I Was a Teenage Exocolonist Perfect playthrough

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Exocolonist’s story is an incredible ride, and each life can be a unique, moving experience. But if you map it out a bit, you can do almost everything in a single life — save everyone, max every relationship and skill, and get the best endings for every character.

This will be a year by year guideline and series of tips on how to minmax stats, stress and achieve goals. It’ll also be chock full of spoilers, so do be warned. There’s also a month by month account of my own playthrough, but that shouldn’t be taken as a must-do, since there’s multiple paths and priorities (and also, you might not agree with what I think is a perfect ending.) Do note that following this does not mean you’ll experience all content, since there’s so much story, some of it limited by age, relationships, and other variables.

If you want to know what I consider the perfect playthough, it’s mostly the same as the choices listed in this guide, with extra constraints. The details will be listed here. If you don’t care, skip past this section.

It’ll be a special peace ending, with everyone saved, of course, namely Tammy, Hal, Tonin, Eudicot, Mom, and Dad. Everyone will also be at max relationship and have had their final event trigger. Dys will neither bomb the colony nor run off, and be reconciled with Tangent. Vace will get therapy and reconcile with Rex.

Imo the best endings relationship wise are for Nomi & Rex to get together and Anemone & Vace to break up. You then date Anemone so everyone who desires a relationship has one. Incidentally, dating Anemone and having children is the only ending where she seems to reconcile with her mom. In theory you could date Tammy instead and let Anemone and Cal get together, but imo that ending is worse. Also, while Dys will date Sym in the ending regardless, you can get some extra lines if you let him run off and then bring him home. Whether it’s worth it is up to you.

Career wise, I go for Governor, but that’s trivial to adjust. And even though it’s basically making trouble for no reason, I prefer to find out about the Earth fleet and then call it off.

Pet wise, you’ll get Hopeye and Vriki for sure, Unisaur is easy to get, but Pet Bot requires doing Repair Robots 11 times. I fit it in, but if you want to drop anything, this is the one to drop. Also, I like Socks, but she has a ton of events (most skippable) and Geoponics jobs aren’t very efficient for skill growth, so I’ll only show the bare minimum to get her best ending.

Also, I realise this guide is a bit of an eclectic mess, so please comment if you think something needs work.

Basic Information

Relationships:
Going on Expeditions means you’ll have tons of collectibles, so you’ll be spamming them to raise relationships. Remember that you can gift twice a month if a character’s birthday isn’t in the 1st of the season. Also, you can still gift during Glow, though it’s only Anemone, Dys, and Vace who stay out. The harder characters to max are Vace and Nomi (Rex is no problem because of hugs and logs), so if you’re having a shortfall, focus on them. Lastly, since this guide is aiming to max all skills, eventually Creativity will hit 100, so you can gift every month.

Gifts the characters like and dislike and their birthdays:

Pollen 1: Rex | Logs (Also, hug him every month)
Pollen 3: Tammy | Flower | Dislikes Logs (Also, share cake every Q2)

Skills:
Action wise, Expeditions are by far the most efficient way to raise stats, so the playthrough will focus on doing them in Quiet for the Heroic bonus. Because of this, Perception will max very early, possibly as early as Age 13 Quiet. Animals will probably follow in Age 14 Quiet. Bravery, Biology, Engineering, Toughness, and Combat will also go up quite steadily, though that comes later, especially Combat. Also, this guide recommends doing Work in the Cafe 11 times to reconcile Tang and Dys, so keep in mind you’ll get a lot of Empathy and Creativity from that.

That means the hardest skill to raise will be Reasoning. The only job that has Reasoning as a primary requires 30 Reasoning to unlock (since you’ll be saving Hal). The guide recommends boosting it in character creation so you get around these issues, and also meeting the requirements for Science Fair every Vertumnalia for the extra boost. The next hardest will be Persuasion, as the primary job for it only unlocks in age 15, and requires Rebellion < 20 or 60 Persuasion. Do note that you can get a Persuasion+20 item for free from Marz’s Relationship 30 event, which does make it easier, but unless you work for it 40 Persuasion is still hard to get to, so just keep Rebellion low. Also, this guide recommends doing Assist the Governor 11 times to learn about the Earth ships, which is a lot of Persuasion.

Do note that you can date people all the non-monogamous people (Marz, Rex, Sym), then do a monogamous one to boost Social skills multiple times, but that shouldn’t be necessary.

Cards:
You’ll want to do well in Challenges because of the extra skill you get for achieving the Super Goal, which is 10 more than the usual goal. The basic tip is that you should always try for a long flush/straight/pair. The bonus goes 1/3/6/10, so getting the 4th or 5th matching card is massive, especially in early game, where the bonuses alone could be more than the goal. This is especially powerful in the 3 round story challenges, because you can hold back cards from the first round. Also, do note that you can reload the latest autosave to restart with full knowledge of what your hand will be.

That said, challenges shouldn’t be that challenging because of the large amount of collectibles, but it helps to keep a lean deck. I recommend spending most of your Kudos on the Spa. You can effectively use it as a reroll on the choice of cards, either for a job challenge, or for the choice to forget during Relaxing. I normally try to get rid of all the 0 cards by mid Age 11, and by end game there shouldn’t be any card less than 5 in the deck (unless it has a useful power).

For better early game, you can also aim for the early perks that help with challenges, like Engineering or Bravery 33 (Draw +1 card), Toughness 33 (Red cards+1 in Red challenges). These can be done by Age 12 if you aim for it. Reasoning 33 (Blue equivalent) is also doable, but Persuasion 33 is pretty inefficient to do before age 15 (unless you go all in on it during character creation), so you should hold off on trying.

Also, you’ll get 3 gear slots quite quickly following this guide. 2 are for Hopeye and Vriki, and the last can be for whatever gear you think helps most. Do keep in mind that you should save Kudos till 15D1 because of a great Kudos making opportunity.

Patch:
The Toughness perk 2 Gym working doesn’t really change the advice on spending Kudos on spa. Currently, the only cards that can be upgraded are the ones granted by augments (which is a pretty big deal, since Calm Temperament II is Stress-5) and 0,1&2 value cards from your starting deck. It costs 100 Kudos to upgrade a 2 to a 4, which I’d rather spend on removing 2 cards from the deck.

Stress Management:
There’s several times this guide will call for Managing Stress in prep for a certain day, to minimise the number of times you need to relax. You can normally just divide the number of days remaining by 13 or 8 (or less if you’ve got the Hopeye) to figure out how many you can squeeze in. There’s no penalty for going over 100 Stress, so if you’re doing a 15 stress activity, 99 Stress is the same as having 85 Stress. That’s why it’s great to just feed Cal Cakes for the Stress – 5 so you can do an additional activity. Try to keep an emergency Cake around in case the event gives extra Stress or you miscalculate. Incidentally, in my playthrough I only relax 4 times, and the last time in 13Q2.

Expeditions:
To maximise Expeditions, see the 3rd last section of this guide for a list of all the Stress Reduction events in each Expedition. It’s always worth it to pick a Stress Reduction over something else (unless your stress is less than 15, in which case you should save it for later)

Also, I expect a lot of save scumming to shop for options, especially after Perception 100. Reloading the latest autosave rolls back to before the last encounter, so if it’s a useless event you can just ignore it instead. Another tip is to use the number keys to select options to speed things up.

Skills plan summary:
Here’s a basic summary of my personal playthrough for Skills

Empathy: Use Babysitting to hit 33 early, wait till Age 17 to unlock Work in the Cafe to start maxing
Persuasion: Get a smattering early on from Work in the Depot, wait till Age 15 to Assist the Governor to start maxing
Creativity: Some Study Humanities and Photophonor, but the rest is from the secondaries of Work in the Cafe and Repair Robots
Bravery: Maxed purely from events in Expeditions.

Reasoning: Heavy focus from Character Creation, Vertumnalia, and Study Engineering to hit 30, then Tutor Children to max.
Organising: Deliver Supplies to hit 33 early, then Work in the Depot, Xenobotany, and Assist the Governor to Max.
Engineering: Gained some small amount early from Study Engineering, got a lot from Survey the Ridge, then Maxed with Repair Robots (Age 15)
Biology: Study Life Sciences to hit 33, then some Xenobotany, and the rest was from Forage in the Valley.

