We Happy Few | Game Guide [ENG]

In this guide, you will learn about We Happy Few, whether it is worth playing, the basic gameplay, and much more.

Chapter 1 - Original Game Review

We Happy Few is an action-adventure survival horror game developed by Compulsion Games released in on August 10th, 2018. The game is available for Windows, MAC, Linux via Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
There were originally seven people working on the game who started building prototypes for the game in January of 2014. The studio has since expanded their team and eventually placed the game on Kickstarter. After four years of development and a delay, the game was released on the said date.

The studio describes the game as a "game of paranoia and survival, in a drugged-out, dystopian English city in 1964."



We Happy Few is about an old English city, called Wellington Wells, that is haunted by the ghosts of its recent past.

In 1933, this world deviated from our own, as the Germans successfully invaded and occupied England during World War II. And while the state of England as a whole is unclear, a fair bit of Wellington Wells is in ruin.

However, during the Occupation, all citizens of Wellington Wells, called Wellies, had to do A Very Bad Thing that involved sending all of their children to Germany, without a clue as for what was going to happen to them.

To calm their guilt and sorrow, there seemed to only be one solution. To forget everything that they had done. As such, a miracle drug was invented, called Joy.

Soon, the citizens started rebuilding parts of the city, while leaving the most damaged areas ruined. This caused the whole of Wellington Wells to be blended with both highly advanced futuristic technology, and leftover rubble from a near past alongside each other.

Everyone is happy, as long as they take their Joy, and forget.

Chapter 2 - Story Mode "We Happy Few"

Story Mode

There are three playable characters that all serve as the protagonist in their own Act.

Arthur Hastings is the protagonist of Act I
Sally Boyle the protagonist of Act II
Ollie Starkey the protagonist of Act III.

Each character has their own set of characteristics and abilities, increasing in difficulty as the player progresses through the game.

They all also have one goal in common; to escape this wretched place. All for different reasons.

All playable characters are known as Downers, people who can take Joy, but refuse to. And no decent person in Wellington Wells likes Downers, so the player needs to adapt unless they want to get thrashed.

In order to survive and escape Wellington Wells, the player has to not only take care of their own needs, but also be mindful of the unspoken rules to fit in with the locals. All the while hunting for supplies to craft devices and weapons that'll aid them in getting out of town.

A big part of We Happy Few is NPC interaction and hiding in plain sight. NPCs will let the player know when they're suspicious of them, and their statements will inform the player of what they're doing wrong. The player can, however, also check their hud and stats for further information.

Upon every new game, or moving to the next Act, the world resets with a brand new map layout every time. Locations stay the same, but are located differently, and side quests that the player didn't find before may be available in the new game.

Chapter 3 - Playable Characters - Arthur Hastings

Arthur Hastings

Arthur Ernest Hastings is one of three playable characters in We Happy Few. He is the first playable character and was originally the only playable character of the game.

Appearance :

Arthur is a tall, slim (almost skinny) man, with parted black hair, dark brown eyes, and a rather large nose. Being a resident of the Parade District, he generally wears a black Proper Suit, his signature outfit, with black Proper Shoes. He also wears black, rimmed glasses.

Personality :

Arthur is a rather meek, scrawny and submissive man who rarely gets angry at people and rather tends to be distressed and nervous, especially in combat. Despite that, he is capable of holding his own in combat and is an expert liar and can fool almost anyone in Wellington Wells. He is also quite resourceful, able to construct various tools, weapons, and other useful and helpful contraptions from different crafting components.

When Arthur goes off his Joy and begins to realize the truths that he had denied himself for so long, he begins to break down from the guilt and weight of his sins. However, he ultimately decides that he must carry on, nonetheless, and eventually, he learns not to let his grievances get in the way of the task at hand, without forgetting about them.

History :

Born on the 12th of August, 1934, very little is known about Arthur's history, at first. But as the game progresses, more of Arthur's history is revealed, the most important being that he had an older brother named Percival "Percy" Hastings.

