stick
around

how to live here

you arrive in lowtide with $60, a beanie and a week of rent paid on a room over a laundromat. you have 120 days on the lease. what you do with them is up to you.

who you are

every life starts with a name and a beanie colour. pick both on the "who are you?" card; each new generation gets a turn. clothes come later, from the shops, and you change them in the wardrobe at home. the beanie is forever.

getting around

• walk with the arrow keys or WASD; hold shift to run. click or tap where you want to go, or hold the button (or your finger) down and steer.
• walk into a door to go inside. buildings keep their own hours; the sign by the door says when they open.
• bus stops (and the edges of the map) take you to the other districts: old town, the harbour, uptown and the hill. walking is free but slow; buses cost $2; a bicycle, scooter or car gets you there faster.
• the long pier has a ferry to the far island four times a day ($5). miss the last one and you are camping by the fort.
• there are tunnels under the city. find a way in and you can walk between districts at any hour.
• your phone (bottom right, or press P) has your stats, bag, job, friends, to-do list, texts and the town feed.

journal & map

press J for your journal: today's plans, rent, stories, odd jobs and people. press M for the city map: pick a door, check the fare and the time, and go. hearts are friends, stars are places on your list, dim doors are closed. both live on your phone too.

on your first two days, mrs. okafor, the landlady, sends a little advice. dismiss it whenever you like.

a day

• every action takes time and most take energy. food and coffee give energy back; sleep at home resets it.
• still awake at 02:00? you pass out wherever you are and wake up lighter in the wallet.
• rent comes out every seventh morning. miss two weeks and you are sleeping on a park bench.

work

seventeen places hire, from folding laundry to running the bank. ask about work, start at the bottom, meet the next rank's needs and ask for a promotion. medicine at the college opens nursing and then doctoring at st. brine. eight working hours a day, however you split them.

every workplace has a boss and a few people you work with. shifts are rarely just shifts: a regular wants “the usual”, a crate starts ticking, the bank cat climbs into the vault. what you choose moves your standing with the boss; walk away from a moment and nothing changes.

your first shift somewhere is a trial, then the boss asks you three questions. standing 50 is needed for a promotion, 80 gets you a raise, and if it sinks to nothing you’re let go (you can ask again in a fortnight). turn up late and the boss notices; stay away a week and they wonder.

sometimes there’s overtime at time and a half. late jobs pay a night rate after 22:00. running on empty? call in sick, once a week without it counting against you. the journal’s work page shows where you stand.

gull run

the gig app on your phone (press G): three offers an hour, at any hour. deliveries across town, dog walks, queue standing, furniture, flat-pack, tutoring, plus-ones, mystery shopping, late pharmacy runs, a lost cat. take one at a time; its next stop is pinned on the street and starred on the map. no boss, just a star rating: good gigs raise it, late or dropped ones lower it. above 4.5 the better gigs appear; below 3 the app gets grim. rain, storms, snow and festivals push delivery pay up. a fight on the way is bad news for a wedding cake.

the job centre

the board at city hall (09:00–17:00) lists the work that isn’t a ladder. seasonal: lifeguard in summer, snow crew in winter, the autumn fish run, spring gardening, and crew for each festival. public service: the post round (five addresses, back by one), volunteer fire and rescue (a pager that goes off on bad-weather days), night school if you have a degree, deckhand on the island ferry. street trades need no form: papers, shoe shines, flyers, car washing. a little money, any day.

these sit alongside an ordinary job. seasonal work ends with its season and waits for you next year.

getting better

• strength at the gym and the docks, smarts at the library and the college, charm at the café, the barber and the mall. the higher a stat, the slower it grows.
• repeat training for the same stat in one day gives 100%, 70%, 50%, 35%, 25%, then 20% of its usual gain. only training actions count; a new morning resets it.
• jobs pay by the hour and promote you when you are ready. college degrees open better jobs.
• karma follows what you do. fame follows what people see you do.

people

• pip at the café, dot at the library, rook at the gym and mae at the lighthouse. talk once a day, bring gifts they like, and they will help you in ways that matter.
• pip, dot, rook and mae each have a story of their own. stick with them and you will see how it ends.
• strangers on the street have opinions, and they talk to each other. what you do gets around, and the town remembers.
• the seasons turn every 30 days, with a festival in each. win the election and you set the city's policies.

other people’s lives

lowtide doesn’t wait for you. people finish theses, open stalls, retire, fall in love, have babies, move away. new faces arrive. you’ll read it in the gazette and hear it on the street.

some of it you can be part of: weddings at the hill shrine, leaving dos and parties at the anchor, birthday get-togethers (a present counts twice). you’ll get a text a week before. the journal’s town page lists what’s coming.

a city of people

the economy booms and slumps: wages, prices and hiring move with it. workers sometimes strike; you can join the picket, bring food, or cross the line for double pay. start a petition at city hall and ask people to sign when you talk to them (they sign what they care about). the first thursday of each month there’s a town meeting at 19:00 with a vote; speak up if you like.

when a storm’s coming there’s a sandbag drive; there are beach cleans, blood drives and food drives too, and an evening neighbourhood watch in old town. and the city is building something big: work a shift on it, or chip in. the journal’s town page has the city column.

