Overview
This is an overview of the Opinion stat in the Escapists, what it means, and how it affects gameplay.
What’s Opinion?
This is a guide on the Opinion stat, if you hadn’t already found that out. It’s pretty damn important: a low Opinion might be the thing that stops you escaping.
The Opinion stat is a stat that represents how much a person likes – or dislikes – your character. Along with this, there are several factors it affects, such as item prices and rewards for completing other prisoners’ tasks.
Opinion Behaviour
As time passes, the Opinion stat will gravitate towards 50, like most stats. However, it will increase or decrease depending on your interactions with other people.
There are lots of things you can do to increase another inmate’s Opinion. Below are a few things you can do:
- Give an inmate rare or useful items (i.e. Timber, Cooked Food)
- Complete a favour that an inmate asks of you
- Talk to the inmate (left-click on them)
There are things you can do to lower another inmate’s Opinion too, but there’s no reason to actually do so:
- Beat them up or knock them down
- Give them the Dirt item
- Refuse a favour they ask you to do
As for Guards, you can only raise their Opinion by talking to them, so their Opinion will never be too high unless you really put the effort into talking to them. Their Opinion will also be lowered by beating them up too.
High Opinion
If other prisoners have a high Opinion stat, they will treat you kindly and their phrases will be friendlier.
If a prisoner is selling you items, a high Opinion will reduce the cost of the items. This is essential for expensive items like Screwdrivers and Guard Uniforms that are important for escape, and if you can’t get a high-paying job then this is even more important. On the flipside, you will get more money for completing tasks for them.
If an inmate’s Opinion is above 80, you are able to “recruit” them – press the Q button (or whatever button you’ve assigned that action to, but the default button is Q) to recruit. Once you’ve done this the prisoner will beat up anybody you order them to, but remember that after you recruit them their opinion of you slightly decreases for helping you out. Only when you tell them they’ve done enough does this take effect, so you can give them something beforehand to compensate.
The higher a guard’s Opinion, the more tolerant they are of your actions, and if it’s high enough they might turn a blind eye at some of your more suspicious acts. However, their Opinion does not override your Heat, so if your Heat is at 90+ then they will still give chase to you.
Low Opinion
Most of the “High Opinion” section is the opposite of this section. Low Opinion means you get less money for doing tasks (although it still raises opinion), you have to pay more for items they sell, and their phrases will be aggressive or threatening.
If a guard or an inmate have a low Opinion of you (normally below 30) they may randomly beat you up. If you want to keep incognito you ought to give them some food or something to cheer them up. A prisoner with a low Opinion may rat you out if they find something suspicious.
Guards are also more likely to call your name out for a cell search if their Opinion of you is low. Keep them happy!
Tips
These are some tips to keeping other prisoners happy and keeping Opinions in check.
- At every Rollcall, look for tasks to do that are the same thing, such as distractions at the same time. You can raise several people’s Opinions in one scoop and make a lot of money in the process.
- If you don’t want to do an inmate’s task but don’t want to lower their Opinion, say “Maybe” instead of “No”. This also gives you a chance to change your mind.
- A cruel but easy way to raise Opinions is to raid people’s desks of items, turn some into weapons (Comb Shivs and Toothbrush Shivs, for example) and give them to people. Desks always have Combs in them.
- At every Rollcall, click on people over and over to raise everyone’s Opinion slightly.
- If you can, avoid using the Cup of Molten Chocolate on people – it instantly drops their Opinion to zero!