Oil Baron: How to Play, Tips & Upgrades

Oil Baron is a free idle tycoon game that you play right in your browser. You start in a sunny desert valley with a wrench, a hard hat and a field of nodding pump jacks. Pump crude oil, refine it into fuel, turn fuel into rubber duck toys and tires, and sell everything to the pickup trucks that pull into your gas station. Every dollar goes back into machines, workers and upgrades, until a whole crew and a freight train run a booming oil company for you.

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Controls

• Phone and tablet: put your thumb anywhere on the screen and drag in the direction you want to walk. A small joystick appears under your finger.
• Computer: click and drag with the mouse, or use the WASD or arrow keys.
• You don't need any action buttons. Stand next to a pump jack to work its valve, walk over a machine's input to drop barrels, and stand still on a money pad to pay for it.

How to play: your first five minutes

1. Pump your first wells. Walk up into the oil field and stand next to a pump jack. Your oil worker cranks the valve with the wrench, the pump nods faster, and after a few strokes the well gushes. Barrels of crude fly onto your back.
2. Sell or refine. Crude can be sold as it is, so you are never stuck. Carry it to the gas station counter, stand behind the register and serve the first trucks.
3. Build the Refinery. Stand still on the glowing money pad marked Refinery. Your cash drains into the pad, and when it is full the refinery pops up. Drop crude on its intake tray and it turns every barrel into a red fuel can.
4. Stock the station. Pick up the fuel cans from the refinery's output pile and carry them to the counter shelf. Fuel sells for more than twice the price of crude.
5. Grow. Spend the cash on the Upgrades office, an Attendant, your first Roughneck and the cheap level pads beside every machine. Within a few minutes most of the work runs without you.

From then on the loop is always the same: pump, refine, sell, upgrade. Every new building or worker speeds up the loop, until your oil company mostly runs on its own.

The production chain

Everything starts underground. The further you process the oil, the more each barrel is worth:

The Toy Factory needs two fuel cans for every rubber duck, and the Tire Factory needs three for every tire. They still pay off quickly because the finished products are worth far more than the fuel that goes into them. Machines have limited input and output storage. A full machine stops until someone picks up its products, so keep an eye on the piles.

Selling at the gas station

Pickup trucks drive in from the highway, line up under the canopy and buy whatever is on the counter shelf. The products land right in their truck beds. A sale only happens when someone is behind the counter. At first that is you: stand in the attendant zone next to the register and the trucks pay one after another. Hiring an Attendant early is one of the best investments in the game, because the station keeps selling while you pump, carry and build. The Billboards, Fast Service, Big Trucks and Tip Jar upgrades make the station earn even more.

Hiring your crew

• Roughnecks work the wells on their own and carry the crude to the refinery. You can hire six of them.
• Haulers carry finished goods from the machines to the station shelf, and always take the most valuable products first.
• Feeders bring fuel cans from the refinery to the Toy Factory and the Tire Factory.
• The Attendant stays behind the counter, so trucks are served even when you are far away.
• Rail Loaders carry products to the rail depot, where the freight train pays a premium.

Your crew gets better with the Crew Carts upgrade (they carry more) and Crew Boots (they walk faster).

New oil fields and the rail depot

The fields to the west and east are fenced off at first. You can walk up to them, but their wells stay locked until you pay for the gate on its money pad. The West Field doubles the number of wells you can work. The Deep Field has richer wells that gush more barrels every time. Later you can build the Rail Depot by the tracks. A freight train rolls in regularly, loads whatever waits on the depot pallet and pays more than the station does. Rail Contracts make every train carry more and pay better.

Level up your machines and station

Every machine has its own level pad right next to it. Each level makes the machine 40% faster and gives it 20% more storage, and there is no maximum. The gas station levels up the same way: each level lets one more truck queue under the canopy, and trucks arrive 25% faster. Level pads are cheap at first, so there is always something worth buying while you save up for the next building. The level shows on the building's sign, for example "REFINERY 3".

Moving to a New Field (prestige)

Once your Rail Depot is running, a New Field pad appears at the edge of the map. If you move to a new oil field, you sell the whole company and start again from scratch. In return every field gives you a permanent +50% income bonus and some starting cash, so your second run goes much faster than the first, and your third faster still. The star badge next to your money shows how many fields you have founded and your total bonus. Each new field costs more than the last, so there is always a bigger goal ahead.

Every unlock

Money pads appear on the map as soon as their requirements are met. Here is everything you can build, roughly in the order it becomes available:

Every upgrade

Upgrades are bought at the Upgrades office, the site trailer with the green sign. Walk into the zone in front of it and the upgrade list opens. Each level costs a little more than the last.

Quests, boosts and offline earnings

• Quests: the bar under your money always shows the next goal, like pumping wells dry, making rubber ducks or reaching a cash target. Every completed quest pays a cash reward, and new quests keep coming forever.
• 2x Cash: the boost button doubles everything you earn for a few minutes. It is unlocked by an optional short ad, and the Longer Boost upgrade makes it last longer.
• Offline earnings: your roughnecks keep pumping while you are away. When you come back, collect what they earned, or double it.

Tips and strategy

1. Fill up before you walk. Pump two wells in a row so your back is full before you head to the refinery. The Carry Rack upgrade pays for itself quickly.
2. Get the Attendant early. A station that only sells while you stand behind the counter wastes most of the trucks.
3. Move up the value chain. A tire is worth more than sixteen crude barrels. Build the Toy Factory and the Tire Factory as soon as you can.
4. Fix the slowest step first. If crude piles up at the refinery, buy a refinery level or Machine Tuning. If fuel piles up, hire Haulers or Feeders. If the shelf is full and trucks are rare, buy Billboards or a station level.
5. Let wells refill. A pumped well rests for a few seconds. Work the wells in a loop and the first one is full again by the time you come back. Deeper Drilling shortens the wait.
6. Save the 2x boost for full production. It doubles income, so it is worth the most when every machine and worker is busy.

Frequently asked questions

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