History GuideDangIt / SimulationGames

* Sym is one of the 10 romanceable characters in ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'', but you need to go on enough expeditions to encounter him. He's barely hinted at in a few random events outside the colony, and it's possible to [[PermanentlyMissableContent miss him in an entire playthrough]], [[spoiler:but befriending him is required for the GoldenEnding.]]

* In ''VideoGame/NeedyStreamerOverload'', the GoldenEnding "Happy End World" requires you to [[spoiler: disconnect your actual computer from the Internet after meeting the win conditions that normally lead to the "Unhappy End World" ending.]] Additionally, there are two endings that have variations to them. The variant of "Utopian Parody" requires an event that occurs in Day 15, and answering a question correctly on Day 30. [[https://streamable.com/cwfg6s The variant of "Needy Girl Overdose"]] is even worse; after answering the multiple-choice questions, you have [[TimedMission a very short amount of time]] to type an answer to a question. The game is looking for [[spoiler:anything that's at least a hundred characters but it must have Ame's name somewhere in it]]. Due to the length and time requirements, you need to copy and paste the answer, but if you do that without editing the pasted message first, [[DevelopersForesight the game will know you copied and declare your answer wrong]].

* ''VideoGame/HackNet'': \el, a third faction that forms an alternate route through the game's second act, is this in all respects. First of all, it's not even hinted that it exists until a postgame email from the developer themselves with a vague hint. And even if you connect the dots, the email that directly correlates with that hint also sets the EventFlag that locks out out of that route. And once you do [[spoiler:trace and counter-hack Naix, then impress him by following his requests]], the faction's "missions" have nearly no guidance, basically requiring the player to follow breadcrumbs from a 4chan {{Expy}} with exactly as little help as that implies.

* In ''[[VideoGame/ToTheRescue To the Rescue!]]'', you can spend skill points on your [[BlandNameProduct LeashedIn]] account to unlock new skills on dog handling, logistics, public relations, and handiwork via {{Tech Tree}}s. However, the skill icons don't give you descriptions on what they do, so you need a walkthrough to find out which ones are worth unlocking.

* In ''[[VideoGame/ToTheRescue To the Rescue!]]'', you can spend skill points on your [[BlandNameProduct LeashedIn]] account to unlock new skills on dog handling, logistics, public relations, and handiwork via {{Tech Tree}}s. However, the skill icons don't give you descriptions on what they do, so you need a walkthrough to find out which ones are worth upgrading.

* ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon:'' Getting the secret animals. A great example is the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRQcn27kH6k unicorn.]] Getting one your own without hearing about it through a external source not only require you to know about an obscure film called ''Film/{{Xanadu}},'' but renaming an exhibit after this film, without any sort of in game hint that this animal even exists in the game. At least the mermaid in the marine expansion pack you are more likely to stumble upon accidentally, because putting the mermaid statue in a tank is something a person might do to decorate the tank; it looks good in there despite being for outside.

* Finding out how to do just about anything in VideoGame/DwarfFortress is a Guide Dang It. It doesn't help that the in-game manual is completely unhelpful. What DOES help is that there, is, in fact, a guide. The game's wiki essentially forms the instruction manual and tutorial. It's almost certainly required reading if you want to play the game properly, which is why page one of the otherwise useless in-game manual tells you to go to the wiki instead.

*** Another lighter example is [[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife Another Wonderful Life]] for Rock's third heart event (it has to be triggered by leaving your farm through the passage near Takakura's house, even though the event leads you near the bridge}, and Gustafa's final heart event (you have to enter the Inn and leave between 7:00 PM to Midnight to find Gustafa leaving the bar, even though there is nothing the event has that urges you to go there and you had no indication before that you'll need to head there).

** There's also Cursed Tools in the ''DS'' and ''Mineral Town'' games: Not only how to get them (Randomly on certain mine floors, and only after you've upgraded your standard tools to their maximum) but how to remove the curses permanently (once you equip a curse tool, you can't un-equip it until you have Pastor Carter release the curse (Blessing)). In the DS games, it's a matter of money. In the ''Mineral Town'' games there are three different ways to break the curse: leave equipped for 30 days, Bless 10 times, use 255 times without un-equipping. The game doesn't tell you this, nor which method corresponds to which of the six tools.

