Saloon Simulator pulling teeth: early quests

The first week behind the bar is the part most players remember as a grind, not a victory lap. Searches for Saloon Simulator pulling teeth show up because the opening quests move slowly, cash is tight, and one bad shopping trip can stall the story. Saloon Simulator pulling teeth is a fair description of that solo stretch in Blueberry: you clean, cook, pour, break up fights, and still have to bank a set amount before the plot lets you breathe.

This guide sticks to what early-access coverage and player write-ups actually describe. Prices, room counts, and skill cooldowns can shift in later patches, so treat the dollar figures as community reports from the launch window, not a permanent patch note. If a menu in your build disagrees with a tip below, trust the game.

Why the opening quests feel so slow

Saloon Simulator dropped into early access on July 15, 2025. You start after being thrown from a train, find a letter, and learn that the rundown town of Blueberry is now home. The job is bigger than pouring whiskey. You are supposed to bring the place back and prove you belong.

Official screenshot · Source: Steam store

A July 2025 review on Opium Pulses frames the personal goal clearly: earn six Letters of Recommendation from locals, or face consequences. The same write-up notes a sharper turn later, when the western plot has you dealing with blood and bodies, not just dust and broken chairs. That mix—cozy service sim plus sudden violence—is why the quest line feels uneven. One hour you are placing tables. The next, the story stops being cute.

The building itself is the other reason progress feels stuck. Blueberry is not a single taproom. Player and review descriptions point to a ground-floor saloon, a kitchen, guest space, and a second floor. Tools unlock through the tab menu as the tutorial advances, which keeps you from getting fully lost, but it also means better furniture and real personalization wait until the story and your wallet catch up.

During that tutorial, community guidance is blunt: follow the quest prompts and do not buy upgrades the story did not tell you to buy. Optional spending is how people reach the debt checkpoint underfunded.

That $200 payment to Locke is the hard gate in player experience from a Steam Community basics guide. Once it is paid, the initial story mode ends—at least in the early-access build those players finished—and you can keep running the saloon in a freer mode. More story was expected later. Spending the nest egg on pretty chairs before Locke is paid is the mistake that makes Saloon Simulator pulling teeth last longer than it has to.

Story gates worth clearing before you decorate

Treat the opening as a checklist with a cash lock on the last box. The tutorial is paced so tools and tasks appear when you need them. Use that. If a prompt says to buy a specific item, buy it. If it does not, leave the catalog alone.

Locke's $200 is not a suggestion in those community reports. Players who followed the quest line and skipped vanity upgrades reached it with the payment ready. Players who renovated early talked themselves into a longer grind. After the payment, free mode is drinks, food, and saving for real upgrades. That is the moment decorating starts to pay you back.

Letters of Recommendation sit beside that money goal. The review presents them as proof you are worth keeping in town. They come from locals, and locals also walk in as customers. Talking to a quest NPC while ten orders sit on the bar is the stressful overlap reviewers describe. The time limit on service is not described as brutal, but walkouts still sting, and a walkout does not help a recommendation.

Fights are part of the same loop. You break them up and sometimes send the injured person to the doctor. That pulls you off the bar for a trip that earns no drink money. It still matters, because ignoring the floor turns a busy service into a failed evening. Later, the plot's messier scenes—cleanup after violence—ask for the same patience as the dusty first day, just with a darker set dressing. None of that is optional flavor if you want the story to move.

A small shop sits next to the saloon for alcohol and cooking ingredients. Restocking takes time away from service. There is no staff to send in the version reviewers played. Notes from the developers, as relayed in that review, said more story and the option to hire help were planned. Until that is in your build, every supply run is your job.

If a third guest room or a casino-style poker setup is on your mind, pump the brakes. Community comments under the Steam guide ask how to start a third room when Earl has no dialogue for it, and whether more than one poker table fits a casino room. Those threads do not include a confirmed answer. Do not build a strategy around unlocks nobody has documented.

How to serve a full room without walkouts

The painful part of Saloon Simulator pulling teeth is rarely a single boss. It is a Tuesday with a full bar, hot food waiting, and a story conversation you cannot postpone. Reviewers describe about ten people wanting something at once. A player who leaned on drink skills reported clearing a whole day with nobody leaving over wait time and taking in about $100.

Drink skills are the pressure valve those players point to. Under skills, drink-glass rewards unlock an instant pour. Community reports say the first tier has a 90-second cooldown and the second tier drops that to 60 seconds. Many players already hold the first two by the time Locke is paid, because the story itself pushes service.

The input path, as described in player experience, is specific. Click the customer to fix their drink, open the recipe book in the top-left of the drink menu, then choose the instant pour on the following screen. Here is the nuance that commenters actually tested: time does not freeze just because the recipe book is open. One player waited out the button inside that book and came back to several new food orders. The author of the guide, and that same player after a retest, say the pause happens on the screen where you confirm the instant drink. Used that way, the author served six people at the bar in sequence—roughly six minutes of cooldown—without losing table guests who were waiting on food. Cooking menus may also pause, but that part was the author's belief, not a second timed test.

