Noco has officially wrapped up his two-visit experimental trial, and an Infobus Poll on Noco's future is about to commence. By swapping out extra rare furniture slots for a flat Habloon requirement, the trial aimed to tackle long-standing issues like rare item scarcity in smaller hotels while giving the main economy a strong currency sink.

Now that the trial has concluded, the Origins team is deciding whether to keep the new hybrid trades, tweak them, or revert back to the classic item-only format. Unsurprisingly, the player base is split down the middle. To help clear the air, two players (who both preferred to remain anonymous) have laid out their opposing takes on what this change really means for the hotel's future.

Check out both perspectives below to weigh the pros and cons, then head over to the Infobus Park to cast your vote in the official community poll!

Habloons Aren't the Answer: Why Noco's Trial Ruined the Hunt

Noco's monthly visits used to bring a buzz to the hotel, but replacing actual furniture requirements with Habloons misses the point of what makes rare trading fun in the first place.

• Destroys the Thrill of the Hunt: The best part of Noco showing up is the reveal. First, seeing what items he has brought to the hotel. Then, you see something you like and take a look to see what weird, forgotten items are needed, hunt them down across different rooms, and haggle with other players to pull off a deal. The past two trials have lacked a flood of console messages of people screaming "NEED 12 PURPLE PILLOWS" or offering above the odds for the last item they needed before finally trading Noco. 

  Swapping those item slots for raw currency drains all the fun out of trading and turns a genuine treasure hunt into a boring coin sink. Before I could get into Noco, I was able to sell a few of the rares he needed for inflated prices - allowing me to trade my way up to eventually afford my own Noco items!

• Devalues Noco Rares: Throwing Habloons into the mix puts a cheap, artificial ceiling on the rewards. When a trade can essentially be bought out for as little as 20 GB, the rares you get back lose their prestige instantly. If they're that easy to obtain, nobody's going to care about owning them. We've seen with the last two rounds of rares flatline in value, even popular rares like the Dragon. What happens when the iconic Nelly statues or Thrones return, and he only asks for something like 25 Habloon Bars and a few red pillows?
• Ignores the real problem for smaller hotels: Shortcut fixes like this don't actually solve the lack of legacy rares in hotels like Spanish or Brazilian. Instead, it just punishes players who spent years collecting varied inventories, pumping up currency demands while tanking the value of deep furniture collections. Is it not the responsibility of the algorithm to determine whether items are actually possible to find and thus trade for?
• Drains Hotel Liquidity: Noco used to kickstart the market by making random, forgotten furniture valuable overnight. Long-term investments eventually paid off. Burning massive amounts of Habloons just sucks raw cash out of the economy, leaving players with less spending power for normal player-to-player trades. As a shop owner, I've noticed a decrease in daily activity and Noco day usually brought opportunity for all shops. Habloons are print-on-demand, no reason to ever find another player.

Making trades "easier" on paper strips away the excitement, prestige, and market hustle that make trading here actually worth doing. It's also worth noting his purpose was to take out excess rares, making them rarer, not Habloons. 

The Case for Noco's Habloon Update

Noco's monthly visits are a staple of hotel life, but let's be honest, the old system was breaking down. Bringing Habloons into the mix is the practical, common-sense update the trading scene desperately needs.

• Levels the playing field: In smaller or older hotels like Spanish and Brazilian, certain legacy rares are practically extinct. Expecting players to hunt down items that barely exist in the economy anymore isn't a fun challenge. Habloons give everyone a fair shot, regardless of their hotel.
• Makes Trading Realistic for Casuals and Newer Players: Needing three or four hyper-specific, obscure rares meant Noco was becoming an elite-only event. Streamlining the requirement so players only need a couple of unique items alongside currency makes completing a trade an achievable goal for everyday players, not just full-time merchants.
• Stabilizes the Entire Market: Giving Habloons a consistent, high-value sink is huge for the hotel's financial health. It injects steady demand into the main currency, protecting its purchasing power and giving players a reliable, universal value source they can count on.
• Profit: Thinking about the long-term health of the game (and the bonuses for the Origins team), having this be a credit sink is good for Sulake. I read that on .com between the HC Blue Dye and the Dragon, they made almost £4000 in two spawns. That money goes back into game development. I hear my opposition on the "then it just becomes a glorified - and expensive! - catalogue rare, but isn't accessibility important, and isn't rarity determined by availability?

This trial isn't about killing trading; it's about opening it up so more than a handful of hoarders can actually participate.

The Choice is Yours!

The Infobus will be shortly opening its doors, with votes deciding the future. The poll will remain open for one week, until Wednesday 16th September. What will you be voting?