Crime – Skill progression & money guide (currently Level 0 → Level 5)
In my rotational play I’m testing different money-making skills with Zois dedicated to a single skill. To progress in the Crime skill you actually need to additionally focus on at least 3 and up to 5 other skills as well. Since I noted everything down for future reference, I’m sharing my Crime skill observations here.
The Crime skill is not finished yet: at Level 5 the bar stops progressing (no Level 6+ right now). Below is a structured guide based on the activities, unlocks, payouts, risk mechanics, and break-in earnings observed so far.
Settings: 96-minute day
Quick Summary
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Hybrid skill: success depends heavily on Rhetoric (scams), Handiwork (coins/locks/cameras,safes), and Programming (ATM hacking, cameras).
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Low-risk money loops (player-controllable):
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Hack ATMs + steal coins (meters/snack machines) are low-risk if you make sure no one walks right past you.
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Low-tier + intermediate break-ins from the Suspicious Job Agency are also relatively safe if you avoid cameras and don’t trigger alarms.
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Medium risk: Scam investors is extremely time-efficient (4 min), but can fail and call the police.
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High risk: High-tier (bank) break-ins are dangerous because camera/vault interactions can fail often and trigger alarms/police.
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Current cap: the Crime skill currently stops at Level 5 (no progression beyond that yet).
Skill synergy
Rhetoric helps with
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PC scams: scam items, commit secondhand fraud, fake seminars, voice phishing
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Social scams: charity worker impersonation/donations, scam investors (also levels Rhetoric)
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Low Rhetoric increases failure chance; failures may trigger police depending on action
Handiwork helps with and levels up from
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Steal coins from parking meters / snack machines
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Steal bag
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Lockpicking, sabotage cameras, safes, vaults during break-ins
Programming helps with and levels up from
- Hack ATMs (and becomes very reliable at high Programming)
- Sabotage cameras (need both Handiwork and Programming)
Fitness can matter for
- Choosing break down doors instead of lockpicking
Critical Thinking
Action timings + cooldowns
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PC scams (most): 30 min
- includes: scam items, secondhand fraud, fake seminars, voice phishing
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Scam investors with false information: 4 min
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Hack ATM: 3 min
- cooldown: 8 hours per same ATM
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Steal coins (parking meters / snack machines):
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Steal bag: ~3 min
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Pick lock door: ~6 min
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Steal money from register: ~5 min
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Open safe: ~5 min
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Charity worker route: 2 steps, ~3 min each (impersonate → collect donations)
Risk mechanics (what triggers police, what is “safer”)
1) Social crimes (actions involving other Zois)
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All actions targeting other Zois can fail. Failure happens more often with low Rhetoric, but can still occur later.
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On failure, these actions often result in police being called.
2) PC crimes (30-min scam actions etc.)
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PC actions can fail, especially with low Rhetoric.
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Failure does not always call the police, but sometimes it does.
3) “Low danger” crimes if you manage visibility (meters/snack machines/ATMs)
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Steal coins, steal bags and ATM hacking are much safer if you avoid being seen up close.
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Zois seem to report only if they pass very close to you while you’re doing it.
4) Break-ins: low/intermediate vs high-tier bank
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Low-tier and intermediate break-ins are mostly safe if you avoid camera sightlines and don’t trigger alarms.
- Note: camera sabotage only becomes available at Crime Level 5, but in low/intermediate break-ins you can usually path around cameras and avoid triggering alarms.
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High-tier bank break-ins are dangerous, because camera sabotage and security vault interactions can fail relatively often, triggering alarms and police.
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Reliability warning: even with very high Handiwork & Programming (including Handiwork and Programming at 10), sabotaging cameras and cracking security vaults is not fully reliable. Failures can still happen and instantly trigger the alarm/police. Based on repeated attempts, the failure rate felt relatively high (rough estimate ~40–50%), so only sabotage what you truly need.
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Practical tip: if you want consistent outcomes, save before attempting camera sabotage and security vault interactions (or be ready to deal with alarms/police).
