Escaped Prison, Still Serving Time in the Outfit (Outfit Lock + Bank Heist Bugs)

[TrinityTaylor]

• Game Version: PC

• Platform: Steam windows

• Mods: never used

• Hardware Specifications & Operating System: Windows 11 Pro | AMD Ryzen 7 7700 8-Core Processor (3.80 GHz) | Ram 48.0 GB (47.1 GB usable) | 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor | Storage 2.73 TB

• Issue Date: May 2, 2026

• Error Message: N/A

• 20260429-151711.usvx (13.4 MB)

Details: My criminal Zoi went to jail, but the 24-hour sentence was outrageous, so he tunneled out like a legend, and escaped… The cops didn’t seem to notice because they never pursued him. Little did I know that the real punishment is eternal outfit lock.

It has been over 2 in-game weeks, and he is permanently stuck in the orange jumpsuit and ski mask.

I’ve tried everything:

• Changed outfits manually
• Reassigned every category
• Replaced him entirely with a preset Zoi

Doesn’t matter. The second he wakes up, showers, or I switch households and come back - boom. Right back in “Balenciaga: escaped inmate chic.”

This has… consequences.

Dates are rough. Nothing quite kills the mood like showing up to a blind date in a ski mask and prison onesie. Props to the team for their perfect recreation of the online dating environment!

---

On the suspicious jobs side, my Zoi seems to have developed a very specific niche:

The suspicious job agency keeps offering the same job: rob the Southwest Bank… over and over again.

I would love to branch out. The luxury fashion store? Excellent gig. High returns. Great ambiance. 10/10, would rob again.

The bank?

• Costs thousands to unlock
• Pays significantly less
• Keeps sending me back like it’s court-mandated community service

My Zoi has robbed the same bank almost every night for the last week. How can they operate? Why has nobody been fired? I’m just bullying them at this point, and I’m starting to feel bad about it .

Also, the intel I purchased feels… questionable.

It says:

“The counters in Southwest Bank are pretty decent marks… office safes…”

Respectfully, where?

I’ve checked everywhere and reloaded many times:

• Found the jewelry boxes behind the tellers and in the kitchen
• Found the main safe in the back

But these mysterious “office safes” are either:

1. Invisible
2. Extremely well hidden
3. A scam

Would appreciate clarification on whether this is:

• Intended (bad intel as a feature?)
• Conditional spawning
• Or just not working

---

Last issue: the emergency door in the bank’s kitchen and the inaccessible security door to the vaults.

I have tried everything.
Lockpick? No.
Break down? Also no.

At this point, I’m convinced the real security system is just that one door refusing to acknowledge my existence… Am I… cursed to keep robbing this bank until I get that back door open?

---

Overall status:

• Zoi escaped prison
• Still serving a life sentence… in the outfit
• Bank heists questionable
• Door undefeated

Now the useful summary for the team:

3 separate systems may be failing:

1. Outfit Persistence Failure (High Severity)

   • State not saving across:

     • Sleep

     • Hygiene actions

     • Household switching

   • Indicates override or state reset loop

2. Mission System Looping

   • Same job repeatedly offered (no rotation logic)

   • Breaks progression + variety

3. Environment / Interaction Failure

   • Missing safes vs paid intel

   • Door interaction not functioning despite my zoi having max skills (lockpick/break disabled)

Happy to provide additional info. Thanks in advance, team!

And I give you… The latest from Balenciaga

[Moooody]

“the latest from Balenciaga”

This bug seems familiar to me and a similar one have been discussed here, so I hope the devs check on this soon. In the midtime, have you try to veirfy game files and/or reset zoi?

[TrinityTaylor]

Thanks so much for the link @Moooody!

Unfortunately, I ran into the same issues @ElectricEcho mentioned in that thread. I sent my Zoi to jail, the trial started… and I’m pretty sure the entire legal system clocked out early.

The bailiff was outside the courtroom window just… staring. Not guarding. Not working. Just making aggressive eye contact like he was trying to read my Zoi’s aura. My Zoi is a menace with over 184 crimes spanning everything from grand larceny to scooter drive-bys, so I guess staring from the window was an appropriate response?

The prosecutor? Never showed up. Don’t blame them; they were probably waiting for someone to explain the bailiff situation.

Meanwhile, as you can see in the top-right of the screenshot, I had no options to progress any of the scripted events because the play buttons were missing. So, my Zoi just sat there while the judge tried to download a confession telepathically.

Timer runs out.

And my Zoi is slapped with a $3,500 fine for “missing court”!

He was literally there, making direct eye contact with the judicial system the entire time.

At this point, I’m less concerned about the verdict and more concerned that my Zoi got punished for vibes alone. And to top it all off, he switched right back to his prison fit and ski mask.

It’s only my fourth day playing, so this is a new game with no mods - could my game files already be corrupted? I’ll look for a thread on resetting my Zoi since the court system isn’t a viable option right now. I really hope they fix these issues because “Sims + GTA = Masterpiece” and I’ve been laughing for days.

