DON'T DIE
A BETIS

Please read first

Thank you for choosing Don't Die a Betis. Please read this booklet before you play, then keep it somewhere safe, next to the glucose tabs.

Taking care of your game

Do not leave your game in a hot car, the same as your insulin. Do not let a magpie near it. If the game stops working, try turning it off and on again. If that fails, fill out a Special Authorization form and wait 6 to 8 weeks.

Contents

The story so far

You are Marty. It is 7:00 a.m. in Inglewood, Calgary, and it is an ordinary morning: check your blood sugar, eat breakfast, take the insulin for it. You have had type 1 for years. You could do it in your sleep.

Then you go to work downtown, like any other day. At 3:00 that night a diabetic asteroid flies past the Earth and wakes you. Watch the news before you go out.

Most people without diabetes do not survive it. The survivors are starting to develop it. Everyone who already had diabetes, you included, is now super-human. Your punches are powers, and SPIN still costs blood sugar.

First steps

You start at home, beside the bed. Read the note on the fridge, then sit at the table for breakfast and count its carbs. Drag the stick to walk, or tap anywhere and you walk there. On a computer, walk with the arrow keys or WASD.

Controls: in a fight

The game works with a keyboard and mouse, a touch screen, or a controller.

South, West, East and North are the four face buttons: on an Xbox pad A, X, B and Y; on a PlayStation pad cross, square, circle and triangle.

Controls: on the map

Between fights you walk a map of Calgary, seen from above.

On a phone or tablet, the stick and buttons are always on screen. Tap where you want to go and you walk there, or use the stick. Tap RUN to run and again to walk; running lowers blood sugar faster. KIT opens the kit. Tap the blood sugar reading for a finger check.

The start menu

PARTY shows your Diabuddies and who fights beside you. KIT opens your medical kit. STATS shows your level and stats. SAVE saves to one of three files. CLOSE closes it. Under the menu are your level and experience ("LV 3, XP 52/90"), your money and, after the asteroid, the shards you hold ("SHARDS 2/5").

Reading the screen

The strip across the top of the screen shows, from left to right:

Under the strip, beside the KIT button, two boxes show your weapon and passive item. A bar along the bottom of each shows the uses left.

The enemy you hit last shows its name and health. Short tips appear on a paper strip under the top bar. Tap it to skip to the next tip.

Blood sugar

Only hits, lows and long highs cost health. A low costs 10 health every 10 minutes. Over 15 for more than an hour, you lose 1 health a minute until you take insulin. A CGM alarm, or Toonie, warns you.

Fighting is exercise

Hits you land burn a little sugar; every third one, a grey number shows how much. Hits you take add adrenaline, which raises it. A long fight usually pulls you down. On the map, running costs more than walking.

While you sleep

Dawn rise: blood sugar climbs in the early morning hours, so you may wake a little high. Night lows: insulin taken just before bed keeps working while you sleep.

Food

Food comes from trash cans, stands and shops, and goes into your kit. Eating heals you at once, but every food raises blood sugar on its own timetable.

	Food	Carbs	Heals	Acts
	Juice	15 g	8	Fast
	Glucose tabs	16 g	2	Fastest
	Candy	10 g	2	Fast
	Mini donuts	30 g	6	Fast
	Double-double	25 g	3	Fast
	Bread	30 g	15	Steady
	Pancakes	70 g	25	Big and steady
	Ginger beef	50 g	25	Late
	Pizza	60 g	30	Latest

The kit and insulin

Press KIT to open your medical kit. Time slows while it is open, so you can use it in the middle of a fight.

Finger check

Uses a strip and shows your blood sugar.

Food

Eats it. The kit lists only the food you carry.

− / + and Give

Picks a dose of meal insulin and gives it.

Long-acting shot

Your one background shot of the day. A new one is due at 7:00 each morning.

Pen

Moves the pen between your jacket and your bag.

Meal insulin

When you eat from the kit, it fills in the dose that covers the food: 1 unit for every 10 g of carbs. On your own you count the carbs by eye, and a guess by eye can come out low but never high. Change the dose if you know better, then press Give. Meal insulin takes about half a minute to start working.

