So, I think I'm done with the game as for now. Here's a little mini-guide for people just starting out - spoilers ahead, you have been warned!
The guide is by no means complete, so if you feel you have anything to add, drop me a PM and I'll add it. Corrections also welcome, of course. Credit will be given.
What's the game about:
Basically, it's about some girl who runs away from home to Amsterdam to live a life on her own terms there.
Since, as of 0.8.6.3, there is no way to live happily thereafter, at this point the game is effectively about the girl to lose all her dignity and end up as a hooker.
Starting out:
After the faux city selection, you can select your difficulty level.
If you're new to the game, do yourself a favor, swallow the bitter pill and play on easy. Even there pricing balance is totally out of whack. You're free to disregard this advice, of course, but there you have it.
Then you get a short intro and end up in a small apartment in Amsterdam central.
Rent starts at a reasonable level, but the landlord will increase it numerous times (you will cease to belive it will ever happen, but eventually he will stop) at fairly short intervals and you have no way to say no to that. Especially in the early game, this can be a major pain in the behind.
How much of a pain depends on the job you choose.
You ought to do the dishes twice a week, failing to do so will prompt a rent increase, so I'd suggest you just do them - the game warns you about it.
Every Thursday rent will be due, if you cannot pay up, Henry (your landlord) will not be happy, repeated failure to pay may have you facing a gameover screen.
The apartment:
As explained in the intro, your apartment consists of your room (and those of the other tenents, I guess), a shared bathroom and a shared kitchen.
Hygiene is an important stat that is often checked before you can even start a job or enter a location, so you'll likely frequently shower in the bathroom. It's shared nature fuels some random events which might drive your stats in one direction or another, but there's no major content tied to it.
Same for the kitchen, it's mainly there for you to do the dishes or to eat, but meals are an optional part of the game with which you shouldn't bother in my opinion.
Furthermore, there's the entrance area with Henry's living room. Before long, you'll no longer have to deal with your landlord (provided you can pay up) and just be expected to deposit your rent for him.
However, there's also a message board there you should check frequently (at least when you're there to pay the rent anyway) because it randomly provides flyers which unlock additional locations.
No money mo' problems:
As a general consideration: Don't overinvest in stuff.
Buy stuff only when you really need it (the game will generally tell you when that is) or when you have enough disposable cash to afford it. This is especially true for recurring investments usually affecting your looks - makeup for starters. Treat these as a luxury and skip them when stipped for cash. In jobs which have a looks requirement, you can often use the "Touch up hair and makeup" option in public toilets. You can spam this (it stacks) and it's free.
Rather than makeup or the likes, you should consider Shampoo / Bodywash, as these will get you more hygiene when you shower in the morning (or whenever) and they last a fairly long time.
As the game hints advise, you have to buy the map in the beginning, everything else is optional.
Walking instead of taking the bus is generally not worth it because it burns too much time, though you'll have to walk around to discover certain locations.
Earning a living:
In order to have a steady income, the game offers four regular jobs:
- You can help out in the library.
- You can work as a photomodel.
- You can be a helping hand at a flower shop.
- You can make do cleaning
Library help:
This is the one job I didn't try yet, if anybody is willing to provide a synopsis on how it transpires, drop me a PM and I'll insert it here with credit.
Photomodel career:
I'm guessing this is the first job that was developed, it's the most developed and the only one that offers a decent income with which you can eventually cover the ever-increasing rent and afford a couple of luxuries. Definately the recommended route for beginners. Unsurprisingly, the job relies on training the Fashion skill at the library and also has some minor looks requirements.
The job starts out harmless enough, but steadily ups the ante, requiring Lizzy (or however you named her) to progressively show more skin, then to suck off Donny (the photographer) etc., up to group sex in the final stages.
Eventually, Donny drops Lizzy like a hot potato and you can chose to swtich to another career or start walking the streets as a hooker.
The Flower shop:
For a while, this is the "nicest" of the routes, the owner of the flower shop is friendly towards Lizzy and pays a steady, if meager income for decent work. However, good things are not meant to last in this game.
