Gameplay Basics, Documents and Inspect Mode

Overview

This guide introduces you into the gameplay basics of the dystopian document thriller Papers, please!It will neither spoil parts of the story nor how to unlock tokens, certain endings or endless mode.

Introduction

This guide will introduce you into the work routine of a border/immigrations inspector of the Ministry of Admission at Arstotzka’s East Grestin Checkpoint. After reading you will have all the required information to unleash the full might of a fascist arbitrary bureaucracy on immigrants, travellers, refugees and smugglers.

Basics

Your day starts at 6am and ends at 6pm if not interrupted by any events. Note that storydriven visitors as the MoA Supervisor or the MoI Inspector will not start the clock. Take your time to read MoA’s daily bulletin and your R&R-book carefuly and adapt your protocol. Click on the speaker to call the first entrant. This will start the clock.

Let’s have a look at your booth and desk:

• 1 Speaker: call the next entrant by clicking on the speaker.
• 2 Shutter: you can raise and lower the shutter using this lever.
• 3 Booth/Entrant: all entrants will appear here and look at you. Return documents and give objects to entrants by dragging them here.
• 4 Counter: entrants will put their documents on the counter.
• 5 Time and Date
• 6 MoA bulletin and Newspaper
• 7 Microphone and audio transcript
• 8 Rules & Regulations book: have it on your desk for quick reference.
• 9 Personal scales: check entrant’s weight here.
• 10 Desk: drag all documents here for further inspection.
• 11 Inspect mode: enter inspect mode to highlight discrepancies.
• 12 Drawer: put confiscated documents in the drawer.
• 13 Additional treatment: these buttons appear if you detect discrepancies in inspect mode and provide additional treatment as body scanner or fingerprints.
• 14 Approved stamp: align the visa page of an entrant’s passport beneath this stamp, if you want to allow him to cross the border.
• 15 Denied stamp: align the visa page of an entrant’s passport beneath this stamp, if you want to deny him access to Arstotzka.
• 16 Reason for Denial stamp: use this stamp to automatically print the reason for denial in a refused entrant’s passport. (Use denied stamp before.)

Not all of these features will be available from the beginning but rather unlock while the story progresses or certain events take place.

Rules & Regulations

Most of the days the following general rules apply to entrants and immigrants:

• all entrants must have a passport
• foreigners require an entry permit
• foreigners require an identity supplement
• foreigners that plan to work in Arstotzka must have a work pass
• citizens of Arstotzka require an id card
• diplomats require a diplomatic authorization

These are general rules only. Check the daily bulletin of the MoA and your R&R-book each morning for additional or changing rules and regulations (e.g. deny all entrants from a specific country).

Document: PASSPORT

The passport is the most common document you have to check. Each entrant must have a valid passport.

to be cecked:

• Name: Compare spelling of names in the passport to all other relevant documents
• Date of Birth
• Photo
• Sex: If in doubt use the inspect tool to verify gender by highlighting the entry in the passport and the entrant’s actual face. If a discrepancy is detected you might get further options as body scanner or fingerprints.
• Issuing City: Forged passports may have only subtle typos in this section, so compare this carefully to the specific country page in your R&R-book.
• Date of Expiration: Validate this by checking date with the clock/calendar in the bottom left corner of your desk.

Document: ENTRY PERMIT

All foreigners travelling to or through Arstotzka must have a valid entry permit.

to be checked:

• Name: compare to entrant’s passport.
• Passport Number: compare to entrant’s passport.
• Duration: compare this to the entrant’s statements. If you missed the statements you can always check the audio transcript hidden behind the microphone on your desk. On the picture below is an example of a discrepancy between entrant’s statement and the entry permit highlighted in inspect mode.
• Purpose: compare this to the entrant’s statements or the audio transcript.
• Enter by date: the entrant must pass border before this date.
• Seal: check the documents section in your R&R-book to reveal a forged entry permit.

Document: IDENTITY SUPPLEMENT

As cross-border crimes and trafficking increase, MoA will tighten border controls and all foreigners require a valid identity supplement.

to be checked:

• Height: check the height on the left side of your booth to verify this entry.
• Weight: check the scale on the bottom of your booth to verify this entry.
• Physical appearance: compare this to the entrant’s face
• Expiration date: this is a short-issue document, so verify expiration carefully

Discrepancies concerning identity and physical appearance usualy result in further investigation options as use of body scanner or a query of MoA’s fingerprints database.

Document: WORK PASS

All foreigners that want to work in beautiful Arstotzka must have a valid work pass. Pay attention to entrant’s statements to catch if they plan to do so and therefore need this document.

to be checked:

• Name: validate with other documents as passport and entry permit.
• Field of work
• Expiration Date: check your calendar in lower left corner.
• Seal: validate with the documents chapter in your R&R-book.

