The dawn of mobile games in the late 90s provided people with a new, fun way to spend their idle time. Even before mobile devices had colored displays, casual mobile games have become an expected feature that people love and appreciate on their devices.
Although mobile games have quickly evolved to have diverse genres and overall quality that continues to shorten the gap between their console and PC counterparts, casual mobile games will continue to be among the most popular genres especially considering the limited amount of time some people can spend on their mobile devices.
Idle Taxi Tycoon is the latest casual simulation game from Kolibri Games, home of other popular business simulation games like Idle Miner Tycoon, Idle Factory Tycoon and Idle Mail Tycoon, just to name a few. Available on both iOS and Android platforms, Idle Taxi Tycoon adheres to the usual recipe that makes up the rest of Kolibri Games’ titles, mixing simple and straightforward mechanics with a surprisingly addictive gameplay. Whether or not you have limited spare time on your hands to spend on mobile games, Idle Taxi Tycoon is certainly an adventure you can easily pick up and enjoy.
Idle Taxi Tycoon sets you up to manage a startup taxi business. Despite its oversimplified operations, Idle Taxi Tycoon still offers players a variety of activities to engage in from getting cabs, down to picking up drivers for each one and purchasing upgrades for just about anything. Like most idle clicker business sim games, there is no chance to lose as you will continue to earn profits over time as profits continue to come in regardless of what you do.
Idle Taxi Tycoon provides players with a brief tutorial session as well as additional guides on other features you unlock as you make progress. Given that profits follow a continuous stream, the goal centers on maximizing profits but progression can be felt for certain regardless of how much time you spend actively managing your taxi company and how you go about running it.
If you are raring to grow your budding business into a business empire in no time, then you came to the right place. We have prepared a detailed Idle Taxi Tycoon guide so you can expand your business and become a top taxi tycoon!
1. Use The Missions As Your Guide
After the quick tutorial session, Idle Taxi Tycoon basically leaves you to manage your taxi business on your own, free to make purchases and upgrades all on your own. While the liberty accorded is certainly something to appreciate, having a guide to follow as a basis for optimum growth and progression is important.
Again, every bit of activity you engage in as well as every expense you incur, basically leads to your business’ growth and there are certainly no right or wrong ways to do it. However, some methods are certainly more efficient than others and we consider adhering to the in-game objectives as the most efficient way to grow your empire. You can see the current objective at the upper right side of the screen. You will only see one objective at a time but it certainly is a long list that never seems to have an ending.
Note that by clicking on the pad icon beside the listed target, you can view up to 5 objectives at a time and can also claim rewards for the other targets in the event that you can accomplish them first. Although what is shown is only what is on the top of the list, you can freely choose to pursue subsequent objectives if it so happens that the top one is currently beyond your reach.
The goals or objectives you take on basically revolve around upgrade levels and progress across different aspects of operations. You can always stray from the current objective and can even accomplish some feats before they appear as your target. With a plethora of items to upgrade in Idle Taxi Tycoon, however, it can be a challenge to achieve the perfect balance of investments across them and following the targets on point is your best bet to maximize use of the resources you earn.
More importantly, each objective you accomplish earns you extra rewards that help boost your progression. In essence, strictly adhering to the current requirements lead to a faster acquisition of these extra rewards. As an effect, you can earn rewards faster and be able to reinvest the resources you earn back in your taxi business and ultimately have increased earnings over time.
Considering that the accomplishment of most, if not all, objectives rest on the ability to purchase an upgrade or a series of it, you will naturally have instances when the current objectives cannot be readily accomplished. In these cases, you are very much free to explore other avenues to bolster the growth of your taxi business.
You can hold off on other spending if you are close to reaching the needed amount to afford the upgrade needed but if you are far from it, then it will be more advisable to go for the needed purchase following the acquisition of a bigger lump of cash, like when you get back to the game after being offline and away for more than an hour and receiving your full hours’ worth of offline rewards.
2. Keep As Little Idle Cash As Possible
One of the basic characteristics of an idle clicker business sim game is that cash is continuously generated by your business, typically even before you do anything on your own. For most other games, the natural approach involves exercising prudence in spending any resource, regardless of how common those resources are and if you are new to idle clicker business games, you might assume that holding on to your cash is a good way to go.
Contrary to what is recommended in other genres when it comes to handling resources, the recommended approach in Idle Taxi Tycoon is to actually keep as little cash as possible. By design, the cash you continuously earn is your main resource for upgrading just about anything and while not every upgrade directly equates to higher income, each and every bit of cash you spend ultimately leads to higher profits over time.
If you choose to follow the accomplishment of the given objectives one after another, then you can easily empty out your ready supply of cash. However, as we mentioned earlier, there are unavoidable circumstances when you will be temporarily unable to pursue the objective at hand. These will be the very same instances where you have to choose to either earn a little more cash and purchase the needed upgrade all expend the cash you have on hand on other, less expensive upgrades to earn cash faster as a result.
