Progression Tips

Meta-Progression Overview

Progression in Stamp Collector Simulator happens on two levels:

1. Within a run — collect stamps, build infrastructure, fight adversaries
2. Across runs — earn XP, level up, unlock perks and achievements

Even if a run ends in death, you keep your XP, perks, and achievements. Each run makes you stronger for the next one. See the XP & Levels and Perks guides for details.

Early Game (0–1,000 Stamps)

Your priorities in order:

1. Start Bid Stamps — auto-run for passive stamp income (7/cycle)
2. Start Flip Stamps — auto-run for passive money income (140/cycle)
3. Save for a rig upgrade — Dan’s Laptop is painfully limited
4. Buy Data Center Rack — 63,250 HDD and 4,500 RAM is a massive upgrade
5. Run more Bid Stamps copies — batch merging multiplies your income

Key Numbers

• Data Center Rack cost: check buy order price, save aggressively
• Bid Stamps break-even: immediate value since it auto-runs
• Target: get 3-5x Bid Stamps batched ASAP

Early Perk Recommendations

• Seed Capital (if unlocked) — start with 5,000 money for faster scaling
• Preemptive Strike (if unlocked) — free L1 hack spell for early Script Kiddie kill

Mid Game (1,000–10,000 Stamps)

Now you have capacity to invest in a card tree.

Choosing Your First Tree

Data Tree — best for defense and utility

• Pattern Mining factory gives steady card generation
• Entropy Wipe protects against malware
• Backtrace and Network Scan provide intelligence
• Recommended if you want a solid all-around foundation

Communications Tree — best for economy and diplomacy

• Signal Generation factory is fast (18h cycle vs 48h for Data)
• Cloud Storage frees HDD capacity
• Favor From Above grants adversary immunity
• Recommended if you want to avoid combat

Security Tree — best for offense and PvP

• Surveillance Sweep and Key Cracking factories
• Powerful hack spells for PvP dominance
• Also effective against adversaries (hack level damage)
• Recommended if you want to play aggressively

Adversary Management & SI

At this stage, adversaries start waking up and dealing SI damage:

• Script Kiddie wakes at 10,000 money or 1,000 stamps — weak, easy to kill (3 HP, ~1.3 SI/day)
• Darknet Collective wakes at 30,000 money or 3,000 stamps — aggressive (2 attacks/cycle, 36 HP, ~19 SI/day)

Kill Script Kiddie for 2 stamps + 500 money + 50 XP. The Darknet Collective is the first major SI threat — whitelist with Favor From Above or prepare to kill. At ~19 SI/day, you have roughly 5 days before death.

Late Game (10,000–100,000 Stamps)

Scaling Strategy

• Maximize batch merging — buy many copies of Bid Stamps for exponential stamp growth
• Upgrade to Superprocessor Mainframe — 128,800 HDD, 8,000 RAM
• Diversify income — don’t rely solely on Bid Stamps; add Stamp Reserve and tree rewards
• Invest in defense — more adversaries wake as your stamps grow

Adversary Tier List

Adversary	Wakes At	HP	Kill Rewards	Threat
Script Kiddie	1K stamps	3	2 stamps + 500 money	Low
Corporate Spy	5K stamps	5	5 stamps + 1,200 money	Low
Hacktivist Collective	8K stamps	8	8 stamps + 2,000 money	Medium
Ransomware Gang	80K money	16	20 stamps + 8,000 money	Medium
Cyber Police	10K stamps	12	15 stamps + 5,000 money	Medium
PLEX-9	20K stamps	18	25 stamps + 10,000 money	High
Darknet Collective	3K stamps	36	60 stamps + 40,000 money	High
Gideon	75K stamps	28	40 stamps + 25,000 money	High
The Agency	50K stamps	32	50 stamps + 30,000 money	Very High
The Overmind	500K stamps	50	100 stamps + 100,000 money	Extreme

Endgame (100,000+ Stamps)

Farming Adversaries

High-level adversaries become a significant income and XP source:

• The Agency: 50 stamps + 30,000 money + 50 XP per kill (32 HP = 4 Level 3 spells)
• Gideon: 40 stamps + 25,000 money + 50 XP per kill (28 HP = ~4 Level 3 spells)
• The Overmind: 100 stamps + 100,000 money + 50 XP per kill (50 HP = 6 Level 3 spells)

PvP Dominance

At this point, PvP becomes critical:

• Use Network Scan to find competitors
• System Breach to disrupt their production
• Banking Intrusion to drain their economy
• Buffer Overflow to destroy their infrastructure

Prestige System

Win conditions scale with prestige level: ceil(25,000 x 1.1^prestigeLevel) stamps.

Prestige	Win Condition	XP Multiplier
P0	25,000 stamps	1.0x
P1	27,500 stamps	1.2x
P2	30,250 stamps	1.4x
P3	33,276 stamps	1.6x
P5	~40,263 stamps	2.0x

Higher prestige gives a RAM penalty (-5% per level), but the XP multiplier makes leveling significantly faster.

Note: Prestige P1+ requires Root Access ($5/month subscription).

General Tips

• Log in regularly — auto-run stops after 7 days of inactivity
• Check for malware — incoming attacks drain capacity AND deal SI damage
• Monitor your SI — the IntegrityBar shows your current health. Green (70%+), yellow (30-69%), red (<30%)
• Watch the leaderboard — know who’s ahead and who might target you
• Balance offense and defense — pure offense leaves you vulnerable; pure defense slows your growth
• Multiple worlds — you can play in up to 2 worlds simultaneously for parallel progression
• Equip perks before each run — choose your loadout at the hub based on your current goals
• Achievements track progress — check the Achievements Panel to see what perk-unlocking achievements you’re close to