I Was A Teenage Exocolonist — 6 Tips & Tricks

I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is a surprisingly in-depth game. Making the wrong choices can lead tn unfavourable ending very quickly, but that's part of the game's charm — learn and try again. To ensure that you don't have to learn and try again with the very basics, however, here are 6 tips & tricks to get you started on your journey across Vertumna!

#1 — Play Your First Time Blind

Okay, I know I just said I'm about to teach you about the game but don't close the article just yet — I'm going to be teaching you basics, not important details about the game.

For as long as you can avoid it, do not delve into any spoiler territory or information about the game. If you're generally unfussed about trigger and content warnings, then avoid that section and start your first playthrough. Not knowing what awaits you is a big part of the fun.

#2 — Play At Least Two Runs

I'm not a big fan of visual novels, so I'm usually a one-and-done kind of gal — once I have gotten my ending, I will live with the consequences and move on. No point in seeing what would happen to a hypothetical version of me if it isn't fully and wholly me, right? Not in I Was A Teenage Exocolonist.

Plainly put, this is the first visual novel I've finished, and I started a save file right away... twice in a row. Not only is your second playthrough dramatically different (for reasons I do not want to disclose), but also because the more you learn about the game, the better it is. Even if I knew where most of my actions were going to lead me, I didn't really know what some of the endings were leading me towards, and that was a large part of the fun. Experiment a little and see what comes up with your new lives!

#3 — You Can Pick Up Items

Items blend into the environment very nicely, unlike some games (hi Skyrim). For the longest time, I was unaware I could forage anything until many months into my first playthrough. That meant that by the time I was already reaching a couple of years of age, I was under-equipped because I didn't have items to use on my cards for harder battles, and I hadn't gifted anyone anything, so they didn't like me.

Notably, you can find different items with each change of the season (this can change depending on perks), so make sure you keep an eye out, do a jog around the colony, and see which items spawned. You can experiment with these by gifting them and using them in cards to make your goals more feasible later on in the game.

#4 — Train Up Some Combat Abilities

Despite how much you might want to be a pacifist and become Cal's #2 in the war against humans against nature (wow that's a mouthful), you won't be useful to Vertumna that way.

Combat abilities (named physical abilities in-game) are core to most of the special endings. Simply put, you're not going to get a lot of conclusions and succeed in a lot of requests if you're trying to do no harm. Even if you don't want special endings, you're going to need a lot of the supplies that are abundant in the wild in Vertumna that you won't find within the confines of the Strato Colony.

#5 — Focus On One Thing First

Despite the fact that you should learn to have some combat abilities, that doesn't mean that you need to. Combat can wait a little bit while you get other career-focused skills up, notably anything in the mental or social categories in the game.

Don't spread yourself too thin by trying to get everything at once as it won't lead to anything good, and it'll make your run likely more frustrating than it has to be. Be the best engineer, be the best soldier, or be the best chef — and feel free to divert only once you've actually "completed" your first job.

#6 — Try To Befriend People — And Try To Befriend Those That You Are Compatible With

You might want to be friends with everyone on your first run... or you might hate most people. Regardless of which of the two ends of the spectrum you end up in, you'll want to be able to focus your friendships accordingly.

Yes, that means that if you are going for a specific build, you should try to befriend the people associated with the said profession. Want to be an engineer? Befriend (and maybe even marry!) Tang. Looking to become governor? Marzipan is the way to go. This will ensure that you not only get your friendships up as much as you can, but you'll also get to experience all the game has to offer. Who knows, maybe you will like that one character you hate after you romance them!

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There you have it! Six tips to get you started on your journey across the perilous lands of Vertumna. There are plenty of other things that I'd love to touch on, but considering those are delving into spoiler territory, I'd rather leave them for you to decipher! Best of luck, colonist!