Running a thriving hobby store in Knight Fever Games' Tabletop Game Shop Simulator means juggling mystery packs, wargames, and demanding customers. But if you’ve hired staff to handle the tedious task of gluing sprues together, you’ve likely run into a frustrating roadblock. Players searching for a working tabletop game shop simulator employee not assembling fix are discovering that hired help will happily run the register or paint miniatures, but outright refuse to build them.
This comprehensive guide breaks down exactly why your staff turns into "eternal statues" at the assembly desk, the root cause of the game's pathing issues, and the proven workarounds you can use to keep your miniature inventory flowing until an official patch drops.
Understanding the Need for a Tabletop Game Shop Simulator Employee Not Assembling Fix
In the mid-to-late game of Tabletop Game Shop Simulator, managing your time becomes impossible without hiring staff. You are supposed to set prices, move furniture, and throw down with customers in the fully playable wargame mini-game. To free up your schedule, the game allows you to hire cashiers, restockers, and hobbyists to assemble and paint miniatures.
However, a persistent bug has broken the assembly pipeline. While the November 21, 2025 patch ("Bugfix & Balancing") attempted to make employees more reliable and smooth out XP progression, it failed to resolve the core assembly script. Players quickly noted that their staff would simply stand in front of the desk doing absolutely nothing. As Steam user "K" pointed out on the community forums, "the problem of the employee assembling miniatures is still there; they won't assemble at all... and since this is arguably the most boring part of this game for me, it greatly reduces my enjoyment."
When an employee bugs out, they become dead-locked. They won't touch the sprues, they won't use the glue, and they certainly won't output the grey miniatures needed for your painting staff. This creates a massive bottleneck, forcing shop owners to manually crack open mystery packs, discover rare parts, and glue them together—eating into the time meant for expanding the business.
The Root Cause: Why Your Staff Ignores Sprues
To understand why the bug occurs, we have to look at how the game handles entity tagging and AI pathing. The game relies on a strict priority queue for employee tasks, which is currently malfunctioning in a few specific ways:
1. The Restocking Loophole: A known issue in the game involves shelf tags. If you clear a label off a shelf spot, the employee will stubbornly restock it with the cleared item anyway. The game fails to wipe the memory of the assigned task from the NPC's logic loop. This exact same memory leak applies to the assembly station.
2. The "Eternal Statue" Glitch: When assigned to the assembly desk, the employee attempts to pull from your inventory of unopened boxes. If the pathing is blocked by even a millimeter of misplaced furniture, or if the inventory tag glitches, the staff member freezes. They stand in front of the counter like an eternal statue, permanently locked out of their idle animation.
3. XP Calculation Errors: The game currently rewards an average of 2.3 XP per item sold at the register, and roughly 1.0 XP per painted figurine. However, the assembly action frequently registers as 0.0 XP in the backend, which may cause the AI to deprioritize the task entirely in favor of higher-yield actions.
Step-by-Step Tabletop Game Shop Simulator Employee Not Assembling Fix
Until Knight Fever Games pushes a definitive hotfix, the community has engineered several reliable workarounds. If you are tired of your premium hires doing nothing, follow this step-by-step tabletop game shop simulator employee not assembling fix to force a logic reset.
The Furniture Hard Reset
Just like the bug where clearing shelf tags doesn't prevent restocking, the assembly desk suffers from "sticky memory."
- Step 1: Fire the bugged employee (or temporarily reassign them to the register).
- Step 2: Pick up the assembly desk and completely sell it. Do not just move it to storage.
- Step 3: Buy a brand new assembly desk and place it in a completely open area with at least two grid squares of clearance on all sides.
- Step 4: Reassign the employee. This forces the game to generate a fresh pathing mesh.
The Segregated Inventory Method
Employees get confused when they have to choose between too many types of mystery packs. To streamline their logic, only place one specific type of miniature box in the storage rack linked to the assembly station. Keep your personal stash—the boxes you intend to open yourself to hoard rare parts like a true goblin—in a completely separate room so the AI doesn't try to path to them.
The "Fire and Rehire" Cycle
If the employee is completely dead-locked and all saved files have them frozen, your only option is termination. Yes, hiring staff is incredibly expensive—some cashiers cost more than your store's entire rent—but paying a frozen statue will bankrupt your shop faster than losing a wargame bet to a cocky customer. Fire the bugged NPC, save the game, restart the application, and hire a fresh worker.