After progressing through the career for a fair bit, you meet Mo, who - as it later turns out - is your typical loverboy. He eventually leaves you to pay off his "debt" for him, which (in a lazy move of the developer) involves adult filming at Donny's studio from the photomodel job. After you have successfully paid off the debt you can keep visiting Donny keeping the (greatly decreased) payout for yourself. (At this point I stopped playing, but appearently there's an ending to come, pm me if you experienced it and I'll add it)
Cleaning offices:
This job starts out very tiring, as you spend a lot of time cleaning office floors five days a week.
After a while, Sandra - your boss - tells you the company will have to close.
When it does, she tells you she'll start a new business for which she'd like to hire you.
This business is called "Risky Maids" and it start by having you clean houses in a maid uniform. Things get more risky as time moves on, you remove your underwear, you give blowjobs, you offer "full service".
The job culminates in Lizzy being kept prisoner in a basement as a loveslave - and her being happy about it, too.
As for payment, the job starts out paying barely enough to cover expenses, but as the story progresses your salary stagnates at ridiculously low levels or even drops further. So you earn less offering your body than you did cleaning office floors.
I think something about the formula is bugged, but who knows, maybe it's intentional.
In addition to these major jobs, there's some other ways to earn money.
You can talk to the pub owner and work in service there in the summer months. But the job pays little and is unavailable off season, so I feel it's not really worth considering.
Eventually, most storylines will open up the option for Lizzy to "Walk the streets".
This is by a huge margin the best paying job and it's easy to earn in a single day what other jobs will amount to in an entire month. One might think it's as far as a person can sink, but actually, what Lizzy is forced to do in the ordinary jobs is often worse and far less well paid, so in a way, being a hooker in this game isn't quite so bad a fate.
Finally, there are some other ways to earn a little coin, but most are random and thus unreliable.
Depending on your Luck, you can find money when enjoying the Park.
You can find money in the streets and, depending on your stats, do a little stealing.
If your dignity is low enough, people will offer small amounts of money for sexual actions when using a bus or visiting the gym, amongst others.
The only option which can provide somewhat reliable and significant payouts is Gloryholes - you'll eventually find those in the toilets in the Club, the Pub and the Mall. Unfortunately, as you complete your characters descent into indignity, Lizzy may eventually refuse to charge money at gloryholes (I think it's tied to cum addiction).
Places to go:
You can visit three Districts of Amsterdam, the center, the Bijlmer area and the northern part.
All districts contain a bus stop and a public toilet.
The center is where you start the game.
In it, you can eventually find:
- The pub.
- A little shop in which to buy basic commodities.
- The park.
- The library.
- A dealer (selling coke).
- A church.
- The red lights district.
Once you engage in walking the streets, you can also do just that here.
The pub allows you to order alcoholic beverages and to socialize.
I was surprised to learn there's actually very very little going on here, for the most part you can skip this location.
The shop is important in that you can buy many of the consumables herein - most are available here exclusively.
Condoms are optional, as sometimes they'll be disregarded by events anyway, STDs are easy to get rid off and pregnancy is not yet in the game. Nail Polish and Lipstick gives bonuses when applying makeup and are cheaper here than at the mall.
Having a phone is optional as of now, except for quitting a job, sunglasses are for visiting the beach, groceries allow you to eat in the kitchen (like I wrote above, this can be skipped imo), shampoo and bodywash are useful as they give a hygiene bonus when you shower, Breezers are cheap alcohol to consume in the park if you have alcohole addiction.
The rest of the items are inconsequential or their purpose has not yet been implemented.
In the park, you can run into a variety of random encounters when enjoying it, you can take a nap, consume weed or drink Breezers. If you buy sports clothing at the mall, you can go jogging or - if you purchase a mat - you can do yoga.
Once you have found him whilst wandering the park, you'll also find a weed dealer here.
Finally, the park is also one of the locations where you can look for customers once you have sunk to open prostitution.
The library is unlocked by reading the map, the church by a flyer at the message board.
You can study the main skills governing each of the four jobs here, Botany, Fashion, Housekeeping and Library Science.
Note that, as per it's description, Library Science can be useful for all paths.
The dealer sells cokaine and is very difficult to unlock.
You'll have to roam the streets by foot and trigger his extremely rare random encounter three times.