As a child, Arthur would often have to explain things to Percy, who had a developmental disorder (implied to be mildly autistic), often being referred to as "dim." Percy was also often bullied for not completely understanding things, but Arthur stuck with him through it all, sometimes reluctantly. Arthur also had a crush on Sally Boyle, a girl around his age who seemed to care for him as well.

When they started sending children to Germany, Percy was convinced by Arthur to accompany him to Germany, However, Arthur betrayed Percy by using Percy's ID to impersonate him and lie to Constable Peters that he was already thirteen while claiming that Percy was Arthur. Percy was therefore sent to Germany in Arthur's place, calling out for Arthur, which later left Arthur feeling guilty. This likely worked because the two looked very similar and Percy's difficulty with communicating with anyone other than Arthur prevented him from exposing Arthur's ruse.

At around the same time, Sally Boyle's mother poisoned her family so she wouldn't have to send any of her children away, but Sally survived due to being out of the house at the time. Since she had nowhere else to go, Arthur's family ended up taking her in.



While living with the Hastings, Arthur and Sally would occasionally skip school and smoke together. However, when Sally was sixteen, Arthur's father propositioned her, and, out of fear of being kicked out, Sally had sex with him. Arthur discovered this, and, furious, ended up scaring her out of their house anyway. He wouldn't see her again for a long time.

Eventually, as Arthur got older, Joy came into existence and Arthur started using it to forget the things he did. As part of the side effects of the drug, his memories of events started to change (such as misremembering the train incident as him telling the truth about his age rather than impersonating and betraying Percy), before he eventually lost his memories altogether.

He eventually got a job as a reporter and became quite skilled at it, eventually rising to prominence popularity. Owing to his skills, he was employed by Victoria Byng and got a high-class job as an editor in the Department of Archives, Printing and Recycling in City Hall of the Parade District, the richest part of town. He became content with his life, until one day when he encountered an old article about a prize he and Percy had won in and chose to remember rather than take Joy and forget, thus setting in motion the events of the entire game.

Chapter 4 - Playable Characters - Sally Boyle

Sally Boyle

Sally Boyle is the second playable character in We Happy Few. She's a pretty well-known chemist and a downer in hiding.

Appearance :

Sally Boyle is a short, slim woman with black hair and green eyes. She is most commonly seen wearing an unusually stylish white mini dress with black curves at the front, adorned with vinyl stockings and sleeves, along with black kitten heels that blend in with the stockings.

She also wears a white skull guard hat with white cat-eye sunglasses on top. If she's wearing her proper suit, she'll wear cotton gloves. Her happy face mask, unlike most wellettes, has red lipstick on top.

When she's wearing the torn suit or handling Gwen, her gloves are gone, revealing white painted nails.

Personality :

Sally is a smart, cunning and resourceful young woman who's not afraid of seducing men in order to obtain what she needs. According to Arthur, Sally “always had a knack for making useful new friends."

General Byng compliments Sally on her skill at deception, calling her “a good liar [...] who can lie with the truth." This trait causes quite a few people, especially other women, to see Sally as nothing more than a selfish and deceitful “witch” who cares for nobody but herself.

While Sally is attracted to guys, she has a tendency to throw shade at them, most noticeable in her quest notes. More often than not, she's quite generalizing.

Sally is very judgmental of herself. She's convinced that she's a terrible mother, and that her closest friends actually hate her, despite that belief being far from the truth. She cares deeply about her baby daughter Gwen and goes to great lengths to protect her and keep her existence a secret from the rest of Wellington Wells.

Her love for her daughter acts as the main motivation behind most of Sally’s actions throughout the game, from risking her life numerous times to her eventual escaping Wellington Wells with Gwen alongside her.

Additionally, when she discovers a suicide cult in the Garden District, she voices her horror and disgust numerous times and is more than willing to kill their leader, all the while referring to him as a “sick, dying bastard” and “just a swindler who convinced himself."

History :

Sally was born sometime during 1934, and while the exact date is unknown, it had to be somewhere before all of the kids were sent off to Germany, as she was 14 at that time and therefore too old to be sent away.



Little is known about Sally’s past at first, except that she was a childhood friend of Arthur Hastings, a boy around her age, and a neighbor of Ollie Starkey, a former soldier. As the game progresses more about her is uncovered, much of it unpleasant.

