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How to play Pointless Paper
Run a paper company with friends. Work the office jobs, ship the reams, survive the quota. Build your own maps.
How to play
One shared company per room: name it, pick a logo, a slogan, and the office carpet, then start the shift. Quick match, or share the 4-letter room code with your crew.
Walk the office with WASD, stand on a highlighted job station, and hold Space to work it. Someone runs the press, someone closes sales, someone ships the orders — reams don't move themselves.
Each shift has a profit quota and a clock. Beat the quota and the company levels up with new titles and unlocks; miss it and the branch closes. Morale and per-player stamina are real, and random office events arrive to make things worse.
Watch the order board: ordinary orders pay steadily, and the occasional 🐋 whale order pays big money on a short timer.
Not fond of the default office? The built-in map editor lets you paint floors, drop desks, and place job stations, then play your own layout with friends.
Scoring
- Your score is profit — the company's final value in dollars when the branch eventually closes. The Paper Tycoons board ranks the richest empires, higher is better.
- The quota rises every shift, so every company dies eventually. The score is how much paper you moved before the market's patience ran out.
Tips
- Specialise. Four people wandering between stations is a paper company; four people locked to their stations is a paper empire.
- Whale orders are the swing — drop what you're doing when the 🐋 appears, because that timer does not care about your workflow.
- Stamina drains as you work, so rotate the brutal stations. A crew that burns out mid-shift misses quota with the warehouse full.
Frequently asked questions
Can I play alone?
Yes — a one-person paper company is legal, just tiring. You'll be the press operator, the sales team, and the shipping department, which is at least good for morale reviews.
Does the game ever end?
Every branch closes eventually — the quota rises until it wins. Getting further and richer before that happens is the entire business plan.