World of Horror Beginner’s Guide: How to Survive Your First Mystery

The Core Mechanics: Surviving Shiokawa

In the game, you race against a rising tide of madness and despair. You must understand three critical resources to survive.

1. Stamina (STA): This is your physical health. You lose Stamina from enemy attacks, failed events, and certain spells. If your Stamina reaches zero, your run ends.
2. Reason (REA): This is your mental health. You lose Reason from witnessing horrifying events, encountering monsters, and casting powerful magic. If your Reason reaches zero, your run ends.
3. Doom: This is the most important mechanic. Doom represents the Old God’s growing influence on the town. Almost every action you take, such as investigating a location or traveling, adds Doom. When the Doom meter reaches 100%, the Old God awakens and you lose the game.

Your primary goal is to solve five randomized mysteries before the Doom meter fills. Completing a mystery typically reduces your Doom, buying you precious time. You must balance investigating quickly with the need to rest and recover your Stamina and Reason.

Practical Tip: Spells are a limited resource. If you find a useless spell or are desperate for sanity, you can Forget a learned spell at any time to instantly restore some Reason.

The Main Stats: Your Keys to Success

Your character has several stats that determine your success in both combat and investigations.

1. Strength (STR): Affects strength-based weapons and makes the Brace combat action faster.
2. Dexterity (DEX): Affects dexterity-based weapons and makes the Dodge combat action faster.
3. Perception (PER): Affects perception-based weapons, like firearms, and helps in many investigative events.
4. Knowledge (KNW): Affects knowledge-based weapons and is used to cast spells or decipher occult items.
5. Charisma (CHR): Influences your ability to recruit allies or talk your way out of trouble.

In events, the game performs a skill check by rolling a 12-sided die against your relevant stat. If your stat is 8, you have a good chance to pass. In combat, stats do not increase your damage. Instead, they increase your speed, which lowers the time cost of your actions.

Heads-Up: Pay attention to a location’s Threat Level. Each point of threat adds a hidden bonus to an event’s skill check roll, making it much harder to succeed even if your stats are high. You can lower the threat level at the Police Station.

The Investigation: How to Solve Mysteries

Each run requires you to solve five mysteries from a random pool. To begin, you select a mystery from the bulletin board. Each mystery takes you to a primary location, like a school or a dark forest.

Your goal is to investigate locations to find the clues needed to advance the case. When you select a location, you trigger a random event. This event might present you with a choice, test one of your stats, or force you into combat.

1. Exploring: You must explore locations to find items and gather information.
2. Event Choices: Your choices matter. A correct choice might reward you with an item or an ally, while a wrong one can drain your Stamina, Reason, or add Doom.
3. Mystery Endings: Most mysteries have multiple endings (A, B, C, etc.) based on your actions. You must discover the correct sequence of events to achieve the best ending, which often provides a better reward.
4. Side-Quests: While investigating, you may receive side-quests. Completing these provides extra experience points (EXP) and other bonuses.

After you successfully solve a mystery, you return to town. You should use this time to rest, buy supplies, and prepare for the next case.

Resource Note: Ammunition for firearms is extremely limited and cannot be purchased. Save your bullets for boss battles or dire emergencies; do not waste them on regular enemies.

Combat Explained: Fighting for Your Life

Combat in World of Horror is a turn-based affair that uses a time-unit system.

1. The Action Bar: At the start of your turn, you have an action bar (e.g., 200 time units). Every action, from attacking to dodging, costs a certain amount of time. You fill this bar with a sequence of actions, which then execute in order.
2. Attack Actions: Your basic attacks have a time cost, a damage value, and an accuracy chance. A better weapon or a high corresponding stat (like STR for a baseball bat) reduces the time cost, letting you attack more times per turn.
3. Prepare Attack: This is a vital support action. It costs time but makes your next attack in the sequence a guaranteed hit. You should always use this against enemies with high dodge.
4. Defensive Actions: You can add defensive moves to the end of your action queue.
   • Brace: (Scales with STR) You take half damage from the enemy’s next attack. This is essential for surviving powerful hits.
   • Dodge: (Scales with DEX) You have a chance to avoid the enemy’s attack completely.
5. Other Actions: You can also use spells, items, or ask an ally to assist you, each with its own time cost and risk.