* The ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker'' games [[note]]and their Western sister series, ''VideoGame/CuteKnight'',[[/note]] generally have a number of normal endings that are fairly easy to get by playing the game normally, a handful of straightforward special endings ... then a few special endings that the player unlikely to figure out ''exist'' without looking them up in a guide, let alone figure out how to ''get'' them.

** Some future romantic interests can only be met on very, very obscure sidequests. i.e, [[spoiler:Lucifon the King of Hell]] ''can'' become a prospect lover for the second game's girl... but ''only and if only'' she has high enough stats, [[spoiler:her Sin doubles her Morals, '''and''' has at least once taken up his offer to drink with him (which only happens if her Faith is nonexistant, otherwise she'll refuse.]].

* Finding out how to attract some of the species in the ''VideoGame/VivaPinata'' games is an extreme hassle. They often involve things such as having an arbitrary number of a certain, easily-devoured pinata in your garden, having a certain number of plants, or keeping a few random items around. Although once you attract them, the in-game encyclopedia will tell you what their other requirements are, some of them ''evolve'' after that... and good luck finding those requirements on your own!
** Not to mention getting the Twingersnaps or Fourheads, which requires you to breed two Syrupents (or Twingersnaps for the latter of the two), and then ''hit the egg with your shovel at a '''precise''' moment''. Did I mention that hitting an egg with the shovel normally destroys it, so quite a few people wouldn't realise that you had to do such a thing? And let's not even get into romancing or attracting Chewnicorns and Swananas....

** Mary Sue of the [[IronicName "Pleasant"]] family also has a rigged card on the very day the player takes control of them. They either result in her getting fired or demoted, getting her sent home, and possibly [[YourCheatingHeart catching her husband having an affair.]] [[DownerBeginning The entire setup]] ''is'' meant to destroy the family within an hour of playing with them.

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' series:
** Finding every bug and fish is almost impossible without a guide, since all bugs and fish are catchable at specific dates and times, and you never know if you got all of them for a specific month (since some are very rare, and some fish shadows look a lot like other fish's shadows).
** In ''New Leaf'', you can get a job at The Roost and take coffee orders from villagers. There are three parts to the coffee order (type of beans, and how much milk and sugar they want), however, they'll only tell you one of these at a time. If you want to get their order right, you'll have to either look up how they take their coffee or guess the two they didn't tell you.
** ''New Leaf'' also introduced the mechanic of Redd's art. Unlike the other games, ''New Leaf'' gives you a chance to pick which of his four art pieces is the real one, as the counterfeit pieces will all be subtly different from its real counterpart. However, these differences are minor, and often hard to spot. So for some of them, unless you really know your fine art, you'll probably either be using a guide or guessing. Google won't help - every painting in the game is based on a real piece, but they all have generic names like "scary painting" or "lovely painting", so you'll have to recognize them on sight.
** ''Wild World'' removed the calendar so in-game your only way to know when holidays are is the bulletin board. Not everyone plays constantly so it's easy to miss events if you don't have a guide.
** Certain story related events only happen if you talk to [=NPCs=] on specific dates. There's nothing within the games that tells you when.
** April Fools day centers around a SpotTheImposter minigame with Blanca the cat impersonating your villagers. The player needs to use personal information about the villagers to determine which of them is real and which is Blanca in disguise. The only problem is, most of the information that can be used to differentiate between the real and the imposter is information that the villager in question never actually tells the player. Only their birthdays and favorite saying are things that the player would realistically know about them without looking the answer up, even if they are as close as they can be to the player.
* Finding out how to attract some of the species in the ''VideoGame/VivaPinata'' games is an extreme hassle. They often involve things such as having an arbitrary number of a certain, easily-devoured pinata in your garden, having a certain number of plants, or keeping a few random items around. Although once you attract them, the in-game encyclopedia will tell you what their other requirements are, some of them ''evolve'' after that... and good luck finding those requirements on your own!
** Not to mention getting the Twingersnaps or Fourheads, which requires you to breed two Syrupents (or Twingersnaps for the latter of the two), and then ''hit the egg with your shovel at a '''precise''' moment''. Did I mention that hitting an egg with the shovel normally destroys it, so quite a few people wouldn't realise that you had to do such a thing? And let's not even get into romancing or attracting Chewnicorns and Swananas....

* In ''VideoGame/{{Westward}} IV'' from Sandlot (yes, it's a series), to unlock the fourth crop type, you need to [[spoiler:irrigate and farm in a space that also includes a visible mine site, even though there is plenty of area that does not require irrigation. A farmer will eventually tell you that there are traces of peas, so you can then add variety to your radishes (the basic!), tomatoes, and corn.]] Talk about improbable actions!

* Finding out how to do just about anything in VideoGame/DwarfFortress is a Guide Dang It. It doesn't help that the in-game manual is completely unhelpful. What DOES help is that there, is, in fact, a guide. The game's wiki essentially forms the instruction manual and tutorial. It's almost certainly required reading if you want to play the game properly, which is why page one of the otherwise useless in-game manual tells you to go to the wiki instead.

* ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe'' features about a dozen bonus moneymaking opportunities, none of which offer mission guidance.
* ''VideoGame/StarControl II'':
** The VUX Beast sidequest. You are told to find and capture an extremely rare beast that can only be found on one planet ([[http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/List_of_planets out of several thousand]]) in the game. The only clue is that it's found on a world with a yellow sun in the constellation of "the snakelike creature that has swallowed the elephantine beast". Someone with a thorough knowledge of constellations may realize that this refers to Lyncis, but anyone else is on their own (the constellations are not drawn on the map). Although the game is often obtuse with its hints, this is the only one that requires knowledge from outside the game itself to solve. It was ''marginally'' easier in the original release, which included a starmap in the box with the constellations drawn, which the more recent digital copies of the game lack.
** Due to programming oversights, the game never actually tells the player that there is a ''time limit'' to winning the game (a generous one, but even so). The dialogue revealing this information is present in the game's code, but unfortunately, there's no way to trigger it during gameplay.
* ''VideoGame/TheSims'':
** ''The Sims'' regarding career tracks. In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'' introduces chance cards that appear while a Sim is at school or work. You can choose from two options that have a percentage of success or failure, but the seemingly "right" choice can get your Sim fired if it fails. You also have an [[TakeAThirdOption Ignore option]], but what fun would that be?
** Mary Sue of the [[IronicName "Pleasant"]] family also has a rigged card on the very day the player takes control of them. They either result in her getting fired or demoted, getting her sent home, and possibly [[YourCheatingHeart catching her husband having an affair.]] [[DownerBeginning The entire setup]] ''is'' meant to destroy the family within an hour of playing with them.
* A lot of ''VideoGame/HometownStory'' is not properly explained, even in the manual.
** One example of this are the passwords in the ledger (Passwords earned in the 3DS version are used for bonuses in a yet-to-be-released smartphone version).
** Another example is that the only way you can obtain wood (used for shop expansions) is to purchase it from the merchant who shows up at your shop at 2 PM.
** You also can't use any tools to gather items to sell, you can only pick things up that are laying on the ground, or purchase them from other shops and resell them at your own. It is possible to fish (possibly only in the EU version), but for this you just need to stand at a dedicated fishing point and press A (the fishing rod seems to come out of HammerSpace).
** Some of the cutscences triggered by going into some parts of town require a specific weather and time of day combination. If there is a part of day where you are consistently at the store, you can easily miss some.
** There are (hidden) friendship levels in the game, that need to be raised to trigger some cutscenes.

* ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'': You know those shiny red stones you've been getting from the Atlas Stations? The ones you've probably been selling every chance you get? Yeah. Turns out you need 10 of them if you plan to follow the Path of the Atlas all the way to its end. You can buy more, of course. They're only a few million units ''each'', and that's assuming you can find any merchants who sell them.
* In ''VideoGame/StardewValley'', every animal building has something called a 'feeder' mechanism, and a feeder's blurb states that the player is supposed to put hay inside it (or, if the farm has a silo, hay will be inserted in the feeder automatically). Despite the name, feeders ''do not actually'' feed animals. And you can't feed animals by just manually giving them hay, either. You must place hay daily inside troughs- which are also inside animal buildings but easily mistaken for a background detail. (For some reason, Stardew chickens eat out of troughs like cows, even though real chickens prefer to pull and scratch out their food.) Since animals also never die, or look anything beyond "slightly thin", this led to a flood of online posts along the lines of 'I've fed my animals but they aren't producing anything!'
* ''VideoGame/LittleDragonsCafe'': To get a recipe fragment for Man's Curry, a Delicacy Collector asks for an abnormal, difficult-to-make dish. He doesn't mention what it is. As it turns out, he wants a Failed Dish.
* ''VideoGame/HackNet'': \el, a third faction that forms an alternate route through the game's second act, is this in all respects. First of all, it's not even hinted that it exists until a postgame email from the developer themselves with a vague hint. And even if you connect the dots, the email that directly correlates with that hint also sets the EventFlag that locks out out of that route. And once you do [[spoiler:trace and counter-hack Naix, then impress him by following his requests]], the faction's "missions" have nearly no guidance, basically requiring the player to follow breadcrumbs from a 4chan {{Expy}} with exactly as little help as that implies.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterLovesYou'': The "Famed Neurosurgeon" ending, despite being specifically mentioned in promotional material, is the hardest ending to unlock by sheer obscurity. Getting it requires increasing the hidden "Advanced Neurosurgery" statistic...but only four scenarios contain a trigger to increase it, and there's no guarantee you'll even encounter all four in one playthrough. On top of that, you have to meet specific conditions upon reaching the end of the game, and ''then on top of all that'' you have to make the right choices when the ending actually comes. Needless, to say, the chances of getting this ending without a walkthrough or many hours of experimentation are vanishingly slim.

** ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonLightOfHope'' has crop mutations and fishing. There are numerous case-sensitive mutations that are needed for fetch quests, but the game doesn't explain how to grow them. Likewise, some fish can only be caught in certain areas, using certain bait, during certain sseasons, at certain times of day, however the game itself doesn't give any hints.

* The ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' series is riddled with this sort of thing. While it generally only smacks those going for secrets or [[OneHundredPercentCompletion 100% completion]], there are several instances where normal players are frustrated.

** It doesn't help that some of the endings are really finicky in that the only difference between getting one ending over another is a difference of a few points. For example, the charisma point being 499 or 500 can mean the difference between the Daughter becoming a Queen by Marriage or a Royal Concubine (this example being prominent because the other stat requirements besides the aforementioned charisma are identical). Sometimes, the player can also have all the makings of one ending, but an excess in an unrelated stat can still change the outcome (for instance, a particularly high Combat Reputation makes it very easy to become a General, which is a very good ending in itself but will upset those who were aiming for [[spoiler: Queen Regnant]], Prime Minister or Hero Warrior ends instead).
** Many players have found themselves getting the "Homemaker/HouseWife" ending after trying to get an entirely different one, solely because either their Housemaker Reputation was too high, or because they qualified for a Social Ending (Farmer's Wife, Merchant Wife, Countess, etc.) but ''also'' had a special marriage lined up (Cube, the Young Dragon, [[spoiler: the Father, the Prince or Lucifon]]).

** Some future romantic interests can only be met on very, very obscure sidequests. i.e, [[spoiler: Lucifon the King of Hell]] ''can'' become a prospect lover for the second game's girl... but ''only and if only'' she has high enough stats, [[spoiler: her Sin doubles her Morals, '''and''' has at least once taken up his offer to drink with him (which only happens if her Faith is nonexistant, otherwise she'll refuse.]].

* ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon:'' Getting the secret animals. A great example is the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRQcn27kH6k unicorn.]] Getting one your own without hearing about it through a external source not only require you to know about a obscure film called ''Film/{{Xanadu}},'' but renaming a exhibit after this film, without any sort of in game hint that this animal even exists in the game. At least the mermaid in the marine expansion pack you are more likely to stumble upon accidentally, because putting the mermaid statue in a tank is something a person might do to decorate the tank; it looks good in there despite being for outside.

* Space Shuttle for the ''Creator/{{Atari}}'' 2600 by ''Creator/{{Activision}}'' is utterly unplayable without [[http://atariage.com/2600/overlays/o_SpaceShuttle_1.jpg the console overlay and instruction manual]].

** An JustForFun/{{egregious}} one is unlocking the first Hot Springs in HM DS. You need to view Flora's Blue Heart scene to get it. If you haven't seen it before you marry someone else or she marries Carter, it's [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]].

