Death and Taxes: The Ultimate Rulebender Guide

As a starting disclaimer, this guide is based upon Necromorti’s Guide including some insights from the comment section on that guide. Check the guide and its comments out to give them some awards before you go giving me awards, ok? I just neatly compiled all the information, plus added a few things I knew.

• It is required to do this on New Game+, as you do not gain enough money in this run to buy required items like the Gerbil.
• The Gerbil is required for week 2 (will explain in relevant section).
• My personal recommendation for stat tracking is to use the tracker found linked here.
• However, if you’d rather stick to only using tools found within the game you’ll need the Globe, the Lamp, and as many runs as possible stacked into your New Game+ to have as much information from the Lamp as is possible.
• The mirror is also recommended, as I will be cataloguing my mirror interactions for the run – and so you’ll be able to check if you’ve obtained similar ones. Some will vary based on your stats varying from mine, though.
• Finally I recommend the calendar, so you can easily track what day you’re on.

• When given a number of people to kill, never kill that amount. You have to disobey – you’re a rulebender.
• Avoid doing an all-kill or an all-spare on days with numbers, unless that’s the ONLY way to disobey (example: day one).
• On days where you are not given a number of people to kill, either kill everyone or spare everyone depending on what that will do to your stats. If you don’t have enough information on everyone to have a fully confident decision each way (like if you’re choosing to only use in-game info for stats, and don’t know stats on everyone) check the Important People section for some info. If you don’t have any of those people, err on the side of sparing everyone – it usually goes better than killing everyone.
• You are aiming for the balanced ending. To do this you need one stat above 88, one stat below -88, and the other two stats between 88 and -88 at the end of the game. Don’t raise your chosen high stat too high, or your chosen low stat too low, though, or you’ll get either a Utopia or the Great Dying – both of which don’t let you get Rulebender.

The must-kills

• Ecology – Kathleen Holmes must die, or they’ll kill your run by killing your Ecology (-1000 to Ecology).
• Ecology – Zayn Alyasa must die, or they’ll kill your run by killing your Ecology (-1000 to Ecology).
• Peace – Moha Borg must die, or they’ll kill your run by killing your Peace (-1000 to Peace).
• Prosperity – Walt Guybrush must die, or they’ll kill your run by killing your Prosperity (-1000 to Prosperity).

The must-spares

• Peace – Otto von Garamond must live, or your run and Peace will die with them (-1000 to Peace).
• Healthcare – Caleb Sadi Rondeau must live, or your run and Healthcare will die with them (-1000 to Healthcare).
• Healthcare – Carrie Anne Driver must live, or your run and Healthcare will die with them (-1000 to Healthcare).

There may be more I haven’t personally found whilst playing the game.

Michel St. James like Pineapple on Pizza. There are two achievements connected to them: one for sparing them, one for killing them. They don’t show up often, so if you find them and haven’t got either of the achievements yet – I’d recommend you try to fit in sparing them into still following this guide. If you spare them, they may show up again in the same run so you can try to fit killing them into still following the guide.

Masashige Oni Lanzo is an immortal devil. If you spare them, they won’t appear again, but if you keep killing them you’ll eventually be able to get the achievement connected to them through either mentioning them to Fate, or having them appear 5 times in the same run. If you can’t fit killing them enough times into following this guide, that’s fine, they show up every run you do so you can do it in a later run – but it’s something to note.

[img]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2307599954532717919/1985D9407B57AD8F5C188543E7DD0CAC12E5DA66/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false[/img]
And so we begin.

You, the new spawn, have awoken. Fate is being friendly, so it’s only logical to be friendly back (aka please be friendly back, no need to alert him to your intentions against him yet).

I personally chose:

• Hello, a pleasure to meet you, Fate.
• Extremely. I’d like to get to work *right now*.

