Economy

Goods don't appear from nowhere. The island's economy runs on a four-tier chain: Importers bring goods from off-island (Venezuela, Curaçao, the Netherlands). Wholesalers receive bulk shipments and store them in warehouses. Shops buy from wholesalers when their shelves run low. Players and citizens buy from shops for consumption or crafting. Each tier has its own inventory, and stock moves only when a downstream buyer pulls from an upstream supplier. If a shop runs out, it must wait for the next wholesale restock cycle.

Money enters the economy through employers paying wages, tourists spending at restaurants and stalls, and welfare payments (onderstand). It circulates as citizens buy food, water, tools, and construction materials. It exits through taxes (ABB 6% consumption tax), rent, utilities, and import costs. The goal is to capture enough of that flow to cover your cost of living and build savings.

There are four main ways to earn:

Living on Bonaire isn't free. These are the baseline monthly costs (based on the Regioplan 2018 report for Bonaire):

	Item	Price
ui home	Rent (single)	$550/mo
ui home	Rent (couple)	$600/mo
ui users	Extra adult	$100/mo
ui users	Extra child	$50/mo
ui droplet	Water	$30/mo
ui zap	Electricity	$43/mo
ui wind	Cooling (AC)	$81/mo
ui shield	Insurance	$20/mo
ui wifi	Phone/TV/Internet	$100/mo
ui utensils	Food (solo)	$200/mo
ui utensils	Food (couple)	$380/mo

New players get a cost break: 50% prices for the first 3 game-days, 75% for days 4–7, and full price from day 8 onward. Rent is free for the first 7 game-days (grace period).

Note: a single minimum-wage earner ($825/mo) falls below the bare-minimum survival cost (~$1,012/mo). Multi-generation households and informal economy are essential — just like the real Bonaire.

Recipes turn raw materials into more valuable goods. Each recipe requires specific inputs, optional tools (not consumed), a location, and time (in game-hours).

Food recipes

Recipe	Inputs	Produces	Tools needed	Time	Location
Pastechi	1 goat meat + 1 maize	4 pastechi	Kitchen knife	2h	Kitchen (stove/oven)
Funchi	3 maize	2 funchi	—	3h	Kitchen (stove/oven)
Kabritu Stoba	2 goat meat + 2 tomato + 1 beans	2 kabritu stoba	Kitchen knife	4h	Kitchen (stove/oven)
Pan Bati	2 maize + 1 salt	3 pan bati	—	2h	Bakery
Keshi Yena	1 goat cheese + 1 goat meat + 1 tomato	1 keshi yena	Kitchen knife	5h	Kitchen (stove/oven)
Grilled Red Snapper	1 red snapper	2 red snapper	Kitchen knife	1h	Kitchen (stove/oven)
Batido Mango	2 melon + 1 drinking water	2 batido mango	—	1h	Anywhere
Goat Cheese	3 goat milk + 1 salt	1 goat cheese	—	6h	Anywhere
Fried Fish	1 red snapper + 1 maize	3 red snapper	Kitchen knife	2h	Kitchen (stove/oven)

Construction recipes

Recipe	Inputs	Produces	Tools needed	Time	Location
Cement Foundation	2 cement + 3 aggregate	—	Masonry trowel	6h	Your plot
Build Cistern	1 cement + 2 aggregate	—	Masonry trowel	4h	Your plot
Drill Well	1 aggregate + 1 sand	—	Shovel	8h	Your plot
Fence Repair	2 fence panels	—	—	2h	Your plot
Craft Fence Panels	1 wire kit + 1 timber	2 fence panels	—	3h	Anywhere
Fit Kitchen	1 cement + 1 electrical kit + 1 timber	—	Masonry trowel	8h	Your plot
Fit Bedroom	2 timber + 2 roof panels	—	—	6h	Your plot
Solar Install	1 solar panel + 1 battery + 2 wire kits	—	—	4h	Your plot

Shops are the front line of the economy. Each shop has a vendor kind (construction, market, supermarket, restaurant, bakery, farm) that determines what items it stocks. When you buy, the transaction checks: item sold here → enough stock → you have funds → you have carry room. Prices are dynamic — they drift with supply and demand. When a shop has too much stock, prices fall. When stock runs low, prices rise. The floor is 25% of base price, so bargains exist if you're patient.

Known shops on Bonaire include hardware stores (Pedro's, Carlos's, Lucia's, Juan's, Freddy's) for construction materials, and market stalls for food and household goods. Each shop is linked to a wholesaler that restocks it when inventory drops below 10 units.

What you can carry limits what you can buy, sell, and haul. Capacity by mode:

Mode	Capacity
On foot	30 kg
Motorbike	60 kg
Donkey	90 kg
Truck	1,500 kg
Truck + trailer	3,000 kg

Every tick (1 game-hour), the EconomyState recalculates prices: deterministic noise (±1%) plus supply/demand pressure (±3% max, based on weeks of warehouse stock). Items with 4+ weeks of supply get cheaper; items under 0.25 weeks of supply get more expensive. A weekly consumption counter tracks how fast each item is being bought. Importers throttle deliveries when warehouses are overstocked, and holding costs (0.2%–1% decay per tick) simulate spoilage and storage fees on excess inventory.

Days 1–3: take any no-skill job, buy only essentials (food, water), and visit the bulletin board for extra gigs. Use the 50% cost multiplier and rent grace period to build a small cushion. Day 4: if you have $200 saved, consider a Playa Lechi food stall for passive income. Week 2+: apply for a land permit, start farming, and work toward recipe-based production. The fastest path to stability is: job → stall → kunuku → crafting.