The calendar in Unemployment Simulator 2018 is allowed to jump. You do not need to reconstruct every unseen day, and a missing number does not mean that you skipped a quest. Progress comes from clearing the objectives shown in the apartment, handling the story object that appears on a milestone day, emptying your bladder, switching off the light, and sleeping. When the routine stalls, the useful question is not “Where is Day 18?” but “Which visible task, letter, visitor, or placed object has not changed state?”
This spoiler-heavy walkthrough follows that dependency chain from the first groceries to the final choice. It gives exact actions where the reviewed route does, and uses checkpoints where the evidence does not establish a button-by-button solution. The same run also provides opportunities for all nine Steam achievements, but several achievement methods remain community-derived rather than officially documented.
Build boundary: checked July 26, 2026. The game released on February 3, 2026. The March 13 update fixed the end-of-Day-5 computer lock, the medication task, overlapping interactions, and Gorgon’s icons. A June 15 update added Steam Deck compatibility, controller support, and new small secrets. No public version number accompanied those notices, so current on-screen prompts and objective text outrank older keyboard-only wording.
Use completed objectives as the clock
A normal day has three separate gates. First, every item in the objective panel must register. Second, any event for that day must finish: a letter must be opened, a visitor must leave, or a special object must be placed. Third, the character must be ready for bed. That normally means using the toilet, turning off the light, and interacting with the bed. Sleeping advances the story and may launch a dream sequence.
The apartment is small enough to run as a circuit rather than a series of separate searches:
| Area | Repeatable work | Story checks |
|---|---|---|
| Front door | Open delivered letters and water the plant | React to the bell or peephole cue before ending the day |
| Kitchen | Take food or drinks from the fridge, cook, make toast, wash dishes, and remove trash | Watch for Gorgon, insects, Pigman, and anything that changes around the bin |
| Bathroom | Use and clean the toilet, shower, brush teeth, take medication, and run laundry | The toilet later becomes an offering point; the room is also used for the skeleton trap |
| Living and sleeping area | Use the computer, guitar, exercise equipment, darts, window, light, and bed | The left storage supplies the transmitter, dimensional goggles, and TV used by later objectives |
Read the top bars before starting a long animation. Dopamine, anxiety, health, fatigue, and intoxication can turn a correct task order into a failed day if one meter is already near its limit. Use a short entertainment action when boredom is critical, eat or rest before a lengthy computer or cleaning job, and visit the toilet before the final trip to bed. These are survival decisions, not hidden story requirements: the objective panel still decides whether the work counted.
Keyboard references in older walkthroughs use A and D to move, Space for many interactions or timing prompts, Enter to skip some dream sequences, and C to cry when the state allows it. On a controller or Steam Deck, follow the live prompt instead of translating those keys literally.
Days 1–5 teach the jobs that later chapters remix
Day 1: close the apartment loop once
Put the opening groceries in the fridge, then clear the four listed jobs: do the laundry, send one job application, remove three pieces of trash, and wash five dishes. The clothes start in the living area; carry them to the bathroom washing machine and place the washed load on the nearby table. The application is sent from the computer. Trash is cleared through the kitchen bin, and dishes are washed at the sink.
If dopamine is collapsing before the chores are complete, use the shooting game on the computer as the early recovery action. Once all four counters have changed, use the toilet, switch off the bedroom light, and sleep. The dream is the proof that the first day actually closed.
Days 2–4: collect before crossing the room
- Day 2: water the plant by the entrance, open the phone bill that arrives, take food from the fridge and cook it in the microwave, then brush your teeth at the bathroom mirror.
- Day 3: wash five dishes, run another load of laundry, remove three pieces of trash, and shower. The guitar is available when dopamine needs attention.
- Day 4: the list combines one job application with the medication, meal, and plant-watering chores. A doorbell event also occurs; check the peephole before sleeping rather than treating the four-item list as the whole day.
The doorbell is the first strong warning that the objective panel is not a complete event log. From this point forward, letters, noises, and visitors should be cleared before the light goes off.
Day 5: finish the Friday challenge before drinking
The four targets are 20 points in darts, 50 kills in the computer shooter, two bags of chips, and becoming drunk. Do the skill checks first. Intoxication is itself a required state and can make the remaining actions harder to read, so leave the beer objective until the darts, kills, and chips have registered. The day ends in a pass-out sequence rather than the ordinary tidy bedtime.
