Intro
Cubicle Quest is an RPG built entirely on a metaphor for working and paying off debt. The game does hold your hand for the first two months, but then you can essentially go ahead and do whatever you want. That makes it difficult to make a guide for, since it is so freestyle.
The basic rhythm of the game is to try to reduce your expenses as much as possible, pay off your debts, and build financial independence. Achieving certain things, like paying off one of your credit cards, unlocks new areas, so that's how I've structured this guide.
Finishing the Fortress of Discontent within 18 months
You'll gain some extra items if you complete the Fortress of Discontent within 18 months of starting the game. This means you'll need to gain the Key of Marriage, Key of Home, and Key of Debt by that point. The easiest way to do the first two, if you get to 17 months without them, is probably to get Diana's Letter from the Dungeon of Advertising and propose to her. Alternatively, if you sell sandwiches(below) or trade in Hobby Tokens, you can sleep at the inn to recover without advancing the month and grind until you can defeat the enemies in the House of Mortgage instead.
For the Key of Debt, if you get your credit cards paid off and your student loan down to $10,000 or less by 17 months, you can then farm and trade 99 Hobby Tokens at the Hobby Oasis, for $9900 and some items. Pay off the last $10,000, sleep till the next month to make the key appear, and then complete the Fortress of Discontent. If you need healing, gain two more Hobby Tokens, trade them in, and spend them on a night at the inn.
If you can't or don't want to grind for Hobby Tokens, go to Societyville, spend $20 on bread and lettuce, make 5 sandwiches, and sell them for $50. You can also do that if you can't get your student loan debt below $10,000 by 26 years and 5 months.
Status Effects
This game does use standard RPG status effects, but has renamed them to fit with the ongoing metaphor. They translate as follows:
- Unmotivated - Blind. Physical attack accuracy is reduced.
- Laziness - Silence. Cannot use skills.
- Depressed - Poisoned. The character loses some HP each turn or each step on the map. Depressed can't drop your HP below 1, so if you take the character out of your active battle party, you can just leave them depressed. They'll be healed automatically at the end of the month.
- Misguided - Confusion. Character cannot be controlled but uses a Physical attack against a random target each turn. Wears off when they get hit.
- Complacency - Sleep. Character cannot act. Wears off when they get hit.
- Demotivated - Paralysis. Character cannot act. Lasts for one turn.
Books
Books boost various stats or cause various effects when equipped, as listed in the table below. When learned, that effect becomes permanent. For the ones which raise stats, you'll get an additional boost from having the book equipped after it's fully learned.
For the ones marked "???", the game is unclear about what they do. I've heard a rumour that they increase resistance to specific status effects, but I can't think of a way to test that.
Encyclopaedias and Deluxe Encyclopaedias are identical, except that Deluxe Encyclopaedias have a more dramatic effect.
Item Use Multipliers
There are several ways to multiply the effect of items.
- Cooking Equipment (Accessory) - multiplies by 1.5x, so a Coffee which normally heals 100MP will heal 150MP.
- Biography (Book) - Multiplies by 1.1, so a Coffee which normally heals 100MP will heal 110MP. There is no additional effect from learning the skill and the equipping the book again.
- Volunteering (Goal) - Multiplies by 2x. so a Coffee which normally heals 100MP will heal 200MP.
All of these stack together, for a maximum of 3.3x, so a Coffee would heal 330MP, and a Sandwich, which normally heals 500HP would heal 1650HP.
EXP Multipliers
There are several ways to multiply the EXP gained by your party.
- History (Book) - 1.1x, or 10% extra. There's no additional benefit from equipping the book again after learning the skill.
- Library Card (Accessory) - 1.1x, or 10% extra.
- Out of party characters gain half EXP but full BP.
General Tips
In each section, I've listed the chests found and enemies encountered. The lists of chests are thorough. The lists of enemies are not, they're just what I found useful to write down. Generally, when you encounter a new area, you'll need to experiment a bit to figure out how to most efficiently damage enemies and how to protect yourself. If you wander into a battle you're really not prepared for, at least try to get a few attacks off to see what works before resetting.
Save often, and change your save slot frequently, just in case what you want to rewind a bit. It's normal to have to reload a lot, especially in new areas. Use F12 to get back to the title screen faster.
Save your MP as much as possible, because that tends to be the biggest factor limiting what you can achieve in each month.
For healing HP, use sandwiches (once you have access to Societyville) or the MP of characters not in your active party. In Port Nostalgia, you can rest in the inn for $200, but I don't think that's worth it most of the time. In Societyville, you can get a Grand Baggianate Coffee for $50, which completely heals Bob's HP and MP. I did make use of this sometimes. You can also craft Coffees, which heal 100 mp, from Hot Water and Coffee Grounds. Enemies in the Relationship Forest drop the former, while those on the World Map north of Castle Sanity drop the latter.
Characters who are not in your party will still receive half exp, so everyone keeps levelling up. They also gain full battle points, so remember to switch out their books once they've learned them.
I cannot find a way to make extra payments on your mortgage, so you won't, for instance, benefit by renting, saving up, and then paying it all off in one go without generating any interest. Instead, you're better off taking out a mortgage as soon as you can, so it gets paid off as soon as possible.
