Shift at Midnight – Beginner Tips & Tricks

Welcome to Into Indie Games’ beginner tips for Shift at Midnight.

Running the graveyard shift at a gas station store is never easy. When you have to identify Dopplegangers on top of that to save your skin, things get even more difficult. Our beginner’s guide will offer six handy tips and tricks that you can use to make your shift go smoothly and without unsavory incidents.

For more information about the game, check out their Steam page here.

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Understanding the Game

The first thing you have to understand about Shift at Midnight is that it’s an equal parts horror, shop management, and detective simulator. You can’t have one without the others. You work in the graveyard shift, and after opening the shop, you have to cater to your customers, keep the shelves stocked with products, and identify whether your customer is a human or a Doppleganger.

You need to be careful about the last part, as failing to identify a Doppleganger means the Entity will come and hunt you when your shift ends. Failing to keep your shelves stocked or the store clean will cause your reviews to take a hit, which will decrease the customers that show up at your doorstep. This will also impact how much you earn at the end of your shift.

Don’t worry if you don’t get everything right in your first couple of shifts, though. Over time, you’ll learn to manage your shift efficiently so that you tick off all the right boxes. At the early stage, just remember your three main responsibilities:

• Keep the store clean
• Keep the shelves stocked
• Figure out whether the customer is a Doppelganger BEFORE bagging items.

As you progress through the shifts, you’ll unlock new features like the Gas Pump or other event-specific encounters, but you’ll figure them out as you go.

Tips for Identifying Dopplegangers

As we said, learning to tell the difference between a Human and a Doppleganger is extremely important, especially if you don’t want to get attacked by the Entity as your shift ends. The game will teach you the basics of how it works, but over time, you’ll get trickier customers with confusing information that can be hard to verify.

The most important rule to remember here is that the NET Database never lies. When a customer walks up to the counter, they will place their ID Card for you to scan. Click on the Barcode of the ID Card or manually type in their name in the Search field of the NET Database on your Computer to get all the information you need about them. Other than that, you can also ask them about specific features if something stands out to you.

Ideally, you’ll want to ask and verify everything you can about the customer before you bag their items. But that means you’ll also be wasting a lot of time. So here’s a quick checklist to streamline the process:

• Check if the customer is Alive or not in the Database.
• Fact-check their Occupation by asking about it.
• Check the Description box for specific quirks (always buys x items, or always wears x clothes, etc).
• Note their movement as they shop around the store and ask them about it.

Checking for the information mentioned above should be your priority when you’re on a time crunch. When the Gas Station unlocks, you’ll also want to check the License Plate Number of the car and see if it’s registered to the correct owner.

Hiding from the Entity

If you fail to identify a Doppelganger, your shift ends with a visit from the Entity. Now this is where the horror side of the game truly kicks in. You’ll get a warning on your screen and a timer to help set everything up. What you do before the timer reaches zero makes all the difference in whether you make it through the night or have to start over again.

Your priority should be to bar the doors with wooden boards. There are three ways to enter the store: through the front door, the door in the toilet, or the back door at the office. Ideally, you want to bar all the entrances if you’ve got time.

Laying down some traps around the store also works wonders at bringing down the Entity’s Patience and causing it to leave. You don’t want to manfight the Entity if possible. There are several vents scattered around the store where you can hide for a while. Remember the Entity can’t see, so if it’s at the far corner of the store, you can crawl around to the loading area to avoid it for a time.

You only have to hide until the Entity’s Patience runs out. Once the big Entity leaves, there might be some remaining Entities left in the shop that you’ll have to take out before the shift ends.

Split the Work in Co-Op

Shift at Midnight is perfectly designed for a fun yet chaotic co-op experience. During the early few shifts, things will be fun and light-hearted. But later on, the difficulty will truly ramp up, and the game will test your teamwork and your ability to communicate clearly with the team.

The most important thing to do if you’re playing with friends is to split the responsibilities. You don’t want two people fighting for the same spot on the counter when you can serve only one customer at a time. Instead, have someone take on the restocking role, someone to keep the store clean and order supplies, and one dedicated player at the counter to handle the investigative side.

Make sure you communicate and bounce ideas off each other if a customer seems shady. It’s very easy to mistake a Human for a Doppelganger, and shooting a Human has a penalty on your earnings.

Prioritize When You’re Playing Solo

Just because Shift at Midnight features co-op doesn’t mean it’s not playable as a solo player. On the contrary, the game has a Solo mode with randomized nights that’s designed for that very reason.

But when you’re playing solo, learning to prioritize your tasks is step one. There’s a lot happening at each shift of the game, and as a solo player, it’s impossible to tackle everything at the same time. So here’s a quick priority checklist that you can use if you’re trying out the solo mode of the game:

• Manning the Counter and the Gas Pump is top priority when the shift begins.
• Clean the store & restock the shelves before the shift ends.
• Place Order around halfway through your shift.
• If you’re facing an Entity, use the Vents and lay down Traps beforehand.
• Remember to dismantle Traps before you start the shift if left unused. They can hurt your customers.

Even if your store gets messy, don’t bother trying to clean up the blood or get rid of the trash right away. It’s more important to stand behind the counter to keep the customers coming in. You’ll always have time to take care of the cleaning and restocking before you get on the bus to end your shift.

Check the Active Warning Before Starting Your Shift

Your Computer is your best friend in Shift at Midnight. Not only do you use it to look up IDs and verify information, but it also sends you active warnings on specific days for events. Events such as Blood Moon mean there will be a confirmed Entity hunt as your shift ends, along with increased Doppelganger activity in your shop. Other than that, you’ll also get active warnings for new creatures that might show up after your shift.

If there’s an active warning available, you’ll hear a blip from your Computer. Check your emails and read through the warning to prepare for the new enemies you might have to face later on.

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This concludes our beginner’s guide for Shift at Midnight. For more interesting articles related to indie games, check out the links below:

• Into Indie Games Homepage
• Dive or Die – Children of Rain: Guides Hub
• Desktop Explorer Walkthrough Hub
• Dinoblade Walkthrough
• The Mermaid Mask – Complete Walkthrough Hub