In some cases, though, lack of cash may not be the reason why you are temporarily unable to accomplish the current objective in which case, you will simply have to put it on hold and focus your efforts on maximizing profits. With still a good number of options to choose from, as far as where you should invest your cash in, we recommend following yet another standard rule in idle clicker business sim games.
By now, you should already be aware that the higher an upgrade level goes, the more expensive it becomes. This does not necessarily mean that the boost it provides will be of greater potency as each upgrade investment within the same group follows standard rate of increase despite exponential growth in costs. With this, the best course of action is to invest in the least expensive option first. In effect, choosing this strategy will yield you more upgrades for the cash you invest and effectively give a higher increase in idle profits.
3. Upgrade To A Milestone Whenever You Can
Adhering as strictly as possible to the main objectives stand as the most basic strategy but being unable to continue doing so does not necessarily make the next set of investments you make less important or valuable.
Accomplishing objectives are the primary determinant of your taxi empire’s growth and progression but not the exclusive one. Given that you are free to stray from completing objectives already mean that there are plenty of activities to engage in that contributes to development as well.
With some objectives being temporarily impossible to accomplish at times, and even with a strategy to invest idle cash from the cheapest upgrades first, there are also upgrade milestones to consider at times for extra boosts in growth. Idle Taxi Tycoon actually incorporates additional incentives around reaching certain upgrade milestones. You will notice a bar filling up whenever you upgrade an area and maxing it out comes with a gift.
Reaching such milestones will not net you more cash, though, and will typically gift you with a package of coffee instead. Coffee serves as a valuable commodity in Idle Taxi Tycoon as it is the resource you need to level up your drivers. In the event that you can choose between the cheapest upgrade and option and a series of upgrades that lad to reaching a milestone and acquiring more coffee, you can always opt for the latter if you need to increase your current drivers’ stats.
4. Invest In Your Taxi Drivers
If you own a taxi business, then you certainly will be in need of taxi drivers to keep them on the road. Although Idle Taxi Tycoon provides use for your taxi even in the absence of drivers, manual clicks to have them move around will be necessary to earn you some cash.
As your taxi empire grows, the number of taxi you can hold also increases. Manually clicking on each one to travel around and earn profits is okay if you are online and actively playing. Even so, having a driver assigned to each one greatly increases a cab’s ability to generate profits.
Cab drivers are not as easy to acquire as other resources in Idle Taxi Tycoon. You can purchase random ones from the shop using gems, which are a premium currency, and some will be provided to you following your natural progression in your business expansions and developments. Drivers come with different rarities and types or classes but given the amount of challenge it takes to secure one more than what you need, you will learn to appreciate every cab driver in your fold.
Each driver comes with different stats to begin with, which can be upgraded with each level up. Drivers belonging to a higher rarity will typically have better stats to begi9n with and have a higher level cap than their lower grade counterparts. You need coffee to upgrade a driver and each new level reached comes with a boost in one specific stat.
Beyond levelling drivers up, you can also increase their star grade. This, however, requires extra copies of driver cards, which you can also randomly obtain from chest purchases in the shop or through in-game rewards.
With a limited number of drivers in your employ, especially at the start of your taxi empire’s operations, it would seem rather likely that you would want to upgrade each one equally. However, drivers, beyond the usual routine of earning you profits as they roam the city, are also necessary to complete stages in the dash mini game.
Although investing more upgrades on drivers of a higher rarity is generally more appealing, it is best to consider spreading investments across drivers of different types. You can check the driver type by an icon at the upper left side of their portrait and these types play an important role in the dash mini game. Basically, you would want to have one beefed up driver for each type but at the same time still consider to leave some coffee for everyone else’s upgrades.
Choosing which drivers to invest in serve only as a guide for prioritization and does not equate to any of your drivers being left at level 1. It is expected that as you make progress you will earn more drivers, perhaps even better ones than the initial roster members, but even the lowest grade, lowest level drivers in your team will always have their value.
Note that each level increase for any driver leads to an increase in profits generated and it is highly unlikely that there will be a time when you have more taxi drivers available than cabs in your garage.
5. Strategize Around Dash Campaign Requirements
The dash mini game in Idle Taxi Tycoon works more like a campaign stage separate and distinct from the business operations itself. In the dash game, you basically need to form a team of drivers with enough dash power to conquer the stage’s requirements. There are 24 stages to conquer, with each one further subdivided into rounds. Each round you conquer has its own set of rewards but beating the last round, or the stage for that matter, earns you a new driver or extra cards to promote a driver you already have.
Progression through the stages in the dash campaign generally forms part of the usual objectives you accomplish. However, there are instances when you can opt to stray from objectives and push ahead the dash campaign to recruit a driver ahead of time. Not only will this help you earn more income with the cabs that will be automated but doing so will also prepare you better against the upcoming rounds and stages in the dash campaign as well.
