In this guide i will explain a strategy to beat the Pocket Conquest challenge with 3 trophies. Apparently there isn't any other guide for this and the general vibe i get from the community is that this challenge is broken, and even unbeatable.

The starting money is abysmally low, the building space we get is nowhere near big enough and the challenge timer is extremely short. BUT, after many attempts i seem to have found a strategy where i can consistently get 3 trophies. I'm sure there are other valid strats and mine might not even be anywhere close to being the optimal route but since nobody else feels like sharing, i thought i might as well make a guide. Skip over to Step 6 if you want the short, TL;DR version.

Starting Cash : 150,000
Required Points for 3 Trophies : 10,000
Timer : 270 days

Challenge Rules :

• Points are given according to your product's market appeal multiplied by market phase. So for each product with a market appeal of 5 we sell, we'd get 5 times whatever market phase we're on for a maximum of 20 points per product sold (there's an achievement for this)
  
• Research is not available, instead modules are unlocked by progressing through market phases.
  
• The first 6 market phase progressions unlock Cases and Batteries.
  
• The other modules are unlocked by specific product types, those are ;

Calculator : Data Storage
Game Device : Display
Cassette Player : Audio
Pocket Computer : Processing
Portable Pet : Transmission

This information is also available in-game under help > challenge instructions > special rules.

Our strategy will focus on designing the ultimate Pocket Computer as our endgame product, and the steps needed to get there. Good Luck!

There's a bug in this challenge where the game doesn't progress the challenge timer and the points earned. To fix it you have to return to the map and then click continue, so do that first or your progress will be wasted.

You must design a Calculator that is super simple to produce. Pick the Plastic Case, L.E.D Array, Small Memory Bank, Beeper and the Battery Stack. Avoid any fancy parts and just build the simplest product possible. The reason we pick these specific parts is because

a) they're simple to make
b) 2 of them will still be relevant all the way to the end

Don't worry about the market appeal for now. The key is to produce the maximum amount per week that we can sell, which is 50. Your market appeal might be pretty low so lower your price until you hit the maximum weekly demand of 50.

Now obviously you won't be able to produce that many calculators right away with your starting money, so start smaller but scale up aggressively as you earn some capital.

Keep selling the calculator until you hit the maximum market phase for this challenge, which is phase 4. We're doing this to get all the module unlocks that are specific for the Calculator (Data Storage).

Do NOT upgrade your design as you progress through phases, just keep lowering the price after each phase so you can keep the demand maxed out at 50.

After we get the Calculator to phase 4, we will switch to making Game Devices.

When designing the Game Device, pick as many of the same modules we used on the Calculator so they can transfer over. Those are Plastic Case, Battery Stack, L.E.D Array and Beeper. Additionally you will need to put in the Simple Circuit module as it is a mandatory feature.

The tables that were producing the Small Memory Bank can be switched over to the Simple Circuit. And don't forget to change your work-zone policies too (the ones that give bonuses like +%25 for recipes with plastic etc.) because they are made from different materials.

You will repeat the same steps and sell 50 Game Devices per week until you hit phase 4. And after this you will again do the same steps, this time for the Pocket Computer.

So you will go Calculator > Game Device > Pocket Computer.
Making the simplest designs as possible (with common modules between these three being Plastic Case, Battery Stack and L.E.D Array) and switching to the next one as soon as you hit Phase 4.

After you get the Pocket Computer to phase 4, you should now be close to getting the 2nd trophy with not a lot of time left. Fortunately, you have now unlocked every module you will need to design an "Endgame" Pocket Computer. This means it will have all the features maxed out (5.0 market appeal) and still fit inside the plastic case we've been producing from the start.

For this final product it's super important that you don't pick the wrong modules and over complicate things.

I obviously didn't experiment with every possible combination of modules but a few key things I've found are picking the "Micro Controller" for the processing module , the "Memory Matrix" for the data storage module, and the "Simple LCD Display". This is because these modules;

a) don't take up too much space,

b) don't require any other modules of the same type to make (for example the Micro Computer requires Logic Circuit to make, or the Memory Array requires Small Memory Bank etc. By avoiding those we avoid building 2 additional modules instead of 1.)

c) they require the same components which are Integrated Circuits and Multi-Layer PCB's. (Additionally the Simple LCD Display requires Coated Glass as well, but this is as much synergy as we can get between 3 modules so it will have to do)

If you pick the wrong modules here you will have too many different components to make and there just isn't enough space in the building to accommodate them.

For the battery we will go with the Quadruple Battery Stack as this only requires the regular battery stack + plastic parts to make, both of which we're already producing.

So the final blueprint consists of :

• Plastic Case
  
• Quadruple Battery Stack
  
• Simple LCD Display
  
• Micro Controller (x2)
  
• Memory Matrix

After you design your final product, pause the game and begin setting up your production and logistics. This step can be painfully tedious and it's critical that you don't make any mistakes because by this point you likely have very little time remaining on the challenge timer (I had 70 days left at this point). And when you're ready, fast forward to the end.

Long story short, the trick of beating this challenge is ;

1) Choose an "Endgame" Product (in our case the Pocket Computer)

2) Find out which modules are needed to build it, and which other product types are needed to unlock those modules. And get to work making those other product types, save the "Endgame" Product for last when every module is unlocked.

3) Don't bother upgrading your designs after each market phase, instead lower your price to keep demand high and focus on selling a lot of units to progress through phases fast.

4) You need to sell 100 units of a product to progress the market phase. The maximum demand a product can have is 50, that means if you can sell the maximum amount of product possible you can progress a market phase in just 2 weeks. This is the secret for beating the challenge timer.

5) After you unlocked every module needed for your "Endgame" product, make a 5 star design and sell the maximum amount until the end.

Well, if everything went smoothly you should have gotten over 10,000 points and won the challenge with 3 trophies. But chances are, they didn't and you failed. It happens, this challenge is very hard and by all means it's broken considering the sheer amount of attempts it takes to find a strategy that works well enough (especially without following a guide like this one.)

BUT, if you won then congratulations! You have wasted at least 2 more hours of your life on this abandoned, broken but addictively fun ADHD trap of a game. Me personally, i'm going to have to take a big break from playing this thing (i've spent 30 hours on this level alone) and go touch grass or something, idk.