v0.93 Strategies

All strategies are applicable to the default v0.93 release. The server administrator has the ability to change quite a bit of the default settings, so the following might differ somewhat.

February 22nd, 2003: I've added my Overall Strategy.  It was made from experience as well as observations, and hasn't really been tested fully.  Whether or not its better than wartortle's, who knows.

January 21st, 2003: Wartortle rocks.  He sent me more General Strategy stuff (for dealing with Frustrated and Irked customers) as well as his Overall Strategy.

January 11th, 2003: Thanks go to wartortle, for alternative opinions in Guilt and Sympathy, General Strategies, Security, and Supplies.  I also added a new Advanced Strategy: "Web Site Strategies" Strategy.

January 4th, 2003: Thanks go to mimifish for finding a few errors that I had with Customer Class, Luck Events, Attack, Hearses, Health Points, Cursed Tiger, and Pale Horse Cafe.

January 3rd, 2003: Thanks go to wartortle for correcting a few mistakes I made with Guilt and Sympathy.  Guilt works on Annoyed, and Sympathy works on Disturbed.

January 3rd, 2003: Thanks go to wartortle for sending more corrections, under Steal (it is useful after all), Health Points (wrong numbers), and Strength (wrong numbers).

The Basics

Deathville

Advanced Strategies



COMMON TERMS

There are a few common terms that you must know in order for these strategies to make sense.

Limit: The absolute maximum a customer is willing to spend.

Resistance: A percentage value, which conveys the chance of a customer rejecting a sell that does not go over their limit.  The higher the percentage, the less likely the customer will buy anything you offer them.  At lower Psych levels, you probably will not see their resistance percentage, even though all sales are still dependent upon it.

Tags: Whenever you complete a sale with a customer, you get a Wood, Silver, or Gold tag, depending on what coffin you sold them.  You use these tags to buy things at Spirit University and Di-Mart.


CUSTOMERS

The overall goal of Funeral Quest is to sell as much stuff to your customers as possible. The more you sell, the more Bury Points (or BPs) you get. And the better coffins you sell (out of Wood, Silver, and Gold), the better stuff you can buy at Spirit University and Di-Mart.

CUSTOMER CLASS

There are 4 classes of customers: Poor, Average, Rich, and Super Rich.

A Poor customer will have a limit between $800 and about $2,750.
An Average customer will have a limit around $1,500 to $5,500.
A Rich customer will have a limit around $3,600 to $7,550.
A Super Rich customer will have a limit around $4,500 to $18,400.

GUILT AND SYMPATHY

Basically, you use *Guilt* and *Sympathy* to try to lower your customer's resistance to buying more stuff they don't need. However, if you use *Guilt* or *Sympathy* on the wrong customer (like using *Guilt* on someone who is crying) this will make their mood worsen a lot, and not reduce their resistance at all.

If you match the correct reaction to the right customer, their resistance will lower, and they might reveal their limit to you in their response, but their mood will still worsen slightly.

* Use *Guilt* if a customer is Chipper, Natural, Tight Lipped, In a Hurry, Nervous, or Annoyed.
* Use *Sympathy* if a customer is In Shock, Dazed, Confused, Crying, Numb, or Disturbed.
* You will not know what to use if a customer starts out Frustrated, Irked, Angry, or Pissed.

As a general rule, the customer will not leave unless they are Pissed, and you try to sell them something over their limit, their resistance blocks the sale, or if you try to use *Sympathy* or *Guilt*. However, if you try to Hard Sell an Angry customer, they may leave.

wartortle adds: "An Angry customer can leave, when you're soft selling too. When a customer refuses an item because they don't want it (resistance), they can leave. If they refuse an item because they can't afford it, they won't leave, they'll
most likely become pissed."