Toughness: Mostly Expeditions, with some Shovel Dirt to hit 66 early.
Perception: First to be maxed (in Age 13), purely from Expeditions.
Combat: Slow trickle at first, but maxes very quickly from Heroic Hunt in the Swamp (Age 17)
Animals: Second to be maxed (in Age 14), purely from Expeditions

Prep

There’s a great number of events that are remembered across lives, and prepping them will make some things a lot easier. Things like the prerequisite for saving Tammy, though incredibly important, are unmissable, so they won’t be listed.

Major advantages:

1. Cure the Shimmer
This lets you cure the Shimmer with no fuss
To do this, Forage in the Valley, reach the boss, then collect a sample. You then need to do 2
of the 3 following things: Talk to Tang about the shimmer, Study Life Sciences, or get the Research Xenobotany event about the sample you collected.
After this, do a job in Engineering and the shimmer will be cured.

2. Built Rex’s Bar before
This halves the amount of work you need to build the bar
To do this, you need to get Rex to 20 to have him start the bar, then keep giving him Logs until he finishes it (should require 9, less if you get the relevant events in Work Construction)

3. Have either Marz or Sol be Governor
This lets you start the mutiny with no fuss. Just talk to Marz after Vertumnalia 18.
To do this, you need to do jobs in Admin until you get the event where Marz talks about overthrowing Lum. After that, you need to do an activity in each location (Admin, Engineering, Expeditions, Garrison, Geoponics and Living Quarters) to get votes.

4. Meet the Overseer with Sym
This lets you meet the Overseer early, which gives you the very powerful card. Also speeds up Sym’s revival after he dies.
To do this, just advance Sym’s relationship by talking to him as much as possible. This is the 8th event.

5. Get Native Hybrid card
The first time through, you’ll need to Research Xenobotany 11 times to get this powerful card (the event also gives 5 food).
If you’ve done it before, the only requirement to get the event is having done Xenobotany once, and that it’s been at least 4 months since you started doing Xenobotany.

6. Be voted Second Engineer
This lets you pick Engineering Books in Character Creation, which is the best choice.
To do this, don’t overthrow Lum, and have 50+ Reasoning and 50+ Engineering or Biology at Vertumnalia 19 to let you pick it.

7. Fixed Congruence in Repair Robots
This lets you pick Congruence as best friend, which imo is the best choice.
You need to let Hal die, then do repair robots until you get the Congruence event where she mourns Hal. You also need Organising 30 to pick “Figure out what’s really happening”

Minor advantages:
1. Experienced Tang’s Virus ending (note that special peace ending means it won’t happen anyway. Just including it for the sake of completion)
2. See Sym fall on you from the skyfish (saves 20 stress)
3. Figured out what Socks eats (saves a Socks event)
4. Seen Bounceweasels (lets you skip a possible Work in the Farms event)
5. Seen Tonin die in person before (lets you not have to go out in 11 Wet to save him)
6. Research Spongecake (Skips the need to research spongecake in xenobotany to get the 5 food)

Character Creation

Character Creation goals:
A) Pick Calm Temperament
B) Get 5+ Reasoning
C) Make sure you can Sneak Out in Age 10

A) There’s no getting around it — by far the most action efficient way to gain stats is to pick Calm Temperament and go on Expeditions after getting heroic during Glow. Additionally, Calm Temperament gets Sol to 20 Empathy, which is required for starting Tammy’s Cake engine.

B) Reasoning is very inefficient to raise, so it’s much better to just start with it.

C) There’s two ways to do this: Get Toughness to 20 or Get Dys to 10 relationship.

Toughness approach:

You can get Toughness to 10 from picking Sportsball as present and 5 from picking Anemone as childhood friend. If you pick Sportsball, remember to pick a childhood friend that gives Reasoning. After that, you just need to Shovel Dirt a couple of times.

Dys approach:

You can just choose Dys as childhood friend, but that’s suboptimal, because Perception is a pointless stat to raise and you’ll be getting lots of relationship with him from Expeditions. There’s a way to finesse getting Dys to 10 relationship without choosing him, but it’s a bit of a hassle, so you might want to just pick him.

Just a note that the reason Bravery is not listed is because trying to max bravery in character creation would require picking Dys as childhood friend, so there’s no point.

Character Creation Details

For detailed stats, please use this guide.

Birthday Present: Pick Learning Tablet so you can unlock Study Engineering easily, or Sportsball for Toughness.

Bedtime story: Optimal choice is Engineering Manuals, which requires having been Second Engineer before. None of the cards are good enough to go after.

Augment: Pick Calm Temperament. No choice here, sorry

Best Friend: If you picked Sportsball, you really should pick Tangent, Anemone (and choose “blame”), or Congruence. If not, pick Dys, and choose “Tell them”. See below if you plan to finesse Dys to 10.

Wormhole choice: You’ll casually solve the starvation problem by doing the optimal strat, so there’s no need for messing with the shields, though you might still want to. Of the normal choices, Think of a game to play/Distraction gives the best card, since it draws 1, but it’s not a big deal.

TLDR:

Toughness approach: Sportsball, Engineering Manuals, Calm Temperament, Anemone, “take the blame”, either

Dys approach: Learning Tablet, Engineering Manuals, Calm Temperament, Dys, “Tell them”, “Distraction”

Dys 10 Finesse:

Dys starts at 4 relationship like everyone else, so you need to have 3 more events to get him to 10.
There are 2 guaranteed chances for increases:
1. Choose “game” or “distraction” during the intro, which requires 5 Creativity or Organisation (it’s the optimal choice card wise as well)
2. Relax in the Lounge after Q3 and choose “let’s play outside” or “explore the jungle”

The last 2 points can be done either by giving him collectibles (remember, no cake), relaxing again and choosing “Marz and Dys” > “whole planet stinks” (not recommended), or triggering Marz 10 and choosing “Dys is cool.” Marz’s relationship can be raised with gifts (Cake works, Early Wet) or by doing Deliver Supplies. There’s also an easy bump during her soysweet intro with Persuasion 5.

Also, if you’re doing this, do not question him about sneaking out before getting 10 relationship, because that’s the one chance you have to Sneak Out that isn’t gated by stats.

Anyway, that means you need 5 Creativity or 5 Organising to pick Think of a game to play/Find a Distraction, so you have to either pick Sir Knight for Bedtime story or choose Tammy or Marz for best friend for the Creativity, or pick Marz or Cal (and then “tell your parents”) for best friend for Organising. I recommend just picking Marz so there’s less you need to do.

TLDR:
Learning Tablet, Engineering Manuals, Calm Temperament, Marz, “Plead”, “Distraction”

Age 10

Age 10 Goals

A) Sneak Out
B) Win something in Vertumnalia
C) Get Bravery 5 by Glow
D) Talk to Tammy for Cakes
E) (Optional) Get Empathy 33 for Spa

A) You’ll want to Sneak Out this year for stats and getting Hopeye quicker. If you didn’t pick Dys as best friend or build for Toughness, make sure to read the Dys finesse part.

B) Need Toughness, Creativity, or Reasoning 5. Recommend Reasoning, since you’ll want all the boosts you can get.

C) You need Bravery 5 to get Heroic, which is integral to this playthrough. It’s very unlikely you won’t get this after Sneaking Out, but just in case, make sure you Play Sportsball or Sneak Out again to top it up. It goes up by 5 each year, but you should earn that much passively just from doing events in Expeditions.

D) To start Tammy giving you Cakes every birthday, you need to do her Empathy 20 event “Do a random act of kindness”. Since you started with Calm Temperament, you already have this, so that means you can start getting Cakes as soon as 10Q2. Always share with her for the +2.

E) Babysitting is only around for till age 15, so why not do it now. This also lets you start doing rerolls earlier. Don’t go overboard though, because Work in the Cafe is a lot better.

Stat goals for optional unlocks: Toughness 10 for Deliver Supplies, Reasoning 5 for Study Engineering, 33 Biology for Research Xenobotany.

