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Here's how you can get the most out of your time in the sky.
What's that? You got hopelessly addicted to Tiny Tower but you finally kicked the habit? Well, I've got some bad news for you. Nimblebit has returned with a brand new, 8-bit time-management game, Pocket Planes, this time putting you in charge of a burgeoning airline. The game shares some similaries with Tiny Tower, but there are many, many new mechanics to learn, so I thought you might appreciate a starters guide to get you going in no time. Off we go into the wild blue yonder!
PICK YOUR STARTING REGION
As it happens, the starting region doesn't really matter all that much. Just pick an area that you're intimately familiar with. All the starting regions have a bunch of smaller airports to get you going, and usually there are some larger airports within striking distance. Just pick a nice central spot and build out from there.
PASSENGERS AND CARGO
There are two ways to earn cash in Pocket Planes: transporting passengers and transporting cargo. Planes are set up to carry one or the other (and sometimes a mix of the two). When viewing a plane, you can hit the plane microscope icon, which will tell you what sort of capacity that plane has. P = Passengers, C = Cargo. Starter planes will only carry one item at a time, but as you advance, you'll be able to buy bigger planes with larger holds. Larger holds means more passengers and cargo, which means more money per trip.
BUILDING PLANES VERSUS BUYING PLANES
Adding new planes to your airline is a great way to increase your cash flow. Unfortunately you can't buy new planes with coins. You have to use "Bux." Bux are earned by leveling up or by transporting special passengers and cargo. You can also earn Bux by tapping them as they fly past your planes at random intervals.
Since Bux are a relatively limited resource, you want to get the most out of them. To do this, never buy an entire plane with Bux. Instead, by parts of planes. It takes 3 pieces (a body, an engine and controls) to build a full plane. The pieces have to be matching and once you have all three, you can combine them for your new bird. Pieces can be found in the in-game Market, which rotates inventory every few minutes. Just keep an eye out for parts of a plane you're looking to build and make sure you have the Bux to buy all three pieces. It'll cost a few more Bux to put them all together, but the total will still be considerably less than if you bought the full plane in one go.
PICKING YOUR AIRPORTS
Right up there with planes are the airports you decide to build. Airports can be built with coins, earned from moving passengers and cargo. The more crowded the city, the more expensive the airport will be to build. But it'll also mean that the airport will have heavy traffic and will offer you plenty of high-paying jobs.
As you start out, you won't be able to afford any major airports. Instead, try building out 6 or 7 smaller airports ranging from one to four million in population. When picking airports make sure they are close enough to other airports you own that your planes will be able to make the trip. Starter planes lack range, so you'll have to have layovers for longer flights. That's fine. Ideally you want a nice long chain of reasonably-spaced airports, giving you a constant source of income. Eventually that income will allow you to purchase one of the larger airports, when the real scratch starts pouring in.
JOIN THE POLYGON FLIGHT CREW!
One last thing! You may have noticed that, in the menu there's something called Flight Crew. This is basically like a clan which allows you to participate in events with other members of the same Flight Crew. If the entire crew performs well in events, everyone will be rewarded with bonus Bux at the end of the event. Events are timed and have you taking trips to a specific city over the span of a few days.
To join the Polygon flight crew, all you need to do is type in Polygon into the Flight Crew box. Easy as that! Right now we're ranked #5 in the world!
