I think I need something like a guide, or at least some help on how to advance things in this game...
I get that everything is about managing your resources, but I can't find any way of progressing because no matter what I try, it's a quick slide into failure.
1. Money: I need money, and really the only viable way to make money, seems to be working for April. Okay, fair enough, you can level up cleaning too, which lets you get paid without spending much food or energy. I earn about 30 coins for working for her, which pays for 1 warm bread, which is not nearly enough food... leading to...
The beginning is actually pretty hard but once you get through it, it gets much easier. Of course begging is fine too so beg for money whenever you want. We'll work on the rep during the playthrough so that won't be much of a problem. Even at the begining don't worry too much about money, even though it feels like your whole world at this point, especially when the skull girls rob you over and over again. But luckily this money gets taken from you each morning and not all at once.
So for now i recommend using your money each morning to buy a cappuccino. Give that cappuccino to the blonde girl on the very far left hand side of the map (walking up and down the path) to get awarded some homemade cookies. The higher rep you got the more cookies you get. Give one of those cookies to the red haired girl walking up and down the path on the far right hand side of the map to get a crisp apple providing your rep is high enough otherwise it will be just an apple. Now do wat you want but definitely go to class in the morning as this slowly builds up skills, etc (ALWAYS AIM TO GET A CRYPTOMINOR - these things gives you extra coins each morning - the more you have the more money you get paid (i have 12 currently).
In the evening do wat you want but finish by then working at April's. Try to to finish perfectly but at first you may have to start with the medium option. Don't do lazy. Then rub her feet for extra coin. You should get more than 30 coins.
Repeat this routine as best you can but it's up to you.
2. Energy: The only way to get energy is by going to bed with a full food bar. Going to bed with a full food bar is impossible... and without having a huge energy, I can't progress in the Gym thing, which bars a lot of content from me right out of the gate. It also means more often than not, I can't pay attention in classes, leading to further reduction of vitals. There is water, but I can't afford to buy water because I have no money.
Now, remember the cappuccino routine i mentioned above?
When you get those homemade cookies at least keep 1 but eat the rest (though after a few days start saving them when you can) and when you give that 1 to the red haired girl i mentioned, you get that crisp apple. Eat that straight away! Do this every morning! Why? That special apple gives you energy but also increases your permanent energy by 2. So doing this every morning not only gives you energy, but permanently increases your energy bar as well. Once you get more money you can start buying things that do similar benefits more often. If you only get an apple then that still gives you energy but you need to increase your rep to get the crisp type.
It doesn't happen overnight but this forever heals and increases your energy over time.
Of course begging for food as well is fine.
With the gym when you run just use the lowest option (not walk too often just a couple times if needed) as this will still increase for fitness over time and one morning you will level up. Once this happens you'll notice you use less energy when running and eventually you can run faster and faster. Make sure you speak to the 3 girls at the bottom of the gym. Eventually you'll get to clean their clothes. Once this happens do this every morning and the next day they will gift you a protein bar. Eat this bar to get a good food input and also helps before running.
So now every morning you'll be guaranteed a few cookies, a crisp apple & a protein bar. All these help with early food and energy. Then you can add the water girl. Buy a few waters and while doing this routine, walking through the sports field, give the girl a water and she gives you a cookie.
When your money goes up a little start buying 2 green teas. Give those to the girl next to your room and you get a super green tea that doesn't expire. Drink this before lessons and you get an energy boost and you do much better during lessons.
Now every girl you help (blonde cappuccino girl, red haired cookie girl, water girl, green tea girl) all give you a lot of REP so every time you lose rep for begging, you can get it back by seeing to these girls every morning. Then there's the missions with the main characters that reward you with money & rep as well on top so things should start working out.
