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December 2025 Update
April 10, 2026 at 09:09 PM
Fix factual inaccuracies based on audit (dates, versions, platforms)
The December 2025 Update (version 0.5.0) launched on December 23, 2025, closing out inZOI's first year of Early Access with one of its most ambitious content drops to date. The headline addition was a full business management system that lets players own and operate their own establishments, from cafes and bakeries to bars and gyms. Alongside businesses, the update introduced a winter-themed Holiday Festival event, a multitasking system, group actions, an expanded crime system with courtroom trials, two new skills (Baking and Drink Mixing), 173 new Build Mode items, 62 winter-themed clothing pieces, family tree visualization, new vehicles, and hundreds of bug fixes.
Detail | Value |
|---|---|
Version | 0.5.0 |
Release Date | December 23, 2025 |
Hotfix | v0.5.1 released December 24, 2025 |
Holiday Festival End | January 31, 2026 |
The business system is the centerpiece of v0.5.0. Players can purchase commercial lots, select a business type, furnish the space in Build Mode, hire staff, set prices, and open for customers. Businesses exist independently of the residential property, so they can be relocated or transferred between household members. A single household can own and run multiple businesses at the same time, making franchise networks possible.
Each business type comes with a preset that automatically configures customer activities to match the establishment. The available types at launch are:
Business Type | Description |
|---|---|
Cafe | Serves coffee and light snacks. Preset activities include Drink Coffee, Eat, and Read a Book. |
Bakery | Specializes in baked goods and pastries. Tied to the new Baking skill. |
Restaurant | Full-service dining with a broader menu. Preset activities include Order and Eat. Requires skilled Cooking staff. |
Bar | Serves cocktails and beverages. Uses the new Drink Mixing skill. Preset activities include Order and Drink a Beverage. |
Confectionery | Candy and sweets shop. Combines Baking and Cooking for specialty items. |
Gym | Fitness center where customers work out. Ties into the fitness system. |
School | Educational facility focused on teaching and skill development. |
Open Lot | A flexible commercial space that can be customized for mixed-use purposes. |
Business owners recruit acquaintances or household members as workers and assign tasks based on their skills. A Zoi with high Cooking is a natural fit for the kitchen, while one with strong Rhetoric handles customer-facing roles. Employee capacity increases as the business levels up, and only Young Adults and older can be hired. Salaries are calculated from the business level, a salary rank, and working hours. Pay is settled after business hours end, and extended shifts can strain the employee relationship if overused.
Employees act autonomously once assigned. They take orders, cook, prepare drinks, stock displays, process payments, clean, repair broken equipment, and manage the counter without direct player input. When an employee is hired at another business, they automatically resign from the current one.
Customers visit during operational hours and stay for a set duration. Higher business value attracts more foot traffic, and owners can adjust target age demographics to shape their clientele. Real-time thought bubbles show how satisfied or frustrated customers are, and end-of-day reviews provide detailed feedback.
Customer satisfaction is driven by several factors:
Quality of the owner's relationship with patrons
Furniture quality and appropriateness for the business type
Pricing competitiveness
How often customers can use the services they came for
Speed and attentiveness of employees
Overall service quality
As satisfaction rises, the business value increases, which attracts even more customers and allows the owner to expand hiring. Neglected businesses suffer the reverse: dirty premises, long wait times, and stockouts drag the value down and reduce patronage. Profits are settled automatically at the end of each business day, with categorized tracking for total income, total expenses, and net profit. Owners can set discount or premium pricing tiers.
While a Zoi is engaged in business activities, whether as an owner, registered partner, or employee, the City Travel option is locked. To regain access, the player must sell all businesses and properties or resign from employment.
The Holiday Festival is a limited-time winter and year-end seasonal event, running from December 23, 2025 through January 31, 2026. It follows the same structure as the Halloween Happenings event from v0.4.0. Each city's main public space hosts festival activities between 12:15 PM and 10:00 PM daily.
City | Location |
|---|---|
Dowon | Central Park |
Bliss Bay | Liberty Square |
Cahaya | Barat Beach |
Choir performances: Festive carol performances play throughout the event hours.
Starter gift boxes: Delivered on sign-in, containing up to 19 holiday Build Mode items across five boxes.
Midnight special gifts: One gift box on each of the first two nights, with three items per box.
Snack Booth: Winter-themed consumables including candy canes, hot chocolate, and gingerbread.
Gift Booth: Limited-edition holiday building items, including garlands with 32 color and style variants.
Ingredients Booth: Crafting kits for holiday cookies, including the Cookie Man Crafting Kit.
Holiday decorations: Seasonal decor items such as wreaths, string lights, and festive table settings become available in Build Mode.
In total, over 50 Holiday Festival Build Mode items could be unlocked during the event period. Weather remained static during the festival by default; players who wanted snow had to enable it manually through the City Appearance settings.