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The bank is still partially lootable without sabotage:
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you can reach the first safe and one jewelry box without sabotaging cameras
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for the other jewelry boxes and the two security vaults, you usually must sabotage multiple cameras → higher risk
Unlocks by level (with key skill noted)
Level 0
Level 1
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Commit secondhand fraud (Rhetoric)
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Steal coins from meters/snack machines (Handiwork, cooldown per machine)
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Steal bag (Handiwork)
Level 2
Level 3
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Hold fake seminars (Rhetoric)
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Hack ATMs (Programming; 8h cooldown per ATM)
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Register fake low-tier information (for break-ins)
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Buy Low-tier info for break-ins via Suspicious Job Agency (cost 500)
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Suspicious Job Agency extras:
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You can also buy “General information” for 100 Mew (mostly basic Crime tips; buying all of them is expensive for the amount of info).
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Posting/registration of fake info can sometimes get cancelled (SMS like “buyer reported inaccurate info… transaction cancelled”). No direct punishment/effect was observed afterwards.
Level 4
Level 5 (current max)
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Voice phishing (PC, 30 min) (Rhetoric; cooldown 6h)
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Sabotage surveillance cameras (Handiwork & Programming; can still fail)
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Buy High-tier info for break-ins via Suspicious Job Agency (cost 5000)
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Register fake high-tier info (requires Critical Thinking 5)
Payout snapshot
| Activity |
Time |
Cooldown |
Main skill(s) |
Risk |
Observed payouts in Mew |
| Steal coins (meters/snack machines) |
fail ~2m / success ~4m |
couple hours / same machine |
Handiwork |
Low (if nobody walks right past you) |
206–411 |
| Steal bag |
~3m |
— |
Handiwork |
Low (if nobody walks right past you) |
341-361 |
| Hack ATMs |
~3m |
8h / same ATM |
Programming |
Low (if nobody walks right past you) |
531–1456 |
| Commit secondhand fraud (PC) |
~30m |
— |
Rhetoric |
Medium (can fail; police sometimes) |
1071-1936 |
| Hold fake seminars (PC) |
~30m |
— |
Rhetoric |
Medium (can fail; police sometimes) |
1962 |
| Charity worker (impersonate + collect) |
~6m total (2×3m) |
— |
Rhetoric |
Medium (can fail; police often) |
1508-2712 |
| Scam investors (false info) |
~4m |
— |
Rhetoric |
Medium (can fail; police sometimes) |
4281-5331 |
| Voice phishing (PC) |
~30m |
6h |
Rhetoric |
Medium (can fail; police sometimes) |
5020-7789 |
Notes:
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ATM hacking became effectively “never failing” once Programming was Level 10.
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For coins/ATMs, the practical risk is mostly about being seen up close while doing the action.
Break-in jobs (Suspicious Job Agency)
I logged 4 break-in runs with clear loot values. Below is gross and net after info cost.
| Job |
Info tier |
Info cost |
Loot (summary) |
Gross loot |
Net (gross − info cost) |
| Surf Shop |
Low |
500 |
Register 2686 + stolen silver ore 1500 |
4186 |
3686 |
| Nooks |
Intermediate |
2000 |
Jewelry boxes 3350 + 1953 + safe 9488 |
14791 |
12791 |
| South West Bank #1 |
High |
5000 |
Safe 10735 + vault 13582 + vault item 25000 + boxes/ore 3270+1786+3000 |
57373 |
52373 |
| South West Bank #2 |
High |
5000 |
Safe 11739 + boxes 1500+3198+1633 + vaults 18658+17433 |
54161 |
4916 |
Legal costs
If you get arrested and decide to pay bail, you can choose different legal approaches:
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Free lawyer: 0 Mew
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General lawyer: 1000 Mew
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Elite lawyer: 8000 Mew
Additional case prep can add significant costs on top:
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Fixing evidence / staging an alibi / prep work: up to ~5000 Mew (varies by choices)
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Potential fines: up to ~6000 Mew, depending on the trial outcome
Low-money survival option (important detail)
Escaping from prison is an option and costs no money upfront, but you cannot escape while waiting for the trial — only after the trial outcome. That means you may still have to spend at least one day in custody if you remain jailed pre-trial.
