Mall Rivals first-store walkthrough

Your first Mall Rivals session is a race against the tutorial, your own inventory, and whoever spawned across the hall. Creedon Games ships a competitive 1–8 player mall on Steam. Version 1.0 is the full release as of 27 August 2026, so this page describes the live build, not the February demo. If a video still says “five store types,” keep watching for the haul-and-stock loop, then check the store types list for what 1.0 actually sells.

Do not skip the tutorial

The onboarding text is short: empty units are waiting, buy a store, stock shelves, make a first sale, learn the rest in motion. Streamers who skip it get stuck with leftover tutorial boxes and no idea why the cop is shouting. Read the prompts. The game is teaching the physical grammar you will repeat for thirty days: pick up a crate, walk it inside, place it on a sale shelf, set a price, stand the register.

Mall Rivals tutorial: starting your first store

Step 1 — Walk the mall before you buy

Starting cash is lobby-dependent. Demo and early saves often open near $15,000. Trailer and later lobbies show $30,000 or more. Units themselves list in the low tens of thousands; Ike and Me’s first store sat around $10,530 with $15,000 in pocket, while a trailer unit showed Store ID #010 at $20,432 with a 14×12 sales floor and 4×12 storage. That spread is the point: location, size, and type change the lease.

Walk the floor. Look at foot traffic, escalators, and whether customers spawn on your level — later patches added upper-floor entrances so a second-story shop is not automatically dead. Open the Select Store Type panel when you commit. Early categories include Fashion, Electronics, Sports, Beauty, and Books. Jewelry, Toys, and Department Store sat greyed out in the first trailer; 1.0 added Pharmacy, Home Goods, Hardware, and Liquor with their own license ladders. If you want a ranked pick instead of a vibe pick, use the store tier list and the store planner.

Step 2 — Haul the starter crates

After you pay, starter boxes spawn at the door, not magically on the shelves. Left mouse grabs. WASD walks. Look with the mouse. Place on a sale shelf, not the storage rack, unless the prompt specifically wants storage. The corridor is not a warehouse. Security patrols it. Leave a pile in the hall and you get a Busted panel: Pay Fine, Bribe Cop, or freeze. Later builds also block new orders when too many boxes sit outside. That rule is why the crime and police guide exists even for honest runs.

If the tutorial asks you to stock and you already emptied the crate, you are not broken — you used the stock. Grab from your storage rack next. Keep one path from door to shelf clear so you are not body-blocking customers on day one.

Step 3 — Set a price you can live with

Pricing is a physical aim, not a spreadsheet at first. A small marker sits near the shelf dollar sign; line it up, then compare your number to market. Ike’s sports example: cost 41, market 99, sell at 95. A trailer soccer ball showed base cost $22 with 0% / +10% / +25% / custom buttons and a break-even readout. Undercutting by a few dollars steals traffic. Doubling the market because you are greedy empties the aisle. The pricing guide covers demand that now shifts day to day in 1.0, bulk round-to-dollar, and why cleanliness and variety change how many people even walk in.

Step 4 — Ring the first sale

Stand the register. Customers queue. Patience is not infinite — they leave if you AFK. Esc cancels the card-payment overlay if you get stuck in the PIN pad. Once money hits, the game is no longer a moving tutorial. You are in a mall with rivals who can undercut, sabotage, or simply run a cleaner shop.

Step 5 — Hire before you drown

When the queue is longer than you can tap, go to the recruitment zone near the entrance. Candidates sit on benches with skill bars: cash register, stocking, cleaning, appearance, movement. Hiring fee plus daily wage. Assign a role immediately. No role means they idle. Full hiring math, training, and 1.0 managers live on the employees page.

Opening-day checklist

• Lease a unit you can stock with remaining cash, not the prettiest empty box.
• Move every starter crate inside before you decorate.
• Price at or slightly under market on the SKUs you actually have.
• Hire a cashier first, then a stocker, then a cleaner if trash is scaring people off.
• Learn controls so you stop fighting the tablet mid-queue.
• Do not open a second store until the first one runs without you for a full peak.
• Pick a perk branch only after you know whether you are a merchant or a problem.

Common day-one deaths

Skipping the tutorial. Buying electronics with no cash left for restocks. Dumping boxes in the corridor “just for a second.” Hiring nobody and wondering why customers leave. Opening two stores and sprinting between registers. All of those are recoverable if you sell or close a unit from the tablet — 1.0 pays about 50% of total value — but the lost day is real. If the lobby is a Mall Buyout race, a wasted day is how someone else puts their name on the mall. Modes and win conditions are on the game modes page.

The walkthrough video in the middle of this page is a full real-time first store. Watch it through the first sale, then come back here when the prompt says hire. After that, the wiki’s job is to keep you from repeating the same fine.