Balance your studies with powers that can change the people around you. Influence others to help with money, supplies, and keeping unwanted attention down. Follow their stories, experiment with your powers, or reject the eldritch influences.
Attending class on time and spend your day wisely. Leave time to recover when your actions attract attention. As characters become willing to help, give them jobs that address what you need most. But, be careful not to lose yourself in lust.
Your day
Time advances in slots: Dawn, Morning, Noon, and so on. Most activities use one slot, and many become unavailable at Dusk. Moving between locations does not advance the clock, so you can look around before deciding what to do. However, the world may still react to your movements.
- Go to class at Dawn
- Your starting character's class is Archaeology. Use Campus > Upper Campus > Archaeology > Classroom > Attend class at Dawn for full credit. Class takes two time slots. Arriving late (at Morning) gives half credit and takes one slot. If you change your identity at any point, it may also change your class as well; check the syllabus in the right sidebar for your class.
- Use Study to keep your standing up
- Academia is your academic standing, based on attendance over the days you have played. Attending classes regularly keeps it healthy. Campus > Lower Campus > Library > Study costs one slot and adds a quarter day's attendance credit. It can be useful to raise Academia in a pinch, but is not a sufficient substitute for attending class. Studying also lowers Suspicion, which is the unwanted attention your actions attract.
- Leave money for bills
- You receive financial aid each day, but an $80 bill arrives every 30 days. Keep money aside for it. When it is due, use House > Bedroom > Pay Bill before Evening. Unpaid bills add Suspicion every day. If your identity has been changed, it's possible that the amount of your bills has changed as well.
- Sleep to begin the next day
- From Evening onward, use House > Bedroom > Sleep when you are ready to finish the day. Many changes to characters and the world happen overnight.
Suspicion
Watch the Suspicion meter in INFO. Keep it below 100; reaching that point can end your run. 50 and above is dangerous territory, as certain actions can have an immense suspicion cost. Some actions raise it immediately, while problems such as unpaid bills and wounds add to it overnight.
- Recover before taking more risks
- Good Academia reduces many Suspicion gains, while poor standing makes them worse. Attend class while it is still Dawn or Morning. Later in the day, use Study before Dusk instead of another risky interaction. You can also put characters to work reducing Suspicion once they are willing to take commands.
- Treat ongoing injuries
- If INFO shows Wounded, the injury adds Suspicion each day until it heals. Before Dusk, use Med Clinic > Heal Wounds. Treatment costs 15 cash and removes the condition.
Influence
When you visit a character, their panel shows an Arousal meter. This measures their growing attraction to you and determines which interactions become available.
- Start with Flirt and gifts
- Below 40 Arousal, build it with Flirt or Give. Flirt takes one slot even when it fails. Buy gifts at Student Center > Bookstore before Evening; choose Shop on the first visit. Give consumes the item and one slot, and results depend on the character. Touch can raise Arousal faster, but adds much more Suspicion.
- Learn what each person likes
- APP opens SHiMMER, the in-game social network. Enter a first or last name and choose Search Users to find a profile. Profiles and posts give clues to gift preferences. A preferred gift also makes future Flirt attempts with that character more likely to succeed. Choose Send Friend Request; once their Arousal reaches 20, they can accept it overnight.
| Arousal | What changes |
|---|---|
| 20 | SHiMMER friend requests can be accepted. |
| 40 | Sex replaces Flirt, Give, and Touch as the regular way to build Arousal. |
| 60 | Bidding becomes available, letting you give commands. |
| 80 | Characters may initiate unavoidable encounters when you visit. |
| 100 | The character becomes Frenzied: Arousal no longer decays, XP is awarded, and ordinary utility & interactions end. |
Until a character reaches Frenzy, their Arousal can fall overnight if you did not visit them that day. Focus on a few people so your progress lasts. Once a character reaches 40, use the available Sex interactions to keep building it.