The church allows you to gain forgiveness for your sins. You can gain dignity by doing good work and the likes.
As there's no good path in the game as of now, doing so makes little sense.
The red lights district is unlocked in a similar way than the dealer, but you only have to run into it once.
Currently, there's almost nothing to do there, though. You will be asked to work there and Lizzy will eventually consider it if her dignity is low enough, but the actual content to do so is not yet in the game.
The Bijlmer contains:
- The club.
- The loan shark.
- The mall.
Depending on your job, the Flower shop or the cleaning company will also be located here.
The club is unlocked by a random flyer which you can randomly find on the message board or being handed when wandering the streets. Late on Thursdays, on Fridays and on Saturdays, it opens its gates. To visit, you'll have to buy a Dress and Pumps from the mall. Visiting is optional, it contains a couple of random events, you can hook up with strangers for one-night-stands, you can apply as a pole-dancer (though after being admitted you will sadly learn actually working in the club has not yet been implemented) or just dance the night away.
The toilet contains a Gloryhole.
The loan shark is also unlocked by a flyer on the message board. You can (expectedly) gain a loan for (no less expectedly) pretty outrageous conditions. If you cannot pay up, you'll eventually be coerced to whore your body away - one of the options to unlock "Walking the streets".
The mall contains a variety of stores selling luxury items or services.
At Rob Peetoom you can have your hair and/or nails done, providing a boost to your looks for 15 days.
Swiss Sense sells beds, each of which makes you wake up earlier and more relaxed, thus having more time and energy to "spend" during the day.
IcyParis sells Perfume, Makeup, Nail polish and Lipstick. The latter two are cheaper in the store in central.
Perfume is a one-time-purchase giving a boost to Looks, so quite useful if you can spare the cash.
Makeup is a pretty major strain on your balance, thus only invest in it if you have to (or have more than enough cash).
Nelson is a shoestore, Sandals are required for visiting the Beach, Pumps for visiting the club. You already start the game with casual shoes.
MediaMarkt sells consumer electronics, their descriptions are all the the in-game Hints. All are, imo, optional purchases.
Victorias Secret sells underwear/lignerie, which are good for their permanent looks-boost. (Note that the one from the panties is lost when you toggle Lizzy to not wear any)
At SunCity you can work on your tan after buying googles. You can do this just as well in the park or at the beach, but in the park it's very difficult to get the neccessary event frequently enough and going to the beach is a big detour.
Anna-Van-Toor is where you buy a Dress if you want to get into the club. (Possibly you have to buy the office outfit somewhere in the Library career path?)
The Sports shop sells the gear for doing sports like Jogging in the Park or actual training in the Wellness Center. Also a yoga mat and sunglasses the latter of which you can also get at the shop in central.
Schaap and Citroen is a jeweller.
Each of the items you buy here provides a permanent boost to your looks, so they are very useful purchases, but you'll have to fork out quite a bit of cash.
Northern Amsterdam contains only the Wellness Center and, provided you need it for your current job, Donnys photo studio.
The Wellness Center is also unlocked by a flyer and a very useful location.
To enter, you have to buy a day, week or lifetime-pass. In most situations, a day pass will be your best bet, because otherwise you'd have to schedule at least five visits a week to be cost effective, which is rather unlikely, or be able to affor the $2000 the lifetime membership costs (which will only be very, very later in the game).
In the wellness center, you'll find a sauna, a clinic, a gym, a massage parlor and the pool.
Most of the locations provide minor stat boosts. The clinic is invaluable, as this is where you can get your STDs and addictions cured or even pick up a health boost should it sink too low. The gym is required to train fitness above 26, for self-defence and possibly pole-dancing classes.
One final location that I haven't mentioned yet is
the beach, you can go there by visiting a bus stop and picking the appropriate destination, to enter you need a bikini, sunglasses and sandals.
The location is mostly good for sunbathing and not much else as there are few notable events otherwise.
Except there's a chance for starting a Donny shoot questline if you have not yet met him otherwise, but I have been unable to trigger it.
Working the dials:
As I wrote earlier, since there's no good paths as of now, what you want to do to unlock the content you want to see is work on those stats. The main drivers are Liberty and Dignity, the former should be high, the lesser low.
