[Guide] The Ultimate Drug Dealer Simulator 2 FAQ Guide

Steam Community Guide

Originally written by KOSOTA for Drug Dealer Simulator 2 — Jun 23, 2024 @ 5:34am — 227 ratings

Dealer is placed on spot, has drugs but not producing money.

If you have any pending orders from the clients you assigned to him, you first need to deny/fulfil those orders.

How to get more Dealers?

Try talking to influencers about dealers in meetings or check out notice boards all around the map.

Why Does My Influencer Not Give Me Money Anymore Like in the Demo?

Influencers giving money was removed since it did not make any sense at all. Now they just create demand for the drug you gave them in the respective island they are assigned to.

Where do I find Soda for cookies?

You can find it all around the map, including General Stores in: Callejon, Jungle

Says I Need Level 0 Street Cred to Talk to Some People

There is currently a bug where you start off with -1 street cred. Go fight a thug and your street cred will go back to 0.

I gave dealer drugs, placed him on a spot, and he is still red?

The dealer might be running low on drugs or needs a different type of drug depending on the island's demand (weed, amp, meth, cocaine, opium, etc.).

How do I get my money to go into my wealth?

You need to deposit money into a Pawn Shop. To do this, go to any Pawn Shop marked on the map (Green are the ones I found for now) and just drag the money into the rack.

How to Use Dead Drops?

First, go to a dead drop location marked on the map and press the middle mouse button. Open the dead drop, place your dope inside, and click on the dealer you want to give the dope to. Make sure both the dead drop and the dealer are on the same island.

How Do I Get Better Lab Equipment

Do the storyline until you get to slavs bay and do the quest for handy man.

Drug mixing / cutting

This is a mid-late game mechanic!

Buy a kitchen mixer or magnetic stirrer to start creating custom mixes, it can be found at higher tier equipment stores.

Why Can't I make Amp?

You need to buy a pot and then add it to the stove.
Also, check to ensure you have the correct ingredients.
Potassium can't be bought, only extracted later. Use another recipe early on.

How to wear jewellery (watches, chains, etc..)

Drag it into the jewellery slot. Simple as that!

Influencers 101

Influencers raise demand for the drug you give them. You will not receive clients for certain drugs until you introduce them to it.
You can view the current demand for each drug via interacting with the NPC or using a boss desk.
There is a influencer in each major area, they each control the sales in their respective area.
Influencers take a agreed upon percentage of all your sales in their area, this is taken directly from your wealth.
Higher reputation level for each influencer can unlock new missions and is generally the main way to progress.
You can schedule a meeting with a influencer to negotiate a lower cut for them, you want to do this after leveling it up.

Employees 101 (EXTENDED GUIDE)

You gain new employees by attending meetings with leveled up influencers, you can also gain them from notice boards and leveling up street cred.
Employees can be placed on dealer cabinets, Lab technician desks, and distributor desks.

Managing and expanding your workforce is crucial to growing your drug empire. This guide will cover how to get more employees, from early-game strategies to unlocking advanced methods.

Understanding Employee and Client Numbers

At the top of the screen, you'll see two key figures:

Blue Marker: Number of employees
Green Marker: Number of clients

Your staff is categorised into:

Dealers
Distributors
Lab Technicians

Step 1: Level Up Your Reputation

Increase Area Rep:

Level up your reputation in different areas by completing tasks and selling drugs.
Check your reputation on the boss's desk.

Schedule Meetings:

Use a phone (outside the shop or in your hideout) to schedule meetings with area leaders.
For example, in the Archipelago, schedule a meeting with Lanzo.

Ask for Recommendations:

During the meeting, ask the area leader if they know anyone looking for work.
This method can yield new employees, though it's not very common.

Step 2: Progress to Slavs Bay and Meet Kira

Main Quest Progression:

Speak to Kira in Slavs Bay to receive a main story quest to find a distributor.
This quest will introduce you to notice boards, a key source for new employees.