Use the pause window as a breather, not as a license to wander the map. Stand in the confirm screen, let the cooldown finish, pour, then go straight to the oldest food order. If you alt-tab or reorganize furniture while the recipe list is up, the room keeps aging.

A simple rush order keeps the "pulling teeth" hours from becoming walkouts:

• Pour for whoever is already at the bar before you start a new conversation.
• After each instant drink, scan tables for food before you take another story beat.
• Restock the shop in a lull, even if you are not empty yet.
• Send fight injuries to the doctor immediately so the disruption stays short.
• Save fancy renovations for after service, not between orders.

Hiring was not available in the reviewed build. Until it is, this solo rotation is the whole quest strategy. The guide author even admitted to watching something else while the button refilled. You do not need that. You do need the right screen, or the pause you are counting on is not there.

The upgrade order that starts paying you back

Once Locke is handled, spending is finally the point. Player experience from the Steam guide ranks upgrades by how fast they return cash, not by how nice the facade looks. Saloon Simulator pulling teeth eases up when meals and room rents rise, because those two streams do more than another barrel of the same whiskey.

First buy the community reports single out: the cast-iron stove from Earl. It is described as a tier-2 stove that lets you raise meal prices by as much as 50 cents while cooking. At that stage of the game, the guide author called it the biggest moneymaker on the lot.

Second, bring the first floor along: furniture, walls, and floors to tier 2, and favor pieces with the Wealth+ stat. The claim from that player is that more Wealth+ makes customers more likely to buy more than one thing. That is a behavior change, not just a prettier room, which is why it outranks the exterior.

Third, have Earl open the second guest room, then push furniture, walls, carpets, and light fixtures in the guest rooms to tier 2 with Wealth+ where you can. The same report says guests then pay about $7 to $9 a visit. That is a different league from squeezing an extra coin out of a beer.

Fourth, and only then, tier-2 furniture and carpets on the second floor, again with Wealth+. The author was honest that it is unclear whether second-floor pieces change anything, which is why they sit below guest rooms. Fifth is the outside of the building. Curb appeal is real, but it does not cook steaks or rent beds.

Wealth+ is the stat to filter for whenever two items share a tier. A cheap piece without it is a decoration. A tier-2 piece with it is a quest investment. If Earl will not talk about the next room, stop and run service. Forcing a locked upgrade is how savings vanish without a new income line. That patience is the difference between a saloon that funds itself and another week of Saloon Simulator pulling teeth.

Side jobs, and which ones are worth leaving the bar for

Minigames exist, and they are easy to overrate. Player experience says gold panning and wagon tearing can each be done twice a week. Gold panning landed about $8 to $13 a session depending on performance. Wagon work averaged about $3, with an occasional $5, and the same player stopped treating it as worthwhile. Train delivery was skipped outright because no payout showed up.

Set those numbers next to a ~$100 service day and the ranking is obvious. A good pan might pay for a small purchase. It will not replace the stove, and it will not clear Locke by itself. Use side jobs as a scheduled extra, twice a week, not as a reason to close the bar.

A practical week, once the story allows free play, looks like this. Open and serve, using the instant-pour confirm screen so cooldowns do not create walkouts. Cook on the cast-iron stove and take the price bump. Restock before you are desperate. Pan for gold on the two days it is offered if the bar can spare you. Ignore wagon scraps and empty train runs unless you have already confirmed they pay in your version. Put every surplus dollar into the upgrade ladder above, not into a third room Earl will not open.

That loop is how the early pain turns into a business. The letters, the doctor runs, and Locke's debt still belong to the story. The stove, Wealth+, and guest rents belong to the weeks after. Mixing those budgets is the usual reason a save feels stuck.

Saloon Simulator remains early access in the sources behind this guide, with performance hiccups noted even off the highest settings, and with staff hiring still on a to-do list rather than in the reviewed build. The Saloon Simulator guide and tips on Steam Community is the player write-up these payout and upgrade notes come from. Recheck Earl's catalog and your skill tooltips after each update. If cooldowns or room prices moved, your order of operations should move with them.

FAQ

What does Saloon Simulator pulling teeth refer to?

It is the slow opening, not a dentist minigame documented in early guides. Players hit a solo rush of cleaning, service, fights, and a $200 payment to Locke before free play and serious upgrades begin.

How much cash should I hold before I finish the first story?

Community reports say at least $200 so you can pay Locke. Buy what the quests name, and leave other upgrades until that payment is done.

Does the drink menu pause the saloon?

Player tests say the recipe book does not pause time. The screen where you confirm an instant drink does. Tier cooldowns were reported at about 90 seconds, then 60.

Which side activity is worth doing?

Gold panning, at roughly $8 to $13 and twice a week, is the one those players kept. Wagon tearing and train delivery were weak or unpaid in the same reports, while a solid service day was worth far more.