That’s more like it! Now it’s time to sell your ill-gotten gains and really get the money machine going. Selling at a speakeasy (or “speak” for short) gives you double the money than if you go around selling to businesses.
Keep your speaks well stocked, your precinct thoroughly paid off, and you’ll have yourself a steady source of income without having to spend every turn driving around the map to sell things just to raise cash.
You can set up a speak in a 1000 ft³ building, especially if you only sell crocks, but you do tend to run out of space once your booze production really kicks off. It’s better if you have a bigger venue, but 1000 ft³ will do. Nothing smaller than that, though, unless you only plan to run a Backroom Bootlegger operation from it.
“Last year we made more money than the President of the United States.”
You have four levels of speaks available, from the informal Backroom Bootlegger to fancy Fine Dining Restaurants.
Corner Speaks sell all T1 alcohol crocks and one (choice) of T2 alcohol bottles. They also sell cigarettes, but the only way to come across them (unless you’re playing as English and have The English Outfit DLC) is when you raid another gang’s safe house.
Small Speaks sell all T2 alcohol bottles and one (choice) of T3 alcohol bottles.
Supper Clubs sell all T2 and T3 alcohol bottles.
The top tier speaks – Dance Hall, Fine Dining Restaurants and Jazz Clubs – sell everything a Supper Club sells, along with two kinds of T4 alcohol bottles.
Types of speaks
Managers
As with any manager, choose one that’s Hardworking and Organized for the lower levels. You can’t add expansions to Small Speakeasies and above, so it’s less important for those because you don’t get an extra expansion slot anyway. Attractive/Friendly/Kind/Talkative gives a cheap expansion option.
Managers earn XP from completing selling cycles. The leveling up options are similar to production managers, in that they can increase output and reduce cycle time.
Counter Chin-Wagger and Production Manager increases amount of alcohol sold per turn. Speakeasy Manager reduces the days/turns of a selling cycle. It seems once you’ve chosen Counter Chin-Wagger or Speakeasy Manager the first time you level up, you can’t choose the other one later, e.g. pick Speakeasy Manager, you can only level up Speakeasy Manager.
Expansions
Only Backroom Bootleggers and Corner Speakeasies can make use of these expansions.
If the booze keeps piling up and I can’t fit it all in, I’ll add e.g. Old Time Glassware for a while to sell more booze each turn. If I start to run out or production can’t keep up, I’ll remove it. You can always find a balance between how much you produce vs how much you can sell.
If you’re constantly over-producing, the option is always to open a second operation as an overflow …
| Expansions | Requirements | Effect | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic Dishwasher | Skill: Dishwashers | -10% time1 | -$1100 |
| Branded Ashtrays | Nationality: English | +25% sales | -$500 |
| Discreet Advertising2 | n/a | +25% sales | -$100 |
| More Bar Seating | Trait (any): Attractive, Friendly, Kind, Talkative | +10% sales | -$200 |
| Old Time Glassware | Skill: Crystal Barware | +25% sales | -$500 |
| Player Piano | Skill: Player Pianos | +10% sales | -$750 |
| Pool Table | Skill: Pool Tables | -10% time | -$750 |
| Printed Promotions | Skill: Printed Promotions | -20% time | -$250 |
| Trap Door | Skill: Secret Doors | +10% sales | -$1000 |
- The description reads as +10% sales, but it has -10% time when applied. ↩︎
- This is only available to Backroom Bootlegging operations, and doesn’t require a manager. ↩︎
Upgrade tree
All operations can be built outright once the skill has been unlocked, except Improved/Expanded Homemade Bootlegger and Dance Hall, Fine Dining Restaurant and Jazz Club, which all have to be upgraded from a previous level, e.g. Backroom Bootlegger or Supper Club.
| Tier 1 | → | Tier 1.5 | → | Tier 2 | → | Tier 3 | → | Tier 4 | → | Tier 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backroom Bootlegger* | → | Expanded Homemade Bootlegger | → | Corner Speakeasy | → | Small Speakeasy | → | Supper Club | → | Dance Hall |
| → | Fine Dining Restaurant | |||||||||
| → | Jazz Club |
*Backroom Bootlegger → Improved Backroom Bootlegger → Expanded Homemade Bootlegger. (When upgrade to Expanded has finished, the crocks return from the Improved Bootlegger will double.)