HARD SELL

If you use *Hard Sell*, you will try to get your customer to buy a high-priced item. There are a finite amount of these, listed below:

Item - Price - Total
Silver Coffin - $1,800 - $2,600
Gold Coffin - $2,700 - $5,300
Forest Lawn Premier Plot - $2,250 - $7,550
Giant Headstone - $2,560 - $10,110
Crypt with Lower Bunk - $3,100 - $13,210
Titanium (bullet-proof Coffin Exterior) - $3,400 - $16,610
Vegas-style Celebrity Roast - $3,000 - $19,610
New Orleans Dixieland Send-Off's - $2,500 - $22,110
Posthumous Vanity Web Site - $2,100 - $24,210
Egyptian Death Shroud's - $1,750 - $25,960
plot next to Elvis - $2,400 - $28,360
Private Gold Plated Crypt - $2,600 - $30,960

The total price assumes that you haven't tried to sell the customer any *Soft Sell* items.

SOFT SELL

If you *Soft Sell* an item, then you will sell them a random item that has a price between $50 and $600. Your customers are so stricken by sadness, or just don't give a dang, that they won't notice if you sell them the same *Soft Sell* item more than once.

Here are the default chances of getting an item of each price range.

Price - Chance
$50 - 12.7%
$60 - 1.8%
$100 - 14.5%
$150 - 18.2%
$200 - 3.6%
$250 - 10.9%
$300 - 12.7%
$350 - 5.4%
$400 - 5.4%
$450 - 5.4%
$500 - 3.6%
$550 - 1.8%
$600 - 3.6%

SALE BONUSES

If you get within 100 of your customer's limit, you will get a 25 BP bonus, and if you get within 50 you get 35 extra BPs. If you match your customer's limit exactly (a relatively rare event) you get an extra 200 BPs.

GENERAL STRATEGIES

* Once your customer gets Pissed, complete the Sale immediately. There are exceptions... if your customer's resistance is 0%, and you know their limit, you can safely get within $600 of their limit using soft sales. Just don't go over!

* If you don't know your customer's resistance, use *Guilt* and *Sympathy* until they are in a somewhat bad mood... like Frustrated or Annoyed. That way, you have hopefully decreased their resistance enough that they will buy stuff.

* wartortle adds: "I wouldn't do this. I would use different strategies, depending on their opening mood. If someone is "Chipper", I would give them 5 lots of guilt, then start selling. If someone is "Disturbed", I would give sympathy until they're irked. Of course, once you have a good PSY level, this becomes a lot easier anyway!"

* wartortle adds: When you have a frustrated/irked customer, and you don't know their spending limit or resistance level, You have a few options open to you:

* If they're poor, just soft sell them immediately. If they don't buy what you're selling because of their resistance, just take the sale.

* If they're average or rich, hard sell them to silver and try for gold. Again, if they refuse because of their resistance, just take the lower tag.

* If they're super rich, hard sell to gold, and then forget about any more hard sells. Simply soft sell as much as possible.

* The idea behind this, is that customers with high resistance will become pissed quickly, so you don't gain anything... but for those customers with low resistance, you want to get within 100 or 50 of their (unknown to you) limit. Offering a hard sell that they can't afford can easily turn them pissed immedately, so you don't get the chance of earning extra bury points.

* Note that this doesn't work on angry customers (unless you want to risk it), because they can leave immediately if you offer something that they don't want.


EVENTS

While waiting for customers, you will randomly get events that do not take turns, and aren't customers.  There are 3 types of these events: Luck, Parlor, and Script.

LUCK EVENTS

Luck Events are where you are given a choice to be good or evil.  One such event is where a woman asks if you happened to find a ring, and it happens to be on your desk.  There are two choices: to say that it is buried forever (evil), or to give the ring back (good).  The evil choice will always be the left, whereas the good choice will always be on the right.

If you select the Evil choice, you will gain or lose 50 BP depending on your luck.  If you have 50 luck, you have a 50% chance of gaining the 50 BP, and if you have 75 luck, you have a 75% chance of gaining BP, and so on.

Mimifish says that even if you have 100 luck, you don't have a 100% chance of winning a luck event... there is a 5-10% chance you will lose anyway.

If you select the Good choice, you will gain a small amount of BP (around 5-10).

PARLOR EVENTS

Parlor Events are events that happen that you have absolutely no control over.  They just randomly add or subject BP and luck, with a humorous quip included.

SCRIPT EVENTS

In the default install of v0.91, there are 2 script events.  One will give you a random tag, and the other allows you to set fire to another funeral parlor.