Step 3: Utilise Notice Boards

Find Notice Boards:

Notice boards are located in various areas, such as the Peninsula and Archipelago.
These boards are your primary source for new employees.

Daily Interactions:

Interact with notice boards every in-game day (e.g., sleep and wake up to reset).
Sometimes you'll find nothing, but occasionally you'll discover new workers or pets.

Additional Rewards:

Besides employees, you can also find pets for your hideouts on notice boards.
Pets can be interacted with and even taken for walks.

Step 4: Special Clients

Green Text Clients:

Special clients, identified by green text messages, can also become employees.
The first special client you'll encounter is Jamal, who requires selling him 15 blunts before becoming a worker.

Summary

Increase Reputation: Level up your rep in various areas.
Schedule Meetings: Meet area leaders and ask for worker recommendations.
Progress to Slabs Bay: Complete the main quest with Kira to unlock notice boards.
Utilise Notice Boards: Interact with boards daily to find new employees and pets.
Special Clients: Convert special clients into workers by fulfilling their requests.

Distributor Desk 101

Distributes drugs to all of the assigned dealers clients.
Receives all the earnings from each assigned dealer
Requires a employee to use.
The dealers you want to assign must be placed in a 500 m radius around the distributor, play around with it and you'll get a idea of how far is to far.
Takes product directly from the substance storage of the hideout it was placed in.
Drugs are taken on a per client order basis, it will not show your dealers as stocked up.

Slavs Bay Dealer Spots

I noticed some people can´t find all the dealer spots, there are 5 spots that I marked them in the map.

Lab Technician Desk 101

Doubles the crafting query stack limit in the hideout its placed in, this applies to all crafting inside the hideout.
Requires a employee to use.
Costs 30K a day to function.

Weed Production 101

Tier 1: Growboxes (uses Regular Indica Seeds)

Grow speed upgradable with LED bulb (small)
This tier is unlocked early game.

Tier 2: Growing rack (uses indica seedlings from seedling box)

Requires hideout with water, UV bulb (large), Flower Pot, and Hydroponic element to function.
Grow speed upgradable with LED bulb (large)
This tier is unlocked early game.

Tier 3: Outdoor growing box (uses sativa seedlings from seedling box)

Requires a hideout with a yard and running water.
This tier is unlocked mid game near slavs bay area.

Worth noting that you can use regular seeds for all tiers, but it’s equivalent to just using a lower tier.

Phenylethylamine 101 (buy it, steal it or produce it)

Either buy from Marcus (first bunker guy), extract or steal from a warehouse. The last two can only be done later on. You can also buy it from some pharmacies.

Also, you can get a recipe and make it yourself.

Step 1: Obtain the Recipe

Head to the Peninsula area of the map. Look for a large warehouse near a Mechanic.
Time: Ensure it's past 9 PM in-game time to access the warehouse.
Tools Needed: Bolt cutters: Purchase from hardware stores. Lockpicks: Also available from various in-game vendors.

Step 2: Break into the Warehouse

Disarm Alarms: If you prefer a stealth approach, acquire a disarming card.
Entry: Use bolt cutters to break into the warehouse. Use lockpicks to open the doors inside the warehouse.
Search: Inside, search the desks and filing cabinets to find the extraction recipe.

Step 3: Setting Up Your Lab

Equipment Needed:
Chemistry table (alternatively, you can use a lab centrifuge or an orbital shaker).
Placement: Set up the chemistry table in your hideout.

Step 4: Extraction

Ingredients:
Chocolate Bar: Yields 20g of phenylethylamine, 10g of cocoa, 50g of sugar, and 20g of potassium hydroxide.
Cocoa: 100g of cocoa yields 10g of phenylethylamine.

Procedure:
Place the chocolate bar or cocoa on the chemistry table.
Select the phenylethylamine extraction recipe.
Craft the phenylethylamine. The process takes about 5 seconds in-game.

Step 5: Finding Chocolate Bars

Mini Markets: The best places to purchase chocolate bars.
Locations: Archipelago, near the pawn shop. Big City. Peninsula, near the pharmacy...