List of Dungeons
The big unlocking points in this game are:
- Months 0 and 1
- Castle Sanity
- World Map - North of Castle Sanity
- Relationship Forest - First Part
- Month 2 Onwards
- Promotion B2 (Dungeon of Work)
- Shrine of Income, Areas 1 and 2 (Castle Sanity)
- Port Nostalgia
- Shrine of Patience
- Relationship Forest Part 2
- Singleness Glen
- The Bank
- Societyville
- Societyville Public Library (Societyville)
- Tower of Self Improvement
- Floor of the Body (ToSI)
- Floor of the Mind (ToSI)
- Floor of Society (ToSI)
- Floor of the Arts (ToSI)
- First Debt Paid Off
- Savings Mineshaft
- Free Time Mountain (Outside)
- Free Time Mountain (Inside)
- Fortress of Discontent (Inside)
- Port of Possibility
- Boat
- Investment Quarry
- Make a Personal Finance RPG and Fund It Via Kickstarter House
- Freelancing Dungeon
- Work Online!
- Volcano of Ambition
- Tower of Tragedy
- Depression Bastion
- Social Judgement Dragon
- Floor of the Soul (ToSI)
- Student Loan at $10k
- Hobby Oasis
- Student Loan Paid Off
- Fortress of Discontent (Inside)
- Airship
- Wealth Mansion
- Complacency Dragon
- Hedonic Treadmill Dragon
- Demo Guy
- Early Retirement Dungeon (Part 1)
- 3 Years Onwards
- Promotion B4
- Shrine of Income, Area 4 (Castle Sanity)
- Early Retirement Dungeon (Part 2)
- Completing the Game
Months 0 to 1
These first two months are the most structured part of the game. In your first month, you will need to obtain a roommate, and complete Promotion B1 in the Dungeon of Work. The second month passes automatically.
The following areas are unlocked for this section:
- Castle Sanity
- World Map - North of Castle Sanity
- Relationship Forest - First Part
Castle Sanity
Chests:
- Ring of Sanity. You can use this ring from your key items. It will immediately return you to the castle.
- Examine the red book on the table in the lower right corner to obtain a Fitness book.
This is your base, where you'll start each month. You can examine the bed in the top right to move to the next month.
You can speak to the soldiers here to make extra payments on your credit cards and student loans.
The Shrine of Income is in the upper right corner. Examine the big block to see a summary of your income minus expenses. Speak to the nun for an itemised list of expenses. From Month 2, you can go down the trapdoor in the back to reduce your expenses. That means literally fighting them.
Enemies on the world map:
- Target Unpaid Bills first. They're weak, but will transform to a stronger form in the second turn.
- Enemies here will sometimes drop Coffee Grounds.
- Enemies here can cause Laziness but they're all weak against physical attacks so it doesn't matter.
Relationship Forest - First Part
Chest:- Sandwich, fruit, healthy snack.
- Fear of Intimacy is quite strong against physical attacks, but weak to Personal attacks.
- Trivial Relationship is weak to Human attacks.
- Enemies here drop Hot Water.
Roommate and Marriage Shrines in the south. You'll meet Randall here in Month 0. You cannot use the shrine to remove Randall as a roommate until you've paid off one of your debts.
Dungeon of Work
Brandi is in her room on the second floor. Bill is hanging out in the breakroom. You can ask him to be your roommate after kicking Randall out.You can access the Promotion portal in the top left corner. There are four floors, which unlock one at a time. Generally speaking:
- Make sure you collect the treasure before defeating the boss, as you'll be warped out automatically and cannot return.
- After defeating the boss, your expenses will go up, but you can reduce them by fighting them in the Shrine of Income in Castle Sanity.
Promotion B1
Chests- 3 Breaktimes, Pep Talk, Rethink Life
- New Goal: Get a Promotion
- 2 Sandwiches, 3 Sodas, Fast Food.
- New Community: Work Acquaintances.
- Physical attacks work well on everything except Drudgery.
- Irritating Coworker and Boss Encounter are weak against Human skills.
- Drudgery and Meaningless Task are weak against Work skills.
- Slow Computers aren't weak against anything specific, but they also don't resist anything.
- The boss, New Obligations, is weak against Personal skills. It can cause Demotivation but that doesn't matter if you're using skills.
Month 2 Onwards
Your in-game advisor suggests focussing on paying off your second credit card first, because it has a low balance but a high interest rate (6%). That means, if your balance is above 1666, it will actually increase each month because the interest is higher than your minimum payment. The interest rate on your first credit card is 1.27%, and the interest rate on your student loan is 0.5%. Both will be going down if you keep making the minimum payments, but they'll go down faster if you pay more (just like real life!).
The following new areas unlock in Month 2:
- Shrine of Income (Castle Sanity).
- Promotion B2 (Dungeon of Work)
- Port Nostalgia
- Shrine of Patience
- Relationship Forest Part 2
- Singleness Glen
- The Bank
- Societyville
- Societyville Public Library (Societyville)
- Tower of Self Improvement
- Floor of the Body (ToSI)
- Floor of the Mind (ToSI)
- Floor of Society (ToSI)
- Floor of the Arts (ToSI)
By getting the second promotion and keeping my expenses down, I can generally pay off my first credit card by month 5. In this time, I can complete most of what's below, except for the boss of Singleness Glen and some of the later forms of the expenses monsters.
If I have spare MP in Month 2, I'll generally burn it off gathering Hot Water from enemies in Relationship Forest and Coffee Grounds from enemies on the world map north of Castle Sanity. Try to get them in roughly the same amounts, because you can combine them to make Coffee (MP restore) with Jacob in Societyville. In later months, I'll burn MP by levelling my characters in the Tower of Self Improvement if there's nothing else to do.