** ''Island of Happiness'' tweaked the farming system used in previous games. The new crop growing system uses set time intervals as minimum time required in each stage, and adds water and sunlight requirements that don't always correspond, and the weather gaining its own modifiers. Too little, and your crops will never grow. Too much, and they'll wither away. Those ranges are wide enough to avoid complete ruin unless the [[RandomNumberGod randgen hates you]], but if you want that ultimate turnip for the festival? You need to hit the absolute minimum to grow - too much sun and water will only reduce the quality. The precise requirements for each crop, or exactly how the weather affects them? All in the guide.
** Also in [=IoH=], getting the fishing pole from Taro can be an exercise in frustration. First of all, there's no hint that you get the pole from him. Secondly, if you try to give him gifts right away to raise his friendship levels, he won't take them. It turns out you have to raise his levels at first by talking to him every for three to five days straight. And if you try to give him a gift before he's ready to accept... ''the "counter" resets'' and you have to start with the talking all over again. Getting the dog from Mirabelle and the horse from Chen are similarly frustrating.

** The most egregious case is hands down Natsume's internally developed ''Harvest Moon'' game, ''The Lost Valley''. Figuring out how to grow a mutated crop involves blindly guessing which combination of factors produce it out of the following variables: 31 elevations, 4 soil types, 4 seasons, 60+ seeds, 30+ types of fertilizer (or no fertilizer at all), number of times watered, plant's distance from water, up to 8 adjacent plants that can be any arrangement of the aforementioned 60+ seeds, and having Rowan's help or not. And that's only the factors the fanbase ''currently knows affect mutations.'' No explanation of how any mechanics work or what items do is given, and what hints exist in the game are usually misleading or [[TheComputerIsALyingBastard flat out lies.]] For example, Pink Spinach's description states it grows in swampy fall soil; it actually grows in ''barren winter soil.'' But you know what the real kicker is? '''There is no guide.'''
** In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife'' steering your child into a specific career path can be this. The children all default to certain careers (for example Muffy's and Rock's children usually become athletes). If you do very specific things you can gravitate them towards one career at the end of the game, however it's likely you'll need a guide for help. Even when using a guide it can be near impossible to get certain children to get into certain careers.

* ''VideoGame/TheSims'' regarding career tracks. In VideoGame/TheSims2 introduces chance cards that appear while a Sim is at school or work. You can choose from two options that have a percentage of success or failure, but the seemingly "right" choice can get your Sim fired if it fails. You also have an [[TakeAThirdOption Ignore option]], but what fun would that be?
** Mary Sue of the [[IronicName "Pleasant"]] family also has a rigged card on the very day the player takes control of them. They either result in her getting fired or demoted, getting her sent home, and possibly [[YourCheatingHeart catching her husband having an affair.]] [[DownerBeginning The entire setup ''is'' meant to destroy the family within an hour of playing with them.]]

* Franchise/TheSims regarding career tracks. In VideoGame/TheSims2 introduces chance cards that appear while a Sim is at school or work. You can choose from two options that have a percentage of success or failure, but the seemingly "right" choice can get your Sim fired if it fails. You also have an [[TakeAThirdOption Ignore option]], but what fun would that be?

** An {{egregious}} one is unlocking the first Hot Springs in HM DS. You need to view Flora's Blue Heart scene to get it. If you haven't seen it before you marry someone else or she marries Carter, it's [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]].

* The ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker'' games, and their Western sister series, ''VideoGame/CuteKnight'', generally have a number of normal endings that are fairly easy to get by playing the game normally, a handful of straightforward special endings ... then a few special endings that you're unlikely to figure out ''exist'' without looking them up in a guide, let alone figure out how to ''get'' them.
** It also doesn't help that some of the endings are really finicky in that the only difference between getting one ending over another is a difference of a few points. For example, the charisma point being 499 or 500 can mean the difference between your daughter becoming a queen or a concubine (this example being prominent because the other stat requirements besides the aforementioned charisma are identical). Sometimes, you can also have all the makings of one ending, but an excess in an unrelated stat can still change the outcome (for instance, having a particularly high level of popularity as a fighter makes it very easy to become a general).
** Let's not forget the "homemaker" ending. Many players have found themselves getting this ending after trying to get an entirely different one, solely because their Housemaker Reputation was too high.

* The ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker'' franchise has its share of hard moments. Generally speaking, it's not always intuitive which stats will lead to which career choices (i.e., having too much Charisma/Glamour will lock the Daughter out of the ''best'' ending of the second game, Queen Regnant), and some future romantic interests can only be met on very, very obscure sidequests (i.e, [[spoiler: Lucifon the King of Hell]] ''can'' become a prospect lover for the second game's girl... but ''only'' if she [[spoiler: has high enough stats, Sin that doubles her Morals, '''and''' has at least once taken up his offer to drink with him.]]).