Growing Up Guide (Achievements, Characters, Locations, Items, Mood, Map and Endings)

These achievements are so easy that most likely they will be unlocked during the first playthrough.

Hello World!
Complete Baby Stage.

Leaving Home
Complete Preschool Stage.

First Steps
Learn 10 Skills.

Apple of my Eye
Complete an Expectation.

The Big World
Complete Elementary School Stage.

Perfectionist
Master 20 Skills.

You’re in Trouble!
Fail an Expectation.

My Own Stuff!
Buy item for the first time.

Choose Your Path
Make a choice in a branching Skill Tree.

Good Kid
Earn A on an Exam.

Great Scott!
Use Brain Map bonuses 100 times.

Going through Changes
Complete Middle School Stage.

A Beautiful Mind
Earn 300 Attribute points in total during one Brain Map mini-game.

From 9 to 5
Complete 10 Expectations.

Sightseeing
Go on a trip!

Set for Life
Learn 50 Skills.
Learn = “buy” with Knowledge points.

Nerd
Master 40 Skills.
Master = completely fill the skill learning meter (by adding the skill to the Schedule or spending Action Points).

You Shall Pass
Acquire Full Exam Readiness.
Preparation is increased by Studying and Mastering school education skills, hobbies do not affect.

Proud Parents
Buy a special request.
Raise Parents’ Satisfaction above 70 to unlock Special Requests.

Having Fun
Perform Entertainment Activities 100 times.
In one walkthrough.

All Grown Up!
Complete a Life!
Finish the game by passing the final exam for any grade.

American Dream
Earn the Best Ending of any career.
You need to get an A grade for the final exam. Raise the Preparation to 100, this will give more moves. Try to collect 8+ cells together, each such combination will give an Eureka Power-Up, which you can remove all cells of the same color.

Better Luck Next Time
Get a Bad Ending.
There are two bad endings in the game (one of them is not so bad), which can be obtained by drop to zero Parents’ Satisfaction or Mental Health. The first 2 times the Strikes counter will increase, the third will be the final. You can get it right away in Elementary School.

• Loose Parents’ Satisfaction. Be lazy, have fun all day, never study. As a result, your parents will get sick of it, and they will kick your ass out to the military academy.
• Loose Mental Health. Study and never rest, overwork, earn depression and that’s it.

Forever Alone
Finish the game with no friends.
Ignore all three characters that the game will give you as possible friends. By mid-High school, they should all drop off.

Like Parent, Like Child
Name a Child after its Parent.
Continue to play as a “dynasty”, naming the child exactly as your character was named.

The game randomly chooses three characters from the list, and adds as possible friends: 1 in Preschool, 1 in Middle School, 1 in High School. There is no dependence on stats and decisions, characters are always random. The only way to influence the showing up is to continue playing as your character’s child after the story ends (the game never adds the same friends that the parents had). But after a generation, repetitions will inevitably begin.

To complete the story, don’t ignore and don’t be rude with the characters, then they will remain friends, and towards the end of High School an achievement will unlock.

Number One
Complete Alex’s Story!
Appears in Preschool.

Sound of the Future
Complete Richard’s Story!
Appears in Preschool.

Gal Pal
Complete Alicia’s Story!
Appears in Middle School.

Wendy Krueger
Complete Wendy’s Story!
Appears in Middle School.

Fate Averted
Complete Nathan’s Story!
Appears in Middle School.

Teen Spirit
Complete Patty’s Story!
Appears in Hight School.

Bathroom Troubles
Complete Felicity’s Story!
Appears in Hight School.

Two Worlds
Complete Kato’s Story!
Appears in Hight School.

Peer Pressure
Complete Sam’s Story!
Appears in Hight School.

School Sweetheart
Marry one of your School Friends
Have a romance with any of the characters, after the finale he/she will become your spouse.

