Play with the intro and your first fourteen days follow a script. Random walk-in customers don’t start until day 14, so these visitors carry most of your early business. The same visitors arrive on the same days to teach you the store and open up new services. Here’s who comes when, and what each visit means for you.
Day by day
| Day | Visitor | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Mentor | Walks you through your first trades. |
| 1 | Scavenger | Sells Cat Chocolate Bar, Galaxy Blend, Soda. |
| 1 | Spacer | Buys Food with 61-69 credits. |
| 1 | Spacer | Buys Food, Beverage with 75-100 credits. |
| 1 | Officer Lun | Hands you the Security Wanted List and shows you the alarm button. |
| 1 | Sawyer | Introduces the Underground Exchange. Only with the Sawyer’s Crew perk. |
| 2 | Junker | Sells Electronic Parts (Common), Scrap Metal, Wire. |
| 2 | Lower Level Repairman | Buys Material, Tool, Energy Cell with 100-125 credits. |
| 2 | Scavenger | Sells Peat. |
| 2 | The Mentor | Suggests going out after you close, for example to the Dumping Grounds. |
| 3 | The Mentor | Warns about counterfeit cigarettes and gives you tools to spot fakes. |
| 3 | Scavenger | Sells Hemingway Cigarettes. |
| 3 | Spacer | Buys Food with 80-105 credits. |
| 3 | Scavenger | Sells a random mix of goods. |
| 3 | Lower Level Citizen | Really Arthur Lafleur from the Wanted List. |
| 4 | Scavenger | Sells cigarettes. |
| 4 | Upper Level Visitor | Buys Substance with 252-302 credits. |
| 4 | Lower Level Citizen | Buys goods with 91-111 credits. |
| 4 | Joe Wild | Offers the Insurance Service. |
| 5 | Scavenger | Sells Scrap Metal. |
| 5 | Lower Level Citizen | Buys goods with 91-111 credits. |
| 5 | Scavenger | Sells Food. |
| 5 | The Mentor | Explains the Display Case and gives you neon signs that suit your starting specialization. |
| 6 | Poor Scav | Wants to barter for food. |
| 6 | Lower Level Citizen | Buys goods with 91-111 credits. |
| 6 | Dr. Jackson | A gadget maker who dealt with the shop’s last tenant offers you a Furnace at a first-purchase discount. You also get an Energy Cell with 50 charge, plus a Metallurgy Manual and Flux Smelting Agent (Basic) x2 if you own a Furnace. |
| 7 | Joe Wild | Offers network upgrades: contacts, favors and services. |
| 7 | Scavenger | Sells a random mix of goods. |
| 7 | The Mentor | Warns that Material prices will drop the next day and arranges your daily newspaper. |
| 8 | The Mentor | Teaches you to bargain. |
| 8 | Scavenger | Sells Peat. |
| 8 | Lower Level Citizen | Buys goods with 91-111 credits. |
| 8 | Appraiser Board Member | Invites you to join the Appraisal Board for a fee. |
| 8 | Dr. Jackson | Buys Materials, Corrupted Modules and Ruined Modules, and sells Modules and gadgets of their own. |
| 9 | Officer Lun | Asks you to report sellers carrying Mid-level contraband or worse. |
| 9 | Lower Level Chemist | Sells Caffeine Pill, Vial of “Dream Dust”, Nightingale’s Salve and buys Chemical Supply. |
| 9 | Off Duty Officer | Wants snacks, sweets or cigarettes. |
| 9 | Scavenger | Your first appraisal customer. Only if you joined the Appraisal Board. |
| 10 | Sawyer | Offers the Janitorial Service, which keeps your Attractiveness up. Not with the Sawyer’s Crew perk. |
| 10 | Odin Haraldsson | Asks you not to press the alarm and pitches a business deal. |
| 10 | Maintenance Worker | Buys Material, Tool, Energy Cell with 100-125 credits. |
| 10 | Scavenger | Sells a random mix of goods. |
| 11 | Scav | Sells stamps. |
| 11 | Scavenger | Shows off a sealed find. |
| 12 | Scav | Sells stamps. |
| 12 | Scavenger | Sells a random mix of goods. |
| 12 | Dr. Jackson | Buys Materials, Corrupted Modules and Ruined Modules, and sells Modules and gadgets of their own. |
| 12 | The Mentor | Warns about Augs, people taken over by rogue brain implants, and gives you a gun to kill them on sight (How to Spot Augs guide). Also happens when you skip the intro. |
| 13 | Upper Level Pharmacist | Sells Oxymore Injector, Topical Medication Bandage, injectors. |
| 13 | Scav Addict | Trades goods for an Oxymore Injector. |
| 13 | Thief | Sells a random mix of goods. |
| 13 | Foodie Tourist | Wants one of each food and beverage you stock and gives you 2 days to prepare. |
| 14 | The Mentor | Last visit: buy upgrades and machines, expand your contacts, and save toward a mortgage or a buyout (Rent guide). |
| 14 | Shady Customer | First visit, selling a market tip. Only when there’s a tip to sell. |
The visitors without a lesson attached are ordinary customers scheduled so the early days always have business. Budgets are their credits on day 1, before the Attractiveness bonus.
