Army Commander Tycoon Money Guide — Fastest Cash per Second
Every income purchase in Army Commander Tycoon has a payback time, and the differences are enormous: Oil Rig 1 returns its cost in thirty seconds while a $600K Munitions Factory takes much longer to justify. This guide ranks the income ladder by payback time so you always know what to buy next.
Table of Contents
How Payback Time Works
Payback time is simply cost divided by the income per second the purchase adds. A $90 building adding +3/s returns $90 in thirty seconds. That single number is the most useful tool in the game, because it lets you compare a cheap upgrade against an expensive one on equal footing.
One caveat: the game rounds displayed prices (a card reading $12.0K may not be exactly 12,000), so treat every payback figure here as close rather than exact. The ordering between buildings is reliable even where the second digits are not.
The Income Ladder Ranked
| Purchase | Cost | Adds | Payback time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oil Rig 1 | $90 | +3/s | 30 sec |
| Oil Rig 2 | $160 | +4/s | 40 sec |
| Oil Rig 3 | $270 | +5/s | 54 sec |
| Oil Rig 4 | $470 | +7/s | 67 sec |
| Supply Depot | $400 | +3/s | 2 min 13 sec |
| Oil Rig 1 (Lv 1→2) | $380 | +4/s | 1 min 35 sec |
| Oil Rig 2 (Lv 1→2) | $670 | +5/s | 2 min 14 sec |
| Oil Rig 3 (Lv 1→2) | $1,100 | +7/s | 2 min 37 sec |
| Oil Rig 5 | $800 | +9/s | 1 min 29 sec |
| Oil Rig 6 | $1,400 | +11/s | 2 min 7 sec |
| Oil Rig 1 (Lv 2→3) | $1,400 | +9/s | 2 min 36 sec |
| Oil Rig 4 (Lv 1→2) | $2,000 | +9/s | 3 min 42 sec |
| Headquarters (Lv 1→2) | $2,500 | +4/s | 10 min 25 sec |
| Power Plant | $1,200 | +10% base | Scales with base |
| Oil Rig 9 | $7,200 | +24/s | 5 min |
| Oil Rig 12 | $37.0K | +54/s | 11 min 25 sec |
| Supply Depot (Lv 1→2) | $8,000 | +15/s | 8 min 53 sec |
| Oil Refinery | $18.0K | +15% base | Scales with base |
| Munitions Factory | $600K | +600/s | 16 min 40 sec |
Read the ordering, not the absolute numbers. Cheap oil rigs and their low-level upgrades dominate the top of the list, and the multiplier buildings (Power Plant, Oil Refinery) are only worth their slot once the flat income they multiply is already large.
How the Multipliers Actually Stack
Army Commander Tycoon has three separate multipliers and they are not interchangeable. The Power Plant adds +10% base income (12% at level 2). The Oil Refinery adds +15% base. Promotion adds a permanent +50%. The key word in every card is 'base' — they multiply your base income, not your final total, so a percentage of a small base is a small number regardless of how many multipliers you stack.
- Build the Power Plant only after your flat income is established — roughly after Oil Rig 4 plus the Supply Depot
- Delay the Oil Refinery until your oil rig ladder is deep enough that 15% of base is worth $18.0K
- Promotion's +50% is permanent and applies across the reset, making it the strongest single multiplier in the game
- Multipliers do not compound with each other the way players assume — do not chain-buy percentage buildings expecting exponential growth
The Capture Point Bonus Beats Passive Income
Building upgrades scale linearly with a payback time that grows as prices rise. Capture points do not. Holding a lettered point adds a bonus directly to your income stream for as long as you hold it, and the cost of taking one is usually a handful of free infantry.
That asymmetry is why the fastest accounts in Army Commander Tycoon are not the ones with the biggest base — they are the ones holding the most points while their base builds in the background. Two players with identical oil rig ladders can differ by a large margin purely from point control.
Warning: Losing a point costs you its bonus. If you are holding points you cannot defend, you are effectively paying for someone else's war — consolidate to a defensible cluster rather than spreading thin across the map.
The Practical Money Checklist
- Build Oil Rigs 1 through 4 in sequence — never save for a bigger purchase first
- Add the Supply Depot, then upgrade Oil Rig 1 to level 2
- Push HQ to level 2 for the +4/s and the tier 2 building unlocks
- Hold at least one capture point with free infantry at all times
- Build the Power Plant now that flat income exists to multiply
- Work through Oil Rigs 5, 6 and 9, checking payback before each
- Add the Oil Refinery only when 15% of base clearly exceeds $18.0K in value
- Bank toward HQ 3's $60.0K and then HQ 4's $1.00M
- Reach HQ 5, buy every Cash unit available, then promote for +50%
Run every one of those decisions through the build planner on this page before you commit. Enter your measured income per second and the cost of the upgrade you are considering, and it will tell you the payback time directly rather than making you do the division in your head.