Promotion B2 (Dungeon of Work)
Chests:
Enemies:
I could enter from Month 2, with Bob at level 7.
- 3 Rethink Life.
- New Goal: Corporate Ladders.
- Uncooperative Coworkers are weak to Human skills.
Speak to Emily in the top right corner and she will join your team.
Completing this dungeon causes more monsters to appear in the Shrine of Income.
Shrine of Income, Areas 1 and 2 (Castle Sanity)
The Shrine of Income is in the basement of your castle, accessible from the top left corner. Every time you earn a promotion/complete another floor of the Dungeon of Work new enemies representing expenses will appear here. You can approach them and try to battle them to reduce those expenses for every month going forward. Some will transform after the battle, and can be defeated again for further decreases.
After Promotion B1
Rent:- Weak to Personal attacks.
- Your rent will drop from $1000 to $600 per month on defeating it, or $500 to $300 with a roommate.
- Weak to Personal attacks.
- Your utilities expense will drop from $50 to $25 per month on defeating it.
- Weak to Personal attacks.
- Your phone bill will drop from $100 to $30 per month on defeating it.
- Weak to Personal attacks.
- Your commuting expense will drop from $200 to $100 on defeating it.
- Still weak to Personal Attacks.
- You'll have an easier time if you've got the Bike accessories from the Floor of the Body, which greatly reduces the damage you take in this battle.
- Your car expenses drop from $100 to 0 on defeating it.
- Weak to Personal skills, but Physical attacks work fine.
- Your food expense will drop from $400 to $300 on defeating it.
- Still weak to Personal skills, but will dodge a lot of Physical attacks.
- Your Food bill will drop from $300 to $200 on defeating it.
- Weak to Personal skills. Alayna's Artistic Flow and Artistic Surge and Bob's Dedication can deal a lot of damage, if it doesn't kill you first.
- Your Food Bill will drop from $200 to $100 on defeating it.
Health Insurance
- Resists all attacks. You won't be able to defeat it until after Promotion B4, so I'm including it in Shrine of Income, Area 4, below.
After Promotion B2
New Gadgets
- Weak to Personal attacks, but Physical attacks are fine.
- Defeating the expense reduces it from $100 to 0.
- Physical attacks work fine .
- Defeating the expense reduces it from $100 to 0.
Social Expenses 1
- Weak to Human skills and Physical attacks work fine.
- Defeating the expense reduces it from $200 to $100.
Social Expenses 2
- Resists Human and Work skills.
- Personal skills do normal damage. I found Alayna's Artistic Surge worked quite well against it.
- Protecting yourself against Stress will help you resist his attacks, but he can still one-shot you.
- I used Frank, for his team revival skill. I kept his HP up by throwing sandwiches with someone equipped with cooking equipment, had Gina to revive Frank, and let Frank keep reviving everyone else while Alayna kept casting Artistic Surge.
- You win 20000exp and a Friendships Renewed.
- Defeating the expense reduces it from $100 to 0.
Entertainment
- I didn't make any notes on this, which implies I just killed it with Physical attacks.
- Your Entertainment costs will drop to 0 after defeating it.
Port Nostalgia
Chests:- New Community: Old Roommates.
- New Goal: Reclaim the Past.
- Examine the red book on the table in Mom 'n' Pop's embassy to get a Diet book.
Caleb in the pub will join you. You'll need to speak to him twice and choose to help him deal with his problems to fight a boss first.
- A Friend's Depression is weak to Personal skills and strong against Human skills.
- It can cause Depression (Poison - HP is reduced slightly each turn). This status effect will not wear off by itself. Use Reflections to clear it after the battle. It won't kill you, so you could just leave the affected characters out of your party for the rest of the month rather than curing them.
- Because of this, I got the 5 Reflections from the Floor of the Mind before fighting this battle.
You can recover in the Inn - without advancing the month - for $200. I generally ignore this option.
Gina lives in the house on the lower left. She'll join you if you ask.
Shrine of Patience
You can use the clock to skip up to four years of the game. You'll need to battle an enemy each time. They become increasing stronger, but none really pose a challenge by the end game, when you'll want to do this.
- The Guardian of Minutes
- The Guardian of Years
- The Guardian of Decades
- The Guardian of Ages
After defeating The Guardian of Ages, you'll gain a New Goal: Use Time.
Relationship Forest
- Move the rocks to access the chests. They reset when you exit and re-enter the Forest. Chests contain:
- New Community: Online Forums.
- New Virtue: Thick Skin
- New Goal: Form Friendships
From Year 25 Month 2 onwards, Lisa will be willing to join you, but you'll need to defeat the White Knight at the marriage alter. You might need to go right through to the area of the world map containing Societyville, then come back before Lisa's at the marriage alter to talk to.
To get through to Societyville, take a red flower from the left side of the screen after going up the steps. That will let you pass the white flower.
Singleness Glen
- Chests:
- New Virtue: Acceptance
- New Virtue: Empathy
- Emotional Vampires and Societal Pressure are weak to Human skills.
- Interpersonal Conflict resists Human and Work skills, but Personal skills and Physical attacks do normal damage.
- Spectre of Loneliness resists Human skills but is weak against Personal skills and Caleb's Hope skill. The Me, Myself, and I community from Free Time Mountain protects you from the spectre's Forever Alone attack, but you can't access it until after you've paid off your first debt.
