Headliner: NoviNews

Headliner: NoviNews

58 ratings
Collaborative guide - achievements and story
By 。✧★☽༓☾★✧。
Unless the game updates this is complete now.
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Help Wanted!
By the nature of the game, this guide will have to be a collaborative effort unless I want to spend the next two weeks playing it non-stop. Which I might do anyway, but still.

Any information you can provide that isn't already in the guide is welcome. Just leave a comment. Please try to be as specific as possible - if you're not sure how you triggered something, just summarise choices that are different from a playthrough in which it didn't happen. We can whittle it down to the decisive choice by process of elimination.

This guide contains unmarked spoilers. Its purpose is to help you see or avoid a certain event; or earn a specific achievement.
Unorganised Notes
Notes from which I can build a more full guide:

If you hit Escape, dialogue will skip to the next significant segment - often a choice.

If you feed the dog treats, it doesn't eat food that day. If you don't feed it for four(?) days in a row, it disappears.

You can only buy one of something from the shop each day. This makes it impossible to feed the dog treats on Sundays, when the shop is closed.

If healthcare becomes free, Evie experiences sufficient delays to become infertile, and your brother gets therapy. If it fails, Evie can have children, and your brother doesn't get therapy. There is no happy balance. However, Evie's inability to have children affects nothing but a couple of lines of dialogue - your brother not getting therapy has far deeper consequences.

If you buy Henri a suit, he'll provide a couple of happy updates. If you don't buy the suit, he just repeats the same conversation every time you talk to him.

While the dog will run away even if you talk to it every day but fail to feed it, doing the same for the drone will result in it staying. However, if you never talk to the drone, protestors will arrive outside your house shouting about drone abuse, and your drone will be gone.

If you don't adopt the dog on day two, it re-appears on day five.

The six-person swan-dive off your roof is a forced, scripted event. It's unpreventable and unchangeable. You can only change how people will react to it.
Unmissable Achievements
Hit steam's accursed section character limit, so I've split achievements up.

These achievements earned simply by playing, and don't require any special effort.

Day 1 to Day 14: Wake up on the requisite day / go to bed the previous day.

Headliner: Complete the game.

Return Customer: Complete the game a second time.

Fifth Time's the Charm: Complete the game five times. While it might be possible to get every other achievement save this one with an incredibly streamlined approach, there's a high chance that if you're achievement-hunting, you'll get this one along the way. And, quite frankly, there's enough different that even if you're not achievement-hunting, you're likely to get this just by exploring other paths.

Also, thanks Llama o'Drama for helping out in the guide's early stages! And thanks to everyone else in the comments, too.
Variable Achievements
Achievements earned by performing a certain way. You have to actually try to get these.
Note: Many of these achievements don't pop until you end the day.

Adopt a Dog: When a dog follows you home on day two, talk to it when an interaction bubble appears above it. Invite it to come with you.

Adopt a Drone: As with the dog, when a drone follows you home, invite it in.

Comedy Star: Invite Justin stay for the weekend and tell him to seek therapy after you've published articles in favour of universal healthcare. May or may not require a Big Crowd at his comedy night.

Comedy Fail: Tell Justin he can't stay the weekend, and his jokes will fall flat. May or may not require a poor mental state on his part (no therapy).

Call to Fame: Same requirements as Comedy Star, plus publishing Evie's article about Justin being arrested for his comedy, bailing Justin out before day 13, and continuing to be supportive of Justin until he leaves.

What a Crowd: - Draw a Big Crowd to Justin's comedy night. Either publish an advert in your newspaper, or pay 150 for alcohol.

Nationalised Healthcare: Publish articles in favour of free/universal healthcare.

Privatized Healthcare: Do not publish articles in favour of universal healthcare. Publish articles directly opposing that concept.

Drone Incident: Don't publish articles in favour of surveillance and/or military in the streets. Most players get this by accident on their first playthrough.

Conspiracy: Agree with the browncoats and publish all three of their articles.

You're Fired: Exact requirements unknown. Most likely, use up all three strikes - meaning do three things that get you in trouble with your boss. Aiming for Conspiracy should net you this achievement with no extra effort. Posting negative things about BetterBuzz, and the advert for Justin's show, should also do the trick. You don't get fired until day 14 no matter how early you meet the requirements.

Minister of information: Be supportive of the government always, throughout the whole game.

Assassination: Get Wolff assassinated. To do this, publish anti-governmental articles, and the esposé given to you by the browncoats after they ask you to meet them behind the noodle shop. Unknown if publishing the first article they send you is also a requirement.

Impeachment: Get Wolff impeached. To do this, publish anti-governmental articles, but not the browncoat exposé. A low investment in surveillance/military may also be necessary.

True Love: Talk to Evie in a positive, supportive manner. Free/private healthcare doesn't matter as long as she can afford medication. Do not get her deported – take a balanced view on crime and globalism. The achievement pops when day 14 ends with Evie in your apartment, and not feeling ill.

True hate: Get Evie to hate you. Be as cruel to her as you possibly can. Channel your inner 4 chin troll. Warning: Her responses are uncomfortable.

Business Success: Help Rudy make a lot of money. Possibly multiple routes. 1) Be pro BetterBuzz and tell Rudy to sell it. 2) Be anti-globalized markets. 3) Both?

Bye Boss: Get your boss arrested. Publishing browncoat articles most likely to be a direct route regardless of anything else. A hard anti-government stance should also work.

Affordable Medicine: Publish positive articles about medication. Do not publish the article stating that demands for lower prices in medicine stopping a seizure medication from being sold. Publish the article stating that medicine needs to be more affordable. Whether or not healthcare is free doesn't matter.

Price Hike: Publish positive articles about medication. Publish the article claiming a seizure medication wasn't developed due to the price demand being too low. Publish articles about "the market righting itself".

Taken Away: Feed Justin anti-government jokes before his show and just leave him in jail until the end of the game. Note: you may need to actually visit him on days 13 and 14 to get the achievement.

Burn Baby Burn: Cause the Duna Buy to get burned down. To do this, publish anti-globalisation (pro-nationalist) articles and blame the plague on Learisian mods. Or, blame the suicides on Learisian mods.

Share your Story: Click the share button after the end of the game. You don't actually have to share anything to get the achievement.

Prevent Drone Incident: Publish articles in favour of surveillance and/or the military.

War: Publish anti-globalisation articles, and generally any article that suggests any and all problems are the fault of non-Novistan interests. May require pro-surveillence/military, too.

Deported: Get Evie deported. Take a generally pro-government, xenophobic approach. Don't have to blame problems on Learisian mods to do this. You have to talk to her outside after she gets escorted from the office to get the achievement.

Sell Out: Turn RudyMart into a BetterBuzz one-stop shop. Publish positive articles about BetterBuzz and encourage Rudy, the shopkeeper, to sell it. Once his shop sells nothing but BetterBuzz, you should get the achievement.

Business Fail: Cause RudyMart to fail. Publish negative articles about BetterBuzz (or just discourage him to sell it) and take a pro-globalisation stance in the news.

Crime Profiling Domestic: Exclusively publish articles on domestic crime but not on foreigners' crimes.

Crime Profiling Foreigners: Exclusively publish articles on foreign criminals, crime but not on Novistani crimes.

Lose a Dog: Never feed the dog. It will eventually run away.

Lose a Drone: Invite the drone into your home, then never talk to it again.

Bad Blood: Get RudyMart burned down. To do this, publish nothing but negative press about BetterBuzz, while encouraging Rudy to sell it. Protestors should appear on day 5, and the building should be burned down on day 9.

Deep Pockets: Save 600 novibucks. This achievement now pops when you end a day with 600! Just don't buy anything until you get it.

Good Job Headliner! Make your boss proud of you. Not getting him arrested is probably a huge part of this. This means not publishing browncoat or anti-government articles. Exact requirements unknown, this is a guess.

Overdose: Allow/cause Justin to die by overdose. One approach is to publish pro-MoodEx, anti-BetterBuzz, and anti-healthcare. Possibly get the price of medicine down. Get him arrested, then bail him out. It doesn't matter how supportive you are in dialogue, the lack of a therapist + easy access to MoodEx will result in an overdose eventually.

Hospitalized: Get Justin hospitalised. Support cheap medicine but private healthcare, and BetterBuzz. He'll try to self-medicate with both. When you find him passed out, choose every dialogue option that mentions he's breathing. (Note: there's one dialogue section that requires you to choose all three options before you can continue).

Dronno to the Rescue: Take the drone home and feed it batteries every day you can. Take a pro-government/pro-Wolff stance, don't publish any conspiracy articles. You'll experience an assassination attempt.

Death by Press: Take the same stances as above, but do not adopt the drone. Also take a heavily anti-police stance, as they'll save you otherwise.

Elementary, Watson: Correctly solve the murder of Sofia, and do not publish the article stating the case is nearly solved.

Smooth Criminal: Correctly solve the murder, and publish the article about it nearly being solved.
Money / Pay
By default, your pay is 50/day. It is reduced to 33/day after the first offence, and 16/day after the second offence. Pay-rises don't happen.

Failing to publish positive articles about BetterBuzz when your boss has explicitly told you to will result in a company-wide pay-cut. Posting unauthorised articles will only cut your pay.

Publishing every positive article, and zero negative articles, about BetterBuzz will grant you a 200-buck bonus on Day 6. Great if you're aiming for Deep Pockets.

If you cause a company-wide pay-cut and reduce the cost of medicine, Evie can still afford treatment. If you cause a pay-cut but do not influence the cost of medicine, she will not be able to afford treatment.

On 50/day, spending absolutely no money (except Justin's antacids, which you're paid back for) nets you 700 on day 14. Therefore, the simplest way to earn Deep Pockets is to just not spend any money for a whole playthrough. In this way, it should even be possible to earn it with one pay-cut. With no pay-cuts, you can buy Henri a suit or feed your dog a treat (or your drone batteries) every day and still earn the achievement. Buying alcohol for the comedy night is an instant loss unless you're going for the BetterBuzz bonus.
Evie / Coworker
Despite the implication by the visibility of her name on them, you can decline to publish any or all of Evie's articles and still successfully date her. She clearly believes in separation of work and love.

Evie appears outside the café whether she invites you to join her or not.

When discussing her card collection, you can safely call Evie a nerd, even though if you say it's cute she'll say she wouldn't want to be called that.

Evie is a forgiving girlfriend. Many of the "bad responses" in conversation don't result in as negative a reaction as you'd expect, but there are specific "worst responses" in certain conversations that will result in the relationship ending. This means if you accidentally click the wrong button in conversation, don't freak out. She'll forgive you.
(Obviously, more details coming on what's forgivable and what isn't are coming as I figure that out)

If you advocate free healthcare, Evie experiences sufficient delays to become infertile, and your brother gets therapy. If it fails, Evie remains fertile, and your brother doesn't get therapy. Similarly, if you take an anti-medication stance, Evie will become infertile due to boycotts, and may become gravely ill if the prices are increased.

In order to earn the True Love achivement, Evie must be able to afford medication. It doesn't matter if she's fertile or not.

If you don't adopt the dog, during your conversation with Evie at the café on day four, the "play with my dog" line will be replaced with "hiking".
Justin / Brother
If you buy the antacid, your brother will pay you back the next day. On balance, you don't lose out. If you promise to buy it, and don't, no more is said of the matter.

For comedy night, there are two methods to get a big crowd: Paying 150 for alcohol, or publishing an advert. If you publish the advert, the option to pay for alchohol disappears. If you don't publish the advert, you can still decline to pay and your brother will get a smaller crowd. If you publish the advert, your pay will be cut. Either method earns the What a Crowd achievement.

If your brother is still in jail on day fourteen, and you don't switch to pro-government articles, he will disappear.

If you let your brother stay the weekend, he feeds the dog - meaning you don't have to pay for food at all until after he's left, as the length of time between gaining the dog and your brother arriving is just shorter than the length of time needed for the dog to run away due to hunger.

If you don't let him stay the weekend, he's far more likely to fail entirely at comedy, and without a therapist he'll spiral into even worse depression.

When he's discussing his depression as you eat together, it doesn't matter which of the three guesses you make as to "the worst part" - he'll always agree with you.

The conversation by the window on the second day of his visit informs his comedy routine - if you want him to take a more pro- or anti- governmental stance, think about that as you choose your responses. Even one negative comment is enough for arrest - regardless of the size of the crowd.

If he is arrested and wasn't in therapy, he grows more despondant as his time in jail increases. If released, and you've posted sufficient articles in support of MoodEx (if the shopkeeper's daughter is taking it, that's a sign you have), he'll overdose on them in your home.

If you publish positive articles about BetterBuzz, and negative articles about medication, your brother will try to treat his depression with alcohol. No overdose, but no comedy career either.

If you draw a big crowd (advert/paid for drinks) to your brother's show, and his mental health is improving, he'll have the opportunity for a bigger comedy career - this is how you earn the achievement.

If you find your brother passed out on the floor, look around. If you see thin-necked alcohol bottles and some kind of liquid on the floor, he's still alive. (The synthehol causes him to vomit up the MoodEx.) If it's just pills, he's dead.
National / Global
Publishing nothing but positive articles about free healthcare will cause the bill to pass; negative articles cause it to fail. I've yet to experiment with balance.

