail

Start small, be fair, and plan for consequences. This guide covers everything from your first Mine to a level 8 Hub.

1. Your first town

1. Build a Mine ⛏️. It digs copper into its tank. Tap it to collect.
2. Build a Market 🏪. It sells for JEY, the town’s money. Haulers carry copper from Mines to Markets; a stocked Market sells faster.
3. Build Homes 🏠 next to Mines and Markets. Each Home adds a builder and boosts the building it works at.
4. Build Vaults 🏦. Every Vault adds room to store JEY and copper.

Tip: tap a builder robot, then tap a Mine or Market, to make it work there. Staffed buildings make 60% more.

2. Settle cases

Every so often a ❗ appears: a dispute, a thief, a lost crate. Each choice shows what it costs and gives. Fair choices grow trust ❤️. Every case teaches a law for your law book.

3. Pass laws in the Council

From Hub 2, your Council has law slots. Each law helps in one way and costs in another. Laws belong to three pillars, 🕊️ Liberty, 🛡️ Order, 💛 Care, and leaning on one pillar shapes your town.

4. Grow your Hub

The Hub unlocks everything else. Higher levels need JEY, trust and, from level 5, laws learned. From Hub 5, everything in town earns 10% more for each level above 4, up to +40% at Hub 8.

Unlocks: Court, Jail, JEY Bank and Clinic from Hub 2; Sky Watch from Hub 3. Mines and Markets reach level 8.

5. Pardons and new districts

Each district has a robot waiting in the Yard. Run a fair, trusted town and the parole meter fills. Pardon the robot to open a new district with its own charter. Old districts keep working while you are away.

6. Later surprises

• Clinic and Doc robots 🩺 fix builders who catch a rust bug.
• Drones 🛸 try to snatch goods from full buildings. Tap them three times, or build a Sky Watch 📡 to net them.
• Alarms 🚨 call you to help another district.

7. Every day and every week

• The Postbot 📬 brings mail each day: thank-you notes from robots you treated fairly, letters from rival mayors, sometimes a mystery parcel.
• The Sun-Gear mystery 📜: a seven-chapter case, one chapter a day. Your choices change the ending.
• The Town League 🏅: earn merit by playing well. Each week the top five move up a tier.

Quick tips

• Collect before tanks are full: a full tank stops making more.
• Put Towers near Mines and Markets to guard them at night.
• Read the small print before you sign a loan.
• Missing a day costs nothing. Letters and chapters wait for you.

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