Before v0.5.0, Zois could only perform one activity at a time. The multitasking system changes that by allowing Zois to combine compatible actions simultaneously. Supported combinations include:
Talking while eating
Talking while using a computer
Talking while reading a book
Eating while watching TV
Pathfinding was also improved so that Zois reposition themselves naturally during multitasking. For example, a seated Zoi will face their conversation partner rather than staring at a wall. At launch, only autonomous talking and smartphone actions were fully supported for multitasking; KRAFTON noted that cooking while talking and additional queue visibility improvements were planned for later patches.
Group actions are a related addition. Multiple Zois can now be grouped together to coordinate activities. Group members prioritize conversations and interactions with each other, and exclusive cooperative actions become available, such as exercising together at a gym, cooking a meal collaboratively, or cleaning the house as a team. Group actions provide relationship bonuses to all participants and make household management noticeably smoother.
The crime system received a major overhaul in v0.5.0, though KRAFTON labeled it as still in early development. Criminal activities are available only to Young Adults and older.
Two criminal archetypes were introduced. Thieves focus on break-ins and property theft, with interactions like Pick Door Lock, Break Down Door, Open Safe, and Sabotage Surveillance Camera. Success rates depend on the Zoi's Handiwork, Programming, and Fitness skill levels. Properties can be defended with surveillance cameras, alarms, and traps.
Scammers take a social approach. Their interactions include Attempt Voice Phishing, Scam In-Game Items, Impersonate Charity Worker, and Hold Fake Seminar. Success rates scale with Rhetoric and Critical Thinking skills.
A Zoi can attempt their first criminal interaction at Crime Skill Level 0 if they meet at least one of these conditions:
Owns 2,000 Meow or less, or carries excessive debt
Experiences significant psychological stress from family conflict or personal issues
Possesses the Rulebreaker trait or Malicious characteristic
A Suspicious Job Agency appears on bulletin boards, offering shady job opportunities and crime information for purchase. A dedicated Crime skill (capped at Level 5 in this release) governs proficiency, with further expansion planned.
Criminal activity builds a crime score. Witnesses report offenses to the police, and officers respond by issuing fines or taking the Zoi into custody. If a Zoi escapes, they receive a one-day wanted status; any police contact during that period results in immediate arrest.
Arrested Zois with a low crime score pay a fine and are released. Those above the threshold face a full trial. Bail is available for a fee, giving the player limited preparation time before court. Without bail, the Zoi is detained until the trial date.
Players can choose between a free lawyer with limited assistance or an elite lawyer who improves the odds of acquittal or a reduced sentence. Trial preparation missions unlock opportunity cards that affect the outcome. During the trial itself, the player makes choices and answers questions; correct responses can reduce or eliminate the sentence. Possible outcomes include acquittal, fines, or police custody. Failed acquittal attempts increase the sentence length. New court properties were added to the game world to support this system.
The Baking skill is separate from the existing Cooking skill and focuses on oven-based desserts and pastries. Recipes include cakes, cookies, pies, bread, and croissants. As the skill levels up, Zois unlock more complex recipes with better quality ratings and higher sale value. Baking is essential for running a Bakery or Confectionery business, and baked goods can also be consumed at home, given as gifts during the Holiday Festival, or sold through the commerce system.
The Drink Mixing skill covers everything from fresh juices and smoothies to cocktails and specialty beverages. It is the primary skill for running a Bar business. At lower levels, Zois prepare basic drinks with occasional spills and mistakes. Higher levels unlock elaborate cocktail recipes, flair bartending animations, and premium drink options that command higher prices. Age-restricted beverages are only available if the Zoi meets the age requirement. Drink Mixing also has social applications: mixing drinks at home for parties and gatherings improves the mood and social energy of attendees.
A new Crime skill tracks illegal activity proficiency. It starts at Level 0 and was capped at Level 5 in this release. Higher levels improve success rates for both thief and scammer interactions. KRAFTON indicated plans to expand the cap and add new criminal activities in future updates.
The update added 173 new items to Build Mode, spread across core building components, furniture, business-exclusive items, and holiday decorations.
Category | Items Added | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
Core Build Items | 28 | 2 doors, 1 modular window category with free rescaling, 11 roof decorations (new category), 14 materials |
Furniture | 52 | 15 kitchen items, 10 large dining tables for 6 and 8, 30 wall decorations, 3 home office items, 2 living room, 1 bedroom, 1 outdoor |
Business Items | 39 | 1 market stand, 2 business displays, 1 display showcase, 35 display models |
Holiday Festival Items | 54 | 19 welcome gift box items, 3 midnight gift items, 32 booth garland variants |
Two new Build Mode categories were introduced: Modular Windows, which can be freely rescaled, and Roof Decorations. Large dining tables also received their own categories for tables seating six and eight Zois.
KRAFTON addressed player complaints about excessive early-game building costs. Installation costs for basic components like walls, handrails, rooms, platforms, and roofs were removed entirely. Prices for doors, windows, and stairs were reduced and standardized. Furniture performance was also differentiated by price tier, so higher-cost items provide tangible gameplay benefits.
The character creation tool received 62 new winter-themed clothing items, broken down as follows:
Type | Count |
|---|---|
Outerwear | 15 |
Sets | 9 |
Fashion Items | 8 |
Shoes | 7 |
Tops | 6 |
Accessories | 5 |
Bottoms | 3 |
Hair | 2 |
Seven additional holiday-exclusive items (4 sets, 1 hat, 1 headpiece, 1 pair of shoes) could be unlocked through the Canvas event platform.
A new Style Presets feature was added, providing 295 full outfit presets that include hair and makeup. Applying a style preset preserves the Zoi's original facial features and only modifies cosmetics. Zoi Presets were also expanded to save traits, characteristics, ambitions, and desired life alongside the Zoi's appearance.
The Studio section gained one holiday-themed background, 16 new emotes and poses, and gloves and scarves were added to the Fashion Accessories category. A new Outfit Wizard in the ModKit supports socks, stockings, underwear, shoes, jackets, tops, and bottoms.
Immediate family member images are now displayed in a tree visualization, accessible through the Zoi Card's family tree button. The visual layout was improved for clarity.
Two new vehicle types were added: jet skis and hovercrafts. Both expand the transportation options available in the game world.
Flower shops were added to all three cities, allowing Zois to purchase bouquets from a counter basket. Theaters were placed in Dowon and Bliss Bay, though they were listed as under construction with full staff interactions planned for a later update. New court buildings were added to support the trial system.
The urge system was expanded with 77 new situation-based urges, along with special high-intensity urges triggered by relationship status changes, forbidden relationship pursuits, and relationship termination scenarios. Fear-based urges now fire around career anxiety, pivotal life events like marriage and childbirth, and adolescent future concerns.
New ambitions were added for Collecting, Crafting, Business Success, and Lifehacker, each with their own reward tracks.
A large batch of new interactions was introduced:
Rejection interactions (10): Confess Love Jokingly, Borrow/Repay Money, Demand Repayment, Talk Behind Sweetheart's Back, Say You Want to Break Up Jokingly, and Extort, among others.
Parenting interactions: Comfort, Bully, Wipe Nose, Give Medicine, Throw a Fit to Be Tucked In, Scold/Hug Teddy Bear, Act Unreasonably, and Demand Food for newborn through child age stages.
Romance: Dance as a Couple was added.
Sports: Practice Layups is now available with basketball hoops.
Display: A new Display interaction prevents Zois from automatically discarding collectibles like minerals, gems, and sculptures.
Table Clearing: Clear Everything instantly removes all items from a selected table.
Overspend: A computer interaction that triggers random product delivery.
A new Workaholic characteristic was introduced for Zois who are driven, diligent workers but experience anxiety during periods of unemployment. It is incompatible with the Recluse trait and the Slacker characteristic.
Extended rain exposure of more than one hour now triggers illness in Zois, adding a reason to get indoors or carry an umbrella during storms.
A new family-size recipe option allows Zois to cook multiple servings at once, streamlining meal preparation for larger households.
Chromatic aberration removed: Chromatic aberration was taken out of the default screen effects to reduce eye strain. It remains available as an optional filter.
Character flickering fix: Mitigated a rendering issue that caused characters to flicker at close range on medium graphics settings.
Performance optimization: Lighter materials were applied to distant background objects to improve frame rates.
Footstep audio: Floor material-specific and shoe type-specific footstep sounds were added, so walking on tile sounds different from walking on carpet.
Holiday music: An exclusive Holiday Festival theme replaced the lobby music for the event duration, and AI-generated winter-themed audio played through speaker objects.
Building visibility: Building interiors are now only revealed when the player directly enters the structure.
Several new cheats were added alongside the v0.5.0 content:
setBusinessLevel [level]: Sets the current business to a specified level.
EnableFreeCamera [true/false]: Enables free camera movement within map boundaries.
New skill IDs for Baking, Drink Mixing, and Crime were added for use with skill-related cheats.
81 new object IDs and 25 new region IDs (10 Dowon, 10 Bliss Bay, 5 Cahaya) were registered.
The Canvas community platform received a Style Preset category with upload and download support, an improved comment system with threaded replies, mention notifications, pinned comments, and sticker reactions. A new social sharing button allows players to share creations across multiple platforms. Profile pages gained support for TikTok, Patreon, CurseForge, Reddit, and Threads social links. A 2025 Recap page highlighted the best Zois, buildings, and outstanding creators of the year.
On the modding side, ModKit v1.9.0 introduced the Outfit Wizard for character assets, a Stairs Wizard for building, and manual mod release during project creation.
KRAFTON acknowledged several limitations shipping with v0.5.0. Multitasking animations needed smoothing, and items could disappear when a Zoi held something while talking. Book open/close animations looked unnatural during reading conversations. Flower shop staff interactions were limited to basic purchasing. Theaters were listed as under construction. Traffic accident trials were not yet implemented; characters involved in traffic incidents were sent directly to jail. A hotfix (v0.5.1) was released the following day on December 24 to address the most pressing stability issues.