More about insulin

Long-acting insulin

Take it once a day: a new shot is due at 7:00 each morning. Miss it and yesterday's wears off over about three hours on the clock, then you drift high all day, and all night too if you sleep without it. Toonie's trainer shows you how to take it on your first morning.

Late food

Pizza and ginger beef land after your insulin does. For them the kit fills in half the dose. Give it, then give the other half about 40 minutes later on the clock (20 seconds).

Quick sugar

Hold KIT to eat the fastest food you carry without opening the kit.

Eat fast sugar such as juice or tabs while low (your last check under 4.4 mmol/L (80 mg/dL), or Toonie just barked) and the kit fills in 0 units: treating a low needs no insulin.

You carry two meal insulin pens: one in use and a spare. Without a pen, the kit cannot give meal insulin.

Washrooms and saving

You really have to pee. The bladder fills slowly when you are in range and several times faster when you are high, so a filling bladder is a sign to check your sugar.

If it fills all the way, you wet yourself. You lose health and some dignity, and every shop charges $2 more for everything until you use a washroom. The prices show in orange.

The washroom is your save point

Look for the door marked WASHROOM. Walking up to it shows your blood sugar for free. Marty's own bathroom at home counts too: its door is in the back wall beside his bed, and you use the sink. Using a washroom:

• saves the game,
• empties your bladder,
• warms you up after the cold,
• heals your party,
• brings shop prices back down.

You can also save from the start menu on the map.

More about saving

What a save keeps

A save keeps where you are, your body and kit, your level, stats, money and items, your Diabuddies, the shards you hold and how far the story has gone.

Saves from before the asteroid

A save from an older copy of the game, before the asteroid came, still loads. It keeps your level, stats, money, kit and items. The story starts again at home on the morning the asteroid comes, with nobody in your party.

The main screen

Continue loads your newest save. New game starts at home in Inglewood. Load game picks a save file. Tutorial teaches each thing you need to survive, one at a time, and nothing can kill you until its last fight.

Winter in Calgary

Calgary winters are hard on everyone and harder on your gear.

Cold hands

A cold meter fills while you are outdoors. Past about halfway, your hands go numb. A finger check then holds you still for a moment, and some checks get no blood at all. A check that fails keeps its strip. A washroom warms you up.

Frozen insulin

Your pen starts in your jacket, where it stays warm. If you move it to your bag, it freezes after a while outdoors, and a warning shows first. When a pen freezes you switch to the spare. If the last pen freezes, doses from it do nothing.

Ice

Ice patches make everyone slide, enemies included.

The chinook

A chinook is the warm wind that crosses Calgary in winter. When one blows in, the snow turns to slush and meal insulin acts faster.

The C-Train

On 7 Avenue the train runs down the street. When the bells ring and the signals flash, get off the track. It knocks down anyone it hits, and you are anyone.

How to fight

The street runs left to right, and you can walk up and down it as well. A hit only lands on someone close to your own depth.

Move list

HITHITHIT

Jab, cross, kick. The kick knocks down.

JUMP + HIT

Jump kick.

Walk into enemy

Grab.

Grab + HIT

Knee twice, then throw.

Grab + away + HIT

Throw behind you. A thrown enemy knocks over anyone it hits.

SPIN

Hits everything around you. Costs 1.4 mmol/L (25 mg/dL) of blood sugar when it hits something. A SPIN that hits nothing costs nothing. When you are low, SPIN hits twice as hard. Good when high, deadly when low.

Locked fights

Yellow and black tape marks a fight. Walk past it and the screen locks until every wave is beaten. When GO > flashes, move on.

More about fighting

Leaving a fight

To run away, walk off the left edge before the screen locks.

To get out at any time, pause and pick Leave. It works in any fight or level you started from the map, except the tutorial, which has its own Leave tutorial button. You are back on the map where you stood, with the health, blood sugar and items you left with, and any money you picked up. You get no experience for a fight you left.

Dodging

Enemies take turns. Every attack starts with a red ! over the attacker's head. Once it starts, only a knockdown stops it, so step up or down the street to get out of the way.

Hit a trash can twice to spill the food inside.

Items

You can hold one weapon and one passive item. Walk over a new one to swap; the old one drops where you stand. Each item has a set number of uses, and a use counts only when it hits something.