One more visit isn’t tied to a day: the first time you commit a crime, The Mentor comes by and hands you your Security Record and explains investigations.
Making money
Until day 14, the visitors above are your only buyers, and none of them pays more than the budget they walk in with. Sell an item worth more than a buyer has left and you get only what’s left. So the way to get ahead early is to have what each buyer wants before they arrive, and to collect Security’s bounties.
Scavenge every night. A night out after closing costs you one random walk-in the next day, and none come before day 14, so every trip to the Dumping Grounds is free stock. What limits you is what you can carry home: your Fanny Pack’s 3x3 grid, plus one item in each hand. Most searches turn up Junk, a Material worth only 3 credits, so leave it and save the room for other Materials, tools and food. Dr. Jackson buys Ruined Modules (30 credits) and Corrupted Modules on days 8 and 12, so those are worth the space too. His budget is small, but everything you pay him for his own stock goes into it. Each search also has a 3% chance at a Satchel (Small) (6x3), then a Kid’s Backpack (5x5), and either one at least doubles what you can bring back.
Report Arthur Lafleur on day 3. The Lower Level Citizen who wants food and materials that day is on the Wanted List, and Security pays 100 credits for them. They plead the first time you press the alarm, so press it again. Odin Haraldsson, on day 10, is worth another 300. From day 12, shooting an Aug pays a bounty too (100 credits on day 12, more with the Model Citizen perk and less with Convict), but shoot only when you’re sure (How to Spot Augs guide).
Buy cigarettes on day 3 for the day-4 buyer. The Upper Level Visitor on day 4 brings over 250 credits for Substance, the biggest budget before day 15. A Pack of Hemingway Cigarettes is Substance worth 80 credits, and the day-3 Scavenger sells them. Check every pack with the tools the Mentor hands you that same day before you pay.
Offer discounts from day 8. The Mentor’s day-8 lesson unlocks bargaining. A discount always works, and it raises the buyer’s budget by twice the discount: 10% off adds 20% to their budget, 25% off adds 50%, 50% off doubles it and 75% off adds 150%. Offer it before you sell anything, since the raise is a share of what they have left. It pays whenever you have more of what a buyer wants than they can afford. Say the Maintenance Worker has 120 credits left and you have 480 credits’ worth of Materials. With no bargain you get 120. At 50% off, their budget doubles to 240 and your half-price Materials cover it exactly.
Add up your stock at the base values in the Item Price List, then pick the discount from how it compares with their budget:
| Your stock of what they want is worth | Offer | You collect up to |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1.1 times their budget | No discount | Their budget |
| 1.1 to 1.6 times | 10% off | 1.2 times their budget |
| 1.6 to 3 times | 25% off | 1.5 times their budget |
| 3 to 8 times | 50% off | Twice their budget |
| More than 8 times | 75% off | 2.5 times their budget |
Discount only what you got free or cheap, like your dump finds: at 50% off, anything you paid full price for sells at a loss. Dr. Jackson never bargains, and the Awful Negotiator perk takes bargaining away for the whole run.
