With much of the world still in quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic, Candywriter has been keeping fans entertained over the past few months with a number of major updates for its biggest iOS and Android game so far. We are, of course, talking about BitLife, which, for those who aren’t quite aware yet, is a life simulator that allows you to control a virtual character from their birth to their death, making different decisions that cover everything from early childhood, school, work, and beyond. The game now comes with well over a hundred different career paths, but thanks to its latest update, it is now possible to turn your Bitizen into a successful politician.
Although, Candywriter originally planned to release the Politics Update in the immediate lead-up to the U.S. presidential elections, the company has done BitLife players around the world a solid by releasing the new update over the weekend, thus allowing for even more fun and more interesting new scenarios while staying at home and practicing social distancing.
This update is all about rising to political power, not just in your school district, which is where you will be able to start out, but in your hometown, your home state or province, and eventually, your home country. Whether you’re simply aiming to become School Board Director or aiming to become your country’s next president, we’ve got it all covered in this new BitLife guide, which covers every facet of the Politics Update, and all the tips you need to win any and all elections.
Before Your Political Career: Keep Your Nose Clean As A Child, Teen, And Young Adult
The first thing to bear in mind when it comes to the Politics Update is that not every Bitizen can run for office. It is recommended that you have at least decent Smarts to be considered for a political position, and if your character isn’t born with a high intelligence rating, it is recommended that you get this stat up by reading books, going to the library, joining clubs in school, and taking advantage of the random boost opportunities that pop up every once in a while when you age up.
And just as we hinted above, it’s also recommended that you don’t just hit the books, study hard, and get good grades — you also need to avoid getting into trouble in school for bullying others, acting up in class, or even fighting back against bullies or laughing at troublemaking classmates. Not only can this negatively affect your grades — once you start running for Mayor, Governor/Council Chair, or President//Prime Minister, your opponents can use this against you, thus potentially costing you the people’s vote!
After graduating from high school, it is recommended that you attend college — while you can run for School Board Director or Mayor even if you’re just a high school graduate, both Governor/Council Chair (college) and President/Prime Minister (graduate school) require higher educational attainment in order to qualify for the elections. Again, it is strongly advised that you keep your grades up and avoid trouble, and since you’ll be 18 by the time you enter your first year of college, that also means avoiding the temptation to try any illegal drugs once you go clubbing!
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Trying alcoholic drinks is fine, just as long as you don’t get addicted. But if you do get addicted to drugs or alcohol — even if you enter and successfully complete rehab — or try any of the drugs people at the club may offer you, this too can be used as ammunition in the elections, no matter how long ago it was. Politics is, after all, a dog-eat-dog world, so don’t be surprised if your opponents try to take those skeletons out of your closet by bringing up that time you randomly tried marijuana at the club, or perhaps your past stint in rehab, or worse, your current addiction, may it be to drugs, alcohol, or gambling.
Starting Out As School Board Director (And Getting To Know The Politics Menu)
It is possible — if highly improbable in BitLife — to run for President at the minimum age of 35, and if you want to run for Mayor or Governor, you’ll need to be at least 25 years old. (These are for U.S. Bitizens — requirements may vary depending on your country of choice!) But you can, in theory, apply to become School Board Director the moment you graduate from high school, but in order to do this, you will need to at least have $10,000 to $20,000 available for your campaign budget. Once you have that, you will then get to choose your platform, or the main focus of your administration— Economy, Education, Environment, or Social Issues — then choose how to treat your opponent in the election.
Do you treat them with respect, act indifferently, or treat them with disrespect? Treating opponents with respect is the safest path to take, regardless of which position you’re running for, though you could potentially get bigger wins if you choose to disrespect them — it may or may not happen, and acting disrespectful could lead to a loss, but if you’re looking for bigger wins and a potentially higher starting Approval Rating, you might as well take this gamble.
Also pay attention to your election opponent and their stats — you will have only one here per election, and each candidate will be rated based on three visible stats, namely their Smarts, their Money, and their Ethics. You will also see basic information such as their name, age, party, and platform, though Party obviously won’t be included for School Board Director just yet.
Once elected, you will have the option to adjust your Agenda and choose how many hours to devote to the four aspects we mentioned above — for the meantime, we would recommend sticking to the well-balanced schedule the game recommends, which is 10 hours each for Economy, Education, Environment, and Social Issues. You can also try to jumpstart your Approval Rating by organizing a rally — you can choose from a range of enthusiasm levels from Serious to Maniacal — or resign from your post.
