Basic Guide
Intro and Gamemodes
This game is a blast and and I hope with the help of this guide you can all enjoy it as much as I do.
So, you've just hit new game and now you have a few options. What are they?
- Spine-Chilling Story of School Scissors. This is a single one-off investigation from the main game. It effectively acts as a tutorial for events and combat. Some of you might recognize this as the game's demo.
- Extracurricular Activity. This is basically the "Main Story" as of now. You'll be given the same character and settings every time and I'd highly recommend starting with this for your first real run. The goal is to complete the 5 randomly chosen investigations to obtain keys and then enter and climb the lighthouse... or die trying.
- Quick Play. This and Custom are the main replay value in the game. This will give you a completely random setup from Custom. I wouldn't recommend this until you're more comfortable with the game as it can give you confusing effects like randomizing all items stats and costs.
- Custom Playthrough. This allows you to fully setup your own run, choosing character, settings, card sets and god. I'll have a segment going more in depth on this further down the guide. I recommend this when you're bored of Extracurricular but don't feel like the complete randomness of quick play.
Character UI
Once you've started the game you'll have a lot more on your screen. On the right hand side here you'll find the majority of the UI relating to your character. This is where a ton of the important information is and you'll want too keep track of it easily.
The things over here are:
1. The different modes for the side panel. From left to right these are:
- Items. This is where you'll see your inventory, equipment and active ritual. You can only hold 4 items at a time, the rest will be sent to your storage.
- Spells. Where your memorized spells are held and another place for your active ritual
- Status. This is where any status effects you gain will be
- Allies and Perks. Here you'll find your stock of cigarettes, bullets, any allies you make and perks you obtain via leveling up.
- Town Status. Here will be any negative effects added to the run at the end of an investigation.
- You. This just has an alternate exp bar, time in the current run and the seed.
- Old God. This will show the Old God present in your run, it's unique penalty and another location for doom buildup.
- Options. Self explanatory.
2. Your character, their stats and the current doom level. All stats are used for skill checks and each has a secondary effect:
- STA is stamina. This is effectively your health, if it hits 0 it's game over. this along with reason is often a cost to cast spells.
- REA is reason. This is effectively your sanity and like health it's all over when it drops. this along with stamina is often a cost to cast spells.
- STR is strength. Used for heavy weapons typically.
- DEX is dexterity. Used for lighter weapons.
- PER is perception. Useful for firearms.
- KNW is knowledge and as far as I can tell is used for weapon needing precision.
- CHR is charisma and I believe this affects allies.
- FND is funds. This is your money used for buying items and treatment.
- Doom is somewhat like another health and represents the Old God's power, and once again if it hits 100% the game is over.
3. Your equipment and active ritual (Continuous spell) Slot A is reserved for weapons while B and C are for accessories.
4. Your inventory.
5. Your EXP and level. Once EXP hits 100 or higher you can click the EXP button to level up.
6. The 3 assignable item or spell shortcuts in case you need easy access.
Other than this you also have cards.
This is an item card
These typically have either a one time use effect or can be accessories. Though there are others which give effects just from being in your inventory or on being discarded. These use the far left set of buttons in the card UI with the exception of medical items which use the far right.
This is a weapon
Like Items these use the far left set of buttons however these are all equipped to slot A of your equipment. These augment your attacks in combat changing your damage, attack speed, hit chance and occasional bonus effects like this amazing carpenter hammer. As a side note it seems like the lower the speed the better.
And this is a spell
These usually cost either Stamina, Reason or both but can also cost doom. Spells use the set of buttons to the left of the medical ones and provide an instant effect with no time cost. There is utility spells for investigations and combat spells.
Not pictured here are allies which use the set between items and spells. These usually give you +1 to a stat but there are unique allies which provide different effects either while with you or upon dismissing them.
Home and Investigation
Home
Now that we've got that over with, lets take a look at the rest of the game. Assuming you've gone ahead and entered your home this is what you'll see.
A lot of the things here are just flavour. You can interact with the window, cupboard, light switch and socket. You can watch TV, change clothes and look out the peephole.
However the important buttons are the bath, storage and investigations.
The bath will let you once between investigations recover either 1 STA, 1 REA or gain 5% exp. There is no reason to not take the exp before your first investigation so bathe away.
The storage is where any extra items will be sent and where you can choose to store or take anything.
The investigations screen is where you can move on from your home and get into your next mystery and is where the game really begins.
You'll be brought back home between every investigation so make use of this time to take a bath assuming the gods are nice this run.
The City
After picking your investigation you'll leave for the city.
Here is where a lot of the game takes place. You'll have the current story event at the top and below that you have the side quest and a map of the city where you can investigate various areas each with their own events. Some locations even have unique areas you can enter for various reasons but note that this usually comes at the cost of increased doom. By default these are:
- Home. While you can't return to the previous screen, you can take a rest here to recover 2 stamina and 2 reason for 4 doom.
- Downtown. Here you'll find the police station which will augment combat encounters and the shop which you can enter for 4 doom to buy items with your funds. This store has general items like a compass, maps, dog food and cigarettes among others.
- Apartments. you can spend doom to visit here for a chance to recruit your neighbor as an ally.
- School. You can spend doom to hear rumours from students and attempt to recruit them as allies. you can also spend 5% exp to make a student who won't join you willing to.
- Hospital. Here you can spend funds to treat any injuries you've gained or buy medical items for the future.
- Seaside. There'll be another shop here, the hardware store. This place is more tools and weapons than the general store but you can still find items like the compass.
Some investigations will have their own unique area instead of the city so be aware when picking your investigation that you cannot come back here if it takes place in a unique location.
Events
After investigating a location you'll more likely than not run into an event.
These are things that happen based on the location you choose and occasionally the old god in play. They usually have a choice to make and occasionally one or more choices will require an item, ally, spell or perk. Upon choosing either the set result will happen or a virtual dice will be rolled and checked against your stats to see if you pass a check. if you do one result will happen, if not something else. Do note that a pass does not always mean something positive.
Combat
So you investigated a location and all of a sudden the screen went dark. You've just found yourself in a combat encounter. When you click the screen you may be presented with something like this.
Another UI rundown here:
- The Combat Sequence. This is your allotment of time in your turn. You may use actions equaling up to 200 units before you can't fit any more.
- Action Categories. There are four sets of actions consisting of Offensive Actions, Support Actions, Defensive Actions and Spiritual Actions.
- Actions. The actual things you can do in a turn. These vary from various attacks, preparing yourself for a guaranteed hit, dodging and more.
- Enemy Stats. Here you'll see the name and title of the enemy, the type of enemy it belongs to, its health, damage and power.
To go into more detail on enemy stats, they can have different types of damage. These being stamina (STA) reason (REA) both (ALL) or doom. Power is essentially the enemy's dodge, a higher power lowering your chance to hit.