This is the hardest dungeon you can reach at this point. Running away gets easier as your levels go up, so you might reach a point where you can nip in and grab the chests while running from all enemies. You can then come back and actually defeat the boss later.
The Bank
- The Bank contains the Savings Shaft and the Investment Quarry but you can't enter these and begin saving and investing until after paying off your credit cards.
- You can talk to Diana in the upper right.
Societyville
- Chest:
- New Community: Drinking Buddies.
- You can craft things by speaking to Jacob in his house at the top of town.
- Hot Water + Coffee Grounds = Coffee.
- Lettuce + Bread = 5 Sandwiches. I rely on homemade sandwiches for healing during the early months. I try to keep a stack of 25-50 on me early on.
- Phlebotinum + Unobtainum = Ring of Society. Both items can be found in Tower of Self Improvement.
- Frame + Wheels + Chain = Custom Bike.
- Wood + Tools = 5 Hobby Tokens
In the coffee shop, you can buy a Grand Baggianate Coffee for $50. This will completely restore Bob's HP and MP. You can talk to Emily in here but she'll only join you if you speak to her on Promotion B2.
In the Restaurant, you can buy and sell food. The full meal will restore everyone's HP and MP for $500.
In the library, go around the desk to talk to Cecelia and she'll give you a Library Card. You can then borrow books by talking to Cecelia over her desk. You can borrow as many as you like and you never have to bring them back.
Speak to Cecelia again and ask her about upstairs. She'll join you if you enter and complete the dungeon.
Societyville Public Library (Societyville)
Chests:
Enemies:
Cecelia will join you at the entrance and will remain in your party when you leave.
- 5 Sandwiches.
- New Community: Book Club.
- New Goal: Read Books.
- Enemies here cause Demotivation and Laziness. Laziness will not immediately wear off after battle, but it will eventually go away if you take enough steps.
- Physical attacks work well here. Functional Illiteracy is weak against Personal.
- The boss, Anti-Intellectualism is weak against Personal and resists Human attacks. Physical attacks work well. It can cause Demotivation and Laziness, but these aren't a huge problem.
Tower of Self Improvement
You can speak to Alayna and Frank here, but they won't join you unless you speak to them on the Floor of the Arts and the Floor of the Mind respectively.
The tower contains 5 dungeons. accessible from the teleport to the north of the entrance. Only four are available right now.
Each dungeon has a boss at the entrance and another at the exit. It's okay to defeat the entrance boss, gather all the items, and then go and repeat that at another floor and come back to defeat the boss later.
There are some long and winding paths here, but they all tend to end in warp points, so you can go back to the entrance of the tower and then to the start of the floor.
In the maze on the right, you need to avoid touching the running knights or they'll send you back to the start. It's a bit fiddly, but manageable. On the far right, there's one spot neither knight will step on (image). Remember that you can save and reload at any point.
Floor of the Body (ToSI)
- Chests:
- New Accessory: Bike
- New Goal: Run a Half Marathon
- New Virtue: Work Ethic
- New Accessory: Bike
- New Accessory: Bike
- New Genre: Fitness
- New Accessory: Bike
- New Community: Intramural Team
- New Virtue: Work Ethic
- Enemies:
- Genetic Determinism is weak against Personal skills and resists Human skills. It can cause Laziness, so you might want to buy a Charm against it from the Bunny girl in Societyville. I only needed one.
- Aches and Excuses block most Physical attacks, but Personal attacks do normal damage.
- Preventable Death resists Human attacks. Personal skills and Physical attacks do normal damage, but it can cause Laziness and Demotivation. I put anti-Demotivation charms on two people. You'll get Phlebotinum for defeating him.
In the maze on the right, you need to avoid touching the running knights or they'll send you back to the start. It's a bit fiddly, but manageable. On the far right, there's one spot neither knight will step on (image). Remember that you can save and reload at any point.
Floor of the Mind (ToSI)
- Chests:
- New Genre: Satire
- New Goal: Learn Languages
- 5 Reflections
- New Virtue: Courage
- Enemies:
- The boss at the Entrance, Static Intelligence is weak against Personal attacks and Physical attacks, but can block them depending on your equipment. It can also Demotivate you, causing your attacks to miss. Personally, I just kept hitting it and threw sandwiches at whoever was lowest on HP. I did need to reload a few times. Since I didn't take any steps to avoid Demotivation, I needed luck for my attacks to connect.
- Past Mistakes block a lot of Physical attacks, but Personal skills do normal damage. They resist Work and Human skills.
- Glimmer of Inspiration resists Personal attacks and does a lot of damage, but they will usually run away fairly soon.
The final chest is guarded by Stupidity. Stupidity is weak against Personal skills, but Physical attacks work too. It can cause Laziness and Demotivation. You'll win Unobtainium by defeating him.
Floor of Society (ToSI)
- Enemies:
- Social Isolation is weak against Human skills. She can cause Misguided (Confusion). I put Misguided Charms on Caleb and Bob and gave them equipment to raise their SAT as much as possible. Annoyingly, she didn't actually try to confuse them when I beat her, she just kept hitting Randall while he ate sandwiches.
- Personal skills do normal damage against Fear of Rejection. Everything else seems to be reduced.
- Mother-in-Laws, Facebook Comparisons, and Manipulators are weak against Human skills.
- Empty Relationships are weak against Physical attacks.