Usually, the most effective types of rallies feature Energetic or Maniacal enthusiasm and the maximum amount of money spent toward the rallies ($1,000 for School Board Directors), though you may have to mix things up if you hold too many rallies with so much enthusiasm.
The Approval Ratings section can be found right in between Agenda and Rally, and this is arguably your ground zero as a School Board Director — this, too, applies for other political positions, though the setup for School Board Directors is noticeably simpler. Aside from your overall Approval Rating, which is displayed in numerical and bar form, you will see bars showing your approval in terms of all of the applicable issues.
This is a very helpful tool if you’re looking for something to focus on more in your Agenda — for example, if your Environmental Approval Rating is lower than your rating for the other issues, you can go to Agenda and adjust your hours to devote more time to the environment.
The last option is Speech, where there are three drop-down boxes — you can alleviate public fears, brag about your accomplishments, scare the public, or spread awareness about any of the four aforementioned issues, and if you’re a School Board Administrator, you can do this via Public or Livestream. We would recommend Alleviate Public Fears and Spread Awareness, as these are the safest methods of communication — compared to the other two, you’ll have a typically good chance of riling the public if you opt to Scare the Public or Brag About Accomplishments.
As a School Board Director, you will generally be asked to make smaller-scale decisions that affect your community — you may also encounter these when you win elections for higher positions, but these decisions would normally be limited to scenarios where a homeless man specifically asks for money but not for a job, how to act when an intern tries to seduce you behind the scenes, and the best schedule for the schools in your district. There will definitely be a lot of other scenarios that are specific to the world of education that you may encounter as part of your job.
These are just a few examples, and while there are often multiple “right” and “wrong” answers, some answers are better choices than the others. For example, your Approval Rating could take a hit if you choose to treat homeless people or immigrants poorly or if you choose to give in to temptation and let the intern seduce you, and it could improve significantly if you decide to feed the homeless man instead of kicking him out of the buffet, or if you report that corrupt friend who wants you to prevent schools in your district from buying books online.
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In addition to those scenarios, you may also be offered a bribe by some shady figures, may they be school officials (as would be expected as a School Board Director), businessmen, or other high-ranking officials. The amount of money offered may range from a few hundreds to several millions, and it is possible to accept these bribes without seeing your Approval Rating go down — just be prepared if someone asks you about that money once you run for a higher position! (This may, or may not be a possibility.) Also, keep in mind that accepting a bribe and getting caught is an impeachable offense that could have you removed from office!
Like all other positions, you are only allowed two four-year terms as a School Board Director — this may vary depending on country. You can run for reelection or choose to resign after your first term, though there’s nothing wrong with taking multiple years off in between terms. It’s understandable, after all, that you may need to replenish your war chest and make sure you have enough money to put into your next campaign! (It is at this point where we should also remind you that generally speaking, the more money you put into your campaign, the better are your chances of winning!)
Campaign Budgets Are Non-Refundable, So Save And Quit When Needed
You may be wondering what happens to the money you spend on your campaign — do you get it back if you lose the election or worse, don’t even make it on the ballot? Unfortunately, the answer to this question would be “no.” Just like in real life, the money spent by losing candidates in an election is gone forever.
However, in this game, there’s still no such thing as fundraising that could help add to your war chest, and no such thing as Super PACs that could do the same for your campaign and save you some valuable in-game money when running for office. That means if you allocate money toward your campaign and aren’t successful, you will a) lose the money completely and b) have to wait four years until the next election!
There is, however, a very easy workaround here, and that is simply to exit BitLife after you are informed that you didn’t make the ballot or if the results are in and you end up losing. Hopefully, Candywriter doesn’t nerf this like the gambling “cheat” that allowed players to keep their money after they lose a bet at the blackjack tables or at the horse races, but for now, it’s just as easy as quitting, restarting, and trying again — either with a larger investment for your campaign or with different types of answers for the scenarios that pop up during the election process.
Running For Mayor Or Governor – The Next Steps Of Your Political Career
Again, we must remind everyone checking out BitLife’s politics update that you can skip one position in your political career, but it’s better to go through two terms at each post before finally running for President/Prime Minister. So with that out of the way, let’s look at what changes once you run for Mayor.
When running for Mayor, this will mark your first chance to choose your political party — for this position, at least in the U.S., you can choose from either one of the two major parties (Democrat or Republican) or a couple other minor parties, namely Green or Socialist. Crime and Healthcare make their first appearance as two additional issues you can base your platform on, aside from the first four, which are Economy, Education, Environment, and Social Issues. This time, your minimum recommended campaign budget would be around $50,000 to $80,000 (this could be higher for the smaller parties) if you want the best chances of winning. (See the final tip for ways in which you can save up enough money and go from strength to strength in the world of politics!)