Leave markups alone for now. A markup cuts the buyer’s budget by 10% to 25% and can drive them off. With no reputation with their faction, a 10% markup is accepted 80% of the time, and 12% of the time the customer walks out without buying anything and you lose 3 reputation with their faction. At 25% those odds are 50% and 30%. Every 6 reputation with that faction adds 1% to the acceptance odds, and negative reputation counts double against you. You get one bargain per customer, so a refused markup also rules out a discount.
Keep Materials off the counter on day 8. The Mentor’s day-7 tip is a Material Surplus: Material prices drop 25% on day 8 only. Sell Dr. Jackson modules that day and keep your Materials for the Maintenance Worker on day 10.
Join the Appraisal Board on day 8. It costs 85 credits on Mark Up (Normal), so keep that much on hand for the Board member’s visit. Appraisals need no stock: a Junior Appraiser earns 20 credits for each accepted estimate plus 5% to 15% of it, depending on accuracy, and your first customer comes on day 9.
Stock up on variety for day 15. The Foodie Tourist on day 13 gives you 2 days to prepare, then comes back with 750 credits for one of each food and beverage you have, the biggest budget of the opening weeks. They won’t buy a second of anything, so every different food and drink is another sale. Buy one of whatever the food sellers offer, keep the food you find at the dump, and use the Food and Drinks list on the Item Price List to see what’s still missing. With a wide enough spread, a discount pushes the 750 higher.
What changes after the intro
| From | What happens |
|---|---|
| Day 4 | Night-time burglaries become possible once insurance is on offer. |
| Day 7 | First rent payment of 200 credits (more with a few starting specializations), then every 7 days (Rent guide). |
| Day 10 | Garbage starts piling up on nights you skip the Janitorial Service. |
| Day 14 | Random walk-in customers start coming; how many depends on your Attractiveness. |
| Day 14 | Wanted criminals can turn up in place of a random customer. |
| Day 14 | The Display Case can bring its wealthiest buyers. |
| Day 14 | The Shady Customer keeps coming back every 4 to 7 days with market tips. |
| Day 18 | The Landlord offers what the previous tenant left behind, cheaper if you take it all. |
| Day 24 | The Mentor warns that you’ll soon need a business permit. |
| Day 25 | Sawyer introduces the Underground Exchange, unless it’s already open to you. |
| Day 38 | The Trade Board Official arrives to sell you a business permit for 1,500 credits on Mark Up (Normal), then every 7 days until you buy one. The permit costs 500 on Price Gouge (Cozy), 2,000 on Thin Margins (Hard) and 3,000 on Red Ink (Challenge) instead. |
Skipping the intro
If you skip the intro, the day-by-day script above doesn’t happen. A shorter one takes its place:
| Day | Visitor | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sawyer | Introduces the Underground Exchange. Only with the Fence start or the Sawyer’s Crew perk. |
| 1 | Lower Level Citizen | Wants to buy guns. Only with the Gunsmith start. |
| 1 | Scavenger | Sells a random mix of goods. |
| 1 | A supplier | One of the regular suppliers, picked at random. |
| 2 | Odin Haraldsson | Asks you not to press the alarm and pitches a business deal. |
| 2 | Lower Level Citizen | Sells a handmade gun, gun mods and ammunition. Only with the Gunsmith start. |
| 4 | Lower Level Citizen | Wants to buy guns. Only with the Gunsmith start. |
| 5 | Appraiser Board Member | Invites you to join the Appraisal Board for a fee. |
The Mentor’s day-12 warning about Augs and the later fixed-day visits from the table above still come on their usual days. The rest of the early game speeds up:
- The Insurance and Janitorial Services are available from day 1.
- The Display Case starts working on day 1.
- Random walk-in customers start on day 2.
- Wanted criminals can turn up from day 5.
- The Shady Customer can start selling tips right away.
- You can bargain from day 1.