It Lives Beneath

It Lives Beneath is the second and last book of the It Lives series. It succeeds its first book, It Lives In The Woods.

Summary
''Start your new life in the beautiful town of Pine Springs! Just be sure that all doors and windows are securely locked after dark...''

Chapter 1: Dead in the Water
"A new life awaits you in the beautiful town of Pine Springs! Just be sure that all doors and windows are securely locked after dark..."

Chapter 2: Out of Your Depth
"When tragedy strikes Pine Springs, you discover that this perfect town hides a dark secret..."

Chapter 3: Off the Deep End
"Cornered, trapped, and completely alone. Whatever you do... don't scream."

Chapter 4: In Hot Water
"With the mysteries continuing to deepen, you decide to take matters into your own hands."

Chapter 5: Gone Fishing
"A horrifying monster turns up in Pine Springs, and help arrives from an unexpected place."

Chapter 6: All Hands on Deck
"New friends, new info, and new leads. It's time to make your move on the cult."

Chapter 7: Hidden Depths
"You and your friends infiltrate a luxurious gala and discover a terrible secret."

Chapter 8: The Floodgates
"After a startling revelation, you must fight for your freedom... and your life."

Chapter 9: Any Port in a Storm
"A tense standoff leads to shifting loyalties when buried secrets burst through the surface."

Chapter 10: Still Waters
"Before you put the evil in this town to rest once and for all, it's time to celebrate Lake Day with your Pine Springs family!"

Chapter 11: Sinking Feeling
"With the clock ticking down, you must perform a mysterious ritual to vanquish the lake ghost for good."

Chapter 12: Riptide
"Surrounded by enemies and pushed to the brink. Can you all make it out in one piece?"

Chapter 13: Hell or High Water
"Long-buried secrets explode to the surface, setting off a desperate rescue mission."

Chapter 14: Under Pressure
"You and your friends venture deeper into the tunnels of the dam to put an end to this once and for all..."

Chapter 15: Sink or Swim
"Time is running out for your family, your friends, and all of Pine Springs."

Chapter 16: Thicker than Water
"With a vengeful ghost on the warpath, will you make it home in time to save your family?"

Chapter 17: Fishsticks
"Two months later, you and your surviving friends get a chance to relax and regroup before you have to leave for school."

Nerve System
Unique to this story is a meter system calculating a character's nerve, which determines their mental resilience in the face of certain situations. Certain choices and events in the story will increase or decrease a character's nerve score. The system won't be exactly the same as the system from Book 1. For It Lives Beneath, the Nerve system will have more of an effect throughout the whole book rather than the final fates at the end, but the Main Character and friends can still die in the book. Unlike the first book, the group's nerve score as a whole can affect their fates at the end of the book. In Chapter 15, if the group doesn't pass the final nerve check for the whole group, the character, except for the MC, with the lowest nerve score will die.

Characters with this feature are the Main Character, Tom, Imogen, Parker, and Danni. The nerve scores all start at 0 and are measured out of 100. Nerve scores can neither go above 100 nor go below 0. Each character's nerve score and label is shown at the end of each chapter from Chapter 2 onwards. Also, each label corresponds to one of the five expressions that show how a character is feeling. The following are the labels to the different nerve scores:


 * 81 to 100 = Tough as Nails (Happy) (At this nerve level, MC survives at the end of the book, no matter what)
 * 61 to 80 = Coping (Neutral) (While the Group Nerve Score is crucial to surviving the events of the book, characters with a Coping or higher nerve will pass their individual Nerve Checks.)
 * 41 to 60 = On Edge (Angry)
 * 21 to 40 = Rattled (Surprised)
 * 0 to 20 = Haunted (Sad) (At this nerve level, MC dies at the end of the book, no matter what)

Special and Rune Items:
Every character with a nerve score (Main Character, Tom, Imogen, Parker, and Danni) have particular items attuned to them, collecting them will improve their chances of surviving their ordeals, as well as increase their nerve.

Special items are items that can be used to aid the group to navigate the supernatural occurrences happening around them or help them prepare for a later time that may hold worse experiences. Every character in the group will have the ability to acquire one special item and one weapon.

Each character also gains one item with a rune on it (Imogen, Tom, and the Main Character get it with their weapons, while Parker and Danni get it with their items). Gathering all of these runes will unlock the case within the Main Character's home, granting the player a relic that is useful in the penultimate chapter.

Messages in a Bottle (Lore Documents):
Over the course of It Lives Beneath, the player will encounter messages in a bottle that will provide insight as to what was going on in Pine Springs a while before the Main Character and Elliot came there. These messages are split into nine pages and the player can choose to spend diamonds to read every page after reading the first one for free.

