In case you’ve been living in a virtual rock — or simply aren’t the type to play such games on your mobile phone — BitLife has been around since 2018 as arguably the top life simulator game on iOS and Android. The game, which is published by Candywriter puts you in control of a virtual character known as a Bitizen, and allows you to control his or her life from the moment they’re born to their death, with the option to control their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on, if you choose to pay a onetime fee for the paid version.
It’s your call whether you want this Bitizen to life their best or their worst life, and that means making various decisions while they’re in school, at work, or interacting with their parents, children, friends, classmates, and/or coworkers. Will you turn them into successful individuals in the world of business or medicine, or lead them down a life of crime? The choice is all yours.
Once again, Candywriter has taken the effort to make BitLife even better than before, and with their latest update — version 1.31 — they’ve added several new features across different parts of the game, as well as a general addition that now allows you to compete, in a way, with other players from all over the world and take part in Challenges. So let’s take a look at BitLife version 1.31 — the so-called “Challenges Update” — and see what’s new. We’ll naturally be discussing the main part of the update, but also talking about a new type of crime you can commit, a new way to improve your relationship with your NPC significant other, and new things you can do when it comes to your asset (car and house) purchases.
Take Part In The New BitLife Challenges
Prior to the arrival of the latest BitLife update, challenges were mostly restricted to the game’s subreddit, as players from around the world would unofficially take part in challenges, such as getting all available ribbons in the game (oftentimes while using the same character), working in all the possible careers, and so on, and so forth. Now, Candywriter has made the challenge concept an official one, and last week, they kicked things off by inviting BitLife players to take part in the Alphabet Challenge.
The rules of the Alphabet Challenge are simple — create a female Bitizen, and have them give birth to at least 26 children, with all letters in the alphabet represented by the first letter of their names. That means, for example, naming your children Adam, Bryan, Charles, David, and so on, until you reach letter Z and probably name your 26th child Zachary (or Zoe, if it’s a girl), though there are no hard, fast rules when it comes to this challenge, aside from having all 26 letters represented. There’s no restriction as to whether your children are male or female, and no specific order needed, though to keep things simple, we suggest doing as we had recommended in the example and starting with letter A then working your way down to letter Z for your youngest child.
As the chances of a miscarriage increase once a female Bitizen is over 40 and you’re only allowed one childbirth a year (regardless whether it’s just one child, twins, triplets, or so on), we recommend starting this challenge the moment your character turns 16 and can officially start making love. In the event of miscarriages, the option is always there to exit the app before accepting the prompt, so that you can start again from the previous year and hope that the pregnancy doesn’t have any complications.
One final thing regarding the Alphabet Challenge — and all the other challenges that the game will make available in the days to come — these are only limited-time events, so make sure you work on them as soon as possible! So far, there aren’t any actual rewards for completing challenges, but the bragging rights can make things interesting, as you will be notified of how many people had previously completed the challenge on a real-time basis as you check the Challenges section in the main menu.
Young Bitizens Can Now End Up In Orphanages
Previous versions of BitLife essentially left orphaned children to their own devices if one or both parents would die. While this would, of course, result in a huge drop to Happiness for affected children, the game assumed that the orphaned kids would have some sort of guardian at some sort of home, but there was no such realistic option for these young Bitizens to end up in orphanages in the (usually) completely random event of one or both parents dying, with no step-parents to take their place. That, however, is one of the many changes that have arrived on version 1.31. So how does this work?
Basically, if you’re controlling a character whose adult guardians are all dead before the time they turn 18 (or, for paid users, if you’re continuing with a next-generation Bitizen after, say, the previous-generation character killed their partner then “surrendered” soon after), you will automatically be placed n an orphanage until the age of 18. You will still be able to attend school at regular institutions and make friends with kids at school and take part in activities (or deal with school bullies and bad teachers), but there will be a few orphanage-centric scenarios you may encounter.
For example, you may be asked what type of food you want to eat for your birthday, or you may be placed in a scenario straight out of Oliver Twist — will you scavenge for more food, settle with what you got, sneak some more food, or ask for more if you’re still hungry after receiving your daily ration of porridge? You may also be asked to advise a fellow orphan who says he wants to run away to Neverland — shall you encourage him, ignore him, mock him, or report him to the authorities at the orphanage?
