Make Rent rules and all 39 cards

한국어

Make Rent is a short card roguelike. Each week you put one card in your room, neighbors combo into cash, and you try to keep up with rent that climbs every month. A run takes about 3 to 8 minutes.

What is Make Rent

A small mix of deckbuilder and roguelike. Every run you pick one card out of three to build your room, and the room pays your rent. Rent rises each month, so sooner or later you can't make it. How many months you last is your score.

Picking and placing is all there is, so it works one-handed. It's built for a lunch break or a commute. No money on the line, nothing to unlock with money, and no limit on runs.

Basic rules

One card a week. You see three cards. Pick one and put it on a tile. Don't like any of them? Skip.

Placing a card ends the week. Every card in the room earns cash into your savings. Each card has a base value, and its effect adds or subtracts based on its neighbors or its spot.

Four weeks make a month. After week four, rent comes out of savings. If you're short, the run ends. Whatever's left carries over.

The exact rules here

The room is 4 tiles wide and 5 rows tall. The top row is the window row. You start with Me and a pack of instant ramen side by side in the middle.

Adjacent means all eight around. Up, down, sideways and diagonal all count. Edge tiles have fewer neighbors.

Placing on a full tile replaces it. The old card moves out and loses anything it had grown. Full tiles need a second tap so you don't replace by accident. There's no undo once a card is down.

Eaters eat food next to them. The Student eats one adjacent food and gets 8 more. The eaten card still earns that week, then it's gone. With several, the lowest tile number goes first.

Growers grow every week. The Hamster grows 1 a week up to 12, the Savings account 2 a week up to 20. They grow after earning.

Rent climbs every month. It starts at 15 in month 1 and gets steeper. The rent table below is every value you'll ever pay.

The card flow depends only on the date and the week number. Your picks don't change it. That's why everyone gets the same cards in the same week on the daily run. The ranking service replays your picks from the start to count your months.

Helpers only help inside a run. There's a combo preview and a peek at next week's cards. Together you get five free uses a day, and a helper subscription removes the limit. Runs that used a helper are marked on the leaderboard. Starting a new run is never limited.

Basics

Fill tiles in the first two months. Rent is low early, so more cards now makes later months easier. Start by putting Me next to food.

Build clusters. People next to people, food next to the fridge and rice cooker. With eight neighbors, middle tiles are worth the most.

Save the window row for window cards. The Cat, Potted plant and Drying rack only earn extra in the top row. A person there wastes the spot.

Advanced

Keep noise away from people. The Drummer and Guitar earn a lot but lose cash for each person next to them. Park them in a corner with Earplugs beside them and they pay off.

Place growers early. The Hamster and Savings account get better the longer they stay. Once they're down, don't replace them.

Play for rent day. The Freelancer and Side gig only pay on rent week. They can save a tight month.

Skipping is a move. Once the room is full, skipping beats pushing a good card out with a weak one.

Common snags

I tapped a card and nothing happened. Pick the card, then tap a tile. Full tiles need a second tap.

I keep dying around month three. In our sims, placing anywhere lasted about 5 months on average, and just picking good tiles lasted about 8. Clustering makes the difference.

Good cards never show up. Cards are Common, Uncommon or Rare, and Uncommon and Rare get a bit more frequent each month. The odds are in the table below.

All 39 cards

The number is the base value. Effect lines are generated from the exact formula the game uses.

Me	Me Tenant, Common	Base 1	+2 per adjacent food
Stu	Student Tenant, Common	Base 0	Eats one adjacent food, +8 (it's gone)
WFH	Remote worker Tenant, Common	Base 0	+3 per adjacent appliance
PP	Plant parent Tenant, Common	Base 0	+3 per adjacent plant
RM	Roommate Tenant, Common	Base 1	+2 per adjacent person
Owl	Night owl Tenant, Common	Base 0	+2 per adjacent empty tile
Drm	Drummer next door Tenant, Uncommon	Base 6	-3 per adjacent person
FL	Freelancer Tenant, Rare	Base 0	+16 on rent week
Gma	Grandma next door Tenant, Uncommon	Base 0	+2 per food in the room
Cat	Cat Tenant, Common	Base 0	+4 in the window row
Dog	Dog Tenant, Common	Base 0	+2 per adjacent person
Ham	Hamster Tenant, Uncommon	Base 0	Grows +1 a week (up to 12)
Rmn	Instant ramen Stuff, Common	Base 1	No effect
Kim	Kimchi jar Stuff, Common	Base 2	No effect
Rc	Rice cooker Stuff, Common	Base 0	+2 per adjacent food
Frg	Fridge Stuff, Uncommon	Base 0	+3 per adjacent food
Pot	Potted plant Stuff, Common	Base 0	+3 in the window row
Lmp	Grow light Stuff, Uncommon	Base 0	+3 per adjacent plant
Lap	Laptop Stuff, Common	Base 0	+2 per adjacent person
Wi	Wi-Fi router Stuff, Uncommon	Base 0	+2 per appliance in the room
Sav	Savings account Stuff, Uncommon	Base 0	Grows +2 a week (up to 20)
Bud	Budget notebook Stuff, Rare	Base 0	+4 per money in the room
Ear	Earplugs Stuff, Common	Base 0	+4 per adjacent noise
Bed	Mattress Stuff, Common	Base 0	+3 per adjacent pet
Gtr	Guitar Stuff, Common	Base 4	-2 per adjacent person
Dry	Drying rack Stuff, Common	Base 0	+3 in the window row
Mat	Heated mat Stuff, Common	Base 1	No effect
Mnu	Takeout menu Stuff, Uncommon	Base 0	+1 per person in the room
Gig	Side gig Stuff, Uncommon	Base 0	+8 on rent week
Shp	Corner store Local, Common	Base 1	+2 per adjacent person
Wsh	Laundromat Local, Common	Base 0	+5 in a corner
Bus	Bus stop Local, Common	Base 0	+2 per person in the same row
Prk	Park Local, Uncommon	Base 0	+3 per adjacent pet
Mkt	Street market Local, Uncommon	Base 0	+2 per food in the room
Caf	Local cafe Local, Common	Base 0	+2 per adjacent local spot
Stn	Near the station Local, Rare	Base 2	+3 per local spot in the same row
Lib	Library Local, Common	Base 0	+2 per adjacent empty tile
Gym	Gym Local, Common	Base 0	+6 if nothing is next to it
Vet	Vet clinic Local, Rare	Base 0	+3 per pet in the room

Rarity odds

The chance that a card slot comes from each rarity. Within a rarity every card is equally likely. The three cards in a week never repeat.

	Common	Uncommon	Rare
Month 1	74%	22%	4%
Month 2	69%	25%	6%
Month 3	64%	28%	8%
Month 4	59%	31%	10%
Month 5	54%	34%	12%
Month 6	49%	37%	14%
Month 7+	44%	40%	16%

Rent table

Month 1: 15
Month 2: 27
Month 3: 63
Month 4: 123
Month 5: 207
Month 6: 315
Month 7: 447
Month 8: 603
Month 9: 783
Month 10: 987
Month 11: 1215
Month 12: 1467
Month 13: 1743
Month 14: 2043
Month 15: 2367
Month 16: 2715

About this game

It's a joke about rent going up, nothing more. It has no connection to any real landlord, group or company. The card rules, the rent curve and the bot are our own.