Eight campuses in and Two Point Campus is still introducing us to unique gameplay mechanics. Upper Etching looks a bit like an area of Manhattan but spins things on its head by giving absolutely no guaranteed income at the end of each month. With that in mind, it is fair to say this Campus caused us the most issues to date. It took five years (game not real obvs!) to get the one-star rating so if you can manage it quicker then well done you, Hopefully, this guide will help speed you through it a bit faster.

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The first rule of Upper Etching is don’t expect to make any money the normal way.

How to unlock Upper Etching in Two Point Campus¶

Upper Etching, like Pebberley Ruins, is unlocked by achieving a one-star Campus rating on both Spiffinmoore and Fluffborough. This is the first time you have had to get ratings on multiple campuses in order to unlock the next, so if you aren’t seeing it, then double-check you have met the requirements on the other two first.

Upper Etching Tips¶

Right, where to start with this one? It’s tough, or at least it was until we got the first three years out of the way, and all of a sudden we seemed to have reached the tipping point of having enough students to provide a constant source of decent income.
We had actual points here though where we were selling rooms and sacking staff as well as selling off assets just to keep going month to month as we already had all three loans on the go.

The actual criteria for hitting the 1 Star Rating aren’t too difficult, other than they take a while. You need to train a teacher in Musicality up to Level 5 - that takes a while as you have to upgrade your course a couple of times. You also have to have a Training Room in situ and those funds could be better spent elsewhere.

Besides that, reaching Campus Level 15 is not overly difficult but it does take time and is difficult o speed up as you will not have the funds to quickly add embellishments.

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Improve your campus as much as possible with cheaper options such as big windows.

The upgrading Students one is easy and was actually the first one we ticked off. So how did we do it?

The mechanics of Upper Etching mean you get $2000 every time a student levels up. Therefore if you have lots of students leveling up you can make some decent money. At the start however you won’t have that.

The constant drain, especially towards the end of Year 1 and Year 2 will have you bordering on financial ruin. Staff costs from the number of teachers and assistants you have will be an issue and juggling your loans will become a real concern.

A new club called The Orb will become available which will also pay you money each time a student joins or levels up - The Orb is a bit like some weird cult and while you will get cash, students who are in the Club have their happiness rating affected, which can potentially mean more dropouts and lower grades - and remember we need them leveling up.

Initially, we built three Private Tuition Rooms to help level them up and get the cash and also tick off the requirement. Once we had the requirement met, we had to sell off the rooms - along with the Pastoral Care room just to get out of crippling debt.

We also shrunk down the size of the Student union and sold off the stage - but only after we had hosted three Open Mic nights in year one - these also help to level the students’ XP and is a requirement of the 1 Star rating to hold three.

Around about halfway through Year 4 we suddenly had enough students regularly leveling up in order to pay off the monthly costs of around $40k and have some left over so we could quickly pay off the remainder of our loans.

This put us in a good place to have enough cash to begin to expand the campus and improve the Dorms, add more bathrooms and the like, and start to get that Campus Rating up towards 15 to complete the challenge.

Courses unlocked at Upper Etching¶

Two new courses on offer and both need to be run from the off - something which also stretches finances still further. Musicality and Countercultural Studies are on the cards here and you will need Lecture Theatres, Computer Labs and Recording Studios aplenty as you go on through the years.

Buying Extra Plots - Upper Etching¶

We actually got through all five years without buying any extra land. You actually start with a decent sized building along with two large areas directly in front of it with witch you can add more buildings on when the times comes. You won’t have enough money to buy any for a good while at any rate.

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Musicality Students will need a number of Recording Studios to realize their full potential.

How to get a 1 Star Campus - Upper Etching¶

The rewards here are great if you also have a One Star Rating at Pebberley Ruins as getting it here in Upper Etching unlocks the next THREE Campuses to play on.

How to get a 2 Star Campus - Upper Etching¶