	Item	Uses	What it does
	Hockey stick weapon	20	Longer reach.
	Cowboy boot weapon	12	Every hit knocks down.
	Lancet weapon	30	The finger-check clicker. Swings much faster and hits a little harder.
	CGM alarm passive	15	Beeps. A pink ring hurts anyone close.
	Pump tubing passive	24	Circles you, hitting anyone it touches.
	Goose friend passive	8	Walks at your heel and charges the nearest enemy.
	Insulin cooler passive	3	Blocks a hit, then nothing can hit you for half a second.
	Puck bag passive	14	Fires a puck at the nearest enemy.

Passive items only work when enemies are near. Items turn up on the street, in trash cans and on beaten enemies. Beat Johannes Wintergreen for the puck bag.

Getting around Calgary

Your day starts at home in Inglewood. The neighbourhood has a general store, a pharmacy, a washroom and the endocrinologist's office, and 9 Avenue leads downtown, on foot or by C-Train. On 9 Avenue the Cinnamon Guy stops everyone. The first time, he runs the tutorial before his real fight. The tutorial is practice: your blood sugar, items and money stay as they were. Choose Leave tutorial to skip it.

Your body keeps running while you walk. Blood sugar, insulin, food, items and health carry over between the map and the street.

Enemies on the map

Enemies stand on the map, and some walk over when they see you. Touch one and a street fight begins. Ordinary enemies come back the next morning, and there are no random fights.

Who to talk to

A yellow ! bobbing over someone's head means they have something for you. Walk up and talk to them. The ! goes away once you've got it. Start with the man waiting outside your door. Since the asteroid, some people ask for your help. Answer right and they pay you. A red ! in a speech bubble is different. It means an enemy has spotted you.

More getting around Calgary

Money and shops

Beaten enemies drop dollars, shown as "+$5" over the street. Spend them in the shops.

CGM sensors and pump sites are on the shelf, but you can't buy them until you have the hardware. The endocrinologist gives you a CGM on your first visit. With it, your blood sugar shows live, with a trend arrow, and you no longer need a strip to see it.

The doctor and your bed

The doctor

The endocrinologist's office is in Inglewood, beside the pharmacy. After your first visit, Dr. Kowalchuk offers a checkup once a day. Say yes and your health goes back to full and your blood sugar is set to 6.9 mmol/L (125 mg/dL). It stays there for two hours on the clock. Eating, taking insulin or starting a fight ends that early. The checkup is back the next morning.

Your bed

The bed at home is the one place to rest. Between 7:00 a.m. and noon it lets you nap until evening. At any other time it lets you sleep until 7:00 the next morning, and ordinary enemies are back when you wake.

Riding the C-Train

The transit station is on 9 Avenue, just west of Inglewood, under the red TRANSIT sign. The C-Train platform is across the street from it.

To ride downtown, walk onto the platform and talk to the bench. Say YES to wait for the train. It takes you to the edge of downtown, where the line is closed, and you walk the rest along 7 Avenue: the morning commute. Make it through and you ride home to the platform.

You can still walk downtown instead. Keep going west along 9 Avenue.

The bus pass

The ticket agent inside the station sells it. It never runs out, so once you have one the shop shows SOLD OUT.

The world map

Five famous diabetics lead the factions now. Each holds a region and a shard of the asteroid. To go after them, walk to the door under the AIRPORT sign at the east end of 9 Avenue in Inglewood. It opens the world map.

Every region has a marker in its faction's colour. The panel under the map shows the boss's portrait and name, the region, and whether you can go there.

Left, right

Move between markers. On a touch screen, tap one.

E, South, FLY

Fly there. You're asked first, with how long the trip takes.

Q, East, CLOSE

Close the map.

More about the world map

Which regions are open

Regions open in order. Calgary is open from the start: Johannes Wintergreen's people hold the hockey arena, on foot past the airport at the east end of 9 Avenue. To win a region, beat its boss.

An open region can still say that no flights go there yet.

The news

When a boss falls, the bosses still standing have something to say about it the next time you open the map. The radio on the side table at home reads the news too.

Levels and stats

Every fight you win gives experience. Enough experience takes you up a level, and each level gives you 3 points to spend on your stats.