So far, we haven’t encountered an orphanage scenario that has serious bearing on how Bitizens turn out in adulthood, but it’s still a nice new feature that helps make the game more realistic. We should also note that as your stay in the orphanage continues, you’ll notice a bar that designates how much “love” you receive in the facility — red means you’re practically unloved, orange suggests a less than ideal scenario, while green hints that things are hunky-dory where you’re at. It seems that your orphanage’s Love stat has some bearing on your Happiness, though it doesn’t seem to be much of a game-changer, especially if you’ve got a lot of friends at school and make sure to spend some time with them to maintain their friendship.
Go Through Counseling To Save Your Failing Marriage Or Relationship
It’s the last thing you want as a rich Bitizen. After trying time and again to get your near-perfect (at least in terms of Looks and Smarts) partner to sign the prenuptial because their Craziness is too high, you married them without one, with your net worth is in the millions and their net worth in the single digits.
And for one reason or another, your Relationship bar is close to running out — naturally, the next thing you could expect to happen is for your spouse to demand a divorce, which, because you chose to get married without a prenup, will cost you half of your fortune. That won’t just take its toll on your bank account, but also on your Happiness, and you wouldn’t want to be hard-pressed to get both your net worth and your Happiness back to their old levels. Fortunately, BitLife version 1.31 has introduced a feature that could help you save your struggling relationship or marriage, and it’s the Relationship Counseling feature.
As you may expect, Relationship Counseling only becomes an option once you’ve reached adulthood, so don’t expect this to be available if you want to prevent your high school sweetheart from breaking up with you by the time you reach 16, full Relationship bar or not. It does, after all, cost some money, as you’ll have to pay $150 (for U.S. Bitizens) in order to take advantage of it. You do have the choice to pay for the fee in full or to ask your partner to pay as well, and you’ll only be able to undergo counseling if your partner agrees to it. (Also take note of the possibility that your Relationship bar might get diminished even further if your partner refuses to go through counseling — it’s a risk you’ll have to take!)
Related: BitLife Careers Guide: How to Become a Porn Star, Music Composer, Pharmacist or an Architect
Once you go through counseling, the relationship counselor will give you random advice that will have a certain level of effectiveness — the same rule of thumb applies here, so if it’s red, it was a complete failure, if it’s orange, it might have made things even worse, and if it’s green, it made things at least a little better between the two of you. Again, it’s worth a shot, so go ahead and take advantage of that Relationship Counseling if you don’t want to lose your fortune through divorce — or lose out on a chance to be in a longer, more meaningful relationship with a smart and attractive NPC Bitizen!
Embezzlement – Your First Step In The World Of White-Collar Crime
As you may have noticed, a lot of the options you’ll have in the Crime section tend to involve stealing…or some form of violence. These acts — bank robberies, shoplifting, burglaries, murders, and killings for hire, to name a few — are all example of blue-collar crimes that you read about every day in the news. But what about white-collar crimes? Candywriter has yet to give Bitizens the resources they need to become the next Bernie Madoff, but in the absence of pyramid schemes that could make your virtual humans richer through illegal means, the game now includes a white-collar crime option in the form of Embezzlement.
Embezzling funds from your place of work is simple. Just go to the Crime section under Activities, choose Embezzle, and choose whether you wish to take “a teeny bit,” “a little,” “a decent amount,” or “a lot” of money from your place of employment. Depending on your job, some or all of these options may be available, but just to set your expectations, you’ll probably be better off burgling houses or robbing banks (or trains) if you want to get rich through illegal means.
Even choosing “a lot” would result in mere hundreds of dollars getting embezzled, and if you choose “a teeny bit,” you likely won’t have enough to get yourself some lunch at McDonald’s. We hope to learn of an option under Embezzlement that could really allow one to get a huge amount of money (at your Bitizen’s own risk, of course!), but for now, it’s a nice change of pace to the usual Crime options you may be familiar with.
Plea Bargains: You Can Now Plead Guilty Or Not Guilty When Charged With A Crime
In earlier versions of BitLife, it was easy for richer Bitizens to pay big money for the best lawyers available and get away scot-free, even for certain serious crimes. This plan would work 75 percent of the time — with the exception, of course, of serial killer Bitizens, who would automatically be sentenced to death or given a life sentence in a maximum security prison. But for petty criminals, car thieves, or bank robbers, hiring the best legal representation in town and paying top dollar for it was often a very reliable way of avoiding the slammer. It was pretty cut-and-dry back then, when it came to the courthouse system in BitLife.
That isn’t quite the case anymore with version 1.31, which has introduced Plea Bargains into the broader Crime feature. That means regardless whether you get a cheap lawyer, an expensive one, or go for public representation for free, you will have a chance to plead guilty, not guilty, or no contest. As the game would explain, pleading guilty could help reduce your sentence if you are convicted, so if you’re not rich enough to afford a top law form, you can choose this option and still spend some time in jail, but probably a few years less than you normally would.