If money is tight, a practical approach is:
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pay bail (if possible) + take the free lawyer to minimize costs,
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and if you still get a prison sentence afterwards, escape from prison instead of paying for expensive legal prep.
Rough leveling time (Level 0 → Level 5)
Note on leveling speed: Crime XP gain varies a lot by action. Some activities (like stealing coins) give relatively little skill progress per attempt, while others (especially Scam investors) can give huge skill gain for very little time (but come with more risk).
So the times below are only a rough reference based on the actions used here — your results can be significantly faster or slower depending on what you focus on.
| Level-up |
Main actions used (example) |
Rough time |
| Level 0 → 1 |
3× PC scam |
~1h30m |
| Level 1 → 2 |
11× secondhand fraud + 1× coin theft |
~5h30m |
| Level 2 → 3 |
mixed coin attempts + 2× charity route + 1× steal bag |
~2h05m |
| Level 3 → 4 |
10× ATM hack + 4× fake seminar + some lock/safe actions |
~3h02m |
| Level 4 → 5 |
mixed coins + ATMs + lock/register + 1× safe |
~1h30m |
Total to reach Level 5 (rough) in my testrun: ~13h40m in-game time.
Can you escape the police?
Sometimes, yes.
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If you get reported, immediately leave the area and stay on the move. In some cases it’s possible to shake the police by moving around the city for a long time.
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It’s not guaranteed. Sometimes police is very persistent: you think they’re gone, but if you stay in one place for a few minutes they can show up again.
Practical strategy notes
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Low-risk money: coins + ATMs (when safe to do), plus low/intermediate break-ins if you play carefully
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Fast XP / medium risk: scam investors (4 min, good payout, police on failure)
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Huge money / high risk: high-tier bank break-ins (cameras + vaults can fail and trigger alarms)
7 Likes
This is great and very useful info, though I thought hacking ATMs depended on Handiwork skill and disabling security cameras depended on Programming skill - maybe that’s been changed?
4 Likes
@Liessahl I am not sure if this has been changed as I did not test the crime path massively right after it came out in December. I did a couple of tests but never leveled it up with focus on this skill before.
Now after this playthrough I can confirm that ATM hacking is - at least at the currect state - dependant of the programming skills. This is even stated in the ambition:
And regarding the cameras I actually thought the same. As the Zoi is acting with his smarphone to sabotage the cameras you would think that it is rather the programming skill. But it is not. You see that it is Handiwork because of 2 things. First the Zoi is gaining Handiwork skill while taking out the cameras (see ther skill circle above his head):
And second: when it fails there is a dialog above his head clearly stating that he should improve his handiwork skill to be more succesful:
UPDATE: for camera sabotage you actually need both. Handiwork and Programming on Level 5. I had my Programming skill at Level 10 already thus why I was only gaining Handiwork here and also failed because of Handiwork. Updated the guide as well.
3 Likes
Thank you! However, I still haven’t understood how the Suspicious Activity Agency works. I just started a new game and I have the letter in my inventory but I can’t interact with it. Could someone explain it to me? 
2 Likes
@RealmOfZoi You bought the general information at the agency for 100 Mew?
Normally it should pop-up and show you the information right after buying it. There is a total of 13 general information notes you can buy before these start to repeat. Basically tips and guidance for the crime skill. Here are the screenshots and how it should look when it pops-up:
And if you bought a low, intermediate or high-tier information this should also pop-up and give you some info on the break-in for the upcoming night. In that case this should also be scheduled in your calendar. Here is an example for the break-in info pop-up and the calendar schedule:
If this did not work or you would like to check the information again you can click it in your inventory and take it out. When your Zoi is holding it, you should have the option to “check information” when clicking on the Zoi. This is possible for both the general information and also the low, intermediate and high-tier break-in information. See screenshots:
2 Likes
I have to come back on this @Liessahl . Actually for the Camera sabotage it is both skills as it seems. After I read through the general information again I found that it was stated there. I will update the guide as well.
