I haven't bought the screwdriver yet, but when I buy it can I shove the game on hard mode then immediately crawl into a vent until the night ends for easy money? I might clear one or two tasks but since you get paid extra cash on hard, it might be a no effort required way to grind money?
I'm trying it now and I tell ya what, this is bizarrely creepy. I got a power cut instantly and it sounds like they all escaped soon afterwards. I pretty much just crawled into a vent. Its just near complete silence minus for the occasion giggling as you wait in the dark. For some reason, a loud train whistle suddenly happened a couple hours into the night too. No Thomas jumpscare but it still spooked me all the same.
You can still use your laptop with the tab key to see when your night ends. As for whether you can earn any money this way...
* Standard $1,200 for finishing the night
* -$100 for every failed objective, including not fixing the generator (-$500 total)
* $200 for playing on hard mode
* Total profit of $900
Even with the -$500 penalty, it's faster to do easy mode and finish up a night normally. But for passive farming its not bad. I can mute the game and alt tab while I watch youtube or something and come back to some easy money without having to put any effort into farming. I wasn't able to finish any tasks since the power cut was immediate, but finishing even one task would earn you some decent cash. Not sure if I'd recommend it, but I can at least grind cash while grinding in my gacha games at least?
Update: Not answering Phone Guy is -$250 instead of the usual $100, which hurts your profitability. I suppose theoretically you could dash out at the very last second and answer the phone just as the clock is turning to 6? Still, its still effortless money every seven and a half minutes or however long a night takes.