Pleading not guilty, on the other hand, is best used if you chose the most expensive legal option available and would still have a good chance of walking free; otherwise, you might not want to proclaim your innocence with a cheap lawyer or public representation. You can also plead not guilty during those random instances where you’re framed up for a crime you didn’t commit — these are rare, but a few updates ago, these became possible!
As for pleading no contest, this is a safe and neutral option that may or may not reduce your sentence. We wouldn’t bother with this too often, though, as Guilty and Not Guilty appear to be the best choices overall in the aforementioned situations.
Regarding the actual plea bargains, these come into play if your character happens to be a habitual criminal. In such a scenario, the judge will offer to reduce your sentence if you plead guilty. The option to plead innocent remains, but if you’re still found guilty, the original sentence still applies. It’s a calculated risk if you’re not loaded with cash, but if your Bitizen can afford top legal representation, it may still be better to plead innocent and hopefully walk out a free man or woman.
You Can Now Give Cars And Houses And Pay Off Your Loans Immediately
Ever thought of spending your fortune as a rich Bitizen on something else other than yourself and your family? That’s now an option thanks to the new update, as the game now allows you to buy cars and houses and give them to family members or friends as gifts. This could come in handy if your Relationship bar is at zero or close to zero and want to buy yourself back into their good graces. Simply buy the car or house like you normally would, then choose the Gift option — you will then be directed to a dropdown box where you can choose from various friends and family members.
You will, however, be informed that the car or house has to be fully paid off before you give it to one of your loved ones — after all, it would be awkward if you’re essentially passing your debt off to a friend or family member! That, in almost every case, would certainly be counterproductive and defeat the purpose of the new feature, hence the need to make sure your car or house is paid in full. But speaking of paying off assets, that’s exactly what we’ll be discussing in the second part of this tip.
As for paying off your car loans and mortgages, BitLife now allows you to pay them off immediately instead of waiting several years and paying installments each year before you’re debt-free. This is very useful in the event you somehow win the lottery or get lucky at the horse races or at the Casino, or perhaps earn a huge fortune robbing the local bank — in any case, it’s a good route to take if your bank account gets a huge boost in one way or another. It’s also useful if you accidentally chose the loan option when buying a car or a house and originally intended to pay it upfront — it does happen, and it can get annoying to be lose a few thousands of dollars each year because you have no choice but to complete payment on the loan.
Going back to giving cars to your friends and family, we should also remind you that you cannot give a new car to any friend or relative who’s below legal driving age, as the game will inform you if you choose this option. And though we’ve yet to see this happen in our tests, we’ve seen reports on Reddit of players using this feature to give cars to their loved ones, only for them to crash the new vehicle and die. We guess this will largely depend on their Craziness stat (visible for friends, hidden for family) — the crazier a friend or family member is, the more likely they would be to crash the car!
Odds And Ends – New Person Emojis, New Scenarios, And More
As we mentioned in our last BitLife guide, it appeared that a lot of players were unhappy with the new person emojis that were introduced on the last update. That’s something Candywriter has been ironing out over the past few big and small updates alike, including version 1.31, and among the things you should notice, male Bitizens are no longer guaranteed to go bald by the time they reach the age of 45. More new hairdos have been added as well, and it now appears that male Bitizens can now rock long hair, albeit only once their emojis change at the age of 21.
Unfortunately, the option to choose your own hair color has yet to be included, so everything remains random as far as your Bitizen’s emojis through the years are concerned. We would recommend quitting the game upon turning 3, 12, 21, 45, or 65, then restarting it in the event you’re not quite happy with your character’s emoji once they reach these points in their lives.
The game does mention more than 50 new scenarios in the change log, and as far as we can see, a lot of these scenarios appear to be related to the new features, including the Orphanage. There have also been a few related to previously added features — teachers, as we’ve seen, have a few new ways to humiliate students, and coworkers have new ways to make trouble at the workplace, and these, for one, may include spreading gossip about bands you like or celebrities you have a crush on.
We’re not sure where this change had first manifested, but while doing the Alphabet Challenge, we noticed that the game has made it harder for couples to have babies in certain cases — it would seem that there may be a hidden fertility-related stat somewhere that makes it hard to have children with certain NPCs. Again, this is an apparent tweak that makes things more realistic, but do take note of this if you’re planning to take the Alphabet Challenge (if still available) or anything else similar in the future.