The oldest of three siblings, Sally had a strained relationship with her mother and would often clash with her. She went to live with the Hastings family after her mother poisoned the entire family with foxglove to prevent her youngest daughters from being sent off to Germany, leaving Sally alive.

During this time she quickly became friends with Arthur Hastings and they would often sneak out together. It is implied that they were in love.

She eventually ran away from Arthur's home because she was coerced into sexual intercourse by Arthur's father (who would have thrown her out if she made a fuss about it or refused) when she was sixteen years old, a decision she would later regret.

She later became the assistant and lover of Anton Verloc, the chemist who usurped Haworth in power and also contributed to the creation of Joy.

During their relationship, Sally became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter she named Gwen. Fearing for Gwen’s safety, Sally kept her existence a secret and left Verloc despite his protests.

Sally went on to use her chemistry expertise to create her own establishment in Wellington Wells called “Sally's Interplanetary Travel Agency” with herself as the sole employee.

Despite becoming Verloc’s main competition, Sally’s influential patron, General Byng, protected her from the authorities despite her non-conformist lifestyle.

Chapter 5 - Playable Characters - Ollie Starkey

Ollie Starkey

Oliver "Ollie" Starkey also known as the "Mad Scotsman" is the third playable character and protagonist in We Happy Few.

Appearance :

Ollie is a somewhat short and burly fellow. Where he has red-brown hair on his balding head, it's relatively short, save for his beard, which he has grown out a lot.

Ollie wears a Sergeant's Nr. 2 Service Dress with a tool belt and webbing system with large pockets, reddish-brown pants as well as ankle boots and puttees wound up his legs.

Personality :

Ollie has, thanks to his long-time of living in the Garden District, gone a bit crazy from all the chaos going on in Wellington Wells. He is a realist, as he does not deny the hunger crisis striking the town.

He is a bit of a foul mouth at times, as he swears a great deal and is very angry at those who he sees as being in the wrong (because he's in the right, according to himself).

However, Ollie does show some redeeming qualities, such as remorse over his past actions and kindness to those who aren't hostile towards him. As an example, he expresses a great deal of kindness to a few others (mostly for treating him nicely in the past), such as Arthur Hastings (or as he prefers to call him "Little Artie") and his companion of sorts.

History :

Born on July 28, 1914, Ollie hails from a lower-class worker family in Scotland, having lived to witness gas attacks on London during World War I as a child.



In adulthood, Ollie was previously a sergeant in the British Army, being at one point stationed overseas in British India, before settling down in Wellington Wells. Ollie moved into a neighbourhood that ended up housing many of the primary characters of the game, chief among them Arthur Hastings and Sally Boyle, among others.

During World War II, Ollie served in the British Army and fought in both Europe and on the British Isles, most notable at Ramsgate, before the surrender occurred in 1943. During the German occupation, Ollie became the secretary and personal assistant of General Robert Byng and helped him to create a lie that would prevent the people of Wellington Wells from rising up in a futile rebellion and ultimately killing themselves. He helped to organise the creation of the paper-mache tanks which would keep the people in check without actually being real tanks.

Ollie also became an accomplice for the Occupational Authority. The one thing he did though that affected him the most was turning in Margaret Worthing, who was hidden away by her father Jack Worthing (later Uncle Jack). Jack Worthing attempted to hide Margaret but Ollie ratted them out and when the Germans came for her, Margaret attempted to escape and the Germans shot her to death for that. This ended up traumatizing Ollie and greatly changing his views about everything and the memory of Margaret's death would come to haunt him for many years to come.

Sometime around when the Germans left, Ollie fell into a depression, and people, with the exception of Victoria Byng, turned their backs on him. He later asked a grown-up Sally to create a drug that would scramble his memories, in order to forget what he did. She complied, and after Ollie took the drug, it completely scrambled his memories and he began to go crazy. He completely forgot everything about his involvement in fabricating the papier-mache tank lie and also forgot about his post-war activities.