If the character remains stuck at the computer after the kill target, verify that the game is updated. The developer specifically listed an end-of-Day-5 computer fix in the March 13 patch. Repeating an old workaround on a current build is less reliable than first confirming that Steam has applied that update.
Days 10–33 turn household objects into route keys
After Friday, routine days are compressed. Complete the tasks that actually appear; do not wait for every calendar number to receive a bespoke scene. The next progression gates are attached to objects that move from storage into the apartment.
- Day 10 — feed Gorgon: make toast, exercise, brush your teeth, and feed Gorgon. Use chips for Gorgon. An older walkthrough’s plant wording conflicts with the developer’s March patch note, which explicitly clarified the Gorgon icons and says that Gorgon is asking for chips.
- Day 14 — clear the interruption: complete the listed meal, toast, letter, and Gorgon jobs, then kill the mosquito in the kitchen before trying to sleep.
- Day 16 — install the transmitter: take it from the storage on the left side of the apartment and install it near the guitar. Finish the teeth, dishes, and shower objectives as well. Installation is the state change that prepares the following contact sequence.
- Day 17 — make contact: open the letter, remove five pieces of trash, and do the laundry before resolving the contact objective. The available written route does not establish a secret code for this step, so follow the live interaction around the installed transmitter rather than entering a number found in an unrelated guide.
- Day 30 — put on the dimensional goggles: collect the goggles from the left storage, wear them, and clear the application, laundry, and five-trash jobs. The goggles are the verified prerequisite for the “decipher the code” objective; the reviewed sources do not support publishing fixed code digits.
- Day 33 — bait the skeleton: open the letter, clean the toilet, and shower. Take the TV from the left storage and place it in the bathroom. The Spooky Skeleton should appear and disappear near the TV, proving that the trap state registered.
Between those dates, keep using the objective panel as the clock. Pigman’s visit and the dream in which objects are thrown at the character are story feedback, not permission to ignore the day’s remaining chores. In the dream, avoiding the incoming objects preserves the shame meter.
Days 72–75 replace the routine with a destruction-and-flute chain
Day 72 begins with a rejection letter and an instruction to destroy the apartment. Finish that event, then return to the ordinary bedtime checks. The following dream again uses the shame meter, so treat its dodge sequence separately from the apartment’s survival bars.
Day 73 asks for 15 dishes, 500 skeleton kills in the computer game, a clean window, and coffee. Pigman supplies the coffee during his kitchen appearance. Do not leave the shooter running in place of the objective: confirm that the 500-kill counter has registered, then leave the computer and finish the window and sink work.
On Day 74, complete the application, five-trash, laundry, and teeth tasks. Investigate the sound that wakes the character and read the neighbor’s letter at the door. The letter mentions the protection created by the flute. Reading it before bed preserves the story handoff and also matters to the later community-reported neighbor-letter achievement route.
Day 75 combines three ordinary jobs with “go to the Underworld.” Wash three dishes, clean the toilet, and exercise. Move the TV from left storage into the living room, put on the dimensional goggles, and stabilize the survival bars before approaching the TV. Its explosion drops the character into the new area. During the encounter, press the indicated action when the note reaches the correct timing point; on keyboard sources identify that action as Space.
Carry the same checklist through Pigman’s interlude and the late portals
The next perspective shift begins in Pigman’s apartment. Clean the orb, remove five pieces of trash, make the bed on the far left, and check the Mudbank Financial email. The bin then erupts and the ant sequence ends this short interlude. If the scene does not start, recheck the orb and email rather than searching the original apartment for another item.
Back in the main route, the calendar again jumps. Use these dates as anchors:
| Checkpoint | Required state change | Proof that it worked |
|---|---|---|
| Day 143 | Read the letter, feed Gorgon, make toast, and make the offering at the ritual by the toilet; play the flute with the pointer in the red zone before bed | The next shame-meter dream begins |
| Day 144 | Brush teeth, clean the toilet, feed Gorgon, and remove five pieces of trash | Pigman reports the attack, followed by the three-eyed-beast dream |
| Day 145 | Shower, cook, clean the window, and send an application; complete the flute and bedtime sequence | The long routine resumes rather than a new object appearing immediately |
| Day 162 | Make an offering, open the letter, take medication, and clean the toilet | All four entries leave the objective list |
| Day 163 | Cook, feed Gorgon, send an application, and clean the window | A portal appears in the living room |
| Days 226–227 | Finish the displayed jobs; when the skeleton returns, complete the final three-trash, three-dish, toast, and application set, then hide under the computer desk during its appearance | Pigman returns and the final bedtime sequence becomes available |
The route source does not enumerate every task on Day 226, so the current objective panel is the authority there. On Day 227, hiding under the computer desk is an event response; it does not erase any unfinished chore. Come out only when the appearance has resolved, verify the list, then use the toilet and bed as usual.