In my test run I already had programming on Level 10 when I was able to break into the bank where you need to sabotage the cameras and thus the tooltip in the game showed me only the gain for the Handiwork skill and also stated that I failed due to the Handiwork skill. But as per the general information from the job agency you need both skills at least at Level 5 as well as Crime at Level 5.
This is interesting though. I did an additional test to be sure. Even though in this general information it is stated that you need crime, programming and handiwork at 5 to sabotage the cameras, it is a little different in the game. In order to be able to perform the action you actually only need programming and crime to be at Level 5. Otherwise the game will not let you to do it:
BUT: you also need and level Handiwork when performing the “sabotage camera” action. And you fail also because of your Handiwork skill as per the screenshot in the previous post: Crime – Skill progression & money guide (currently Level 0 → Level 5) - #3 by EllaEstella And you don’t level Programming while performing the action, only Handiwork. I tried with Programming 5 and Handiwork 10 - no level gain for Programming vs. Programming 10 and Handiwork 5 - level gain for Handiwork.
So at the end you need all 3 skills for sabotaging cameras but to be able to perform it you only need Programming and Crime at 5 even though the general information tip suggests differently.
As for the ATM Hacking I am still quite sure it depends only on Programming as you need Programming and Crime to be at Level 3 in order for the option to show up. I checked one more time to be sure. With Programming and Crime at Level 3 but Handiwork at Level 0 you can successfully hack an ATM.
3 Likes
Wow… that’s pretty complicated with the cameras. They really need to explain that better in game, though it may well change in the future anyway.
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Yes, this skill is way less straight forward compared to most of the other skills as you also have to level 5 other skills in order to be successful.
I am also wondering regarding the Fitness and Critical Thinking skill. You need Fitness to break down doors and it might have an effect when you extort others (not sure). And you need Critical Thinking to register fake high-tier information and it might have an effect on how successful your fraud actions are. But here as well, not sure, as the fraud actions obviously depend on your Rhetoric skill but who knows it could be similar to the cameras with the Programming skill, and the Critical Thinking skill is used in the background for fraud while you oviously level and fail because of your Rhetoric skill. Other then that I do not really see where and for what Fitness and Critical Thinking is needed while your criminal career is highly dependant on the 3 other skills: Handiwork, Rhetoric and Programming.
This makes me think that probably they will add more actions depending on these 2 - currently not so important - skills once the Crime skill is fully developed and can be leveled up to 10.
Also regarding the camera sabotage it feels a little strange to me that it fails so often even with Handiwork and Programming at Level 10. But Crime is only at Level 5 obviously as we cannot level it beyond that at the moment. So probably camera sabotage will become more reliable once we can also level Crime up to 10. Comparing to other actions like ATM hacking or stealing coins where you nearly never fail once the relevant skill is at 10, the failure rate is way higher for cameras. Or it could be that this is intended as you really get a huge amount of money if you successfully take out the bank with both security vaults, the safe and the jewelery boxes. This gives you around 50k net income for 2-3 hours work and can be done every night if you buy the high-tier info from the agency each day. Given this amount you could become a millionaire very fast and probably the devs have built in a higher failure rate for this robbery in order to avoid it.
But even without using the high risk options you can get rich really fast. Given that even the intermediate-tier break-ins are nearly safe if you path around the cameras and give you around 12k per night + some ATM Hacking which is also fully safe if you avoid doing it while there are Zois near by = you can easily end up with 15k or more per day with only around 3-4 hours of work.
1 Like
@EllaEstella ok, so I have to spend a lot of money just to get some information…
But what is meant by “Scam in-game items”?
Thank you so much
2 Likes
@RealmOfZoi yes, it is very strange that you need to spend 1300 to get all this info. But you don’t need now as there is no other benefit then reading it and you can do it in the screenshots above as well 
Scam in-game items is a fraud action which you can perform at the PC under “Crime”. This is a Level 0 action and can be performed when you are just starting out with your crime career. Success highly depends on your Rhetoric skill though.
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@EllaEstella thanks again for all the suggestions.
By any chance, do you also know if a bank was added to Cahaya with the addition of the crime system? Because it wasn’t there before
EDIT: no, it wasn’t added.