As an unexpected and unintended side effect of the memory loss, Ollie began to hallucinate a manifestation of Margaret, who through her advice helped him get back on his feet. Ollie still did not remember what he had actually done, though, and came to believe that he was Margaret's father and that Jack had turned her in and got her killed.

He began to oppose Joy and grew a hatered towards Jack Worthing, blaming him for being a traitor and German collaborator. He soon began to carry out acts of sabotage against the city's broadcasting infrastructure to stop Jack from broadcasting his show to the people of Wellington Wells.

This attempt at open resistance was ultimately unsuccessful, and out of sheer frustration and a desire to avoid having to ever see or hear about Jack again, Ollie left the city proper to live out in the wastes of the Garden District, in the Train Station. Ollie took over the derelict building and turned it into his personal residence and fortified it to keep out intruders, and would spend the next years there living by himself in seclusion.

He began to obsessively hoard various kinds of goods, items, and other necessities, most notably foodstuffs, often coming into conflict with the Headboys. However, a chance encounter with Arthur seems to give him a new purpose in life: revealing the truth to the people.

Chapter 6 - Survival Mode "We Happy Few"

Survival Mode :

Like the name suggests, the player wakes up in an unknown location, and has to work their way to the end. On their way, they have to collect quest items that are needed in order to escape.

The player will have to know the rules by hand and remember to fit in unless they want to start a fight.

Hunger, Thirst, and Sleep is deadly, and is sure to kill the player if they're neglected.

Hunger :

Hunger is one of the basic measurements in the game, ever single consumable food item the player comes across can fill up this meter and satisfy their hunger.

Starvation :

If the player were to starve themselves in the Story Mode, they will not die from it. Instead they'll have part of their stamina bar cut until they consume food again.

Starvation in Survival or Sandbox mode however, will make the player go through the process of dying. Giving them a few minutes to consume food before eventually keeling over and dying.

In the DLC's, Hunger is disabled, this is due to survival not being the main focus of those modes, so food is then turned into health items that will increase each character's health.

Thirst :

Thirst is one of the basic measurements in We Happy Few, every consumable drink the player comes across can fill up this meter and satisfy their thirst. It is possible that some food items also fill the Hunger meter.

Dehydration :

If the player were to dehydrate themselves in Story Mode, they will not die from it. Instead they'll have part of their stamina bar cut until they drink again.

Dehydration in Survival or Sandbox mode however, will make the player go through the process of dying. Giving them a few minutes to drink before eventually keeling over and dying.

In the DLC's, Thirst is disabled, this is due to survival not being the main focus of those modes, so drinks are then turned into health items that will increase each character's health.

[/\h1] Fatigue : [/h1]



Fatigue is a status meter that displays how well rested the player is.

Sleep Deprivation :

Restore Fatigue
Players can rest up via all available beds, available beds can be found anywhere from inside hatches, Wastrel's or Wellie's Houses, Ruined Houses and in special areas. They only need one hour of sleep to fill the fatigue meter.

If the player were to deprive themselves of sleep in Story Mode, they will not die from it. Instead they'll have part of their stamina bar cut until they sleep again. The player only has to sleep for one hour for it to reach 100%

Sleep Deprivation in Survival or Sandbox mode however, will make the player go through the process of dying. Giving them a few minutes to regain their fatigue level before they die. 1 hour of sleep restores 10% fatigue, meaning the player will have to sleep for many hours for it to reach 100%.

DLC
In the DLC's, Fatigue is disabled, this is due to survival not being the main focus of those modes, so the playable characters never has to rest up.

Chapter 7 - Wellington Wells

Wellington Wells is the name of the whole island and setting of We Happy Few.

Wellington Wells is a microstate-sized city-state that exists largely independently from the rest of Great Britain. It is governed by the Executive Committee.

The city of Wellington Wells is made up of several islands, divided into several districts and separated by bridges. Each of these bridges are heavily secured to restrict movement, with some bridges even being deliberately kept closed under the guise that they are broken.

A train system known as the Wellington Underground used to connect all the islands, but it has been boarded up. The tracks can still be used by the player to quickly move about the city if they can find the access hatches.

