The Cafe by Origen is the closest thing Neverness to Everness has to a savings account. It pays out whether you are running heists, driving across Hethereau, or logged off entirely, and the gap between a lazy setup and a tuned one is measured in thousands of Fons per day. Version 1.3 shifted the math again with new units entering the employee pool.
Quick answer: The strongest Version 1.3 lineup is Linko, Shinku, Lacrimosa, Aurelia, and Iroi, which lands at 2641.90 total revenue in a full comparison run — ahead of the 2624.14 from the Version 1.2 core and the 2543.20 from the Version 1.1 setup.
How café revenue is calculated
Every optimization decision comes back to one equation. Revenue for a single dish equals the price of that dish multiplied by traffic divided by 100. Two levers, and both are worth pulling, but they do not scale identically.
Flat price boosters like Adler, Mint, and Haniel add a fixed amount of Fons to every sale — 0.12 at their first tier, rising to 0.18 at Level 5. Flat traffic boosters like Skia, Baicang, Edgar, and Chiz add 18 customers, rising to 27 at Level 5. Percentage skills behave differently. Aurelia raises traffic by 1% for each Beverage tag on your menu, and Lacrimosa raises dish prices by 1% for each Dessert tag. Because those multiply against everything else, they reward committing your shelf to one tag category rather than spreading it evenly.
Open the Shop Management screen from the counter in person or through the Hethereau Hobbies menu, then use the Management button to handle employees and displayed items.
The best Version 1.3 employee lineup
Linko, Shinku, Lacrimosa, Aurelia, and Iroi form the current top-performing roster. Shinku is the anchor — the skill fires once three beverages are on the menu, layering both flat base additions and 3% multiplier increases on affected items. Aurelia then converts that beverage-heavy shelf into extra traffic, while Lacrimosa taxes the dessert slots for price percentage. Linko and Iroi supply the raw traffic that everything else multiplies against.
Linko’s traffic contribution is easy to verify in-game. Swapping Linko out for Skia drops total traffic from 2772 to 2754, an 18-point loss that carries through every dish on the shelf.
| Version | Core employees | Total revenue |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Lacrimosa, Aurelia, Edgar, Daffodill | 2543.20 |
| 1.2 | Iroi, Shinku (3 beverage dishes) | 2624.14 |
| 1.3 | Linko, Shinku, Lacrimosa, Aurelia, Iroi | 2641.90 |
Note: the gains between versions are real but incremental. Moving from the 1.1 roster to the 1.3 roster is roughly a 4% improvement, so this is not a reason to panic-pull for limited units.
Alternative setups if you are missing limited units
Shinku and Lacrimosa are the two hardest pieces to obtain, and both have workarounds.
No Shinku, no Lacrimosa
Run the Top 5 Most Expensive Dishes build. Instead of chasing tag synergies you cannot support, you fill the shelf with the highest base-price items you have unlocked and stack traffic-boosting employees behind them. Since price is already maxed by dish selection, every added customer converts cleanly into Fons.
Lacrimosa but no Shinku
Use the modified Version 1.1 shell and slot Iroi and Linko in for high traffic. Lacrimosa’s dessert percentage still functions on its own, and the two traffic units cover the multiplier you would otherwise be getting from Shinku’s beverage trigger.
Hotori’s Exclusive Customer Service bond decor
This one is easy to miss and applies regardless of which roster you run. Reaching Bond Level 6 with Hotori unlocks the Exclusive Customer Service decor item, which grants a 1% boost to base total traffic once it is placed. Because it hits base traffic, the bonus flows through every price multiplier stacked on top of it.
Place it through the Renovate screen under the Decor tab, then position it inside the shop like any other furnishing.
Employee upgrade priority
Dreamless Seeds are limited, so pouring everything into a single character is the most common way to waste them. Sort your roster into three buckets.
| Tier | What to do |
|---|---|
| Take to Level 5 first | The five units in your active Version 1.3 lineup — their Level 5 upgrades convert directly into higher traffic or price |
| Level 5 later | Secondary employees that still add income once your core is finished |
| Leave alone | Units whose skills do not contribute to your current menu tags |
Before chasing price bonuses, get at least one employee reducing ingredient consumption. Levels 2, 3, and 4 of every employee’s skill each shave 1% off consumption, stacking to 3% per character. A shop that runs out of stock earns nothing, so uptime beats a marginal price bump early on.
Management Level milestones that change your setup
Management Level rises automatically from cumulative revenue you actually collect, so claiming your Fons regularly is part of the progression loop. Several thresholds change how you should be playing.
| Level | Unlock |
|---|---|
| 2 | Delivery unlocked, 80% fee |
| 15 | Delivery fee drops to 60% |
| 20 | Delivery fee drops to 40%, Trends unlocked |
| 22 | Menu items can be upgraded to Custom versions |
| 25 | Delivery fee drops to 20%, fifth shop available |
| 30 | Delivery becomes free |
| 40 | Auto Restock unlocked |
All five shops are worth buying in order as they unlock — Bluebeard Road for 5,000 Fons, Fiscus Avenue for 20,000, Davidia Avenue for 40,000, Moomin Street for 75,000, and Hankaku Street for 100,000. More shops means more menu slots running at once.
Popularity caps and the cheapest furniture route
Popularity feeds a total income multiplier, but each location has a hard ceiling and spending past it returns nothing. Four-seat chairs deliver the most Popularity per Fons of anything sold at DeLuxur Decor, well ahead of decorative figurines, so buy tables and chairs first and top up the remainder with wall decor.
| Shop | Popularity cap | Revenue multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| Bluebeard Road | 150 | +0.01 |
| Fiscus Avenue | 500 | +0.015 |
| Davidia Avenue | 500 | +0.015 |
| Moomin Street | 750 | +0.025 |
| Hankaku Street | 750 | +0.025 |
Capping all five shops costs roughly 114,500 Fons if you buy only what is needed. That is a one-time expense that permanently raises every future payout.
Daily Trends and menu adjustments
From Management Level 20, one trend rotates each day and marks matching items with a flame icon. Ingredient trends — flour, fruit, coffee beans — add 0.75 Fons to every dish using that ingredient. Category trends for Beverages, Main Dishes, or Desserts add 1.0 Fons to an entire section. Coffee beans is the widest ingredient trend, touching eight dishes including all seven beverages, which pairs neatly with a Shinku and Aurelia shelf.
The shelf holds six dishes at once, so trend chasing means swapping, not adding. Also re-check your menu after every Management Level, since newly unlocked items and Custom upgrades can reorder which dishes are actually the most profitable.
You will know a change worked because the total traffic and revenue figures on the Shop Management screen update the moment you confirm an employee swap or a menu edit — the Linko-to-Skia test is exactly that, an 18-point difference visible immediately. If your numbers do not move after a swap, the usual cause is a percentage skill with nothing to scale against, such as Aurelia with too few Beverage tags or Lacrimosa with no desserts on the shelf. Fix the menu tags first, then re-check the roster.