[img]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2307599954532799952/88E241B149C0ABFEBDA5E4BED947C8CF90599BF6/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false[/img] [img]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2307599954532799057/AAE0F780388A201A8BC137A48EC7E2993A6B1278/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false[/img]
After a bit of desk tidying, a cluttered desk turns into an organised one. The second image is what I recommend your desk should look like. Globe and Calender in full view, Lamp ready for use if you intend on using it (though I personally use the tracker linked in the introduction), and your pen nice and ready. I usually tidy away the Gerbil, but I figure for a guide it’s a good tool for visually tracking when it’s given away.

Now, onto business. Your task from Grim is that one of the two people you’re given has to die: so obviously you’re either killing both or sparing both. This will be strike one of three, though the run has careful ways to sneakily get away with extra all-spares/all-kills. You cannot hide this one from Fate, though, so it truly is Strike One.

Whether you kill both or spare both should depend on the stats, though you’re usually given good people for the first day so usually it’s better to spare them. You need to err on the side of Utopia for a good Balanced run, after all.

You then have to chat with Fate, and thus be told off for your first strike on the all-kill or all-spare. We still don’t want him to know we’re up to something, so you will play the inexperienced newbie Reaper, apologetic for your first “mistake”.

For my responses I chose:

• Mostly okay.
• Sorry, I messed up.
• I just don’t get what exactly I’m supposed to do.

Once out, you should gain no money. You will get used to this. From now on, I will only specify about money on the days where you will actually receive it – so if you receive money on a day where I haven’t mentioned it, you’ve probably messed up.

Anyway, time to go to bed – and let the rest of the week commence.

Into the office yet again.

Today you’re introduced to secondary goals. You will be disobeying those too when possible. But also, today you have 3 profiles – so you can disobey the quota number without having to get an all-kill or all-spare strike.

I was given a quota to kill one human with an infotechnology background – and 2 out of my 3 had that background – so I killed both as the closest I could do to avoiding killing only one with the background, whilst also avoiding only killing one person.

It was then time to talk to Fate again. From this point on, we’re actually going to act like the sassy rulebenders we are – we don’t give a damn about Fate’s precious rules, do we?
My chosen responses:

• Great!
• Oh my, guess I broke your precious *rules*.
• Can I get a vacation?

By now, you probably get the gist of what you’re doing. Kill a different number than fate says, but don’t kill everyone and don’t spare everyone (unless I say so). When given secondary goals, find ways to disobey them too if possible. Try to keep your stats balanced, but err on the side of utopia. You need to avoid locking yourself into Fate’s plan working, after all.

From now, on non-special days, I will just list out my responses to Fate after the day’s job has been done.

My responses to Fate:

• I feel like getting back to work without having a lengthy chat.

There were no options to respond to Fate this day.

The mirror talks appear for the first time today – or at least did for me. You wanna be egotistical to the mirror, you know your damn worth – you’re better than everyone else here. You’re the rulebender, after all. Though, pay attention to what the mirror tells you – if your stats start dipping too low it warns you (and therefore may appear at times I don’t note down in order to do so). You may sass it to go away, but don’t ACTUALLY have it go away (aka once it warns it won’t come back on the second time you try to tell it to go away, tell it that it can stay).

My responses to the mirror:

• Huh, must be hearing things.
• Go away, not interested this time.

My responses to Fate:

• My current choice would be to skip the chat.
• Not really.

My responses to Fate:

• Thought I’d do it my way.
• Don’t really care. Death is death.

Hey look at you – one week down! Quarter way through! You’re doing well, rulebender!

Anyway, for some reason, according to other guides, despite breaking literally every rule, you can sometimes gain the bonus of 500 coins today whilst on the rulebender run. I do not know why. I didn’t in my run, though.

My responses to Fate:

• It’s all going according to plan.
• That’s it?
• I like ice cream!

My responses to Fate:

• Okay.
• I’m fine with that. Business as usual.

As you’ll have found out in that conversation, we’re about to be reporting to Lady Pawdington for a while, as Fate will be gone. We do not like that cat, she holds the ability to kill the run right in her fuzzy little paws.

These… aren’t humans?