Workflow Alternatives: Surviving Without Auto-Assembly
If you’ve tried every tabletop game shop simulator employee not assembling fix and your staff still refuses to wield the plastic glue, you must adapt your shop's workflow. You cannot afford to halt your production line.
When you order from the stockist, your inventory arrives instantly outside. The delivery driver simply leaves your cardboard boxes on the street. Since the game's alternate version of New York is surprisingly crime-free, your stock won't be stolen, but managing these boxes is crucial. You can actually use the boxes to build a physical fort in the corner of your shop to hide from customers who want to talk to you about Tau—but practically, you need to open them efficiently. Each box gives you a few pieces for lots of minis, meaning you must open several before you have even one complete miniature ready.
If you rely entirely on an automated tabletop game shop simulator employee not assembling fix, you'll bottleneck your supply line. By manually hauling the boxes inside, pricing the raw stock at 10% less than RRP to get foot traffic through the door, and batch-processing the sprues yourself, you bypass the bugged AI entirely.
Pivot to Painting and Selling Since the assembly AI is currently the most fragile system, lean into what works. The cashier AI is highly functional, and the painting AI, while slow, consistently outputs finished products.
- Manual Labor: Accept that you must be the primary builder. Dedicate the first 10 minutes of your in-game morning to ripping open mystery packs and assembling the grey miniatures yourself.
- Staff Delegation: Pass the assembled, unpainted minis to your staff. They will reliably paint them, earning that 1.0 XP per figure.
- Register Duty: Keep your highest-paid employee on the register. With an average yield of 2.3 XP per item sold, they will level up quickly, offsetting their exorbitant daily wages.
Focus on the Wargame While your staff handles the front of the house, use your downtime to engage in the game's tabletop battles. Throwing down with customers is not just for eternal bragging rights; it yields prizes and rare sprues. Be aware of the current wargame bugs, however—opponents can currently overheal their units while you cannot, and die rolls are notoriously unbalanced. Stick to high-damage, low-variance strategies to guarantee wins and keep your shop's prestige high.
Will Knight Fever Games Issue a Permanent Tabletop Game Shop Simulator Employee Not Assembling Fix?
The development team at Knight Fever Games and Ludogram has been highly communicative during the Early Access period. The November 2025 patch tackled major transaction bugs and added XP gains for painting, showing that they are actively monitoring the economy and staff mechanics.
Community managers on Steam and Discord have acknowledged the "eternal statue" reports. Because Tabletop Game Shop Simulator is built on complex overlapping systems—combining elements of store management, The Sims-style AI routines, and a fully playable wargame—fixing one pathing issue often breaks another. The developers have stated their passion for tabletop culture and their desire to capture the full fantasy, which means a comprehensive overhaul of the employee AI is likely on the roadmap for the 1.0 release.
Furthermore, the community is already looking ahead to the game's full release and the potential for Steam Workshop integration. Fans on community forums have pointed out the high potential for mods—such as an Infinity or Warhammer conversion mod—assuming the vanilla gameplay loop is stabilized. If Knight Fever Games opens the architecture to modders, the community itself might release a script-level tabletop game shop simulator employee not assembling fix before the developers do.
Until then, utilizing the furniture reset and managing your inventory strictly remains the most viable strategy available.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Why is my employee just standing at the counter doing nothing? This is known as the "eternal statue" bug. The employee's pathing AI has crashed, usually because the assembly desk is placed too close to a wall, or the inventory they are trying to pull from is bugged. Selling the desk and buying a new one usually resets them.
Do employees gain XP for assembling miniatures? Currently, XP gains for assembly are bugged or negligible (often registering as 0.0 XP). Employees gain roughly 1.0 XP for painting a figurine and an average of 2.3 XP for ringing up an item at the register.
How do I stop employees from restocking empty shelves? A related bug causes employees to restock shelves even after you clear the shelf tag. The only permanent fix is to physically pick up the shelf, sell it, and purchase a replacement unit.
Is the wargame mini-game worth playing? Yes, winning battles against customers rewards you with rare items and prestige. However, beware of current balance issues, such as opponents being able to overheal their units.
Sources
- Knight Fever Games Official Patch Notes (Nov 21, 2025) - "Bugfix & Balancing"
- Steam Community General Discussions: "BUG: Clearing shelf tags does not prevent employee from restocking" (March 2026)
- Steam Community Bug Reports: "The Bugs I found and some Ideas for DEVS!" (December 2025)
- Woehammer Review: "Tabletop Game Shop Simulator Archives" (November 2025)