Stock Up: Level up the mini markets to increase the daily stock of chocolate bars, ranging from 5 to 20 bars per day.

Step 6: Producing Amphetamine

Fermentation Vats: Use the extracted phenylethylamine in fermentation vats to create amphetamine salts.
Final Step: Use a stove or pressure cooker to convert the salts into amphetamine.

By following these steps, you can efficiently produce phenylethylamine and ultimately, amphetamine, without relying on in-game purchases from Marcus or pharmacies.

Potassium hydroxide (KOH) + Hydroiodic acid (HI)

Potassium hydroxide (KOH): It can be found in the "construction store" in Slavs Bay, not far from the pawnshop. Available from the second upgrade level.

Also you can get there Hydroiodic acid (HI) for meth production.

The store can be found in a chemical store (that is how the store is named) in Slavs Bay region after reaching the 2 lvl of reputation in that store. Its location is on the right side of the outdoor weed store.

On the 3 lvl you get max 5 bottles of KOH (100 ml) and 4 HI (100 ml) worth less than 200 credits each.

Credits to: Eternal Sunshine and boi.

Slav Stashes 101

For those of you coming up on having to build these Slav Stashes, the passive income isn't shown so here is the math.

You make $60 every 5 seconds with the large one, and $25 every 5 seconds with the smaller one.

The large one cost $350,000 per, and the smaller cost $170,000 per. So the large one makes $43,200 an hour, the smaller $18,000. So with that math, the large one will take a little over 8 hours until it pays itself off, and the smaller will take a little over 9.5 hours.

Cant interact with Moonshiner

Find the pawn shop nearby and question the NPC for more info regarding the moonshiner, then you can interact with him.

Image with the location, hover over the black square (hidden to avoid spoiler):

Where are saves located?

C:\Users[YourUsername]\AppData\Local\DrugDealerSimulator2\Saved\SaveGames\Cartels

Fatal Error Band-Aid

Seems to prevent Some Crashes. Not a guaranteed fix for all fatal errors.

Click The Start Button (on your task bar)
Click Run
Copy & Paste This:

%localappdata%\DrugDealerSimulator2\Saved\Config\Windows\GameUserSettings.ini

Press Enter Or Click Okay
Scroll Down To:

FrameRateLimit=0.000000

Change To:

FrameRateLimit=60.000000

Or what ever your desktops frame rate is, and save it.

Linux Users

While the game is not officially supported, it does work through proton, although the first few runs of the game will be slower.

Tips if you have low performance:

Use the flatpak version of steam;
Use the DX11 launch option.

Game saves disappeared from the load game UI (Continue UI)

This is a quick DIY hotfix for the issue where your cartel files are available in the AppData location but you still don't see the cartel available in the load game UI.

1. Create a backup of your cartel folder (you can put the backup on your desktop for example) (Folder location: C:\Users[YourUsername]\AppData\Local\DrugDealerSimulator2\Saved\SaveGames\Cartels)
2. Delete it from AppData.
3. Create a new cartel with the same exact name.
4. Alt + F4 out of the character selection menu.
5. Open the newly created cartel folder in the AppData.
6. Paste the backup files into that folder.
7. Load your cartel.

Game crash | LowLevelFatalError | Could not decompress shader group with Oodle

This is a DIY fix that will most likely work only on the issue / specific crash instances mentioned below:

For who?: People with 13th and 14th gen Intel processors & those who experience "LowLevelFatalError - Could not decompress shader group with Oodle" crashes

What's the problem?: Hardware issue with Intel 13900K and 14900K (and more, like 13700, 14700) processors causing game crashes due to BIOS settings and high clock rates.

How to fix (Short explanation): Players should disable overclocking in BIOS or use Intel XTU to lower the Performance Core multiplier for stability.

Step by step guide to fix the problem: https://www.radgametools.com/oodleintel.htm (use the link and scroll down a bit for a step by step guide for fixing this problem).