someone special

five hearts with pip, dot or rook? ask them out. one date a day: dinner at the early bird, skewers at the night market, a sunset on the long pier or a duet at karaoke. everyone has a favourite. at closeness 60, ask them to move in: half the rent, a little breakfast energy, the odd sweet text. a quiet week lets things drift, but nobody leaves.

when you pass the key on, they help write the note, and the next life starts with someone who remembers.

spare time

• cook at home with what you buy at the market. some dishes make training easier, some bring luck, some make good gifts.
• fish off the pier, poke around the island's rock pools and beachcomb the cove. every species caught goes in your collection.
• buy furniture for your home. a cosy room means better sleep.
• the rusty anchor has five-card draw most evenings, and karaoke thursday to saturday.

your own thing

four things you can make in lowtide, each slow to start and better the longer you keep at it. a band: with a guitar, write songs at home, rehearse, play the anchor’s open mic on thursdays and the night market stage at weekends; fans grow; record an ep at the college. a book: pick what it is and write twelve chapters at the library, the café or home, then post it to the mainland publisher at city hall. expect letters. painting: an easel and paints from the galleria; paint the pier, the shrine, the park, the docks, the lighthouse or the night market, and what you get depends on the hour and the weather. sell them at the night market or hold a show. a food cart: oskar builds one at the junkyard; cook something at home, then set up outside pigeon park, the fish market, the tower or the night market. the journal’s yours page keeps count.

odd jobs

noticeboards at the corner mart, the fish market, steam café and the night market pin up favours for the townsfolk. take up to three at a time; the journal keeps the next step. boards change on mondays. finish for a little pay and a warmer welcome; give up any time, no hard feelings.

the harbour exchange

six lowtide companies on a chalk board at harbour savings, 09:00–17:00. prices move each morning with the city's news: fish runs, power cuts, cruise ships, festivals, the mayor's policies. each trade costs $2 plus 1%; sales and monday dividends go to the bank. shares count towards your net worth. otto makes no promises.

trouble

• fights are turn by turn. watch their intent: guard big swings to open a counter, feint guards, and use body shots to drain wind. guarding restores your wind; attacks weaken when you are out of breath.
• you can talk your way out of most street fights, if you are charming enough. learn styles from friends and rivals, and named moves from brother lin at the shrine, 06:00-10:00. equip up to two learned moves in your phone.
• work shifts can come with a short rush: optional, quick, a small bonus if you nail it.
• the casino has blackjack and slots. the pier has fish. the rusty anchor has darts and arm-wrestling, and something under the floor.

six ways to make it

• run for mayor and win the election on day 90.
• relight the dark lighthouse with an engineering degree or 85 smarts.
• become champion of the tank: twelve ranks, three divisions. ranked bouts run friday and saturday after 20:00; open bouts run any night. one bout a night. ranked fights have three four-turn rounds and advice in your corner. combos and specials build crowd hype for a bigger purse. defend the belt on saturday, or bet on the undercard before your own bout.
• take over the harbour with the gull crew. leave six mornings between jobs; turf needs 30 strength and pike needs 50.
• build a small business empire worth $65,000.
• put a crew together and empty the harbour savings vault. recruited townsfolk succeed 95% of the time; a clean getaway ends at 01:40 with 25 heat.

reach one and you can keep living. your endings and achievements stay on this device.

after an ending

an ending isn’t the end. choose stick around and the city gives you the job that comes with it: mayor, champion, boss of the harbour, keeper of the light, owner of a small empire, a noodle-bar owner (allegedly) or just a local.

each one has a meter the town keeps on you (approval, legend, trust, the lamp, staff trust, your cover, belonging), a weekly duty somewhere in the city with a decision to make, and a small wage. three things will happen over the following weeks. get through them with the meter high and you reach a second ending, the encore.

let the meter fall to nothing and that chapter closes, gently. you keep the first ending. the journal’s chapters page shows where each one stands.

the family

• after an ending, or once your year is up, you can pass the key on. your kid arrives in lowtide some years later with an envelope of cash, one keepsake you choose, and a head start in whatever you were best at.
• the town remembers. people who liked you will like them, a little. what you did leaves a mark on the map.

together

• up to four friends can move into the same lowtide from the games page. everyone starts a fresh life; your solo save stays as it is.
• you share the calendar: the next morning comes when everyone has gone to bed. you share the town too: one feed, one mayor, one owner per business, one champion of the tank.
• you can see each other on the street. wave, give a little cash, share a meal, throw darts for money, text, or bring a friend on the bank job.
• every shared city is saved on each player's own device. anyone can reopen it later from "your cities" and the others bring their lives back when they join. friends who aren't around stay in the city, away. you can copy a city save to another device.

make yourself comfortable

the gear (or escape) opens settings: larger text, calmer motion, stronger panels, patterned bars, and separate music and sound volumes. every key can be remapped. a controller works too: stick to walk (all the way over to run), a to act, b to go back, x for the phone, y for the journal, start for settings.

living alone? download your save as a file, load it on another device, or restore the copy kept before the last autosave. shared cities keep their own saves.