inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories rarely blocks the player with a conventional puzzle. Its difficult moments come from timing: a customer arrives while stock is still in storage, a delivery box needs products that were moved earlier, or the final note ends the week before an optional thread is settled. This route keeps those dependencies visible across all six shifts.
Build boundary: checked on July 19, 2026 against the Steam PC record and developer patch v1.0.209, released July 7. Patch 1.0.208 added Reset Shift to the pause menu for shifts begun after that update. Patch 1.0.209 changed a sixth-shift branch involving the Mystery Man and ice cream, so launch-week recipes for that interaction should not be treated as permanent.
Spoiler warning: the shift sections name customers, requests, product locations, and late-week outcomes. For a story-first run, use only the short preparation checklist at the start of each shift and return when a request stalls.
Four checks prevent most lost time
- Read before moving stock. Inspect the Information Board, the current employee notebook, the note attached to any delivery box, and the day’s newspaper before opening the door or answering a knock.
- Work storage-to-sales, then sales-to-box. A product placed in Mr. Takahashi’s delivery box is no longer available to a shopper. Finish ordinary restocking first so you know how many units remain.
- Use the phone while the request is fresh. Aunt Hina decodes old product names and recipes; Kiyoshi’s supplies missing stock; several customer threads also use numbers found on physical notes.
- Delay the last irreversible interaction. On most nights this means the last customer or closing call. On Saturday it is the central notepad that starts the ending.
Wrongly placed goods are usually recoverable because customers ask for help, and spare stock can stay in the industrial refrigerator, freezer, or storage shelves. The route therefore names the placements that affect a request, delivery, promotion, or branch instead of turning every shelf into a compulsory inventory audit.
Monday: make the floor usable before Chief shops
Start in the back room and read the Information Board. Move the obvious misplaced goods first: Kanji Toast Bread belongs with baked goods, Tokyo Pop Soda belongs in the soft-drink refrigerator, and Ramen Express plus Shirako Curry Noodles belong on the noodle display. Face the reversed snack boxes toward the aisle. Tokyo Pop is the important progression restock; the other corrections make later searches cleaner.
Check the seating area notebook and flyer, then inspect the low sink beside the checkout counter. Aunt Hina’s gold ring is tucked on its left side. Pick it up before turning the entrance sign. If you are maintaining the telephone thread, dial 444-112 once tonight.
Chief’s cat-food clues are hypoallergenic and green pea formula. The matching product is Cat Food Special with Chicken. Help with noodles if he asks, scan each barcode at the register, count the change, and join him outside after his conversation. Finishing the scene closes the first shift; do not search for another customer.
Tuesday: build both displays before the silent customer arrives
Several Tuesday tasks compete for the same preparation window. Handle them in this order:
- Call Aunt Hina if you want to discuss the ring. Examine the documents above the desk, turn over the old card, and call 335-111 to identify Matsuda’s Treasures.
- Read the box note by the back entrance. It needs 12 Kikko-Nyan Garlic Soy Sauces. Nine are grouped in the floor shipment near the baked-goods/cooking area; take three more garlic bottles from existing stock and return ordinary soy sauce to the shelf.
- Move Harajuku Soda and Zen Leaf Matcha onto the Special Offers display.
- Correct the ice-cream swap: Joy Boy Minis go to the freezer display, Wano Shrimp Onigiri goes to ready meals, and surplus frozen stock can wait in the industrial freezer.
The Mystery Man communicates through product clues. For the expensive, prepared seafood request, bring the Konbini Bento (Fish). A tempura bento may be accepted, but the fish bento is the direct fit. At checkout, recommend both sale items and follow the dialogue about Harajuku and trying the tea if you want the full promotion result.
Satoshi later asks for “Pyanse.” Call Aunt Hina instead of guessing. When he checks out, return as many 25-yen coins as the register allows, then follow him to the capsule machine. That outside sequence establishes a thread that can continue on later nights.
Wednesday: one keyring connects the stamp, cap, and filing cabinet
Wednesday begins with the store already active and Chief present, so preparation happens around his conversation. Refill the outside capsule machine with the box under the desk, check Makoto’s jacket for coins, and restore the restroom cleaning schedule. Open the blinds when Chief asks for more light, but do not tell him you are ready to move on until the back-room tasks are stable.