The mechanics of the dash campaign in Idle Taxi Tycoon are pretty simple. There is a dash requirement to conquer each round indicated by the cloud-like icon. The team of drivers you select for each round also has a combined dash power. On their own, drivers may not readily be sufficient to take on the challenge at hand but if their type matches the required driver types for the round, then they will get a 2x increase in dash power.
Early on, it will be relatively easy to comply with the requirements given the available types the drivers in your employ have. At some point, however, some requirements in terms of driver type will simply be beyond what you can provide. While these conditions can seem very delimiting in some cases, you can always work around the conditions by banking more on the driver types you can comply with.
For example, you can only satisfy the conditions of 2 driver types in the set of 3. You can always opt to consider the best from among your roster for the 2 types and even boost their levels a bit if you have some coffee to spare.
Naturally, your third best driver can be considered for the remaining slot even if his or her driver type does not match the requirements. In some cases, it is okay for 1 of your assigned drivers to not get the 2x boost for the dash round so long as the 2 others who are getting the 2x boost are as pumped as possible to compensate for the third driver.
6. Take Advantage Of Freebies And Ad Boosts
Idle Taxi Tycoon certainly compensates well enough for minimal effort without the aid of extra perks and ad boosts. You actually do not even need to spend an hour or more online continuously as you can always earn idle rewards up to a full hour while you are offline and away from the game.
Progress is tremendously fast in the early part of your business adventure and even as upgrade costs across the cabs, facilities, and drivers increase the higher the upgrade level goes, it will hardly be felt as much given that your profit should presumably increase along with it as well.
Idle Taxi Tycoon provides a plethora of perks for players to earn more beyond what their taxi empire actually earns. Although most of these come in the form of ad boosts, there are also added income you can earn without having to play a single ad.
One of the types of expansions you make in Idle Taxi Tycoon relates to being able to operate in more areas around the city. Unlocking new areas cost cash, but doing so boosts profits for customers picked up in those areas and also enable you to acquire higher grade drivers from chests in the shop.
If you are too busy tending to different upgrades within your taxi company as well as tending to your cabs and drivers, it may become difficult to notice some customers spread around the city. You can easily spot them with a cash bubble above their heads and if you click on the cash bubbles, you will earn instant cash as rewards.
Make it a habit as well to claim a daily reward from the shop which is an extra full hours’ worth of offline rewards. Given that you can only claim this incentive once a day, and that your offline rewards presumably grow each time an upgrade is purchased, it is best to claim this towards the end of your session for the day. In case of doubt on whether you will be able to log back in again for the day, then it is recommended to grab it there and then.
When it comes to video ads, there are no ads in Idle Taxi Tycoon that will play without your permission and each one forms part of their ad boost feature. The most important of these ad boost features, and the one we recommend you always take advantage of, is the 2x income multiplier that can be activated at the bottom of the screen.
Each video ad you play will give you a 2x profit boost for 15 minutes and you can stack up this boost for 2 full hours. Note that this boost also applies to idle income earned so we recommend that you rack up at least an hour of the boost before you go offline and leave the game.
There is also a cash icon that randomly appears at the right side of the screen and clicking on it will present you with instant cash. This is called the VIP passenger feature and the amount of cash to earn seems to increase based on your progression and needs. For the most part, what we receive from this offer will always be able to suffice for you to afford a appending upgrade, making it also important to take advantage of.
Usually below the VIP incentive is a random ad boost opportunity that can also double the speed of your cabs for a limited period of time. This basically equates to an increase in profits over time as well but what makes it better is that the income increase it gives you can work in tandem with the 2x profit multiplier if you chose to activate it as well.
Rewards from clearing the dash campaign rounds, except the drivers at the last round can be doubled as well if you choose to play an ad for them. While the cash rewards might not be as attractive, it is recommended that you take the opportunity when the rewards given are gems. Given how difficult it is to earn premium currency in the game and how premium currency is the only way to purchase new drivers from the shop, you should always take an offer for more of them.
Another very appealing ad boost reward comes from offline incentives. You can rack up offline rewards for a full hour and the amount you receive can be doubled if you opt to play a short video ad upon your return. This ad boost is certainly well worth it if you went offline for close to or over an hour.
Additionally, what we typically experience with this particular ad boost is that sometimes video ads will not play but you will still be able to acquire double rewards.
7. You Can Play Idle Taxi Tycoon Offline
Idle Taxi Tycoon is one of the few games nowadays that can still be played without an internet connection. There are actually neither cooperative nor competitive contents that require internet connection and all the games basic features and content rely only on the data it installs on your device.
If any, online connectivity is simply needed for you to enjoy the benefits of the ad boosts but if you want to choose to not rely on any of them or simply do not have internet access for the moment, you can still run the app and enjoy all the basic contents.
That sums up our collection of tips for Idle Taxi Tycoon. Hopefully, you learned a great deal from the tips and strategies that we shared. In case you have come up with additional tips or tricks for the game, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments!