MDickie (a.k.a. Mat Dickie, who appears as one of the inmates in the game) gives you a list of basics in his game description, but our Hard Time strategy guide goes deeper into life at Southtown, and how you can make your jail sentence bearable and as problem-free as possible. And since this can be quite a detailed guide, this will be the first of two parts in a series of tips and tricks.
One of the drawbacks of Hard Time is that you can’t choose a character to start with – you get assigned an inmate at random. But unlike School Days, where each student has their own strengths and weaknesses, all inmates start off with 60 Strength, 60 Agility, 60 Intellect, and 50 Reputation. While it’s cool to be controlling an inmate who looks like Elvis Presley or one who closely resembles WWE’s Undertaker or even The Incredible Hulk, it doesn’t make any difference at the end of the day – you always start out with the same stats, regardless of character.
Still, the good thing is that you’re given the option to customize your inmate before you head off to jail, including their stats (you have 35 points to spend to add to the four stats), their moves, their appearance, as well as their names.
Flexing dumbbells is a great way to increase your Strength, though if you flex for a while, you’ll lose some of your Agility. Your Reputation can also improve with the dumbbell, though not as quickly as your Strength would improve.
Conversely, shooting hoops at the Exercise Yard will earn you one Agility point for each basket made, and if you keep shooting without letting up, regardless of how many shots you make or miss, you’ll lose a bit of Strength. The same applies for running around the prison – more Agility, less Strength.
When it comes to your Intellect, this is oddly improved (or decreased, depending on your success) through fighting, but you can also read a book and gain extra Intellect points. Lastly, Reputation goes up when you snatch an item from someone or get busted by one of the wardens or officers, or if you refuse to follow orders. It goes down when getting beaten up in a fight, or if you go with the program and follow what the people in authority tell you to do.
You may be minding your own business and trying to remain at your best behavior while locked up, but the people at Southtown won’t make it easy for you. And while it’s but natural to expect attacks from other inmates, the wardens may decide to pick a fight on you for no reason whatsoever! In fact, random attacks from wardens are more common than those from inmates, as far as we’ve noticed. If this happens, do your best to steer clear from them – you can also fight them, but if you lose, you could suffer a loss to your reputation, if not get busted and sent to court.
Now, that you’ve finished reading the first part of our Hard Time strategy guide, be sure to check out the second part of tips and tricks as well!