Before you attack, always check the enemy. The game tells you what kind of damage they will deal (STA, REA, or both) and how much. Plan your defensive actions accordingly. You can also run from most fights, but this will add Doom.

Quick Reminder: At the very start of every run, you can get 1 free FUND by clicking the small figurine on the shelf in your apartment.

Your Investigator: Characters & Backstories

You do not play as a generic hero. You must choose a character and a backstory, both of which dramatically change your run. The full game features 14 playable characters, but you start with five.

1. Kirie Minami (Transfer Girl): A balanced character with a perk that increases spell slots. A good choice for magic-focused runs.
2. Aiko Takahashi (Fit Girl): Starts with high Dexterity. She excels at dodging and using fast, light weapons.
3. Haru Shimizu (Thug): Begins with high Strength and a perk for extra combat damage. He is a powerful physical brawler.
4. Mizuki Hamasaki (Idol): Her unique perk, Fame, makes ally combat actions faster, making her a strong choice for an ally-focused build.
5. Kouji Tagawa (Reporter): Starts with a Camera, which can be used to weaken enemies in combat or in specific events.

After choosing a character, you select a Backstory. Backstories are modifiers that often add a new layer of challenge. For example, “The Seventh Curse” gives you more starting funds but makes it impossible to recruit any allies, as they will die the moment they join you.

Pro Tip: Once you unlock the Prepare action at your apartment, you can spend Doom once per run to get a powerful, character-specific starting item (like Haru’s Cigarettes or Moriko’s Bullets).

The Ancient Ones: Choosing Your Tormentor

The final choice you make is which Old God will be the ultimate villain of your run. This choice is critical, as it applies a game-wide negative effect.

1. Ath-Yolazsth: Often considered the easiest god. Its penalty is described by players as too merciful and more manageable than the others.
2. Cthac-Atorasu: This god’s penalty makes spellcasting more costly or dangerous.
3. Ithotu: This god’s penalty makes the game actually hard because it buffs enemy damage.
4. Atorasu-Nasa: This god’s penalty is straightforward and deadly. You cannot flee from any battle, forcing you to fight every encounter.

As a beginner, you should choose Ath-Yolazsth to learn the game’s mechanics.

Combat Tip: You cannot damage Ghost type enemies with normal attacks. You must defeat them using spells, certain Spiritual Actions (like Clap and Bow), or by equipping specific items like the Crucifix.

Essential Beginner’s Strategy

World of Horror is a difficult game that demands you learn from your failures. Knowledge is your greatest weapon.

1. Always Bathe: Before your first mystery, go to your apartment and use the Bath option. It gives you a free 5 EXP. You can also bathe once between each mystery to restore 1 Stamina or 1 Reason.
2. Buy a Weapon Immediately: Your starting attack is very weak. After your first bath, go to a shop and buy a weapon. The Carpenter Hammer (from the Hardware Store) or Ritual Dagger (from the Occult Shop) are excellent early-game choices.
3. Manage Your Resources: Do not be afraid to rest at home. This action trades Doom (which you can lower) for Stamina and Reason (which will kill you).
4. Use Prepare Attack: Do not rely on low-accuracy attacks. It is always better to spend the time to guarantee one strong hit than to miss two or three quick attacks.
5. Hoard Wisely: You only have four inventory slots. Prioritize items that heal you (Stamina/Reason) or key investigative items. You can send extra items to storage at your apartment.
6. Learn the Mysteries: You will not win your first run. Pay attention to the events in each mystery. Memorize which choices lead to good outcomes and which ones lead to disaster.

Quest Tip: Before climbing the Lighthouse, examine the symbols on the padlocked door. These symbols are not random; they tell you exactly which stat checks (STR, DEX, etc.) you will face on the way to the top.

Conclusion

You will die. You will go insane. The world will end, again and again. World of Horror is a game about learning the patterns in the chaos. Each failure teaches you how to solve a mystery, how to defeat a specific monster, or how to avoid a deadly event. Use this guide, embrace the cosmic dread, and with careful planning, you might just be the one to see the dawn.