Age 10 Details:

Notable events:
Dad has 2 possible Stress reductions events:
1) If you’re Age 13 and below, and have 75+ Stress, “need a hug” for Stress-5.
2) If you’re Age 12 and below and in Dust Month 1, “miss you” > “i’d like that” for Stress-20

10Q1-
If you don’t need to Shovel Dirt for Toughness, I recommend Studying Humanities. There’s a number of strong early cards in the first few events.

10Q2:
Play dolls with Tammy for Empathy +1. Do a random act of kindness, then talk to her again for your Birthday Cake. Share with her every time for a free Tammy +2. Remember that every time you gift Cal cake, you get Stress-5.

Shovel Dirt and Play Sportsball unlock. Also, you can unlock Deliver supplies with Toughness 10 and Study Engineering with Reasoning 5

10P1:
Collectibles start spawning, so go look for them. Save Tammy.

10P2:
Talk to Tang to start the Sneak Out quest for Dys. IMPORTANT: Don’t talk to Dys until you have 10 Relationship with him.

Babysitting unlocks.

Ideally, you’ll Relax on 10P2/3 and Sneak Out on 10P3/D1 to get the free Stress reduction. With a little RNG, it’s possible to hit every stat giving event in a single sitting. Just beeline the Unisaur and the Watermelon miniboss events, which can each give Stress-30. The boss event also gives Stress -30, so you can continue exploring for sure after it. Also, currently the boss event gives a powerful card, which means you should beeline for it (This does not apply post patch).

10D1: Vertumnalia occurs after the activity, which gives Stress-50. Make sure you have 5 Toughness, Creativity or Reasoning by this point. Science Fair is recommended.

10D2-10W1: You’ll be popular during this time. For Kudos earnings, Babysitting is the highest at 7, unless you managed to unlock Xenobotany already, (not recommended), which has 15. Manage stress to make sure you don’t have to relax before the next year, because Glow gives 70 Stress.

10 Glow: There are guaranteed to be no events in Geoponics in Glow, so you might not want to choose those jobs.

Attack occurs after activity. Stress+50. Need Bravery 5 for going out to help and getting Heroic, which is another Stress+20. Going to Geoponics is by the better choice. Don’t use the past life option, because it skips the challenge. If you’re lucky, you’ll draw a Stress -1 card so you go into 11Q1 with 99 Stress, not 100.

My own Personal Playthrough details:

Character Creation:
Sportsball, Engineering Manuals, Calm Temperament, Congruence, N/A, “emotions”
Empathy 20, Reasoning 10, Engineering 15, Toughness 5
(I pick Congruence because she gives incredible starting cards, including one that is imo endgame worthy. Also, she gives 10 Reasoning, so that’s less I need to do to unlock Tutor Children, and I’m not worried about the relationship loss, since the Strato kids will max easily. Also, if you’re picking this, you should fix the shields. I didn’t just to “prove” that it’s not necessary.)

10Q1: Study Humanities
10Q2: Shovel Dirt
10Q3: Shovel Dirt (hit 15 Toughness (Sportsball is +5 when equipped) so I can Sneak Out)
10P1: Study Humanities (to get Vertumna Group, which is a great card)
10P2: Relax in Lounge
10P3: Sneak Out
10D1: Dad Stress-20 event, Study Humanities, Bot Wrestling
10D2: Babysitting
10D3: Babysitting
10W1: Babysitting (unlocks Spa, also had 50+ Kudos)
10W2: Shovel Dirt
10W3: Shovel Dirt
10 Glow: Deliver Supplies

Stats
Empathy: 35, Persuasion: 7, Creativity: 14, Bravery: 9
Reasoning: 10, Organising: 7, Engineering: 16. Biology: 0
Toughness: 31, Perception: 15, Combat: 2, Animals: 5

Kudos 110, Rebellion 35

Relationships:
Nem:14, Cal: 17, Tang: 14, Dys: 13, Marz: 5, Tammy: 16

Age 11

Age 11 Goals:

A) Get Hopeye
B) Save Tonin
C) Save Hal
D) Win something in Vertumnalia
E) Unlock Spa (Empathy 33)
F) (Optional) Organisation 33 for extra gear slot

Stat goals for optional unlocks: Toughness 10 for Deliver Supplies, Reasoning 5 for Study Engineering, 33 Biology for Research Xenobotany.

A) You’ll get the Hopeye Pet from the Boss event in Sneak Out. Slot them in whenever you can since it’s another stress reducer.

B) Either Sneak Out during Wet season and do the boss event (need Bravery 10), or if you’ve seen Tonin die before (as in, you’ve snuck out and failed to save him in a previous life), talk to Tammy in 11W3. It’s either a normal challenge gated by Persuasion 5 if you take a delusion, or a hard challenge gated by Persuasion 15. Or you can just get grounded and take a bunch of stress if there’s no other option, but this is a minmax guide, so don’t do that.

C) Need 10 Bravery to get out, then go to Engineering and win the hard combat challenge.

D) It’s Toughness, Creativity, or Reasoning 10 now.

E) Same Reasoning as before, except there’s very little reason now to not have it, especially since you’ll be relaxing at least twice this year. Incidentally, don’t go overboard, because if you want to reconcile Dys and Tang, you’ll need to Work in the Cafe 11 times, which will give about 50 empathy. If you don’t wish to do so, go ahead.

F) If you picked Engineering books, you’ll want an extra gear slot since you get Hopeye early on, so you can use both on Mental challenges.

Age 11 Details:

11Q1-Q3: You’ll be Heroic right now, so you definitely want to Sneak Out in this time period. If you were lucky, you have 99 Stress so you can do an activity in 11Q1. If not, relax and Sneak Out in 11Q2. Don’t forget to get a Cake from Tammy.

Because the Hopeye will definitely end the expedition, there’s no way to do everything in one run. You’ll want to Sneak Out again in Wet Season anyway to save Tonin, so just do all the physical ones and head for the Hopeye. Also, you’ll want to manage stress so you don’t have to relax before 11D1. Remember the Cal Cake and the Dad events.

Talk to Cal when you come back to unlock Relax in the Park.

Defense Training unlocks on 11Q2 as well, so you could consider doing one for the Heroic bonus.

11P3: Valentine’s Day. If you don’t pick Marz, she loses 2 relationship.

11D1: As usual, Vertumnalia after activity for Stress – 50. Relax on the Walls unlocks as well.

11D2: Depot opens. Nothing interesting to buy besides Cakes, but you should be able to max everyone’s relationship without them. Maybe the Photophonor, if you want to unlock Practice Photophonor early. It only costs 5 Stress (3 after reductions) and the first event even reduces Stress.

11W1-3: Sneak Out to save Uncle Tonin. (it gives 25 Kudos, which can be doubled if on 11W1). Alternatively, you can talk to Tammy on 11W3. Remember, you need Persuasion 15 for the best result.

11 Glow: Same thing about Geoponics and Garrison having no events. If you somehow don’t have 10 Bravery, get it. Glow attack will give Stress+10 (+7 after reductions), choose “Engineering” to Save Hal. It’s a hard challenge, but you should have a stack of collectibles and a lean-ish deck so it’s no problem.

My own Personal Playthrough details:

11Q1: Shovel Dirt (I got the Stress reduction from Glow)
11Q2: Relax in the Lounge (Spa 2x)
11Q3: Sneak Out (left with 82 Stress)
11P1: Deliver Supplies
11P2: Deliver Supplies
11P3: Deliver Supplies (picked Marz for BFF)
11D1: Dad event for Stress-5, Deliver Supplies, Science Fair
11D2: Deliver Supplies (Hit Org 33, slotted in Hopeye)
11D3: Cal Cake, Deliver Supplies
11W1: Sneak Out to save Tonin (for 2x Kudos)
11W2: Study Life Sciences
11W3: Cal Cake, Study Life Sciences
11 Glow: Study Life Sciences

Stats
Empathy: 35, Persuasion: 7, Creativity: 14, Bravery: 16
Reasoning: 15, Organising: 38, Engineering: 16. Biology: 17
Toughness: 45, Perception: 51, Combat: 5, Animals: 17

Kudos 185 (Spa 2x), Rebellion 0

Relationships:
Nem:18, Cal: 24, Tang: 23, Dys: 21, Marz: 34, Tammy: 24

Age 12

Age 12 Goals:

A) Cure the Shimmer
B) Stop Pixie Beans
C) Win something in Vertumnalia
D) Get Vriki
E) (Optional) Organisation 33 for extra gear slot
F) (Optional) Meet Socks

Stat goals for optional unlocks: Marz 10 or Rebellion <20 for Work in the Depot, Biology 20 for Work on the Farm.

