How to read the black end-of-shift report in Potato Please

Leave the black report screen after the last line

When the screen turns black, look for a heading and rows of white statistics. If those rows are present, look near the bottom centre for the much fainter continuation prompt. Both English captures show the E key. Before pressing it, take a screenshot if you want to preserve the time or decisions for this particular shift. A completely blank screen with no statistics and no prompt is a different symptom.

Reconcile excess production with the two peeling counters

In one English report, 1,002 potatoes peeled by hand plus 61,529 peeled by machine give 62,531 total. Another report has 591 hand peels plus 102,519 machine peels, exactly 103,110. If your reported total is above the shipment target you remember, add the two production lines before treating it as a counting error. The report totals the work performed. Use the quota HUD from the same shift to check the shipment target and delivered figure separately.

Check whether money reached Pavel when all eleven letters were answered

Read the line for letters answered and then the separate amount sent to Pavel directly below it. One completed shift shows eleven answers and 0 coins sent. Another shows eleven answers and 100.25 sent. An answered letter can record a choice without recording a payment. If you are comparing two family routes, preserve the money line and your choice notes. The report gives a total and does not itemise which envelope received which sum.

Check a smoking challenge after the shift ends

Look at the last statistic, Cigarettes smoked, before advancing past the report. Two English screenshots show five in one run and six in another. That gives you a count for this completed shift even if One Last Puff was already on your Steam account before you began. For a zero-cigarette challenge, inspect this final line rather than checking whether an achievement remains unlocked. The report does not give the times at which individual cigarettes were used.

Compare hand peels from one shift with the career board

For a single-run hand-peeling challenge, record the line labelled Peeled by hand on the final black report. In the example with 62,531 total potatoes it reads 1,002. The Records screen offers a separate career hand-peeling category. Use that category to compare a career total, and keep the dated report when comparing individual playthroughs. A change in your career score alone does not show how many of the current run's potatoes went through a machine.

Recover your run duration even when it has no leaderboard place

If a completed time is missing from the rankings, look for Shift length on the game's own black report and save a picture before continuing. One report records 4:02:47. The hours, minutes and seconds belong to that playthrough. Preserve the separate Records screen to document the difficulty and whether the game actually shows a numbered placement there. The shift report supplies the duration even when you cannot identify a ranked entry.

What zero sent to Varenka means after a village ending

On the recorded village route the freight actually arrived at Varenka. The very next shift report nevertheless shows zero potatoes sent to Varenka. It lists 63,382 potatoes peeled during the shift. The village counter therefore cannot be read as the final freight weight. To check donations, read that line alongside your physical crate shipments during work. Preserve the Ministry bulletin as evidence of where the final train went. Also note the two distinct lines below the cash total. This run had 11 family letters answered and six reports to the Ministry.

Gameplay · zero village potatoes, eleven family letters and six Ministry reports ↗

Gameplay · the same train arrives at Varenka ↗

A paid-up school budget does not protect the hostage

The same report records 112.25 sent to Pavel across eleven answered letters. It comes immediately after the village appendix reporting his death. If you are trying to identify a missing payment as the cause, keep the two other pieces of evidence from that run: a warning naming the papers handed to the Ministry and Pavel saying he was taken from school. The amount sent and the last route alone do not describe the Resistance history. The report lists the total number of reports together rather than naming the documents one by one.

Gameplay · 112.25 sent and six reports on the documented shift ↗

Gameplay · the abduction letter ↗

Gameplay · the Varenka result ↗

Earnings in the report versus coins in your pocket

At the end of one shift, the field marked earned shows 15,836.67. Minutes earlier, when the worker reached quota and picked up the final delivery, the spendable balance in the top right was only 549.14. Those two screens answer different questions. Use the shop or live HUD to check what you can buy now. Use the report to compare gross earnings across completed shifts. The report also separates the amount sent to Pavel, and it does not itemize every tool or upgrade purchase. Subtracting that one family transfer will not reconstruct the wallet.

Gameplay · total earned and total sent on the shift report ↗

Gameplay · spendable coins immediately before the final yard pickup ↗

Check a village-aid run without any Ministry reports

For a challenge run that requires donating food and making no reports, save one full picture of the final statistics. Find Reports to the Ministry and the immediately following Potatoes sent to Varenka. The photographed worker ends with zero reports and 45 potatoes sent. That one screen documents both requirements. It also shows eleven answered letters and six cigarettes, which are separate totals. The 45 is a number of potatoes. Since the village crate can take more than ten, dividing it by ten cannot reliably tell you the number of trips. Track each dispatch during the shift if your challenge specifies a number of crates.

Steam · developer confirms a crate can hold extra potatoes ↗

Cross-check the transfer total against the five letter amounts

A photographed report records 109 sent. The five known payments are 0.25, 1, 3, 8 and 100. If those are the only payments in this run, 109 is consistent with 1 + 8 + 100, leaving the 0.25 and 3 unpaid. Compare the stored replies before concluding whether you refused them or lacked cash. The total alone cannot show why you missed a payment.

MJun.21: equipment prices, prerequisites, letters and Journal task rewards ↗

Calculate the hand and machine percentages of one shift

The English report lists 363 hand peels and 62,048 machine peels out of 62,411. Divide each by 62,411: hand work accounts for roughly 0.58%, machine work for 99.42%. Check that both counters sum to the reported total first. This shows the mix of credited output across the whole shift; it does not measure how many minutes the player spent hauling or answering letters.

Compare the two lines on a single completed report

One player's final report records three Ministry reports alongside forty-five potatoes sent to Varenka. These two lines can therefore both be nonzero on one shift. Record which notes or crates you report: the village guide describes reporting a village crate as closing future visits. The summary does not identify which objects produced the three reports.

MJun.21: equipment prices, prerequisites, letters and Journal task rewards ↗

Keep a whole-shift average and a late-stage sample separate

The English example produced 62,411 peeled potatoes in 6:47:59, about 153 peels per elapsed minute. That figure includes manual opening work, mail and equipment purchases. To measure the powered line, take two shipment readings over a timed interval once the drums are fed. Compare the shipment increase per minute with the report's whole-shift average only after labeling what each counter measures.

Player asks for a counter at the depot exit ↗

Save the branch-specific text as well as the checklist

One Russian completion screen checks three destination outcomes on a simple list. It does not contain the detailed Pavel annex. Capture the family text before advancing if you want to compare who survived on two saves. Later, use the checklist to find missing destinations and the separate family capture to identify the narrative branch.

Separate a requested waste ledger from the grading screen

A Steam player requested a Journal statistics panel with cumulative wasted weight. The photographed final report shows hand and machine peel counts alongside the shift totals and story contributions; those counts do not reveal kilograms discarded from individual potatoes. If comparing tools, save a screenshot of each workbench evaluation on similar potatoes and compare the displayed result across your own samples. Do not convert a lost grade or a low sale price into an exact mass.

Steam player discussion: Statistics Panel in Journal ↗

Related field notes

• Two endings on foot: return to Depot 5 or follow the railway
• Why half the potato pile disappears and what the Ministry notices mean