Storage Hunter Hard Mode Progression Guide (Auctions)

This Storage Hunter Hard Mode Progression Guide takes the original hard-mode ideas and turns them into a structured roadmap: what to do first, how much to bid, which tools to upgrade, when to buy shops and vehicles, and how to use blind auctions and collectors without wasting time or money.

It’s written for new or low-hour players, but everything here applies just fine if you’ve already got a couple of saves under your belt and want to tighten up your play.

1. Early Game: First Steps and Overall Mindset

You start with a small truck, some cash, and one big problem: everything in hard mode is tighter. You cannot just win every locker and expect to profit.

At the very beginning you have three main levers:

The opening questline (via tablet → Auctions/Loans, tutorial objectives)
Open world scavenging
Optional loan

A few key points for your first hours:

Do the opening quests. They introduce core systems and give you direction, cash, and a feel for how auctions and tools work.
The open world now has more value: you can wander around town picking up objects and selling them for early capital. Be aware some of these are one-of-a-kind; once you sell them, they’re gone forever from the world.
Loans are no longer mandatory. In hard mode they can still help you ramp faster, but you can also skip them entirely if you play carefully and lean on scavenging and cheaper auctions.

Think of the first couple of in-game days as your “foundation phase”: your only real goal is to build enough money and renown to start playing the auction game on your terms instead of being forced into risky bids.

2. Auctions, Districts, and How Aggressively You Should Bid

You have multiple auction sites spread across five districts plus a blind auction location. Each district has its own renown track and shops.

For your first runs:

Stay mostly in the starting district and complete the tutorial line.
You can jump to another district for a challenge, but it’s rough for brand-new players on hard mode.

How Often Do Lockers Actually Profit?

The game deliberately does not expect you to win and profit from every locker:

On hard mode, expect to profit on roughly one out of two or one out of three lockers if you’re bidding sensibly.
Easier modes tilt these odds in your favor.

The game also currently includes a lot of “instant sale trash” in lockers (various generic containers, cleaning tools, random junk items). You’ll learn to recognize these patterns after a few auctions, so early on, don’t panic if it all looks worthless – your eye improves quickly.

NPC Bidding Behavior

Sometimes NPCs will shove the price way beyond what looks reasonable.

Important to remember:

They are not “seeing” a secret hidden legendary you missed.
It’s just the game’s internal system.
Do not assume “if they’re bidding high, it must be good.”

If bidding jumps beyond your comfort zone, walk away. There is always another auction.

Rough Locker Budget Guidelines

These are ballpark ceilings for what you should pay per tier on hard mode. Adjust up or down as you develop your own feel, but they’re a solid starting point:

Tier 1 lockers: Aim to keep bids around $100–$300
Tier 2: Roughly $200–$500
Tier 3: Around $500–$1,100
Tier 4: Around $1,400–$2,500
Tier 5: Around $2,000–$3,000+

Tier 5 is the most volatile. If a T5 locker climbs above $6–8k, assume you’ll struggle to profit unless you are specifically chasing a decoration or showpiece item for your house.

And that’s important: you are allowed to knowingly overpay if you want something cool for personal use. Just don’t confuse that with smart money play.

Blind Auction Budgeting

For blind auctions, you can’t see inside crates ahead of time, so you rely on averages:

Have $800 to $2,200 available per blind auction.
Expect to pick up 3 blinds for under $5,000 in many cases.

Blind auctions are one of the safest ways to stack bulk small items and build a stable profit base, especially early.

3. Fixing vs Verifying: Where Your Upgrade Money Should Go

Your tablet tools menu gives you two major money multipliers:

Verification tool – lets you authenticate higher rarity items
Fixing (repair) tool – lets you restore condition and massively boost sale value

Verification expands which tiers you can check at home:

Starts at common
Upgrades unlock rare (blue), unique (purple/pink), and legendary (yellow) authentication

Verification saves some time and expert fees, but the impact on your total income is relatively small.

Fixing, on the other hand, fundamentally changes the value of your finds:

Every repair level adds huge value to items
Pawn shops love perfect condition items and pay much more for them
A repaired item plus verification usually outperforms the expert fee by a wide margin

Because of this:

Prioritize leveling your fixing tool
Treat verification upgrades as quality-of-life, not your main investment

There are edge-case playstyles that level both tools evenly (especially if you’re save-scumming heavily), but for straightforward hard-mode progression, high-level repairs are the safest path to big money.

How to Handle Items You Cannot Verify Yet

You have two main approaches:

Stockpiling method:
- Store high-rarity items until your verification tool is upgraded.
- Then authenticate them yourself for free.
Expert method:
- Take batches of items to experts and pay a small fee to get them verified early.
- This lets you cash out valuable pieces sooner.

Both work. Early on you’ll probably mix the two: send a few things to experts to keep cash flowing, store the rest until your tools catch up.

4. Experts: When They’re Worth Your Time

Experts are your bridge until your verification tool can handle everything.

Use them to:

Turn unidentified rares/uniques into known, high-value items
Unlock quick bursts of cash when your balance is low
Raise renown by selling perfect/verified pieces to shops

Early game tips:

You can drop multiple items at once.
It’s often smart to send a small batch, cash out, then decide if you need to send more.
Once your verification tool is well upgraded, you’ll rely on experts much less.