A) This is trivial if you’ve done it before. Just use the past life option and then do an event in
Engineering. Do note that the first time you go to Engineering, you can ask Hal for 20 Kudos as a reward for saving his life, so you might want to do this after Vertumnalia. If you’re gunning for Organisation 33 and it’s still at 0, just do it ASAP to get Hal’s Gratitude.

B) Likewise trivial from pastlife. You need less than 90 Rebellion to do this, but you’d have to be gunning for it to get that high.

C) It’s Toughness, Creativity, or Reasoning 15 now. As usual, Science Fair recommended

D) Just Sneak Out and Tame it during the Glow attack. You need Bravery 15, Perception 10, and Animals 10, which should be impossible not to have.

E) You definitely want both Vriki and Hopeye slotted, so try to get this. It’s fairly easy to get if you took Engineering Books and befriended Marz. You’ll also be getting Hal’s Gratitude this year. Other early events that give Organisation are Tang’s first event (“find it”), unlocking Study Engineering, the Mom card at Organisation 20, and a couple of events in Admin.

Also, if you go for this, you’ll probably be hitting Marz 30. You should spend down to less than 50 Kudos so she gives Cool Jacket to you for free.

F) From a minmax pov, it’s probably better to have Cal lose Socks, because Socks events have very poor rewards and block other events, but IMO having Socks stay around is part of a perfect ending. Anyway, this is optional because you can do everything in Age 13, unless you’ve never found out what Socks eats in a previous playthrough, in which case, this is necessary.

Age 12 Details:

12Q1-3: As usual, go on Expedition and do physical stuff while heroic. Remember to Relax in the Park.

12Q1: Birthday after activity. If you care about maxing all relationships, White Astrantia is the choice. Even if you don’t, you can still use it to speed up getting certain relationship cards. If you really don’t want it, Photophonor to save 100 Kudos.

12Q2: Unlock Work in the Depot by talking to Marz with Marz 10 or Rebellion<20. Don’t forget Tammy’s Cake

12P1: Shimmer Cure and Pixie Beans events trigger after activity.

12P2: If you need to do the Shimmer Cure the long way, talk to Tang and agree to help.

12D1: Vertumnalia after activity. Stress -50 as usual. Manage stress so you don’t waste it.

12D2: If you’ve been waiting to trigger the Hal reward, don’t forget to do it now for double Kudos.

12 Glow: You’ll want to Relax in the Lounge (not Park, because there’s no events) to maximise next year’s stat gains. Manage stress so you don’t waste it. After Activity, “Sneak Out” and “Tame it” to get Vriki.

My own Personal Playthrough details:

12Q1: Relax in the Park (took White Astrantia) (Spa 2 cards)
12Q2: Sneak Out (exited with 75 stress)
12Q3: Defense Training
12P1: Work in the Depot
12P2: Work in the Depot
12P3: Cal Cake, Work in the Depot
12D1: Cal Cake, Shovel Dirt, Science Fair
12D2: Study Life Sciences (Hal Reward x2)
12D3: Deliver Supplies (Kudos event)
12W1: Work in the Depot
12W2: Shovel Dirt (unlock Work on the Farm)
12W3: Work on the Farm
12 Glow: Relax in the Park (Hopeye Bond+1)

Stats
Empathy: 36, Persuasion: 15, Creativity: 15, Bravery: 25
Reasoning: 18, Organising: 64, Engineering: 16. Biology: 30
Toughness: 59, Perception: 68, Combat: 10, Animals: 33

Kudos 154 (Spa 4x), Rebellion 25

Relationships:
Nem:27, Cal: 43, Tang: 32, Dys: 24, Marz: 36, Tammy: 25

Age 13

Age 13 Goals:

A) Get Organisation 33 and/or Animals 66 for extra gear slots
B) Get Perception 100
C) Meet and feed Socks
D) (Optional) Get Combat 30
E) (Optional) Keep Rebellion low
F) (Optional) Save 100 Kudos by 13 Glow

Stat goals for optional unlocks: Organisation 20 for Help in the Kitchens, Reasoning 30 for Tutor Children, Perception 20 for Lookout Duty.

A note on Lookout Duty: You might have heard the advice to do Lookout Duty every Glow. This isn’t necessary in this run, since Defense has no use in a Special Peace ending. Well, there is one use: You need to have earned 2 Points of Defense by 16 Glow to prevent getting injured when going Heroic. But that’s better done through the other possible Defense events, like the Xenobotany Mushwood Sample or winning Science fair in Vertumnalia 14.

A) You’ve now got 2 pets that you really want to slot in. Animals will be quite close by now, so if you haven’t worked on Org at all, just go for that. Or do both. Don’t go overboard on Animals though, because you’ll likely max it out by next year.

B) You should be reasonably close by now. Perception 100 just makes Expeditions so much better, since that lets you shop for events. If you see one that you don’t like, just reload the last autosave. Also, check out the 3rd last section for which events let you reduce Stress.

C) To keep Socks around, you need to trigger two events: Meet her and tell Cal what she eats. The eating event only occurs in Age 13, and Socks will run in Age 14 if not done. Fortunately, it’s a guaranteed event if you’ve met her. In fact, you can meet and feed her in the same event, which is what I did in my personal playthrough.

D) During this Glow attack, you’ll need Combat 30 to choose the best possible option. I list it as optional as you can still get heroic and just choose to run away, getting Anemone-2. While you’ll have +10 Combat from the unmissable plascutter, you’ll probably need to do a bunch of Defense Training to get it. Of course you can try to win the Impossible Combat, but imo it’s not worth it, because you are guaranteed to get Injured.

E) In 13P2 after activities, hormones start, which triples Rebellion gain. This is a Problem, because you want to keep rebellion under 20 to unlock Assist the Governor in Age 15.

Alternatively, you could raise Persuasion to 40 (and get Cool Jacket from Marz 30), but this is very inefficient, so I recommend against it.

F) You want 250 Kudos in 15D1. This isn’t much of a problem if you use the Popular buff well, but just in case, start saving now.

Age 13 Details:

13Q1-3: Hopefully you relaxed in 12 Glow. In that case, Sneak Out, Relax, and Survey in these 3 months to maximise stat gains. You should save in 13Q1 just so you can guarantee hitting Perception 100 in Survey.

13Q1: Sneak Out, go all out. After the activity, you’ll get Stress +10 from your birthday. Note that the only mechanical benefit for full shields is changing this to Stress -10. Also, you’ll unlock Survey the Plains and Explore Nearby.

13Q2: Talk to Dad for 3 Kudos and Tammy for Cake. Relax in the Park.

13Q3: Survey the Plains. You should hit Perception 100 here, in which case, depending on how much stress you have, you might want to skip to the boss and leave, so you can maximise use of the Enlightened buff to Mental skill gain. Do look for the “stop to meditate” event for Stress – 30. Also, the boss event can give another Stress-30

Manage your stress so you don’t waste Vertumnalia. Do note that you can Explore Nearby, which will have all new events even if you’ve done Sneak Out. It’s not clear if this is a bug that will be patched out. If it isn’t, you might consider doing this, but it’s not necessary.

Also, a further exploit is that if you go on Sneak Out or Explore Nearby, the other resets. This is clearly a bug, so I will ignore this for the guide.

13P1-3: You’ll get Dad’s Love card since you’ve cured the Shimmer. Some time after (I got it in 13D1), if you’ve done 5 activities in Geoponics (which you probably have), Tend the Animals will unlock. It’s a useless job for this playthrough, because Animals will cap next year and Empathy will cap from Cafe.

13P2: After activities, Hormones start, which triples Rebellion gain. Remember, you want to keep Rebellion low, so be extra careful now.

