TANUKI: Pon’s Summer Shrine Restoration Guide

Shrine restoration is the main goal of the whole game: earn money and rewards from mail deliveries, part-time jobs, island activities and BMX challenges, then spend them to rebuild, upgrade and decorate the shrine before the Great Tanuki Festival. That is the loop the developer, Denkiworks, describes on the official Steam page: the Tanuki Festival is a month away, the shrine is in disrepair, and Pon has to turn a summer of odd jobs into a place worth showing off. The game launches on November 10, 2026, so exact costs, menu labels and decoration lists are not confirmed yet — everything below is drawn from official descriptions and developer announcements, and this page will be updated with concrete numbers once players have hands on the release version.

How the shrine loop works

The official store description lays out the core cycle in three beats. First, you go out into the world and earn: deliver packages on your BMX, help locals with their tasks, and join activities. Second, you convert that effort into money and rewards. Third, you pour those earnings back into the shrine, rebuilding, upgrading and decorating it "to your taste" as the festival approaches. The Steam announcement from August 2026 puts it plainly: "little by little Pon earns enough to afford a tiny bit of restoration."

The game runs on a one-month calendar, so the deadline is built in. The festival arrives when the month ends, and the shrine — and everything you have put into it — becomes the place where you welcome the people you met during the summer.

Ways to earn money and rewards

The official page and the developer's Steam announcements name these earning sources:

• Mail delivery. Pon works part-time at the Post Office. You plan deliveries so every awkwardly-shaped box fits on the bike, and you are expected not to keep neighbors waiting. Deliveries are the backbone of the money loop.
• Part-time jobs. The developer's "Day in a life of Pon" post shows Pon pouring drinks at the bar under Sakamori's supervision — a task the announcement calls rewarding for a hardworking friend. The release date announcement also teases other jobs, including operating a crane and learning a skill from the local stonemason, with the new town across the bay offering more work.
• Island activities and invitations. Making friends unlocks "an increasingly tempting list of invitations": making sushi, joining a baseball game, stepping into the sumo ring, and more. The official page states directly that "every activity brings opportunities to earn rewards for the shrine."
• BMX challenges. There are over 100 challenges (the release date announcement counts "100 and 1") spread across tracks, trials and tricklines, launched off ramps, rails and rooftops. Chaining tricks and landing clean runs is the skill-based path to earnings.
• Hobbies and collection side tasks. Bug hunting with a net, fishing, and photographing the town as its "first-ever Tanuki photographer" appear in the demo description and the day-in-the-life post. The December 2025 progress report adds scouting for stag beetles and rare butterflies for your journal. These are confirmed activities; the announcement does not specify how much they pay toward the shrine.

How to spend on the shrine

The official descriptions confirm three spending categories — rebuild (repair the run-down structure), upgrade (improve what you have restored) and decorate ("shrine decoration is here to stay," per the June 2026 announcement, with the elders counting on Pon to get it done). You choose how it comes together, so decoration is a matter of taste rather than a fixed checklist.

A December 2025 developer post adds useful context on scale: "financing and repairing a grand shrine doesn't come easy to a pair of short paws," which is why Pon learns skills like rolling giant boulders and operating heavy machinery — repair work itself is part of the gameplay, not just a menu purchase. The exact interface for shrine work has not been shown publicly, so treat any claimed menu path as unconfirmed for now.

Carry over your demo days

If you want a head start on shrine funds, play the demo before launch. The developer confirmed on the official Steam page that the first three days of the demo transfer fully to the main game — you will be prompted to transfer your progress when you start the release version. Those three days cover the opening chapter of the game, including early deliveries, local tasks and BMX challenges, so completing them before November 10 gives you a funded runway toward the shrine instead of starting from zero.

What is still unconfirmed

Because the game is not out yet, the following have no official or first-hand answer as of November 5, 2026: exact currency costs per upgrade, how decoration options unlock, whether shrine progress gates anything at the festival, and whether any activities give shrine-specific rewards versus plain money. The earning loop above is confirmed; the numbers that fill it in are not.

FAQ

How does shrine restoration work in TANUKI: Pon's Summer?

You spend the summer earning money and rewards through mail delivery, part-time jobs, friend activities and over 100 BMX challenges, then put those earnings into rebuilding, upgrading and decorating the shrine before the Great Tanuki Festival at the end of the month. The developer confirmed some repair work is hands-on gameplay, like learning to operate machinery from locals.

When does the game come out, and when was this checked?

The official Steam page lists the release date as November 10, 2026. As of November 5, 2026, the game is still listed as coming soon, so no post-launch details exist yet.

Does demo progress carry over to the full game?

Yes. The developer states on the official Steam page that the first three days of the demo are fully carried over to the main game, and you can transfer your progress when the release version launches.

Do I have to finish the shrine before the festival?

The game is framed around getting the shrine ready before the Great Tanuki Festival arrives at the end of the in-game month, and the official page says you will "have somewhere special" to welcome your friends when it does. Whether there is a fail state for an unfinished shrine has not been stated.

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Check note (2026-11-05): this page is based on the official Steam store page and the developer's Steam announcements (release date announcement, day-in-the-life post, demo and Next Fest announcements, and the December 2025 progress report). Specific upgrade costs, decoration menus and festival fail states remain unconfirmed because the game has not released yet.