Beholder: Complete Guide

A spoiler-conscious guide to surviving as Carl Stein, the State-installed landlord: the daily loop, money and reputation, keeping your family alive, the key tenants, the main ending routes, and the Blissful Sleep DLC.

Researched September 2026. Current as of the final PC release (with the added Trainee mode). The series continues with Beholder 2 (2018), Beholder 3 (2022) and the spin-off Beholder: Conductor (PC April 2025, PS5 and Switch June 2026). Check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• You're always on a clock. Tasks from the Ministry and tenants have deadlines, and time passes whether you act or not. Prioritize tasks with the nearest deadline and the biggest consequence.
• Money and reputation are your two currencies. Money pays for your family's needs and for items. Reputation is earned by serving the State (reports, Ministry tasks) and unlocks some purchases and options with officials; check what each shop item and dialogue costs before you spend.
• Your family's needs are story quests. Your wife Anna, daughter Martha and son Patrick each have needs that can end in tragedy if ignored. Plan money around them from day one.
• Profile everyone. Fill in tenant profiles (by observing, searching and talking) and report directive violations to earn money and reputation.
• Search apartments when tenants are out. Get caught and it goes badly ("Billing Them Softly" is the achievement for being caught stealing).
• You don't have to report everyone. Blackmail, silence and quiet help are all valid. Every choice has consequences down the line.
• Save often, in separate slots. Branches close permanently, and the game has multiple endings.
• Try Trainee mode if the timers crush you. It's a gentler way to see the story, and it has its own ending achievements.

The Daily Loop

• Check your tasks. The Ministry calls or writes with assignments, and tenants ask for favors.
• Watch the building. Track who's home and who's out. The best time to search is when an apartment is empty.
• Install surveillance. Put cameras in apartments when tenants are away, then use them to observe and fill in profiles.
• Search belongings. Contraband (items banned under the current directives) is grounds for a report.
• Report, blackmail or ignore. Reports earn money and reputation from the State. Blackmail letters extract money from tenants. Ignoring protects people but earns nothing.
• Spend. Buy what your family needs and anything your quests need from the merchant.

Directives

The State keeps issuing new directives that ban items or behaviors. Each new directive creates new possible violations among your tenants. Read them as they arrive, because last week's legal item may be this week's contraband.

Money and Reputation

Resource | Earn it by | Spend it on

Money | Reports, some Ministry tasks, blackmail, selling items, tenant favors | Family needs, medicine, education, bribes, quest items

Reputation | Serving the State: reports, Ministry tasks | Some purchases and interactions with officials

Rules of thumb:

• Report genuine lawbreakers you don't care about. It keeps the money flowing so you can protect the people you do care about.
• Don't spend money on luxuries early. The family's big expenses come in chunks.
• Tenant favors often pay in items that are worth more than cash to someone else.

Keeping Your Family Alive

These quests decide whether you get the "all family alive" outcomes ("Most Important Thing", or "Social Unit" in Trainee mode). According to a detailed community achievement guide:

Family member | What they need | Risk

Anna (wife) | Small favors at home (one needs a pot, which Maria Schimmer will give you if you ask) | Can die as a consequence of one of your choices involving Danton (see below)

Martha (daughter) | Medicine for a life-threatening illness (the "Life-threatening condition" and "The last jerk" tasks), and her lost doll, which is in the wardrobe in your son's bedroom | Dies if you don't get her medicine

Patrick (son) | Money for his education and a trip abroad | His storyline ends badly if you don't fund him

Key warning: the community guide notes that telling Danton that Antoine Grubic is a government worker leads to Anna's death. Think hard before passing information to Danton.

Budget order: Martha's medicine first (it's life-or-death), then Patrick's education, then everything else.

Key Tenants (Light Spoilers)

Tenant | What to know

Klaus and Maria Schimmer | An early family you can protect. They can escape abroad by cruise or on a barge ("Bahama Mama", "My Heart Will Go On"). There's also a quest to find their daughter Zlata's biological parents ("Dance, dance!")

Alloisius Shpak | A lonely tenant who asks you to find him a partner ("Pimp My Bride")

Albert Meineke and Sarah | Tied together in a subplot the community guide describes as involving a fake girlfriend. Not everything about them is as it seems ("Not So Dumb" is a related achievement)

Klara | Can live in the building twice ("Easy Virtue")

Danton | Works against the State; completing his tasks pulls you off the loyal route

Tenants also run side stories: a drug maker you can report ("Not a Big Dealer"), a chance to befriend a pirate ("Yo-ho-ho"), and a plot against a General ("Dirty Hands").

Endings

Beholder has several endings built around three routes (as summarized by the community guide) and the state of the war and the country:

Route | How it goes

Emigrate | Pay the smuggler Georg Dreiman to get your family out. The community guide gives a base price of $145,000, reduced by $30,000 for each person you've helped along the way

Stay loyal and pass the assessment | Complete Ministry tasks, don't help Danton, and pass your fit-and-proper evaluation

Stay and fail the assessment | Help Danton, complete his tasks, and don't pay Bruno Hempf (who offers to save you from failing the assessment)

Achievement names show the wider outcomes too: a ceasefire versus a war that continues on the border, State influence increasing, "New Tomorrow" winning, Carl caught at the border trying to escape, and Carl ending up working in the Archives.