13D1: After activities, Vertumnalia for Stress -50. No longer listing it in goals because you’re basically guaranteed to be able to do it by now. If you haven’t hit 30 Reasoning, keep going for Science Fair.

Once again you’re aiming to relax in Glow, so manage stress appropriately. You might want to do Defense Training so you hit Combat 20 (30 with plascutter)

13 Glow: Depending on your stress management, you might need to Relax for the same double expedition in Quiet next year. Remember to equip the Plascutter if necessary for Combat 30. During the Attack, you’ll get 10 (7) Stress to get the Heroic, and you can watch on the walls first for Combat+1, Anemone+2 and 10(7) Stress, in case you’re short 1 single point for the Combat 30.

My own Personal Playthrough details:

13Q1: Sneak Out (note that this boss will give you Stressful Event. Hit Toughness 66 and upgraded Calm Temperament)
13Q2: Relax in the Park (Vriki bond+1) (Got rid of Stressful Event)
13Q3: Survey the Plains (exited with 46 stress, got Perception 100, Animals 66)
13P1: Study Engineering (hit Bio 33 from Cal Bio 20)
13P2: Research Xenobotany
13P3: Study Engineering
13D1: Study Engineering, Science Fair
13D2: Research Xenobotany (this is the highest Kudos job now)
13D3: Research Xenobotany
13W1: Research Xenobotany
13W2: Research Xenobotany (fished out Socks event)
13W3: Defense Training
13 Glow: Defense Training (to hit Com 30+ with Plascutter)

It’s definitely better if you Explore Nearby as well this year, but as stated I’m not sure if it’s a bug, so I’m not doing it.

Stats
Empathy: 38, Persuasion: 15, Creativity: 17, Bravery: 36
Reasoning: 31, Organising: 79, Engineering: 32. Biology: 69
Toughness: 67, Perception: 100, Combat: 26, Animals: 70

Kudos 125 (Spa 2x), Rebellion 30

Relationships:
Nem: 43, Cal: 50, Tang: 37, Dys: 34, Marz: 40, Tammy: 27

Age 14

Age 14 Goals:

A) Meet Sym
B) Stop Starvation/Save mom
C) Save ~200 Kudos by 14 Glow
D) Keep Rebellion low
E) Save Eudicot and (Optional) Kill the Faceless

A) You need to have encountered 3 Mysterious Stranger events and then go on an expedition that isn’t Sneak Out. It’s actually possible to get it Age 13 if you fail a couple of things, but that obviously isn’t optimal. Anyway, the reward for it is getting to use your past knowledge to skip ahead to meeting the Overseer, which gives a very powerful card.

Possible Stranger events:

Nearby/Sneak:
Spot someone watching you > “Hike over there”
Liar Flower Boss > any choice besides “don’t touch it”

Negative: Defend against Hopeye and lose

Survey the Plains:
Massive creature > any choice besides “Stay Calm”

Negative: Bushbub > pick the fruit > lose ||| Bushbub dance > Attack them > lose

Forage in the Valley:
Pollen cloud with snapbladder (50/50 on it having one) > win and dispatch

Negative: lose the above mentioned event ||| Manticore Egg > lose

B) Just need 10 food, which ought to be trivial because of past life. Stopping pixie beans gives 3, Xenobotany ultimate gives 5, and there’s a couple of places you can get food in Explore nearby. If you haven’t gotten it yet, you’ll almost definitely finish it during Forage in the Valley.

C) You want 250 Kudos by 15D3 for the Rex gamble. You can still earn next year, but might as well start saving now.

D) Same as last year. If you keep it to 30 by the end of this year there’s a couple of guaranteed events where you can lower it, so you should be fine, but you might want to go further just in case you pick up more along the way.

E) Just need Bravery 25 to go out, then choose “save Eudicot”. To fight the Faceless and also save Eudicot, you must be on Lookout Duty during Glow, so make sure that’s unlocked. It should be doable with a lean deck and collectibles, but to be safe, you might want to spend some time this year unlocking perks and ultimate job cards.

Age 14 Details:

14Q1-3: Thanks to Perception 100, you can do all 3 expeditions this month. Check the 3rd last section for all the Stress reduction events. Also, you’ll want to do Explore Nearby first, since that will be the third Mysterious Stranger (or if you did it last year, it’ll be Stress-30). It’s quite likely you’ll hit Animals 100 here, so keep that in mind if you want to maximise Enlightened buff. Alternatively, you could try to hit 99 Animals, which lets you trigger it anytime by doing Dad Animal 80. Yet another alternative if you’re currently broke is to delay Forage in the Valley till after Vertumnalia, because there’s a lot of kudos on the first time through.

Also, once you meet Sym, you can get a Stress-5 event from talking to Mom (choose “boring old humans”). Keep it in mind for stress management.

14Q2: Don’t forget Tammy’s Cake

14P1: After the activity, Starving will start and end immediately if you have 10 food, which you should. (Post patch, it won’t even start)

14D1: Vertumnalia is Stress-50 as usual. Science Fair gives Defense, which you might want.

After Glow, there’ll be two Mourn/Rebuild Activities in Q1&2 then Stress will be reduced to 0 on Q3. Rebuild is obviously better, so manage stress so you can do them (10 stress each before reductions) after Glow. The ideal is to be at 92 stress after Glow.

14 Glow: If you want to fight the faceless, remember to do Lookout Duty so you save Eudicot as well. Also, you’ll need Bravery 25 to do it, which should be no problem.

15 Q1&2: Rebuild both times

My own Personal Playthrough details:

14Q1: Explore Nearby
14Q2: Survey the Plains
14Q3: Forage the Valley (hit Animals 100, left with 87 Stress)
14P1: Study Engineering (Enlightened)
14P2: Tutor Children (Enlightened)
14P3: Study Humanities
14D1: Mom Event for Stress-5,Study Humanities, Talent Show
14D2: Tutor Children
14D3: Tutor Children
14W1: Tutor Children
14W2: Defense Training
14W3: Defense Training (unlock Lookout duty)
14 Glow: Lookout Duty, fight Faceless (don’t forget to equip plascutter)

Stats
Empathy: 43, Persuasion: 19, Creativity: 29, Bravery: 40
Reasoning: 58, Organising: 81, Engineering: 38. Biology: 91
Toughness: 76, Perception: 100, Combat: 42, Animals: 100

Kudos 228 (Spa 1x), Rebellion 10

Relationships:
Nem:56, Cal: 53, Tang: 42, Dys: 47, Marz: 57, Tammy: 33

Age 15

Age 15 Goals:

A) Get Rex to 10 and save 250 Kudos by 15D1
B) Unlock Assist the Governor
C) Start working on relationships with Helio Kids
D) Unlock the jobs for your other weak skills and shore them up
E) (Optional) Prep for Anemone and Vace breakup, and Vace Therapy
F) (Optional) do Lookout/Guard duty in Glow

Stat goals for optional unlocks: Toughness 30 for Work Construction (event in Admin), Engineering 50 for Repair Robots (event in Engineering), Combat 30 for Guard Duty (event in Garrison)

A) Rex to 10 is easy: give him 2 logs and hug him twice. The reason for this is if you have 250 Kudos, the Rex 10 event gives another 250, which will be doubled by the Popular buff from Vertumnalia. If you’re still short, just spend the other 2 months building up for it. It’s just better if you do it early, since if you wait till 15W1 you’ll miss 4 relationship.

B) You need Persuasion 60 (remember Cool jacket gives +20) or Rebellion <20, then do any activity in Admin. You want to unlock this because it’s the only Persuasion Primary job besides Govern the colony, but that only is available if you have max Persuasion anyway.

C) If you want to max them all just start spamming them with gifts. Give Nomi a Crystal and Rex a Log every season. Survey the Ridge before Wet 2 so you can give Vace a Device for his birthday (or give him a cake). Give him logs all other seasons.