The Q&A scenarios during the election process are the same as they are for School Board Director, though this time, your opponents may now choose to play dirty and ask some below-the-belt questions. This will largely depend on their Ethics, so if their Ethics stat is in red or orange territory, chances are good that they’ll try to throw you off your game by insulting you during a debate or smearing you through social media or through billboards. (Correspondingly, you will be asked how you plan to react to these dirty tactics — will you stoop down to their level and fire back with an insult or unflattering billboard of your own, or will you be the bigger man or woman and choose to ignore it?)
In addition, mayoral elections are where you can expect another type of mudslinging, which involves the spreading of rumors. Just as we said in the first tip, keeping your nose clean as a kid prevents political opponents from digging up your past history and using it against you during the elections. Regardless whether you’re being accused of trying marijuana when you were younger (and you actually did) or if you’re being accused of believing in things like aliens or flat-earth theories (this could happen if you had a clean, incident-free youth), you can confirm or deny the rumors, slam them as fake news, or try to turn the tables by spreading a rumor about your opponent.
Denying the rumors if false is the best and safest choice, while admitting them if true would typically result in a loss — even if it’s common knowledge that young people will always be prone to immature or irresponsible behavior and their fair share of experimenting. It seems slightly effective to denounce rumors — whether true or false — as fake news, while starting a rumor about the rival candidate is a classic example of a high-risk, high-reward scenario, with the risk and reward factors increasing from mayoral, gubernatorial, to presidential elections as you go along. Most of the time, this won’t be effective in helping you pick up the win, but sometimes, that mudslinging coming from your end — especially if you chose to act disrespectfully toward your opponent — might pay off.
Once elected as Mayor, most aspects of your job will work the same with a few add-ons — same yearly scenarios but with a citywide focus, same rallies but with the maximum investment being $52,000 per rally, same Agenda and Speech options but with the two additional issues, as well as Radio and Television appearances now available for Speech. You will, however, get your first chance to pass or veto new laws — most of them, such as forcing restaurants serve donuts every Friday or banning dancing on TikTok, are rather frivolous. These would usually pop up among your yearly political scenarios after hitting on Age, but you can also see new laws appear in the Law Review section from time to time.
Last, but not least, you will be introduced to the Headlines section as Mayor, and this is another very helpful tool, as it will show you what people are most concerned about. In the example we provided, there are headlines talking about a “dying” music scene and a “glass ceiling” in the corporate world that prevents people from advancing up the ladder — this suggests people are perturbed about the economy, so you’ll want to focus your speeches on alleviating public fears about the economy, or devote more hours in your Agenda toward fixing the economy. Meanwhile, there’s a positive mention of a lower crime rate, so you probably wouldn’t want to focus too much on that, either in terms of your Agenda or your Speech content.
Gubernatorial elections are similar, with the same six platform choices, same sections in the menu, a focus on statewide issues for your annual scenarios, and a maximum $247,000 budget for rallies. The barrier for making the ballot, however, is substantially more prohibitive — a budget of at least $1.5 million is recommended in order to launch a successful campaign. You will also need to be a college graduate to make it on the ballot, just as we mentioned earlier, and you may also find it harder to pick up landslide victories when running for Governor than it was when you were running for School Board Director or Mayor.
Being the man/woman in charge in your state or province is, again, similar to running your home city when it comes to those administrative tasks. However, once you become Governor, Council Chair, or any equivalent position, this also launches you to the status of Famous Politician — the perks of celebrity apply here, which means you can go to the Fame section under Activities and publish books, appear in commercials, pose for photoshoots, or appear on talk shows to earn some extra cash. Be warned, though, that doing so while still in your position is grounds for impeachment!
While it’s fairly easy to get a high Approval Rating as a School Board Director, that’s not exactly the case for Mayors and Governors or their equivalents. You may need to work more than 40 hours a week, on top of properly balancing your focus on each of the relevant issues, because if you aren’t focusing enough time (or aren’t focusing enough, period) on the right things, that could cause your Approval Rating to go down instead of up when you hit the Age button! Conversely, striking the right balance and devoting the ideal amount of time to each issue will result in an organic Approval Rating increase once you age up and finish one year of your term.