Collecting all nine pages will give you insight as to what happened to the last known person to be involved with the Power in the lake, presumably before the Pine Springs cult was formed.

Spoilers

 * The sequel was confirmed in the final chapter of It Lives In The Woods.
 * On January 31, 2018, it was also confirmed by Pixelberry that they had been planning a sequel for a while now.
 * A popular belief was that the second installment of the series would be named It Lives In The Lake, and that a whole new set of characters would be involved, as well as a new supernatural entity. This would explain the sudden addition of several new characters in the last chapter of It Lives In The Woods: Izzy, Shannon, Jane and a woman possessed by a supernatural entity in the lake.
 * It was a strong possibility that the group from It Lives in the Woods would appear in cameos or flashbacks, but unlikely that they were to have any prominent roles, since they died in some people’s games, making it difficult to write any prominent storylines for them.
 * They did make an appearance in one chapter, with your old MC also appearing on a guest basis.
 * On April 5, 2018, Choices tweeted that they were still working on the next book, and reaffirmed that the second book would be under a new It Lives series.
 * On April 29, 2018, it was confirmed through an Instagram live session at the Bay Area Book Festival that several of the PB writers attended that the next It Lives book will be scarier, have a new main cast in a slightly different setting, and characters from the previous book might make cameos depending on your choices at the end of Book 1.
 * On May 2, 2018, the It Lives writers hinted that an old friend from It Lives in the Woods just got a 🔥 makeover for It Lives 2 and asked players to see if they could guess who it is.
 * It was later confirmed to be Tom in Chapter 1.
 * On May 16, 2018, it was announced in Pixelberry's 'Spring News' blog that It Lives 2 was set to be released in Fall 2018.


 * In a Twitter post on June 21, 2018, Pixelberry revealed that the inspiration for Hilda was a writer's (Kathleen) dog named Pippin.
 * On August 7, 2018, in response to a player, the It Lives writing team revealed that this book will feature many new furry friends, including a cute little bunny.
 * The aforementioned "cute little bunny" turned out to be the Jackalope Your Character has the option of saving in Chapter 9.
 * On August 21, 2018, it was confirmed that this book will return in October of the same year and a sneak peek was released with an image showing the town of Pine Springs, the main setting for Book 2.
 * On September 19, 2018, a sneak peek of It Lives 2 was released, featuring a new character named Imogen.
 * On September 24, 2018, the book cover and the official name of the sequel was announced, along with the official release date being Wednesday, October 10, 2018.
 * In the week of October 1, 2018, it was erroneously announced that Chapter 1 would come out October 17, 2018, as opposed to October 10. PB later on set the record straight and stated that the launch date is still October 10, 2018.
 * On October 4, 2018, another sneak peek was revealed, this time featuring a character named Kyle.
 * On October 8, 2018, in the blogpost regarding High School Story: Class Act, Book 1, PB urged players to make sure and tune in for the premiere of this book on Wednesday, October 10, 2018.
 * On October 9, 2018, Brandon Carbaugh, one of the writers for this book, teased how he was working on a scene that was not only his favorite... But he thinks is by far the scariest thing he's written for Choices in general.
 * On this same day, a third sneak peek was released, the second of which features the character of Imogen.
 * On October 10, 2018, the It Lives writers released a blog post where they gave away a few spoilers for the new book.
 * It Lives Beneath is set in the same world as It Lives in the Woods, but with a new town, new cast, and new monsters hiding around every corner.
 * You play as a college student who has no experience with the supernatural... that is, until Kyle Garza gets taken by the new monster at the end of the first chapter.
 * Your Character quickly finds his/herself thrown in the deep end, as it were, questioning the very nature of their reality.
 * In this book, will continue to build onto the established mythology of the Power that was featured in Book 1 with Redfield.
 * While this book takes place in a new setting, when asked if we'd get to see some familiar faces... The writers responded that life has continued on in the little town of Westchester.
 * As a result, the player may get to see familiar faces here and there, and an old friend may show up to offer help in a time of need for this new book. It all ultimately depends on where you left things at the end of Book 1!
 * The confirmed love interests for this book thus far are Imogen Wescott, Kyle Garza, and Tom Sato, who was a recurring character in Book 1 and is confirmed to be the "old friend" that was teased a while back who'd be getting a new look.
 * The Nerve score from Book 1 will be returning, though the system won't be exactly the same as players remember. The writers revealed that for It Lives Beneath, one of their goals was for Nerve to have more of an effect throughout the whole book, rather than the final fates at the end.
 * The writers also confirmed that the Main Character and friends can still die like at the end of It Lives in the Woods.
 * On October 15, 2018, a sneak peek for the second chapter was released.
 * On November 5, 2018, a sneak peek for Chapter 5 was released.
 * On December 10, 2018, PB celebrated the new update, the launch of The Heist: Monaco, and the December birthdays.
 * On December 24, 2018, PB released a sneak peek for Chapter 12.
 * On January 7, 2019, PB released a sneak peek for Chapter 14.
 * On January 28, 2019, PB confirmed that Chapter 17 is the finale for this book alongside a sneak peek for Chapter 13 of A Courtesan of Rome.
 * On January 29, 2019, PB released a sneak peek for Chapter 17.
 * On this same day, PB released some early monster designs on Instagram.
 * On January 31, 2019, PB confirmed they have no plans to do an end of book blogpost; thus hinting at the possibility of a 3rd book. But as now, no plans have been made about the future of the series.
 * On April 26, 2019, it was confirmed in the Instagram livestream that the It Lives series is set in the same universe as Bloodbound and Nightbound.
 * On May 21, 2019, when asked by a user on Instagram about the future of the series and the possibility of a third book, PB replied that they "may revisit the series in the future, but it is not decided yet", confirming that the fate of the series remains uncertain.
 * On August 2, 2019, PB revealed via a Q & A on Instagram that they are still deciding if they will continue the series.
 * On September 30, 2019, they elaborated on the reason, stating that the writers are currently working on other projects.
 * On January 22, 2021, PB confirmed on their blogpost that It Lives would not have another book.

