In this post, I’m going to go through some tips and tricks that can make running your shop in Probably Stolen a little easier. Some of these are very simple things that the game actually tells you during loading screens, but they are surprisingly easy to miss.
I’ve also included a few things that I found useful while playing, especially when it comes to arranging items, making credits, charging energy cells, dealing with different factions, and getting better customers into your shop.
If you are just starting Probably Stolen, you do not need to know all of these systems immediately. But once you start understanding how trading, machines, materials and customers work, these small tricks can make a pretty big difference.
So, let’s go through the things I think you should know while building up your shop and trying to make more money.
Probably Stolen Beginner Guide – Tips and Tricks
One of the first things you should know is that you can rotate items in your inventory.
When you are holding an item, press E or Q on your keyboard to rotate it left or right.
This might seem like a very basic feature, but it becomes much more useful when you start dealing with items that have unusual shapes.
For something simple like an ordinary knife, rotating it does not really change much. You can simply make it face left or right depending on how you want your inventory to look.
But once you start getting items with irregular shapes, rotating them can help you save quite a bit of space.
Flipping Items Is Even More Important
You can also flip items, and this is something I would definitely recommend remembering.
For example, some items have an L-shaped design. Flipping one of these items can completely change how it fits around the other things in your inventory.
Instead of spending ages moving everything around, you can simply flip the item and sometimes gain the exact space you need.
This becomes even more important when you start working with modules.
Modules can have some very strange shapes, and they need to fit into similarly shaped areas inside your machinery. Some modules also need to touch a specific wall or part of another module to provide their bonuses.
If a module does not seem to fit after rotating it, try flipping it.
In some cases, rotation simply will not work, while flipping the module makes it fit immediately.
So, when you are arranging your machines, do not only think about rotating modules. Try flipping them as well.
Use the Space Behind the Poster
There is another small storage area that is very easy to overlook.
Behind the poster, there is actually a 2×2 space that you can use as a smuggler’s base.
You can fit one key card inside, or you can use the space for four vials of Dream Dust.
This is particularly useful if you are dealing with contraband and do not want to leave it somewhere more risky.
There are also trades where you can receive four vials of Dream Dust along with other completely legal items. Accepting that trade can give you the wholesale bonus.
There is also an Underground Exchange trade that can exchange two vials of Dream Dust for something illegal.
So, if you are going down that route, this little space behind the poster can be a handy place to keep some contraband.
Sell Unneeded Items and Documents
You will eventually end up with items that do not have a normal category or do not have any regular trades attached to them.
These items can still have value, though.
Before the end of the week, when the landlord comes, B4 will accept these kinds of items. That means you can sell things you no longer need instead of letting them take up space in your equipment.
This is also useful for documents.
Some documents that you have already used can still be worth credits. Things such as appraisal guides, the water trading manual, other manuals and information about spotting OGS can have value.
If you have multiple magnifying glasses, you also do not need to keep all of them.
You only need one magnifying glass, so extra ones can be sold for credits and, just as importantly, free up some inventory space.
Invest in Giorgio
At some point, Giorgio will come to you and ask for money. I believe it is connected to his spaceship.
When this happens, I recommend investing the money in Giorgio.
The first reason is that he will leave you a Scavenger’s Token, which is worth 100 credits if you decide to sell it.
Personally, I think it is better to put the token in your display.
It can attract scavengers, who will then bring you more items.
The other reason I like this investment is that Giorgio will bring you back more money than you originally gave him.
This can be especially useful early in the game when you are trying to save up for the business permit.
The permit costs 1,500 credits, which is a pretty big amount when you are just starting.
So, if Giorgio comes asking for money, this can be a good way to turn your spare credits into more money later.
Sell Materials Directly to Dr. Jackson
Another useful money-making trick involves Dr. Jackson.
Dr. Jackson will buy items from you as long as they are in the material category.
This includes things such as:
- Metal ingots
- Electronic parts
- Flux
- Melting agents
- Wires
- Cotton fabric
- Other items marked as materials
I usually like taking metal ingots because they have a fairly high value and do not take too much space compared with the amount of credits they can give you.
The important thing to remember is that Dr. Jackson only buys materials.
If you have something that does not belong to the material category, he will not buy it through this trade.
Use Dr. Jackson for Guaranteed Credits
The big advantage of selling materials to Dr. Jackson is that you do not have to wait for a customer to come into your shop and buy them.
You can simply take your materials to him and sell them.
Later in the game, this can become particularly useful if you are no longer spending as much time scavenging.
For example, you can take high-purity metal ingots made from ore from the GP Mining Company and sell them directly to Dr. Jackson.
The price still depends on the in-game events, though.
If there is a material shortage, the price can increase and you can make more credits. If something causes material prices to fall, you will receive less.
So, the trade is guaranteed, but the exact amount you make can still change.
