Getting started

Welcome to Vesper City, a 1920s underworld where you start with nothing and work your way up.

Signing up

Underground Evolution is for adults only: you must be 18 or over to play. When you join you choose a sign-in name (the name you log in with; private, nobody else sees it), your email and a password, and give your date of birth (and, where asked, your country). You choose your game name, the one everyone sees, when you first log in. On the sign-in page, always type your sign-in name, not your character's name.

Creating your character

Next you build your character:

• Game name: what everyone in Vesper City will call you. It isn't the name you log in with.
• Background: where you come from. Each background has its own perks, such as extra starting cash, better stats or a little more luck, and they last for your whole life.
• Starting district: your first home in the city. You can move later (see Districts and travel).
• Your face: a noir portrait or a drawn avatar. You can change it later in Account.

Can't decide? One button picks everything at random, and you still see it before you confirm. You start with $500 in cash, plus anything your background adds.

Your bars

Four bars sit at the top of every page. They are spent by actions and refill on their own, even while you are offline:

• Energy: for the gym and for attacking. Refills 5 every 10 minutes.
• Nerve: for crimes. Refills 1 every 5 minutes.
• Health: lost in fights. Hit zero and you end up in hospital.
• Happy: your mood. It makes your gym training count for more, and how fast it refills depends on where you live.

Levels and experience

Crimes, fights and much more give experience (XP). Fill the XP bar and you go up a level, which opens new crimes, places and features. Every 5 levels is a milestone where your bars can grow. Each level up says what it opens: the banner lists everything you can do now, with a link to each, and Help → What each level unlocks shows every level, what is yours already and what is coming up. Levels never stop, and some things come back every few levels for ever.

The Don's Errands

Your first days come with letters from the Don on the Front Page. Each one asks you to do something: pick your home district, commit a crime, work a shift, train, take a trip, beat a rival and more. Each errand in the first set pays $170, with a bonus of $300 for finishing the set. More letters follow 20 hours after you finish a set. The errands disappear above level 10. Already know the streets? You can skip them (no rewards), and undo that from Account for 7 days.

Where to go first

• Actions → Crimes: your main source of cash and XP. See Crimes.
• Actions → Gym: build your battle stats for Fights. See Gym and training.
• Actions → Jobs: steady, honest pay. See Jobs.
• You → Education: courses that unlock new options. See Education.

Things can go wrong: a failed crime can land you in jail, and a lost fight in hospital. Read Jail and hospital so it doesn't come as a surprise.

Money and Gold

• Cash is what you carry. It pays for almost everything, but cash in your pocket can be taken from you.
• Bank: money in the bank is safe and earns interest. See Bank.
• Gold is the premium currency. It never buys combat power. See Gold and the store.

Tips

• Nobody in the game needs your password. Never give it to anyone, whatever they say.
• Spend your nerve and energy before logging off: a full bar can't refill any further.
• Follow the Don's letters; they show you most of the game and pay well.
• Put spare cash in the bank before you go to sleep.
• Ready to explore? Read Districts and travel next.