Phone
Category: Items
Tags: Obtainable Item, Permanent

The Phone, or more specifically; NULLTECH's Vali A, is the first tool added in Bus Simulator and similarly is the first tool you spawn off with, recieving a full overhaul throughout the end of August 2024. It serves a multitude of functions, from being a flashlight to communicating with others privately; all with customizations to your desire.

When held for the first time within a session, an arrow will pop up next to your phone, which appears next to the power button. Hold-pressing it will then boot up Nulltech, allowing you access to your phone. You can also press it again to put the phone to sleep, and hold it to shutdown.

The Phone is also the only item that is kept throughout all of the events within Bus Simulator, allowing you access to it anywhere you go. It can also crack, if you get hit by a moving vehicle or a 2 ton slab of concrete, which can only be repaired by accessing Pear's Place.

The general features that the phone provides are basically akin of that of normal phones. The top-left displays the time, synchronized with your real-life time and can be configured to display either in seconds or in a 24-hour format within your Settings. Swiping down from the upper edge shows you your notifications and quick-access buttons.

There will also be three buttons on the right (or left if space is unavailable) outside of the phone, going from top to bottom, the top opens your notifications, the middle sends you back home, and the bottom backs out of / or in an app.

The quick-access actions, going from left to right are of the following:

Actions	Description
Flashlight	Allows you to turn the phone into a flashlight. It's synchronized with either your cursor or your finger when pointed outside of the screen. Does increase battery drainage.
Airplane Mode	Enables Airplane Mode, disabling all cell reception on your phone. It also disables purchasing items within the shop, messaging, and downloading any apps. It also massively reduces your battery drainage by preventing the phone from trying to reach any cell towers.
Do Not Disturb	Disables you from recieving any messages, calls, or notifications. Currently is non-functional.
Battery Saver	Darkensim your screen, reducing your power consumption.
Volume Adjustment	Adjusts the volume of your system, notifications, and media.

You'll also be able to back out within an app by swiping to your left from the right edge, or back out into your homescreen by swiping up from the bottom edge within any app. You can also drag your phone to anywhere else within your screen by toggling on Drag Mode, which can also be resetted back to default by clicking the Re-center button just above it while it's on.

You also will start off with a few apps by default, being a Dialer, Messages, Settings, Get Help, and STAR. Upon launching your phone for the first time, you'll be greeted by an Intro to Public Transport, a guide that details the main systems in four different sections. It also details your primary goals within the game, this being to:

• Wait for your stop,
• Survive events,
• Complete quests,
• Complete your almanac.

Much like any electronic device, it needs electricity to run, and the phone is no exception. While it charges inside of The Bus or areas with high static-electricity, allowing you to freely use it for as much as you want, there's various areas and factors that leads to your phone's battery draining. From most positive to negative, here are the factors contributing to your phone's battery.

Actions	Battery Impact
Staying at The Bus	Positive Charges your phone. - By default it charges 1% every 3 seconds, or 100% after 5 minutes. Can be affected by multiple factors.
Shutting off your phone	Positive Massively reduces battery drainage, only if it's necessary.
Activating Battery Saver	Positive Massively reduces battery drainage in general. - If it's only activated, increase the time to drain by 1% every 12 seconds or 1% every 5 seconds under a no cell reception area without Airplane Mode. - If both Airplane Mode and Battery Saver are active, remain at 1% every 12 seconds.
Activating Airplane Mode	Positive Insignificantly / Massively reduces battery drainage if under areas with no cell towers. - If it's only activated and is in an area with cell reception, increase the time to drain by 1% every 8 seconds regardless of cell reception. - If both Airplane Mode and Battery Saver are active, remain at 1% every 12 seconds)
Putting the phone to sleep	Positive Significantly reduces battery drainage.
Staying at Frost's Den	Neutral Charges, but does not increase battery. Remains at the same percentage it was before entering. - If activated with Flashlight, start the battery drain by 1% every 16 seconds. - If combined with Flashlight and Battery Saver with / without Airplane Mode, remain at 1% every 16 seconds.
Going anywhere except The Bus or Frost's Den	Negative Starts battery drainage. - By default without any modes and with the phone simply on, it drains 1% every 8 seconds.
Activating Flashlight	Negative Mildly increases battery drainage. - By itself, it drains 1% every 7 seconds. - If combined with No Airplane Mode under a no cell recepted area, decrease the time to drain by 1% every 2 seconds. - If combined with Battery Saver and Airplane mode, decrease the total time to drain by 1% every 7 seconds.
Staying at The Backwalls or The Void ...with Airplane Mode Off	Negative Massively increases battery drainage. Your phone will try as much as it can to connect, creating extreme battery load without Airplane Mode on. - When the phone is doesn't have any modes on, decrease the time to train by 1% every 3 seconds. - If combined with Flashlight, decrease the time to drain by 1% every 2 seconds.

