I got Monkey Blood to work in Castlegar. This is the only city I can personally recommend using.

I personally used map seed number: 123, this can be manually typed in before starting the city, or you can reset the city and enter a new seed number. (it's in the "more" section while choosing difficulty). You can use any seed number you prefer as long as the requirements are met, but I tried numerous random seeds and often did not have the motel or mall nearby that are needed.

Cities that did not work for Monkey Blood no matter how many times I tried:

• Snoqualmie
  
• Wenatchee
  
• Moses Lake
  
• Spokane
  
• Hope
  
• Abbotsfort
  
• Vancouver

You can try the other cities not listed, but I can not recommend them. I've personally tried those 7 and was unable to get it working in any of them.

• Bring a cricket bat with you equipped on a survivor. You can find one in Castlegar, but if you have one already from a previous city it's one less thing to do while you are here.
  
• Really max out at least your leader and preferably a couple of others before going to Castlegar. Monkey Blood is already enough micromanagement to deal with and bringing a good starting team with you will help form the foundation for what might be a long wait. If you have nothing but weak members you could easily miss certain events due to injuries and just general difficulty issues getting in the way.

Don't confuse the Cricket Bat with a Baseball Bat.

You can occasionally find the Cricket Bat in trades with other factions. You will almost never find one in trade with Gustav, but it can happen. You will occasionally find one while scavenging but it's pretty rare.

The most consistent way of obtaining a cricket bat is by owning an 8-12 store and getting a random event where a visitor asks for an ice cream. You can now *try* to give him an ice cream because you own the 8-12 store. As a reward, he gives you a Cricket Bat. This event can happen in any city. The visitor event that asks for ice cream is typically very early in your arrival to a city, so if you plan to use this method, take over an 8-12 store as soon as possible and do not renovate it into anything else until after the event has taken place. You will likely see this event many times in many cities and it will consistently give you a cricket bat if you own an 8-12 store prior to the visitors arrival and you try to give him an ice cream.

Simply keep this in mind during the early cities and you'll very likely have a Cricket Bat to bring with you before starting your attempt at Monkey Blood.

Once you've chosen a city and a map seed, this is what you need before gathering the clues

• Make sure that a completely untouched motel and mall exist outside of your base
  
• No signposts (research)
  
• Control at least 5 schools inside your base
  
• Own a Cricket Bat

Scouting your city
The motel and mall are needed to trigger specific events. If your city does not have them you are not in a usable random seed and will need to reset the city and start over with a new seed. If you allow them to be taken over by another faction, they can not be used. If you scavenge them or loot them they can not be used.

If you know where they are and get through the events quick enough, you'll be fine. If you are worried at all that the mall or motel might be taken over by another faction you can prevent this by surrounding them with your own territory. They can be completely surrounded by you so long as you do not scavenge or take them over. They may be a constant source of zombie spawns, but it's better to deal with the nuisance than to lose access and have to start over.

No Signposts
Doing Signpost research triggers the arrival of Gretchen, you will want to leave this until after you have completed the other clues, this will become clear later. (Note: there is a specific survivor perk Programmer that can grant you a laboratory and this research when starting a new city, I recommend not having that perk or you may get Gretchen much sooner than you are prepared for)

5 Schools (or more)
The schools trigger an event that gives you one of the clues as explained later. The more schools you have will increase the chances of the event triggering. The minimum is 5. I actually suggest at least 6 to improve your chances. More won't hurt but could be difficult to fit into your building plans.

Cricket Bat
You'll need one to progress, but you can either obtain it here in the city or bring it with you from a previous city (as covered in the previous section of this guide)

• Have a scavenger of at least level 10 (This can be your leader if they have all skills at 10+)
  
• Have a high skill engineer (5+) with no combat skills (they need high engineering but not be capable of fighting a horde alone)
  
• Have at least one or more survivors with little or no combat skills that you can allow to die (only one will die, but you'll need an injury to progress one of the events and sending out low skill survivors to get injuries will help this go faster)
  
• Have space for one additional survivor (just always be sure to have at least one extra housing until you get Gretchen)

To progress from here you need to complete 4 specific events to collect clues and still have access to an untouched motel (not scouted, not scavenged, not claimed by anyone, it's OK if it borders or is surrounded by your base)

The events for clues:

• A conversation with Gustav about a Cricket Bat
  
• Find a newspaper story about zombies with an engineer
  
• Scout a large mall with a high level scavenger
  
• Find some fictional trashy literature

Simply give the Cricket Bat to Gustav. His reply will include a comment about "ze game of ze gentlemen"

Don't try to get fancy and do any trading, you're not waiting for any events, don't look to get any bonuses out of this. Just give him the Cricket Bat.

You will need to wait for an approaching zombie horde. Send a high skill engineer out on a task (it can be scouting or any mission) that will put them in direct line of the path of the horde. When the horde reaches the engineer they will run away from the horde and find a newspaper article, press "continue" and allow them to read the second page of the article

Send your high skill scavenger (10 or higher) to scout and scavenge the mall. They will "finish early" and you'll have options for what else to do. Visit the pet store, he will notice the monkey cages are empty

Talk to other factions and gain higher standing with them. If you want to kill off factions you don't like, that's up to you, but the more factions you have in good standing the higher your chances of triggering this event. Do not become allies (yet) until after this event. Eventually one of your conversations with a faction will mention the number of schools you own and they will offer you books. Take the "fictional literature" which will include a book about zombies.

I have successfully obtained the books from St. Michaels, The Rotten, The Riffs and L33t Crew in various cities. If you have waited a long time and no faction is giving you books, increase the number of schools you have, the minimum is 5 to trigger the event, but the more you have the more your odds are increased.

For me it triggered the moment I had 6 schools and maxed faction standing (but not allied), your results may vary as it is technically random.

All of these events can occur in nearly any city and you may see them several times throughout the game, but they must all 4 be done in a single city in one play through to trigger Monkey Blood.

Warning: When Gretchen arrives you will be on a very tight countdown (that is not displayed). Technically you could cause Gretchen to arrive at any time, but if you don't complete her events and have the clues (from the previous section) you will not be able to progress.

Prior to her arrival you are not on a deadline, so it is highly suggested you have the 4 clues from the previous section before triggering Gretchen to arrive. If you haven't done so already, I would also suggest making a manual save point here before researching signposts.

When you are ready to progress: Research Signposts and wait. If you have been playing for a while, she will very likely arrive almost immediately after you research signposts. If it's still early days for your city, you may need to wait a bit longer. The more days you have been in the city, the higher your odds of her arrival, but she will only come if you have signposts. You will need an open housing slot to accept her.

Gretchen is a blond, white woman with her face covered in a white surgeon's mask. This is where the countdown begins.

Immediately after Gretchen arrives, send a number of low-level, unarmed survivors out on random tasks in spaces between approaching zombie armies and your base.They will be hurt by the zombies and sent to the hospital.

Suggestion: you need several of these patients, since your hospital may cure them before Gretchen notices them. Do not move Gretchen, the patients just need to be healing inside your base. I had between 6 and 10 people getting hurt outside the base, before one of them triggered her.

She will tell a story about one of the bitten people, and that character immediately dies. So don't use a good character on this. Once the story is told you can stop intentionally getting injuries, only one death is required and it will be random from your injured.

Around 30 days after arriving, Gretchen will get into a fight with another character, and she leaves. You can try talking her out of it (having a high-level leader), but she will choose to leave anyway.

If you have not collected all four clues and had the conversation with Gretchen that triggered the injured person to die, this is where the story ends and you will not progress further for Monkey Blood.

This is also where the story ends in any city that does not allow Monkey Blood to progress. Technically all of the above events could have been witnessed in any city, but only specific ones seem to allow the next few steps.

If you collected all four clues, now is the time to scavenge the motel that you've set aside until now. It will immediately trigger a story about Van Nooten having lived there.

If that story unlocks, congratulations. This was the hard part. Save here, just in case.

The story in the motel will mention a hospital where Van Nooten worked. The game will either find a hospital outside of your base, or generate a new one on the edge of the city far outside of the base. So make sure to have scouted everything, including the enemy factions' territories. The hospital should have a quest/mission marker on it.

Visit the hospital and examine all of the patients records. Van Nooten was patient number three. Just click the options in the order listed.

The story in the hospital will mention a university where Van Nooten worked. The game will find a school outside of your base, or randomly generate a school far outside of the base, usually on the edge of the city. It may even take a tile away from a rival faction on the back of their territory. Scout the city and look for the quest/mission marker.

Visit the school and you will find Gretchen. Talk to Gretchen (Van Nooten) about everything. Try to stop her from killing herself, but she will succeed anyway. You will immediately look through her belongings, and the story mentions a flask falling out of her husband's book.

You've now completed Monkey Blood and unlocked the Origin achievement. Congratulations.

If you are planning to attempt the Happy Ending you will need to begin planning at Wenatchee and complete events in several cities along the way. You can reset cites and do them over if you fail to complete an event.

There are 4 endings that I am aware of:

• The Zed Ending (basically destroy The Government after they declared a war)
  
• Government Ending (surrender to The Government to be their super-soldier army)
  
• Nuke Ending (blow up Vancouver using government's on site nuke)
  
• True Cure Ending otherwise known as The "Happy" Ending

To complete the True Cure "Happy Ending" requires:

• Rufus's dad research data
  
• European data dump from the government
  
• Monkey blood vial
  
• Researching the Cure
  
• Distributing the Cure
  
• Leave the (final) city from City Hall instead of triggering one of the other three endings

Pretty easy to get, as it is usually triggered as part of the story line. The other faction will come to you to talk about Rufus's dad research. Go to his house, get the data. This can be missed if you start faction wars or refuse to explore the house. Just be friendly and visit Rufus's dads house to explore it.