For the "good" run (family alive and emigration), keep a dedicated save before the late-game payments, help several people along the way to lower the emigration cost, and keep Martha's medicine and Patrick's schooling funded.

Blissful Sleep (DLC)

A prequel scenario with Carl's predecessor as landlord, Hector Medina. He's about 65, but a clerical error has recorded his age as 85, the age at which the State enforces euthanasia (the "Blissful Sleep"). He has a cat and a 30-year-old son working on a railway to the north (per Wikipedia). His endings range from accepting the procedure to escaping abroad in comfort, or ending up in the slums. Achievements like "Sleep Tight", "Dolce Vita" and "District 9" track them.

Achievement Roadmap

Beholder has 60 Steam achievements, and many are ending-specific, so plan several runs with separate saves.

Main-game endings (normal mode), each its own achievement:

Outcome | Achievement

All family alive | Most Important Thing

Carl goes abroad | Their Grass is Greener

Carl stays in the country | Iron Curtain

Carl caught at the border trying to escape | Stop or I'll shoot!

Carl fails the fit-and-proper test | Validol or Validation?

Work in the Archives for life | 111 kilometers

War ends in ceasefire | What Is It Good For?

War continues on the border | War Never Changes

State influence increases | Freedom is Slavery

New Tomorrow wins | Brave New World

Trainee mode has a parallel set ("Social Unit", "Unpaid Holiday", "Borderline Disorder", "Fired! Out of a Cannon.", "Work or die", "Make Peace, Not War", "War Is Peace", "Ignorance Is Power", "Patria o Muerte!", plus "Gold Standard" for becoming a model citizen and "Solitary Man" for the whole family dying). Trainee mode is the cheap way to collect these once you know the story.

Tenant and side-story achievements worth tracking on a first run: "Pimp My Bride" (find a woman for Shpak), "Bahama Mama" or "My Heart Will Go On" (the Schimmers leave by cruise or barge; you need two runs for both), "Dance, dance!" (find Zlata Schimmer's biological parents), "Easy Virtue" (Klara lives in the house twice), "Yo-ho-ho" (befriend a pirate), "Not a Big Dealer" (report the drug maker) and "Dirty Hands" (take part in the attempt on the General's life).

Dark or failure achievements to do on a throwaway save: "Billing Them Softly" (caught stealing), "Die Like You Mean It" (killed by a tenant), "I Did Nothing!" (push a tenant to suicide), "I Choose Violence" (evict Klaus Schimmer the hard way) and "White Papers, Black Mails" (write your first blackmail letter).

Blissful Sleep has its own endings: "Sleep Tight" (Hector takes the Blissful Sleep), "I'm Too Old For This" (take it early), "Without a Severance Pay" (Hector goes abroad), "Dolce Vita" (goes abroad with a comfortable life; "I made it in life" is the Trainee version) and "District 9" (ends his life in the slums).

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Letting deadlines lapse. Missed Ministry tasks cost you, and missed family needs can be fatal.
• Searching when the tenant might come home. Check their routine first.
• Spending early money on non-essentials. Martha's medicine and Patrick's education are expensive.
• Trusting everyone who asks for help. Some tenants are informants.
• Saving over your only file. Branches close, so keep rolling saves.
• Ignoring new directives. They change what counts as a violation.

Advanced Tips

• Batch your searches: when several tenants leave at once, hit the closest apartments first and install cameras at the same time.
• Profiles pay: complete profiles (occupation, traits, habits) before you report, because Ministry tasks often need them.
• Blackmail selectively: it's lucrative but creates enemies ("I Did Nothing!" is a dark outcome of pushing a tenant too far).
• Trade items: tenants' requests often want items you can buy or find elsewhere. Solving them opens better outcomes.
• Plan for the emigration route early if that's your goal. The cost reduction comes from people you helped much earlier.
• Use Trainee mode for achievement cleanup. Several endings have separate Trainee-mode achievements.

FAQ

How do I keep my whole family alive? Buy Martha's medicine, fund Patrick's education and trip, and don't give Danton the information about Antoine Grubic that puts Anna at risk.

How many endings are there? Several. They vary by whether Carl emigrates, stays loyal, or fails the assessment, plus the fate of the war and your family.

Is there an easier difficulty? Yes. Trainee mode relaxes the pressure and has its own ending achievements.

What is Blissful Sleep? A DLC scenario with a different landlord, Hector Medina, facing a compulsory euthanasia law for the elderly.

Should I play Beholder 2 or 3 next? Beholder 2 (2018) moves you into the Ministry itself. Beholder 3 (2022) is the next mainline game. Beholder: Conductor (2025) is a train-based spin-off.

Can I report everyone and be fine? You can stay a loyal servant of the State, but you'll close off many tenant stories and some outcomes. The game is designed around trade-offs.

Sources

Family names, the Danton warning, the emigration price and the ending routes come from one community achievement guide (linked below) and aren't confirmed by an official source. Achievement names and outcome descriptions are taken from the Steam achievement list.

• Beholder (video game) on Wikipedia
• Steam store page (app 475550)
• Steam global achievements list
• Steam community Achievement Guide by Erika
• Alawar news on Steam (Beholder: Conductor releases)