So you’ve conquered the ChildHood, Educore and AdultWorld levels. Congratulations – that’s no small accomplishment. But now you’ve hit one of the toughest spots in the game – the Level 2020 Quarantine, where you’re confined to your base either on your own or with other players. If you’re like me and got assigned to the Josh character at the beginning of the game, you’ll definitely burn through a lot of hearts mastering the first few steps of this level, so hopefully this walkthrough will save you some time and get you through to whatever’s next.

When the morning sequence begins, you should have full stamina but your mood meter and bio stats will be dangerously low. The alarm on your phone-com will be going off and you’ll be tempted to hit the snooze button and sleep in – don’t. Just turn it off right away so it doesn’t wake up the other players. Also – definitely don’t pick up the phone-com and look at it – this is a booby trap that can cause mood stats to turn red and possibly implode, especially if your defense shields are low on charge.

Now you need to get your bio stats leveled off. If you activated the “Will the cat knock over the cup” mini-game the night before, you should have a cup of water next to the bed. If the cat knocked it over, you might as well give up and restart the level. If not, go ahead and drink the water to refill your hydration meter.

Next, select the Willpower icon from to the abilities menu and use it to break free of the bed’s tractor beam. Then turn on stealth mode, and get out of bed. The floor is probably cold, so open your inventory and select some socks from the laundry menu. Just use the dirty ones since your energy level is way too low to activate cleaning mode at this point.

Your destination is now the save beacon located in the kitchen at the coffee maker. When you arrive, there may be some dishes in the sink blocking your ability to empty the coffee pot. Clear those away with a low-level temper blast, then set up the coffee maker and activate it at the highest possible setting.

Once the coffee maker is fully operational, head to the bathroom to get the yellow bar on your bio stats to stop blinking. You can also brush your teeth at this point, but avoid looking in the mirror since the sight of your own disheveled avatar can cause minor shock damage.

Now head back to the kitchen. The coffee should be ready, so pour a cup and carry it to the sofa where you can sip it quietly while doing something meaningless like staring out the window or drawing mustaches on the models in a catalogue. This will actually boost your stats so they’re high enough to make it through the upcoming challenges.

The youngest player will probably approach during this time. Just go ahead and click through the endless series of dialog bubbles, since they’re usually about a dream or a question about whether worms can breath in sand. Once you’ve made it through those, use your phone-com as a distraction to prevent any more interruptions.

(Pro tip: If the spouse player wakes up, gift her with a cup of coffee as this is usually a good way to prevent yourself from inadvertently setting off a potentially disastrous melee exchange.)

At this point, mood meter and defense shield should have a decent charge, meaning you’re fully prepped to contend with the Information Onslaught, the Conversation Gauntlet, and Isolation Doldrums without setting off a total meltdown that sends you back to your spawn point.

If anyone has any tips on how to make it through those sections, please leave them in the comments.