- If you give the sandwich guy what he asks for, he'll just disappear. If you don't give him a sandwich, you can fight him later, after delivering the Fetch Quest. Mrs Jones is weak against Human skills. Both Mr and Mrs Jones resist Personal skills. You'll win a New Community: Discussion Group on defeating them.
- Some of them ask for Trinkets and Doodads. You can win those from the enemies on this floor.
- Eventually, you'll get New Virtue: Humour, and New Virtue: Politeness.
- The chest contains one of the swapping items. It has no other use.
- The only thing which isn't found on this floor is the Fetch Quest. You'll need to come back and finish that one later.
Floor of the Arts (ToSI)
- For this floor, you need to collect Anti-Matter keys to open doors. Four of the chests which contain keys are invisible (images). Non Anti-Matter Key chests contain:
- New Goal: Learn an Instrument
- New Virtue: Vision
- New Goal: Create Beauty
- Enemies:
- Tyranny of the Mundane is affected normally by Physical attacks and weak against Personal attacks. It can cause Laziness and Demotivation. I found it easiest to just keep hitting it and let my party members die. It took some luck. I was okay using up MP to revive them because this was the last thing I did this month.
- Rejection resists or blocks Physical, Human, and Work attacks. Personal attacks do normal damage. Art Expenses are weak against Work skills. Writer's Block is weak to Personal Skills.
- Giving Up Dreams is weak against Caleb's Hope skill. Personal skills do normal damage. Physical attacks and Human skills are resisted or blocked.
First Debt Paid Off
After paying off your first debt, you'll face the Debt Commander. It's much easier than before. Physical attacks work fine.
After defeating him, you'll automatically go to the next month. Randall will have missed a rent payment, so you can now kick him out. Randall remains in your party, but can be taken out of your active group. You can replace him with one of the following options. All but Bill will be locked into your active party.
- Your coworker Bill from the Dungeon of Work.
- Caleb, in the Pub in Port Nostalgia.
- Emily in the Coffee Shop in Societyville.
- Cecelia in the Societyville Library.
- Frank at the entrance of the Tower of Self-Improvement.
In Castle Sanity, propose to one of the maids (image) to get New Virtue: Meta.
The following new areas unlock:
- Savings Mineshaft
- Free Time Mountain (Outside)
- Free Time Mountain (Inside)
- Fortress of Discontent (Inside)
- Port of Possibility
You can go to the Port of Possibility and get the boat immediately. I just split the posts up to make the guide a bit more manageable.
On the world map, Inadequacy resists a lot of skills and Physical attacks, but Personal skills do normal damage.
Savings Mineshaft
Chests
Enemies
Use the carts to travel around. Notice that you can get around the second and third carts and walk on the tracks. From here, you can access new areas and change the switch.
- New Goal: Invest
- New Goal: Build Net Worth
- New Goal: Save Money
- Enemies here might drop Wheels, Hot Water, Bread, and Lettuce.
- Mindless Spending is weak against Physical attacks.
- Recreational Shopping is strong against Physical attacks and resists Human attacks. Personal Attacks do normal damage.
- Paperwork is weak to Work skills.
Defeating the boss lets you create a savings account. You'll automatically exit the dungeon afterwards, but you can just walk straight back in if you missed anything.
Free Time Mountain
Chests
Enemies
You can buy New Goal: Sophisticated Friends from the Elf for $3000.
- New Goal: Run a Marathon
- New Community: Me, Myself, and I
- 10 Hobby Tokens
- Lots of enemies are weak to Frank's DEY Energy attack.
- Instant Messenger Megachat and Empty Relationships are weak against Human skills.
- YouTube Video and Boredom are weak to Personal skills.
- YouTube Videos can multiply. Emily Concrete View or Cecelia's Problem Solver are good if so.
- Lack of Ambition is weak to Physical skills.
To navigate around the outside of the Mountain, jump off the cliffs. To reach one chest, you'll need to jump from a very specific place (image).
I've listed this section separately because monsters in here are much more difficult.
Chests
- White Letter
- New Virtue: Mindfulness
Enemies
- Born Every Minute is weak against Human skills.
- Affluenza resists Human and Work skills. It's weak against Emily's Concrete View. Physical attacks work.
- Customer Loyalty Trick, Consumerism and Shopping Addiction are weak against Physical attacks.
Jump into a hole in the top right of the Dungeon to obtain a New Goal: Find Self (image).
Fortress of Discontent (Outside)
Chest:
- Pink Letter.
To enter, you'll need to obtain the Key of Marriage, the Key of Debt, and the Key of Home. When you fulfil the right conditions, the keys will appear at Castle Sanity.
Key of Marriage
You have two options.
Marry one of the marriage candidates by finding her letter and asking her about marriage. Your wife - unless it's Diana or Brandi - will be locked into your active party like Randall was.
- Gina gives you her Red Letter when you ask about marriage. She is probably the easiest candidate to wed.
- Lisa's Pink Letter is in the chest right there, but it won't make you content.
- Alayna's Blue Letter is in the Depression Bastion, which you can access with the boat.
- Cecelia's Black Letter is in the Volcano of Ambition, which you can access with the boat.
- Diana's White Letter is in the Dungeon of Advertising on Free Time Mountain. If you marry her, you'll also benefit from her fully paid off mortgage and gain the Key of Home. You won't be able to take out your own mortgage later.
- Brandi's Gold Letter is in a chest in Promotion B4.
