Bills Must Be Paid looks incredibly simple when you first start playing. Piggy banks appear, you smash them, collect money, and try to pay your bills before everything falls apart. After a few runs, though, it becomes obvious that blindly clicking everything on the screen isn’t going to get you very far.
The real challenge is managing several systems at once. Your stamina determines how long you can remain productive, different hammers are better against different targets, bills create constant pressure, perks determine how quickly your economy scales, and bankruptcy eventually becomes an intentional progression mechanic rather than something you should always fear.
After getting through enough runs, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that efficiency matters more than aggression. A player who understands which piggies to attack and when to stop can often make more progress than someone with better upgrades who simply swings at everything.
Below are 10 advanced tips that explain the most important systems and decisions you should start paying attention to.
1. Prioritize Grip Strength and Protect Your Stamina
Stamina is one of the most important resources in Bills Must Be Paid because practically everything you accomplish during a run depends on how efficiently you use it.
It’s extremely tempting to click as quickly as possible when several piggy banks appear. I made this mistake constantly during my early runs. You see targets everywhere and naturally assume that attacking faster means earning faster.
Technically, it can—but only until your stamina disappears.
Once your stamina becomes the limiting factor, attacking inefficiently shortens the entire run. That’s why Grip Strength deserves much more attention than it initially appears to.
Increasing Grip Strength makes every individual strike stronger. That creates an important chain reaction:
More damage per hit means fewer hits required to destroy a piggy bank. Fewer hits mean less stamina spent on that piggy. Saving stamina allows you to attack additional targets, and those extra targets generate additional money and resources.
So Grip Strength isn’t simply a damage upgrade. In practice, it’s also an efficiency upgrade.
For example, imagine one piggy requires six hits with your current Grip Strength. If an upgrade reduces that requirement to four hits, you’re saving two attacks every time you destroy that type of target. Repeat that across dozens of piggies during a run and the stamina savings become enormous.
This is why I wouldn’t recommend randomly buying whichever upgrade happens to appear affordable. Improving your damage efficiency can have a much larger effect on an entire run.
You still want stamina regeneration and other upgrades eventually, but don’t underestimate Grip Strength just because its description sounds basic.
The objective isn’t simply to hit harder. You want every point of stamina to produce as much money as possible.
2. Switch Hammers According to the Targets on Screen
Another mistake that’s easy to make is finding one good hammer and using it for absolutely everything.
Bills Must Be Paid rewards adaptation much more than that.
Different hammers specialize in different situations. Some provide excellent attack speed and a large striking area, while others sacrifice range for critical damage and more concentrated power.
Fast, wide-area hammers become particularly useful when the screen fills with weaker piggies. You can clear several targets quickly without wasting time trying to precisely target each one.
High-critical-damage hammers are better when you’re dealing with a valuable individual target.
The basic trade-off is:
Speed and range for clearing groups.
Critical damage and precision for valuable individual targets.
Don’t think of one hammer as permanently being your “best hammer.”
Instead, think of your hammer collection as a toolbox.
If the screen suddenly fills with easy targets, switch toward something capable of clearing them efficiently. If an important rare or tougher piggy appears, switching to something with better concentrated damage can make more sense.
Once I started treating hammer switching as part of the actual gameplay instead of something I only did between runs, the combat became much more efficient.
This becomes increasingly important as stronger targets begin appearing because wasting stamina with the wrong tool can completely ruin an otherwise excellent run.
3. Never Let the Collector Destroy Your Economy
There is a huge difference between intentionally planning around bankruptcy and simply failing to pay your bills.
Ignoring a bill for too long allows the collector to intervene, and the resulting penalty can take a massive percentage of your earnings. Depending on your situation and progression, you may be losing somewhere around 20% to 50% or potentially even more.
That is devastating in an incremental game.
The worst part is that the damage isn’t always immediately obvious. You’re still smashing piggies and earning money, so it feels like you’re progressing. But a huge portion of everything you generate is being removed.
Eventually your economy effectively stalls.
You grind longer, buy fewer upgrades, struggle with increasingly expensive bills, and can end up trapped in a recovery cycle.
I’ve found it much safer to mentally separate your money into two categories.
You have money available for upgrades, and then you have money reserved for the upcoming bill.
Once the deadline starts getting uncomfortable, treat your bill reserve as untouchable.
Don’t spend it on an attractive upgrade and assume you’ll somehow earn everything back before the collector arrives.
Taking calculated risks is part of the game, but constantly gambling your bill money isn’t an efficient long-term strategy.
