Employee Traits: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

This guide is to not only help new tavern keepers on the different traits that your aspiring employees bring to your tavern, but also help old players on what to look out for when hiring employees that fit your play-style. (v0.6.2.4)

Introduction

(Version 0.6.2.4)
Managing your own tavern is not a big deal when starting out at first, since you are not yet quite known to the people that you would call customers. Thus, a few tables and chairs is enough to start out, make some drinks and food, then wait for the people to step in and see what your tavern has to offer.

If they like the place, your reputation rises, and the more your reputation rises the more stuff you unlock. But as you increase your rep, you also slowly increase your tavern, add a few more tables and chairs, thus also increasing your customer traffic.

You'll then find out that opening your tavern every single day is not feasible, since YOU are the only one capable of gathering every single thing that you need to make drinks, cook food, and create furniture, decorations, workstations and so on.

When you get a bit of gold saved up, maybe it's time to hire some extra pair of hands.

Hiring Employees

Staff for Hire is unlocked by reaching Reputation 6, so it'll be a little while until you can actually get some help running your tavern.

You can hire staff by going outside your tavern and approaching the Board in front of it.


Click it then Select 'Hire Staff' at the left side.


There are four types of employees to hire: Bartender, Waiter, Bouncer and Housekeeper.

The Bartender

The Bartender is in charge of handing out food and drinks to customers that sit on your chairs in the tavern.

That's it.

They also take two breaks per day, just like the rest of your staff, so be around to anticipate for that, because depending on what traits he gets, he might take longer to come back to work, resulting in reputation lost due to customers not getting their orders on time.

The Waiter

The Waiter does three tasks depending on priority.

Whenever a customer orders a drink but can't be bothered to walk towards the bartender, they instead call out their order, and the bartender gets the drink and places it on the white counter.

The Waiter then carries any drink placed on that counter to the tables that ordered them, with a carrying capacity of 5, but might get lower due to a bad trait.

They also clean tables and mop the floor when they get dirty(assuming priority is 50/50).

The Bouncer

The Bouncer is in charge of keeping not only your customers from being too rowdy, but they also make sure that your other employees are kept in line.

When a customer gets angry over something, the Bouncer walks up to them and persuades them to keep it down.

Most of the time, the customer will graciously concede and drink/eat in peace.

But some of the time, the customer won't be perturbed by your Bouncer and walk around and make his frustrations known, talking to your other customers and bringing your taverns reputation down.

The Bouncer then does what he does best and smacks the unruly customer with his walking stick, making him see the error of his ways, and leaves without a fuss.

The Bouncer can also persuade your employees who are taking a break to come back to work.

Bear in mind that the Bouncer can also take a break, so pray that no one will take advantage of that.

The Housekeeper

The Housekeeper is in charge of renting out any rooms that you have, taking care of the renters needs, and sometimes helps around the tavern.

When they arrive their first priority is placing candles on any candle holder you placed in your tavern, while charging you for it. They don't do it for your rental rooms for some reason, so you have to do that manually.

They then head to any empty rental room and clean it if required.

After that, they will stand at the reception desk and wait for potential customers who want to rent a room.

They will only charge them the base price when renting out rooms and never haggle, so if you want to, you'll have to accept the customers yourself.

Every now and then, the room renters will order food and drinks, which the housekeeper will take from the kegs, taps and food inventory and deliver it to the room in question. They do this one at a time.

When nothing else is happening, they will on occasion help out in cleaning the floor.

Employee Traits 101

We will now talk about the Traits your employees will have during the hiring process.

When you first start out, any potential hires will be inexperienced, which will be reflected by them only having 1 good trait. The more your reputation grows, potential hires with 2 or 3 good traits will start appearing.

A hire with 1 good trait will start with that trait at either level 1 or 2. Level 3 requires 2 skill points, level 4 requires 3 skill points and level 5 requires 4 skill points.

The max level of a hire will be dependent on how many good traits they have.

1 good trait hire is capped at lv.10.

2 good trait hires is capped at lv.20.

3 good trait hires is capped at lv.30.



In the Workers tab you can see the status of every employee that you hired.

This shows their name, level, profession, when you hired them, salary, tasks, profession points and their traits.

Their salary is affected by their tasks.

This Housekeeper has three tasks: Accommodation, Room Service and Maintenance.

If we remove the check mark for Accommodation, their salary will get lower and they won't rent rooms to those that want to check in, allowing you to haggle with the renters.