The Twins offer to set fire to another parlor for 6 Gold.  You must have those tags ready, as they won't except 12 Silver or any combination of equivalent tags.  A fire doesn't cause that much damage in most cases... and it can be prevented.

If the fire is successful, it will burn up all of their wood tags, if they don't have a Safe.  If they have a Safe, they won't lose an Tags at all.  It will also reduce their Gravestones (or Total Occupied Plots) by 5%.  The person with the most Gravestones has the first hit in a fight, so reducing them makes them easier to fight.

However, if the target has a Fire Alarm, there is an 80% chance of the fire not working at all, so you just wasted 6 Gold Tags, and the Fire Chief gives the target 3 Gold Tags.


VISIT COMPETITION

One of the ways you can interact with your fellow scammers is to visit their parlors, where you can Steal or Attack.

STEAL

Stealing isn't very useful... you aren't guaranteed to get anything, there is a good chance you won't.  You won't be able to Steal from a parlor if they have bought a Safe.

Wartortle disagrees... stealing from higher-level players can be beneficial, as they are most likely saving up for a high-priced upgrade of some sort, and you wouldn't stand a chance against them in a fight.

ATTACK

The first-hit goes to the person with the most gravestones (total sales, basically). In the case of a tie, the first strike goes to the person being attacked.  After that, it is relatively random... the person with the higher HP and Strength has a good chance of winning, but it isn't in anyway guaranteed, because your attack is anywhere from 0 to your strength level.

Also, both players randomly get to Soul Smash, which is an attack that does double the normal damage.

Mimifish says that unless Seth changed it again, only the attacker has the benefit of soul smash. And the attacker doesn't miss, either.


SPIRIT UNIVERSITY

Spirit University is quite the useful place to go for any aspiring caretaker of the dead. While visiting, you can check previous editions of the newspaper, or upgrade your Psych level, Health Points, or Strength.

PSYCH

Your Psych Level determines your likelihood of getting 'bonuses' when dealing with customers. It will also open up new bonuses. You start out with Level 1. As you increase your Psych level, the likelihood of the bonuses happening will greatly increase. For example, it is very rare to read someone's resistance when you are at Level 1 Psych, but when you're at Level 5 Psych, it happens almost every time.

Level 1 (Default): Resistance reading: Displays how much resistance the customer has left. The lower the resistance, the greater chance of the person buying what you offer them.
Level 2 (4 Gold): Mood reading: Displays whether you need to use *Guilt* or *Sympathy*.
Level 3 (6 Gold): Financial Estimation: Display the customer's limit.
Level 4 (8 Gold): Cutting resistance in half: Self-explanatory.
Level 5 (10 Gold): Cutting mood in half: If a customer was Pissed, they will now be 'half' that, probably Disturbed or better.
Level 6 (12 Gold): Double spending limit: Self-explanatory.

Higher levels cost increments of 2 gold (Level 7 costs 14 Gold, Level 8 costs 16 Gold, and so on).

HEALTH POINTS

Each HP upgrade gives you 4 or 5 (it is random) HP. The cost of the upgrade is the floor of 1.2 x (Current HP).  Thanks wartortle and mimifish.

STRENGTH

Each Strength upgrade adds 1 to your strength. The first upgrade costs 9 Gold, the next 12 Gold, and so on in increments of 3 Gold.  Thanks wartortle.


DI-IMART

At Di-Mart, you can buy Security stuff, Supplies, and Hearses.

SECURITY

Heavy Padlock (6 Gold Tags): This makes it so anyone who wants to enter your parlor must use a lockpick.  Each lockpick that is used to break into your funeral parlor causes around 5-15 damage to your lock.  When your lock takes 100 damage, it breaks completely.

As it is, it really isn't worth the investment, in my opinion.  All it does is make everyone pay 1 gold tag to enter your parlor, and blocks those who haven't bought lockpicks.  I think you'd be better off to invest your 6 Gold Tags in Psych or in Strength... though that is just my opinion.

wartortle adds: "I think that a padlock is very useful! Anything that makes your opponents waste turns and/or gold tags, is a good thing. If you're buying lots of strength/hit points, you wouldn't buy a padlock, because you'd want to get some extra HP by (hopefully) winning fights. But if you're buying lots of psychology instead, the padlock gives some protection. Also, sometimes picking the lock will give the attacker some damage."

