[Help Needed] Can the “I’m the Mayor” game actually be cleared when randomly assigned to a Hell mode city?

As the title suggests, I randomly got assigned a Hell-mode city, Baltimore, in I’m the Mayor. The moment I entered the game, the city’s overall rating was in the negatives. Everywhere I walked, there were drug dealers. Honestly, I feel hopeless. The city has serial killers running loose, the military won’t listen to the mayor, and I keep getting assassinated every time I leave my office. My pockets? Completely empty—not even a single coin! Can a city that starts off so bad actually be cleared? This has to be a bug, right?

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Thanks for the invite. I scrolled through other answers, and it seems everyone is just making fun of the OP. Judging by the responses, it’s clear that players assigned Hell-mode cities are indeed rare.

Actually, OP might not realize this, but in this game, the most troublesome element isn’t the criminals—it’s the vigilantes. These so-called “heroes” often ruin your progress in the late game, making it nearly unplayable.

I, too, ended up with a Hell-mode city: Gotham.

You didn’t mention it, OP, but I’m guessing you received a system compensation skill. For me, the ability was tied to glasses that let me assume alternate identities. Early in the game, I unlocked two: Abu Augustus (AA), Gotham’s blonde, badass female mayor, and Bellor Black (BB), a male criminal mastermind who looks like an art teacher but really isn’t. For simplicity’s sake, let’s call them AA and BB. My custom starter character? Just refer to them as VV.

When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. Within minutes, my character (VV) was gunned down. Later, I found out the hitman was hired by a local mob boss—the Penguin. Apparently, he wanted to become mayor himself, but my AA beat him to it.

Pro Tip: Your chosen identities can be game-changing. AA, as it turns out, comes from an ancient Italian family connected to the global organization Court of Owls. Thanks to that, I gained a ton of insider intel about Gotham early on.

Another key player was Black Mask, another crime boss. Before I joined the game, AA had already partnered with Black Mask, which is how she secured the mayor’s seat. His underling, Shelk, now works under me but secretly tries to undermine my authority—though, honestly, he’s just a tool. Not important.

At first, I decided to fake collaboration with Black Mask to take down Penguin. I almost succeeded until—guess who?—Batman showed up to ruin everything and rescued Penguin, sending him straight to Blackgate Prison.

Ugh, don’t even get me started on Batman. That guy and his endless supply of sidekicks are the bane of my existence. But I dealt with him eventually (more on that later).

Anyway, after Penguin was out of the picture, I split his assets with Black Mask. Then, I used a special item to manipulate Shelk into assassinating Black Mask. Sure, Black Mask tried to use a body double, but Shelk knew him too well and took down the real one. Thus, I inherited Black Mask’s empire—including a fully operational drug manufacturing facility.

At that point, I unlocked a hidden achievement for dramatically lowering the city’s crime rate. (Side note: I still don’t get why fighting crime causes the city’s crime stats to drop even further into the negatives. Wasn’t it already maxed out at -10?) This led to BB, Bellor Black, joining the game.

Let’s talk about BB. His backstory is as dark as his name.

This guy starts with a skill tree so loaded it’s almost unfair. Lockpicking, hand-to-hand combat, interrogation techniques, gunmanship, and his core ability: Criminal Mastermind. He hails from a distant town called Arkham, where he narrowly escaped being committed to the infamous Arkham Asylum. Half-mad and desperate, BB schemed his way out and started planning bigger crimes.

Naturally, I sent BB to rob a bank. Mid-heist, another crew led by a guy named Bane showed up, and chaos ensued. I almost took Bane out using some quick item combos, but—surprise, surprise—Batman and Robin showed up to drag him off to Arkham Asylum in Gotham.

At this point, I was convinced Batman and similar special NPCs exist solely to make our lives harder.

Frustrated, I decided to blow up the bank.

Sure, my city’s reputation took another hit, but who cares? I was determined to consolidate Gotham under my control, eliminate all interfering villains, and focus on urban development later. This is a single-player game, after all.

Pro Tip #2: In cities with negative safety ratings like ours, brute force won’t work. Even if you annihilate the gangs twice, they’ll just respawn. That’s why I made BB the kingpin of Gotham’s underworld. I systematically took down the likes of Two-Face, The Ventriloquist, and other iconic Gotham rogues. Once BB eliminated them, Batman, predictably, showed up to fight me again. (Ugh, that guy.)

Here’s the kicker: While Batman was hauling BB off to Blackgate, the Court of Owls—AA’s allies—sent assassins to kill him!

