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I think I need people to explain to me like I’m 5 y/o how to properly play this game. For the longest time I play by just buying random airport and bopping around. I don’t understand layovers so everyone is flying to their wanted destinations. I can never purchase the level 2 and 3 planes because I can’t make the flights profitable. How do I play this game for real?
I sold all my airports to start from scratch in North America and started making Denver my HQ. Some please dumb down how to use layovers to make flights profitable and actually build my way up. What strategies am I missing? Do I just fly people to random airports elsewhere to layover there then bundle them together to fly to the actual destination? Am I supposed to fly them to one place to layover and hope other people need to go to the same location? What the hell am I doing? Haha what does an HQ even do?? I swear I’m a smart person but sometimes this game makes me feel so dumb.
So in North America, I have St. Louis as my HQ. Although, I do have 2 planes that I’d like to go across the Pacific but their range is too short even when upgraded. And they are both Class 3 planes. If I make Honolulu an HQ, they can reach. Should I do that or stick with St. Louis?
Opened the app for the first time in 2 years the other day and want to commit energy to it. Right now I'm just buying whichever airports the spirit calls me towards and getting planes at random. It's fun, but I'd like a focus. Currently on level 8. Thanks!
Over the years I've tried a number of strategies in Pocket Planes, with differing levels of success.
There may be technically more optimised strategies, but where most fell down for me is how easy they were to pick-up-and-play at any given moment. Hubs, double-hubs, and strategies like that felt like they REQUIRED a lot of play in order to feed the hubs, otherwise planes were just sat waiting.
The strategy I now use is super easy to follow, easy to pick up and play for short or long stretches - and is very profitable for both cash and bux. I thought I might share it in case anyone currently playing the game is also looking for a super easy to follow play style.
Map
I simply have the following 1 route: Los Angeles > Chicago > New York > London > Paris > Istanbul > Tehran > Delhi > Dhaka > Guangzhou > Shanghai > Tokyo.
Planes
I have 2 types of plane: 16 x Sequoia/Cyclones and 6 Aeroeagles. The 16 main planes simply pick up a full load and take it to the next stop along the route. When it lands, I unload all and see if I can fill the plane to a single destination. If not, I carry on the process by picking up a full load towards one of the directions.
Eventually, these large planes can take a full load and drop it off at a single destination for the 25% bonus. Overall and on average, this nets around 8k per hour in the logs.
This works because although a lot of flights make no money, the final flight that IS full, makes a LOT - so on average it works out fine.
The smaller Aeroeagles do similar but focus WAY more on bux. If there's bux jobs, they get picked up every time and dropped off at the next stop (unless it can fill a plane to that destination - which happens far more frequently given the smaller capacity).
Bigger planes can often skip less ideal cities (like going New York straight to Istanbul) if the load is suitable.
Why This Works
The reason I love this stategy is the following:
No plane ever sits empty and always contributes to the next full flight for SOMETHING
Very easy to pick up and play after breaks
No having to remember or check which jobs a plane can or should be picking up
Easy to add events to this; I often join global events that are relatively near the route and add a couple of kangaroos (if class 1) to build those up.
Pictured are my airports and the planes I have out. SA serves South America, mostly Recife-Lima and back. NY serves the eastern US, LA serves the west. PL are the planes i havent decided where to go with yet lol. TC are transcontinental, an artifact from when my only C3/hubs were NY and LA, but now they just bounce around the C3s (the Aeroeagle and Pearljet mostly to LA-Lima rn)
My most immediate thought is to clean up the US a bit, probably get rid of Atlanta and Dallas. Maybe Phoenix too? My planes spend a lot of time waiting to fill, i feel like that would help. Anyway. Would appreciate any thoughts as to my next move or two :)
Edit: filled my empty plane slot with an Equinox-P for South America
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I have been playing off and on for years but always have gone with the line strategy. With the round world update; it looks like Hub and Spoke is the better strategy to make money and bux. I am currently at level 37 and working my way through. I mainly use here and YouTube to look for strategies; but haven't really seen a newer set that deals with being able to now go around the world. Does anyone know where to find a newer strategy guide?
Started playing again after the around the world update and I’m loving it so far.
I’m following the bux hording strat from Simon Cook on YT. London is becoming my HQ(about halfway done) and I use Paris as well to keep some coin profit. (I did see a post where Hawaii was the HQ and they split from Asia and America flights. That seems very appealing as well well done to you on that one pilot!)
I’m using a fleet of 15 aeroeagle - M and I’m torn on the 16th slot. I have a starship and a Concorde and my question is which is more useful at this stage of the game. Do I use the starship to help clear out London faster when it’s clogged up with layovers? Or do I use the Concorde for the increased size? Both seem great in my opinion and im not opposed to buying another slot to run both.
Class 3 planes cannot even fly to Anchorage and I don’t have it as an HQ. There are other skins for class 1 airports and I just don’t see the point. Unless they are layovers, but it seems like a lot of workaround for 25% savings
ATL and DFW are 2 of the top 4 busiest airports in the world with ATL at the top. They absolutely should be Class 3’s. As well as ANC being a cargo hub for all over the world. I just think that would be a tad more realistic to the airport class designation rather than just population.
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Hello! I just started and I'm level 5 with 5 planes or so, I'm not quite sure how this game works. Should I just be buying as many airports as I can in the beginning?
Hello all. I just reached level 40. I have a good route network and so on. However I’m debating if I should have fewer airports with the goal being that more jobs spawn for the ones I have. Or just have many lvl 3 and some lvl two.
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