Lisa is listed for the sake of completeness, but you won't get the key if you propose to her. I couldn't find Emily's letter, and nor could anyone else on the internet. At this point, I don't believe Emily has a letter. She tells you marriage isn't a priority for her. Maybe the combination of character traits which would sufficiently impress her - which the letter symbolizes - simply don't exist. Likewise, Bob is incapable of possessing the traits desired by Lisa, whether you have her letter or not.
As an alternative to marriage, you can defeat the Spectre of Loneliness in Singleness Glen and be satisfied without needing to get married, though you still can if you want to.
Key of Home
You can either take out a mortgage or defeat Inertia and Need for Stability to prove to yourself you don't need one. You'll need the boat for both options.
Alternatively, marry Diana, who is already a homeowner. This does block you from buying another house and accessing the chests in the House of Mortgage.
Key of Debt
Pay off your debts.
Port of Possibility
Examine the crates. One contains New Virtue: Drive.
The only other thing here is The Path More Travelled, which you'll need to defeat to sail the Sea of Ambition. It's weak to Personal skills. Alayna's Artistic Surge works well.
The boat is parked near the Castle. You access it from the land, not the dock.
Your next goal is to pay down your remaining credit card and get the keys to enter the Fortress of Discontent.
The following dungeons are available with the boat:
- Investment Quarry
- Make a Personal Finance RPG and Fund It Via Kickstarter House
- Freelancing Dungeon
- Work Online!
- Volcano of Ambition
- Tower of Tragedy
- Depression Bastion
- Social Judgement's Den
- Floor of the Soul (ToSI)
In Port Nostalgia, give the guy in the town centre $100 and you'll get a New Goal: Help Others. Give him another $250 and you'll get New Accessory: Work Gloves. Speak to your dad to get New Virtue: Self Sufficiency.
You'll need 99 Hobby Tokens to get an item, so if I reached a point where I'd done all the things my characters were powerful enough to do that month but still had a bit of MP left, I'd grind for them in the Freelancing Dungeon. Alternatively, I burned off MP at the end of the month by levelling in Depression Bastion or the Floor of the Soul. I stopped when Bob was about level 55. This was completely extra on my part, but it did help with having everyone learn all the books.
World Map Enemies:
- False Aspiration resists Physical attacks but is weak to Personal skills.
Investment Quarry (The Bank)
The vast majority of chests here contain enemy encounters. The others contain:
- $500
- New Goal: Build Passive Income
- New Goal: Beat the Market
- $500
- New Virtue: Patience
- Minus $1000 (image)
Enemies:
- Fearling is weak against Work skills and resists Physical attacks.
- Ponzi Schemes are weak against Personal skills and resists Human and Work skills and Physical attacks.
- Bad Investments resist Work skills.
- Fear of Investing is weak against Work skills.
I'm not sure exactly when this area unlocks. I couldn't access it when the Savings Mineshaft first opened, but I could access it before paying off my remaining credit card.
You can exit the area and put all your money in savings or use it to pay off some of your debt before opening the minus $1000 chest. Or you could just not open the chest. Or you could roleplay and take the loss.
Make a Personal Finance RPG and Fund It Via Kickstarter House
This house is directly east of Castle Sanity. It contains the Murashie, $1599, and 10 Hobby Tokens.
Freelancing Dungeon
Chests:
- New Goal: Build Business
- New Community: Colleagues
- New Goal: Escape the Ratrace
Enemies:
- Armour strong against Stress is helpful here.
- Rookie Mistakes are weak to Physical attacks.
- Inexperience is weak against Work skills and resist Physical attacks.
- Start Up costs are weak to Physical attacks and Work skills.
- New Ventures resist Personal attacks, take normal damage from Physical attacks, and are weak to Work skills.
- Overextensions resist Work and Human skills. Physical attacks and Personal skills do normal damage.
- Fear of Change is weak to Physical attacks.
- Enemies here drop Hobby Tokens and Chains.
This cave is on the same piece of land as the Kickstarter House.
Inside the cave, a lot of paths are blocked by brown rocks. You can't do anything about these, you'll just have to find a different path. The grey rocks are boss fights, and each of the 4 will increase your monthly income by $100. The chest in the top right corner of the dungeon is guarded by an invisible Fear of Change. Defeating that also increases your income by $100, for a total of $500.
I used up 5 of the coffees I'd been saving here, because I wanted to get all the income increases before the next month began.
Work Online!
Enemies:
- Physical attacks work fine. My party was levelled in the mid-20s and didn't struggle.
- Lots of enemies here drop Hobby Tokens.
You can't do much here until you've got quite a lot of money on-hand. To be more specific, you'll need $101,110. You won't lose most of it, but nothing very interesting happens either.
Volcano of Ambition
Chests:
- Black Letter
- New Goal: Realise Artistic Dreams
- New Community: Opposites Attract
- New Goal: To the Top!
Enemies:
- Use virtues strong against Aggression.
- Corporate Sociopath and Workaholic are weak against Human skills.
- Social Climber is weak against Human skills and Physical attacks.
- Profligate is weak against Human skills.
- Intemperance resists Work and Human skills. Personal skills do normal damage. Alayna's Artistic Flow works well.
Tower of Tragedy
Chests:
- New Goal: Volunteering
- New Virtue: Hope
- New Community: Support Network
- New Virtue: Sorrow
Enemies:
- Alayna's Artistic Flow works well against Family Hardship.