Adult characters are pinned to locations. When you first get to a location where there is an adult, an introductory scene is shown, and then you have the opportunity to learn a new hobby.

To complete an adult’s story, you need to unlock the last skill in the hobby tree (no need to master). When unlocked, the final scene with the participation of an adult will occur, and the achievement will be unlocked.

Stone Head
Complete Coach’s Story!
At the School Gym or at the Sport Field, locations will be unlocked as the story progresses.

Delicious
Complete Mei’s Story!
At Red Checker Cafe, the location will be unlocked at the start of Middle School.

Eye of the Beholder
Complete Elliot’s Story!
At North Pine Galleria, the location will be unlocked at the start of Middle School.

Once Upon a Time
Complete Sergio’s Story!
At Ghost Water Walk Park, the location will be unlocked as the story progresses.

Game of the Year
Complete Neal’s Story!
At Starcade 80, the location will be unlocked:

• With both starting friends (Alex or Richard) or Wendy.
• If you request a ticket from your parents.

New Beginnings
Complete Parul’s Story!
At Art Space Gallery. The location will be unlocked:

• As the story progresses, if you have Alicia as friend.
• If you buy a ticket at the North Pine Galleria or request it from parents.

Objection!
Complete Alessandra’s Story!
At The Orpheus Theater. The location will be unlocked:

• As the story progresses, if you have Richard or Wendy as friends.
• If you buy a ticket at the North Pine Galleria.

Camera! Action!
Complete Luca’s Story!
At Cineplex 8. The location will be unlocked as the story progresses, if you have Richard, Wendy or Nathan as friends.

Heart Beat
Complete Minh’s Story!
At The Zone Club. The location will be unlocked:

• As the story progresses, if you have Richard, Vivica or Nathan as friends.
• If you buy a ticket at the North Pine Galleria.

To Protect and Serve
Complete Riley’s Story!
At the Police Station. The location opens only if the game has added Wendy or Vivica as possible friends.

• Wendy — opens in Middle School (after skipping classes and going to the cinema).
• Vivica — opens in High School (when she gets caught for drawing graffiti).

There are no other ways to open the location, or I did not find them.

Dependent
Spend 3500 Pride on Requests.
In one walkthrought. Complete all your parents’ Expectations in a row, accumulating enough Pride points is not a problem. Start buying from Elementary School, otherwise your ancestors may run out of gifts before you reach 3500.

We Were Never Friends
Lose a Friend.
Start to ignore any of your friends. Can be combined with “Forever Alone” achievement.

Young Entrepreneur
Perform Work Activities 50 times.
In one walkthrough.

Gifted Learner
Raise the Passive Growth of an Attribute to 50.
Collect attribute hexes and Rainbox hexes (bonus to all skills), it will raise without problems.

Armed & Ready
Master an SAT activity.
The penultimate stage in any school education trees, after which only SAT II remains.

Connoisseur
Try all food at least once.
Buy all available food in the following locations: School cafeteria, Red Checker Cafe, La Royale restaurant.

Methodical Learning
Acquire Full Exam Readiness in all Exams.
It can be a problem only with the very first exam (in Preschool), there is only 2 turns are given to prepare for it. To surely get 100% Preparation for the first exam, you need to develop your character along the path of Empathy and Imagination from birth, since these skills are mainly used in Preschool. If you go for Physique (Cabinet climbing), it’s may not be enough. For all other exams, much more turns for Preparation are given, there should be no further problems.

Sleepless Nights
Earn A on all Exams.
Raise Preparation to 100 for maximum moves. Try to collect 6+ cells together (8+ cells in the final exam) to get Power-Ups. Do not waste all the moves at once, before choosing the answers, leave 5 moves in the pool in order to get the cells of the missing color if necessary. The exam can be restarted until the “Finish exam” button is pressed, to do this return to the menu and load the save. There are more detailed exam tips below.

