In today’s article, we’re going to share with you a complete This Grand Life guide with tips, tricks and strategies to keep your happiness levels high and complete your life goals no matter what. We’re also going to update this article with any This Grand Life cheats we can find in the future.
I love This Grand Life! It’s that type of a small game that will never make it on the mainstream market, but which can turn a bunch of people into diehard fans. A life sim with a really strong focus on the personal finance element, this one is definitely a game the PF fanatics will absolutely enjoy. But fortunately, people who are not directly interested in personal finances will find it a great challenge to test their gaming skills.
And although the game becomes repetitive after a point (but doesn’t real life get there too?) and relatively simple once you get the hang of it, it is still extremely challenging and beautiful. And we’re here to help make it even better for you by sharing some This Grand Life tips and tricks in our strategy guide.
How to keep Happiness up?
Most people seem to struggle with this particular metric which goes up slowly, but decreases extremely fast if not taken care of. However, I consider it to be extremely easy to keep under control in most cases.
Happiness starts going down drastically when you end the week with one or more of your stats at zero. In order to prevent that from happening, simply make sure that you never get to zero with any of your stats or quickly fix those problems before the week ends. If you do, happiness will slowly start going up again towards 50%.
Buying items and specific events also increase your happiness, but usually the special events that happen in the game in various places give you a huge boost in happiness. Take advantage of these when they happen and you’ll never ever have to worry about this metric – or read our in depth guide to happiness here if you need more help.
Optimize work & travel times
Always try to optimize the number of places you need to visit weekly. Also, try to find a place to stay that is as close to those that you must visit in order to reduce travel times.
Basically, the better you are at optimizing time usage each turn, the better you will do. For this, you should try to start with a job that’s both close to your home and in a place that allows you to do something else. For example the fast food joint, where you can work and eat, or a restaurant where you can work, eat and have fun at the same time.
Later on, as you get better studies and you can get better jobs and reduce travel times, these don’t matter much, but for the most part of the game they do. So take a week or two to walk around the city and get accustomed to the places there, then try to spend as much time as possible in as few places as possible. This is the key to success!
Don’t rush to study
Studying allows you to get better paying jobs, but you shouldn’t hurry to do this as it will be very difficult early on when you have no money. Wait a solid number of weeks until you have a good home, some money saved and some solid items at home before starting to study.
Most likely, you won’t be able to study and work full time, but you will be able to get a part time job and switch to full time during the breaks if needed (rarely it will be needed if you play a good game).
You will also have to take a loan to study and before you do, make sure that the specialization you’re choosing will allow you to get a good job in a good place in the city. Sometimes going for the slightly lower paid jobs is a good idea if they give you other boosts. For example, community lawyer doesn’t pay too much but it gives you a fun boost when you work, which matters a lot!
Balancing study and work and keeping your needs under control is the most difficult part in This Grand Life, but once you get past this, you’ll cruise easily to a nice, perfect life.
Keep an eye on the economic growth
Always be on the lookout for increasing your income as almost everything in the game is based on how much money you have. The easiest way to get a nice boost in your salary is to keep an eye on economic growth and simply re-apply for your job when the earnings per hour increase. You can do this indefinitely and you’re always getting a pay rise, so it’s worth doing, especially since you don’t spend any extra time for checking out.
Your initial traits
The game can be easier or more difficult based on the way you build your character and this can result in you having an easier life from a financial point of view or a more difficult one.
Of course, the game is made to be played on a more realistic mode in order to be very fun, so try staying away from the easiest routes – going for a ton of points and a huge allowance. Instead, balance your positive and negative traits and go for the challenge!
Also remember that some of the negative traits can be cured in the game (such as alcoholism or smoking) and even though that requires extra work on your side, it’s worth doing because the benefits are huge in the long run.
Try to save early, save often
Saving money is, just like in real life, extremely important in the game. Therefore, you should focus on that as soon as possible – and you should start by putting money in your savings account as soon as possible. You won’t make much, but the extra few dollars a week are better than nothing.
You should also invest in the stock market as soon as possible for the dividends and potential spikes in the values of the shares.
These will have a minor impact early on in the game and will get more important as you progress through life and you are able to invest and spend more, but taking the head start is always wise.
Explore all the possibilities
There are virtually endless possibilities in this game and even though the gameplay itself is repetitive and grinding is inevitable, you still have many options along your way.
Remember to focus on your final goal and always play to get closer to the finish line. Most of the things that happen in the game though are related to being at least stable from a financial point of view, so you should do everything to thrive financially.
Explore all the possibilities that you have at your disposal, though, as it’s not all resumed to getting a job, saving in the bank and trying your hand on the stock market. You can start your own company, you can buy a ticket each week and hope for some amazing wins, you can even get a social life and start dating… there are a ton of things that you can do that make this game more complex and a lot more beautiful.
So don’t ruin it by only grinding and doing the same things over and over again: you will get there, for sure, eventually, but it’s a lot better if you do it the fun way!
Take it slow
This is probably the most important thing to remember: the game is a life sim that happens a week at a time. Compare that to real life and you will see that you can’t (normally) get to having a million dollars after 100 weeks of play time. Take it slow, build your character, build your life and enjoy the ride. It’s the only way to do it!
This would be everything that we have for you right now in terms of tips and tricks for completing all milestones in This Grand Life and keeping that happiness level high. If you have other strategies to share with fellow players, don’t hesitate to let us know by commenting below.
Also, if we find any cheats for the game, we’ll update this article so it doesn’t hurt to check back every now and then.
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