In story mode, bills need to be paid at the end of each day in order to keep the inspector's family healthy. These bills cover rent, food, heat, and medication if needed. Their cost depends on the class apartment your family is in. All bills except for penalties and rent are voluntary and can be checked off at the expense of your family members. If denied food, heating or medicine for too long, they may die of sickness (see below). If all family members die, the game will end prematurely.
Savings, salary, bribes, and other income can go toward paying bills. The inspector's salary is 5 credits per entrant processed without a citation. What counts an entrant as processed is them walking out of the booth before a scripted event or time runs out. This includes certain scripted entrants who only come in for a conversation, and doesn't strictly include accept/deny/detain.
Rent[]
Rent is a mandatory daily bill. Depending on the apartment class the family lives in, its cost may vary. The class-8 apartment the game starts in is 20 credits, but increases to 25 credits at the end of day 5. If the inspector is unable to pay rent with his income, the game will end with ending 1.
Food[]
Food costs 5 credits per living family member daily (excluding the inspector). There is an option to uncheck the credits spent on food, saving credits for the day. However, the inspector's family members will go hungry the next day. If left hungry for too long, family members will become sick (presumably due to their immune system being too weak to fight illness.) Certain family members are more resilient to hunger than others:
- The son's hunger limit is 1 day.
- The wife, mother-in-law, and niece's hunger limit is 2 days.
- The uncle's hunger limit is 3 days.
The hungry icon will show above the family member at the end of the day if they are hungry.
Heat[]
Heat costs 10 credits per day in the class-8 apartment, and varies in higher classes. Similar to food, it is optional and can be unchecked at the expense of the inspector's family members. The family's limits for cold is 2 days, except for the mother-in-law, which is 4. The cold sign will show next to the family member if they are cold.
Medication[]
Prolonged exposure to poor conditions will cause family members to get sick. Medication will cost the inspector 5 credits per sick family member.
The sickness limit for each family member is as follows:
- The uncle's limit is 3 days.
- The wife's limit is 5 days.
- The other family members' limits is 4 days.
If a sick person is not given medicine, the icon "very sick" will appear the next day. At this point, they must be given medicine, although it may not help if the conditions they are in continue to be those that induced sickness. If they are not given medicine when very sick, they will die.
Death[]
Very sick turns into dead with lack of medication. If the entire family dies, the game ends with ending 2. However, it is possible to allow all but one family member to die at no penalty to reduce expenses, as shown below.
Adoption[]
On day 21, the inspector's sister will be arrested for unknown reasons. Her daughter, the inspector's niece, will be left without a guardian and home, and the option to adopt her for 40 credits will be listed among the rest of the bills. Adopting her will make her a permanent member of the family increasing the cost of food by 5 credits. She will also grow cold, hungry or sick depending on the living conditions. However, the day after adopting her, she will bring her mother's savings, which will give the inspector an additional 100 credits to spend.
Rules[]
- "OK" simply means the family member's status is at 0.
- If you pay for food, the member's hunger status decrements. If not, it increments.
- If the hunger status isn't 0, the hungry icon is shown.
- If you pay for heat, the family's cold status decrements. If not, it increments.
- If the cold status isn't 0, the cold icon is shown.
- If a member's hunger status reaches its limit, the sickness status increments.
- If a member's cold status reaches its limit, the sickness status increments.
- This means that if both statuses reach their limit, their sickness status increments twice.
- If the sickness status is 1 day from reaching its limit, the icon "very sick" is instead shown.
- If the sickness status reaches its limit, the family member dies. Dead family members no longer contribute to food expenses.
Maximizing efficiency[]
Because paying for food and heat one day can completely remedy the problems caused by not paying them some earlier day, it is possible to save money by only alternating paying for food/heat every other day. Even though the son gets sick after spending just one day hungry, it is more profitable to pay nothing for one day and then pay for food, heat, and son's medicine on the next day.
Heating cost | Number of family members alive | Average expenses per day (excluding rent) when everyone is kept OK every day | Average expenses per day when alternating and son is kept alive | Average expenses per day when alternating and son is not alive |
---|---|---|---|---|
10 | 5 | 35 | 20 (saves 15 per day) | n/a |
10 | 4 | 30 | 17.5 (saves 12.5 per day) | 15 |
10 | 3 | 25 | 15 (saves 10 per day) | 12.5 |
10 | 2 | 20 | 12.5 (saves 7.5 per day) | 10 |
10 | 1 | 15 | 10 (saves 5 per day) | 7.5 |
5 | 5 | 30 | 17.5 (saves 12.5 per day) | n/a |
5 | 4 | 25 | 15 (saves 10 per day) | 12.5 |
5 | 3 | 20 | 12.5 (saves 7.5 per day) | 10 |
5 | 2 | 15 | 10 (saves 5 per day) | 7.5 |
5 | 1 | 10 | 7.5 (saves 2.5 per day) | 5 |
0 | 5 | 25 | 15 (saves 12.5 per day) | n/a |
0 | 4 | 20 | 12.5 (saves 10 per day) | 10 |
0 | 3 | 15 | 10 (saves 7.5 per day) | 7.5 |
0 | 2 | 10 | 7.5 (saves 5 per day) | 5 |
0 | 1 | 5 | 5 (no savings) | 2.5 |
When alternating, it does not matter whether you follow a pattern of paying nothing one day and paying everything the next day, or paying only food one day and only heat the next day. What matters is that for however long you keep without paying for the item, you then pay for the item the equal number of days later. Keeping the alternation interval short (1 day) ensures that minimal number of family members get sick. Note that upgrading the apartment provides no net monetary benefit while increasing rent, and is only helpful when trying to unlock the Worker's Best achievement.
Selectively killing off family members[]
This is the fastest and cheapest way to kill a family member, assuming everyone is OK. Each step is what to pay for each day.
- nothing
- son's medicine (unless selectively killing son)
- nothing
- heat, medicine for everyone but the family member (if family member still lives)
- repeat 4 if family member still lives
Killing off everyone except a specific family member[]
This is the fastest and cheapest way to kill everyone except a specific family member, assuming everyone is OK. Each step is what bills to pay each day. If you wish to nurse the remaining family member, follow the steps in italics.
Wife[]
- nothing
- nothing
- medicine (wife)
- medicine (wife)
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat, medicine
Son[]
- nothing
- medicine (son)
- medicine (son)
- medicine (son)
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat, medicine
Mother-in-law[]
- nothing
- nothing
- medicine (mil)
- medicine (mil)
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat
Uncle[]
- nothing
- nothing
- nothing
- heat, medicine (uncle)
- heat, medicine (uncle)
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat
Niece[]
- nothing
- nothing
- medicine (niece)
- medicine (niece)
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat, medicine
- food, heat, medicine
If you have only one family member alive, you never need to buy food as long as you pay for medicine when necessary. You can alternate heat each day, as long as the remaining member doesn't get cold enough that sickness becomes an issue. However, because most family members (except the son) can go one day without food without getting sick, it is more cost-effective to follow the alternation plan as detailed earlier rather than paying for medicine every day.