“Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
Ain’t no two ways about it, youse get more experience the more scrapes you get into.
You can also gain experience from doing business, and completing production or selling cycles for managers.
It appears managers assigned to buildings without operations (including expanded storage spaces, and garages/repair bays) do get some XP if the building in question has a passive production, but the XP gain seems fairly slow. If you hire someone to be a manger “for later”, it can be a good idea to get them some background XP so they get to level up quicker when they’re put to actual use. Just skip the actual leveling up until they’re properly assigned, or you’ll be stuck with the generic Production Manager.
You get a start-of-turn notification in the shape of a yellow book when a crew member is ready to level up. The upgraded stats will kick in the following turn. Alternatively, check at the end of turn to see if anyone is ready to level so it goes into effect at the start of next turn.
Check Crew Member Info (character sheet/police file) periodically, sometimes you miss one, or it doesn’t tell you. If you’ve recruited a corner hooligan into your ranks, your first new turn with them they will most likely be able to level up. Depending on how far into the game you are, you might find that you can level them up more than once, but you’ll have to re-open their police file to look for the yellow book at the bottom. Keep leveling them up until the yellow book disappears.
For Captain, which is also a “skill” you can choose when leveling up, see Captains.
Drivers/Muscle
| Skill | Max lvl | Effect per level |
|---|---|---|
| Alley Ace | 3 | Reduced heat |
| Delivery Dash | 3 | +5 relationship when dealing with businesses |
| Efficient Driver | 9 | +2 Movement per turn |
| Smart Opportunist | 3 | +1 Action per turn (+2 at lvl 3) |
| Well-Known Brawler | 3 | +3 damage in combat and +10/+7/+(5?) chance to hit |
Gambling Managers
| Skill | Max lvl | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Boardwalk Baron (Atlantic City) | 4? | Increased pool of prospective gamblers, +1 feature slot |
| House Manager | 4 | Decreased heat, decreased weekly cost of features |
| Mechanically Minded | 4 | Reduces gamblers’ winning chances, reduces build cost of new features |
| Pit Boss | 4 | Increases minimum and maximum bets |
General Managers
| Skill | Max lvl | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Methodical Organizer | 5? | Should to give you +1 expansion slot, but this may or may not work, depending on what operation they’re in. |
Production Managers
If you are producing alcohol, you get the choice to either increase output or reduce production time. Be careful how you choose, because if you choose to reduce production time, you won’t be able to choose increased output later. You’ll be locked in to only reducing production time further (+Production Manager). If you choose to increase output, you can get this up to a maximum of 5 and then choose to reduce production time, no problem. At that point you should have the money and resources to be able to support it.
Why choose output over production time? Because the quicker the turns go, the more you have to work on restocking the operation with ingredients. You can have new T1 crocks churning out every turn if you want, but you’ll need money and resources and someone dedicated to keeping ingredients stocked up and selling or transporting to a speak. If you’re short on suppliers or money, increasing output means you have more time to get ingredients together, and more finished product to keep you stocked up between production cycles.
| Skill | Max lvl | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Brewing: Backroom Beer | 5 | Increased output, +45 Backroom Beer at lvl 5 |
| Brewing: Cider | 5 | Increased output, +66 Hard Cider at lvl 5 |
| Brewing: Homemade Beer | 5 | Increased output, +82.50 Homemade Beer at lvl 5 |
| Distillation: Absinthe (New York) | 5 | Increased output, +42 Absinthe at lvl 4 |
| Distillation: Amaretto (New York) | 5 | Increased output, +52.5 Amaretto at lvl 4 |
| Distillation: Booze Manufacture | 5 | -1 turn production time per level |
| Distillation: Moonshine | 5 | Increased output, +41.25 Moonshine at lvl 5 |
| Distillation: Rakija (Pittsburgh) | 5? | Increased output, +20 Rakija at lvl 2 |
| Fermentation: Sparkling Cider | 5 | Increased output, +50 Sparkling Cider at lvl 4 |
| Infusion: Bathtub Gin | 5 | Increased output, +37.5 Bathtub Gin at lvl 4 |
| Jacking: Applejack (Pittsburgh) | 5? | Increased output, +12.5 Applejack and +6.25 Hard Cider at lvl 2 |
| Manufacturing: Fermentation | 5 | Increased output, +24.75 (Corn Syrup recipe)/+33 (Industrial Alcohol recipe) Neutral Alcohol at lvl 4; +9.9 Malt Syrup at lvl 2 |
| Manufacturing: Juice | 5 | Increased output |
| Master of the Craft: Aged Whiskey | 5 | Increased output, +10.89 Aged Whiskey at lvl 1 |
| Master of the Craft: Beer Kegs | 5 | Increased output, +9.68 Beer Kegs at lvl 3 |
| Master of the Craft: Champagne | 5 | Increased output, +38.72 Champagne at lvl 3 (doubles every turn) |
| Master of the Craft: Cordials | 5 | Increased output, +38.72 Cordial at lvl 3 (doubles every turn) |
| Master of the Craft: Gin | 5 | Increased output, +38.72 Gin at lvl 3 (doubles every turn) |
| Master of the Craft: Spiced Rum | 5 | Increased output, +7.26 Spiced Rum at lvl 1 |
| Methodical Organizer | 5? | Increased output (+1 crocks?) |
| Production Manager | 5 | Reduced input (-4.8 Malt Syrup and -24 Stoneware Crocks at lvl 3 in a Homemade Beer op vs -3.84 Apple Juice and -19.2 Stoneware Crocks at lvl 3 in a Hard Cider op). This skill seems to do nothing in Bottling Operations. |
| Skill at the Still: Brandy | 5 | Increased output, +2.9 (Fruit recipe)/+1.93 (Apple recipe) Brandy Barrel at lvl 4 |
| Skill at the Still: Rum | 5 | Increased output, +1.81 Rum Barrel at lvl 3 |
| Skill at the Still: Vodka | 5 | Increased output, +2.90 Vodka Cask at lvl 4 |
| Skill at the Still: Whiskey | 5 | Increased output, +1.93 Whiskey Barrel at lvl 4 |
| Still Master | 5 | -1 turn production time per level |
| Stills: Pot Still Master (New York) | 9? | Increased output, +46.2 Moonshine at lvl 7 |
| Winemaking: Brick Wine | 5 | Increased output, +66 Brick Wine at lvl 5 |
| Winemaking: Counterfeit Wine | 5 | Increased output, +56.25 Counterfeit Wine at lvl 4 |
So, for instance, a manager in an Improved Home Brew op with Brewing: Homemade Beer at level 5 and Distillation: Booze Manufacture at level 3 will produce up to 242 Homemade Beer every single turn, depending on what expansions you have slotted. (220 if you don’t use Ethnic Solidarity to cut down on the ingredients used up, but it takes the ingredients you need from 16 malt/80 crocks to 13 malt/64 crocks, which adds up quickly.)
Speakeasy Managers
You can either pick Counter Chin-Wagger or Speakeasy Manager. Once you’ve made your choice you’re locked in.
| Skill | Max lvl | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Counter Chin-Wagger | 5 | Increased sales per cycle, T1 crocks vary: min +28.12 (Moonshine) to max +62.5 (Homemade Beer) at lvl 5 |
| Production Manager | 5 | Increased sales per cycle, +24 T2 bottles/+16 T3 bottles/+10 T4 bottles at lvl 3 (doubles every turn?). T1 crocks vary: min +16 to max +40 at lvl 3 |
| Speakeasy Manager | 5 | Reduces selling cycle time, -13.44 days at lvl 5 on Steam (Corner Speak), -20.3 days at lvl 4 on Epic (!) |