- True Hardship resists Work skills, but is weak against Caleb's Hope skill. It takes normal damage from Personal skills, so I ended up using those.
House of Mortgage
To get the Key of Home, you can either take out a mortgage or defeat the two bosses on the 2nd floor. Both Inertia and Need for Stability are weak to Personal skills. I believe either will get you the Key of Home, but I haven't actually tried the mortgage option.
You can only purchase one house. You'll get various items depending on the size of the house you choose.
- Small House ($10K Down Payment): Ring of Home.
- Medium House ($15K Down Payment): New Community: Home!, Ring of Home.
- Large House ($20k Down Payment): New Virtue: Responsibility, New Community: Home!, Ring of Home.
Depression Bastion
Chests:
- Blue Letter
- New Genre: Neuroscience
- New Virtue: Hope
- New Goal: A Meaningful Life
Enemies:
- Many enemies cause Depression. Try using Virtues strong against it.
- Chemical Imbalances are weak against Physical attacks.
- Empty Shell is weak against Caleb's Hope skill. Personal skills do normal damage.
Your general goal in this dungeon is to enter each of the towers in the four corners of the castle and examine the crystals. As you do, more barriers will come down. You can jump out of the towers by examining the areas without walls, and then you can just walk straight back in rather than trying to make your way back down the stairs.
There's a chest if you jump down out of the lower left tower.
You'll need to walk through one of the walls (image) to reach the tower in the top right.
Social Judgement
I don't know what this area is supposed to be called, but the Social Judgement dragon lives here. Protect yourself against aggression, or use the Hope virtue to protect yourself from everything.
I defeated it, with a lot of luck, with Bob at level 55, Alayna at 47, Cecelia at 51 and Frank at 48. I cast Caleb's Inspire on them all before the battle, to protect from status effects for the first two turns, and then kept casting my strongest attacks. I got off three Artistic Surges, which made the biggest difference, even with the weak status on Alayna.
After the battle, you'll win the Community: Soulmates.
You do not need to defeat the dragon to reach the chest, which contains the Key to the Soul. With this key, you can access a new floor of the Tower of Self Improvement.
Floor of the Soul (ToSI)
You can enter the Floor of the Soul by using the warp point in the Tower of Self Improvement once you have the Key of Soul from Social Judgement's Den.
Chests:
- Antimatter Key
- Antimatter Key
- Antimatter Key
- Antimatter Key
- New Virtue: Hope
- New Virtue: Peace
- Antimatter Key
- New Goal: Attain Enlightenment
Enemies:
- Lots of enemies here cause Misguided. Try protecting yourself against Depression.
- Emily's Concrete View and Caleb's Hope does normal damage to most things.
- Plateauing blocks Physical attacks and resists Work skills and Human skills. Personal skills do normal damage.
- Ennui and Apathy take normal damage from Personal skills.
- Dissatisfaction and Limitations block Human skills.
- Dissatisfaction takes normal damage from Personal skills.
- Limitations is weak to Physical attacks and blocked everything else I tried.
- Crushing Mediocrity seems to reduced damage from Personal attacks and resist Human and Work skills. Despite the reduced damage, Aylana's Artistic Flow worked because it hits so many times. I basically let her wail on it while Frank revived everyone and Caleb and Bob kept everyone's HP up.
There's no real need to complete this in a single month, so I just decided to go HAM with Alayna's skills and worry about MP later. She can kill a lot of the enemies quickly with her expensive skills, and that will get you the exp to kill them more cheaply next time.
Year 2
At the 12 month mark, Promotion B3 unlocks. Completing Promotion B3 means there will be more enemies to subdue in the Shrine of Income.
Promotion B3 (Shrine of Work)
Chests:
- New Community: Work Friends
- New Community: Upper Crust
- New Virtue: Work/Life Balance
When you reach the area shown in the image, take the righthand candle three times to reach the chest.
Enemies:
- Unpaid Overtime and Mindless Repetition resist Work and Human skills.
- Vague Guidelines are weak to Work skills.
- Ted resists Human skills and is weak to Work skills.
Wine Monster
- Physical attacks work fine. Resists Human skills.
- After defeating it, your wine expenses drop from $100 to 0.
Tailored Suits
- Physical attacks work fine. Weak to Personal skills, resists Work skills.
- After defeating it, your tailored suit expenses drop from $250 to 0.
Vacations
- Physical attacks work fine. Weak to Personal skills, resists Work and Human skills.
- After defeating it, your vacation expenses drop from $250 to $100.
Vacations 2
- Weak to Personal skills.
- After defeating it, your vacation expenses drop from $100 to 0.
Student Loan at 10k or Under
When you've paid off enough of your student loan, Hobby Oasis unlocks. I reached this point at 26 and 4 months.
Hobby Oasis
Chests:
- New Community: Birds of a Feather
- New Goal: Finish Video Games
Deposit 99 Hobby Tokens at once to gain a New Goal: Analyse Books, a New Weapon: Metric Sword of Grinding, and $9900. If you deposit Hobby Tokens one at a time, you'll get $100 each and you won't get the rewards.
Student Loan Paid Off
With your student loan paid off, the Key of Debt will appear inside Castle Sanity the following month. For me, that was Year 1, month 5. With all three keys, you can now access the inside of the Fortress of Discontent.
