What to buy: Flute vs. Winter Scarf

As many of you know if you've been following this blog, my ultimate aim has been to be able to buy Flute rooms. Mostly because they have been the best bang for the buck in terms of average rent per square, per hour.

The game has evolved, though, especially recently, with more and more new high-end rooms being added pretty much on a weekly basis.

High-end: to me, that's a room that costs a lot and produces a lot. Some rooms, like the Rake, haven't exactly been good producers, even though they cost a pretty penny.

The Flute, for me, has pretty much been it as far as average rent.

Normally costing a cool 1,998 gold, it's currently on sale. It takes up just one square in your hotel. And it pays out M$10,000,000 and 225,000XP every 8 hours, which works out to M$1,250,000 and 28,125XP per square per hour. 

Week after week recently, EA has been introducing more rooms that cost large amounts of gold and M$. None of them have remotely challenged that per square, per hour payout of the Flute room.

Until now.

Last week, when the winter-themed rooms were first introduced, I was overwhelmed by all the ups and downs with the Giant Snowflake room, and pretty much ignored the quieter debut of the Winter Scarf room.

But yesterday, I finally took a closer look at it, attracted initially by the fact that it was a single-square room. But then, when I looked at what it paid out, I was blown away: that single square produces M$12,000,000 and 150,000XP every six hours. 

Which, of course, works out to a very nice M$2,000,000 and 25,000XP every hour!

And that, my friends, is why the Winter Scarf completely blows the Flute out of the water. At least as far as M$ payout is concerned. It's a slightly poorer performer for XP, but not enough to make it worthwhile to choose the Flute over it.

(And if you really want the best XP, you should seriously consider the Volcanoes, anyway!)

Even in terms of purchase price, the Winter Scarf has a significant edge: its regular price is 1,250 gold compared to the less-attractive 1,998 gold for the Flute. Any discounts seem to always apply to both rooms at the same time, so the proportional cost is pretty much going to stay the same.

So there we have it: a new champion for the best-producing-room sweepstakes. The Flute has been dethroned - long live the Winter Scarf!

I have already picked up 2 Winter Scarves - despite knowing I should ideally wait until the next 50%-off sale. The return was just too good to postpone!

Will I still buy a Flute? Sure. Some time in the future when I have enough gold-producing rooms to not miss the 1,998 gold (or 999 gold if it goes to half-price) when I purchase that room. In the meantime, I will be buying more Winter Scarves, especially if I see another 50%-off sale!