Crimes

Crimes are how most of Vesper City makes a living: spend nerve, take your chances, and hope the score is worth it.

Nerve and your odds

Open Actions → Crimes to see the board. Every card shows the nerve the job costs, the take, the heat it adds and what happens if it goes wrong. Pickpocket, for example, costs 1 nerve. Nerve refills over time.

Your chance of success comes from:

• the crime's own base odds;
• its skill stat: each crime leans on one of your stats (Strength, Speed, Dexterity…), worth up to 20% extra;
• experience: being a few levels above the crime helps;
• your heat, which pulls your odds down.

Odds you earn

Below level 5 the odds show only as rough words, from "Easy job" to "Long shot". From that level you can Gather intel on a crime: it costs $100 per level of the crime, paid either way. If someone talks, you see the real odds for good. Every try teaches you a little Street Smarts. You also get to know a job by doing it: after 25 successes, or once you are 5 levels above it, the exact odds show with "You know this job".

Heat

Every attempt adds heat, and a failure adds double. Small-time and street jobs add 3 to 5, professional jobs 6 to 10, the big-time jobs 12 to 20 and the Syndicate's jobs 16 to 22; each card shows its job's heat. Below level 5 you build only 50% of it while you learn. Heat cools off with time, and faster while it's high (more below). The more heat you carry, the worse your odds, the likelier a failure ends badly, and the longer the stay.

From level 10 heat has two steps, and the heat gauge on the Crimes page warns you before each one:

• From 60: a beat cop is watching. After a successful job he may take 20% of that job's cash. Only that job's cash: never your wallet, your bank or your items.
• From 90: you're Hot. Jail sentences get 25% longer (together with your police record, never more than 50% longer), and a failed job is likelier to end in jail or hospital.

Heat is kept per district. 25% of each job's heat follows you round the city; the rest stays in the district where you did the job. Your heat in a district is that district's own heat plus what follows you, and both steps above always use the heat of the district you're in, so a job is only Hot where you are Hot. Moving on helps, but only so far: with 70 heat built in one district you carry about 17 into a fresh one, and the next job back in the old district still bites. Travelling takes time, and your police record, jail and any price on your head stay city-wide. The heat gauge shows your heat in every district (the one you're in, in bold), and in the Graphical view each district's card on the city map has a small thermometer and the bar at the top shows the district you're in. Only you ever see your heat. Both parts cool at the same time, also while you're offline: a district's own heat by 4 points an hour, the part that follows you by 2. While your heat in a district is 60 or more, that district's own heat cools 2 times as fast, until it drops below 60. The heat gauge also counts down to the next point of heat you lose and says when you'll be cool again in the district you're in (and, while you're Watched or Hot, when you drop below 60), on the game's clock; each district shows when it's cool, and the lay-low page shows how much heat each choice takes off and by when. These times assume no new jobs or bribes meanwhile.

Heat never takes your items or levels, never lasts for good, and nothing happens to you while you're offline.

Losing heat

• Wait. It cools by itself, also while you're away.
• Lay low anywhere: 1 to 4 hours without crimes while the heat of the district you're in and the heat that follows you cool 2 times as fast, or 4 times as fast at your own lodging (your home district). Other districts cool at the usual pace. It's free, and you can get back to work early. Use the link under the heat gauge; in the Graphical view your lodging offers it too.
• Pay off a beat cop from the heat gauge: cash for 20 points off the heat of the district you're in (never the heat that follows you round the city), at most 3 times a day across all districts. The price grows with your level and rises with each bribe the same day, wherever you paid.
• Tools that lower heat, equipped in your tool slots.

Three ways it can end

• Success: cash, XP, Respect and sometimes loot. Dangerous districts pay 15% more for each danger level above the first.
• It fell through: you walk away empty-handed but keep 15% of the XP as a lesson. You never lose XP.
• Caught: a second roll decides. Some jobs end in jail (Shoplift), some in hospital (Mug a Tourist), and petty ones just let you walk away. The card tells you which. See Jail and hospital.

Fail the same crime several times in a row and a green "You're due a win" badge appears: your odds are a little better until you succeed.

Tiers, courses and big jobs

Crimes come in six tiers, from Small-time jobs to the Syndicate. Tier 1 is open to everyone; the higher tiers need a course at the college (the ladder runs Streetwise, Safecracking, The Big Time and The Commission), and Untouchable jobs also need level 30. Locked cards say what is missing. See Education.

Each district has a big job that takes your whole nerve bar and pays in proportion to it.

The Syndicate

The sixth tier is for players who have outgrown the city's wards: six jobs from level 42 to 65, opened by The Commission at the college (level 40, $300,000, after The Big Time). The odds are a little lower than on the Untouchable jobs and the heat a little higher, and a job gone wrong costs 25 minutes in jail or hospital (30 for the two big jobs, The Mint Job and The Mayor's Chair).

They grow with you. Above level 65 the Syndicate's take keeps pace with your level: you get the same share of a day's income at your level as a level 65 player gets, and the XP grows with the XP your next level needs. Your nerve bar is the limit, so a full day of crimes is still worth about a day's income, never more. For every 50 levels beyond that, their cards show a small Notoriety star; it's a badge only.

By district, tools and loot

The board shows the jobs of the district you are in, plus those you can pull anywhere. "Elsewhere in the city" lists the rest; travel on City → District map (Districts and travel).

Some crimes need a tool; others are optional and give better odds, less heat or a shorter sentence. Only tools equipped in your tool slots count (You → Inventory), and some are used up. Successful jobs can drop loot to sell to black-market dealers. Browse Every crime and Every item.

Tips

• Let your heat cool before trying a risky job.
• Gather intel on crimes you plan to repeat: the real odds stay with you.
• Check the "If it goes wrong" line before you commit.
• Going offline? Lay low first: it's free.