/the-game/overview
This page gives you the complete game on a single screen. Every system mentioned here has its own dedicated page below if you want to dive deeper.
The core loop
At its heart, Dealers.sh is a price arbitrage game wrapped in a mafia fiction. You move between areas, buy drugs where they are cheap, sell them where they are expensive, and reinvest the profits into bigger and bigger plays. The complication is that every action generates police heat, every area has different opportunities and risks, and other players in your area can attack you once you start to look like a worthwhile target.
The game has three modes, and they unlock in order: Deal, Steal, Heist.
A typical session moves through two stages. You begin on the streets with Deal, the PVE (player versus environment) loop that builds your reputation and your cash position. Once your reputation crosses a threshold, Steal opens up, the PVP (player versus player) loop where you attack other dealers in your area for additional reputation and infamy.
The third mode, Heist, unlocks at the Soldier rank. Heists are push-your-luck runs: you stake cash on a five-stage job and after every clean stage choose to bank the pot or push deeper for a bigger one. Where dealing compounds steadily, heists are the high-variance lane. A single run can pay double digits on the stake or lose all of it.
Beyond the three modes, one more loop runs on a different clock. Bank heist seasons are community events where every entrant grinds Deal, Steal, and Heist against a shared ETH vault, then splits the pot by how much they contributed. A season lasts days rather than minutes, and it rewards consistency instead of any single good run.
Sitting on top of all four are missions: daily and weekly objectives you opt into for free, which pay reputation, infamy, and exotic items for play you were doing anyway. Missions add no new actions of their own. They put a clock and a bonus on the ones you already have.
Free to play, not pay to win
Dealers.sh is designed so the full game is playable without ever spending ETH on anything except the initial NFT mint. The starter areas — Manhattan and Amsterdam — are free to move between, and that pair is enough to run the core buy-cheap-sell-high loop, climb the early ranks, and unlock PVP. Moving to the later areas (Colombia onward) costs a small ETH fee, and the shop sells optional boosts in ETH that multiply rewards and add daily attempts.
Boosts do not change odds. A boosted dealer wins the same PVE matchups, wins the same PVP fights, and fails the same jail rolls — they just get more out of each win. The shop is a time discount, not an advantage. A free-play dealer reaches every milestone a boosted dealer does, over more sessions.
The five numbers that matter
Almost everything in Dealers.sh moves one or more of the following stats. Knowing what each one does and what changes it is the fastest way to feel in control of the game.
| Stat | What it represents | What changes it |
|---|---|---|
| Reputation (REP) | Your standing in the family. Drives ranks and gates PVP. | Earned through PVE wins, PVP wins, achievements. Lost on PVE failures and PVP losses. |
| Heat | Police attention, capped at 5. Each action rolls for arrest at heat × 0.7%. | Every action (PVE or PVP) adds 1. Clear Heat resets it to zero for an ETH fee. |
| Cash | In-game working capital. | Spent on drugs and $CASH-denominated actions. Earned from sells and PVP loot; distinct from ETH used for travel, bail, Clear Heat, and boosts. |
| Stash | Drugs you currently hold, by type and quantity. | Goes up when you buy or win a PVP fight. Goes down when you sell or lose one. |
| Attempts | Actions remaining in the current period. | Each buy or sell costs one. Refills on a daily timer or via a shop reset. |
There is a sixth stat, Infamy, that is specific to PVP. It tracks how much other dealers fear or respect you, and it moves up or down based on the outcomes of fights. See /the-game/pvp for the details.
The tabs
The game UI is divided into a small number of tabs, each documented in its own page. The top bar carries the area name, STASH, the pager, and the shop; the action bar along the bottom carries the rest.
- Stash is the dashboard view and surfaces every stat above in one place.
- Deal is the PVE tab where you buy, sell, and clear heat. You reach it by tapping the area name in the top bar.
- Move handles travel between areas.
- Steal is the PVP tab, where you attack other dealers currently in your area.
- Heist is the push-your-luck tab: five-stage jobs that pay in product or cash.
- Missions is the daily and weekly objective board, and the rewards you claim off it.
- Shop sells time-limited boosts and attempt resets.
- Pager is the chat surface — area and world rooms — plus the in-game
/helpcommand line. - Bank is the vault and the bank heist seasons that pay it out.
- Jail is a state rather than a tab in the strict sense, but it has its own page because the rules change while you are inside.
If this reads as a lot to track on a first pass, the /start/first-deal walkthrough is a much gentler introduction.