Also eating shit from the skullgirl at night (bottom left of the map) fills your hunger before bed. This fucks you up though as i found out which made things harder for me but because I'm a sick fuck i couldn't not do it cuss it's so fucking hot. This permanently lowered my food and willpower often but sticking to my routine got me past this barely. If you don't do scat content it should be easier. It's got to the point for me where being a toilet raises my food and willpower now it's crazy, lmfao. I still get permeant damage every now and then but since my stats are so high it doesn't effect me much anymore. Plus I'm STILL doing the routine AND buying tones of food so I'm continuously getting permanent upgrades depending on wat you eat.
Then at the weekend do double shifts. I'll explain more on the rent part.
3. Willpower: So here I am, not a lot of energy, food is at 0, and I need money to buy more food... so i work for april anyway, but because I have no energy, I get punished, which lowers my willpower and forces me into the "foot fetish" content with 0 energy, you get no reward for this, all you get is foot addiction which.... slashes your max willpower by an insane amount.
Following the above routine should help with willpower as you'll have enough food and energy to keep willpower relatively high. Buying milkshakes once you get enough money also increase Willpower permanently as well.
Also various classes in the morning will help so check those out!
Lastly addiction isn't too bad as it will start raising willpower after a while but may permanently damage it instead but you can offset that by the methods above over time.
4. Rent: I have no surplus money, and so I have no money to pay rent after the first time. Which the game thought of and "helpfully" lets someone pay for your rent, but in return whatever tiny progress you may have made in the game gets deleted by taking the pink pill. What used to be a spiral has now become a nosedive. My stats are going down and I have no way to get it up, not even over time, because of this pill that resets all progress and then some.
I recommend restarting and avoiding this pill. It is possible to get enough money for the first week. Apart from getting robbed the only thing you should buy is that cappuccino to start that routine. Also remember to knock on the landlords door (opposite your room) to offer to clean the hallway. This not only gives cleaning experience but once completed your rent can drop down from 150 coins to 120 coins for a perfect clean and 130 for an average clean (don't be lazy though).
Now after doing the cappuccino routine all week and working at night, when the weekend comes do the cappuccino routine in the morning still for Saturday & Sunday but once you're finished with any other business do the double shift. With all the food & energy you've built up over the week you should have enough at least to clean averagely.
By the time you finish Sunday night you should have over 130 coins at least. Ignore the pink haired pill girl and pay the rent by knocking on the landords door again. If you manage to get enough before Sunday night then pay as soon as you can in case it gets robbed again.
After this the 2nd week becomes much easier. Then the following weeks even more so.
5. Skull girls: They keep attacking you, taking your willpower, energy, money and accruing debt. There is now way to get on top of this, and you can be damn sure that if I am able to run up 30-40 gold in a week of grinding, they will simply take it in forced encounters, which guarantees you have no chance to ever build up any money for rent.
Yea these are a pain with nothing much you can do. Most of the time you don't have enough so rather than take it in one go it's added to your debt like you said and partly paid off each morning until it's paid off. Those cryptominor things you get from lessons can help with this but other than that doing the cappuccino routine followed by work every night and doubles shifts all weekend should help greatly making the skullgirls more of an annoyance than a game-breaking pain. Once your fitness level goes up from running you can either fight back or run away from these encounters.
I am sorry, I am frustrated, I understand that you're not meant to flourish in this game, but I can't even see the content because I can't find any way to avoid getting into this loop. And the game takes a LONG time to play, and after several failed attempts, I've spent hours on basically nothing...
I hear ya i struggled too at first, i think everyone does. The funny thing about my first playthrough i didn't care about the consequences and submitted to everyone and loved the content. I took the pill every week so my stats were the lowest they could be. My maximum willpower, food and energy were all 30 so after like 30 days i couldn't progress because my stats were too low lmfao! So had to restart. Did the cappuccino routine and cleaned the halls and managed to get the 120 coins i needed before Sunday even arrived.
So give it another few tries before giving up because it is a fantastic game. It is super hard at the beginning and even has super unforgiving punishment's throughout but the prizes and the content itself (art scenes, etc) are worth it!