You start at level 1 with 1 of each stat and 100 health. A point raises its stat by 1, up to 10. At Agility 10 you move and swing about a quarter faster. High blood sugar still slows you down, just from a quicker start.

More levels and stats

Going up a level

When a win takes you up a level, a card opens on the map with your points and your four stats. Move to a stat and press OK, or tap its +, to spend a point there. A spent point can't be taken back. When all are spent, choose DONE. To keep points for later, choose LATER or press Back.

The STATS screen

Choose STATS in the start menu to see your level, your experience and each stat with what it gives you now, such as "Attack x1.30" or "Max health 130". Press Back to close it.

While you have points left, STATS in the start menu shows an orange !, and the STATS screen puts a + by each stat. Spend them there just as on the card.

Your Diabuddies

Four friends who know about type 1 join you along the way. Everyone who has joined follows you on the map, and two of them fight beside you in the street.

Toonie

Diabetic alert dog. Came through the asteroid untouched, and now smells a low from across the street.

Quick and low. Nips at whoever is attacking you.

SUPPORT Barks before you go low, on the map and in fights, even when she is not one of the two fighting. Each bark sounds, flashes your blood sugar reading, and tells you to eat. Still heading low ten minutes later? She barks again. She notices a SPIN that will drop you low the moment it lands.

JOINS Outside your front door. Talk to her trainer. Then she asks for your first finger check: press F, or open KIT and choose Finger check. If you haven't taken your long-acting shot yet, the trainer waits while you take it from the KIT.

Mr. Dhillon

Pharmacist. Has kept his Inglewood pharmacy open since the asteroid, though he has started to develop diabetes himself.

Slow, with a long wind-up and a hit that sends enemies flying.

SUPPORT Hands over a spare test strip each fight.

JOINS In the Inglewood pharmacy, once you beat the Special Authorization in his back room. Talk to him first to hear why he can't leave.

More Diabuddies

All four can join in Calgary, before your first flight. Mr. Dhillon waits on an optional fight.

Riley

Type 1 since age nine. The asteroid made Riley super-human, and Riley turned down every faction.

A steady brawler with quick combos.

SUPPORT Shares juice once per fight when you are low.

JOINS At the hockey arena, once you beat Johannes Wintergreen.

Joy

Carb-counting parent. Has started to develop diabetes since the asteroid. Her son Miguel, type 1, became super-human and went off with a faction.

Keeps her distance and throws lunch kits.

SUPPORT Tells you the exact dose for your food, and counts the carbs at meals for you.

JOINS At the airport, once you beat Johannes Wintergreen. Use the airport's door and she flies with you.

Enemies

Sugar goblin

Claws up close and throws candy from range. Some only throw, and back away when you come close. On day one, before the asteroid, they are still preschoolers. They have the same moves.

TIP Catch the candy when you are low. Dodge it or punch it out of the air when you are high.

The Cinnamon Guy

Grabs you and gives you advice. The advice drains your health until you mash your way free.

TIP Walk off mid-sentence and he falls over.

Canada goose

Honks, then charges straight along the street and knocks you down.

TIP It cannot turn mid-charge. Step up or down the street during the honk.

Magpie

Circles overhead, then swoops and steals your insulin pen or five test strips. A red ring marks where it will land.

TIP Step out of the ring. If it gets something, hit it before it leaves the screen and it drops it.

More enemies

Pancake flipper

A cook in a white cowboy hat. Throws pancakes from range and swings a spatula up close.

TIP Jump as a pancake reaches you to catch it for your kit. Seventy grams of carbs, though.

Karen

Reads her phone and ignores you, until she sees you take insulin. Then she decides you are shooting up, films you, and chases you down the street.

TIP Take your shot where she can't see it. Hitting her first also sets her off.

Summer Fair goblin

A sugar goblin in a cowboy hat. Found at the Summer Fair, where the food is free and everywhere.

TIP It would be rude to say no to free pancakes. Count them anyway.

Hockey fan

One of Wintergreen's people, found at the hockey arena. Throws his drink from range. Up close he raises his foam finger, then swings it, and it reaches further than your punch.

TIP A drink can't be caught. Punch it, jump it, or step aside. When the foam finger goes up, step up or down the street.