2 Likes
Sorry for not coming back to you earlier @RealmOfZoi I was on a business trip the entire week and unable to check in the game.
You’re right. There is no bank in Cahaya. And if you check for available jobs at the agency the high-tier information is not available for purchase. Thus you can only perform the low-tier and intermediate break ins.
Given how often you fail with the cameras and security vaults it still can be good money which you can make even without the high-tier robbery and with less risk being arrested.
2 Likes
Great observation! And thank you again for your invaluable guides, I’m using them so much
By any chance, do you have plans to make some for business activity management as well? 
2 Likes
Thank you so much @RealmOfZoi 
The next one coming will be on the Collection skill, this should be finished within the next days. Then I actually have done all of the normal money making skills: Painting, Critical Thinking, Media Production, Instruments, Performance, Programming, Gardening, Handiwork, Fishing and Crime + Collecting.
For the other skills I am not sure if a guide would be that useful as these are not relevant for money making but I am not yet fully decided on it. Do you think this would be beneficial?
Regarding the business management for owned businesses I did already start to take some notes but this is still quite at the beginning . The issue here is that you would need to do a massive testing if you want to cover all types of businesses. What I am considering is a general guide for the best money making tactics with businesses without going into detail for each single type of business like bakery, gym, Internet cafe etc. What would you be specifically looking for in such a guide?
2 Likes
@EllaEstella I think a guide on skills that don’t help make money could still be interesting. And this one too:
I don’t know why and maybe it’s a common feeling, but the idea of opening a business makes me feel overwhelmed, as if it could be something complex. Maybe it’s because of the interface design where you manage businesses… I’m not sure. Anyway, it would make me feel more confident to read some of your tips! Thank you 
At the moment I don’t have specific requests, but mostly I’d like to know some ideas for a business that teaches lessons. Like… a business for teaching the charm skill? How could it be made realistically? A school to teach flirting? 
And, by the way, I’d like to know who I could actually teach these lessons to: all NPCs or only the employees of my business? 
But maybe I should open a new topic so I don’t clutter up your guide
2 Likes
@RealmOfZoi thanks for you input and feedback 
What I can tell right away is that you could run a business with quite short operating hours mainly focussed on lectures and it would likely be giving you more money then a bakery or gym or similar. The only thing is that it only works well if you do the lectures yourself. If you give this task to an employee this works but not really efficiently.
See here in the screenshot. This is my mixed business (kind of Art & Music center with a café), currently at 3 stars. It offers some food and drinks, has an area for painting and an area for playing instruments and a place for holding lectures. The daily balance quite clearly shows that the main profit maker are the lectures under “Paid Service”. I am charging entrance fee but this does not give you much if you sell nothing in addition and the food/drinks (“Menu Sales”) give you some money but if you deduct the operating costs / employee salary and material costs it is not that much. In the screenshots you can see that the “Menu Sales” and “Entrance Fees” are somewhat stable over 3 different days. But the lectures can really make the difference if you have enough Zois around to teach and hold many of them.
And regarding how to make it realistic: it is really up to you. In my case see here: the first one is a café with business lectures (you can teach anything, but the thought was to be things like Rethoric, Critical Thinking and such).
And for the Art center here is a creative / crafting lessons example in the room where the customers can learn first and then practice painting right afterwards. And play some games before or after.
So if you decorate your shop like a flirting school it will look good as well
As for to whom you can teach it: there are 2 types of lectures: 1) lectures for free - these can also be used to increase the skills of your employees and 2) paid lectures for customers - these bring a certain amount of money per participant. The fee you get depends on the star rating of your business and increases as you level up to a higher star level.
You can teach to a maximum of 5 customers at once but you can repeat right after the lecture ends. You just need to have Level 5 in the skill to be able to teach it. And e.g. at 3 star rating of your business you get 539 Mew per attendee, so with one lecture for 5 customers you can make 2.695 Mew in less then half an hour. You can do this 3-4 times and then leave the rest of your opening time to be handled by your empoyees - you will get rich very fast (maybe too fast…).
You can see in the screenshot. The lectures with “(+Income)” are the ones where you get paid per attendee.
1 Like
