Shops and Upgrade Guide

Confirmed shop categories, cautious priority rules, and update hooks for Mixed Spirits upgrades.

Quick Answer

Steam lists a liquor store, glassware shop, fruit market, decoration and garnish store, and recipe book merchant. Exact stock, prices, unlocks, and upgrade values are not public yet, so use this as a buying-priority checklist rather than a finished economy guide.

Confirmed Shop Roles

Shop	Likely role	What to verify after release
Liquor Store	Core drink bases	Stock list, price changes, unlock timing
Glassware Shop	Glass options	Which recipes or customers require each glass
Fruit Market	Fruit and prep ingredients	Prep yields, restock timing, recipe use
Decoration & Garnish Store	Presentation options	Whether garnish affects score, tips, or recipe acceptance
Recipe Book Merchant	Recipe discovery support	Unlock costs, recipe hints, and whether it reveals secret formulas

Conservative Priority Rule

Buy what removes the nearest bottleneck. If orders are failing because you lack ingredients, prioritize stock. If correct drinks still underperform, check presentation items. If you are experimenting with secret recipes, then recipe-book tools may become more valuable. Do not publish a fixed buy order until release-build prices and rewards are known.

Upgrade Log Template

Field	What to record
Item or upgrade	Exact shop label
Cost	Currency and amount shown in the release build
Unlock condition	Day, level, recipe, or customer trigger
Effect	What changed after buying it
Priority verdict	Buy now, buy later, cosmetic, or unknown

Failure Modes

Inventing upgrade costs from screenshots or demo memory.
Assuming the demo economy matches the full release.
Combining ingredient supply, glassware, garnish, and recipes into one generic shop bucket.
Calling an upgrade “best” before measuring what problem it solves.

FAQ

Which upgrades should I buy first? That is not confirmed before release-build testing; use the bottleneck rule for now.

What can be prepared now? A row template, evidence list, and category map.

When will exact prices appear? After the full release can be played and checked.

Buying Decision Examples

Use the current page to ask the right question before spending. If you are failing because you cannot make the requested base drink, a liquor or ingredient purchase is likely more important than decoration. If customers accept the drink but rewards feel low, presentation items may deserve testing. If you are stuck discovering formulas, the recipe merchant becomes the next evidence target. These are decision examples, not final upgrade recommendations.

Post-Launch Upgrade Fields

The first full update should add a table with item name, shop, price, unlock condition, effect, and recommendation. The recommendation should explain the bottleneck it solves: ingredient supply, customer satisfaction, service speed, recipe discovery, or optional style. An upgrade with unknown effect should stay marked unknown even if the price is known.

Recommendation Labels

Use four labels when the data arrives: buy early, buy when stuck, cosmetic or comfort, and unknown. That is more useful than a vague best-upgrade claim because it tells players why the item matters. If the item only helps a specific recipe or customer type, keep that condition in the recommendation.

When To Update Priority

Change a recommendation only when the new evidence shows a real player outcome: faster service, fewer failed orders, better tips, easier recipe discovery, or cheaper restocking. Price alone is not enough to call an item useful.

If You Are Stuck

If you cannot make the requested drink, look for ingredients first. If the drink is accepted but feels under-rewarded, test glassware and garnish. If you cannot discover new formulas, check recipe-book tools. If service feels slow, wait for release-build evidence before calling any speed upgrade mandatory.

Links To Use Next

Use the ingredient hints page to decide what stock matters. Use the recipe discovery guide to separate real formula needs from experiments. Use the beginner guide if early spending is confusing.

Economy Confidence

Shop categories are confirmed; the economy is not. A price, unlock, or recommendation needs release-build evidence before it becomes a guide answer. Until then, this page uses cautious decision rules so players do not waste money on a guessed best path.

Verified Upgrade Table Queue

Column	Why it matters
Upgrade	Exact in-game item name
Cost	Prevents bad spending advice
Unlock requirement	Shows when the item becomes available
Effect	Explains the real player benefit
Recommendation	Ties the item to a problem it solves