So in trying to master this game, I am having one huge issue,

I cannot make money. at all.

I just lose money.

Any tips?

It seems there's something wrong with the way the game calculates income.

0.10c per soul, times 30,000 souls, so I should be getting 3,000c per year, just outpacing my 2,500c expense. According to the line graph though I'm only getting 12c a year.

I remember never making money as a kid, figured I just didn't understand the game back then and grabbed it the other day, lolnope no money for you.

Following in case someone comes up with a solution.

sigh apparently the information about the economy is hidden in the hint guide, of which no scans exist of.
that I could find at least.

Sad day indeed!

early advice would be to put training centres near high traffic areas to train "homegrown" angels/demons since wages are significantly lower for teh homegrown ones though having all homegrown may not be a good thing since when your reward/punishment zones produce the larger buildings the number of angel/demon employed there will drop and idle workers will riot in the opposing realm

anyroad that's all i can remember for advice to give at this time

Sounds like a good idea to try.

2 hints:
1. DON'T turn off disasters! It halves the income you get. You can do so later when your afterlife is getting crowded, but until then you have to suffer them
2. You can try by only devolping heaven or hell alone, and when one starts to make profits you can start to manage the other plane too (hint: heaven seems easier to develop than hell early on)

Apparently my previous tirade 3~ years ago on how this works was deleted (?)

To reiterate

Think Theme Park with a one time entry fee. The fee is calculated on the quality of your rides and attractions.

in detail:

1. Income is generated by souls entering your afterlife for the first time (heaven or hell). Significantly this does not include transferring from one to the other.
2. The value of this income is determined by the number of *permanent* residents you have. There is value in maxing out the beliefs of your subject world in reincarnation to reduce the operational costs early on, but this can bite you later as unless price-per-entrant reaches parity with your costs.
3. You will lose 1 penny per soul not in an attraction - this appears to be applied after one game year or so in time, but not at the end of the timer year.

There's apparently a very specific city structure for both Hell and Heavan you you NEED to set up for maximum effecency. There's a player's guide on IGN.

Hi there
I did many plays in this game with no problems making money.
Sorry for some wrong ingame names i play on another language.
1. This is NOT sim city or theme park with unlimited or easy to get money.
2.This is a game for minmaxers so dont expect to unpause and watch the show.
3.You start making money after 300 years on average so count every penny #minmaxing
4.Lets start off everything costs money per wages every year.
Wages can be reduced to have sufficient topies and train your own workforce.
Dont overdo with building structures because they need expencive workers (especially the rainbow structures)
Start off small and have your tabs with the pop view open at all times to build structures as needed.
Little tip build road with a 2x2 rainbow and a small limbo further away from the portal to prepare for your own mistakes.
5.I personnaly put directly at the start a new believe system in the embos
I let them believe in piece and lust for fast embo pop growth and less annoying wars.
I let them believe in reincarnation too so that i dont have too many structures to manage BUT karma-stations get super expensive so try this not bevore you know how you make cash.
6.One big structure is less expensive than ten smaller for the same capacity
Upgrading of the structures can be a pain as far as i know and semi random.

Thats it for now maybe i will make a proper explanaition some time or not.

A few things I remember from waybackwhen.

- Solid zones can evolve up to 3x3 structures, but generic zones can go up to 4x4. The thing is, generic zones can only hold half the population that a solid zone can, per-tile, but this only applies up to 3x3. The 4x4 generic zone can actually hold a third -more- souls per-tile than the best solid zones can. Getting them up to 4x4 can be a pita, though. And before it gets up to 4x4, you're stuck with the half-capacity problem.
- Upgrading is semi-random. There's even a "botch" chance on that roll that causes a downgrade (with immediate evictions of souls if need be). What influences this is Vibes, Angel/Demon Quality, Balance, and Diversity.
-- Desirable Vibes (good in Heaven, bad in Hell) are put out by civic structures and gifts. Note that on Easy difficulty, you can destroy a gift structure to put it down somewhere else, but on Hard it's gone permanently if you destroy it. Karma-stations and karma track anchors put out Undesirable Vibes. Many rewards/punishments put out vibes as well, but they only touch their neighbors, so it's not much of an issue.
-- Imported Angels and Demons are not only more expensive, but they're a flat 100 AQ/DQ. Homegrown Angels and Demons have an AQ/DQ based on their training, which is set by the Training Centers you build. The cheapest Training Center can accept 90% of all applicants that arrive, but doing this causes the Average AQ/DQ to creep downwards slowly, making evolution harder. The most expensive Center can choose to only accept 10% of applicants, driving the Average AQ/DQ upwards, making evolution easier. Note that wages are not impacted by AQ/DQ. So which do you want? To quickly slap together your cheap homegrown workforce that's dumb as bricks? Or to very slowly build up a crack workforce of Archangels and Archdemons? The only difference is time, and the cost of the Training Centers.
-- Balance is Processing vs Research, dealing with how many temporary and permanent souls you have in local residence. Move the slider until it's bright white and you'll be balanced. Yes this moves around over time. No, you don't have to MacroManager every time, as long as you're willing to do it yourself.
-- Diversity is tricky. The game takes a reward/punishment and looks at it's immediate neighbors (only one tile, it doesn't cross roads). If a neighbor is a different class of reward/punishment (peace vs chaste), that is high diversity. If it's the same class but a different specific type of reward/punishment, that is only a little diversity. If it's exactly the same class and type, that's no diversity. Heaven wants high Diversity. Hell wants no Diversity at all.
- Later on, your rewards/punishments start expanding in capacity by a global multiplier, based on how big your overall afterlife is. This is what really drives your Soul Rate up.

Apparently Hell has the answers to all your woes, the banking system is highly exploitable:

search for my blog fenikslied(dot)blogspot(dot)com, it's my post from the first of January, 2019. (Sorry forums don't let you post direct links).

I came up with the strategy all on my own, but posted a link to an old strategy guide I found after the fact.

Really as long as your population is growing, you'll make a profit eventually as your profits grow exponentially: The EMBO population grows exponentially (assuming adequate gates) and thus, your population in the game will too, along with your profit per soul coming in (as your afterlife grows with the EMBO population).

I'm getting about 10K cents from each of my afterlives per year, I've got about 6 banks I "owe" loans to and about 26 Mill in liquid cash, and don't owe a cent of interest. I'm playing on hard difficulty to boot. I feel good. Things only get better from here.

I felt like I had to post something after all of the failed attempts and bad advice on the forums. Also, I find the exploit 100% intentional given the tone of the game.

GET RICH WITH BLANK ATM CARD ... Whatsapp: +12623558285

I already programmed a blank ATM card to withdraw $5,000 daily. I am happy because I have already used it to get $90,000. Georg Bednorz Hackers gives these cards to help people in need. Though illegal, it is excellent, and he is not like other scammers pretending to have blank ATM cards. No one gets caught when using the card. Get yours from Georg Bednorz Hackers today! Send an email to georgbednorzhackers@gmailcom or send him a text message/WhatsApp via +1 (262) 355-8285

Contact professional hackers for;

-Cloned ATM cards

-Bitcoin ATM malware cards

-Recover any stolen or lost Bitcoin wallet or cryptocurrency

-Hack Western Union transfers, MoneyGram transfers, Bank transfers, PayPal transfers, Cash app transfers

-Spy and monitor a suspected cheating spouse's phone

-Recover any blocked or hacked social media: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Gmail, Yahoo mail, and websites.

-Upgrade your university score and grades without the knowledge of your school.