You need to be nice to the goverment and 1337crew.

Eventually Davis will ask you to do some mission, for me it was some scavenge mission. Turns out the location was looted by "cryptico". Keep being nice to both of them and refuse to declare war to each other.

Also don't tell the government that it was 1337crew that did the looting when you talk to Davis.

Eventually a pop-up will appear from cryptico telling you to meet the 1337crew. Dara will give you a flashdrive to hack Davis computer. Go to the government, you will find a guy named Andy, he has pink hair. Give him the flashdrive by telling him it is a good game (this may require a high leadership skill). He will play it and then go leave the fort. Some time after this, talk to 1337crew then wait couple of days. Go to goverment and take back the flashdrive from Andy. Give it to 1337crew to analyze. Then they will hand the data back to you and you can research it in a lab. Go to government again, tell Davis you wont tell anyone about her secret, you can get Andy at this point, may need a leader before talking to Davis to convince her.

This is pretty easy to obtain so long as you don't start any wars with either faction and don't snitch on the 1337crew to the government.

You must have a vial of Monkey Blood for this ending to be possible. (I assume you already read the rest of the guide covering this)

Follow the storyline here. Meet with the Pharmacists, raise your standing and ally with them by trading and doing favors etc (It's not necessary to help them sell the bath salts if you don't want to, but do the other things like put up buildings if asked).

Also try to ally with The Rotten, or at the very least do not start a war with them. Talk to Jesse The Rotten and he'll ask to share the research. Give them the Rufus's dad data, government data from the European data dump and monkey blood. If you don't have those three things from previous cities, you can not progress the story here.

Meet with Pharmacists again, tell the truth, and finally research the cure. The text will say the cure will make humans immune and kill the zombies. Once the cure finished, Jesse will ask you for the cure for themselves. You can say "Don't do it" which will prevent them from being permanently dead or give it to them and the faction will die. Jesse will stay alive no matter what (he wont take the cure), and he will embark on a journey to wander into the desert. I don't think it matters if you let the Rotten die or not, so long as the conversation with Jesse occurs and he leaves for the desert.

Each faction will eventually ask for a vaccine sample (if not enough samples make more at workshop). You will need to give it to every faction.

You will eventually begin seeing hallucinations and blood on the journal and words like "KILL", "DEVOUR" etc as you distribute the cure.

After the Government kidnaps you and you are told the truth of the "cure" you got from Chuck, just don't attack them yet. It's important that you must keep your sanity while defending the fort. Do not attempt to devour anyone and do not pick any options that say either kill or let go of your sanity. Just keep defending and meditating.

Eventually the government will declare a war and the nuke option appears. Once they have declared war you can fight them if you choose. But do not wipe them out. I just reduced their territory and pushed them into a corner until they were no longer a threat.

Eventually the society will break down: your own faction can break down, your team mates may kill people and bring back souvenirs. In that case I immediately kick them out of the fort, I don't know if this is required.

Mostly you are just waiting. You must maintain sanity and survive until you get a visit from Jesse.

Jesse will come and tell you his heart moving experience. He was in the desert and then saved by a woman who gave him a tea made of some purple flower/berry. He realized that his heart starts to beat again and says that it might be a cure. He gives the purple plants to you and you should research it.

Once this research is complete you are fully immune and your sanity restored.

From this point forward completing the city is like any other: Kill or ally with all factions. I do believe you need to ally with at least one of them, but you need a resolution to every faction, they must be allied or destroyed. Distribute any additional cure samples to factions that you do not destroy.

Eventually the Government will offer peace and offer to spread the cure. Either accept it or wipe them out entirely.

Once you have either wiped out or allied with everyone and avoided choosing the nuke option you can eventually leave from City Hall as you would any other city and obtain the 4th "True Cure" ending.

I did not discover Monkey Blood on my own and struggled endlessly trying to complete it. This guide is a summary based on the information provided to me from various other sources. After numerous failed attempts the strategy I followed came from this forum post by JVC: Monkey Blood works. Here is a guide. You can read our entire conversation as I went through step by step on a clean install of the game to complete this.

The basic ideas had already been outlined by the numerous contributors to the Rebuild 3 Wiki here: Monkey Blood on the Rebuild 3 Official Wiki[rebuild.gamepedia.com] but I had not been able to complete it using only the Wiki.

Other achievements are already well documented here:
https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=540620138
I don't believe it matters, but just to note that I completed Monkey Blood in version
1.6.28 (Deluxe) and have done the events again in both 2019 and 2020 to verify they still work.

While you are here, would you consider following my Curator page?
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