The photoshoot career is designed to almost automatically get those values to where they need to be, which is why I recommend it for first-time players.
The cleaning/maid job works in a somewhat similar fashion, but has the major downside of a horrible paycheck.
Working in the flower shop is the hardest in this regard, as working the job itself increases your dignity, plus it requires a lot of studying which increases it as well. So you'll have to rely quite a bit on running into random encounters decreasing your dignity, because most of the reliable options to do so only unlock later in the game.
Get this Liberty up and this Dignity down and you'll start seeing the content you're likely here for.
Despite hygiene and the likes and health (covered below) intelligence plays a minor role. Some options are unavailable if your intelligence is too high - I'm not sure if also vice versa.
When Lizzy does lewd things and keeps doing them, the game will usually lower her intelligence. If you want to combat that, the best way is to stock up on books and read them in your bedroom.
Health issues:
Health is a stat that mostly decreases when you have Lizzy do depraved stuff, when Lizzy has her period or when she uses drugs. Napping and stuff increase health, and you have the option of using a public toilet, which increases health by one point at a slight cost to hygiene, so health issues are mostly a non-issue.
If all else fails, visit the clinic and get a boost.
Addictions:
Most jobs will eventually drive you into either one or more addictions. You can have these cured at the clinic for a reasonable price, so if you stay addicted it's probably for roleplaying reasons. Being addicted unlocks some random events or has some play out differently, but for the most part ithey are not much of a bother.
A major exception is cum-addiction, though. If Lizzy is addicted to cum, she will eventually no longer charge money when servicing Gloryholes, which takes away an income source.
All addictions have severity levels up to 5, as far as I can tell they only increase the costs of not satisfying the addiction - which can be severe at high levels. It is, however, fairly easy to not get any negative results by satisfying the addiction at least every other day. Weed can be purchased for cheap in the park, Breezers are a cheap way to satisfy that alcohol craving, the cum addiction will take care of itself on most paths and there's always the gloryholes.
As for cokaine, there seems to be another Donny job-chain started when meeting him at the beach involving cokaine, but other than that, this addiction is very hard to pick up. You'd have to run into the dealer by chance as described above and then use it on your own accord or there's a rare event when you're invited to a coke powered gangbang in the club, but it's so rare and it boosts coke desire so slowly that you'd have to be extemely "lucky" to pick up the addiction that way. Anyway, should you have coke addiction, you can get the white powder for free provided you're willing to blow off your dealer.
The treadmill:
Playing the game is one huge grind, there's no doubt about it.
If you think you have played games before that were grindy, Life Choices may introduce you to a whole new level of it.
It's also the worst kind of grind, often you'll be forced to go through the same motions for two or three whole weeks, where all you do is do mundane stuff which keeps you aligned to do that one visit every day, four or five times a week, which gives you story progression. And when you've done this thirty times in a row, that's not fun at all.
In the story encounters, there's minor variations like different pictures being shown or text snippets being swapped in and out, but you usually revisit the same even a dozen times or more before being spoonfed the next little new scene.
My advice is to give yourself a rigorous schedule of only the most basic things required to move along.
Get rid of addictions not involved in the storyline. Stock up on every consumable you feel you need and skip all that are not mandatory. Do not visit locations that you do not have to visit after you have seen their content.
Fly through the days as fast as you can, lest you burn out before seing all your respective storyline has to offer.
Don't be afraid to savescum a bit if need be. Or...
Cheating:
As a last resort, you can resort to cheating.
It's fairly easy. In most browsers, you hit F12 to open the JavaScript developer tools. In the console, you write SugarCube.State.active.variables to get a list of all variables. Depending on your configuration, you can edit the variables right there in the resulting list or you can get the name of a variable and then type this in the console to edit its value, i.e. SugarCube.State.active.variables.Cash = 2000 will set your money to 2000.
Final considerations:
So, I've written a ton already, I hope it helps someone.
I'll likely not play the game again before there's a major new version, so all changes will likely rely on others providing additional information - so if you have some insight you want me to add for the benefit of other players, drop me a PM.
