You are standing in a snowbound processing yard with a knife, a bucket and a pile of potatoes that is taller than the hut. The game does not explain much, because the job does not explain much either. This page is the explanation.
The loop in one sentence
Take a potato from the pile, peel it by hand with the knife, and put the peeled potato into the water. Repeat until the pile is gone. Everything else — the shop, the machines, the crane, the storm — exists to make that sentence shorter.
Walk to the pile
The pile sits in the yard, open to the sky. Potatoes near the edge are the easy ones; the pile collapses toward you as you take from it, which is free physics and free labour.
Pick one up
Use the interact key. You carry one potato at a time at the start. Do not fight the physics — grab an edge potato, not one under the mountain.
Peel it
Put it on the board and cut the skin away with the knife. Thin cuts are the point: the game tracks waste, and a thick cut turns food into rubbish. Rotate the potato with the mouse and work around the eyes rather than through them.
Toss it in the water
Peeled potatoes go into the water channel, not back on the pile. A peeled potato left on the board is a potato that has not been counted.
Repeat until the quota moves
The HUD shows the quota. When the counter moves you know the potato was accepted: peeled, clean enough, and in the water.
What actually counts as a finished potato
The game is strict about two things: skin and delivery. A potato must be clean enough to pass, and it must reach the water. The Quota achievement — “Peel every last potato” — confirms the pile is finite, not endless. You are not farming a spawner; you are emptying a yard.
| State | Counts? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Peeled, in the water | Yes | This is the only state that matters. |
| Peeled, on the board | No | Pick it up and throw it in. |
| Partially peeled | No | Finish the eyes and the last spots by hand. |
| Peeled by a machine | Yes, once processed | Machines output into the channel; check the outlet. |
| Dropped in the snow | No | Retrieve it. Snow does not clean potatoes. |
Based on the store description, the Quota achievement and the 1.0.2 patch notes on machine hoppers and the water channel.
The first three purchases
Money comes from completed work, and the equipment window is where it goes. The shop is the metal shutter with the crate stencil on it — the sign above reads ПУНКТ ВЫДАЧИ СНАРЯЖЕНИЯ, the equipment issue point. You do not need to read Russian to use it: the upgrade cards show what changes.
- A better knife first. Every second you save per potato is multiplied by the whole pile. The knife is the only upgrade that touches every single potato.
- Carrying capacity second. The bucket and then the wheelbarrow cut the walk between pile, board and channel. The 1.0.2 notes confirm that potatoes in a bucket or wheelbarrow now return to the pile on load, so the game expects you to use them as buffers.
- Water channel speed third. The channel has multiple speed levels, and 1.0.2 made the last two slightly faster. If peeled potatoes are piling up at the inlet, the channel is your bottleneck, not your knife.
How a shift is structured
The game opens with a warm-up shift — the Warmed Up achievement is awarded for finishing it — and then the real quota begins. Ranks appear at the start of a new shift; 1.0.2 fixed the wrong rank showing there, which tells you ranks are tied to shift progress rather than to a separate menu.
Later, a storm arrives. 1.0.2 mentions “the storm's chill and the free flamethrower” appearing early on old saves, so the flamethrower is a scripted gift tied to the storm, not a shop item. Do not plan a build around it before the weather turns.
What to read next
If the loop is clear, read the peeling technique page — it is where the time actually goes. If you are already bored of manual work, jump to the upgrade ladder. If you want the story without spoiling the endings, the letters page is safe until the last section.