BLOODMONEY! Complete Beginner Guide: Core Mechanics, Ethics & Survival

Welcome to the Dark World of BLOODMONEY!

BLOODMONEY!, created by indie creator SHROOMYCHRIST (Shroomychrist Studios), opens with a grim premise: you are plagued by an urgent medical debt totaling $25,000. Desperate for survival, you encounter Harvey Harvington, an unsettlingly accommodating man standing behind a small roadside stall who promises to pay you $1 for every tap you deliver upon him.

While it begins like a standard web clicker, BLOODMONEY! is fundamentally a psychological horror experiment designed to examine the cost of efficiency. Here is everything a new player needs to know to navigate its mechanics, audio cues, and moral crossroads.

1. The Core Gameplay Loop

The basic mechanical structure consists of four phases:

1. The Click Action: Left-clicking (or tapping on mobile screens) directly on Harvey triggers audio feedback, a dialogue response, and increments your bank balance by your currently equipped tool's value.
2. The Medical Goal ($25,000): Your target is strictly finite. Unlike endless idle games where numbers escalate into the billions, the game halts immediately once you hit the $25,000 threshold.
3. The Shop Counter: Located beside Harvey, the stall offers a series of increasingly lethal tools. Each upgrade increases your yield per click, reducing the total physical time needed to finish the game.
4. The Moral Trade-Off: The catch is visceral: higher yields cause severe physical and psychological trauma to Harvey. His on-screen text reactions transition from polite awkwardness to terror, begging, and agonized pleas.

2. Deciding Your Ending Path Early

The creator-confirmed cutoff is the Scissors, so decide which ending you want before progressing that far:

• If you want the Good Ending:
  • You may progress through the Hammer.
  • Stop before the Scissors, which lock the Normal Ending.
  • A Feather-only run is an optional lower-harm challenge, not the exact route requirement.
• If you want the Normal Ending (Court Trial):
  • Progress to the Scissors.
  • Do not continue to the final Gun escalation.
• If you want the Bad Ending (The Gun):
  • Buy all available weapons as fast as possible until the firearm appears, then pull the trigger.

3. Important Tips for First-Time Players

Be Careful Around the Shop Interface

Accidental clicks on shop buttons cannot be undone during an active session. If you are attempting a pacifist playthrough, avoid hovering your mouse over the sharp tools to prevent accidental misclicks that void the route.

Listen With Audio Enabled

Harvey Harvington’s audio cues and on-screen text dialogue form the emotional centerpiece of the game. Playing with audio enabled grounds the psychological tension and illustrates why the game became such a viral sensation on YouTube.

Save Progress and Cache Management

Modern web implementations store your session progress within your browser's local storage. If you want to experience multiple endings, you can either clear your browser site data or use a private browsing tab to start completely fresh from $0.

4. Why You Should Play the Original

While web-based ports allow instant access from any device, the definitive artistic vision belongs to the standalone downloadable build available on itch.io. The standalone release features uncompressed sound effects, high-fidelity art assets, and devlog insights from creator SHROOMYCHRIST.

Support indie horror creators and explore the original release on the official itch.io page.