Before you start
If you have not signed up yet, do that first — our how-to-play guide walks you through account creation, login and the age-18+ rules in about three minutes. Come back when you are standing in your new city wondering what on earth to do first. That is exactly what this page is for.
One mindset note before the steps: Lagos Life rewards the same instincts as Lagos itself. You cannot see everything on day one, and trying to speed-run the map is the fastest way to bounce off the game. The city is a hangout, not a checklist. The four steps below are deliberately small.
The four-step first session
- Step 1 — Create your account and pick a home: Sign up on the official site, choose a username you're happy to be called, and get your Sim settled. The city map lists around 400 homes.
- Step 2 — Find your first source of income: Check the job options and get your first naira coming in — see our money and jobs guide for the full breakdown.
- Step 3 — Go out and see the city: Ride the danfo, visit the beach, eat amala at Shitta. Half the game is simply being a Lagosian.
- Step 4 — Meet people: Lagos Life is multiplayer — say hello at the Shrine, the viewing centre or the church. Real players are the point.
That is the whole plan. Below, each step gets its due — plus the mistakes that catch almost every new player.
Step 1 in detail: settle in properly
Your account comes with a character and a place in the city — the official map advertises around 400 homes, and part of the early game is the pleasure of having your own corner of Lagos. Take five minutes to actually look at it instead of rushing out the door. Where you live shapes which spots are your "local", and the neighbourhood feel is a real part of the game's charm.
While you are settling: open the map once and just read the location names. You will recognise half of them from real Lagos, and the other half will make sense once you visit. You do not need to memorise anything — our full location guide exists precisely so you never have to guess.
Step 2 in detail: your first income
Lagos Life runs on in-game naira, and even day-to-day flavour — food, transport, hanging out — connects to money. The game's job board is where a new resident starts, and the developer has been expanding job options since launch ("more job options" was one of his public first-week updates). There are currently eight jobs in the game; comparing them properly deserves its own page, so see our money & jobs guide for the full table — including the honest blanks where we are still verifying numbers in-game rather than making them up.
The first-day version is simple: pick a job, do it once, and watch naira arrive. You are not choosing a career — you are learning the loop. Switching jobs later is normal behaviour in this city, not a betrayal.
Step 3 in detail: go and see things
Now the good part. Pick two or three locations that made you smile when you read their names — the beach is the classic choice, Amala Shitta is the food pilgrimage, the Canopy Walk is the scenic one — and go. Travel itself is flavoured (this is a city with danfo lore), and arriving somewhere busy puts you in the middle of the game's real texture: other players living their Lagos stories around you.
The map rewards curiosity over efficiency. A first-day loop that experienced players will recognise: beach, then food, then one wild-card. Party spots like Quilox and the Afrika Shrine come alive later in the day; the civic locations — the church, the mosque, the Polling Unit — are worth visiting once just to see how much care went into them.
Step 4 in detail: meet people (gently)
This is the step that decides whether Lagos Life becomes a one-evening game or your new routine. It is multiplayer — "make real friends" is in the game's own description — and the community is famously welcoming to newcomers, partly because everyone remembers being new during launch week.
You do not need a plan. Stand somewhere busy, react to what people say, ask one question — "first day here, what should I not miss?" is an icebreaker that has worked since day one. If you are more comfortable watching first, do that; the city theatre is entertaining on its own. Just know the safety basics from our safety guide: never share passwords, be 18+, and treat strangers with pleasant, public-place caution.
First-day mistakes to avoid
- Skipping the email field at sign-up. Password resets need it. Our login guide has the cautionary tale.
- Speed-running the whole map on day one. You will exhaust the novelty before the city had a chance to hook you. Two or three locations, savoured.
- Hoarding every naira. The early game is for learning the loop, not optimising it. Spend a little on food and fun — that is what it is for.
- Hunting for an app or APK. There is no official one. Read the APK page before some fake installer reads you.
- Believing in-game money is real money. It is not, and the official terms are crystal clear about it — the safety guide quotes the rules.
Your second session, and after
Day two is when routines form: check your job, collect what is owed to you, see whether the weekly Governor election changed anything (laws like transport subsidies genuinely affect the city), and visit wherever your new friends said they would be. From there the game opens up — home upgrades, the casino question, Sea Plots, and whatever the developer ships next; his public updates since launch have added jail, jobs and house upgrades, so the map you learn this week may not be the map of next month.
When you are ready for depth: the jobs comparison and the location hub are the two pages regular players keep coming back to. Have a good first day — ekó o ni báje o.