D) If you’re following the guidelines, your weakest skills right now will likely be the Social skills, Engineering, and Combat.
Empathy will come in Age 17, when you build Rex’s bar and Work in the Cafe
Persuasion is why Assist the Governor was unlocked.
Creativity will max itself from Work in the Cafe and Repair Robots, but you can also do Practice Photophonor. If you do, wait till after Rex’s gamble before buying it.
Bravery will gradually max from various Expedition encounters, but there’s always Sportsball to finish it up.You might want to do some Sportsball to hit Bravery 66 faster.
Engineering will have quite a few points from Survey the Ridge, and you can finish up witth Repair Robots (Engineering 50) or Work Construction (Toughness 30). Repair Robots helps with Creativity, while Construction can help build Rex’s bar. If you go the Construction route, do wait till Rex 20 to start.
Combat will take care of itself in Age 18-19.

E) You can only break them up in Age 17+, and Anemone needs to have 90 relationship for that. Vace also needs at least 6 months after hitting 90 to get therapy and have his final event. That means you should be gifting them gifts every occasion, and also you might want to do the Combat in Vertumnalia since it raises both of their relationships. Don’t forget they are available during Glow.

F) In 16 Glow, if the Security Rating is 60% or less, you’ll get injured if you go for the Heroic. If you’ve done somehow done nothing the entire game to increase Defense, it’ll be at 50%. Just do Lookout/Guard Duty this Glow and next. Also, depending on how your stats are doing, you could just not go out for the Heroic.

Age 15 Details:

15 Q1&2: Rebuild. The first Rebuild event has Rebellion-5 from “work hard” in case you need it
15 Q3 is skipped and your Stress is set to 0, hence the management advice last year.

15P1-15D1: You should definitely do an expedition, maybe 2 in this time frame. You can also try to unlock Assist the Governor. The earlier you do, the sooner you can stop managing Rebellion.

15P1: Give Rex a hug and a log. Might want to save Nomi’s intro because you get a challenge, which can be a Stress reduction.

15D1: Vertumnalia, so Stress-50. Recommend Combat so you can work on Vace. Alternatively, do Reasoning so you raise Nomi.

15D2: Hug and Log for Rex, which gets him to 10. Gamble with 250 kudos, and play a high card for an easy 500 Kudos profit.

Should spend your time unlocking the jobs for your weak skills. Also, manage Stress so you don’t have to Relax on 16Q1.

15Glow: Remember to give gifts

My own Personal Playthrough details:

15Q1: Rebuild
15Q2: Rebuild

15P1: Forage in the Valley
15P2: Work in the Depot
15P3: Work in the Depot (hit Org 100, unlock Assist the Governor)
15D1: Survey the Ridges, Xeno Wrangling (came out with 98 biology)
15D2: Tutor Children
15D3: Tutor Children (unlock Repair Robots)
15W1: Survey the Plains (kudos wise it’d have been better to do forage here instead)
15W2: Assist the Governor
15W3: Assist the Governor (unlock Work in Construction)
15 Glow: Practice Photophonor (unlock Help in the Kitchen) (put it off too long)

Stats
Empathy: 46, Persuasion: 35, Creativity: 37, Bravery: 55
Reasoning: 77, Organising: 100, Engineering: 55. Biology: 100
Toughness: 91, Perception: 100, Combat: 59, Animals: 68

Kudos 525 (Spa 4x), Rebellion 30

Relationships:
Nem:66, Cal: 61, Tang: 64, Dys: 58, Marz: 76, Tammy: 45
Rex: 16, Nomi: 23, Vace:16, Sym:100

Age 16

Age 16 Goals:

A) Start the Bar
B) Work on relationships with Helio Kids
C) Unlock the jobs for your other weak skills and shore them up
D) (optional) Prep for Anemone and Vace breakup & Vace Therapy
E) (optional) Get Defense for Heroic

Stat goals for optional unlocks: Toughness 30 for Work Construction (event in Admin), Engineering 50 for Repair Robots (event in Engineering), Combat 30 for Guard Duty (event in Garrison), Biology 50 for Assist in Medbay (Event in Engineering)

A) Get the Rex 20 event to start the bar. Logs don’t count retroactively, so if he’s at 18 at the start of the month, remember to hug him first and do the event before you give a Log. And of course, keep giving him Logs. The earliest it can finish is in Age 17, but you should prep for it.

B,C,D, E) See last year.

Age 16 Details:

Note for people who want to date Sym: The mourning from his “death” event is still unavoidable, but he’ll come back immediately instead of having to wait 6 months if you’ve seen the Overseer event. You still need to plan when you can go into mourning, since that blocks all events at jobs, going out on expeditions, and gift giving for 2 months after. Imo P1 is probably the best time to trigger this. You can give a round of gifts to everyone before going on expedition, then it clears up by D1, so Vertumnalia isn’t affected. It misses Tammy’s birthday though, but she shouldn’t be a problem to max.

For people who don’t want to date Sym, just don’t talk to him, unless you haven’t seen the Overseer event in a past life. In this case, you have to do it, and the following events to meet the Overseer for the special peace ending.

16Q1: You’ll get Stress-10 for your birthday, so hopefully you don’t have to Relax. If Cal or Tammy is your Highest Relationship, you’ll get a Cake too.

16Q2: Tammy will still give you a Cake even if she just gave one last event.

16P1: Dad dies if the shimmer isn’t cured by now.

16D1: Vertumnalia, so Stress-50. Recommend Combat so you can work on Vace. Alternatively, do Reasoning so you raise Nomi.

16D2: Secret Admirer event.

Keep working on the weak skills. Also, the ideal time to Relax is in 17Q1-2, so manage your stress with that in mind.

16Glow: Remember to give gifts. Also, if Defense is only at 60%, you have to do Lookout Duty/Guard Duty if you want the Heroic.

My own Personal Playthrough details:

The reason I’ve been focusing on raising Marz’s relationship is because she is the only person who can be dated in age 16, and that’s only if she’s the secret admirer. This means you get the Smitten buff and also the Stress-20 way earlier.

16Q1: Forage in the Valley (got Bio 100)
16Q2: Extra Fingers II, Survey the Plains
16Q3: Repair Robots
16P1: Assist the Governor
16P2: Assist the Governor
16P3: Assist the Governor
16D1: Assist the Governor, Wrangling
16D2: Date Marz (Stress-20), Survey the Ridges (There is an event that gives 60 kudos)
16D3: Assist the Governor
16W1: Assist the Governor
16W2: Repair Robots
16W3: Practice Photophonor
16 Glow: Assist the Governor

Stats
Empathy: 46, Persuasion: 82, Creativity: 59, Bravery: 74
Reasoning: 78, Organising: 100, Engineering: 83. Biology: 100
Toughness: 98, Perception: 100, Combat: 71, Animals: 100

Kudos 426 (Spa 9x), Rebellion 30

Relationships:
Nem:79, Cal: 83, Tang: 80, Dys: 76, Marz: 100, Tammy: 59
Rex: 36, Nomi: 46, Vace:30, Sym:100

Age 17

Age 17 Goals:

A) Hunt in the Swamps
B) Finish the Bar and unlock Work in the Cafe.
C) Prep for Anemone and Vace breakup + Vace Therapy
D) Shore up weak skills and Relationships
E) (Optional) Determine number of children

Stat goals for optional unlocks: Same as last year. There’s nothing left to unlock that is gated by skill.

A) Hunt in the Swamps unlocks in 17Q2, and it’s where you get Combat and Vace Relationship, so you want to do a full-ish sweep of it. You’ll still to go on an Expedition to unlock it, so the earliest it can happen is 17Q3. Just make sure to keep Stress at 0 when you exit that Expedition. See the 2nd last section for which events increase Vace relationship.

B) Hopefully you’ve been giving him Logs every season, but if you haven’t, keep at it. He only needs 4 if you’ve seen the bar before, or 9 if you haven’t. If you’ve been diligent, it’ll trigger in 17Q1. Now all you need to do is work in Living Quarters till you get the unlock event.

C) To reiterate, Anemone needs to be at 90 to get the option to breakup. There’s no real rush for it to happen this year, but honestly speaking this is just to minimise the time they spend together. I personally use the White Astrantia to hurry Vace’s relationship. He’s probably the best candidate for using it, but if you think you’re going to hunt in the swamps a lot, it might be more useful on Nomi or Rex.

