Bills Must Be Paid Stamina Hammer Loop: The Tourist Piggy

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Core problem: Stretch each smash run so stamina lasts long enough to cover the current bill. The run dies at 0 stamina. Every miss or half-finished piggy is money you will not earn. The fix is hitting the piggy that gives stamina back (The Tourist), then spending leftover swings on easy kills instead of chasing tanks.

1Which Piggy Restores Stamina: The Tourist

The Tourist

Big, lazy, mostly stands still. Smash it whenever it is on the desk. That refund is the only in-run stamina refill most players rely on early. Recovery Smash (+1 stamina per smash) and later coin/perk effects help, but Tourist is the one people hunt first.

Rule: Tourist is slow and tanky enough that you should not start it if you cannot finish it. Finish it when you can. The refund is why you take it over a runner.

2The Stamina Hammer Loop

The Core Loop

Tourist refunds stamina → extra swings → more coins → pay the bill → perk/upgrade that fixes whatever ended the last run. There is no separate infinite hammer loop beyond this.

1
Look at stamina (top-left) and the bill amount before you swing.
The run dies at 0 stamina. Every miss or half-finished piggy is money you will not earn.
2
Open on nearby easy piggies, then snap to Tourist the moment it appears.
Do not start Tourist if you cannot finish it. Finish it when you can.
3
Match the hammer to the desk, not to "best DPS" in the abstract.
Crowded desk: faster / wider hammer so one swing tags more bodies. One fat target: higher damage / crit so you do not dump the bar into one HP pool.
4
Stop chasing.
Runners (El Loco and similar) only get swings if they pass through your current radius. Long pursuits waste stamina and leave loot on the table.
5
Read the last run, then buy only the bottleneck.
Desk empty while you still have stamina: more starting piggies / spawn. Desk full of multi-hit piggies: damage, crit, or a new hammer. Run ends with killable piggies still sitting there: stamina cap, slower drain, or Recovery Smash. You clear the desk but cannot pay: loot after the above is stable.
6
Pay the bill when the amount plus a small reserve is in hand.
Unpaid bills let the collector skim 20-50% of earnings. Do not dump reserved bill money into a shop item. Perk after payment: take stamina or income until runs are stable, take damage/luck after you already clear the desk.

3Hammer Matching: Wide vs Heavy

Default farm hammer

Fast + Wide

For crowded desks. One swing tags more bodies. This is the default. Use it when the desk is packed with easy piggies and you need to clear fast before stamina runs out.

Single-target hammer

Heavy / Crit

For one fat target (Tourist, Woody, stone later). Higher damage so you do not dump the whole stamina bar into one HP pool. Swap only when current piggies survive too long or radius is starving you.

4Key Decisions

What you see	Do this	Don't
Tourist on desk, you can finish it	Kill it now for the stamina refund	Ignore it to chase a runner
Stamina low, one tanky piggy left	Switch to a nearby one-shot or end the run	Dump the last swings into Woody/stone
New hammer available	Swap only if current piggies survive too long or radius is starving you	Buy speed before you can hit anything
Bill due soon	Farm reachable piggies, pay, then spend surplus	Pay early just to "feel safe" if you have no pay-early rings. Some players report early pay pulls the next due date forward

5Mistakes That Kill the Loop

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Treating every piggy as equal. Tourist is stamina. Pinata is a gamble. Woody is a stamina sink until you have damage.
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Buying spawn while the desk is already full of multi-hit piggies.
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Buying stamina when the desk goes empty first. You needed more targets, not a longer empty run.
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Missing swings and unfinished targets. Those cost the same stamina as a kill.
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Ignoring the bill so the collector eats the next run.

If a later coin or perk refunds a % of max stamina every N hits, take it once the basic Tourist + Recovery Smash loop is already working. Do not skip the fundamentals for a late perk.