Despite Candywriter’s focus on the new, animal-based life simulator DogLife, the company’s OG life simulator is still proving to be quite the popular title for iOS and Android gamers alike. We may no longer be expecting any major updates to this version of BitLife as we know it, but one thing we can expect on a weekly basis is more new challenges.
This game mode has done a lot to keep the now-three-year-old game relevant, and any regular player knows that whenever the weekend rolls around, it’s time to prepare for a new theme and a new set of requirements for their characters’ virtual lives.
After taking a one-week break for Christmas, BitLife is back with another challenge for all its loyal players, and instead of diving back into the pop culture pile, the folks at Candywriter chose to keep it nice and simple in celebration of the new year. The New Year, New You Challenge doesn’t score too high in terms of its degree of difficulty, but the requirements are rather specific, and you may need to be a bit patient and do some BitLife-style grinding by repeating certain tasks.
If you need some help completing this challenge, fear not, as we are also back with a BitLife mini-strategy guide that covers the New Year, New You Challenge, and everything you need to do to complete it in as little time possible.
Getting Started – Get A High-Paying Job So You Can Afford Those Vacations
When creating a character for the New Year, New You Challenge, there are no specific parameters to keep in mind — you can create a male or female character and not mind the stats too much, though as you’ll find out in a bit, having good Looks and/or Smarts may come in handy later on. Birthplace is also irrelevant, and so is your character’s early backstory, just as long as you don’t get into any sort of legal trouble, as a criminal record may make it hard for you to emigrate to another country.
What you may want to do is to aim for a high-paying job so that you can afford the first-class vacations and cruises that make up the bulk of the New Year, New You Challenge. If you have God Mode, you should have it easy — choose Sports or Music as a Special Skill, and you can get started on the challenge before you turn 21 years old (assuming you were drafted out of high school/started your musical career after high school).
Otherwise, your high Looks could help you get a job as an actor, and high Smarts could give you an inside track at some high-paying jobs. But once you’ve got about a million in your bank balance, you can get started with the challenge and start living a new life in the new year.
Do Not Take Your Driver’s License Test Just Yet!
Your first instinct upon turning 16 or 17 (depending on which part of the world you character is from) may be to take your driver’s license test so that your parents can give you a car — it’s the most instinctive thing to do in the real world, so why not do the same in BitLife? For the purposes of the New Year, New You Challenge, however, you’ll need to wait until you have enough money to complete all the other requirements before you apply for your driver’s license. (Or you can deliberately fail your test — whichever works for you.)
As each and every requirement needs to be completed in the span of one in-game year, you cannot apply for one license then wait a few more years before applying for the others. It may seem counterintuitive, but it is what it is — wait till you’ve got enough money for everything, then apply for all the licenses.
The Pilot’s License And Boating License May Require Some Research
We’d say that most players shouldn’t have much of a problem with the driver’s license test — for the most part, it’s all about basic road signs, though some of the tougher ones may appear more often than the others. However, applying for the other two licenses may not be that cut-and-dry, which is why we would suggest using the power of Google to figure out just what the images mean for both of those tests.
Before you even apply for your pilot’s license, you will need to complete 40 hours of flight school, which will set you back $165 per hour if your character is based in the U.S. — doing the math, that will cost you a total of $6,600 for all 40 hours. Just go to Activities, then Licenses, then Flight School, and choose the 10-hour option four times.
It’s as easy as that — you won’t need to complete any mini-games or answer any questions in order to graduate from flight school. After you’ve completed 40 hours, you can take your pilot’s license test, and at that point, you can start researching to figure out what those images mean.
Applying for a boating license is much less time-consuming — tap on Boating License and pay $200 for each try at the license test. This may be even trickier than the pilot’s license test, but the good thing here is that each test attempt won’t cost you that much. You can, of course, always exit the game and restart so you can avoid paying extra for a retake, but either way, the important thing is to obtain all three licenses in the same year — doesn’t matter how many times you end up taking the tests.
The Other Requirements Are Mostly About Repetition
Everything after the driver’s, pilot’s, and boating licenses should be smooth sailing (no pun intended), provided you’re going into these requirements with enough money. At this point, we should also take note that it would be better if you embark on these last few requirements as a single man or woman; if you have a partner, that should still be fine, but if you have kids, things may get a little too pricey for comfort.
But most first-class vacations should cost you about $10,000 to $20,000 per person; just be sure that you’re taking note of the destination and selecting First in the class of travel drop-down box for each of your ten tries. There isn’t anything specifying that each first-class vacation should be to a different destination, but it’s always good to be on the safe side.
As for the cruises, you should have three options for destination and four choices for the cabin type — make sure the cruise type and cabin type are all different in each of your three tries, because it is this requirement that specifies a “different” type of cruise in order for the requirement to be completed. Fortunately, these won’t set you back by as much as the first-class vacations — most cruises will only cost you $1,500 to $4,000 per person.
The final two requirements in BitLife’s New Year, New You Challenge, thankfully, do not require any repetition. Go to the Identity section to legally change your name for $200, and choose any country you wish in the Emigrate section — provided you don’t have a criminal record, you should be approved immediately. Complete those two requirements and that should wrap it up for the New Year, New You Challenge.
As it has been for every challenge in 2020 and 2021, the same system applies — pick one out of the four prize chests and get a new pair of eyewear or a new hat for your characters or for NPC family members and friends!