D) Efficient ways to raise stats and relationships:
With the Bar complete this year, you’ll finally be able to do Empathy with Work in the Cafe.
Persuasion is Assist the Governor
Creativity can be done with Photophonor or Kitchens (remember Cafe and Robots also give a lot of Creativity)
Bravery is still just Sportsball.
Reasoning is Tutor Children
Organising is Work in the Depot
Engineering has Repair Robots or Work Construction
Combat will take care of itself by doing heroic Hunts this year and the next two.

Anemone is increased by Sportsball as well (even now)
Tangent is increased by Cafe
Dys is Expeditions
Rex is Construction
Marz is Assist the Governor or Work in the Depot
Tammy is Help in the Kitchens
Nomi is Tutor Children, Repair Robots and Photophonor
Vace is Hunt in the Swamps.

Your weakness in relationships and skills will likely coincide, so there should be some natural picks.

Also, don’t feel too much pressure on the relationship front, because Creativity 100 lets you gift every month.

E) The number of children you have in the ending is determined by your response to Tammy’s Pregnancy after Vertumnalia. You have a second chance to change your mind at Rex 70 event.

Age 17 Details:

Notable Events: Rex 40, which you’ll probably get this year, is Stress-20, or Stress-100 if you flirt and make out with him. Tang 80 and solving the Virus problem is also Stress-20

17Q1-3: You’ll want to go on Hunt in Q3 with 0 Stress, and need to go on an expedition in Q2 to unlock it. You could just run Explore Nearby or Forage and only pick the stress reduction events, so it might not be necessary to Relax.

17Q1: You can get Stress-5 for your birthday (“party”/”go” > “hang with friends”). Might want to choose “excited” for Vace and Anemone relationship, or “trying not to think” for Rex and Nomi.

17Q2: Go on an Expedition and come out of it with 0 Stress. Dont forget Tammy’s Cake.

17Q3: Hunt in the Swamps. Note that if you meet Noctilucent (faceless sprite) here, this triggers the condition for the Colony destroyed ending. If you don’t want special peace, you’ll need to raise Defense to 100% by end of game to prevent this. Also, this encounter ends the expedition, which is another reason to avoid it. The boss of this area is your pet Unisaur. After you capture it, you’ll need to Tend the Animals once to get it, but I recommend postponing it to next year, since this is a rather useless job.

17D1: Vertumnalia, so Stress-50. Recommend Combat so you can work on Vace. Alternatively, do Reasoning for Nomi, or Persuasion for Rex.

Keep working on the weak skills. Glow will give Stress+10 no matter your choice, and you’ll probably want another sweep of Hunt the Swamps next Quiet, so keep that in mind for Stress Management.

17Glow: Remember to give gifts. Stress+10 from attack. If you go Heroic, you can get Stress-5 if you met Noctilucent in the Swamps in 17Q3.
If you’ve maxed out Physical by this point, or don’t need the Heroic to do so, instead choose to Shelter in Quarters with Nomi and Rex, which gives relationship points with them and Stress-10.

My own Personal Playthrough details:

17Q1: Forage in the Valley
17Q2: Survey the Plains
17Q3: Hunt in the Swamps (got Combat and Toughness 100)
17P1: Tutor Children
17P2: Tutor Children
17P3: Practice Photophonor (Unlock Work in the Cafe) (started dating Rex)
17D1: Work in the Cafe, Trivia (Reasoning 100)
17D2: Date Marz (Stress-20), Assist the Governor (There is an event that gives 60 kudos)
17D3: Work in the Cafe
17W1: Work in the Cafe
17W2: Survey the Ridge (stock up on Devices)
17W3: Work in the Cafe
17 Glow: Work in the Cafe

Stats
Empathy: 83, Persuasion: 90, Creativity: 97, Bravery: 96
Reasoning: 100, Organising: 100, Engineering: 92. Biology: 100
Toughness: 100, Perception: 100, Combat: 100, Animals: 100

Kudos 668 (Spa 9x), Rebellion 30

Relationships:
Nem:99, Cal: 93, Tang: 99, Dys: 98, Marz: 100, Tammy: 75
Rex: 62, Nomi: 75, Vace:66, Sym:100

Notes: 26 activities till end of game. Still need to repair robots 10x and Cafe 6x. There’ll be 2 more hunts for Vace relationship, and 2 other visits for gathering mutiny votes, leaving 5 flex spots. Rex will rapidly increase once Creativity hits 100, so it doens’t matter that he’s that low

Age 18

Age 18 Goals:

A) Mutiny
B) Stop Dys
B1) (Optional) Let Dys run away to see him date Sym
C) Breakup Anemone and Vace + Vace Therapy
D) Get Nomi to 80
E) Shore up weak skills and Relationships
F) Socks and Unisaur
G) (Optional) Determine number of children

Stat goals for optional unlocks: Same as last year.

A) After Vertumnalia 18, the mutiny can begin. Just talk to Marz if Marz is at 80 (or if in a past life the mutiny has been successful), or do an activity in Admin.

After that, six votes are required, from an event in each of Admin, Engineering, Expeditions, Garrison, Geoponics, Living Quarters and passing a Persuasion challenge. There’s some bypasses, but the challenges might be preferable if your Persuasion isn’t maxed. Also, Admin counts for 2 votes (since Eudicot was saved), so one can be skipped (probably garrison). Just have to get this done before Vertumnalia 19.

B) Just need Dys 70 and talk to him in 18 Wet or Glow to stop him.

B1) If you want the extra lines in Dys’ ending about dating Sym, you need to let him run away. It’s possible for him to leave without bombing the colony if you do Lookout Duty in 18 Wet > “Check it out” > “Call it in”. You’ll need to get him back, which requires Sym 80 or Dys 90 or to choose to date him right then (this doesn’t break him up with Sym). Do note that the Cafe events to reconcile him with Tang cannot trigger without him around, so you might need to plan around that.

C) Remember, you need Anemone 90 (Something’s off with Anemone) to ask her to break up with him. As for Vace’s Therapy, for time to have other events to play out, you probably need to do it by this year. It’s better the earlier he hits 90, because while it takes a minimum of 2 months, it can be finicky. I suggest making a save and trying different things, as I have a feeling that triggering it on his birthday (W2) has an issue, because it tries to fire on Glow and can’t, so you might want to try to avoid that.

D) Nomi 80 is required to trigger the event that lets them date Rex. (You can’t be dating Rex at the same time, and it’s safer not to date him after as well). It’s not crucial to start it now, but like Vace’s therapy, it’s a bit finicky so better to start early. Remember, after they post the picture, you have to talk to them (they won’t have a speech bubble) and ask them about the picture, then tell them “Rex wouldn’t make you uncomfortable”

E) Same as last year. There’s 9 chances left for Gift Giving (12 for people available in Glow). If any relationships are still in the 50-60 range (besides Vace), prioritise getting Creativity to 100 first so you can gift more frequently.

F) You need to do an event in Geoponics to save Socks for good. Fortunately, this can fire at the same time as getting the vote from Geoponics, so you can just do them both in one event. You also need to do Tend the Animals to get your Unisaur, so might as well do them all in one go. Or you might have gotten them already. Then, this can even be a Relax in the Park to upgrade your pets.

G) Rex 70 will probably trigger this year, so if you’ve changed your mind, just tell him your opinion on children.

Age 18 Details:

Notable Events: Tang 80 and solving the Virus problem is Stress-20. Vertumnalia will give Stress+5 this year, not Stress-50. Tammy 100 will give Stress – 100

18Q1-3: Keep going on Hunt to increase Vace relationship and any physical stats that remain. Remember that there’s this year’s Vertumnalia does not reduce stress, so you can just go all out and then Relax.

18Q1: You get Stress+10 for your birthday

18Q2: Dont forget Tammy’s Cake.

18Q3: Hunt in the Swamps. Note that if you meet Noctilucent (faceless sprite) here, this triggers the condition for the Colony destroyed ending. If you don’t want special peace, you’ll need to raise Defense to 100% by end of game to prevent this.

18D1: After activity, Stress+5 this Vertumnalia. This is why Lum must be overthrown. Talk to Marz or Work in Admin to get the ball rolling. Also, you can get Vace+4 with “Hang out with the Helios” or Rex and Nomi+2 with the Stratos.