Buy Empty Energy Cells
There is also a small trick I like when visiting Dr. Jackson.
He will carry an empty energy cell, and I believe there will also be a full energy cell available.
I usually buy the empty energy cell rather than the full one.
The reason is that charging an empty cell can be profitable.
Every 100 kJ you load into the basic energy cell is worth about one credit, so completely charging it can add up to another 100 credits to its base value.
That makes an empty energy cell a pretty good investment if you already have a way to charge it.
I do not usually bother buying the full cells when I can simply buy an empty one and charge it myself.
Get Power Blocks Early
I also recommend starting to use power blocks as early as you can.
At the beginning, you will have to pay 10 credits, but once you build up enough standing with the relevant levels, the price can drop to eight credits.
You can also eventually get a 15% discount on the things Dr. Jackson sells.
Power blocks are particularly useful because they do more than simply power your machines.
They can also charge the energy cells inside them.
Arrange Power Blocks Around Your Cells
This is where the power blocks become really interesting.
You can leave energy cells next to the power blocks and let them charge overnight.
A single power block can be arranged so that it touches multiple cells, allowing you to charge several batteries at the same time.
The important thing to remember is that a machine or energy cell only needs one square touching the power block to receive the charging effect.
Because of that, you can arrange your power blocks carefully and get much more value from the same amount of space.
With one power block, you can charge several cells.
With two power blocks, cells that touch both can receive the bonus from both blocks.
The bonuses stack.
So, if a cell is touching two power blocks, it can receive two plus two power from the arrangement.
You can take this even further by adding more power blocks.
With five power blocks arranged around one cell, you can charge that cell by 10 overnight.
If you have the advanced charging upgrade from Joe Wild, that amount can be doubled to 20 kJ per night.
Power Blocks Can Also Help Your Machines
Another reason I like power blocks is that they can help with machines that are not being used constantly.
Instead of completely filling the machine with energy and letting it slowly drain, you can put a more heavily charged energy cell inside.
The energy will drain more slowly because the cell is being used and recharged every night.
So, if you have a machine that only gets used occasionally, this can be a much better setup than constantly charging it manually.
Learn Faction Colors
Every faction has its own color, and you can use this to identify where a customer comes from.
When somebody comes to your shop, look at the color of their text.
The text color tells you which faction they belong to.
This can be useful because sometimes you cannot tell the faction simply by looking at the character.
For example, someone might not look like an Upper Level citizen, but their text color can show you that they are actually part of the Upper Levels.
Trading with that person will count toward the Upper Levels.
Security is red, while the lower levels have more of a gray color. Other factions have their own colors as well.
So, if you are ever unsure where a customer belongs, check the background or color of their text.
Use Displayed Items to Attract Customers
The items you display in your shop can influence the customers you attract.
One example is the Upper Levels wholesaler who comes because of the pure water displayed in the shop.
It is not only about having an item from a particular category.
The actual value of the displayed item matters too.
If you want to sell more of something, put more of that item into your display.
If you want to attract wealthier customers, try displaying the best quality version you have.
You cannot always do this with every type of product, especially food, but with some items you can use the quality label to your advantage.
For example, if you want to attract better customers for cigarettes, labeling them as genuine can help even if the cigarettes are not actually genuine.
The effect can be quite noticeable.
A customer can arrive with thousands of credits available to spend, giving you a much bigger potential order than a normal customer.
You Can Catch Rats Without Cheese
Now for a couple of tips involving rats.
If you have a mouse trap, you do not actually need to put cheese inside it to catch a rat.
The downside is that you will have to wait longer.
Without cheese, a rat should eventually be caught every few days.
If you put cheese in the trap, though, you can catch one much faster.
So, if you have plenty of cheese and want faster results, use it as bait.
If you are not in a hurry, you can simply leave the trap without cheese and wait.
Turn Rat Poop Into Water
This is probably one of the stranger tricks in the game.
You can take rat poop and put it into a pitcher or another suitable container.
The result is unknown water containing different contaminants, including organic waste, microbes and insoluble debris.
You only get around 10 ml of water per piece of poop, so you will need a lot of it if you are trying to produce a large amount of water.
From there, you can actually refine the water.
First, you can remove the microbes using something like a UV lamp.
After that, you can remove insoluble debris using cotton fabric.
The cotton fabric loses some durability while doing this, but it helps clean the water further.
You can then use the Hydrotech Micro Water Purifier to process it again and get it closer to base water.
Once the organic waste is removed as well, you can eventually end up with high-purity or even pure water.
So yes, you can essentially turn rat poop into pure water.
It is much more of an alchemy experiment than normal water purification, but it works.
The downside is that producing even a liter this way takes a ridiculous amount of rat poop, so this is definitely a method for patient players.
Buy Extended Storage Bays
Dr. Jackson can also show up with some special equipment that can be extremely useful later in the game.