Separate the ending choice from the last chores
Near the ending, the character receives a knife and is told to sacrifice a friend. A community achievement guide reports a ten-second timer: allowing it to expire makes Mr. Pig sacrifice the player and is the route associated with Blood of My Blood. Acting instead leads to the other side of that choice. The written walkthrough confirms a final cutscene after the last day but does not establish a safe manual-save or chapter-select method.
If you want to see both outcomes, check how Continue behaves on your current build before committing. Do not assume that an older claim about reloading or task rerolls guarantees a recoverable save. For a first clear, choose the outcome you actually want; the story-completion achievement is listed separately from the choice-specific one.
Fold the nine Steam achievements into the route cautiously
Steam currently exposes nine achievement records for the game. The names and broad descriptions are stable, but the developer does not publish an official unlock manual. The actions below distinguish direct route checks from community methods that still lack exact trigger confirmation.
| Achievement | Practical checkpoint | Evidence boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Birth of a New Hero | Reach the story’s final cutscene | Its published description is “You made it through”; the exact ending is not specified |
| Blood of My Blood | At the late sacrifice prompt, allow the reported ten-second timer to expire | Detailed method comes from an in-progress community guide |
| Bullseye | After darts unlock, land a dart in the bullseye; one community method waits for the hand to start moving upward, then taps the action several times | The dart can vary, so the timing is a retry method, not a guaranteed coordinate |
| Conspiracy Theory | Read every neighbor letter, perform its unlisted requests, listen for the task-complete sound, and check the window or blinds when the sequence points outside | Community reports agree on the letters but differ on whether the outside view alone is the trigger; no exact day is asserted here |
| Haunted | After the headless-salesman note, respond to peephole or door cues and keep watching long enough for the visitor to vanish | The event window and trigger frequency are community-reported |
| Mindful Washing | Wash 50 dishes in one continuous session when a long sink interaction is safe | The count is community-reported; stabilize meters before attempting it |
| Obsessive Cleaning Disorder | Remove every normally generated piece of trash available during one day | Community reports support a full-day cleanup, but not a reliable fixed number |
| The Leak | Allow the bladder failure associated with heavy drinking | This deliberately loses a run state; attempt it separately from important story progress |
| Time to Cry | Wait for Melancholia to overlap with a shower objective, enter the shower, and use the cry prompt | Older keyboard guidance uses C; use the current prompt and avoid unsafe reroll assumptions |
Do the harmless checks as their tools appear: Bullseye on the early dartboard, complete-trash days during routine chapters, neighbor-letter and peephole checks whenever cues occur, and the Melancholia shower when the two conditions naturally overlap. Leave The Leak and any alternate ending for a point where losing or changing the run will not discard progress you still need.
Diagnose a stalled day by its missing state
- A routine counter stays visible: repeat the exact object named by the panel and watch the counter, not the animation. Dishes, trash, kills, and food can require several registered actions.
- All counters are gone but sleep does nothing: check the front-door letter, peephole, visitor, toilet, and light. A story event or bedtime need is still open.
- Gorgon will not accept the item: use chips on the updated build. The older plant wording is contradicted by the developer’s fix notice.
- Day 5 locks at the computer or medication will not register: update the game before trying route changes; both issues were named in the March patch.
- A supernatural objective has no obvious target: inspect the left storage and the object placed on the previous milestone. The transmitter, goggles, and TV form a dependency chain.
- The calendar skips ahead: continue with the new displayed day. The sources support milestone jumps from 17 to 30, 33 to 72, 75 to 143, and 163 to 226.
- An achievement method feels uncertain: preserve the story run. Conspiracy Theory, Haunted, and Obsessive Cleaning Disorder still rely on community trigger reports, and the June update added unspecified secrets.
The dependable route is deliberately mundane: complete what the apartment can prove, react to what changed, and sleep only after both layers are quiet. That rule carries the game farther than memorizing every calendar number, and it also makes a failed checkpoint diagnosable.
Sources and credits
Game identity, supported features, release information, screenshots, and update boundaries were checked against the official Steam page, developer announcements on Steam, and the developer’s game page. Route details were cross-checked against verified walkthrough references; achievement methods that are not officially documented are labeled as community-derived above.