Lantern Cove Inn

What is Lantern Cove Inn?

Lantern Cove Inn is a hands-on hospitality game. Every job at the inn, from making up the Attic Nook to packing a picnic basket, is a short run of steps you do yourself: swipe a sheet smooth, tap the corners to tuck them, pour cocoa to the line, turn a valve into the green. Each step gets a grade, and the finished job gets one to three stars.

Around that sits the business. Every guest you serve leaves a review from one to five stars, and those reviews are your reputation. Reputation unlocks new rooms, breakfasts, services, repairs and garden jobs (64 in all, counting the ten signature jobs regulars teach you), and coins buy gear, staff, decor and five new wings. It's free and runs in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer.

How a turnover morning works

Tap Turnover morning to open the front desk. Guests walk up with a picture ticket showing what they want, and a bar under the ticket shows their patience. Blue tickets marked ROOM are rooms to make up. Tap a ticket to start that job, or tap the empty lounge to help whoever is closest to leaving.

The guest you're working for doesn't lose patience at all, and everyone else loses it at about half speed while you work. So once a job starts, take your time and get it right. After three minutes the last guests arrive, and the morning ends when the desk is clear. If someone runs out of patience they leave, give you a one star review and reset your combo.

From reputation 3 a ferry can dock partway through a morning: guests arrive twice as fast for about 24 seconds and tip 20% more. Some mornings start with an event: a storm (patient guests, and cocoa and firewood pay double), a festival weekend (services pay 50% more), a fog morning (fewer guests who linger and tip well) or a clear summer morning (picnics, bikes and boats in demand). From reputation 5 a travel writer sometimes checks in with a gold ticket. Give them three stars for a big reputation boost.

About one guest in four arrives with a wish, shown as a pink heart on their ticket and in their speech bubble, like "Extra fluffy pillows, please!". Finish their job with three stars and the wish is granted: hearts, a 30% bigger tip and a five star review. Miss it and nothing bad happens, they just get a normal review. Wishes never appear in the Daily Challenge.

Every step, and how to nail it

Each step is graded Perfect, Great, Good or Oops. The first time you meet a step, a little hand shows the motion. Here's what each one wants.

A job's stars come from the average of its steps: about 85% gets three stars and 60% gets two. Rooms visibly change as you go, from rumpled and dusty to a bright, pristine room with a towel swan on the bed.

Controls on phone and computer

On a phone or tablet everything is taps, holds and drags. On a computer the mouse does the same. The keyboard helps too: 1 to 6 pick a guest, Space helps the next guest, 1 to 3 pick a check-in card, the arrow keys turn valves and Space is the tap for timing steps. Esc pauses. On drag and swipe steps a key press only ever earns Good, so the mouse is the way to Perfect.

Reviews, tips and reputation

A three star job earns five stars if the guest still had at least about half their patience, and four if they waited longer. Two stars earn four or three. Tips grow with quality, speed and your combo: every job of two stars or more adds to the combo, and combos of 3, 5, 8, 12, 16 and 20 pay a bonus.

Do the same job to three stars 3, 8 and 15 times for Bronze, Silver and Gold mastery, worth 10%, 20% and 35% more on that job. The day's special pays double, the day's theme (Rooms Day, Breakfast Day and so on) pays 20% more, and each wing pays 20% more for its two favorite kinds of job.

Growing the inn

• Wings: the Garden Wing (reputation 7), the Boathouse (12), the Lighthouse (18), the Greenhouse Cafe (25) and Harbor House (33). Each adds rooms, its own guests and higher prices.
• Gear: eight kinds with three tiers each, from the Laundry Room to a Harbor Launch. Gear unlocks jobs and widens the windows on its steps.
• Skills: Quick Hands, Hospitality, Cooking, Fixing, Eye for Detail and Gardening, eight levels each. You get a point per reputation level, one for finishing all three daily goals, and more from masterclasses.
• Treasures: twelve little finds in three sets of four (Shore Finds, Sea Glass and Keepsakes). They turn up under the dust when you sweep a room, or at the end of a job. Every complete set is worth a skill point, and a spare copy turns into coins. See them in the Guest Book under Treasures.
• Staff: Marta the housekeeper, Pim the cook, Gus the night porter and Wren the gardener take steps off your hands. At level 3 Marta, Pim and Wren finish whole jobs on their own. They also earn while you're away, up to two hours.
• Decor and renovations: signs, lights, planters, seating, flags and paths raise reputation and change the cove. Each wing can be renovated to five stars.
• Cove projects: from reputation 16 you can fund eight projects in order, from Quay Lamps to Lantern Festoons. Each one shows up in the cove and adds a lasting bonus to tips, patience, prices or reviews.
• Lantern Festival: from reputation 20 you can sponsor a festival for reputation, and your next morning pays 50% more with better reviews. It costs a little more each time.

Quiet Hour, regulars and the Daily Challenge

The Quiet Hour is calm mode: pick any job you've unlocked and do it with no clock. It pays half price, but stars and mastery count in full, so it's the place to practice a tricky step. There's also a Relaxed inn setting in the pause menu, where guests wait forever and no step grades below Good. It's a nice way to play with younger kids.

Ten regulars come back with little stories, like Marisol the birdwatcher and Captain Ada with her soaked crew. Serve them with two stars or more and they count a visit. On the fifth visit they teach you a signature job, such as the Pancake Tower or the Honeymoon Turndown.

Every day a letter arrives in the morning post: tap the Post button at the top left of the inn. Each one comes from a past guest with a small gift: coins, a treasure, and on the seventh letter a skill point. Missing a day never resets the week, the next letter just waits for you.

The Daily Challenge is a seeded morning at the cottage, the same for everyone today. Your score is the coins you earn plus 10 for each three star job, and 50 more if nobody walks out. It posts to the daily leaderboard and keeps your streak going. The first run of the day also pays coins to your inn. Replays still post scores but don't pay again. Your reputation posts to the rating board.

Tips and strategy

• Start every morning on the guest with the shortest patience bar. Tapping the lounge does that for you.
• Don't rush a step once a job has started. Your guest isn't waiting, and a three star job is worth far more than a fast two star one.
• Buy the Cleaning Cart and Toolkit early. They unlock repairs, which are short jobs that pay well.
• Put your first skill points into the skill behind your weakest step. If wiping windows keeps landing Good, that's Eye for Detail.
• Hire Marta first. She sweeps every floor, and rooms are the most common order.
• Work from the wing whose favorite jobs match the day's theme and special for a stack of bonuses.
• Practice new signature jobs in the Quiet Hour before a regular asks for them at the desk.
• Finish all three daily goals every day. The skill point is worth more than the coins.
• Take wish guests first when their patience allows. The tip and the guaranteed five star review add up fast.
• Treasures turn up about one job in six on busy mornings and one in ten in the Quiet Hour, and Marta sweeping for you does not change the odds. To finish a set, play mornings.

Questions