#bookthree

That means a couple of things. First, we will not be answering any Book 3 content related questions until after April 20th. The plan right now is to leave our ask box open so we can hold onto those questions and answer them when the time comes, but that may change if the amount gets to be overwhelming. Secondly, all messages involving how long the guide will take, when to expect the guide, if we have an estimate countdown, etc. will be deleted automatically. We will provide updates on our progress when possible and appropriate.

We understand this may be disappointing to some, but we ask for patience given the nature and intensity of such a fan project, and the reality that the complexity of its completion grows with each subsequent book.

Annnd that’s it for now folks! Thanks for reading.

so what's on your mind?

Hello all! If you've been having trouble getting your desired member of Unit Bravo to be recognized as your Detective's Best Friend in Book 3, you're not alone! This is related to issues within the code of the game. We can't know when or if those issues will be patched, but in the meantime, here is some guidance to help you get your desired outcome!

Book 3 makes these determinations based on your friendship scores at the end of Book 2, and please be advised that some of these will be much harder to achieve than others. Hope it helps! 💖

N Romance

If F is your desired Best Friend, get their Friendship Points higher than M's or A's. F > M or A

If M is your desired Best Friend, get their Friendship Points higher than F or A, and make sure F doesn't have more Friendship Points than A. M > F or A, and F ≤ A

If A is your desired Best Friend, get F and M's Friendship Points to be equal, and get A's higher than them both. A > F and M, F=M

M Romance

If F is your desired Best Friend, get their Friendship Points higher than N's or A's. F > N or A

If N is your desired Best Friend, get their Friendship Points higher than A's or F's, and make sure F's are not higher than A's. N > A or F, and F ≤ A

If A is your desired Best Friend, get F and N's Friendship Points to be equal, and get A's higher than them both. A > F and N, F=N

F Romance

If M is your desired Best Friend, get their Friendship Points higher than N's or A's. M > N or A

If N is your desired Best Friend, get N's Friendship Points higher than M's or A's, and make sure M's is not higher than A's. N > M or A, and M ≤ A

If A is your desired Best Friend, get M and N's Friendship Points to be equal, and then get A's higher than them both. A > N and M, N=M

A Romance

*Note that there is an additional coding error for Best Friends in A's Romance Path that makes non-F selections particularly difficult.

If F is your desired Best Friend, get their Friendship Points higher than M's or A's. F > M or A

If M is your desired Best Friend, get their Friendship Points higher than F's or A's, and make sure F's are not higher than A's. M > F or A, and F≤A (This is very difficult unless you deliberately miss every point opportunity with F for Book 1 and 2)

If N is your desired Best Friend, get M's, F's, and A's Friendship Points equal, and get N's higher than all of them. N > M and F and A, M = F = A. (This is likely impossible unless you do not get any points with anyone except for N during Book 1 and 2)

Love Triangle

If F is your desired Best Friend, get F's Friendship Points higher or equal to M's. F ≥ M

If M is your desired Best Friend, get M's Friendship Points higher than F's. M > F

No Romance

If F is your desired Best Friend, get their Friendship Points higher than N's, M's, or A's. F > N or M or A

If M is your desired Best Friend, make F, N's and A's Friendship Points equal, and then get M's higher than the rest. M > F and N and A, F=N=A

If N is your desired Best Friend, make F, M's and A's Friendship Points equal, and then get N's higher than the rest. N > F and M and A, F=M=A

If A is your desired Best Friend, make F, M's and N's Friendship Points equal, and then get A's higher than the rest. A > F and M and N, F=M=N

You import a save where you romanced N. You have 15 points with A, 10 with M and 13 with F. Logically, A should be your best friend, but the way this code works, you'll get F.

It first checks for a tie. There is none, so the highfriend variable remains empty. The code then jumps to the next check: A.

A is higher than both M and F, so the variable changes to: highfriend="adam"

Then it jumps to the next check: M. Since their score is lower than both A and F, the variable remains the same.

But it then jumps to F's check. And since F is higher than M, the variable is changed to: highfriend="felix"

Anon this is me virtually sending you bouquets: 💐💐💐💐💐💐💐

You have quite literally prevented me from staying up all night trying to figure this issue out. I think you're exactly right. In other words, it's not an issue of the game exactly "prioritizing" the best friend selections that people keep getting by mistake; it's that the correct selections are missing the necessary finish inputs that would lock them in, and the code is moving on until something else at the bottom gets chosen.

I don't know when or if that's ever going to get adjusted in the code, but in the meantime I will try to type up a weird and backwards workaround to try and help people get the best friend path they were actually working towards in the first two books 😅