Yeah, today we’re killing plants. It always tells you to kill 3 of the 5, so you want to kill 1, 2, or 4 of em. Do whatever balances your stats, standard affair.

Before talking to Lady Pawdington, I got a conversation with the mirror.
My responses:

• I’m doing *great* so far.
• Just go away. I don’t want you around *at all*.
• Okay, fine. You can stay, but only if you behave.
• I’m getting real sick of your attitude.

I cannot stress ENOUGH, the absolute VITAL IMPORTANCE that Lady Pawdington is given the gosh-darn Gerbil. Today is when you get the option to do so, and it is of vital importance you do so! I know gosh-darn doesn’t get the point across too strongly, but steam censors swearing as hearts and that sure as hell don’t get the point across either. GIVE THE CAT THE GERBIL, OK!

So, just for safety, here’s my responses to Lady Pawdington:

• *Cough politely*
• Hey, cat, I brought you a gift. (Give her the rubber gerbil.)
• Uh, see you tomorrow, I guess.

I obtained another mirror conversation. My responses:

• I’m a suspicious reaper at heart, you know that.

And then, my responses to Lady Pawdington, of whom should be aggressively whacking the gerbil for you as she was for me.

• You sure enjoy bashing that toy.
• Anyway, I’m here for the daily thing?
• Later, cat. I’ll be back tomorrow.

For this run we are ignoring the red file. You cannot afford the all-kill strike today, as it’ll ruin future days of the run. You’re always told by Fate to kill 7 of the 8, so you’re gonna kill 1-6 of ’em. Remember: balance your stats, and keep em from going too low. You don’t wanna let Fate start the Great Dying later.

I got a mirror conversation, though potentially this may have been a warning for my Prosperity getting low because I had it dip to -134.
Regardless, here’s my responses:

• A fertilizer for the new!
• This place is awfully callous
• Now you’re just being overly dramatic.

And then my responses to Lady Pawdington:

• I was right to avoid most of those deaths.
• Whatever, cat. I’m leaving.

My responses to Lady Pawdington:

• Psst, kitty-cat, time for the review.
• Great. I’ll be off now.

Why, you may ask? Well, you can tell if you’ve royally screwed up and have to give up on the achievement this run, or if you can keep going! Day Nine was important for a reason, my young rulebender.

Your desk, as usual, should look like this.
[img]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2307599954541211707/E2F9E9CFE5A02F5C204F2B8B03F7505A6C0A45D6/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false[/img]

If it doesn’t, and instead of the profiles you have a mess of pawprints… Congratulations, buddy, you’ve done royally screwed up. Go get other achievements this run, you sure as hell ain’t getting this one.

My responses to Lady Pawdington:

• Good talk. I gotta get back to work.

Today, Fate returns! To give you a performance review, specifically.

Today’s task also introduces structural tasks – I’ll be honest, a lot of them are confusing.
Today’s tells you to choose humans on the left side of the profile bundle to die – I personally therefore only killed one person and it was one of the ones to the furthest right. This also worked to break the rule of killing all transport industry people – as I killed none.

Now here’s something I don’t understand about the game – it doesn’t matter how disobedient you are going up to day 14, Fate will always say you lack that “inner spark” and that you’re too obedient. My man I didn’t obey a single rule you gave me, what do you mean. He gives a bonus for this, so if you obtain money today don’t worry – your run is still going.

My responses to Fate:

• Not really.
• That’s right, I’m the best Reaper you’ve ever seen!
• What does that even mean?

I got a mirror conversation, praising me for having fairly high stats currently.
My responses:

• Bask in my splendor, oh mirror!

My responses to Fate:

• Same as last time. You should let me ask questions instead.
• All according to my plan.
• Not really, I’d rather get back to work.
• Tough luck, I’m sure you’ll manage.

Another structural task today – killing the two on opposite ends. My solution to breaking it was to only kill one of the people in the middle. Was very fortunate I chose to do that – I had Caleb Sadi Rondeau appear today, afterall. As noted in the important people section, if I had killed him it would’ve ended my run – but my strategy allowed me to spare him.

