From your first scoop to an automated oil line.

Opening route

1. Scoop the first oil spill.Carry the oil to the starting barrel. Filling that supply is what lets the first production line run.
2. Buy the foundation, conveyor and dropper path.The early droppers turn supplied oil into small products that continue along the conveyor toward processing and sale.
3. Watch one item reach the seller.Do not treat a purchased button as proof it works. Follow one output until the cash counter changes.
4. Unlock the refinery drill.The drill produces crude-oil items that are carried to the refinery. This is the first obvious manual handoff.
5. Hire the drill worker after the line works manually.The worker automates that carry step. In one recording, each worker served one drill, so check which drill is actually staffed.
6. Keep the shared oil supply filled.Factories consume oil quickly. Wells, pump jacks and temporary oil events help, but an empty input tank stops every profitable machine behind it.

Recorded early-price examples

These values were readable in Bax’s September 19 recording; they are not presented as a permanent price list.

When to leave the starter line

Move outward after the starter sale runs reliably. The next useful branches are the refinery area, the farm/beanstalk route, the asphalt and plastic factories, then the winter and mine progression. Buying walls before solving an empty-oil or manual-carry bottleneck will not raise output.