Also, if you remove the check mark for the 'Working' task, they won't arrive for that day you open the tavern.

Here you can also increase the level of their traits by using profession points. Each level increases the required points by 1, with level 5 requiring 4 profession points. Bad traits are forever at base level.

The hiring pool will reset every Monday and Thursday, so if you are not satisfied with the traits of any potential hire, just wait for those days to arrive.

Speaking of traits, every hire will have 1 bad trait. Their effect might be detrimental when first starting out but over time when your reputation grows and hires with more traits come, good traits might cancel or outright remove the effect of the bad trait.

Or you might be at the point where the Good traits of the hire outweigh the effect of the Bad trait.

As a side note, when you get a good trait to level 5, you can downgrade it to the other levels. I have no idea why this is an option.

You can downgrade a good trait to the lower levels anytime you want, regardless if they are level 5 or not. Doing this also lowers the salary that they get.

Good Traits

There are currently 50 good traits. Some of them can be gained by the different hires, while some are exclusive to them.

So, the list will be as follows:

The Trait
It's Effect - the percentage I list will be when they are at level 5.
Who Has It - this is determined by who had it at the time I encountered the trait.

Also the effects are increased by percentages, and every level is just adding another to that.

What I mean by that is when a trait has a 2%, every level adds another 2%. If it's 3%, every level adds another 3%, and so on. The highest I've seen is a 10%.


Culinary Prowess
+10% price of dishes served.
Bartender

Grill Master
+15% price of dishes with meat served.
Bartender

Sommelier
+20% price of wine served.
Bartender

Overtime
Work hours start counting at 50 minutes
Bartender, Waiter, Bouncer

Healthy Cooking
+20% price of dishes without meat served.
Bartender

Friendliness
+25% reputation with orders filled.
Bartender, Waiter

Gourmet
+15% price of aged drinks (Reserve and Grand Reserve)
Bartender

Seafood Specialist
+25% price of dishes with fish served.
Bartender

Dexterity
-50% time serving drinks from the tap.
Bartender

Popular
+15 extra customers over maximum capacity.
Bartender

Sales-Savant
+30% chance of offering the most expensive item on the menu.
Bartender

Brewmaster
+20% price of beers served.
Bartender

Mixologist
+20% price of cocktails served.
Waiter

Garden-Fresh
+25% price of vegetarian dishes served.
Bartender

Sober Drinker
+15% price of little-aged drinks ( Standard and Young)
Waiter

Low Cost
-12.5% hourly wage
Waiter, Bouncer

Vacuum
+50% floor-cleaning speed.
Waiter

Strict
25% chance customers won't dirty the table.
Waiter, Bouncer

Liquor Expert
+20% price of distilled drink served.
Waiter

Aromatic
-30% to penalization to reputation for dirtiness.
Waiter, Housekeeper

Light-Footed
+40% movement speed.
Waiter

Meticulous
-30% chance of floor stains.
Waiter

Another Round
+25% chance customers order drinks from their table
Waiter

Gleaming Table
+50% table-cleaning speed.
Waiter

Supervisor
+20% movement speed for other employees.
Bouncer

Speedy
+30% customer eating and drinking speed.
Bouncer

Persuasive
+50% chance of calming unsatisfied customers.
Bouncer

Order
+50% chance customers sit at already occupied tables.
Bouncer

Hard-Worker
+50% chance of not taking breaks during work hours.
Bouncer

Overseer
-30% chance employees will take a break.
Bouncer

Disapproving Gaze
20% chance customers order the most expensive products.
Bouncer

Set an Example
No new customer complaints until 40 minutes from the last one.
Bouncer

Problem Solver
-37.5% Penalization to reputation when customers complain.
Bouncer

Camaraderie
+20% reputation for orders served by employees.
Bouncer

Intimidating
-20% chance of customer complaints.
Bouncer

Neat Freak
+20% reputation when the tavern is clean.
Housekeeper

Night Owl
+15% of products served after 4pm.
Housekeeper

Teetotaler
+20% price of non-alcoholic drinks served.
Housekeeper

Mood lighting
-30% to penalization to reputation for darkness
Housekeeper

Regulated
-40% to penalization to reputation for extreme temperatures.
Housekeeper

Spirits Connoisseur
+10% price of alcoholic drinks served.
Housekeeper

Sought-after Rooms
+50% chance of arrival of new guests for the inn.
Housekeeper

Impromptu Fire
+30% duration of chimney fuel
Housekeeper

Expert Puller
20% chance of pulling from the tap without using up a drink serving.
Housekeeper