Also, is there someplace I can see my Zoi’s crime stats?

[EllaEstella]

@TrinityTaylor the bug with the doors which prevents to get to the vaults came with the March patch. It was also reported here:

Blocked doors during a bank robbery in Blissbay.

Game Version: Platform: (Steam windows) Mods: (never used ) My Zoi is a professional thief. Skills have reached the maximum level: crime-5, needlework-10. programming-10, sports-10. Zoi’s mood is good and focused. The back door behind the Bank is positioned incorrectly. My Zoi opens the door like a normal one and starts hacking it from the inside. There is no way to crack this door - the animation of successfully opening the lock is played, but the door remains locked anyway. If th…

And I tested this in my game as well - same. The door to the vaults is now placed the wrong way around so there is no chance to get into the room with the vaults. As we are also not allowed to edit the Bank in build mode we are left with waiting until this is fixed unfortunately

The Bank payout was actually the single highest robbery payout before this bug with the door occured. You normally would get around 50k net for one robbery in the Bank if you get all: both jewelery boxes, the safe and both vaults. But as the vaults are not reachable anymore the payout would now be only around 15-16k net. This then makes it similar to the robbery profit from Nooks and Nooks is less risky as you do not need to sabotage any cameras to get all.

Regarding the variety: the reason you always get the Bank is likely because you buy the high-tier info. For this level there is only the Bank currently. If you buy the intermediate tier info you will get Nooks and at low tier it will be the Surf Shop. So you can decide: if you want to take out Nooks then just buy the intermediate info instead of high tier.

[TrinityTaylor]

Hey Ella, thanks for pointing me to the other thread. I appreciate it. Kind of tragic that I missed the window when the bank was actually worth robbing, so I’m really hoping that gets adjusted.

I thought the same about the high-tier info causing the bank jobs, but I’m seeing it with intermediate too, which makes me think it’s bugged. I only bought high-tier once (price vs. payout isn’t great unless those mystery vaults actually exist), but ever since then, it’s been Bank Simulator 24/7.

For context:

• First job I ever bought → Nooks (intermediate)

• Tried high-tier once

• Went back to intermediate… and now it’s just the bank on repeat

So either my Zoi got typecast as a financial criminal, or something’s not resetting properly.

Also, what do you mean you don’t have to disable cameras at Nooks?? I triggered the alarm and got sent straight to jail my first time because of one. If there’s a stealth strategy I’m missing, please share. My Zoi’s criminal career is currently more “trial experience” than “successful heists.”

[EllaEstella]

@TrinityTaylor This is interesting. When I was doing all the testing for my Crime guide (here) I received Bank robbery only on the high-tier level and got around 50k net when taking out everything. So this might have also changed or bugged after March patch like the door(?).

At Nooks you can actually walk around most of the cameras. I checked again and yes there is one which you need to take out if you want the money from the 2 POS Machines. These bring you between 4-5k in addition. Without these you can get both jewelery boxes and the safe without any risk for around 13 -15k (the money / item amount varies a bit per heist).

See here, the path in green is the one you can take to be safe without triggering alarm. The 2 POS Machines circled in red trigger alarm if you don’t disable the camera. But the jewelery box next to them is safe:

Also on the upper floor you can safely take out both the safe in the extra room and the jewelery box on the table without triggering the alarm.

As long as your Handiwork, Programming and Crime skills are not very high it is probably much more safe to take the 13-15k without any risk and leave the 2 POS Machines alone.

[TrinityTaylor]

I’ve hit all the marks you mentioned - my Zoi even robbed the vending machine on the way out. He’s very much an “all-or-nothing” kind of criminal.

But the skill system is where things start to feel… cursed.

• Maxed programming → still trips alarms

• Maxed fitness → still can’t knock down a door

• Clean run, no detection → still gets a wanted status anyway

At this point, I’m not sure if he’s a master thief or just extremely confident while being bad at crime.

I’m seeing the same thing outside of crime too. My business employees have maxed out cooking and still produce questionable food. I get occasional failures for realism, but this feels way more frequent than it should be.

For context, I started playing last week right after the big update (Steam did update before I launched), so I’m a bit confused why I’m still running into issues that were supposedly fixed. Not going to lie, it’s starting to stress me out a little .

One weird workaround I found @ElectricEcho :
If your Zoi is stuck in the prison outfit, there is a way out. Commit vehicular manslaughter → skip trial → go straight to jail → wait 24 hours → outfit resets.

Is it extreme? Yes.
Is it effective? Also yes.

Unfortunately, he’s still deeply committed to the ski mask lifestyle. There’s an option to put it on… but none to take it off. So for now, he’s just showing up to everything looking like he might rob the venue.

If anyone has figured out:

• Why maxed skills are underperforming

• How to stop the constant wanted status

• Or how to remove the ski mask without committing another felony

Please share. My Zoi is trying his best .

[EllaEstella]

@TrinityTaylor I am seeing the same issue, especially with the crime career. Even if your Handiwork and Programming are both at level 10 and Crime is at level 5, sabotaging the cameras still fails way too often.

