The latest game from Codigames is as addictive and immersive as their hotel sim game. Prison Empire Tycoon lets you manage the biggest and the most infamous prisons from around the world. You start your journey with a low security correctional facility, where inmates are somewhat easy to control until they start rioting. You will have to take care of their needs, improve various facilities to keep them cheerful and manage finances to earn more profits. You will also need to make sure that there are no internal conflicts, guards are well-equipped and maximum prisoners are reformed on a day-to-day basis.
As you unlock high-security prisons, you will find that managing them won’t be easy. Our beginner-level Prison Empire Tycoon guide will help you manage jails, earn maximum revenue from each cell, improve security and unlock high-security prisons.
Contents
Pay attention to the Prison Schedule
The first step in managing a prison effectively is knowing its strict schedule. You can view the activity schedule by tapping on the small “i” or info button beside the time on the top-left corner of the screen.
The time and current activity are shown on the upper-left corner of the screen. Knowing the entire schedule will help you keep an eye on prisoners and their stress levels or gauges as they complete those activities.
Here are the important parts of the activity schedule that will help you pay attention to prisoners’ day-to-day activities and make proper decisions to keep them cheerful and contented:
Prisoners sleep between 12 AM – 6 AM.
They are kept isolated in the cells thrice, between 6AM – 8AM, 3:30 PM – 7:30 PM and 10:30 PM – 12AM. This is the right time to make sure every item in the cell has the required items installed. These items will increase their hygiene, comfort and entertainment gauges as well as increase profits.
Prisoners take a shower between 8AM and 10AM. Have more bathroom facilities, such as showers and washbasins to improve hygiene.
They go to the prison yard for outdoor activities between 10AM and 12:30 PM.
Receive their meals in the dining hall twice between 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM and 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM. Before they take their meals, ensure there is enough seating available so that no inmate has to wait for their meal. Also, max out servers so that food is distributed to the inmates faster. Hungry prisoners don’t like waiting and could mean trouble.
New prisoners arrive three times in a day depending on the availability of cells – 8AM to 9AM, 3PM – 4PM and 10PM – 11PM. If there are no free cells, no prisoner will enter the entrance.
Laundry Room (12 AM to 4 AM) – Make sure you have built the laundry room. Prisoners will need clean clothes after they take a shower. Max out the number of washing machines so that the staff deliver clothes to all prisoners.
Wearing clean clothes will ensure their hygiene level does not decrease quickly. Between 12 AM and 4 AM, cleaning staff will wash prisoner’s clothes to make sure they are clean. Good hygiene also ensures their health does not decrease faster.
Deliver Clothes (4 AM to 7PM)- Cleaning staff will deliver clothes to the shower area behind the cells. After taking a shower, prisoners will wear those clean clothes, which will surely affect the hygiene level and ultimately their stress level in a positive way.
Exit (7 AM to 8 AM): When prisoners are kept isolated in their cells, some or all of them who have served their sentence will leave the prison. Their exit will also make way for new prisoners who will arrive in the morning between 8 AM and 9 AM. You will get paid for every inmate leaving the prison.
You won’t find any schedule for janitors, i.e. those who clean the prison premises. They usually appear cleaning cells early in the morning, before noon, in the evening and at night.
The creators of this game have created another crime-themed game. Check out our latest guide:
Increase Cell Bonus
One of the best ways to make money in Prison Empire Tycoon is to increase cell bonus. You can do this by purchasing and upgrading items in each inmate’s cell. Try to max out the number of cells before purchasing items. Hire builders to build new cells.
You will earn income every hour from each cell if you add more items to it. This will not only increase the income, but also uplift the moods of prisoner as these items boost their entertainment, comfort and hygiene levels.
Each cell can house a certain number of inmates. However, the earnings per hour of a cell has nothing to do with the number of inmates it has. Cell bonus is based on the items purchased and upgraded.
Start with upgrading beds and toilets. Max out upgrades for these two. They will increase cell bonus drastically.
Purchase desk, radio and bookshelf. They will also increase bonuses. Max out upgrades to get max income from these items.
Finally, you can purchase items that need energy only and only if you have enough energy. Start with installing lightbulb, followed by ventilation and TV in each cell. Lightbulb requires 1 energy, whereas TV and ventilation requires 2 units of energy each.
Check the energy numbers on the top of the screen (lightning icon). If you don’t have enough energy, tap the orange plus sign beside energy units to reach the “electric generator” room and purchase batteries/upgrade them.
If you require quick money, then make sure you get a prison loan by watching an advert. This offer appears on the right side of the screen.
How to Improve Prison Security
Having fewer guards will make it easy for prisoners to escape. You should not only recruit a good number of guards, but also upgrade guard equipment. Keep the hourly income and wages in mind when you start upgrading equipment. To recruit more guards, tap on the employee button on the lower-right corner of the screen. Pay attention to the wages of each guard before hiring them. You will face losses if the hourly wages of all employees are more than the hourly income.
An ill-equipped guard will lack motivation to chase after and capture an escaping inmate. Tap on the “Guards Room”. You can easily reach this room by tapping on Statistics (Bar Graph) > Services. Tap on the “i” beside services and scroll down to find the name of that room. Now tap on the eye icon beside the room.
Try to purchase/max out upgrades of all items under guards’ room to improve the health of guards and overall security of the prison.
