With the arrival of BitLife’s new Street Hustler update, players finally have the chance to branch out into some enjoyably gritty walks of life once they graduate High School. There are four Street Hustler jobs to break into, and if you want to tap into the sympathy of others to get by, the Panhandler might be a good fit. While it’s far from a nuanced approach to the problems of homelessness, the Panhandler Hustle can nevertheless be a good source of income for those Bitizens so inclined. Here’s how to get started.
Becoming a Panhandler in BitLife
As with the other Hustles available in the Street Hustler update, players will need to wait until their character has graduated from High School before getting their hustle on. Once they’ve achieved that, it’s a simple matter of selecting the Street Hustler job pack from Special Careers and tapping on Panhandler.
BitLife’s Panhandler, explained
The Panhandler Hustle sees your character taking up position on a street corner, begging passers by for money. To improve your skills as a Panhandler, you’ve just got to keep hustling that hustle. Picking a street with high Traffic will help with that, granting a pretty turnover at the end of the day. Unlike the Scam Artist, the Police don’t seem to have much of an issue with Panhandling, so you should be able to stay on the right side of the law.
That’s pretty much the long and short of it, though BitLife does allow you a degree of customization over your panhandling persona, granting you choices over the writing on the sign, the money receptacle itself, and the general strategy at play. One of the more controversial choices is the ability to pick from a variety of “props” which will influence your success rate. These can include certain costumes and, in one case, a “fake pregnant belly” to induce sympathy in others.
It should be noted that BitLife’s portrayal of panhandlers and the homeless isn’t the most charitable in the world. Players should be aware that some of the mechanics involved — notably the use of props and, indeed, the ability to willingly choose panhandling as a career path at all — do not necessarily reflect the realities of homelessness.