Technically Not Cheating
Use 10 Eureka Power-Ups during the Final SAT Exam.
Eureka Power-Up appears for collecting 8+ cells with one click. Raise the Preparation for the final exam to 100, this will give the maximum moves. Collect cells in groups of at least 8, remove smaller groups only if it helps to connect 8+ cells.

Black Friday
Buy 50 items total from the various stores.
In one walkthrough. Any items are counted, even carrot sticks in the school cafeteria. If the final exam is close, and you have not collected 50 items, you can buy all clothes in the North Pine Galleria.

Resourceful Student
Use Exam Power-Ups 50 times.
Power-Up — a bonus that removes several cells at a time (bomb, clear a row, Eureka). Each time you remove 6+ cells with one click, a new Power-Up appears on the field.

What Did You Expect?
Collect 15 Brain Farts.
In one playthrough. Brain Farts appear on the Brain Map in Hight School. In a normal situation, there is no point in collecting them. For achievement the opposite, you need to start collecting Brain Farts as soon as they start to appear on the map. By this time, you should have enough Brain Points for such a useless waste. In order to quickly find Brain Farts, use the “eye” and “reveal the whole map” neurons.

The game randomly chooses three characters from the list, and adds as possible friends: 1 in Preschool, 1 in Middle School, 1 in High School. There is no dependence on stats and decisions, characters are always random. The only way to influence the showing up is to continue playing as your character’s child after the story ends (the game never adds the same friends that the parents had). But after a generation, repetitions will inevitably begin.

Locations in this game unlock in a strange way. Unlock is tied to the friends’ Stories, and the game needs to send you to the location according to the plot. In most cases, there are alternative ways to unlock (buy a ticket or reach certain skill), but there are places where it is impossible to get to if the game doesn’t give you the required character as a friend. Sometimes this leads to absurd situations, for example, you can graduate from school without knowing where the school toilet and library are.

The unlocking conditions are listed below. If the conditions “have this character as friends” are fulfilled, the location will be unlocked as the story progresses.

Red Checker Cafe
Opens at the beginning of Middle School.

North Pine Galleria
Opens at the beginning of Middle School.

Ghost Water Walk Park
As the story progresses, with any character.

Starcade 80

• Opens with both starting friends (Alex or Richard).
• Request a ticket from your parents.

Funtasy Carnival

• Have Alex or Alicia as friends.
• Request a ticket from your parents.

Le Royale

• Have Vivica as a friend — you need to agree to dinner with her parents.
• Study Cooking, when you learn the “Fish dishes” skill, the restaurant will open on the map.

  

Cineplex 8
Have Richard, Wendy or Nathan as friends.

Pet Sanctuary

• Have Nathan as a friend.
• Develop the Empathy, choose the path of Zoology. When you learn the first skill of Zoology (“Invertebrates”), the shelter will open on the map.

  

Hospital
Have Alex, Alicia, Felicity, Nathan of Vivica as friends.

Police Station
Have Wendy or Vivica as friends.

• Wendy — station opens at the Middle School (after skipping classes and going to the cinema)
• Vivica — station opens in High School (when she gets caught for drawing graffiti).

Art Space Gallery

• Have Alicia as a friend.
• Buy a ticket at the North Pine Galleria or request it from your parents

The Orpheus Theater

• Have Richard or Wendy as friends.
• Buy a ticket at the North Pine Galleria.

The Zone Club

• Have Richard, Vivica or Nathan as friends.
• Buy a ticket at the North Pine Galleria.

High School Library
Have Alex, Richard, Wendy, Nathan, Vivica or Kato as friends.

• Richard, Wendy, Nathan, Vivica, Kato — auto unlocks.
• Alex — look for her in the library.

High School Bathroom
Have Alex, Richard, Wendy, Nathan or Kato as friends. There are two toilets in the school (male and female), if you have required characters, you can unlock both (there is no benefit from this, both sell the same cheat sheets).