4. Choose Scaling Perks After Paying Bills
Successfully paying a bill gives you a choice between three bonuses, and these decisions can have a surprisingly large effect on the rest of your run.
The trap is choosing whatever immediately solves your current problem.
A stamina reduction might look useful because you’re struggling with energy right now. A cheaper mechanic might also provide instant relief.
Those bonuses aren’t necessarily bad, but you should compare them against perks that scale.
Some of the strongest long-term choices improve things such as:
- Loot
- Critical chance
- Attack speed
- Resource multipliers
- Overall earning potential
The reason multipliers become so valuable is simple: they become stronger as your underlying build improves.
Suppose you’re earning a small amount of money. A multiplier provides a relatively small benefit.
Later, when your upgrades have dramatically increased your base income, that same multiplier is affecting a much larger number.
This creates the snowball effect you’re looking for.
Your income increases, allowing you to purchase stronger upgrades. Those upgrades increase your income further, which makes your multipliers more valuable, and the process repeats.
Eventually you’ll notice the difference between a build assembled around temporary conveniences and one built around scalable bonuses.
Don’t only ask what makes the next minute easier. Consider what will make the rest of the run more profitable.
5. Use Planned Bankruptcy to Build Permanent Progress
Bankruptcy sounds like the absolute last thing you’d want in a game called Bills Must Be Paid.
Eventually, however, it becomes an important part of progression.
Think of planned bankruptcy as the game’s prestige or reset system.
You’re sacrificing your current run to strengthen future runs.
The important resource here is Legacy Points. The amount you receive is tied to the progress you’ve made, including the bills you’ve successfully paid before resetting.
Legacy Points can then be invested into permanent progression, including rings and bracelets that improve your hand attributes.
That’s what changes the entire meaning of bankruptcy.
You’re not simply deleting progress.
You’re converting temporary progress into permanent power.
After restarting, you may initially appear to be back at zero, but your underlying character is stronger. You can smash earlier piggies more efficiently, rebuild your economy faster, and reach your previous progression point in less time.
Then you push beyond it.
The cycle essentially becomes:
Build your economy → Pay bills → Accumulate prestige value → Declare bankruptcy → Spend Legacy Points → Restart stronger → Push further.
The difficult part is deciding when to reset.
Bankrupting yourself too early means you haven’t accumulated enough permanent progression to make the reset worthwhile.
Waiting forever can be equally inefficient. If upgrades are becoming extremely expensive and your progress has slowed to a crawl, spending another long stretch on the same run may produce less value than restarting with permanent bonuses.
I prefer thinking about it in terms of momentum. If I’m still clearing bills comfortably and meaningful upgrades are arriving regularly, there’s usually no reason to rush the reset.
When everything slows down and the available Legacy Points can purchase meaningful permanent upgrades, bankruptcy becomes much more attractive.
A good bankruptcy should make the next cycle noticeably easier.
6. Save Caffeine for High-Value Opportunities
Caffeine is another mechanic that’s extremely easy to waste.
Because it provides such an obvious boost, the natural instinct is to activate it whenever it’s available.
That isn’t necessarily the best approach.
Treat caffeine more like a burst ability.
Its value increases enormously when you combine it with an already profitable situation.
Activating caffeine when the screen contains ordinary low-value targets gives you more speed, but you’re multiplying a mediocre opportunity.
Now imagine waiting until several rare or high-value piggies appear.
Suddenly that attack-speed increase is helping you destroy valuable targets before they disappear while generating considerably more money during the same window.
That’s when caffeine becomes powerful.
I like holding it until the game gives me a reason to spend it rather than activating it simply because the button is available.
Look for moments where:
- Several valuable piggies have spawned.
- Rare piggies are available.
- Strong loot bonuses are active.
- Critical bonuses are active.
- You have enough stamina to capitalize on the increased speed.
The caffeine progression tree also isn’t exclusively about attacking faster. Stamina sustain and recovery matter because enormous attack speed isn’t useful if your stamina immediately crashes.
Combining attack speed with enough stamina sustain allows you to maintain that burst for longer.
The important lesson is timing. You don’t need maximum speed constantly.
You need maximum speed when the targets on screen are worth destroying.
7. Build Energy Regeneration and Luck Early in a Prestige Cycle
Immediately after a prestige or bankruptcy reset, damage upgrades can look like the obvious priority.
I’d recommend looking closely at Energy Regeneration and Luck first.
Energy regeneration improves the foundation of practically everything you do.
More regeneration means less downtime waiting for stamina to return. That allows you to remain active longer, destroy more piggies, and generate more resources.
