Fate is a life simulator for Android that you play like a journal. You start as a baby, live one year at a time, and see what the years make of you, from your first words to old age. It is free to download on Google Play, and every life can be played to the end without paying.

This guide explains how the game works, what to focus on in a life, and how one life leads into the next. If you are new to life sims, start here. If you have played one before, skip to the sections on ambitions and legacy, where Fate does things a little differently.

You can find the game on its Fate: Life Simulator page, with screenshots and the Google Play link.

What kind of game is Fate?

Fate is a text-led life simulator. There are no maps to walk or levels to clear. Every year you read short cards, choose what to do, and watch the result appear in your journal. Stats, relationships and money change in the background, and the story you end up with is yours.

The idea is simple: one decision at a time, each of them small, adding up to a life. Study or rest. Take the job or hold out. Call your parents or go out with friends. Nothing is only good or only bad, which is what makes the years interesting.

How a year works

Every year you get a handful of actions to spend. Each action sends you to a part of life:

  • School and learning, to build grades and knowledge.
  • Work and jobs, to earn money and move up a career.
  • Relationships, which covers family, friends and love.
  • Fun and recreation, for happiness and for meeting people.
  • Side hustles, for a gamble on extra money.
  • Mind and body, to look after your health.

Pick a category and you are dealt a small hand of cards. Choose a card, choose how to play it, and read the outcome. When your actions are used, you age up. The game then shows a year in review: what happened, what changed, and where you stand in education, career, love and family.

Over 1,000 life cards cover every age, so the same life rarely plays out twice. A baby gets picture books and first words. A teenager gets school crushes and exams. Later years bring night classes, career choices, midlife crises and late-life adventures.

The five stats that shape a life

Your choices move five stats: Health, Happiness, Smarts, Discipline and Charisma. They are the quiet engine of the game.

  • Health keeps you going. Let it slide and your options, and eventually your life, are at risk.
  • Happiness is how you feel. Chasing success at any cost usually shows up here.
  • Smarts helps with school, careers and many choices.
  • Discipline decides how well you stick with things that take time.
  • Charisma helps with friends, dates and getting your way.

Different areas of life lean on different stats. Studying builds Smarts and Discipline, time with people builds Charisma and bonds. A good life is a balance, and a lopsided one makes for a more dramatic story.

Growing up: school, work and love

Fate follows the whole path of a life.

Education. You can go from primary school to high school, then to trade school, university, a master’s degree or a doctorate. Better results open better careers.

Careers. You apply for jobs and climb from a part-time worker to CEO, or you gamble on a side hustle instead. Work pays, but it also wears you down, so a career needs looking after.

People. You make friends, fall in love, get married, raise children and look after your parents. Each relationship has a bond that grows when you spend time on it and fades when you do not.

Things. You can buy a bike, a dog, a beach house or even a private island and watch your net worth grow.

Along the way, surprise events turn a quiet year into a story worth telling. Some are lucky and some are not, and you often get to choose how to respond.

Choose an ambition at 14

At 14 you choose an ambition: Wealth, Family, Influence, Knowledge or Adventure. Each has five milestones. Reaching them earns perks and titles that open new choices and change how you play.

This is the part of the game that gives a life a direction. Two characters with the same start can end up in different places because they chased different things. Chapter goals along the way give you smaller targets to aim for, so every stage of life has something to work towards.

A good tip is to choose an ambition that matches how you like to play. If you enjoy careers and money, Wealth fits. If you like building a household, pick Family. If you want a quieter life of study, go for Knowledge.

Leave a legacy

A life in Fate ends, and that is part of the design. When it does, it is scored and remembered. You can continue as your heir, carry the family name into the next generation, and keep building across several lives.

Your player level goes up across every life you live. It unlocks birth gifts and keepsakes that every future life can start with. That makes a long run feel like a family history rather than a series of restarts.

Every life starts at birth, so you always get the full story from the first word to the last.

Daily gifts and diamonds

Fate gives you a reason to come back. A daily gift waits each day, with a 14-day journal of rewards: free actions, fresh hands, lucky charms and a keepsake that every future life is born with.

The game is free to play, with ads and optional in-app purchases. Diamonds are optional and buy extra options, such as more actions. Every life can be lived from first word to last for free. If you are curious how free games like this earn, we explain the trade-offs in ad revenue vs in-app purchases for hybrid games.

Tips for your first life

  1. Spend your actions. Unused time does not help you, and the things you ignore tend to slip.
  2. Mind your Health and Happiness. Success is hard to enjoy if either one is near zero.
  3. Keep up your relationships. Bonds fade when you neglect them, and they matter later in life.
  4. Choose an ambition you want. It decides the shape of your story.
  5. Do not fear a bad year. Setbacks are part of the game, and they make the good years count.
  6. Plan for the next life. What you build now carries into your heir’s start.

Where to play

Fate is available now on Android through Google Play. Web, Windows and macOS versions are planned, and we will announce them on the game’s page when they are ready.

If you like simulation games in general, you may also enjoy our list of the best flight simulator games for Android. To see everything we publish, browse our apps.

Questions about Fate

Is Fate free? Yes. It is free to download and play, with ads and optional in-app purchases.

How long is a life? That depends on how you play. A life runs from birth to old age, one year at a time, and you decide how quickly to move.

Can I play more than one life? Yes. When a life ends you can continue as your heir, and your player level carries across every life.