Idle Mall Tycoon Tips: Shops, Lifts and the Lobby Queue

In most idle games you just buy the thing with the best number. A good idle mall tycoon adds a second question: can your building actually handle the crowd you are buying? These idle mall tycoon tips are built around Market Tower, our free shopping tower game, where an empty ten-floor tower turns into the busiest mall in town. Most of the ideas also work in other management games.

In Market Tower, Rumana, the tower's manager, hands you the keys. Each floor has one category and three shop units: phones on the first floor, then fashion, shoes and bags, electronics, a food court, beauty, books and toys, jewellery, sports and finally home goods. Along the way you meet tenants like Kabir Bhai with his televisions, Shirin Apa and her sarees, and Babu, who runs the food court.

Rent first, level second

At the start, every coin goes into shops. Tap the tower to guide the first visitors, rent the Phone Corner, then the Case & Cover shop and the Repair Desk. When all three units of a floor are rented, the floor is full and the next one opens.

A simple rule works well in the first hour:

• A new shop is almost always the best buy. Each new shop earns far more than the one before it.
• Between new shops, buy levels in your newest shop.
• Save for level 25 on a shop when you get close: that level doubles its income and gives it a deluxe look.

Understand the crowd

This is what makes Market Tower different. Every shop level brings visitors, and the crowd bar under the tower shows two numbers: how many visitors want to come each minute, and how many of them the tower actually serves.

Visitors arrive through the car park and ride the lifts up. The tower can carry only as many people as the smaller of the two allows. Everyone else waits in the lobby, and you can watch that queue grow when you fall behind.

Why does it matter? Each shop earns a small part of its coins as rent, which it pays whatever happens. The bigger part comes from sales, and sales only come from served visitors. A tower serving half its crowd earns little more than half the sales it could.

Lifts or parking: fix the one that is full

When the served share drops, the crowd bar says what is wrong: "lifts full" or "parking full". The Tower tab marks the same upgrade in pink.

• Upgrade the one that is full. Upgrading the other does nothing until both are short.
• Alternate. Lifts and parking grow at the same pace, so they tend to fill up one after the other.
• Don't overbuild. At 100% served, extra capacity earns nothing. Go back to shops.

A good rhythm is to buy shop levels until the served share drops, upgrade the bottleneck, and repeat. Players who keep the tower near 100% served grow much faster than players who only buy shops.

Price wars: a crowd on one floor

Every so often two tenants on your busiest floor start a price war. The crowd bar turns into an offer: let it run, or stop it.

If you let it run, that floor gets twice the crowd for five minutes, but its shops pay only half the rent. That is a good deal when your lifts and parking have room for the extra visitors, and a bad one when the tower is already full, because the new crowd only makes the lobby queue longer. Look at the served share before you choose.

Power cuts and the generator

Once the third floor is full, power cuts start to happen now and then. The lights go out on every floor above your generator's level, and without a generator even the lifts stop.

• One generator level keeps the lifts running and the first floor open.
• Each extra level keeps one more floor open, from the bottom up.
• Your lowest floors are your oldest shops, so the first few levels are enough early on. Add more as the tower grows.

The hint at the top of the tower warns you a little before a cut, so you can buy a generator level in time.

Floor promotions and the roof

The Tower tab also lists floor promotions. Each one doubles the income of a whole floor, which is often worth more than many shop levels. Promote your best floors first.

When all ten floors are full, the Rooftop Garden appears. It doubles the coins from everything in the tower, so it is the big goal of every run.

A new tower in a new area

After the roof, look at the Area tab. Building a new tower starts the shops, lifts and coins again, in the next area of the city: Old Town, Riverside, Uptown, Lakeside and Airport Road, each with its own skyline. You keep your Brand Stars, and each star adds 2% to all your coins for good.

A good moment to move is when the stars on offer are large compared with what you already have. Your second tower grows much faster than the first.

Play at your own pace

Your tenants keep selling while the game is closed, for up to eight hours. A short visit to collect coins, rent a shop and fix the bottleneck is a complete session.

If you enjoy games like this, also try Bazar Empire with our idle market tycoon tips, or the cosy Cha Adda with our tea stall clicker tips. You can find more in the idle games and strategy games categories, and signed-in players can read how GamesYap points work.

FAQ

What should I buy first in Market Tower?

Rent the Phone Corner, then the other two shops on the first floor. A new shop is almost always the best buy. In between, buy levels in your newest shop, and upgrade the lifts or parking when the crowd bar says they are full.

Why are my sales low even with many shops?

Your tower is probably serving only part of its crowd. Check the crowd bar: if it says lifts full or parking full, upgrade that one. Sales only come from visitors who actually get in.

Should I let price wars run?

Let them run when your served share is high and your lifts have room. The busy floor then sells much more. If the tower is already full, stop the price war, because the extra crowd would only wait in the lobby.

How do I stop power cuts from hurting?

Buy a generator. One level keeps the lifts and the first floor open, and every extra level keeps one more floor open. The power always comes back after a few minutes.

Is Market Tower free?

Yes. Market Tower is free to play in your browser on phones, tablets and computers, with nothing to download or buy. Coins only exist inside the game.