Hell-mode is no joke. The Court decided BB was too dangerous and sent their immortal assassins after him. Ironically, they also started fighting Batman! Watching those assassins give Batman a hard time was the highlight of my day. (Did he cry? No, but close.) I used the chaos to escape.

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In summary, OP, Hell-mode isn’t unbeatable, but it requires creativity, patience, and… let’s face it… a willingness to burn everything to the ground. 😏

I reflected deeply and realized that Batman, with his nightly crime-fighting escapades, is one of the main destabilizing forces in the city. He’s basically become an urban legend. So I thought, “It’s time to infiltrate his side.” Using the interface, I created a persona: C. Then, I anonymously reported to Batman that there was a corpse hidden in the mayor’s office—yes, the very corpse from my starting death in the game.

Who is C?

C is the grieving mother of VV (my main character), out for vengeance. It’s a character designed to tug at the heartstrings, and sure enough, Batman couldn’t refuse to help.

However, gaining his trust was incredibly difficult. Despite having countless conversations as C, Batman remained wary. On the bright side, I did hit it off with Robin.

That night happened to be the first monthly evaluation. Gotham’s score dropped from -2 to -3. Not ideal, but not a disaster either. I earned a nice stash of diamonds, pulled some cards, and… well, they were pretty dark. Among them were things like Manor of Bones, which involved burying bones in a manor to summon skeletal warriors, and other creepy one-use items like Pollution and Corrosion. Real cheerful stuff.

I also got a game-changing achievement item that finally allowed me to give C a physical presence. Naturally, I crafted her as a kind and gentle nun. No way Batman would suspect her now, right?

Just as I finished pulling cards, Arkham Asylum exploded. No, not the one in BB’s hometown—the one in Gotham. Turns out, the criminals here are an infinite spawn—emphasizing this for clarity. So, I used my cards to transform the escaped inmates into obedient monsters. Those who accidentally got killed? Converted into skeletal minions under my control. Everything was going great, and I was just about to steamroll Gotham when—guess who?—Batman showed up. Again.

This time, I pulled his identity card: D.

With the city fully mapped, Gotham became an open book. As long as Batman stayed within city limits, I could hunt him down.

Exposed, Batman was forced to fake his death and flee. But as soon as he left, guess who showed up next? Superman.

… I need to file a complaint with the game developers. Why do NPCs get cheat powers while players are stuck relying on items?

I won’t go into detail about what Superman did, but let’s just say he was absurdly hard to deal with. Luckily, I had someone on my team: Poison Ivy. 🙂

Once Superman was taken care of, the Avengers Alliance (yes, they exist in this world) showed up to put the city under quarantine just as I was using Scarecrow’s fear toxin mixed with in-game items to mind-control the entire population. And what do they do? Slap me with legal notices and threaten to seal my operations. Unreal.

Pro Tip: Know Your World.

If your city keeps throwing wave after wave of new threats at you—Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Orphan, Huntress, Green Arrow, Flash, Wonder Woman, etc.—brace yourself. Fighting them one by one is endless and boring. Does this game discriminate against players who don’t walk the heroic path? All I wanted was to focus on urban development!

Looking back, my biggest mistake was not researching the world’s lore properly. I thought cities outside Gotham were just decorative textures… turns out, nope.

Fast forward two months, and Gotham’s stats had plummeted to -5. Population and reputation tanked, but most of the troublemakers were finally out of the picture. I steamrolled the East End, blew up Blackgate Prison, and hung death row inmates from Wayne Tower.

Reflecting on my choices, I realized AA (my Owl Court mayor) was too exposed, so I killed her off. During the chaos, C—the morally upright widow with a strong public following—won the election and became Gotham’s new mayor.

Lesson learned: Always use multiple accounts. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket—place them in two opposing ones. No matter who wins, you win.

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Oh, and C gained a new skill: Preaching.

My glasses continued to provide new identities. For example, I created DD, an English noble. By maintaining one virtuous persona and one villainous one, I kept my main account’s reputation squeaky clean while letting my alts use items like lust-inducing trees to boost population or one-use perception-adjustment tools to raise reputation. After grinding mainline missions for diamonds and coins, I’d use the spoils to crush any remaining vigilantes.

Honestly, with items, city-building isn’t that hard. But my ultimate goal is to purge Gotham of all these pesky do-gooders!

Trust me, no game is unbeatable. Players will always triumph because we’re players. NPCs? They’re just programmed obstacles.

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Not logging off just yet, though. I have no idea how this post got pushed to my phone, but hey. I’m exhausted, so I’ll sleep now.

There’s way more to tell, but I’ll save it for another time. Good luck, OP. Baltimore can’t be worse than Gotham. At least your city doesn’t have vigilantes… right?

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