This is mainly just a quick guide I wanted to whip up for anyone who wanted a quick read on what I found to be an effective way to get the best ending in JudgeSim game. Plus, any extra little tid-bits of info for people that are still working towards their first ending, or struggling with some of the game’s features.
Odds are, you either found this through CaseOh (like yours truly), saw this as a relatively new release (at least, as of the time of this guide), or just happened to stumble upon it some other, third way. Regardless, congratulations! You’ve found quite a gem of a text-based story game.
I want to instantly preface this before you continue reading: this guide is meant much more for someone who has ALREADY BEATEN THE GAME. If you have not yet beaten the game, then needless to say, spoilers are ahead, and I recommend you stop reading this and go play the damn game! It’s genuinely a good, fun time, and worth experiencing for real at least once.
Gameplay Tips
For a game that’s primarily story, that admittedly doesn’t stop the surface-level simplicity masking some of the intricate (or at least confusing and challenging) nuances of the game. So, this section aims to clear up some confusion by offering tips on struggle areas of the game.
Family and Sanity
Your family periodically will ask for stuff, meaning spending your cold hard cash. Refusing to accept this lowers your mental health, or sanity. That said, most of the time, you WILL be able to afford purchasing stuff for your family.
The only purchases you should refuse are ones that increase your weekly cost. And if you do get concerned about your sanity getting too low, a few visits to the bar are always ideal.
However, DO NOT visit the bar too often. The bar will get more expensive the more you visit and purchase alcohol. Buy your drink (or drinks, if the game allows), then wait until you need to recharge your sanity.
Ideally, you only need to keep your mental health meter around 60% or above, so it’s not too big of an issue, nor an expensive one if you manage your mental health well. Which, again, only decreases when denying purchases.
Money and the Casino
Naturally, since you’re being paid for your work, it’s gonna be obvious that money’s a necessary thing to worry about. Never fear, because it’s easy to manage.
First, always withdraw your money when possible. You want as much money on hand for purchasing bribes, or stuff for your family. Or even some luxury stuff, if you’re willing to spend some free cash mid-trial.
Second, you don’t need to take credit, and ideally shouldn’t, since it makes you pay more than you initially take. Shocker, taking loans means debt.
Lastly, if you’re low or tight on cash, the casino IS a possibility. But not recommended, for obvious reasons. Gambling is, well, gambling. You’re more likely than not gonna lose money.
Assassination/Arrest
As the game progresses, you’ll inevitably notice those bars in the top left rise over the course of the game. Don’t panic if you see it increase, most of the time you won’t have to worry about some stray percentages.
Ideally, you should try to lower them only if/when they reach 30% or higher. Once they start to get a little high, it’s a good idea to send money to the guard on your right.
For $750, you can reduce either by 25%, before he refuses any more service for a few days/weeks. It’s best to react fast to changes in risk percentage, so that you can manage it early, and keep the guard free to aid you later on in the run.
If you want any further details or information on the Assassination/Arrest risk, alongside the dice rolling at the end of a day/trial, that’s where my information gets a little spotty. Thankfully, the devs themselves seem to have a guide on this to save me from spreading any misconstrued information!
Bars and Dice Mechanics
Assassination Bar
Q: Why is my assassination bar rising?
A: In the corrupt Banana Republic, the bar for assassination will be raised if you don’t do what you are told in every threatening letter you receive. Of course, the choice is up to you, sometimes being corrupt or giving in to threats can lead to better things 🙂
Q: Is it normal that as a judge I could be assassinated or threatened?
A: Unfortunately, in the ultra-corrupt Banana Republic, having a respected profession or an extremely important position does not prevent you from being threatened.
Q: My assassination bar has increased a lot, is it possible to lower it?
A: It is possible to lower the bar for arrest by requesting special protection from the police. (Try to keep in mind that this service is not available on an ongoing basis. Once you get a service from the police, you will not get another service for a while).
Arrest Bar
Q: Why is my arrest bar rising?
A: Making wrong decisions in cases will increase your arrest bar. (Not in all cases, some cases do not have a “Law Book” and the decisions you make in these cases will not affect your arrest bar).
Q: What determines the wrong decision?
A: In every case where the “Law Book” is available, the “Case File” has a section on charges, where you can see what the accused(s) are charged with.
When making your decisions, you need to find the penalties for these charges in the relevant sections of the “Law Book” and decide accordingly. (You should bear in mind that sometimes factors such as the criminal records or mental health tests of the defendant(s), their age, etc. can change the length, type, etc. of the sentence).
Q: I have forgotten what the law requires, such as aggravated sentences, mental health, the death penalty and over 50s, what should I do?
A: When you open the “Law Book”, the obligations of the relevant laws are written on the left side.
Q: I want to give a different sentence than the one in the Law Book. Can I do that?
A: Yes, you can do this, but keep in mind that this will increase your arrest bar.
Q: Why can I be arrested as a judge?
A: You have to do your duty within the law as much as any other human being and if you go beyond what is written in the law, there will be consequences.
You are a judge in a corrupt Banana Republic, appointed by a piece of mail and novice in some respects. That is why the Ministry of Justice will question the correctness of your decisions and will supervise you.
Dice
Q: I don’t understand the logic of the dice?
A: Dice are rolled after each case. The probability of a roll of 12 depends on the probability of your arrest and assassination bars. If the sum of 2 adjacent dice is 12, you are game over.
Q: I don’t have any of my bars with 100% probability, why am I game over?
A: As we explained above, the bar does not need to be full for your dice to come up 12. The dice are probabilistic, this will keep you on your toes and force you to keep your bars under control.
Q: I want you to remove the dice mechanic from the game, is that possible?
