In the current build, (10-18-21, the exterior update) travelers rest has 7 main forms of mechanical progression, and 2 forms of leveling.

The main forms of progression are thus:

1. Reputation Level
2. Technology/Research
3. Character Skills
4. Money Generation
5. Crafting Speed/Output/Accessibility
6. Automation
7. Expanding Shop

There is overlap and each mechanical progression ties into the others in various ways. Some of these mechanics act solely as mechanisms to enable progression in the others, such as research. But each deserves its own category for explanation, and for potential discussion for improvement.

I expect this list to be expanded and deepened in later builds of the game, but we will be looking at this current build and hopefully I will update this guide when relevant.

This is the main form of progression, and is required to unlock progression for all the other mechanics (and sometimes the mechanics themselves.)

Reputation is thus the main barrier and enabler of progression in the game, and you cannot progress in other areas without it.

Reputation is gained by serving customers, who have a complex formula with many variable to determine how much reputation you will receive (or lose). The general things to consider is comfort level, temperature, and cleanliness, but apparently other factors like food variety, time spent near rowdy customers, and time waiting to be served also seem to affect reputation gain. (needs more specific info)

Reputation unlocks the ability to research (lvl1 or 2), the ability to gain XP (lvl 4), the ability to spend XP (lvl 2 or 3), the ability to purchase indoor crafting stations (lvl 7), the ability to rent rooms (lvl8), automate (lvls 5 and 6) and to create certain types of food and drinks, as well as update the exterior of the tavern. All of these are important mechanics and as such you cannot play the game without semi optimizing reputation gain, because the ability to lose progress exists.

Technology is unlocked at reputation level 1 or 2, and allows for different cooking, and brewing recipes to be accessed. At reputation levels 2-4 crafting and farming recipes are unlocked separately. Progression in technology is made by crafting and earning three kinds of experience points, labeled by color as RGB. DIfferent types of crafting get different types of experience, and the majority of recipes can be unlocked immediately, but specific recipes are saved till late game. (Cheese is lvl 11, spirits is lvl 10/12)

Unlocking all the recipes is our inevitable goal, but be aware that when a recipe is unlocked, it is able to spawn as an order on the order board, meaning that if you know you cant or wont craft a certain recipe, there is a chance you wont be able to fulfill certain orders and waste order slots. For instance, if you don't have tea leaves or a grain grinder, you cant make tea, pies, or bread. I think this applies to farming recipes too, meaning that if you unlock fruit seeds, specific fruits might become required order modifiers even if they are not in the shop. Unlock what you want to use and know you can use. RGB points are very plentiful if you're constantly crafting. Seeds are fairly cheap so unlocking farming recipes and then planting everything in small amounts is recommended.

At rep lvl 4 orders are unlocked, and these are the only way to get XP outside of the starting quests. XP and the skills they unlock make the game extremely more efficient, fast paced, and profitable.

Here is a list of the 5 skills

Cleaning
-cleaning speed (% increase)

Crafting
-crafting yield (amount of output multiplied by %bonus rounded up)
-crafting speed (amount of time multiplied by %bonus)

Haggle
-items and rooms sell for more
-items cost less in the store

Farming
-farming yield (amount of output, base number is 2 per square, multiplied by %bonus rounded up)

Bartending
-pull speed for drink taps
-increase in stamina bar for sprinting


By far, the most useful skill is crafting, and the level which makes the bonus 150% should be acquired as soon as possible, because it doubles the output of any output which equals 1 (due to rounding up). This means you can make two kegs per brew, or two worts or two flour or two tables etc. The resource and time effectiveness of this is a game changer, and also allows for multiplying resources like kegs. The 2nd most useful is either Haggling for extra money, or farming for extra ingredients. If you dont farm, then bartending for more sprinting. Cleaning is a useless skill because by the time its leveled up, automated cleaning will have been unlocked. Only take cleaning if you want to roleplay as a cleaner or as a no employee tavern owner.

Orders should be the first thing done each day until you reach the 150% crafting increase. You get an infinite amount of orders per day, but can only access 3 of them until you finish all of them, then youll have to do the next 3 to get access to the next 3 ect. Some orders will be easily made with broad modifiers, but others might be for inaccessible recipes or for ingredients which you dont have access too. Try to have every type of ingredient on hand through farming and have every kind of crafting component made before hand so you can make any recipe with any modifiers whenever. You deliver the order by clicking on the accepted quest in the order menu twice with the order in an inventory (it doesnt have to be your personal inventory.)

The speed at which you make money is dependent on what food/drink you can make, how much for how little you can craft, the speed at which you craft, How much you can automate, and whether you can rent rooms. This means that your reputation, XP, and tech are needed.

This means to make money more quickly, higher effort crafting items should be prioritized, like ales, stews, pies, over mead and other quickly made food items. Wine is not worth the time due to only selling in low quantities. (4x7 for wine vs 20x3 for ale) XP should be spent to increase crafting yields to both make crafting more efficient, but also to speed up production. The haggle skill will also increase profit by large amounts (30-100%) and decrease costs by large amounts after level 4. Buying/crafting extra indoor cooking/brewing stations will double production and allow for prioritizing expensive items. Hiring employees and placing the enchanted broom down will allow you to spend more time crafting and will increase the rate of profit.

(Will finish Later)

Automation takes out most of the redundant maintenance work and allows you to focus on activities which generate money, XP, RBG, and items. Automation is unlocked at level 5 with the enchanted broom, which cleans the floors, and level 6, where serving customers and cleaning tables can be automated. It costs roughly 3.75-4.5 gold a day to automate the tavern as much as possible, but the increase in customers served combined with the increase in reputation, crafting, RGB, and XP gains make up for it as long as you have more than 4-5 large tables. House keeping can also be automated but this is arguably not worth it unless you manually fire them after all the rooms are clean, the house keeper costs an additional 3 gold a day.

(Will finish later)