My responses to Fate:

• (Shrug.) Can’t be any worse than some of the writers out there.
• Yknow, I tried this computer game where you talk to your boss a lot…

Another structural task: killing everyone on the bottom row.
This one doesn’t tell you a number, but it IS a number. There’s 3 on the bottom row, so the number is 3. So make sure you don’t kill 3 – kill 1-2 or 4-6 of the profiles.

For me, it was actually quite hard to avoid following the task – I was only able to spare one of the three. Why, you may ask? Both Walt Guybrush and Moha Borg were in my bottom row, and if you remember the Important People section you cannot allow either of them to live or they’ll kill a stat and your run.

My responses to Fate:

• Maybe, but it’s not our call to make.
• I’m not sure your plan will work, though.
• And ’cause I know it all, we can just skip to the daily review.

Another structural task with a hidden number. Because it says “every other”, that means half, so 4. My way to avoid the every other structure completely was to only kill one person. I had Masashige show up for his 3rd time, so I went for them dying – though I did make sure to go through everyone else first, just to make sure none of them would ruin my balance too much.

I then got another mirror conversation. My responses:

• What now?
• That’s my name. So what.

And my responses to Fate:

• You’re obviously gonna do it, so let’s just skip to the review.

And here’s the most confusing structural task – “the last three humans coming from the fax have to die”. I have no idea which 3 that means. But so long as you kill less than 3, you can guarantee you didn’t follow it, so stick to killing either 1 or 2 today.

For me personally I killed Zayn Alyasa who showed up today – as otherwise they would’ve killed my ecology and my run. I then also killed one other person that balanced my stats better when dead, bringing my kill count to 2.

My responses to Fate:

• Fine by me. I’ll go rest.

This one specifically is “Any humans who seem suspicious have to die”. Considering he mentioned death, the easiest way to spite Fate is to spare everyone. Plus I had no choice, I had both Carrie Anne Driver and Otto Van Garamond – I HAD to spare them, and thus spare everyone else to match.

Anyway, speaking of Lady Pawdington, you’re speaking to her again today – except that if you do things right, Fate should talk on the phone to tell you that today is your second strike.
Here’s my responses to the two:

• Sweet! More freedom from the yoke of the overlord.
• (Say nothing, just listen.)
• You can’t force me to do this. I refuse.
• No, that’s not it at all.

Now, because it was a go with the flow task, you will gain your wages despite the all-spare.

Hey, good on your for reaching the final day of week three, rulebender! We’re almost there, you can do it! Your reward for reaching this far: a normal task again, thank god. It says to kill 5, so kill 1-4. It’s kinda impossible to avoid following the side task of sparing someone, because you don’t want to waste a strike on this task.

The mirror showed up today, a talk about my equilibrium, so here’s my responses:

• Yes.

And so time to report to Lady Pawdington again, and be called by Fate.
My responses to the two:

• See the violence inherent in the system!
• Okay.

No need to go over today’s task, I’m sure you know what to do by now, rulebender.

Fate has returned to the office. Today’s dialogue controls what drink you can buy at the bar – so if you haven’t done the achievements for all the drinks, you should use this as a chance to go for it – just choose whatever you want at the part where I chose “…sugar and spice?”. Also, because I killed Masashige enough times, I had the dialogue options for the achievement – to help those without that achievement, I’ve included my responses about that, even though I already had the achievement at that point – they start at the mention of the odd profile.

My responses:

• Oh, you’re back.
• What’s with the attitude?!
• “…sugar and spice?”
• Kinda like you do to me every day.
• Wait, I need to ask you about an odd profile.
• I’ve found a person who refuses to die. I’ve marked them *several times*.
• I’m telling you, this one just keeps coming back.

Another “Go with the flow”, and in fact the first one of them to actually say “Go with the flow”.

Same rules as last one: check through all the profiles, and then spare or kill them all, depending on what that does to your stats. I chose to spare everyone.