Geography :

Wellington Wells is sprawling habitat, built on a small archipelago located in the Severn Estuary/Bristol Channel, in the south-west of Great Britain, just south of Wales.

Each island is a "holm" (an old English word meaning an island in a river) that are connected to each others via Bridges, and the bridges are the only way to traverse between the islands, as the ocean is way too toxic and too low for anyone to enter.

Before WWII, the city was linked by an underground metro system called the Wellington Underground. However, the metro has since fallen into disuse and severe disrepair, and the trains no longer run. Some stations have been re-purposed to serve as Motilene pumping stations.

Wellington Wells is administratively divided into three districts; the Garden District (where Wastrels live), the Village of Hamlyn (where lower- and middle-class Wellies live), and the Parade District (where upper-class Wellies live and where the government is situated).

As Wellington Wells sits in the middle of the Bristol Channel, the player can observe vast expanses of land to the North (Wales) and the South (England). This is the fated "Mainland" (i.e. Great Britain), to which player characters will try to escape.

Every new campaign of We Happy Few will randomly generate an entirely new version of Wellington Wells, meaning that no two playthroughs will take place in the exact same iteration of the city. However, there will be slight similarities in the landscapes.

Inhabitants ;

The citizens of Wellington Wells can be divided into two main "classes". Maidenholm, St. George's Holm and Apple Holm are populated by Wellies and the main police force of the island, the Bobbies. Barrow Holm, Eel Pie Holm, and Lud's Holm are populated by Wastrels and Downers.



The Wellies can be further subdivided into two societal classes: Maidenholm and St. George's Holm are populated by Lower- and Middle-class Wellies while Apple Holm is populated by Upper-class Wellies.

Known diseases include the rabies-like, although curable Plague, which is rife in Lud's Holm, but is contained. Along with the less malignant but still deleterious Joy Spiral.

In Hamlyn Village and the Parade District, there is a massive machine called The 'Headmistress' who can detect any nearby person who is not on Joy, thereby summoning an electrical circle to not only stun the Downer, but also alerts anybody to their presence in order to take care of them.

Chapter 8 - Wellington Weslls Play Locations

Garden District :

The Garden District was the rural part of Wellington Wells, nearing the Victory gardens. The place suffered heavy bombing and was left in ruins while the rest of the city redeveloped itself. This is where Downers and Wastrels are forced to live, in order to protect the decent citizens of Wellington Wells from remembering their incredibly upsetting past.



The Garden District is a true wasteland, with no established government or infrastructure, aside from the occasional water pump. Bombed out houses and overgrown hamlets dot the landscape. The Garden District suffers from major food shortages.

Now overgrown and run-down, the Garden District is used to cast away the Wastrels, former Wellies who react badly to Joy and become Downers. Those survivors took over whichever houses were still standing and installed traps to defend themselves.

The Garden District is made up of three islands.

Barrow Holm :

The first island that Arthur Hastings finds himself in after escaping from City Hall. Arthur, after the events in the prologue, is chased by bobbies all the way to Barrow Holm. After the story quest, Wellington Under is completed, the underground shelter is the first hatch the player unlocks.

The game-world generation of this holm is fixed. It will, therefore, be laid out exactly the same way in any given playthrough.

Eel Pie Holm :

The first randomly generated island of the Garden District. This is where the player is free to explore the land as they please.
This is the first randomly generated island the player will come across, and the first area that the player can freely explore as they wish.

Eel Pie Holm only appears in Act I, and will never appear again in any of the other acts. Although, the hatches may say they're from Eel Pie Holm, despite being in Lud's Holm.

Lud's Holm :

The second randomly generated island of the Garden District, which the government has locked down for the purpose of quarantining a rabies-like plague so that it doesn't reach the rest of the city, the plague has only started spreading through Lud's Holm, but it won't take long until it spreads even further.

Lud's Holm contains many plague-infested Wastrels, who only really appear at night (as for Act I) and are rabidly hostile to everyone nearby who is not infected. They'll relentlessly chase after any would-be victims, desperately trying to kill them, all while ranting and raving in Old English.