For the stamp:
- Straighten the fallen kokeshi dolls on the upper shelf near the delivery door.
- Take the revealed keyring to the lower drawer under the desk and inspect the spare ink.
- The same keyring opens the bottom filing-cabinet drawer. The old store cap and a photograph are inside.
Call Kiyoshi’s and order the products that have no adequate replacement: Dairy Delight Milk 1%, Uruchimai Rice, and Gonseung Coffee Black. Keep the exact delivery quantity shown by the current call; patch 1.0.207 corrected an older coffee-order line that described an impossible two-box order.
Naomi first wants several ready-to-drink coffees. If stock is short while the delivery is in transit, offer Vigorman X or Zen Leaf Lemon Tea. Her food request is a long-term branch. Soybean Natto (Hokkaido) supports the local-food direction; Italy’s Finest Pasta supports the western-food direction. These outcomes require different playthroughs. If you want to encourage her writing, show her a manga before handing over the food. Stock enough other useful items for her to reach six purchases if that is part of your run.
After Naomi leaves, unpack the rice, coffee, milk, and ready meals. Put six rice packs into the marked delivery box and shelve the remainder. Satoshi’s safe help sequence uses Soybean Natto at ready meals and Piu-Piu Biscuits at the sweet hanging snacks. Give 25-yen change and help with his poster idea before the closing call.
Thursday: advertise first, then let the broken store become busy
Naomi uses the rear entrance because the front door is stuck. Let her wait while you place the Autumn No. 5 materials: put the mascot where customers can see it above the soft-drink refrigerator, hang the poster on a visible route, and stock the marked Autumn No. 5 slot. Those reactions can be missed if customers enter before the display exists.
The leak has two jobs. Stand beneath the falling water long enough to hear Makoto acknowledge it if you want the patience interaction, then mop both the large and small puddles. Water can return during the night; a new puddle does not mean the earlier cleaning failed.
The outgoing Kikko-Nyan box requires four regular soy sauces, four garlic soy sauces, ten tofu, and four Salty Edamame. Soy sauce is in cooking essentials, tofu may be split between ready meals and a refrigerator, and edamame hangs with the salty snacks. Call Kiyoshi’s for missing Kinbo Puff Insecticide and Kurea Biscuit Sand; inspect the current order menu and notes for seasonal stock rather than assuming a launch-day list is unchanged.
The Mystery Man’s drink must be alcoholic, non-fruity, and still. Island Country Beer satisfies all three clues. His salty follow-up is the Consommé-flavored Stampede Chips. After he leaves, the beverage refrigerator fails. Calling Appliance Repairs advances the practical solution. Calling Chief first opens the old-fashioned kick interaction; waiting for Satoshi provides a knock alternative.
Satoshi wants a canned dessert whose texture will not require much chewing. Pun-Pun Pudding is a safe match; Red Lantern Adzuki is also supported by a readable route. Take his rolled poster from the back door and place it on the front-door/window path so Friday’s customers cannot bypass it.
Friday: four customers, four separate checklists
Friday does not advance until you turn the sign, so finish the physical work before Naomi enters. Inspect and rotate Poppu Sukoppu (September 1993). Call Aunt Hina about her writing and choose You can count on me if you are supporting that thread. Call Kiyoshi’s early for Lunarient Face Cream and the other currently available autumn stock; Naomi can request the cream before the truck arrives.
Mr. Takahashi’s final supply hunt is exact:
| Supply | Quantity | Where to search |
|---|---|---|
| Daico paper cups | 5 | Top shelf of the soft-drink refrigerator |
| Daico paper plates | 10 | Seven in the blue box by the freezer, two in household goods, one on top of the freezer/display |
| Daico paper napkins | 15 | Bottom shelf of canned goods |
Build the Special Offers display with Vigorman X, Noble Dogs with Omega-3, Amurskoje More Squid, and Tori Bites Yakitori. The dog food is the 777-yen option. Keep track of the Yakitori because Satoshi’s last clue points back to it.