The most useful items are those that give extra Allowance (money per turn) and Action Points. Brain Points items are less useful, sinse you can collect them from the Brain Map in sufficient quantities, but if you have some spare cash, why not to buy them too.

If you start investing in items that give passive money bonus while in Middle School, you can get passive income +$60 per turn at the beginning of High School, and have no money problems.

Another way to get extra money is to master a job (for example, Kitchen Assistant). The result of any action in the game can be successful or unsuccessful (you can see it in a hand-drawn scene). For successful completion, the character receives an additional +50% to the attribute and money, and any mastered activity will always complete successfully. For example, in the case of the Kitchen Assistant, it would work like this: the base pay is $15, and the pay for the mastered skill is $23.

Brain Points

There are two scales in the game: Mental Health and Parents’ Satisfaction. At first glance, it may seem that it is rather difficult to balance them, since increasing one, evenly decreasing the other. Everything in the world enrages parents if it’s not education or work. Sometimes they may ask you an absurd Expectation like “stop sitting at home, go some shopping”, but this will also enrages them, because shopping is entertainment.

How to be? There are several tactics:

• Buy food. For some reason, this is the only way to improve your mood without a penalty. Food can be bought at the School Cafeteria, Red Checker Cafe or La Royale.
• Work. Does not affect Parents’ Satisfaction (if there is no Work-related Expectation) and lowers mood. At the same time, work gives that much-needed money that can be spent on food purchases, so you can restore lost mood and still get profit. The more free action points you have, the more benefit you can get from your work.
• Travelling. Improves mood significantly less than food, plus spends the rest of the turn (you cannot use the Schedule). Compensates for this a bit by giving additional attribute points. Remember to use all your Action Points before traveling.
• Fulfilling Parents’ Expectations. The bonus is small, it makes more sense to fulfill them in order to earn Pride, which can then be spent on something useful. If there is any expectation that does not suit you at all (like, repeat the already learned skill 10 times), you can simply don’t do it, the penalty is also small.
• Temporary increase in Parents’ Satisfaction. It is not necessary to constantly keep it in the green zone (70+), you can increase it only before buying a Special Request. When you have accumulated the needed amount of Pride, be a good kid for a couple of turns, engaging exclusively in studies, you will lose mood, but will be able to buy what you need. Then boost your mood back.
• Maintaining high Parental Satisfaction. Remember that it cannot rise above 100. If you have raised your Satisfaction close to this level, you can safely add expensive entertainment activities (video games, board games, etc.) to your schedule. For example, put “Paper RPG” (+8 mood) in the first cells of the Schedule, and fill in the rest with education. The satisfaction will go down and then immediately rise back.

Bonuses from high Parents’ Satisfaction and Mental Health.

• Parents’ Satisfaction above 70 gives at the end of the turn an additional +20% bonus to pocket money. If your income is +$5 per turn, this will not play a role, but with +$50 it is more interesting.
• Mental Health above 70 gives an extra Shedule cell, this is useful in Elementary and Middle School. In High school, the number of cells will increase to 7 naturally, plus by this time you will most likely have purchased a Daily Planner or Polyphasic Sleep Manual, which will add up to 8 slots, regardless of mood.

The highest priority points on the Brain Map:

1.
Super Insight (reveals the entire map). Grab it as soon as you see it.

2.
Brain Points. Recovers spent Brain Points and and reveals adjacent neurons for free. Just make sure that the points are not wasted (you cannot accumulate more than the maximum).

3.
Action Points Hex. Increases maximum AP by +5.

4.
Brain Poins Hex. Increases the maximum Brain Points by +5, works from the next Brain Map.

5. Insight. Opens neurons in a radius from 2 to 4 (check the description). If it opens radius 4, take it, if 3 – look at the situation. Almost always useless with a radius of 2.

