Sprocket Shop

What is Sprocket Shop?

Sprocket Shop is a hands-on repair game. Customers walk up to your counter with something broken: a flat tire, a cold toaster, a wall clock that keeps stopping, a radio that only hisses. Every repair is a short chain of steps you do with your finger or mouse, and every step gets a grade. Do them well and the customer leaves happy with a big tip.

Between open days you spend what you earned on gear, skills, staff, decor and new rooms. The garage slowly turns into a real shop, then you move up through six locations, from the Elm Street Garage to the Festival Repair Tent. It's free, it runs in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and there's nothing to download.

How to play an open day

Tap Open the shop to start a day. You get 3 minutes on the clock. Customers arrive at your benches with a picture ticket above their head showing what they brought, and a bar under it showing how patient they are. The bar goes green, then yellow, then red.

1. Tap a ticket to start that repair. You can only work on one thing at a time.
2. Play each step on the big workbench. The step name and a one-line hint sit at the bottom of the screen.
3. When the last step is done you see the repaired item working, with 1 to 3 stars.
4. The customer pays, tips and leaves. Tap the next ticket.

People you aren't working on lose patience at full speed. The person whose job is on your bench doesn't lose any, and everyone else drains about half as fast while you're busy. If someone's bar runs out, they leave unhappy and your combo resets. When the clock hits zero the door closes, but you still finish the jobs already on your benches.

Your first day is a gentle tutorial with two customers and no clock. A hand shows you the motion the first time you meet each step, and you can skip it by just doing the step.

The 12 repair steps

Every job is built from the same 12 steps, so getting better at one step helps across dozens of jobs.

Controls on phone and computer

On a phone or tablet everything is a tap, a hold or a drag on the workbench. On the hub you drag sideways to look around your shop.

On a computer the mouse works exactly like a finger. There's also a full keyboard path:

• 1 to 6 start the repair at that bench, Space picks the most impatient customer.
• Find the fault and Swap: arrow keys move a blue ring between parts, Space picks it.
• Unscrew and Tighten: hold Left or Right, release in the green for Tighten.
• Pry, Pump, Solder, True and Test: Space works as the tap or hold.
• Tune: arrows move the dial, release or Space to lock it.
• Oil and Polish: hold Space. The keyboard version tops out at Great, so use the mouse when you want Perfect.
• Esc pauses.

Stars, prices and tips

Each step scores Perfect, Great, Good or Oops. Your stars come from the average across all steps of the job: a high average earns 3 stars, a decent one 2, anything else 1. A 3 star job pays 30% over the base price and a 1 star job pays 30% under it.

Tips are where speed matters. A tip scales with the stars and with how much patience the customer had left when you finished, and it grows with your combo. Every repair with 2 or more stars adds to the combo, and combos of 3, 5, 8, 12, 16 and 20 pay a Hot streak bonus on top.

Prices also go up for jobs that match your location's specialty (20%), the day's theme (20%, shown in a banner like Bikes Day), the season, and your mastery of that job. Fix the same job with 3 stars 3, 8 and 15 times to earn Bronze, Silver and Gold mastery, worth 10%, 20% and 35% more on every future repair of it.

Quiet Bench, Relaxed shop and events

The Quiet Bench is the calm mode. Pick any job you've unlocked from the job book and fix it with no clock and no customers. It pays half the normal price plus a little reputation, and it's the best place to learn a new step or chase 3 stars for mastery.

Relaxed shop is a setting in the pause menu. Customers never run out of patience, the pump and pry bar stop before they can break things, and the day ends after a set number of customers instead of a clock. Relaxed days pay about 15% less.

From reputation 3 on, open days can bring a surprise: a rush after the hill race, school bike day, a thunderstorm of broken radios, a market day, a rainy day, a visit from the local paper or a toy fair. Inspectors and the Mayor also drop in. An inspector wants 3 stars and pays a big reputation bonus if you deliver. Later you'll also see mystery objects that pay double.

Daily Challenge and leaderboards

The Daily Challenge is the same 2 and a half minute shop for everyone in the world that day: the same customers, the same jobs, in the same order, at 4 benches. Your gear and skills don't count here, so it's a fair test of hands.

Your score is the coins you earn, plus 10 points for every 3 star repair, plus 50 if nobody walks out. The first run each day also pays your shop real coins. Play again as often as you like, but replays only pay when you beat your best. Scores post to the Daily leaderboard, your reputation posts to the Rating board, and playing on consecutive days builds your streak.

Growing your shop

Reputation comes from every repair (more for more stars) and levels you up. New levels unlock jobs, gear, rooms and locations. Here's roughly how the first hour goes:

• Floor Pump (40 coins) right after your first day. It opens flat tires, which come in constantly.
• Second Bench at reputation 2 so two customers can wait at once.
• Truing Stand and Tool Wall at reputation 3. The Tool Wall means one fewer turn on every screw.
• Soldering Iron at 4 opens toasters, kettles, lamps and fans. Polish Cloth at 5 and the Parts Wall (one fewer decoy in every tray).
• Watchmaker Loupe at 6 for clocks and toys, plus your first hire, Pim the apprentice, who does unscrew and tighten steps for you.

There are 10 kinds of gear with 3 tiers each, and every tier makes its steps more forgiving. Eight skills (Keen Eye, Steady Torque, Nimble Fingers, Electronics, Wheel Sense, Shine, Speed and Customer Trust) take one point per reputation level, and finishing all three daily goals gives a bonus point. Staff earn coins while you're away, up to 2 hours' worth.

The six locations are the Elm Street Garage, Corner Fix-It (reputation 8), Market Square Shop (15), Old Train Depot (22), City Workshop (30) and the Festival Repair Tent (39). Each pays more per job, has its own customers and specialty, and can be renovated five times for extra reputation and prices.

Regulars and signature jobs

Eleven regulars visit with a gold star over their head: Ines, Milo and Grandpa Theo at the garage, then Priya, Chef Bo, Lena, Nadia, Mr. Okafor, Dr. Hale, Sam and Mayor Quill as you move up. Fix their things with 2 or more stars and they tell you a bit more of their story on visits 1, 3 and 5. On the fifth visit they teach you their signature job, like Grandpa Theo's Mantel Radio, which pays far more than a normal repair.

Tips and strategy

• Buy the Floor Pump first. Flat tires are cheap to learn and come in all day.
• Take the reddest ticket next, not the newest. A walkout costs you the whole job and your combo, while a slightly slower tip costs very little.
• On Tighten, the green band is closer than it feels. Ease off as the meter nears it, and remember you can stop dragging and lift your finger to lock the torque.
• On Pump, a full press adds a big puff and a quick tap adds a small one. Use full presses to get close, then short taps to nudge the needle into the band.
• On Find the fault, read the clue before you tap. A wrong tap costs more than the second you spend reading.
• On Solder, don't wiggle. Moving your finger while you hold costs points even when your timing is perfect.
• Use the Quiet Bench to grind mastery on jobs from your location's specialty. A Gold job pays 35% more forever.
• Spend skill points on the step that costs you the most stars. Steady Torque helps almost every job, since nearly every repair has screws.
• Hire Pim before the Parts Runner. Apprentice steps come up in almost every job, and the extra speed saves more tips.

Questions