You start at 18 with $75, a high school diploma, no job, and nowhere to live. Here is the whole opening, in order. Do these three things and the rest of the game opens up on its own.
Open the Jobs tab. Available Now lists roles you already qualify for — fast food, retail, dishwasher, janitor. Open one, review the schedule and pay, and apply. Qualifying is not a promise: some applications still fail, and higher tiers add interviews. But at 18 with no credentials, anything with a paycheck beats pride.
Sleeping rough drains health and energy faster than any job restores them. Rent the cheapest room you can hold with your new paycheck — housing is the highest-return purchase in the early game because everything else (sleep quality, hygiene, energy for shifts) compounds off it. If rent week arrives and you're short, pick up extra shifts before borrowing: loans at low credit are expensive.
Four bars run your life: health, energy, hunger, and happiness. Eat when hunger drops, sleep before energy bottoms out, and don't let health slide — medical care costs more than food and rest combined. Happiness falls when everything else does; fun and relationships lift it. Nothing here is subtle. The bars tell you exactly what's wrong.
About one game day passes every two real hours, even with the tab closed. That means the game rewards rhythm, not grinding: check in a few times a day, handle whatever needs handling, and leave. Sleeping through the night in real life is eight game days of wages, rent accrual, and hunger — plan for it the way you'd plan a real week. The calendar and catch-up report show everything that happened while you were away.
After the early milestones, the Here tab offers a life direction: career, family, health, or surprise-me. It only prioritizes guidance — it never changes your odds, pay, or options. Revisit it anytime. New players do fine ignoring it until the second or third life, when patterns start to show.
Once income is stable: Jobs, Interviews & Raises for climbing, Money & Budgeting so rent week stops hurting, and Life Credits, Explained before your bank fills up and starts wasting earnings.
Start Your First Life →