Strategy guide
Most first-time CEOs die around Day 20 — usually not from one big mistake, but from hugging one edge of one meter for too long. This guide covers the system, the fixed days, the chains that come back for you, and a hint for every ending. Light spoilers below; the full ending texts stay in the game.
The one rule: the middle is life
All four meters — Stock, Board, Washington, The Internet — kill at both ends. The red zones on the bars (roughly the outer fifths) are your warning track. Play to keep everything between about 35 and 65. A choice that pushes a meter from 50 to 62 is usually fine; the same choice at 74 is how runs end. When a meter drifts into the 70s, start deliberately picking answers that pull it back — even answers you'd rather not give.
Corollary: "good news" is a threat. A meter rocketing toward 100 is not winning, it's a bubble, a golden cage, a subpoena with better PR, or a meme with your face on it.
The eight ways to die
- Stock 0 — 📉 Margin Called: the board replaces you with "a caretaker structure".
- Stock 100 — 🎈 Bubble Martyr: investigated for being too inspirational.
- Board 0 — 🗳️ The Board Has Voted: eleven directors, eleven identical smiles.
- Board 100 — 👑 The Golden Cage: loved so much you're signed for 33 years.
- Washington 0 — ⚖️ Subpoena Season: you resign live on C-SPAN.
- Washington 100 — 🦅 Too Washington: the Hill claims you as one of theirs.
- The Internet 0 — 👻 Forgotten by Friday: a skateboarding raccoon takes your job.
- The Internet 100 — 🤡 Meme CEO (Derogatory): the company is now a content studio.
Fixed days — plan around them
- Day 1 — Your first morning. Free-ish choices; bank goodwill.
- Day 2 — The jacket decision. Facilities finds THE leather jacket. This single choice opens (or closes) a hidden ending route — see Chains below.
- Day 5 — Earnings. The CFO owns the day. Don't walk in with Stock already in the 80s: a "great" print on a bubble is still a bubble.
- Day 6 — Town hall. Board and Internet move together here; go in with both near the middle.
- Day 14 — Congress. Your Washington meter gets stress-tested. If it's limping in the 20s, spend Days 10–13 repairing it.
Every other morning, read the CFO briefing at the top: it names who owns the day (supply chain, customers, product, finance, government, talent). That lane hints at which meters the day's deck leans on — a government day with Washington at 78 is a code red, not a coincidence.
Chains: your promises come back
Many cards set things in motion that return days later. Three rules of thumb:
- Capacity promises are debt. Promise a hyperscaler GPUs you don't have and the shortfall arrives as its own card, at a worse moment, with interest. Under-promise early; you can always heroically "find" supply later.
- Gray money is Washington debt. Deals that route around export rules feel free today and testify tomorrow.
- People remember. Keeping a team, backing an engineer, taking a certain CEO's meeting — these quietly unlock later cards, including the routes to the hidden endings.
The jacket route (full walkthrough): On Day 2, choose "Wear it to the presser" — not the vault. Then survive past Day 15: a televised hearing card appears only for jacket-wearers. Wear THE jacket on live TV and you unlock 🧥➡️⚖️ The Jacket Testifies. Yes, the board retires you for it. It's still the best ending in the game.
Lifelines — when to burn them
- 📞 Call Jensen — Stock +8, Board −6. A rescue, not a strategy: use it when Stock is in the low 20s and Board has room to fall. Never use it above Stock 60 — you're feeding the bubble.
- 🧯 PR Team — pulls The Internet 12 points toward the middle, whichever side it's dying on. Best saved for the 85+ meme spiral, where two ordinary cards rarely save you in time.
- ⏸️ Delay the meeting — skips today's card entirely. The problem only waits a day, but a day is everything when two meters are near edges at once: delay, fix the worse one tomorrow, meet the problem after.
All three are once per run. If you reach Day 30 with all three unspent, you played well — or too scared. There's no bonus for dying with a full hand.
All 13 endings — hints
- 🏆 You Actually Did It — reach Day 33 with every meter alive. The only "win".
- 📉 🎈 🗳️ 👑 ⚖️ 🦅 👻 🤡 — the eight meter deaths, above. Collecting them all is its own sport.
- 🍎 A Legend Replaces a Legend — a certain fruit-company CEO is in your DMs and meetings. Take the meetings. Then, when the offer crystallizes, hand over the chair.
- 🚀 Defected to Mars — a rocket billionaire replies to you. Keep replying. Accept the off-planet offer when it comes.
- 🧥 The King Returns — texts from an unknown number, signed "— J". Don't shut him out; the path where you bring him back starts with listening.
- 🧥➡️⚖️ The Jacket Testifies — the Day 2 jacket route, walked through above.
Challenges & the daily deck
Everyone gets the same deck each day, and every ending produces a challenge link: whoever opens it plays your exact deck, card for card. Beating a friend's 31 days on the identical deck is the purest form of this game — no luck excuses. Your collected endings and best run live in your browser's local storage, on this device only.