Document: ID CARD

All citizens of Arstotzka require a valid id card.

to be checked:

• Name: compare to entrant’s passport
• Date of Birth (DoB): compare to entrant’s passport
• Height: check the height on the left side of your booth to verify this entry.
• Weight: check the scale on the bottom of your booth to verify this entry.
• Issuing district: compare to the Arstotzka country page in your R&R-book.

On this picture a typo is detected on the id card indicating it is forged.

Document: DIPLOMATIC AUTHORIZATION

Diplomats do not need an entry permit or an identity supplement, instead they have to show their passport and a diplomatic authorization.

to be checked:

• Name: check with passport.
• Passport Number: check with passport.
• Issuing Country: check with passport.
• Accrediting Countries: check if this document grants access to Arstotzka.
• Seal: validate the seal with the specific country page in your R&R-book.

Document: CERTIFICATE OF VACCINATION

To prevent diseases (especially polio) from spreading into Arstotzka, entrants need a Certificate of Vaccination which states a polio vaccination within the last three years.

to be checked:

Name: compare to other relevant documents
Passport Number: compare to entrant’s passport
Polio vaccination: check if the entrant had a polio vaccination within the last three years

Document: ACCESS PERMIT

During late game the access permit merges the entry permit and the identity supplement into one handy form making those obsolete and invalid. You check all the data provided with the entrant’s passport and statements as well as the scale in your booth. Dont forget to validate the seal to identify forged documents.

to be checked:

• Name
• Nationality
• Passport Number
• Duration of Journey
• Purpose of Journey
• Height
• Weight
• Physical Appearance
• Enter by Date
• Seal

Discrepancies and Inspect Mode

You can enter inspect mode using the red button in the lower right corner of your desk. Later in game you can upgrade your booth allowing you to activate inspect mode with SPACE key or double click.

While in inspect mode you highlight two pieces of dicrepant information (e.g. different or invalid passport numbers in the passport and the entry permit). Usualy this will unlock further options as interrogation, a security query with MoA’s fingerprints database, use of the body scanner or even detention.

Any time an entrant is missing a required document, highlight the empty counter and the correlating entry in your R&R-book.

Use the audio transscript to correlate entrant’s statements on purpose of journey and duration with the entries in the specific documents.

Correlate missing or wrong seals on forged documents with the appropriate entry in the documents chapter of your R&R-book or in case of a forged foreign document with the appropriate seals on the specific country page.

Correlate discovered weapons and contraband on body scanner pictures with the entry in the regulations chapter in your R&R-book.

Expired documents must be correlated to the clock/calendar in the lower left corner.

Fingerprints

Most discrepancies on height, weight, physical appearance, names and aliases will result in a security query with MoA’s fingerprints database. If this happens a “Fingerprint” button will appear at the top of your desk. Click the button and a slip of paper will spawn on the right side of your desk. It is empty and you can pass it to the entrant. He will give his fingerprints and return the paper to you. Meanwhile you should have received an answer from MoA’s database and now you can compare both slips with each other and if necessary with the identity supplement.
If the entrant seeks asylum in Arstotzka this procedure is mandatory!

Domestic life

At the end of each day you will have to manage your domestic expenses. Your income consists of your regular salary as well as bribes and bonuses.
You get 5$ for each correctly processed entrant and later in game you can earn additional 5$ for every two detained people. Time is of the essence and you want to process as many entrants as possible per day.

Your expenses consists of rent, heat, food and additional gifts, fees or booth upgrades.
You have to pay rent each day and if you can not afford it, you will eventualy loose your appartement and job and might be send to a Gulag. You can use the checkboxes on other expenses as heat and food to save money. While you go without heat your family members might get sick und you will have to pay 5$ for medicine the next days until they are cured. Food costs 5$ for each family member. While you go without food your family members will starve eventualy.

If you find yourself having a hard time to earn enough money, it’s a common way to alternate your expenses for heat and food daily. Save food one day, save heat the next day and so on.

If you manage to save enough money you might be offered a better appartement. You start with a class-8 appartement and can climb up to a class-5 appartement, which is the best a MoA inspector can achieve in Arstotzka and which will unlock the “Worker’s best”-achievement on steam.

Appartement classes and expenses:

class-8: rent: 25$ heat: 10$
class-7: rent: 30$ heat: 10$
class-6: rent: 40$ heat: 5$
class-5: rent: 50$ heat: 0$

Final Notes

I hope this guide was helpful to you, if so please click on the like button above. Feel free to leave any comments (in EN or DE) or further hints and tricks which I might add to this guide.

Rhonda Fizzleflint, 13.08.2013

Glory to Arstotzka!

* 01.09.2013 – added chapter: Domestic life
* 08.08.2014 – added document: Certificate of Vaccination