Luck attacks the problem from another direction.
Higher Luck improves your chances of finding valuable drops, rare items, special coins, and other profitable opportunities.
When you combine both attributes, they create an excellent early-cycle snowball.
Better stamina sustain allows more attacks.
More attacks create more opportunities for drops.
Better Luck makes those opportunities more valuable.
Those additional resources purchase upgrades sooner.
The upgrades make the next batch of targets easier, allowing the cycle to accelerate.
Pure damage obviously becomes important, but starting entirely with damage can leave you with a powerful hammer and no stamina to keep using it.
Cosmetic upgrades are even less important when you’re trying to rebuild after bankruptcy.
Get the economy running first.
Once your stamina regeneration and resource generation feel comfortable, start layering additional damage and specialized upgrades on top.
8. Learn When to Pay a Bill Early and When to Wait
There’s an important distinction between “never miss a bill” and “always pay a bill immediately.”
You definitely don’t want the collector taking a huge portion of your income.
However, paying the instant you have enough money isn’t automatically optimal either.
Sometimes you benefit from keeping your current run going for a little longer before handing over the money.
Imagine you’re currently experiencing an excellent loot window. Your stamina is healthy, valuable piggies are spawning, and you have powerful perks active.
Immediately ending that opportunity to pay the bill might sacrifice additional earnings you could safely collect first.
If the deadline still gives you breathing room, continuing for a short period can produce additional value.
However, this is where risk management becomes important.
Watch:
- Your current stamina
- Remaining bill time
- Current money
- Piggy spawn quality
- Active perks
- Upcoming bill requirements
- Potential reward from paying
There are also situations where paying early is clearly better.
If completing the bill immediately gives you access to a powerful perk that will increase your earnings, delaying that perk can actually cost you money.
The same applies when paying advances your prestige progression enough to improve the eventual bankruptcy reward.
So don’t create a rigid rule saying “always pay immediately” or “always wait.”
Read the run.
Delay when you’re extracting excellent value and have a safe margin. Pay early when the reward improves your position enough to outweigh whatever additional money you might have earned by waiting.
And whatever you do, don’t get greedy enough to let the collector arrive.
9. Prioritize Piggies Based on Their Value and Behavior
One of the biggest improvements you can make is stopping yourself from treating every piggy as an equally valuable target.
Different piggies have different behaviors, rewards, durability, and strategic purposes.
Tourist
The Tourist becomes extremely valuable when your stamina is running low because breaking it restores stamina.
I basically treat the Tourist like a moving stamina potion.
If your stamina bar is healthy, another high-value target may deserve priority.
When you’re nearly exhausted, however, spotting a Tourist can potentially rescue the entire run.
Destroying one can give you enough stamina to continue attacking instead of being forced into downtime.
That makes target priority dynamic. The Tourist’s value depends heavily on your current stamina.
Woody
Woody is almost the opposite.
He’s slow and extremely durable, meaning he can absorb a large number of attacks.
Early on, this can make Woody a stamina trap.
You might spend so much energy trying to break one Woody that you miss several easier and more profitable targets.
I wouldn’t prioritize Woody heavily until your damage, Grip Strength, or piercing capabilities are good enough to deal with him efficiently.
Once your build becomes stronger, the calculation changes.
But during weaker runs, know when to leave a tanky target alone.
Piñata
The Piñata is essentially a gamble.
Its rewards can vary enormously. Sometimes the payout is disappointing, while other times you can receive a jackpot.
Because of that randomness, Piñatas become more attractive after investing in stats such as:
Critical chance, Luck and Loot bonuses.
Those upgrades improve the environment in which you’re taking the gamble.
Early in a weak run, spending a huge amount of stamina chasing every Piñata isn’t necessarily worthwhile.
With a developed luck-and-loot build, they become considerably more interesting.
El Loco
El Loco is difficult because of movement rather than raw durability.
It moves erratically, zigzags around, and can charge unpredictably.
The important detail is that your first hit is guaranteed to connect.
Use that.
Rather than wasting stamina frantically trying to follow El Loco around the screen, capitalize on that opening and attempt to finish the target quickly.
The longer the chase continues, the less efficient it becomes.
Rare Piggies
Rare piggies should generally be extremely high-priority targets because of their increased value.
But “rare” doesn’t mean “ignore everything else and destroy yourself trying to catch it.”
Before committing, quickly check two things:
Your stamina and your bill timer.
If your stamina is nearly empty, chasing the rare could leave you unable to capitalize on anything afterward.