Victory Memorial Camp :

The old British military camp, previously used by the occupational authorities, has now become the training area for the remaining soldiers, all preparing for when Germany returns for WWIII. It is made up of one Island.

Much like Barrow Holm, The camp is fixed and will appear the same on every playthrough.

Ravensholm :

Is the site of the Victory Memorial and the Victory Memorial Camp, where General Byng and his old soldiers of the Home Guard hold a terrible secret. Arthur and Ollie infiltrate the camp on a quest to steal some things, with Arthur sabotaging the power as a distraction.

As Arthur makes his way into the camp, he finds the old tanks the Germans used to threaten Wellington Wells into willingly giving away the children. He also discovers that they aren't real tanks at all, but are actually made out of papier-maché. Wood, newspaper, and glue.

Hamlyn Village :

Hamlyn village is the first section of Wellington Wells that the player will encounter. This is where the lower and middle-class Wellies live, protected by Bobbies and other security systems. It has the appearance of a quaint small town, with old buildings painted in bright colors, and rainbows paving the roads.

Picturesque villages, groovy rainbow roads, and Mood Booths can be found there, it's also there in which 'normal' life reigns, with the presence of a city government maintaining roads, gardens, and Motilene infrastructure.

A local uniformed police force is also present, preventing crime and investigating reports of Downers while brutally apprehending and subduing anyone present. Food is much more plentiful here but security is also much more strict.

It's also been upgraded with motilene pipes running between many of the houses, and has large gaunt buildings, which serve as important points of interest on the map. Hamlyn Village is made up of three islands.

Maidenholm :

The first island of Hamlyn. The Church of St. Genesius and the Wellington Wells Constabulary is located here. It's randomly generated every time.

St. George's Holm :

Located next to Maidenholm. This is the second and larger island of Hamlyn.

St. George is far more dangerous for any lurking Downers as there are Joy Doctors strolling about, who can detect anyone who isn't on Joy.

It's here that the Hamlyn "O" Courant is located, as well as a bridge leading to Haworth Labs.

Holm of Uskglass :

A tiny island just off St. Georges Holm. This small island is occupied solely by Haworth Labs, where the city's supply of Joy is manufactured. The purple fumes produced by the Lab can be seen from pretty much anywhere in Wellington Wells.

Parade District :

The Parade District is the economic and political center of Wellington Wells and is the final main area visited by Arthur and Ollie after Hamlyn Village. This is where the wealthy, upper-class Wellies live.

Apple Holm :

The one and only holm of the Parade District, Apple Holm has the Britannia Bridge - which is the final, and only, bridge that connects back to the Mainland. It also houses Arthur's old job, the Department of Archives, Printing & Recycling, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and lastly, the Broadcast Tower.

It's in the Broadcast Tower that Uncle Jack's shows are filmed and distributed, as well as the place where the Executive Committee is based.

Every citizen here is well dressed, and security is even more strict, with lots of Red Bobbies, Peepers, and two Headmistresses. Buildings are much taller and grander, though they cannot be infiltrated.

The Parade District, much like Barrow Holm and Ravensholm, is a fixed location. It'll appear the same on every playthrough.

Ratholm :

An island that is not connected to any of the others by a bridge, and can only be reached by using the old train tunnels.

Anton Verloc once had a laboratory there, but it was abandoned due to employees quitting, for they believed that the Factory's waste water caused the plague.

Despite this, experiments still took place, with some employees experimenting on Wastrels for a cure against the Plague.

It's currently being used as a dumping ground for Haworth Laboratory's chemical waste, which has made the island extremely toxic, though the player won't need a gas mask to venture forward.

It's also inhabited by hoards of Plague Wastrels, so the player will have to be extremely careful when venturing forward.

Chapter 9 - Conclusion

In the end, we have a pretty good survival system, which sometimes even seems boring. The plot in the game is much better than all other points, in it you can observe the characters who relive their stories throughout the game.
The gameplay in the game will last for 30-35 hours, during which time you will go through the main story without taking into account additional quests and official add-ons.



And yet you yourself decide whether to buy this game for you or not, but as for me, it justifies its price for which it is sold!