By default, the phone will stay active for 800 seconds, or 13 minutes and 20 seconds before it has to shut off. Use your phone wisely while outside!

You can also invest in a Battery Pack gamepass to effectively double the lifespan of your phone or others too. Much like any phone, you can customize your home screen by adding widgets or apps allowing easy access. Over the course of your usage, you'll be able to sort and create new pages for your homescreen. You can also swipe up slightly away from the bottom edge to view all of your apps, both within and not within your home screen.

Hold-pressing on the home screen will allow you to add widgets or directly customize your wallpaper and Drag-holding the moment before the context menu (App Info, Add to Shelf & Remove) appears will allow you to move the app / widget around. The Settings is where you'll be able to customize your phone, which will save after leaving. You'll be able to customize your system's theme, notification sounds, fonts, as well as your wallpaper. The wallpaper in particular, can be customized to either any of the ones provided already or to any custom decal / image, with options provided to fit for your liking.

You can also change how time is formatted, to either being 24-hours and / or having seconds as part of the clock and what system it's currently on. The following time systems are:

• Operating System - Is based on your device's operating system's time, or most often than not- your real life time.
• In-game Time - A system based within the game's own time for its day and night cycle. Moves at around 3 in-game minutes per real life second.
• .beat - A decimal time system made to market a line of .beat watches. Divides the entire day into 1000 beats with each beat lasting 86.4 seconds in real time.

You can also view your phone, in which it will detail all of its device information, and just like in real phones, pressing the build number more than a few times gives you access to Developer Tools. The Messages app allows you to privately and directly communicate with players within and outside the server. You'll also be able to respond to any inboxes, deny all incoming requests, and also block people. You can only view the history of it and are unable to send any messages while having no cell reception / signal.

To communicate with anyone privately, click the button on the bottom-right to start a conversation. From there, you can either start a conversation from anyone within the server as you, or start one outside; assuming you provide their username / User ID. Conversation data will also be saved once a conversation starts.

One last extra detail is that chat bubbles are colored based on your username color on Roblox. STAR, or known as Synchronized Transferable App Repository is an application store that uses coins as your balance. You'll be able to download and purchase any apps- provided with the balance that is. It also displays Today's Top Picks for both free and paid apps, and more.

Information about these apps individually are reserved in another page. Pear's Place allows you to do quests to earn Coins among other things, such as purchasing items you have already experienced or had before, downloading paid apps, and more.

More information is within its own individual page. Rider is another app that is pre-installed alongside Pear's Place, and it details you of every event, item, and biome you have encountered throughout your journey. You can also thank drivers on it, queue up songs for the Bus Radio, and check your stats.

Likewise, more information is within its own individual page. The dialer allows you to call others within the server, following the same block list within your Messages and on Roblox. This requires you to have Voice Chat enabled, otherwise its inoperable. An application meant to be a tutorial for new players. Contains a variety of tutorials and sub-tutorials The phone can mostly be used within your left hand, and has support for roomscale interactions. You can use your right hand to touch the screen and volume/power button. You can also press buttons on your left hand to interact with the phone within one hand.

Button Combo	Interaction
B/Top Button	Powers the phone on/off
A/Bottom Button/Left Trigger	Go to the home screen/all apps page
Left Analog Click	Open/Close Notification Screen
Right Trigger + A/Top Button	Turns volume up
Right Trigger + B/Bottom Button	Turns volume down

• The boot-up screen of Nulltech can tell if your data has been saved and loaded properly. If there are sparkles around Nulltech when booting up, then your data was both successfully saved and loaded.
• The time system doesn't display AM / PM within the 12-hour format.
• The background of your avatar and your chat messages within the Messages app is directly linked with your chat color on Roblox.
• Trying to start a conversation with yourself using the Messages app will just tell you to use Notepad for it.
• Clicking, typing, and using the flashlight all have their own unique animations for the player.
• The original phone, one that has been prevalent throughout the majority of Bus Simulator's life was a drastically simpler version, being a simple-handheld that allows you to activate a flashlight and also displayed the in-game time.
• VR players hold their phone in their left hand. This is so they can use their cursor, which can only be used on the right hand.
• The phone used to have another tooltip being "Runs something or other!", but was unknowingly altered.

• If you managed to escape outside of the Backwalls through unconventional means, the Phone will still be under its effects, and surprisingly won't be able to charge nor have any network connection even as you're idling on The Bus.
  • The power part however, can be circumvented using a Battery Pack.