For Naomi, deliver the face cream, then answer the ingredient request shown in the current conversation. The readable references do not fully agree here: one route reaches Tomalley through Aunt Hina, while another supports Champions Mushrooms or Umeboshi Pickled Plums and uses a call to Satoshi’s manager for a citrus lead. Follow Naomi’s live clues and the phone answer in your save rather than forcing a name from another branch. The Mystery Man’s current ice-cream branch is also patch-sensitive under v1.0.209; do not force an old ale or ice-cream recipe if the dialogue in your client asks for something else.
Ask Satoshi to think through the business calmly so he produces the full list. Current readable shift guides identify these targets:
- soy sauce, yellow miso paste, and rice from cooking essentials;
- Piu-Piu Biscuits from the sweet hanging snacks;
- Teyou Masuta (September 1993), the needlework magazine;
- Shinolux Cleaning Powder after asking him to decode the scribble;
- Tori Bites Yakitori after calling Aunt Hina about “dak-kkochi in a can.”
One caution-bannered older checklist substitutes a different chocolate snack for the biscuit line. Because multiple readable day routes agree on Piu-Piu Biscuits, use that as the working answer, but always compare it with the list shown in the current client before sealing the box.
Chief wants a frozen meal below 300 yen; either Gyoza Dumplings variant fits. After checkout, retrieve frozen Honkichiki from the industrial freezer and cooking oil from the cupboard behind the register. The fire extinguisher near the entrance completes the cooking sequence.
Saturday: finish every thread before reading the center note
Check the desk first. If all three Takahashi deliveries were completed, his letter is waiting there. Fix the seating chair, close open appliances or lockers you notice, return bread from the previous specials, and set out the new Tokyo Pop plus Englishman Biscuits promotion.
The final customer order sequence is easier if treated as four checkpoints:
- Mystery Man: follow the current request and let his earlier purchases resolve. Patch v1.0.209 requires a previous ice-cream interaction for one hidden sixth-shift branch.
- Chief: pack exactly 40 drinks spanning at least four drink categories. Alcohol, coffee, soda, tea, water, and juice are supported categories. Do not hand over more than 40; carry the finished box to the rear entrance.
- Satoshi: choose a fruity or citrus canned good such as Mikan Mandarin Orange, finish checkout, and resolve any week-long product/capsule conversation.
- Naomi: provide three more units of the ingredient established by the earlier branch, then complete her final conversation.
Call Aunt Hina, inspect the documents above the desk, and open the locker she directs you to. If the capsule collection is unfinished, stop when Makoto says she feels lucky and use the machine before returning to the store. Patch v1.0.209 also fixed a rare state that could award two Golden Assam toys, but the collection remains random enough that a reset may still be useful.
The center notepad is the point of no return. Read it only after the desk letter, locker, calls, capsule attempts, chair/appliance cleanup, and all optional conversations are finished. The scene in the main area then closes the week.
When a shift appears stuck
- No customer arrives: check the entrance sign, rear-door knock, required telephone call, active delivery, and any customer waiting for an answer at a shelf.
- A requested product is missing: inspect the industrial refrigerator/freezer and the stack of boxes before ordering. Patch 1.0.207 changed how boxes are placed when Makoto is already carrying something.
- A customer will not take the item: inspect its full label and category. Similar packaging does not make two product variants interchangeable.
- A branch differs from this page: trust the v1.0.209 client and its notepad. Use Reset Shift if the current shift was started after v1.0.208; otherwise the option may not appear for that older in-progress shift.
Evidence window and official record
Steam’s product record identifies AppID 2723430 and Nagai Industries as developer. It names Nagai Industries, Beep Japan Inc., Serenity Forge, and Smilegate as publishers; its release field reads April 30, 2026. Makoto, the early-1990s small-town setting, the store routine, landline calls, and branching customer conversations are independently corroborated by the official game site.
All three images are unchanged 1920-by-1080 JPEGs from the official Steam appdetails screenshot array. The route was checked against six readable shift pages, five day pages recovered through a reader fallback, a full-store walkthrough, the current official patch feed, and achievement references used only where they clarified a missable sequence. No competitor image or unverified video is embedded.