Boss: Special Authorization

In Alberta, some diabetes coverage needs a Special Authorization, granted for a year at a time. This one guards the pump supplies in the Inglewood pharmacy's back room. The fight is optional.

Health bar

Its name and health run across the top of the screen. The notch at halfway is where phase 2 starts. The end of the bar blinks green while its health comes back.

Rejection letters

It fires them with the reason written on. Step aside, jump, or punch them.

Stamp

Stand in front of it and you get stamped.

Regeneration

Its health comes back whenever you stop hitting it.

Phase 2

Below half health it comes after you and fires letters in fans and bursts.

Boss: Johannes Wintergreen

Johannes Wintergreen

Hockey forward. Wrote King of the DIABADASSES, about playing pro with type 1. His DIABADASSES took the arena.

He waits on his own rink, through the doors at the end of the arena concourse. The whole rink is ice, so you slide whenever you let go.

Slapshot

He raises his stick and a red line appears on the ice. A line of pucks follows it. Step off the line, or jump the pucks.

Crosscheck

Up close he pulls his stick back across his chest, then shoves you down. Step up or down the street.

Pummel

His next close attack: he shakes off his gloves and throws three quick punches. Three in a row knock you down. Step up or down the street.

Skating off

Hit him a few times in a row and he skates away, then shoots from the far end.

Phase 2

At half health his dad, Papa Wintergreen, comes down from the press box and drops his gloves. He shoots two lines at once.

Beat him for his shard of the asteroid and his puck bag. Lose, and you wake up in the washroom by the rink doors.

Mini games

Between the walking and the fighting you play mini games. Each one opens with a screen that tells you how to play. Press START to begin. Press QUIT (BACK) at any time to leave: quitting costs you nothing but the time.

Your blood sugar keeps running while you play. When you are low your hands shake, and the numbers sway. When you are high, every press lands a moment late.

Carb counting

At a sit-down meal, such as breakfast at home, you see the plate and guess its carbs.

UP / DOWN, − +

Changes your guess by 5 g.

EAT (OK)

Eats the plate and gives 1 unit of meal insulin for every 10 g you guessed.

A guess within 10 g wins. The exact carbs score 100, and every gram off costs 4 points. Your best score is kept in your save.

The shootout

In the hockey arena's lobby, the shootout host runs an intermission shootout: five shots on Johannes Wintergreen's backup goalie.

A red mark sweeps back and forth across the net, and the goalie slides from post to post.

SHOOT (OK), or tap the rink

Fires the puck at the red mark.

QUIT (BACK)

Leaves the shootout. You lose nothing but the time.

As soon as you shoot, the goalie dives for the puck. Aim far enough from him that he cannot get there first. A shot past the posts goes wide.

Three goals out of five wins. Each goal scores 20 points. The first win pays $40. After that the host lets you play again for a better score, with no prize. Your best score is kept in your save.

Ending a day

Make it to the end of a street level and a card reports your arrival time, the share of the day you spent in range, and an estimated A1C, a measure of your average blood sugar.

If you do not make it, the hospital fills out a chart.

Other causes seen on charts include insulin that froze at the bus stop, and a Special Authorization that is still pending.

Hints and tips

1. Take your long-acting shot first thing every morning. The note on the fridge says so.
2. Check before a big fight. A fight usually brings you down, and SPIN brings you down faster.
3. Glucose tabs fix a low fastest, and juice is close behind. Bread will not. Do not dose for sugar you ate to fix a low.
4. If your bladder is filling fast, you are probably high.
5. Do not dose twice for the same food. Wait for the first dose to land.
6. In winter, keep your pen in your jacket.
7. Check on the map too. Your blood sugar does not wait for a fight.
8. Walking up to a washroom door tells you your blood sugar for nothing.
9. A goose that is honking is about to charge. Move up or down the street.
10. Fight the enemies on the map. The money keeps you stocked with strips, and pancakes and ginger beef heal the most. Dose for their carbs.
11. If Toonie barks, eat something.
12. Severely low, nobody on the map will talk to you. The pharmacist will. She hands you a juice.
13. While text prints, tap OK to show the whole line, or hold it to speed the text up.

Notes