Shift At Midnight Beginner Guide: How to Survive Your First Shift

Shift At Midnight is a new co-op horror game with detective elements and gas station store sim mechanics. You have to stock shelves, clean up, serve customers, and identify evil doppelgangers pretending to be human so they can earn your trust and then kill you. In this guide, we will explain how to balance store management, customer checks, and dealing with various paranormal threats.

At first glance, Shift At Midnight may look like a regular sim where you manage your own store: stocking shelves, cleaning up, and selling goods to visitors. However, the everyday work routine is interrupted by monsters of different kinds. You need to identify doppelgangers before the shift ends, otherwise they will return later and you will literally have to fight for your life.

Below, we will go over the main tips that will help your group manage the store, identify monsters, and survive encounters with them.

Finding and identifying doppelgangers is one of your main tasks during a shift. If you let such a customer slip through, the creature will return later as a monster and try to kill the players.

The main way to check whether a person is "real" is to compare their documents with their profile in the database. Remember that the database never makes mistakes, so you can trust it completely. When checking a customer's documents, pay attention to the following details:

We also recommend paying attention to the customer's behavior and body language. If you notice someone standing out from the other customers, you have most likely found a doppelganger.

Shift At Midnight is primarily designed for co-op play with up to three players. During the first shifts, you will probably be joking around and having fun with friends. However, to get through the later nights, you will need to stay focused.

To make the team more efficient, divide responsibilities between players. For example, one player can stock products, another can handle cleaning, and the third can serve customers and check their documents.

Before you decide to kill a doppelganger, talk it over with your friends and make sure you are not making a mistake, since killing a regular person will negatively affect your pay at the end of the shift.

During each shift, an urgent task may appear, and you will have about 60 seconds to complete it. Finishing it can earn you up to $30 as a bonus at the end of the shift.

There are four different types of tasks in the game:

The tasks themselves are fairly simple, and any member of your team can handle them.

The Entity is a huge black creature that appears in front of your store if you let a doppelganger make a purchase and fail to shoot them. The game will warn you that the monster is approaching and start a countdown, during which you will have time to board up the windows, hide, and prepare for the fight.

Barricade the doors with boards so the Entity cannot immediately break into the store, and use the ventilation system as a hiding place. You need to hold out and stay out of the monster's sight until its patience bar runs out.

After that, the Entity will leave the store and the shift will end.

Besides doppelgangers and the Entity, the game features several other enemy types that can make the playthrough much harder.

Below, we have listed all enemy types and tips for dealing with them:

Try to deal with these creatures as soon as they appear so they do not create bigger problems later in the run.

At the beginning of each shift, you can check your email on the computer. Do not forget to do this every time, because you can find messages warning you about specific entities that may appear during the shift.

Emails may also warn you about increased doppelganger activity. This means you need to check every visitor more carefully during the shift to avoid triggering an Entity attack.

Although Shift At Midnight is mostly designed for co-op, nothing stops you from testing your nerves alone.

However, when playing this way, you will need to prioritize properly while managing the store. Do not forget to restock shelves and clean the premises. You can do this between serving customers.

The one thing you absolutely should not neglect is customer checks. If you let even one doppelganger through, you will have to face the Entity alone, and that will most likely send you back to the start of the shift.

Below, we have collected answers to common questions about Shift At Midnight: how to identify doppelgangers, what to do with the Entity, how to divide roles in co-op, why you should check your email before a shift, and whether you can survive alone.

Check the customer's documents against the database: personal information, occupation, alive/dead status, photo, and list of usual purchases. If the data does not match, the customer may be a doppelganger.

If you let a doppelganger make a purchase and leave, it will return later as a dangerous monster. In that case, players will have to board up windows, hide, and survive the Entity's attack.

One player can handle products and shelves, the second can focus on cleaning and urgent tasks, and the third can manage the register, documents, and customer checks. Before killing a suspicious customer, it is better to discuss the decision with the team.

Yes, but playing alone makes it harder to manage the store, check customers, and prepare for monsters. In a solo run, the most important thing is not to miss doppelgangers and not to ignore urgent tasks.

Emails warn you about possible threats and increased activity from specific entities. This helps you understand in advance what to prepare for during the night shift.

Shift At Midnight may seem quite difficult at first, but if you divide responsibilities properly, check customers carefully, and keep the store in order, the game becomes much more manageable.

Your main goal is to identify a doppelganger in time and kill it before it turns into the Entity. We recommend assigning the register to the most responsible friend in your group: someone who will definitely do everything right and send every doppelganger that dares threaten your little store straight to the grave.