Ice Cream Parlor — Cost, Income & Strategy | Tycoon Cards

Business Overview

Cool treats, warm returns.

Tier a growth-stage staple, the Ice Cream Parlor rewards players who buy it in bulk rather than one at a time.

Cost Scaling

Every business in Tycoon Cards uses the same cost curve: each copy costs 15% more than the last. For the Ice Cream Parlor, that looks like this:

Copies owned	Cost of next copy	Total spent to reach this many
1	$115T	$100T
10	$406T	$2.04Qa
25	$3.30Qa	$21.3Qa
50	$109Qa	$724Qa
100	$118Qi	$785Qi

Income Scaling

Income scales linearly with copies owned — no diminishing returns, ever. Owning more of the Ice Cream Parlor always earns proportionally more:

Copies owned	Income per second
1	$161M/s
10	$1.61B/s
25	$4.03B/s
50	$8.06B/s
100	$16.1B/s

Profit Calculations

Payback period (1st copy)	622,157 seconds
Income per dollar spent	$0.0/s per $1
Efficient switch point	Around copy #4 (when the next copy costs more than Sushi Restaurant)

See the Business Tier List for how this business ranks against all other 99 tiers by payback period.

Unlock Requirements

There is no gating system on businesses in Tycoon Cards — the Ice Cream Parlor is available to purchase from the very start of any run, the moment you can afford its $100T base cost. The only realistic "requirement" is reaching that amount of money, either by clicking, by owning cheaper businesses, or by carrying prestige and card bonuses from a previous run.

Best Upgrades

Individual businesses don't have their own upgrade trees in Tycoon Cards — the Ice Cream Parlor always earns exactly $161M per copy at base rate. What actually "upgrades" its value are the game's shared systems: levelling supporting cards (below), earning achievement bonuses, and increasing your prestige multiplier. Each of these applies as a percentage on top of every business you own, including this one.

Best Supporting Cards

At this tier, cost-reduction cards give the best return — you'll buy many copies of this business, so every percentage off compounds across dozens of purchases. All-income cards are a strong secondary pick.

🏮

Voidborn Key

Divine

🛡️

Voidborn Ring

Divine

🌠

Cosmic Vault

Divine

💥

Big Bang

Divine

Prestige Recommendations

Expect to reach this tier within the first few minutes of any post-prestige run, especially once your card collection has a few levelled cost-reduction or all-income bonuses in place.

Read the full Prestige Guide for general reset timing, or the Prestige Point Planning guide to calculate exactly how many points your next reset will earn.

Research Interactions

Tycoon Cards does not currently include a research-tree system — the Ice Cream Parlor cannot be researched or unlocked through any mechanic beyond simply affording it. A research tree is listed as a possible future system on our Updates & Roadmap page; this section will be updated if that ever changes.

Evolution Path (Tier Progression)

Businesses in Tycoon Cards don't evolve or transform — each tier is a permanent, independent business. What we can show honestly is this business's place in the overall 100-tier progression:

Previous tier: 💐 Flower Shop ($64.7T base cost)
This tier: 🍦 Ice Cream Parlor ($100T base cost)
Next tier: 🍣 Sushi Restaurant ($155T base cost)

Visual Progression

The five tiers surrounding the Ice Cream Parlor in the business roster:

🐾Pet Store 💐Flower Shop 🍦Ice Cream Parlor 🍣Sushi Restaurant 🥩Steakhouse

Best Strategies

This is a strong bridge tier — keep buying it until the cost of the next copy noticeably exceeds the base cost of the following tier, then switch.
Combine with early cost-reduction cards for a noticeably faster ramp into the mid-game.
Remember that all businesses share the same 15%-per-copy cost curve, so the fundamental buy/hold maths never changes — only the absolute numbers do.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does the Ice Cream Parlor cost?

The first copy costs 100,254,415,248,360 in-game dollars. Each subsequent copy costs 15% more than the last, following the same cost curve used by every business in Tycoon Cards.

How much does the Ice Cream Parlor earn?

Each copy of the Ice Cream Parlor earns 161,140,092.352 per second, before any card, achievement, or prestige bonuses are applied.

How long does it take for the Ice Cream Parlor to pay for itself?

At base rates, one copy pays back its own cost in approximately 622,157 seconds — though bonuses from cards and prestige typically shorten this in practice.

When should I switch from the Ice Cream Parlor to Sushi Restaurant?

Once you own around 4 copies of the Ice Cream Parlor, the cost of your next copy will exceed Sushi Restaurant's base price — a reasonable signal to start diversifying into that tier instead.

Does prestige reset my Ice Cream Parlor count?

Yes. Prestiging resets all business ownership, including the Ice Cream Parlor, back to zero. However, any cards or achievements that boost this business's income remain permanently in effect on your next run.

Related Businesses

💐Flower Shop 🍣Sushi Restaurant 🐾Pet Store 🥩Steakhouse 🚲Bike Shop 🍷Winery

Related Guides

Business Guide — full roster, cost curves and buy order
Business Tier List — every business ranked by return on investment
Economy Guide — how growth curves and inflation work game-wide
Prestige Guide — when and how to reset for permanent bonuses

Changelog

v1.2.0 (April 2026) — Added as part of the business expansion from 10 to 100 tiers.