Fortress of Discontent (Inside)
The chests here look like coffins:
- New Virtue: Self Awareness
- New Goal: Find Happiness
- New Genre: Sociology
- Fetch Quest
Enemies
- Panic is weak to Physical attacks.
- Depression is weak against Caleb's Hope.
- Uncertainty and the Illusion of Futility block Physical attacks.
- Skills seem to do normal damage to Uncertainty.
- Illusion of Futility takes normal damage from Caleb's Hope and Bob's Insight.
- Conformity resists Personal skills.
- Empty Life causes Shock and is weak to Bob's Insight. Empty Life B is weak against Personal skills. Protect your party from Laziness.
After defeating the boss, you'll be warped to a new area. It's not complicated. Make your way through it, defeat the final boss, and then go and have a stiff drink while you think about your life.
You can now complete the Floor of Soul.
With the Airship
Speak to the Office Ninja in Port Nostalgia for $400.
There's Secret Card Card Application (an accessory) on an island northwest of the Tower of Self-Improvement.
Once you have the airship, the following areas are available:
- Wealth Mansion
- Complacency Dragon
- Hedonic Treadmill Dragon
- Demo Guy
- Early Retirement Dungeon
You can take your time here, because nothing new unlocks until you hit the 3 year mark. You can't complete the Early Retirement Dungeon until after that because you need the weapons you find in Promotion B4.
I spent 6 months finishing stuff off/sleeping, stuck all my money in investments, then used the Shrine of Patience to skip another 12 months.
Wealth Mansion
- If you completed the Fortress of Discontent within 18 months mark, you'll get Work Gloves, Feather of Stats, Shard of Raw Efficacy, and The Accessory.
- If your net worth is positive - i.e., you have more cash/savings/investment than debt - you'll get a New Goal: Build Business.
- I got a New Community: Colleagues with a net worth of $74649.
- I didn't check back until I had a net worth of $119,3817. At that point, I gained New Goal: Realize Artistic Dreams
Complacency Dragon
It's much easier than the other one. You'll get a Virtue: Resilience on defeating it.
Hedonic Treadmill Dragon
I didn't swap the names. The game did. This one is weak to Work skills. You'll get a New Goal: Thrive on defeating it.
Demo Guy
You'll need to approach Demo Guy from a few different angles before you can finally fight him. If you lose your vehicle, use your Castle Sanity key, and it will warp the airship back as well. Notice that you can walk through the pillars.
Early Retirement Dungeon (Part 1)
Chests
- Letter of Resignation
Enemies:
- Complainypants, Ostracisation and Scorn are weak to Human skills.
- Scorn is weak to Personal skills.
- Disease takes normal damage from Physical attacks.
- Broken Plans resists Human and Personal skills. It's weak to Work skills.
- Just One More Year is weak to Personal skills. It resists Human skills.
- Luxury Creep is weak to Work skills.
Cracks reduce your party's HP by 100 points each.
You don't earn BP here, so you might want to have everyone learn Sociology somewhere else. If you do that at the Freelancing Dungeon (enemies in Work Online! don't give BP either), you can get Hobby Tokens at the same time.
There are switches in this dungeon that affect the barriers. It's not as simple as flicking one switch to remove one barrier. Generally, it's a case of flicking all the switches you can reach, exploring the area to see what's changed, then flicking whatever new/old switches you can reach now that the barriers have changed. Your basic goal is to explore until all four statues are broken, and then examine the monument. You cannot do this until you have the Veneer weapons from Promotion B4, because you need them to defeat Railroader., to make the last statue.
3 Years Onwards
Chests:
- Veneer of Connections
- Veneer of Connections
- Veneer of Wealth
- Veneer of Wealth
- Gold Letter
- Work HMO
Enemies
- I didn't make any notes on the enemies. Human and Personal skills and Physical attacks worked fine.
- The Boss is weak to Physical attacks with the Veneer weapons.
This floor is full of invisible walls. The trick is to hug the left-hand side (or right) and follow the wall around until you've found everything.
Shrine of Income, Area 4 (Castle Sanity)
Health Insurance
- Equip the Work HMO (accessory) then smack it with a physical attack. Your Health Insurance expenses will drop from $100 to $0.
Housekeeping
- Resists Human skills, weak to Personal skills.
- Your Housekeeping expense will drop from $1000 to $0.
Cruises
- Resists Human, Work and Personal skills.
- Your Cruise expenses drops from $200 to $0.
Massages
- Resists Human, and Work skills. It's weak to Personal skills.
- Your Massage expenses drops from $100 to $0.
Golf Club Membership
- Weak to Personal skills.
- Your Golf Club Membership expense drops from $100 to $0.
Landscaping
- Weak to Personal skills.
- Your Landscaping expense drops from $750 to $0.
Early Retirement Dungeon (Part 2)
Now that you've been railroaded into getting your fourth promotion, you can equip your four Veneer weapons and defeat Railroader.
With all four statues destroyed, examine the monument. After completing the area beyond the monument, a chest containing $1 appears in front of the throne. You need to walk into it from the left to open it.
Completing the Game
When you're ready, run through the Fortress of Discontent again.
Before doing this, you could finish skipping time with the Shrine of Patience, pay off my mortgage and get married, if you haven't yet. Bear in mind that paying off your mortgage will take upwards of 20 years, and you'll need to skip most of that month by month.
I checked, and if you marry Diana after taking out your mortgage, you'll still have to pay it.
Marrying Brandi doesn't change anything about the ending. I can't speak for the other marriage candidates.