He can offer an extended storage bay and an expanded machine bay.
In my opinion, these are particularly valuable once you reach the later stages of the game and start running out of space.
They take roughly the same amount of space as the regular versions while giving you much more room inside.
The expanded machine bay is around 4×4, while the extended storage bay gives you a much larger storage area.
The storage bay is especially useful if your main goal is simply storing items.
An extended storage bay is around 17×10, giving you about 170 squares.
The expanded machine bay is around 14×11, giving you about 154 squares.
So, for machines, I would choose the expanded machine bay.
For general item storage, the extended storage bay gives you more space.
Buy the Alarm System
Another machine worth considering is the alarm system.
I think this can be a good early purchase because it helps prevent theft.
Its effectiveness depends on your performance stat, so improving performance can make the system much better at preventing theft.
But there is another reason to use it.
The alarm system can also help you build standing with factions.
One module called the Alarm Transmitter Module costs 100 credits from Dr. Jackson.
It gives you one reputation point per night, although it comes with a 50% efficiency reduction.
You can offset that efficiency loss with a few efficiency modules.
The reputation gain can be very useful because you can slowly build Security standing every night without having to rely entirely on trading with them.
After enough days, those reputation points can add up to another level with Security.
Build Your Security Standing
I recommend starting with Security if you want to use the alarm transmitter.
Having good standing with Security can be useful even if you are also involved with black-market activities.
A better relationship can help reduce the chance of your shop being targeted for controls, and the alarm system itself can also help prevent theft.
The alarm system is not completely foolproof, especially without extensive upgrades, so theft can still happen.
That is where Joe Wild can help.
Even if something gets stolen, Joe Wild should be able to bring it back most of the time.
So, I would still pay for his services even when you already have an alarm system.
Learn How to Recognize OGS
Another important thing is learning how to recognize OGS customers.
They can often be identified by the way they speak.
Their requests may sound strange or unnatural compared with normal human conversations.
Instead of speaking normally, they can use unusual phrases and requests that immediately make them stand out.
Once you learn their style of communication, it becomes much easier to recognize them.
Sell to OGS Before Dealing With Them
If you recognize an OGS customer, do not immediately deal with them.
You can sell them items first.
This lets you make some money from the customer before you take further action.
For items that can be counterfeited, there is another useful trick.
If they ask for something that can be labeled as genuine, you can use that option even when the item is not actually genuine.
OGS do not check it.
One thing I would be careful about is increasing the price too much. I have not personally confirmed this part, but it is recommended not to push the price too high because it may affect whether you can deal with the OGS afterward.
Also, when trading with an OGS customer, leave them some money.
If they have no money left, they can automatically leave your shop.
Unlock Better Orders From Suppliers
Your phone orders can also become much better as you build up your relationships with suppliers.
Companies such as GP Mining and Red Imp Brewery can eventually give you better options after you trade with them enough.
For example, GP Mining can initially let you order six ores.
Later, you can unlock an option to order 12 ores.
The larger order takes two days instead of one, but you receive twice as much ore.
This can become very useful when you are processing the ore into metal ingots.
Turn Ore Into Valuable Ingots
The larger GP Mining order connects nicely with the earlier Dr. Jackson trick.
If you order 12 ores, you can process them into six ingots.
These can be high-quality ingots that you can then sell directly to Dr. Jackson.
Depending on the market and quality, you can get around 70 credits or more for an ingot.
Even without a backpack, a satchel can let you carry several metal ingots, meaning you can still make a good amount of money at the end of the day.
The biggest advantage is that the money is guaranteed.
You do not have to sit around waiting for a customer who wants to buy materials.
You can simply take the ingots to Dr. Jackson and sell as many as you can carry.
You Cannot Buy Your Store Yet
And finally, there is one thing that might disappoint you if you have been saving up a huge amount of money.
At least during the playtest, you cannot actually buy out your store.
I originally thought this would be an option, but it has not been implemented yet.
Even if you make enough money to exceed the property’s listed value, there is no option to purchase the store.
So, the current playtest does not really have a traditional end-game condition.
It feels more like an endless career where you keep improving your shop, experimenting with systems and finding new ways to make money.
Even after more than 100 days, there are still things to explore.
You can continue working on systems such as rat genetics, water production, trading and different shop setups.
Those are the main tips and tricks I wanted to share from my time playing Probably Stolen.
Some are tiny things, like flipping an item instead of only rotating it. Others can have a much bigger impact, such as using Dr. Jackson to sell materials, investing in Giorgio, arranging power blocks correctly and building your faction standing.
The more you play, the more these systems start connecting together. You can order materials, process them, charge your energy cells, sell the finished products and use the money to improve your shop.
The playtest still feels like there is plenty to experiment with, even without being able to buy the store yet. If you are just starting, I would focus on learning the basics first and then slowly work toward the more advanced money-making and machine setups.