You’ll want to visit each of the locations and do a job to secure 6 votes. Remember, Admin counts as 2 so you can skip one.

18 Wet: If you want Dys to run without bombing the colony, you need to do Lookout Duty during this time.

18Glow: Nothing special about this Glow attack since Dys has been stopped, except if you go out for the Heroic, don’t listen to Lum (obviously).

My own Personal Playthrough details:

18Q1: Work in the Cafe (Hit Creativity 100)
18Q2: Work in the Cafe
18Q3: Work in the Cafe (hit Nomi 80 so broke up with Rex)
18P1: Repair Robots
18P2: Repair Robots
18P3: Repair Robots
18D1: Repair Robots (Date Anemone)
18D2: Hunt in the Swamps (Vace + Expedition Vote)
18D3: Repair Robots (Engineering Vote) (Nomi and Rex start dating)
18W1: Work Construction (Admin Vote) (Stop Dys)
18W2: Work in the Cafe (Living Quarters Vote)
18W3: Repair Robots
18 Glow: Repair Robots

Stats
Empathy: 100, Persuasion: 100, Creativity: 100, Bravery: 100
Reasoning: 100, Organising: 100, Engineering: 100. Biology: 100
Toughness: 100, Perception: 100, Combat: 100, Animals: 100

Kudos 646 (Spa 3x), Rebellion 30

Relationships:
Nem:100, Cal: 100, Tang: 100, Dys: 100, Marz: 100, Tammy: 97
Rex: 95, Nomi: 100, Vace:95, Sym:100

Age 19

Age 19 Goals:

A) Prep for Special Peace Ending
B) Stop Tang
C) Choose your Career
D) (Optional) Bring Dys back

Stat goals for optional unlocks: Same as last year.

A) Just go on any expedition that isn’t Hunt in the Swamps and talk to Sym, as long as you’ve seen the Overseer event. Then during Glow, you need to pass 3 Hard challenges (Persuasion, Reasoning, Animals), and that’s it. If you think that’ll be an issue, just stock up on collectibles by sweeping through every Expedition.

B) Overthrowing Lum means it won’t happen, so this is basically for Tang’s peace of mind, or in case you don’t want to overthrow Lum (why?). Anyway, the deadline is 19 Wet 2. You need the Tang 80 event, wait 3 months for the Virus event, and then use the past life option or do a job in engineering.

C) There should be plenty of spare time, assuming you aren’t going for pet robot or earth ships, so just keep doing the activity for the career ending you want. Use this guide to see which you need.

D) If you wanted Dys to date Sym, you had to let him run off last year. Just do Survey the Ridge this year and reach the boss event to bring him back. As stated, you need Sym 80, Dys 90, or to choose to date him right then to bring him back. Remember that the Cafe events to reconcile him with Tang can’t trigger without him, so you might want to bring him back ASAP.

Age 19 Details:

19Q1-3: Go on Hunt if you still need to. Also, if this is your 3rd time hunting, this is how you get the card “Tracking the Airsquid”

19Q1: You get Insomnia for your birthday (Mental Increase-1). Hopefully this doesn’t affect maxing stats.

19Q2: Dont forget Tammy’s Cake.

19D1: Vertumnalia is Stress-50 again once you overthrow Lum

19 Glow: Hope you managed it. Enjoy.

My own Personal Playthrough details:

19Q1: Survey the Ridge (to get peace offer)
19Q2: Work in the Cafe (Vace therapy triggered)
19Q3: Tend the Animals (save Socks, get Unisaur and get Vote)
19P1: Work in the Cafe (Reconcile the twins)
19P2: Assist the Governor (to learn about earthships)
19P3: Repair Robots
19D1: Repair Robots (got Pet Robot)
19D2: Govern (also unnecessary, just for fluff)
19D3: Work Construction (Just to get Al and Bernie into the database)
19W1: Relax in the Park (just to upgrade pets)
19W2: Relax in the Park
19W3: Relax in the Park
19 Glow: Govern (to appoint Marz as assistant)

This can be optimised further. Toughness 66 isn’t worth rushing so early, since the deck is big enough that Calm Temperament II comes up quite rarely. It probably just saved a few cakes. It’d might have been better to spend that time doing Sportsball to get Bravery 66 instead.

Expedition Stress Reduction Events

These are the events in each expedition that can reduce Stress.

Sneak/Explore Nearby has 2 repeatable events:

1. Watermelon ‘You stop for lunch, eating an Earth treat’
“Just relax” (Stress-30)

2. Unisaur (It’s the one with the Unisaur sprite)
“Be as quiet as possible” and win, or “Eat some snacks while you watch” (Stress-30)

There’s also 2 possible Boss events:

1. First Dys boss (Only when Sneaking) ‘You spot Dys sitting in a clearing’
“Try to be brave” (Stress-30)

2. Repeatable boss ‘You’ve spent so many days and weeks exploring’
Any choice (Stress-30)

Survey the Plains has 1 repeatable event:

1. Meditation ‘There’s not much to find out here’
“Stop to meditate” (Stress-30)

There’s also 3 possible Boss events:

1. Pond Boss ‘There’s a deep perfectly circular pond here’
“Take a nap at the shore” (Stress-30 and then Stress+10)

2. Plant Boss ‘You spot an enormous, unfamiliar flower…’
“Drink the goop!” (Stress+10 and then Stress-40)

3. Repeatable Boss ‘You’ve been trekking up a gentle incline’
“Just enjoy that sunset” (Stress-30)

Forage in the Valley has 5 repeatable events and no boss events.

1. Vriki ‘Your path is blocked by a massive eight-legged xenofauna’
“Let the creature sniff your pet” (Stress-30) (needs pet Vriki, but you’ll definitely have it)

2. Lumpy ground ‘Something about the ground here draws your attention’
“Scope it out” and win > “Enjoy a break” (Stress-30)

3. Maze ‘You decide to take a shortcut through the jungle’

You’ll start at one of the locations marked S
Going to D will give you Stress -30
E is the Exit

4. Blep ‘You find a healthy blep bush’
“Chew some blep leaves” (Stress-30)

5. Flower field ‘ butterdandies ‘
“Enjoy them without picking” (Stress-30)

Survey the Ridge has 3 repeatable events and no boss events.

1. Floating rocks ‘You’re walking along a ridgeline when your foot knocks some rocks’
“Onward!” and win (Stress-20)

2. Flat area ‘You come across a particularly flat area: a large field of obsidian’
“Skate on through it” and win (Stress-10) > Just enjoy yourself (Stress-5)

3. Peaceful rock ‘You’re scaling a huge rock plateau’
Any choices (Stress-20)

Hunt in the Swamps has no stress reduction events.

Hunt in the Swamps Vace relationship events

These are the repeatable events that give Vace relationship points:

1. Stream ‘A wide but shallow stream blocks your path here’
“Jump over it!” (requires Toughness 50)

2. Snapbladder ‘You and Vace are walking down a path made by some creature’
“Kill it with flair” and win

3. Sick Manticore ‘You come across a grouchy, sick manticore’
“Attack it” and win

4. Unisaur attack ‘It’s a unisaur! You and Vace duck into the brush to observe it’
“Stand your ground” and win

5. Two Manticores ‘You and Vace hear a crashing, growling noise nearby’
“Watch” > “Kill them” and win or “Kill them both” and win (same rewards, just harder)

6. Balneal ‘You’re creeping through the forest when Vace holds up his fist’
“Attack it outright” and win or “Drive it into the sticky mudsand” and win

One time events:

1. Thumper ‘You and Vace follow the sound and find Rhett and Utopia’
“Track down the thumper” and win > “Blow this thing!” (Warning: this injures you, gives stress+30, and ends the expedition. Imo you should never do this)

2. The third time you hunt, Utopia will ask you to track an Airsquid
“So you want us to kill it”

3. Faceless (only available after you destroy the facility) ‘You feel the rumbling before you hear it’
“Poke at it to prove your bravery” and win or “Attack it outright” and win

Basic Information

Prep

Character Creation

Age 10

Age 11

Age 12

Age 13

Age 14

Age 15

Age 16

Age 17

Age 18

Age 19

Expedition Stress Reduction Events

Hunt in the Swamps Vace relationship events

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