Blaming the suicides on Learisian genetic mods can result in the DunaBuy being burned down, earning the achievement. - I'm not sure if it's a guarantee or if it needs another trigger, too.

If you take a heavily anti-Wolff stance, but do not publish the browncoat exposé, he will not be assassinated - his stand will simply burn, and he will be impeached. If you are both anti-Wolff and publish the exposé, he will be assassinated. Both result in the relevent achievement.
Browncoats / Conspiracy
Whether or not you meet the browncoats behind the noodle shop, their article will appear for you to publish. If you do not, you will recieve threats, but nothing comes of them.

Publishing the exposé they give you after the (failed/successful) meeting behind the noodle shop will result in assassination of Wolff if you've also been taking an anti-governmental stance.

Occasionally, you may walk past a bluecoat who tells you the browncoats are lying. They never initiate conversation or send articles to your newspaper.

The conspiracy is always the same, no matter what news you publish - indicating that the browncoats may be the only people whose opinion you cannot influence.

After Wolff has been dealt with, you may notice an article on the new president mentioning his brown coat. Make of that what you will.
Rudy / Shopkeeper
Regardless of what you publish in the news, what you personally say to Rudy about BetterBuzz is the only factor that determines his decision to sell it or not.

If you take an anti-BetterBuzz stance, especially if you blame the suicides on it, but tell him to sell it anyway, protestors will be outside his shop on day 5. Rudy himself will be outside, and you won't be able to buy anything. The RudyMart (now Rudy's Moonshine) will be burned down completely on day 9 if you maintain your stance and reinforce to Rudy that he should continue selling BetterBuzz, netting you the Bad Blood achievement.
Warning: This has unpleasant consequences.

If you take a pro-BetterBuzz stance and tell him to sell it, he'll Sell Out and give you the achievement.

If you publish positive articles about MoodEx, Rudy's daughter will be given it, and will never speak. She only opens up to the player if she is not put on MoodEx, and offers new unique dialogue during the second and third playthroughts.
Cop / Murder
On Day 1, when walking home, talk to the cop outside the park and offer to help with the investigation to begin a new side-plot. From hereon in, if you want to solve this yourself, write down any information that seems significant. Outright answers will be spoilered at the bottom of this guide if you just want to know whodunnit.

It's worth noting that for investigation-related dialogue, you can actually go through all questions before ending the conversation.

On Day 2, talk to the cop again to learn about the restaurant outing.

Day 3 is when the investigation really gets going. First, talk to the waiter in blue standing outside the restaurant. Ask about Sofia. They'll offer you some information and then point you to the bar, where you'll talk to Cassie. She'll charge 100 bucks for a look through security footage.

The cop herself will have a story to tell. It is not a pleasant story. "My condolences" feels generic and unfeeling, but it is the correct response.

Finally, before entering your home, travel further to the point of interest at the end of the road. If only you had a key...

Day 4, you'll meet Hermann outside the pub. Ask him about Sofia.

If you say you're not a cop but admit you're investigating, he'll still answer your questions.
If you deny being a cop and claim you and Sofia go way back, he'll refuse to talk to you for the rest of the game.
If you deny being a cop and say you read about it in the news, he'll still refuse to talk to you (you weirdo).

Outside the hospital, you'll bump into Monika. She's straightforward about answering your questions.

Step into the park for the key! Remember to visit the mailbox before you go home.

Day 5, if you ask Hermann about Galixia's feelings towards purists, he will not take it well. If you ask Monika the same question, she's more forthcoming. Today is finally the day you get to report back to the Cop about your findings. Once you're done, she'll tell you she only has three days to solve the case.

Day 6, if you publish the article asking for help with the investigation, Teo will talk to you on your way home. Admit to being the headliner, and he'll help you out. Mention "the note", and he'll refuse to talk to you at all. Of particular note is something he suggests you ask Rudy, the shopkeeper, about, so do that as you pass through.

Day 7, the cop will ask if you have any idea who did it. You can say you have no idea, or choose any suspect. If you choose a suspect, she'll pay you 100 for your help. As an added bonus, if your brother gets arrested, they'll let him out for 100, but only if you point them to the real culprit.

