Tips and Tricks

Overview

Whether you are just starting your first household or are a seasoned player, these tips and tricks cover essential knowledge for getting the most out of inZOI. From efficient money-making to hidden controls, this guide compiles community-tested advice for every aspect of the game.

Essential Controls

Needs and Emotions

Every Zoi has eight needs to manage: Hunger, Hygiene, Sleep, Bathroom, Fun, Social, Recognition, and Energy. When a need drops, your Zoi performs poorly and feels down. Click (or double-click) any need bar to make your Zoi immediately seek out the quickest way to fill it.

Emotions and Urges

Emotions are triggered by fulfilled and unfulfilled needs, social interactions, and your Zoi's traits. Zois can experience multiple emotions simultaneously, and these emotions affect their actions and interactions. The easiest way to trigger a positive emotion is to fulfill an urge when it appears. Urges are time-sensitive wants (like journaling, trying the lottery, or visiting a specific location) that pop up on the Zoi Card. Completing an urge grants a positive emotion and sometimes rewards Meow for the Meow Store.

Critical Need Warnings

• Starvation: Zois survive about 2 days without food. After the Hunger gauge empties, a 12-hour uncomfortable period begins, followed by a 24-hour warning stage. A final 12-hour "Brink of Starvation" notification means death is imminent. Children who starve are sent to the Child Protection Agency instead of dying.

• Recognition: If the Recognition gauge empties and stays empty, a warning appears: the Zoi has lost all motivation. After 12 more hours without positive social interaction, the Zoi will run away from the household permanently.

Autonomy Settings

Press T to toggle autonomy (free will) on and off for the active Zoi. When autonomy is enabled, a Cat's Eye symbol appears above the Zoi's head and they handle basic needs on their own, which makes the world feel more alive. When disabled, the Zoi waits for your direct commands before acting.

• Smart Zoi: An advanced autonomy mode that uses more CPU resources. It works best on high-end computers and produces more realistic behavior.

• Even with autonomy enabled, monitor your Zois regularly. They sometimes fail to eat food they have already cooked; manually instruct them to eat if the Hunger bar keeps dropping.

• Using WASD movement automatically cancels whatever autonomous action is queued.

Money-Making Methods

Careers

Regular jobs through the Career menu on the smartphone are the most reliable early income source. Choose a career that matches your Zoi's traits for faster promotion. Active careers require workplace participation but promote faster. Rabbit hole careers are less demanding but slower. Three unexcused absences result in termination, so attend work reliably.

Creative and Skill-Based Income

Zois can create products at home and sell them through the Pocket Market app on their smartphone. Product value scales with skill level:

Digital products (books, music, programs, videos) sell instantly via the computer. Physical items like paintings and bonsai sell through the Pocket Market or at a Flea Market Stall that you purchase and place on a lot.

Other Income Sources

• Fishing: Catch and sell fish directly; high-value fish make decent income

• Lottery: Buy tickets for 5 Meow each; jackpot is 1,000,000 Meow but odds are extremely low

• Bank deposits: Deposit 250 Meow; matures after 3 in-game days with interest

• Bank loans: Borrow money when needed (must be repaid)

• Business: Opening a business provides steady income once properly set up

• ATM hacking: Yields ~250 Meow but risks electrocution death; requires Programming Level 2 and Bad Karma

• Bank hacking: Yields ~1,000 Meow; requires Programming Level 10; heavy fines if caught

Money Cheat

Open Psycat's Advice menu in Settings and click "Use Money Cheat" for an instant 100,000 Meow. This can be pressed repeatedly with no limit. Alternatively, open the console (Ctrl+Shift+C after enabling cheats) and type addMoney 50000 for a specific amount.

Skill Leveling

• Visit the library for skill books. Reading is one of the fastest ways to level many skills, especially early on.

• The Grow-Grow Skill Donut from the Meow Store temporarily speeds up all skill leveling.

• Max out child skills to Level 5 before aging up. Child skills carry over to the adult skill pool at Level 5.

• Higher skill levels unlock better job opportunities, more valuable creative products, and new interactions.

• Practice cooking early. Lower Cooking skill means a higher risk of kitchen fires.

• Programming and Instrument are among the most profitable skills to level because they unlock digital product creation.

Relationship Tips

• Build relationships through repeated positive interactions. Each conversation adds relationship points.

• The Charm skill significantly helps with Romance interactions.

• Gender identity and romantic preferences are permanent after character creation. Choose carefully.

• Jealousy is real. Married Zois react negatively if they catch their partner being unfaithful.

• "Select Relationship" conversations at thresholds help upgrade relationship levels (friend to best friend, partner to fiance, etc.).

• Maximum of 100 relationships per Zoi. Prioritize meaningful connections.

• The Relationships menu organizes contacts by type: family, romantic, business, and friendship. Interact to progressively unlock profile details and collect "keys" for deeper information.

Build Mode Tips

• Hold Alt while placing furniture for free positioning that ignores grid snapping.

• Use room presets (blueprints) to quickly furnish rooms for 1 Meow each.

• Every Zoi needs at minimum: a bed, a sofa or chair, a kitchen setup, and a bathroom.

• Table lamps provide better facial lighting for Zois than overhead lights.

• Use the Craft feature to create completely custom furniture from individual parts.

• The 3D Printer creates decorative objects from images, but Zois cannot interact with printed items.

• Purchase a washing machine. Zoi clothing gets dirty over time and needs to be laundered.

City and Schedule Management

• Press M to open Edit City mode. Adjust weather, seasons, trees, wildlife, billboards, and environmental themes.

• In Manage City settings, control social difficulty, safety, civic awareness, and emotional behavior for a customized experience.

• Customize your Zoi's daily schedule through the smartphone Events app. Remove auto-generated activities and set a routine that matches your goals.

• Adjust day length in Settings (e.g., 48-minute cycles) if you prefer faster or slower gameplay pacing.

• Check your phone regularly for messages, bills, and gifts. Missing bills leads to penalties.

• Each city offers different jobs and cultural customs. In Dowon, residents remove shoes before entering homes.

Household Maintenance

• Houses accumulate dust faster than you might expect. Regular cleaning raises the Housework skill.

• Hiring a maid is an option, but the service must be requested daily because a permanent contract does not exist yet.

• Dirty clothing affects your Zoi's Hygiene need. Buy a washing machine early.

Performance Tips

• Enable upscaling (DLSS, FSR, or XeSS) for a significant performance boost at any resolution.

• Ray tracing is visually impressive but has a heavy performance cost. Disable it on lower-end GPUs.

• Reduce maximum population and vehicle count in City Management Settings for better frame rates.

• SSD storage significantly reduces loading times compared to HDD.

• Close background applications while playing for smoother performance.

• Update GPU drivers before first launch. NVIDIA RTX 40 Series users should use Driver 566.36; RTX 50 Series users should use Driver 572.83.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Forgetting to feed Zois leads to starvation death in about 2 in-game days. Children are sent to the Child Protection Agency instead.

• Starting university while employed resets career progress. Plan the timing carefully.

• Three unexcused job absences result in termination. Attend work reliably.

• ATM hacking can cause electrocution death. The ~250 Meow payout is not worth the risk.

• Neglecting the Recognition need causes Zois to run away from the household after 12 hours at zero.

• Removing mods between saves can corrupt save files. Re-enable required mods before loading.

• Disabling autonomy without manually directing your Zoi means they will stand idle and needs will plummet.

• Too many ghosts in the city prevent new Zois from being born. Manage Karma and ghost populations to keep the city healthy.