Trivia

 * In contrast to It Lives In The Woods, your nerve score starts at 0. Chapter 2 gives more details on this. Along with your character, the four love interests (Parker, Tom, Imogen, and Danni) also start with their nerve scores at 0. Each character can earn up to 100 nerve points, while the whole group can earn up to 500 nerve points. The game warns that anyone with a nerve score that is too low will be a threat to themselves and others, hinting that a low nerve score will have a negative impact on their sanity.
 * As mentioned by Tom, this book takes place a few years after the previous book.
 * A disclaimer is featured at the beginning of Chapter 1, warning of flashing lights, disturbing imagery, violence, and discussing the effects of trauma.
 * On October 25, 2018, it was revealed that this book along with Bloodbound, Book 1 and The Elementalists, Book 1 have been placed under the new spooky thrills section in the app.
 * In Chapter 5, Tom will make references to Pixar, Lois Lane (If Stacy survived) and, depending on your choices, to Victoria Fontaine or Matt Rodriguez from Red Carpet Diaries.
 * In Chapter 7, Tom makes a reference to Star Trek (Vulcan Ta'al) and Imogen mistakes it to be a reference to Star Wars.
 * In the same chapter, the Main Character references Alice in Wonderland by saying "Time to see where this rabbit hole goes".
 * In Chapter 8, Richard makes a reference to Scooby-Doo by saying "It's time for you and your little Scooby gang to pay for sticking your noses where they don't belong."
 * In Chapter 9, it is revealed that the Lake Ghost has an origin very similar to Redfield. Both of them were originally members of a group meant to contain and protect The Power before they got greedy and ended up bonding with it. The only major difference is Astrid uses feminine pronouns while describing the ghost while Redfield was a male.
 * Prior to the release of It Lives Beneath, the end title card of It Lives in the Woods just said that It Lives would return.
 * As of October 10, 2018, if Players replay the ILITW book, the end title card has now changed to say: The Power rises again in It Lives Beneath, out now!
 * Chapter 13 shares the same chapter title as Most Wanted, Book 1, Chapter 8, "Hell or High Water".
 * In Chapter 13, if you selected the option to ambush the cultists, the Main Character makes a reference to The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, by saying to Parker that he looks like an NPC from Skyrim after disguising as them.
 * In Chapter 13, if you go with Parker into Richard's mansion, Parker will ask rhetorically if they should get the Ghostbusters to testify against the Society.
 * On July 22, 2019, it was discovered that the summary for Chapter 1 changed from "Start your new life in the beautiful town of Pine Springs! Just be sure that all doors and windows are securely locked after dark..." to "A new life awaits you in the beautiful town of Pine Springs! Just be sure that all doors and windows are securely locked after dark..."
 * This is one of the books where the chapter names have a specific theme. In It Lives Beneath, they all have something to do with water.
 * If the player wants to unlock the Rune Armor in Chapter 16 and has no Rune Items, it will cost them 75 diamonds. This is currently the most expensive premium choice in the entire franchise.
 * Even if all premium options are purchased, due to Imogen inevitably losing 5 nerve points in Chapter 15, the maximum total nerve score attainable is 495.

Click here for the walkthrough of this book: It Lives Beneath Choices.