Upgrading “Security Equipment” (Shoes icon) improves your guard’s speed. This will make guards run faster while chasing inmates.
Upgrading control room and security cameras improves prison security, leading to less fights among individual inmates. This will also improve a prisoner’s the security need, which is one of the six needs. The security need has a shield icon. You can find this in the Prisoners stats page. Tap on the prisoner button on the lower-right corner of the screen to access this page.
If you want to lose fewer guards during a riot, make sure you purchase and max out all lockers. You should upgrade “Reinforced Security Equipment” to boost all guards’ health.
Besides improving prison security, you will also have to improve the overall stress level of all prisoners. Do read Prison Empire Tycoon Tips: How to Avoid a Riot to minimize fights and improve their stress levels and health.
How to Read Stats
In Prison Empire Tycoon, you must pay attention to stats to know your daily balance, information about cells, services that require electricity and water, number of employees and the wages you have to pay to your employees.
Tap on the statistics button on the upper-right side of the screen. It has a bar graph icon.
The “balance per hour” shows the net income you will be earning per hour. Net income = total income per hour – wages per hour.
Daily balance is divided into several income streams (in green) minus wages (in red).
State subsidy is fixed and varies from one prison to another. You will obtain this subsidy per hour.
Cell bonus shows earnings per cell, per hour. Check our cell bonus guide in this article to know how to increase income from each cell.
Prisoner subsidy: The subsidy amount is based on the number of prisoners in your prison. The state pays a set fee for each prisoner per hour. You will receive 5 per prisoner. If you have 10 inmates, you will receive total prisoner subsidy of 50 per hour (10×5). This excludes special prisoner subsidy as it carries higher fee than normal prisoners. In Malmadre prison, state has set a fee of 40 for special prisoner.
Wages: Wages depend on the number of employees hired by you. You can hire employees, such as guards, janitors, cooks etc., by tapping on the employee portrait on the lower-right corner of the screen. Wages are deduced from the total hourly income every hour.
Balance per hour = state subsidy + cell bonus + prisoner subsidy – (wages).
Under Statistics, you will also find detailed info about cells, services that require energy and water and the number of employees currently hired.
Cells: Tap on the “info” or “i” button beside “CELLS” in the statistics section. Now tap on the “i” once again to check stats for each cell under “Modules”. You will know the number of prisoners lodged, earnings and the energy and water consumed in each cell. Tap on the eye and the game will directly take you to that cell.
Services: Tap on the “i” beside services to check which facility consumes energy and water.
Employees: Shows how much you are spending on wages on each person employed in your prison.
Creators of this marvelous idle game have come up with a new “tycoon” title. Read our Guide to TV Empire Tycoon.
Hit the Earnings Multiplier to Double Profits
Soon after upgrading cells to earn more cell bonuses, you will notice that your hourly income will also increase. You can see the amount (in green) just below your total earnings in the top-left corner of the screen.
After purchasing all required items and upgrading them in each cell, tap on the x2 button on the bottom of the screen to double your hourly income. Tap on the “Video” button to watch a short ad and double your earnings for 15 minutes.
If you want to keep your earnings doubled for a long period of time, watch ads until the maximum cumulative time reaches 2 hours. You will have to watch 8 video ads to keep earning x2 profits for two hours at a stretch.
Upgrade Batteries in the Electric Generator Room
Not enough energy? No problem. You can easily provide more electricity in Prison Empire Tycoon by purchasing more batteries and upgrading them.
You will need energy if you want to purchase and upgrade certain items in each room. Always check the available energy on the top of the screen before purchasing items that consumes electricity. The numbers beside the lightning symbol show the available number of units. Below you will also see water units denoted by a blue water droplet.
Tap on the plus sign beside the lightning symbol on the top of the screen to go to the “electric generator” room.
Batteries are cheaper than Generator upgrades, but they will offer less energy. If your income is low, invest in batteries and upgrade them to get +5 energy. Once you have enough money, you can upgrade the generator to get +50 energy.
Items that require energy are:
Cells: Ventilation, TV, Light
Dining Hall: TV
Laundry Room: Washing machine
Kitchen: Certain Stoves, Fryer
Infirmary: Certain Infirmary beds, Defibrillator
Prison Yard: Phones
How to Unlock More Prisons
In Prison Empire Tycoon, you will need to reform a certain number of inmates to unlock new prisons.
Example: You will need to rehabilitate 640 inmates to unlock the Williamson Federal Prison.
The total number of reformed inmates can be seen on the upper-right corner of the screen, just below the prisoners count.
Rehabilitation or reform gets done automatically after certain in-game days. It may take a day or two to reform your current batch of inmates. When it happens, clocks appear above prisoners who are going to leave your prison. Guards arrive at each cell to escort them to the admissions area where they leave the prison.
Check the schedule to know when prisoners leave. It’s between 7AM to 8AM, once a day.
Make sure that all inmates’ needs are met, try to avoid riots and they will be reformed quickly, thereby letting you reach your goal faster to unlock a new prison. Tap on the map icon on the top-right corner of the screen to see a list of prisons.
Last Updated on December 15, 2020 by Jude
What prison comes after cybertomb? I’ve been waiting and still nothing.
How can you have 50 Guards to 96 prisoners on the Williamson fed prison??? does not make sense
What do I do if I dont have the twitter icon to be able to enter codes?