Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream - The Complete Video Game Farming Guide
Watching your completely unhinged digital avatars ignore their neighbors to sit on the floor and play video games is the most realistic feature in this entire simulation.
You spend hours carefully matching personalities, building houses, and cultivating a vibrant social ecosystem, only to hand your resident a tiny Switch console and watch them immediately become a digital recluse. It is incredibly funny. Video Games are a specific subcategory of Treasures in this game. They serve a dual purpose. They act as fantastic interactive decorations for your residents, but they also hold a surprisingly high retail value if you are desperate for cash. Now before you waste hours playing rigged carnival minigames and picking the wrong rewards, you need to understand exactly where these cartridges are hiding. I am going to walk you through the specific box you need to pull, what each game is worth, and how to bootleg your own software.
If you are just starting your island and want to understand the basics before you start hoarding digital consoles, make sure to read my beginner's guide and daily routine.
The Medium Prize Box Hustle
Because Video Games are classified as Treasures, they are not sold in the standard shops. You cannot just walk into a store and buy a copy of an RPG. You have to earn them through the green bubble minigame system.
When you see a Mii with green lines radiating from their head, they want to challenge you. I covered the absolute frustration of these challenges in my broader treasures, dreams, and minigames guide. You have to actually beat the Mii at their own game to earn a reward. If you fail the Double Shadow Quiz or drop the item in the Catching game, you get handed a box of tissues.
If you win, you are presented with three Prize Boxes: Small, Medium, and Large. Your instinct is always going to be to click the Large box because it sounds like the best reward. Do not do that if you are hunting for consoles. The Large box is strictly for giant pets and gold bars. The Small box is filled with bugs and pebbles. Every single video game in the simulation is locked exclusively inside the Medium Prize Box. You have to commit to picking the middle option every single time you win a minigame until you fill out your catalog.
Liquidating Your Cartridges
Once you pull a stack of games from the Medium boxes, you have to decide what to do with them. If you are constantly broke and struggling to afford basic room renovations, you need to be taking these straight to the pawn shop.
The Rite Price facility will buy any treasure you own with no questions asked. Pulling a Role-Playing Game is essentially pulling a 68 dollar check. Even the cheaper titles like the Educational Game net you a solid 38 dollars. When you compare that to the pitiful daily fountain donations, farming Medium boxes becomes a highly viable strategy for getting rich quick. I highly recommend reading my guide on making money and expanding your island to understand exactly how much cash you need to unlock the endgame buildings. Just remember that once you pawn a game, it is gone. You cannot buy it back later.
Hosting Digital LAN Parties
If you already have a massive bank account and do not need the extra 60 dollars, the actual intended use for these items is gifting them to your residents.
When you visit an apartment and hand a Mii a video game, they equip the tiny console. The animations tied to this item are fantastic. You will occasionally log in to find them sitting intensely in the middle of their floor, mashing buttons. Even better, video games act as a social magnet. If a resident is playing their console, there is a very high chance they will invite one of their friends over to play with them.
This triggers a multiplayer animation that provides a solid boost to both their happiness meters and their underlying friendship stat. If you are trying to force two Miis to bond so they eventually fall in love, handing one of them a Dating-Sim Game and waiting for the other to visit is a great passive strategy. You can read more about manipulating these relationships in my complete marriage and romance guide.
Programming Custom Bootleg Games
If you are not satisfied with the ten default options, the game actually allows you to design your own software.
This feature is tied directly to the Palette House Workshop. If you have been strictly following my advice on customization and best wishes to prioritize, you already know that you have to spend a Wish at the central fountain to unlock the Treasure catalog in the workshop.
Once that catalog is open, you can navigate to the Treasures tab and start drawing. You can design your own custom box art, slap a ridiculous title on it, and save it to your game data. After you finalize the design, your bootleg game is automatically stocked at the My Treasures Shop on your map. You can then purchase your own creations using standard cash and hand them out to your residents. Giving your entire island population a copy of a cursed horror game you drew yourself is easily one of the most satisfying flexes in the entire simulation.