Elegant Presentation
+30% reputation with dishes served.
Housekeeper

Long Stay
100% chance guests increase their stay for one more day.
Housekeeper

Early Bird
+15% price of products served before 4pm.
Housekeeper

Personalized Service
+25% price of guest rooms
Housekeeper

Chandler
50% chance of not consuming a candle when replacing one.
Housekeeper

Good Traits pt.2 (reached character limit in the first one)

Expert Cleaner
+50% room-cleaning speed.
Housekeeper

Bad Traits

As you might expect, everyone has a bad trait even though we don't want to.

The silver lining is that bad traits don't level up, so if you encounter a good trait that can offset the effect of the bad trait, then it's all good.

Or you are so far into the game that the bad trait is trivial compared to all the good traits that hire has that you don't care anymore. Or that you just don't care in general.

There are currently 26 Bad traits and I will be listing them the same way as the Good traits.

The Trait
The Effect
Who Has It


Slow
-15% movement speed
Bartender, Waiter, Bouncer, Housekeeper

Poor Salesperson
+5% chance of selling the cheapest product on the menu.
Bartender

Tardy
Reaches work 40 minutes late when the tavern opens.
Bartender, Waiter, Bouncer, Housekeeper

Inverse Bargaining
-5% price of products served.
Bartender

Novice Puller
-25% speed pulling drinks from tap.
Bartender

Herbivore
-15% price of meat dishes
Bartender

Butterfingers
5% chance of wasting drink servings from the tap.
Bartender

Unhygienic
-10% reputation with dishes served.
Bartender

Careless
-20% floor-cleaning speed.
Waiter, Housekeeper

Unpleasant Atmosphere
-10% reputation with orders filled.
Waiter, Housekeeper

Maladroitness
Can carry 1 fewer drinks.
Waiter

Absent-minded
5% chance of not charging for a product.
Waiter

Talkative
-20% table-cleaning speed.
Waiter

Unattended Tables
-10% chance of orders made at table
Waiter

Clumsy
+10% chance of floor stains.
Waiter

Procrastinator
Won't clean tables until there are 3 dishes.
Waiter

Infamous
-5% maximum customer capacity.
Bouncer

Pause for Meals
50% chance of employee breaks taking twice as long
Bartender, Waiter, Bouncer, Housekeeper

Aggressive
+10% chance of customer complaints.
Bouncer

Impatient
+10% chance of immediately ejecting unsatisfied customers.
Bouncer

Lazy
+50% chance of taking a break.
Bouncer

Express Visit
20% chance of guests reducing their stay by one day.
Housekeeper

Valued
+10% employee pay
Housekeeper

Immune to Cold
10% chance of forgetting to light the Chimney
Housekeeper

What Traits To Look For In Your Employees

Some traits are better than others, and some good traits even offset some bad ones.

I will first list Specific Employee traits, then Universal traits.

Bartender Traits

Grill Master, Sommelier, Healthy Cooking, Gourmet, Seafood Specialist

These traits affect specific food or drink prices at a slightly large amount.

Meaning Grill Master only affects meat dishes, while Healthy Cooking only affects vegetable dishes.

I have not yet tested if both traits affect dishes with both meat and vegetables.

Culinary Prowess increases the prices of all dishes served but by only a small amount (+10% increase at level 5)

So if you are serving a specific food or drink, go after the first 5 traits.

If you don't care about the amount of gold you are bringing in, Culinary Prowess is a good alternative, especially if you see another good trait paired with it.

For Bad traits the best specific one is Poor Salesperson, since if you are selling only one drink or food it won't matter in the long run.

Novice Puller means he'll take longer in getting drinks from the tap, while Inverse Bargaining reduces the price by 5%. If another good trait is paired with these bad ones, see if it's worth it.

Waiter Traits

Mixologist, Sober Drinker, Liquor Expert

These traits increase the prices of specific drinks, but Sober Drinker is a bit bad due to only affecting Standard and Young Drinks.

Maladroitness makes the waiter carry 1 less drink, which might be bad if there are multiple orders and they are far away from the white counter.

Bouncer Traits

Speedy and Persuasive

These traits are good for dealing with customers: one makes them eat and drink faster, the other gives a chance of calming them down.