Fire Alarm (8 Gold Tags): A Fire Alarm is a good investment, if you're one of the top players, or if you have made some real enemies in Deathville.  However, there simply aren't that many fire attempts, and it doesn't work all of the time, only 80%, so it isn't absolutely necessary.

Safe (6 Gold Tags): A safe is a near necessary investment.  It protects your tags in a fire (even if your fire alarm doesn't stop it), and it prevents other players from stealing from you.

SUPPLIES

Lockpick (1 Gold Tag): Allows you to enter another person's Funeral Parlor if they have a lock.  Try to keep at least a couple on hand... it really sucks when you visit a parlor with a lock, and forget a lockpick... you lose a visit, and you get absolutely nothing.

wartortle adds: "This is only true once the game has been going for a while. In the early days, you should be saving your money for upgrades. Throwing away gold tags for a few bury points (and a wooden tag or two) is pointless, until the number of bury points you'll gain makes it worthwhile."

HEARSES

Bicycle (Default): Gives you the default amount of turns per day (by default 15, though on the RTSoft Test Server it is 13).  It is worth 2 Gold Tags if you trade it in for better transportation.

Budget Hearse (12 Gold Tags): Gives you an extra 2 turns per day.  Worth 6 Gold Tags when you trade it in for better transportation.  If you're good, try to get this within the first day or so.

Medalist (30 Gold Tags): Gives you an extra 4 turns per day.  Worth 15 Gold Tags when you trade it in for better transportation.  In my eyes, an optional investment... I always try to go from Budget Hearse to Statesman.

Statesman (50 Gold Tags): Gives you an extra 7 turns per day.  Worth 25 Gold Tags when you trade it in for better transportation.  A solid investment, and is an ideal hearse.

Crown Sovereign (80 Gold Tags): Gives you an extra 10 turns per day.  Worth 40 Gold Tags when you trade it in for worse transportation (see Final Day for more info).  A good investment, for those people who are disciplined enough to save up that much.


YANG'S

At Yang's, you can affect luck, either your own or other's.  By default, you can order one item from the menu per day.  It sticks out from Spirit University and Di-Mart, in that food cost BP, not Tags.

However, luck only seems to affect Luck Events, so investing a lot of BPs here might not be worth it.  Also, people in the Bar can see if you order, and sometimes Yang himself makes an announcement in the newspaper tattling if you send a Yang to another player.

LUCKY DRAGON (5 BP)

Gives 10 luck to you, but only if you have less than 40 luck.  Get these if someone sends you a lot of Cursed Tigers, and your luck has plummeted.

LUCKY SPARROW (20 BP)

Gives 5 luck to a friend.

CURSED TIGER (20 BP)

Takes away 10 luck from an enemy.


PALE HORSE CAFE

Basically, a Chat Room with a TV.  So when someone gets a good sale, buys something from Yang's, or when they are sent to the hospital, the TV reports it.  You can also yell in the Cafe, so other people currently on can see your messages in their homes.


BANK

The Bank allows you to change between Wood, Silver, and Gold Tags.  Nothing that special about it, though there are a few techniques you can use to help.

ALL TO WOOD

At the end of every day, change all of your tags to wood.  This makes it so people cannot steal silver/gold tags from you by visiting your parlor.

However, this has a very bad consequence: if someone sets fire to your funeral parlor, you lose all of your tags.  That is why it is recommended to buy a Safe, to prevent that from ever happening.

ALL TO GOLD

Before buying anything, convert all of your tags to Gold.  Simple enough.


UNUSED BUILDINGS

There are quite a few buildings on the Map that don't have any use... yet.

CHURCH

It no purpose at all.

However, Seth (the creator of the game) mentioned on the forums that there might be some sort of good/evil affiliation, that deals with the Church and Graveyard in future versions of the game.

GRAVEYARD

It was a building in previous versions of Funeral Quest (though you couldn't actually go there, it was a button).  