Day 8, if you got it right on Day 7, a Breaking article will appear about the investigation almost being over. If you publish it, it will tip off the murderer and they will get away. (Earning you the Smooth Criminal achievement) Otherwise, talk to the cop to get Elementary, Watson if you got it right. The cop will simply tell you the case fell apart if you were wrong yesterday.

Whodunnit? Monika
30 Comments
Mr.Piesalad 19 Jun @ 2:01pm 
Bad blood doesn't happen day 9 it happens on day 11
0bsidianFire 22 May, 2022 @ 3:45pm 
I can confirm for both Overdose and Hospitalized that you *cannot* emotionally be there for Justin. Even with his access to a therapist denied by Nationalized Healthcare not passing, he won't spiral badly enough to Overdose on MoodEx or BetterBuzz. He'll just take one or both without going overboard.
Weerus 27 Dec, 2021 @ 8:08am 
I want to translate this article into Chinese and publishing for more Chinese users to understand this. I will mark the source and attach this guide and your Steam ID.
。✧★☽༓☾★✧。  [author] 13 Oct, 2021 @ 5:34am 
@danthemanwells3 Start a new save.

Read each news article that comes across your desk. If it describes a crime that happened, look for the (suspected) nationality of the criminal. If the criminal is NOT Novistanian, DO NOT PUBLISH THE ARTICLE.

If the criminal IS Novistanian, publish.

As far as i'm aware, this is entirely separate from the murder investigation. To be safe, don't publish any articles about the murder in this save.
danthemanwells3 1 Oct, 2021 @ 11:38am 
I don't know why but I'm having serious trouble getting "Crime Profiling: Domestic" like it seems really simple but I've tried for it like 3 times now and still no beans. I got the Foreign version in one go. Am I missing something? Does it have to do with the murder investigation? I'm confused
jiazhen.wang 12 Sep, 2021 @ 11:52pm 
So MoodEx can cure my brother but will make that little girl can't speak forever??? Is there a way I only make my brother take that medicine but convince the girl not to take it???
calinamour 5 Apr, 2021 @ 1:16pm 
FYI, I just scored the Proud Boss achievement when I thought I had failed it. Boss got arrested, PM got impeached, but the guy that came to threaten me home because of my hard stance on the government (just couldn't get clear articles on that and was trying a combo for a few achievements) was happy with my work on last day, so it unlocked... with a picture of the boss I got arrested. Wow! XD

So, just make sure you always promote BetterBuzz and don't go too negative on the government. I cannot recall everything, but I unlocked the price hike on med and RudyMart failing, so I privatized health, started open to world (then confused everything a bit to neutralize government stance), tried blaming crime on locals (didn't get it) and hyped the buzz all along. Got both drone and dog to leave, but police force was too strong, so I got saved from the death by press one I think in the end. That was my fifth round. Dang, those are tricky! ><
very_more 30 Jul, 2020 @ 8:06am 
I got Good Job Headliner! after only posting pro Gov things and then posting the last conspiracy piece.
khaymen_graves 7 Dec, 2019 @ 9:00pm 
Ok I think I have a way to get Good Job Headliner!, at least it worked for me. First, approve one positive article about the government, then from there on don't approve any government article, positive or negative without approving the opposite viewpoint on the same day. They will cancel each other out but make sure that your boss doesn't get arrested. (it seems that if you have no positive for the government he's busted.) If on day eleven he's not arrested your on the right track. From then on be negative and post the second conspiracy article. This kills Wolff preventing war and drops government opinion preventing you from getting the ministry promotion. On the last day you should get the achievement. In addition don't blame anyone for the suicides, support Better Buzz and don't approve any other unsanctioned articles. One is fine but I'm pretty sure that if you get a pay cut you'll have to try again. Hope I explained it good enough and that it helps.
golf 15 Oct, 2019 @ 8:07am 
For Justin's first night of his comedy to fail, it seems that you do have to be super negative to him. You also may have to prevent the health bill from passing so he doesn't get therapy too.

Being 100% asshole to Justin + no therapy + small crowd + denying him in your house = failed comedy

Here's what happened in my playthrough:

I didn't let him stay over at my place, didn't put the ad for his show or pay for free drinks for his listeners, so he got a small crowd.

He did end up in jail because i couldn't influence him to say pro-government jokes instead of anti-gov since he didn't stay over at my place. I bailed him out of jail.

I encouraged him a lot and he had therapy, so his first, small show was successful. Because he had MoodEx helping him, he went off to do a second show somewhere else. For him to get therapy and MoodEx, i promoted lower cost for healthcare and public healthcare a LOT