A: We know that doing something out of the box in the gaming world can sometimes be counterproductive. But we see that there are as many players who love the dice mechanic as there are players who don’t like it. In the country where the game takes place, unfortunately, losing your life is based entirely on probabilities and we wanted to make you feel that.
If I want to answer your question as a game developer, the answer is sadly no. Because in order to do that we would have to change all the case and bar mechanics and frankly we are happy with the system. Because we want to leave the player free to make the decision they want to make, but we also want to limit their ability to do it all the time.
Judge Sim Best Ending Walkthrough
Always withdraw money when possible, always spend money on family when possible, avoid taking credit if possible, reduce chances of assassination/arrest if possible.
Purchases made through the tablet are not necessary.
Points of suspicion will be marked with a star (*). Suspicion basis is on whether or not the choice could impact the ending. That does not mean you can’t follow the listed judgement, it just means that I can’t confirm if any of these are actually relevant to mafia claims or not.
These stars are meant to specifically section out specific parts of the game, where I’m not fully certain on whether or not the marked trial has full relevance to the mafia claims and progression or not.
That said, just because I have them marked doesn’t mean they do not work. THEY DO WORK FOR THE GOOD ENDING. I just marked them since I haven’t tested a run where I explored all outcomes of said trials.
Ideally, avoid the casino. Only visit the bar if necessary, too many visits raises the price. Mental health isn’t that big of an issue, so keeping it just above 50% is fine.
If any of the below punishments are confusing at all, simply refer to the file on each convicted person, alongside the rules in the Law Book. Also, this is based on already having manually done each trial, looking at the evidence, and declaring off the information as a whole.
Simply put, if one’s confused after reading any of the below verdicts, just get all the evidence and statements and manually review the case. This manual review should flow into the thought process behind each punishment.
Week 1
After 1B, convicts now require aggravated sentences
1A – Guilty (6 months, $1000)
1B – Guilty (18 months, $5000)
1C – Innocent
Week 2
Before starting 2A, request for $100 made by family
2A – Both guilty (2 years | 4 years, $2000)
2B – Custody to mother, as requested by children
2C – Innocent
Week 3
After 3B, criminals not mentally well now require treatment
3A – Darell guilty (10 years), Duncan innocent
3B – Guilty (12 months)
3C – Wall Music convicted
Week 4
Before starting 4A, request for $300 made by family
On 4B, claim for release is given, potentially not mafia
4A – Reject claim, continue game sales
*4B – Both guilty (48 years, $750000)
4C – Guilty (4 years)
Week 5
Before 5B, man will come to door, call police
5A – Guilty (8 years)
*5B – Troyes found right, money for phone returned
5C – Innocent
Week 6
Before starting 6A, request for $700 made by family
After 6B, immigrants convicted now deported
6A – Tenant stays
6B – Guilty (4 years, $37500)
6C – Deport
Week 7
Before starting 7A, request for $1000 weekly made by family
After 7A, execute any convicted of terrorism, high treason, r*pe, and child abuse
7A – Execute
7B – Deny claim
7C – Guilty (4 years)
Week 8
Before starting 8A, request for $1000 made by family
8A – Treatment
8B – No payment required
8C – Execute
Week 9
On 9C, claim for punishment is given, potentially not mafia
9A – Guilty (10 years, $10000000)
9B – Innocent
*9C – Deport
Week 10
Before starting 10A, request for $1900 made by family
10A – All guilty (10 years, $100000 | 16 years, $400000)
10B – Divorce and alimony
10C – Guilty (10 years)
Week 11
After 11C, defendant murdered regardless
11A – Treatment
*11B – Payment
11C – Execute
Week 12
On 12B, claim for release given, likely mafia
12A – Guilty (102 years)
*12B – Guilty (26 years)
12C – Treatment
Week 13
After 13C, 50+ age criminals receive reduced penalty (by half)
13A – Pay compensation, suspend activity
13B – Guilty (4 years)
13C – Jean guilty (4 years), Elliot innocent
Week 14
On 14A, threat if guilty given, likely mafia
On 14C, threat if innocent given, likely mafia
14A – Both guilty (32 years jail, $500000)
14B – Split inheritance
*14C – Innocent
Week 15
Before starting 15A, request for $2000 weekly made by family
Before 15B, wait a few times, then check and open door
15A – Treatment
15B – Guilty (30 years)
15C – Innocent
Week 16
Before starting 16A, request for $4500 made by family
On 16C, threat if guilty given, likely mafia
*16A – Guilty (6 years)
16B – Logo removed from billboards
16C – Execute both names, other individual innocent
Week 17
On 17A, claim for release given, potentially not mafia
17A – Guilty (4 years, $5000000) and Deport
17B – Treatment
17C – Addler innocent, others Guilty (7 years | 14 years)
Week 18
18A – Guilty (8 years, $1500000)
*18B – Payment refused
18C – Drew executed, Darell innocent
Week 19
Before starting 19A, request for $7500 made by family
On 19A, threat if innocent given, likely mafia
19A – Innocent
19B – Guilty (6 years, $50000)
19C – No adoption
Week 20
On 20A, threat if guilty given, likely mafia
20A – Guilty (10 years, $1000000)
20B – Execute
20C – Guilty (17, $5,000,000)
Week 21
21A – Closure of BD Party
Having tested the route, these specific rulings/choices grant the good ending. Out of lack of knowledge and guessing, whether or not you are on track for a good ending likely has to do with earlier rulings, when after a week ends, a segment will come up showing overwhelmingly positive reactions from the public. Despite suspicion on some of the rulings, you can still perform them (as listed above) and get the ending.
How you choose to spend money with your family doesn’t seem to have too much impact, since the run where I tested this out, I actually ended up skipping quite a few purchases, compared to my blind playthrough where I had much more money due to ignoring the Week 7 family request.