Order makes your customers group up rather than spread out, which is good when at the start of the work day, but irrelevant when the tavern is open from when you wake up to when you sleep.

Supervisor meanwhile is a good trait to have since it increases the movement speed of your other employees.

For bad specific trait, I can't decide between Infamous or Aggressive.

The former lowers customer capacity, the latter increases chances of customer complaints.

Housekeeper Traits

Sought-After Rooms
The more rooms you have, the more you can accommodate, and this trait gives you a good chance of getting those rooms filled.

Mood Lighting and Regulated decrease reputation loss from a dark and cold tavern respectively.

Neat Freak gives a small reputation boost if you can keep your tavern clean, so better have enough space for the cleaners to have good path-finding.

Night Owl is good when you open your tavern all the way from morning to the wee hours into the night. But this only takes effect at 4pm, and you must close your tavern before 3am, or you'll suffer reputation loss.

The only specific bad trait I've found for the Housekeeper is Express Visit, which you should avoid if you can help it. Having your customers stay cut short by one day means less money made per stay.

Universal Traits

By Universal I mean traits that can be given to 2 or all Employees.

Overtime, Low Cost, Hard Worker

Overtime means that if you start your work day at 6am on the dot, they'll only start receiving their salary after the specific minutes on the trait has passed. So a level 3 Overtime means they'll get paid at 6:40am.

Low Cost is good especially for the higher level employees.

Hard Worker meanwhile is a percent of them continuing to work and not take breaks.

Friendliness is a reputation boost when the Bartender and Waiter fulfill orders. Housekeeper might also get this trait.

Strict gives a % chance that customers won't dirty the table. For the Waiter and Bouncer.

Aromatic is a decrease to reputation lost due to a dirty tavern, courtesy of the Waiter and Housekeeper.


For Bad Traits, Valued might be bad at the beginning, but maybe at the long run it won't matter much, especially if your food and drinks as well as rooms are enough to consistently have your tavern open all day every day to rake in the gold. Just make sure not all employees have this trait, especially at the beginning, or when they are high leveled.

Tardy is bad since it makes your employees late in arriving when you open your tavern by 40 minutes. might be the best bad trait to have for your employees. Since you won't have a huge amount of customers to tend to during the first few minutes of opening your tavern, you can just hang around for a bit and wait at the counter, tending to the first few arrivals until your employees arrive. (Thanks to Fenixfoxtrot510 for pointing this out)

Pause for Meals is also another bad trait to end up with, since they'll be taking a longer break.

Unpleasant Atmosphere is bad for your Waiter and Housekeeper, since its a reputation loss whenever they fulfill an order. Careless meanwhile, makes them clean floors more slowly.

Slow is the number one trait to avoid at all costs, because it reduces your employee's speed by 15%. it can be offset by the Supervisor trait the Bouncer has, but hope he has the other good traits you are looking for, and that he doesn't get the Slow trait himself.

[Melfix]

@ARL4902 I believe it's the price the desk values the room at and they never haggle. If you want to avoid the charge for the candles, you'll have to manually add the candles yourself.

[ARL4902]

Housekeeper questions: 1) Do they just accept the customer's price offer even if it is below the price of the room, do they haggle, or do they charge the price that the desk values the room at? 2) Also, is there a way to avoid the charge for the candles if you make your own with apiaries? Seems kinda pointless to make my own if I'm going to be charged.

[tae.ahlberger]

I usually go for the bad traits involving breaks, since if you have a bouncer it's barely noticable anyway

[baadkitteh]

This is a useful resource. I do think Slow is actually ok to have on just your bouncer when you have Set An Example as a positive so that you never get complaints too close together. It works out great for me and I have almost maxed out customer capacity.

[CemeteryGates23]

Excellent guide, very helpful! I hope you continue to update it as the game also updates!

[DeNarr]

Isn't Overtime a pretty horrible good trait, since you'll end up paying them more every time you level up the skill? Like, who cares about 50 free minutes if they are getting paid way more per hour?

[Geothermal1159]

How is slower floor cleaning bad when you can have enchanted broom doing all the floor cleaning?
Even if it is slightly slower it still isn't taking up the waiters time usually.

[Fenixfoxtrot510]

I prefer getting one or two employees with the Tardy trait. I don't mind covering for them until they show up. I'd rather work the bar for a bit at the start of each day than lose money or reputation.

[Pouderpuff]

Excellent write up. I was wondering if the community got around to honing in on the traits and you delivered phenomenally.