How to play Lagos Life: a beginner's walkthrough

The Lagos Life game is a free, browser-based life simulation set in Lagos, Nigeria: you build a Sim, take a job and pay rent every Saturday, in one shared world alongside other real players. This walkthrough is the order that actually matters in your first session — get housed, get paid, then get ahead, before Saturday arrives.

1. Create your account

Go to lagoslife.app and sign up. You need a username and a password; email is optional. There is no waitlist and no invite code — you are in the world immediately. The game is 18+.

You can play on phone or desktop. If you are planning a long session, desktop is more comfortable. If the game behaves oddly after you tapped a link from Instagram or TikTok, you are probably in an in-app browser — open the address in Safari or Chrome instead.

2. Choose a trait

Traits are permanent modifiers. They do not change what you can do, they change how efficiently you do it. Each one speeds up one skill, slows one need, or makes certain activities more rewarding. Here is what all ten actually do:

A practical read: Hustler is the safest generalist because hustle feeds Trading, Hairstyling and Event Planning. Tech Bro or Sis is the strongest if you already know you want the Tech ladder, because Coding is what gates those promotions. Smooth Talker is the best pick if you want Banking, which has the highest starting pay in the game. Traits multiply skill growth rather than adding to it, so the full multiplier table is worth a look on skills and traits before you commit.

3. The birth lottery — the most important roll in the game

After your trait, the game rolls you a starting class, and this is permanent. It decides your opening cash position, and in some cases whether whole parts of the map are available to you.

There are two known rolls, and they are not close. The harder one is the LAPO Baby: you begin with a ₦60,000 microfinance loan and a ₦12,000 weekly repayment on top of your rent. The easier one is the Nepo Baby: a furnished Lekki flat with the rent already paid, a car, ₦500,000 in cash and a Branch Manager job from day one. Neither can be chosen or re-rolled. All eight perks, and the loan maths, are on their own page.

4. Pick housing

You choose where to live at the end of character creation. Rent recurs weekly.

Take the cheapest one to start. Face-me-I-face-you in Mushin at ₦2,400 a week is not glamorous and the name is a joke at your expense, but the whole point of the early game is to make your rent obligation as small as possible while you build income. You can move up later — but a move costs three weeks of rent, and Ikoyi and Banana Island are move-in purchases that come unfurnished. Every home, the rent and the move-in cost is broken out on its own page.

5. How to actually go to work

This is the question. New players get a prompt telling them to go to work and cannot work out how. The answer is simpler than most guides make it — and simpler than our earlier version of this page said: you do not have to walk there.

1. Wait for a day you are rostered. Each career works its own set of weekdays, so a day off is the usual reason nothing happens.
2. From 06:00, tap 💼 Go to work. The button appears in the HUD and in the Jobs app on your in-game phone, and stays until 22:00. The game's own message after you are hired puts it plainly: "No need to find it: when it's time, tap 💼 Go to work."
3. Your Sim travels there by itself. A fare of up to ₦150 is deducted — you are not asked to pick a route or a danfo. Your workplace is still a real place on the map (Marina Towers for Banking, CcHub for Tech, Amala Shitta for Chef), but walking there first is a step that does not exist.
4. Get there by your shift start time. Arriving late costs work performance rather than blocking the shift, and performance is half of what gates promotion.

One shift per working day, and every career has its own schedule. Every start time, working day and workplace — plus the four skill gates that decide a promotion — is in one table on how to go to work.

Pick a career that fits your trait and your schedule

All 14 careers have five promotion levels driven by one skill. Entry pay ranges from ₦2,400 (Content Creator) to ₦4,200 (Banking). Full details including every promotion level are on the careers and salaries page.

Note the schedule before you commit. Music and DJ are night careers — you will be working when your friends are at the party, and your Fun and Social bars will suffer for it. Trading is six days a week. If you want a stable early game, a Monday–Friday day job is easier to manage alongside your needs.

6. Keep the six bars alive

You are managing six needs, and they drain at different speeds. Approximate drain rates:

The Bladder bar at 7/hr is the fastest drain in the game and it is genuinely the thing that catches out new players. Keep it in mind before starting a long shift or a long journey.

7. What to do after your first shift

1. Do not buy furniture yet. A foam mattress is ₦1,800 and a fridge is ₦13,200 — but a fridge also needs power, and power is not guaranteed.
2. Protect your rent first. Keep at least one week's rent untouched.
3. Invest in the skill your career needs. Skill level is what gates promotion, and promotion is the biggest single jump in income available to a new player. Every action that raises a skill, with the game's own rate.
4. Then add a side business. The POS stand in Yaba (₦500,000) is the cheapest real passive income in the game and pays roughly ₦4,000–₦9,000 per shift. See the full money guide.
5. Watch your power. NEPA outages are real. If you buy a fridge, you will eventually need a generator, and a generator needs fuel.

Frequently asked questions