6.
Next Map. You don’t need to take it right away, but open the passage to it in advance.

7.
Rainbox Hex. Adds +15 to all attributes (+75 in total) and increases the passive bonus for all attributes by +1.

8.
Attribute Hexes (+ 17-30 to the attribute and + 1-2 to the passive bonus, depends on the character’s age). If you are developing a specialized character, you can take only your main attribute, ignore the rest. If you want to develop versatile, collect all the hexes and generally ignore small neurons, the character will still get good raise of skills due to the passive bonus.

Everything else makes sense to take only if it is right on the way to useful points, or useful points are over.

9.
Shockwave. Collects contents of 5-10 (check description) adjacent neurons and reveals all adjacent neurons. It makes sense to take it when the map is unexplored to increase the visible area. Much less effective on the revealed map. A shockwave located at a dead end may get stuck and not collect anything.

10.
Teleport. It makes sense to take it only if there are far-away valuable points on the map, it gives a chance to get close to them faster without opening unnecessary ones.

11.
If nothing useful is left, take any neuron connected to the maximum number of other neurons (preferably 6).

12.
Uber Attribute Neuron (collects all neurons of the same type). Not bad, but shows up too late in High School, by this time it isn’t really needed anymore. Without Super Insight, which reveals the entire map, it is even less useful.

13.
Knowledge, Superknowledge. Of little use, the character already gets a lot of knowledge from mastering skills. The only option is to collect them if you urgently need some Knowledge right now, and haven’t enough money to buy cheet sheets or stuff from Funtasy Carnival.

14.
Surprise. The only reason to take it — the whole map is opened, and there is no exit point to the next map. There is an very small chance (about 10%) to random the Next Map, usually something useless drops out.

15.
Knowledge Hex (-10% to the cost of all available skills). The most useless thing. The cost of skills cannot drop below the minimum, and if you take this hex in order to get a discount on an expensive skill, the subsequent skills in the branch will still remain expensive, and it is wiser to upgrade the related attribute to reduce the cost.

The ending depends on two factors: which skill tree the character has advanced the farthest, and what grade they got for the final exam.

If several branches of skills are mastered, the profession related to the first of the mastered skills will be chosen. For example, Zoology and Cooking are fully mastered, Zoology is mastered first, the character will follow the path of veterinary medicine.

The final exam score (A, B, C, D, F) affects the grade in the career earned. A is the top (Olympic medalist, best-selling author, all that), F is nothing outstanding (always an office clerk, regardless of skill). One cannot become a homeless person or a drug addict, although I tried very hard.

There are only 4 exams (Preschool, Elementary school, Middle School and High School graduation), only the final one affects the acquired profession. Tips for those who are not good at Candy Crush:

• Raise the Preparation to 100 to get the maximum number of moves. The level of Preparation is influenced by the learning and mastering of school skills (hobbies don’t affect). You can get about 90 Preparation just by learning the skills (like your character has just opened the texbook once), up to 100 you have to master a little.
• During High School, you can learn skills in the Library using Action Points. Use it if you need to speed up your Preparation for the final exam.
• Collect 6+ cells together to get boosters, remove small groups only if it helps to combine a large pile of cells
• In the final exam, collect 8+ cells together to get Eureka Power-Ups (allowing you to remove all cells of the same color at once). If there are a lot of cells on the field of the same color as the Eureka Power-Up — use it, if there are few — do not touch yet, wait for the accumulation.
• Do not waste all the moves at once, before choosing the answers, leave 5 moves in the pool in order to get cells of the missing color if necessary.
• The exam can be restarted. At any time, until the “Finish exam” button is pressed, you can return to the menu, select “Continue” and the exam will start from the beginning.

Meet this very dumb guy Jimmy. He managed to finish school without learning how to write and count. All his life he was a lounger, skipped classes and occasionally worked part-time at a local diner as an assistant cook, hoping to get rich and save up for a yellow Ford Mustang. As a result, which is logical, he passed the final exam for F, and now works as an office clerk. Don’t be like Jimmy.