If your bill is seconds away from becoming a problem, chasing one extra target could result in the collector taking a massive portion of your earnings.
Rare piggies are worth pursuing when the state of your run allows it.
A valuable target isn’t valuable anymore if chasing it destroys the rest of the run.
10. Read the Entire Run Before Taking a Final Risk
The hardest decisions often happen when you’re approaching the end of a profitable stretch.
Your stamina is getting low.
Your bill is getting dangerously high.
Then a valuable group of piggies appears.
Do you keep attacking or cash out and pay?
There’s no universal answer.
This is where everything you’ve learned about the game comes together.
Suppose you have Double Loot active, excellent critical chance, enough stamina for another burst, and several valuable piggies on screen.
Taking the risk can make sense.
Those final seconds could produce enough money to transform an average run into an exceptional one.
Now consider the opposite situation.
Your stamina is nearly gone. No major multipliers are active. The piggy spawns are mediocre and the collector is getting dangerously close.
Continuing simply because you might get lucky isn’t strategy anymore.
Pay the bill.
Take your perk.
Invest whatever resources remain available and prepare for the next opportunity.
This was one of the habits that took me the longest to learn because incremental games constantly encourage the “one more upgrade” mentality. Bills Must Be Paid punishes that mentality when you stop paying attention to the surrounding conditions.
Don’t judge your position using only your money.
Think about the entire state of the run:
Stamina + Piggy Spawns + Bill Deadline + Active Perks + Damage + Luck + Potential Rewards.
When several of those factors favor aggression, push harder.
When several are working against you, protect the progress you’ve already earned.
Best Upgrade Priorities for Efficient Progression
After putting all of these mechanics together, your upgrade priorities shouldn’t remain identical throughout the entire game.
Immediately after a bankruptcy reset, I would generally place more value on upgrades that establish your economy. Energy regeneration and Luck are particularly useful because they improve how long you can remain active and how much value you can extract from your targets.
Grip Strength should remain an important priority because increasing damage per strike also reduces the stamina required to destroy targets.
Once that foundation is established, start adding stronger offensive bonuses such as critical chance, attack speed, loot multipliers, and whatever other scalable bonuses complement your current hammer and playstyle.
The important part is avoiding tunnel vision.
Damage without stamina means you’re constantly waiting.
Stamina without damage means every target consumes too many attacks.
Luck without enough activity gives you fewer opportunities to benefit from it.
Attack speed without stamina sustain simply allows you to exhaust yourself faster.
The strongest builds are the ones where these systems reinforce one another.
A Strong Bills Must Be Paid Run Is About Efficiency, Not Constant Clicking
The deeper you get into Bills Must Be Paid, the less it feels like a game about mindlessly smashing piggy banks.
Almost every action has an opportunity cost.
Every unnecessary attack consumes stamina that could have been spent on a better target. Every poorly timed upgrade takes money away from your next bill. Every missed bill threatens your economy. Every badly timed caffeine activation wastes a powerful burst window. And every bankruptcy performed too early or too late reduces the efficiency of your long-term progression.
That’s why I wouldn’t focus exclusively on earning the biggest number possible during every individual run.
Focus on making each run more efficient than the previous one.
Learn which piggies deserve your stamina. Switch hammers according to the situation instead of becoming attached to one weapon. Build enough Grip Strength to reduce wasted hits, establish Energy Regeneration and Luck early in new prestige cycles, and choose scalable perks that continue producing value as your economy grows.
Most importantly, keep the bill timer in your decision-making at all times.
There will be moments where delaying payment is profitable because you’re in the middle of an excellent loot window. There will also be moments where paying immediately, taking a powerful perk, and continuing safely is clearly the better choice. Learning to recognize the difference is one of the game’s most important skills.
Bankruptcy follows the same philosophy. Don’t view every reset as losing your progress. Once Legacy Points and permanent accessories become part of your progression, a well-timed bankruptcy is essentially an investment. You’re sacrificing the current economy so the next one can grow faster.
Eventually, you’ll notice that your runs feel completely different. Earlier bills that once required a serious grind become routine, your stamina lasts longer, difficult piggies stop draining your entire bar, and your permanent upgrades allow you to rebuild increasingly quickly after each reset.
That’s the progression loop you want to reach.
Smash efficiently, protect your stamina, pay bills intelligently, choose bonuses that scale, convert successful cycles into permanent progression, and then repeat everything with a stronger foundation. Once you start approaching Bills Must Be Paid this way, the game becomes much less about frantic clicking and much more about knowing exactly when each decision is worth making.