HOSPITAL

Well, it sort of has a use... you go there after you get beat up in a fight, or if you faint (disconnect/time-out) in the middle of a sale.


FINAL DAY

Mimifish came up with a brilliant strategy, for the final day. If you are playing in a tournament on it's final day, and you have transportation above a Budget Hearse (or a lot of gold tags) you can implement a strategy to get a lot of extra turns.

After you've completed all of your regular turns, buy a Budget Hearse. This gives you 2 extra turns for that day, and more gold tags. Complete those two turns, and buy another Budget Hearse, giving you 2 more turns. Repeat until you run out of tags.


"WEB SITE STRATEGIES" STRATEGY

I (redink1) came up with this one... though it doesn't work :)  Basically, the idea was to have a web site detail general FQ strategies and end up with lots of luck.  There is quite a bit of depth in FQ that newer players just won't get, and it seems they get frustrated and end up quitting while only a little bit into the game.

Well, I thought... what if I asked for a Lucky Sparrow for giving out all of this good, free advice?  It sounded like a good idea, as people sometimes are generous when given something.

But, nope.  After advertising these strategies on the main News page, I didn't get a single Lucky Sparrow.  I did get a couple Cursed Tigers though.


WARTORTLE'S OVERALL STRATEGY

When starting a long game (over 30 day tourney, or a regular game) the things I buy first, are Level 3 PSY, and a Budget Hearse. After that, I'll get my PSY built up to Level 6, and also invest in a lock. After that, it depends:

If there are lots of turns every day (20+), I'll save up for Level 9 PSY, then the Crown Sovereign.

If there are fewer turns (under 20), I'll save up for the Crown Sovereign first.

If I end up with more than 6 gold tags at the end of a day, but not enough to buy more PSY, I'll get the safe.

By the time you have the Crown Sovereign and Level 9 PSY, you'll be easy meat to be beaten up... but that's not a problem, because you're in position to earn more tags than everyone else, from now on. During all of this time, you're spending nothing on lockpicks or on setting fire to other parlours (you have to buy your things as quickly as possible).

So from this point on, it's a matter of building up Strength and Hit Points (or Health Points!), and biding your time, until you can beat everyone else up... THEN you'll get those lockpicks! Let everyone beat you up for a few BP now, get the thousands back later!

If I'm playing a shorter game (30 days or fewer), I'll use the exact same strategy, except that I'll buy a Medallist or Statesman, instead of the Crown Sovereign.


REDINK1'S OVERALL STRATEGY

Step 1) Buy a Budget Hearse as soon as possible.

Step 2) Buy a Safe. This prevents you from getting burned, and prevents people from stealing from you.  In short games (14 days or so), this is optional.

Step 3) Buy your next hearse as soon as possible. If you're playing a short tourney (14 days or so) go for a Medalist or just skip this step.  If you're playing in a medium tournament (about 24 days) go for a Statesman.  And finally, if you're playing a normal game, or a long tournament (30 or so days), go for a Crown Sovereign.

Step 4) If you're playing a long tournament or a normal game, buy a Fire Alarm.  You get 3 gold for every fire that is prevented, and if you're a popular target for arson, it will more than pay for itself.

Step 5) Save up for Level 9 or Level 10 Psy.  Going past Level 10 doesn't noticeably increase the likelihood of getting Psy bonuses.  If you're playing a short game, stop at Level 6.

Step 6) Spend your tags on Strength and HP.  If you have free time, and you're strong enough, it might be best to try to beat up the highest-ranking players as much as possible (giving you more BP per day).  It only takes a few seconds to logon to see if they've become un-protected.

Step 7) If you wish, you might want to save up your tags for the last few days before the end of the tournament, and use Mimifish's Final Day strategy to have a lot of turns on the final day.

Misc) Send Cursed Tigers and Arson's to neighboring parlors.  However, if there is a big luck bonus for getting in the top 3 parlors, sending yang's to the top 3 people really won't do much good, as their luck bonuses will neglect any luck reduction.  In a long game where an opponent has more gravestones than you (giving them first hit on fights) and has a fire alarm, you might want to buy another Crown Sovereign for 40 gold, giving you 10 more gravestones.