I do not have a definite answer, but one thing that made me wonder is this: right now we can only level the Crime skill to 5, not to 10. And as far as I understand, that is supposed to be expanded later. Since level 5 Crime is the minimum requirement for sabotaging cameras, along with the Programming and Handiwork requirements, it could be that we still fail so often because in one of the required skills we are only barely meeting the minimum. In other words, the game might basically be saying, “Congratulations, you technically qualify… but only technically.” So maybe once Crime can also be leveled to 10, those failures will happen much less often. But that is just my theory — or at least the explanation that made the most sense to me. I do not know if that is actually how it works.

As for the other skills, I agree with you there too. It really does not make much sense that at level 10 you can still cook a terrible dish, paint a terrible painting, or write a terrible book. At that point your Zoi should at least have moved beyond “creative disaster” status.

That said, after all the testing I have done so far for my 16 money-making skill guides, I can say that once you reach a certain skill level, you really do start hitting Excellent and Perfect quality much more consistently. For most skills, that seems to happen by around level 8 at the latest. Bad quality can still happen, though, and that does feel strange. At the very least, level 10 should probably guarantee medium quality as the floor, not random chaos.

Some actions do seem to behave better than others. For example, ATM hacking almost never fails at Programming level 10. Stealing coins, on the other hand, fails a lot at lower levels and still sometimes even with Handiwork at level 10. So the balancing feels a bit all over the place.

Regarding the wanted status, that is interesting too. If I understood you correctly, you are saying your Zoi became wanted even though no alarm was triggered. That has never happened to me. I assume your Zoi was not already wanted beforehand, and this happened only after robbing the shop without setting off any cameras?

And the mask thing is honestly wild. I am almost grateful I have not tested that yet. Are you really completely unable to remove the mask afterwards?

[TrinityTaylor]

The mask is officially my Zoi’s new permanent personality trait. He bathes → puts it back on. Goes to work → still on. Wakes up → refreshed, rehydrated, and immediately re-masked. HE SWIMS IN IT! At this point, I’m convinced it’s not clothing, it’s a security blanket with criminal intent.

And no, the mask cannot be removed. There’s an option to put it on in the “change clothes” menu, but no option to take it off. So for now, he’s just committing crimes and attending daily life like he’s permanently in witness protection

You brought up a really solid point about Crime being capped at 5, and I can see how that might affect outcomes. But here’s where I’m getting stuck:

Based on your guide, Crime unlocks the “sabotage camera” action, but the success of that action is tied to Programming, right?

If that’s the case, then with Programming at level 10:

• My Zoi should be overqualified to sabotage cameras

• Failures shouldn’t be happening this consistently

Right now it feels like:

“You unlocked the action… but we’re still flipping a coin.”

So either:

• Programming isn’t actually the primary success driver

• Crime level is secretly weighted more than expected

• Or the system is just inconsistent

Which lines up with what you said about balancing being all over the place.

Same issue outside crime too: my restaurant employees have all maxed Cooking and are still putting out low/medium quality dishes 50% of the time. I get occasional variance, but at level 10, it shouldn’t feel like a gamble every time.

Like… imagine a master chef randomly serving fast-food quality meals, or a world-class singer suddenly forgetting how to sing mid-performance. That’s what it feels like.

On the wanted status: yeah, that’s exactly what happened:

• Robbed Nook

• No alarms triggered

• Walked out clean

• Immediately hit with a 24-hour wanted status

So either there’s a hidden detection mechanic, or my Zoi has built such a reputation that the game just preemptively assumes he should be arrested every time something goes missing.

And I guess he’s gone to jail so many times they don’t mind him breaking out. They don’t even schedule court anymore. After robbing Nook, I got taken to jail. I got the notification that my Zoi will be transported to court. Checked the schedule, and no court date added. So my Zoi just dug through the wall and went home . The next morning, I got the notification that my Zoi can leave jail, after spending the previous day watching talk shows and ordering takeout from his couch.

At this point, my Zoi might be such a menace that he’s unintentionally breaking this crime system beta

[EllaEstella]

@TrinityTaylor At this stage, your Zoi is less a criminal and more a walking bug report

The wanted-status part is honestly crazy. If it were not most likely just bugs, it would be hilarious. The game seems to go, “No alarm, clean escape… but also somehow: wanted.” That is exactly what makes it feel so random.

And with the Crime skill, I agree with you too. Either it is weighted much more heavily behind the scenes than the game makes it seem, or it is just as inconsistent as some of the other skills. My thought about Crime only going to level 5 was really just the only explanation I could come up with that made the camera sabotage issue feel at least a little logical.

Because right now it really feels like you can meet all the requirements and the game still just rolls the dice. And that is exactly the bigger problem. It is not even just crime, either. Some systems feel like skill really matters, and others feel like the game just makes things up as it goes.

So yes, your examples really show the issue perfectly: either there are hidden values working very differently than we think, or the balancing is just all over the place right now.