- Choose how a character will help
- At 60 Arousal, use Bidding > Basic Command to assign Suspicion Reduction, Cash Generation, or Item Retrieval. Assignment costs one slot. The job runs each night; keep their Arousal at 60 or higher to keep it going. Use Stop/Change Bidding to change the job while ordinary interaction is available. Special Commands are one-time requests unique to that character's connections or skillset.
- Finish your plans before Frenzy
- At 100 Arousal, the character leaves ordinary conversation and interaction. Wrap up any unfinished business you have with that character before taking that last step; the characters and world will adapt either way. You can keep someone available at a lower Arousal level if you still want to spend time with them, and there are also powers to help with that.
Powers
A character's first Frenzy awards XP, the experience currency used to buy powers in UPGRADES. Other milestones can award it too. The number of Frenzied characters also opens new tiers of powers:
- Tier 2
- 3 Frenzied characters
- Tier 3
- 7 Frenzied characters
Open a tier to view more choices. Each power can be purchased with XP, and any listed prerequisites must be met.
- Buy help with the problem you are having
- If Suspicion is limiting your plans, Shadow Over Arkham costs 2 XP and lowers it automatically each day. Its effect grows as more characters become Frenzied. If your existing helpers already keep Suspicion manageable, you can put that XP toward another power.
- Use transformation to gain a helper earlier
- Diminish 1 costs 1 XP. Use it from an eligible male or non-binary character's Powers menu to turn them into a ghoul, a pale, hunched servant. They can then take Basic Commands without reaching 60 Arousal, giving you another way to gain help.
- Consider Stupefy before buying it
- Stupefy costs 1 XP and automatically lowers a character's intelligence, shown as IQ, during certain intimate actions. Check their action previews for IQ loss. Lost IQ does not recover and can remove dialogue options, so finish conversations you care about before purchasing it.
Resources
- Use the Mark to possess the student body
- At Tier 2, claim Mark of the Anointed in UPGRADES for 0 XP. Visit Student Housing, choose a dorm, and Mark a door, then sleep. A mark that survives the night lets you temporarily possess a resident. The act of marking can raise Suspicion, so it is best to make marks at a time of day when less students are active in the dorm. The possessed resident becomes a husk, a vessel you can put to work after returning to yourself.
- Choose what to do with a husk
- During possession, Command sends the husk to work at the Student Center Boiler Room's dig site, advancing the excavation each day. Reserve keeps one body for later use; reserving another replaces it. Dust destroys the body for Husk Dust. Manage workers at Student Center > Boiler Room > Husks Keeping workers supports the dig; sacrificing some supplies Dust, which can be used for changing some of your traits.
- Transfer traits or take a new identity
- The Tier 2 power Vitae Exchange costs 2 XP to unlock. Open it from a husk's panel; each exchange costs 10 Husk Dust. Choose two desired trait categories, then Exchange. It extracts one essence, a trait you can transfer. The result is partly random, so inspect it before using Use on... to apply it to Self or a Reserved body. Choose Dust if you do not want the result. The husk used for the exchange is consumed, and essences cannot be saved for later. Applied to Self, an Identity essence replaces your identity, changes your character's bonuses and drawbacks, and clears Suspicion.
- Start producing parasites
- Parasites offer a different route to influence. A Queen Parasite comes from Maya's story at the Archaeology lab. On an eligible female or non-binary character, choose Infest > Queen Parasite to create a Broodmother, who produces normal parasites. This replaces that character's ordinary role, so finish any conversations or plans you have with them first.
- Feed the Broodmother and collect births
- Visit Student Center > Boiler Room > Broodmother. Carry food, such as bagels bought at the Bookstore, and choose Feed, then Birth when ready. Repeated births produce more parasites but require more food. A helper assigned through Bidding > Basic Command > Broodmother Caregiver provides daily feeding, freeing your time for other activities. You still choose Birth yourself.
- Use normal parasites as a shortcut
- With a normal parasite in your inventory, choose a character's Infest option. Success raises their Arousal to at least 40 and keeps it from falling below that point. You still need to build toward Bidding at 60 or Frenzy at 100. Each attempt consumes a parasite; failure also adds Suspicion. Normal parasites do not create another Broodmother.