Running For President – Big Dreams, Big Budgets, And Big Responsibilities
Last, but not the least, BitLife’s Politics update allows you to run for President or Prime Minister of your country, with the requirements that you meet the minimum age, have finished graduate school, and have at least $5 million or so in your war chest for your campaign budget, with $20 million or more most recommended for the best chances of winning. This, however, applies if you’re representing one of the major parties.
If you’re running as part of the Green Party, as a Socialist, as a Nationalist, as a Libertarian, or even as a Fascist — those last three party choices become available if you’re running for U.S. president — the threshold for making the ballot becomes higher! (In case you’re curious, you need to invest $10-15 million if you’re running as a Fascist, and that’s the bare minimum — you may need to double, or even quadruple that if you’re actually hoping to win!) You’ll also need a high Fame level to improve your chances of winning and build up your social media following to reduce the costs of entry, though we’ll be discussing that in greater depth in a bit.
A number of new issues will also become available among your choices of platform — now entering the mix for presidential candidates are Foreign Policy, Immigration, and National Security. These, too, will show up under your Agenda and Approval Ratings sections once elected, thus making it nine different issues which you would need to take into account when balancing those 40 hours (or more).
There’s also an area under Agenda for Golf, which could reduce your stress levels but also cause your Approval Ratings to drop if you spend too much time on the golf course. Also prepare to spend millions if you’re looking to hold a successful Rally — the maximum budget per Rally goes to around $2.5 million if you’re the commander-in-chief!
Aside from those things, plus the fact that running your country as President requires a focus on national issues in the yearly scenarios, it’s pretty much the same in terms of mechanics. But maintaining a high Approval Rating is substantially tougher, of course, especially with nine different issues to tackle. Just be sure to read the Headlines and check the Approval Ratings section and plan your speeches/adjust your agenda accordingly if you want a good chance of ending your first term with a high Approval Rating and a similarly good chance of winning your bid for reelection.
What Are The Impeachable Offenses In The Politics Update?
So far, the most significant impeachable offenses, regardless of your position, involve money, and that means bribes and money earned through books, commercials, and photoshoots. We did try having one of our test Btizens have an extramarital relationship while serving as President, but that didn’t result in any impeachment alert. But it goes without saying that you should avoid being impeached, because as far as we’ve seen, this almost always results in us getting removed from power. And once you’ve been removed from power via impeachment, you cannot run for the same position for a second term!
In other words, accept those bribes at your own risk and if you want to build up your fame and earn more money as a Famous Politician, do so when you’re not in office. Which, in fact, brings us to our final tip in this guide.
Building Your War Chest – How Can You Earn Enough Money To Become A Successful Virtual Politician?
The easiest way to have all the funds you need to become your country’s leader and get elected to all the other available political positions in the game is to be born a second- or third-generation Bitizen, having inherited hundreds of millions of dollars as the sole heir of someone who became a famous celebrity.
If you’ve got Bitizenship, this should be very, very easy just as long as you follow the basic steps — be a well-behaved youth, finish graduate school, serve two terms each as School Board Director, Mayor, and Governor, keep your Approval Ratings high, then run for President. But what if you’re a mere first-generation player on the free version and don’t have God Mode installed either to make your parents rich, thus allowing you to inherit a ton of money?
First off, you’ll want to take a part-time job while attending university, avoiding extra-curricular activities and studying hard in order to keep your grades high. It also helps if you work a regular job for a few years before becoming School Board Director, but in any case, it’s advisable to buy a house early on, and turn a profit by selling your house right before you finish your first term as School Board Director.
You can repeat the fix-and-flip process as you move up the ranks by buying decrepit houses, renovating them, living in them for a while, then selling them for a nice profit. At some point, you should already have your social media account up — you’ll need this once you become famous.
Once you’ve become a Famous Politician as a Governor, wait till your first term ends, then appear in a ton of commercials — it helps to quit the game, restart it, appear in a new commercial, then repeat the process until you’ve starred in several commercials/photoshoots within the span of one year.
Also be sure to be posting regularly on social media to increase your following — having at least a million followers is strongly recommended, as is getting your account verified! As we mentioned, this not only boosts your chances of winning, but could significantly reduce the amount of money you need to invest for your campaign budget in order to enter the presidential race.
This may take a few years, but just as long as you’ve got your Fame up to 100 percent, you can easily earn $2 million-plus per commercial, and maybe up to $20 million+ a year if you’re patient and keep on quitting/restarting the game!
After completing those steps, you should have enough funds for multiple successful campaigns, as well as a term or two as President — just remember to choose wisely during the election scenarios, and to quit the app and restart it if you lose, in order to keep your campaign funds intact!