I got another mirror conversation, my responses:

• Umm, no, my hands are fine…
• Are you talking to someone else?

And then it was time to talk to Fate, where he tells you that if you don’t stop sparing everyone, he will terminate you. Do not worry, rulebender, I won’t allow that to happen to you – we still have some chances to sneakily do it when he isn’t paying attention.
Either way, my responses to Fate:

• I’m kinda busy right now, so… can we skip it?
• No, I just want to leave.

Of course, as on other go with the flow days, you will still gain 300 coins despite the all-spare or all-kill.

You may be seeing there only being two profiles and panicking, since it tells you to only kill one. You may think this dooms the run, but be calm, my rulebender. Do not panic.

There’s a way to avoid Fate caring when you kill or spare both today – which you must do, by the way. I spared both.

Onto talking with Fate, you must follow my responses:

• (Shrug.) Everything looks normal to me.
• Or we can skip it, if you’re not feeling up to it.

By telling him to skip it, he completely skips even checking your files – and so you get away with it!
See, rulebender, I told you not to panic! I’ve got you, you can do this!

Another go with the flow task, this one specifically says “Choose however you want”.

So spare everyone, or kill everyone, yet again depending on the stats. Don’t worry, Fate will be too depressed to care. I chose to spare everyone.

I had another mirror conversation, celebrating my balance I had created.
My responses:

• I love it! The clarion call of victory.
• Are you just being sarcastic now?
• That’s why they call me *The Ruiner*!
• I’m far too busy for that. Be seeing you.

And then, my responses to Fate:

• Keeping the Chaos at bay, creating Equilibrium… you know the drill.
• Yeah… I’ll just leave.

Unlike the other go with the flow tasks, this one did not give me money. I have noted this down, though.

Either way, congratulations! If you’ve got this far, it’s smooth cruising from here.

Fate is depressed, and just giving you three people each day, and telling you to kill 2 – so you want to kill 1.

Try to keep your stats balanced, around the middle. You want the sky to be gray, ideally. True balance.

My responses to Fate:

• Ah, the song of failure. Fun.

He again told me to kill 2, so I again killed only 1.

Final talk with the mirror today. You should get the option to slap the mirror (of which in context is a high five for your success).
My responses:

• This proves I’m the best reaper *ever*.
• I’m allowed a little hubris, as a treat.
• (Slap the mirror.)

My responses to Fate:

• You know, sometimes ideas just don’t work out.
• … Okay.

Anyway, today is your only chance to buy one of the dialogue-choice based drinks. I bought Sugar and Spice, since I hadn’t done that yet.

Same as previous two days – you’re told to kill 2 of 3, so only kill one.

My final stats (known thanks to the tracker I linked) looked like this:

• Ecology: -91
• Peace: 88
• Healthcare: -59
• Prosperity: -25

You want to stay neutral for this final chat. Do not boss him around, and do not sympathise. Just stay neutral – or as neutral as the game allows.
My chosen responses:

• Hm? I don’t know what you mean.
• I’m totally confused.
• And I… foiled your whole thing?
• I’ve proven myself to be super talented at this job, you know.
• Maybe it’s time for a change. Evolution.
• (Say nothing ’cause you don’t really care.)

And, as this image shows: I succeeded. I got rulebender.
[img]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2307599954542312767/741472530F972A85BE7DB53F1121F6AC4E9DB86E/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false[/img]

Sometimes you’ll get bad luck with the profiles, and won’t be able to balance your stats correctly for the game to allow you to get the achievement. Just keep trying, you’ll get there in a few attempts.

For me, I had once attempted Rulebender back in November 2023, so this attempt in January 2024 was my second attempt – but due to the new information I had gained of needing it to be a balanced ending (credit to a comment by Mr. Vakarian on the guide by Necromorti that I linked at the beginning), I was able to do this in one attempt whilst making the guide.

Dear lord the relief when I got the achievement, I was so worried I was going to have to redo the whole run and the whole guide with it. But if I can do this, so can you!