Can the devs go back to the old mixing and placing system from DDS1?

Short answer is NO. Staff member said developers won't be changing the mixing to make it like it was in DDS1, sadly it will not be interactive like it was before.

Is the game available on Geforce NOW?

Yes, the game is now available on GeForce NOW.

Spreadsheet of Drug Usage by Location

Buff Effects

Some information about buff effects and the source of them.

How to Cook Your Own Methamphetamine FULL GUIDE

Methamphetamine is one of the many drugs you can produce and sell. This guide will take you through the process of making your own meth, from gaining the necessary street cred to setting up your lab and cooking the product.

Step 1: Gain Street Cred Level 2

Increase Street Cred: The quickest way to increase your street cred early in the game is by beating up gang members. Avoid targeting police officers as they are tougher and not worth the effort for street cred.

Objective: Reach street cred level 2 to unlock interactions necessary for meth production.

Step 2: Meet Diego in the Jungle

Location: Head to the Jungle area of the map.

Interaction: Once your street cred is level 2, speak with Diego. Diego will direct you to a meth dealer across the road.

Step 3: Obtain the Meth Recipe

Find the Warehouse: The warehouse is located on the hill leading down into the town area of the Jungle. This is one of the few warehouses with a guard.

Bribe the Guard: The guard will ask for six beers. Purchase these beers beforehand.
After handing over the beers, the guard will unlock the warehouse door for you.

Prepare Lockpicks: Bring lockpicks (Make them in the DIY table with metal) to open chests inside the warehouse.
Inside, find a shelving unit with books on the top shelf. Interact with these books to obtain the methamphetamine recipe.

Step 4: Set Up Your Lab

Essential Equipment:

Lab Water Bath
Kitchen Stove or Electric Pressure Cooker
Drying Rack, Lab Oven, Large Drying Table, or Lab Tray Dryer

Here's an example of my starting setup. It's pricey for the start, but it's worth it.

Purchase Locations:

Equipment can be bought from various stores, including the ghetto equipment store in Slavs Bay.

Step 5: Gather Ingredients

Required Ingredients:

Ephedrine
Iodoric Acid
Soda or Ammonia
Acetone

Step 6: Cooking Process

Create Ephedrine Compound: Use the lab water bath to combine ephedrine with ammonia or soda.

Produce Methamphetamine Compound: Combine the ephedrine compound with acetone or Iodoric Acid.

Dry the Product: Use the drying equipment (drying rack, lab oven, etc.) to finalize the methamphetamine.

Summary

Gain Street Cred Level 2: Beat up gang members.
Meet Diego: Head to the Jungle area and follow his instructions.
Obtain Recipe: Bribe the warehouse guard with six beers and get the recipe.
Set Up Lab: Buy necessary equipment.
Gather Ingredients: Purchase ephedrine, iodoral, soda/ammonia, and acetone.
Cook Meth: Follow the cooking process to produce methamphetamine.

HIDEOUTS

White spots shows the locations of the hideouts.

DEALER SPOTS

Blue spots are indicating the dealer spots.

Influencer Max Demand per Area

A table with the max demands on each area.

Special Clients

A list with the some of the special clients in the game (will be update with time):

Archipelago: Jamal Thomson
Callejon: Andrés San Martín
Callejon: Olivia Gómez Gomis
Jungle: Luka Gómez
Slavs Bay: Noah Verdugo
Slavs Bay: Martin Villegas
Slavs Bay: Ignacio Sabaté
Paraíso Peninsula: Erica Benitez
Paraíso Peninsula: Moises Biel
La Colina Sangrienta: Alma Hidalgo
Volcano Island: Teo Coronel
Dueño del Mar: American Colonel
Dueño del Mar: Iñigo Balderas
Bahía de Oro - Downtown: Isabel Fidalgo

Special Thanks To

Special thanks to the DDS Discord community and their staff members for updating us with more information and answering the most important questions. This guide will be updated further more.