What is Empire?
Empire is an idle business game with its own currency. You buy businesses with Empire credits, the businesses earn while you use the forum, and you reinvest those earnings into more or stronger businesses.
Example
- You log in. Wallet: $100.
- You buy a Lemonade Stand for $25. Wallet: $75.
- You post a thread on the forum. Lemonade earns $0.63 into pending.
- Someone reacts to your post. Lemonade adds another $0.32.
- You click Cash Out. The exact pending amount moves to your wallet, cents and all.
Buying businesses
The Shop on the main page lists every business with a Buy button. Each tier unlocks once you own a few of the previous tier; the top tiers also need prestige levels.
Example
- Tier 1: Lemonade $25, Paper Route $60, Garage Sale $150, Lawn Mowing $300.
- Own all 4 → Tier 2 unlocks: Food Truck $1,000, Laundromat $3,000, Car Wash $8,000, Pawn Shop $20,000.
- Own 4 Tier 2s → Tier 3 unlocks: McDonald's, Starbucks, Subway, 7-Eleven.
- Tier 7+ (Google, Amazon, etc.) stays locked until you've prestiged.
How earnings work
Every reply you post, thread you start, and reaction you receive pays every business you own. Each business shows exactly what it pays per post — bigger and higher-level businesses pay more — and pays it to the cent. Everything collects in each business's own pending bucket until you cash it out.
A business's pay grows with its level. Levels 10, 25, and 50 are big jumps — each one doubles what it pays.
Example: where the numbers come from
- Every business shows what it pays per reply. That number depends only on the business — its size, how many you own, and its level — so the game plays the same on every forum, no matter how generous the forum's currency is.
- Threads and reactions pay in proportion to how your forum values them: right now a new thread pays 2.0× a reply, and a reaction you receive pays 1.0× a reply.
- If your admin changes those values in the currency system, the proportions shift to match.
Example: same thread, different empires
- You own a Lv 1 Lemonade Stand. Thread earns it $2.
- You own a Lv 50 Lawn Mowing. Same thread earns it about $50.
- You own both. The thread pays both — Lemonade gets $2, Lawn Mowing gets $50.
Pending and cashing out
Each business has its own pending bucket. Earnings drop in but you can't spend them until you cash them out into your wallet. Cash Out empties one bucket; Cash Out All empties every bucket at once.
Example
- End of day: Lawn Mowing pending $420, Lemonade pending $18, Paper Route pending $35.
- Click Cash Out All. Wallet: +$473. All pending buckets: $0.
- Or click Cash Out on Lawn only. Wallet: +$420. Lemonade and Paper still hold their pending.
What "Upgrade" actually does
Each business has an Upgrade button that bumps it up one level. The button shows exactly what the business pays now and what it will pay after the upgrade. Each upgrade costs more than the last, and crossing levels 10, 25, and 50 doubles the pay.
Example: Lawn Mowing milestones
- Every level adds 5% to its pay, and it doubles at 10, 25, and 50.
- Lv 9: pays $1.60 per post.
- Cross to Lv 10: pay doubles → $3.30 per post.
- Cross to Lv 25: → $9.90 per post.
- Cross to Lv 50 (max): → $30.80 per post.
The progress bar in each row
Each row has a thin bar showing your progress from level 1 to level 50, with tick marks at the milestones. The label below tells you the next milestone and what the business will pay per post when it gets there.
Example: Lemonade Stand at Lv 33
- Bar fills two thirds of the way across, sitting past the second tick (Lv 25).
- Label below reads: "Lv 33 → Lv 50 · will pay $12 per post"
- Means: the last milestone is Lv 50, where Lemonade's pay doubles to $12 per post and the business is maxed.
Marketplace (classifieds)
List any owned business for sale at any price. Other players see an estimated value next to your listing. When someone buys it, your pending earnings on that business are auto-cashed-out first so nothing's lost, then ownership transfers.
Example
- You list a Lv 35 Lawn Mowing for $50,000.
- It had $1,200 pending sitting on it from posting earlier.
- Bob buys it. Bob's wallet: -$50,000. Your wallet: +$51,200 (the sale plus the auto-cashout).
- Lawn Mowing leaves your row, joins Bob's.
Hiring managers
Once a business reaches its unlock level, hire another player to run it. From then on, their forum activity earns your business too — they keep a cut you offer (default 30%, between 10% and 50%). They have to accept the hire offer; you can fire anytime.
Example: hire Alice on a Lv 12 Lawn Mowing at 30%
- Alice posts a thread. Lawn Mowing's bonus is $100.
- Your Lawn Mowing pending: +$70.
- Alice's wallet: +$30.
- You collect passive income while Alice posts; she gets paid for her activity.
Events
Random events sweep across all players. While an event is live, every payout is multiplied by the event's value for its duration. Park your posting around live events for the biggest hauls.
The four event types
- Boom — 2× earnings, 12 hours.
- Rush Hour — 3× earnings, 2 hours.
- Weekend Bonus — 1.5× earnings, 24 hours.
- Recession — 0.75× earnings, 6 hours (the bad one).
Prestige
Once you've cashed out $100,000 over your career, the Prestige button unlocks. Prestige wipes your owned businesses and resets your career-earnings to zero, but in return you keep your wallet, gain a permanent earnings multiplier, and unlock the next tier of businesses. Each subsequent prestige stacks more multiplier and unlocks higher tiers.
Example: first prestige
- Career-earned reaches $100,000. Prestige button unlocks.
- You click Prestige. All owned businesses are wiped.
- Career-earned resets to 0. Your wallet keeps every credit it had.
- You gain a permanent +0.50× earnings multiplier on every future event.
- Tier 7 businesses (Google, Microsoft, Meta, Netflix) unlock in the Shop.