How Does the Cartel Work in Schedule 1?

The Benzies’ family cartel finally entered Schedule 1 in its 0.4.0 patch. The Benzies plan to shake everything up and topple your growing empire.

Here’s everything you need to know about how the cartel works in Schedule 1.

What Does the Cartel Do in Schedule 1?

The cartel unlocks naturally, pretty much, as you progress through the story. You’ll first meet them through a random message on your phone, telling you to meet up with one of them at a parking lot in Taco Ticklers after unlocking the Westville area.

The cartel basically owns every area except Northtown and Westville. Hence, you’ll be forced into selling in Northtown and Westville, limiting your profits from potential customers.

Moreover, the cartel plans to take some of your profit, but also offer to sell your product to them every week. Basically, the cartel is going to make things hard for you whether you join them or not.

If you don’t comply with any of these, it means that you’re an enemy of the Benzies cartel, and your life is going to get much harder.

What Happens if You Don’t Join the Benzies Cartel in Schedule 1?

If you reject the offer, your dealers will get harassed, attacked, and robbed by the cartel randomly. You’ll receive random messages from your dealers that they have been attacked, but your products and money are safe. Some may even say that everything is gone.

If you ignore the message from the cartel, these things will also happen until you actually join them and play by their rules.

Things get extremely dangerous fast if you are running a big empire with several dealers holding tens of thousands worth of products each. Since the attacks are purely random, it is hard to play around these mechanics.

If you aren’t going to join the cartel, you’ll have to lower your risk by giving your dealers fewer products to deal with and just check up on them more frequently.

However, joining the cartel does give you one good benefit, which is the ability to buy the Hyland Manor.

What is Cartel Influence in Schedule 1?

You might have noticed a little red bar when looking through your contacts on your phone. Each region has several potential customers, dealers, and suppliers, but there’s also a Cartel Influence meter at the bottom.

When the Cartel Influence is strong, there should be more robberies and attacks. This should also prevent you from expanding to different territories.

However, if you get more potential customers, the meter should slowly drop.