On hard mode, expert fees are minor compared to the value of a fully repaired and verified item, especially once your fixing tool is strong.

5. Renown: Why It Matters and How to Farm It

Each district tracks renown separately. Renown governs:

Access to higher tier auctions
Unlocking better vehicles
Unlocking larger houses
Purchasable pawn shops in each district (one at renown 20, one at 30 for certain areas)

Raising renown:

Selling items to pawn shops (especially perfect condition).
Winning auctions and flipping the contents.
Operating your own pawn shops once you buy them.

You’ll see renown jump in noticeable “chunks” whenever you sell really nice gear, even at higher levels.

Tip: Focus on one district at a time so you actually hit renown thresholds for vehicles, houses and shops, instead of spreading yourself thin across all five.

6. Blind Auctions: Bulk Profit Engines

Blind auctions are your best tool for filling your truck with small, profitable items.

How to run them efficiently:

Visit the blind auction warehouse.
Check the whiteboard inside – there are usually 1–3 active auctions listed with starting bids (often around 400–700).
Bid on the first one and secure it.
Before opening anything, bid on the second and third.

Most winning bids fall somewhere in the $800–$2,200 range. Grabbing all three for under $5,000 is very achievable.

Loot handling tips:

Each blind auction gives you pallets of boxes full of small items.
Open one box at a time, identify and repair items, then pour the contents into a single “master” box for that auction:
- Pick up an open box
- Tilt it gently over your main box
- Let everything slide in
This makes transport painless and the boxes themselves are reusable carriers.

You can technically sell empty boxes, but they’re worth almost nothing. Many players just toss them around the warehouse for stress relief and keep a handful for future hauling.

7. Time Management: Making Each Day Count

In-game time moves quickly, so a bit of planning pays off.

Important time thresholds:

9:00 pm: Shops close, but owned pawn shops can still be used for stocking and collection.
8:00 am (next day): Any won storage containers you haven’t fully cleared out will shut and the remaining items are lost.

Key principles:

You don’t have to clear won lockers immediately. They stay accessible until 8:00 am the next day.
If you’re crossing town, give yourself at least an in-game hour to reach a site.
You can chain multiple auctions in one day, but the more you win, the more packing you’ll face later.

Plan your day like this:

Choose one of the normal auction sites as your “focus” for the day.
Win as many sensible lockers as your time and vehicle can handle.
Toward the evening, move to blind auctions and clear those last.
Keep an eye on how much remains to pack before you risk the 8:00 am cutoff.

And yes, if you stay too long sorting a high-tier locker and the clock hits 8:00, the door can slam shut with your goods (and you) inside. Do not underestimate how long packing can actually take, especially with a small truck.

8. Pawn Shops: When to Sell to NPCs vs When to Buy Your Own

There are five pawn shops in the game, one per district, all of which you can both sell to and eventually own.

Selling to NPC pawn shops:

Instant cash at standard or slightly above-standard rates
Excellent for quick renown gain, especially with perfect items

Owning pawn shops:

Items sold in your shop bring in more than market value
But every item has a cooldown before it sells
Higher value items sit longer before turning into cash

Because of the cooldown:

While a batch of items sits in your own shop waiting to sell, you could often have sold two or three loads instantly to NPC shops elsewhere.
Owning all three shops (where applicable) stabilizes income in the long run, but slows your short-term cash cycle.

A practical hard-mode approach:

Delay buying shops until:
- Your fixing tool is fully upgraded or close to it
- You’re comfortably funding high-tier auctions
Until then, use NPC pawn shops as fast cash dumps while you snowball your tools and renown.
A good moment to buy is when you’re approaching or have unlocked Tier 5 auctions in that district.

9. Vehicles: Capacity, Speed, and When to Upgrade

Vehicles are a huge part of how efficient your days feel.

General progression:

Starter small truck (blue pickup) – good enough for quite a while
Mid-tier pickup – optional step, some players skip it
Box truck – large capacity, fast, and all you realistically need for a long time

Hard-mode considerations:

Don’t get obsessed with taking “everything in one trip.” Sometimes two clean trips are faster than trying to balance a mountain of junk on your starter truck.
If you’re using the small truck:
- You can hop into the vehicle as an item starts sliding; that often “freezes” it in place.
- Occasionally, items perched on top will glitch through the pile and try to fall; gently tapping the accelerator can keep them onboard, but sometimes they drop.
- If you exit the truck at the wrong moment, physics can eject your entire load and you’ll be restacking from scratch.

Upgrades:

Each new vehicle tier is both faster and has more cargo space.
High-end vehicles and houses require renown 30 in that district.
After 1.0 there are also more cosmetic and transport options, so check the dealerships and pick something that matches how you like to play (long hauler vs quick city runner).

10. Houses: Storage, Self-Verification, and Decoration

Each district has a house tied to your renown, unlocked alongside vehicles.

Why houses matter:

Storage for items you want to verify or fix later
A safe place to stockpile legendaries and uniques until your tools are maxed
Full freedom to decorate using Architect mode

Practical use:

When you’re close to maxing your verification tool, start stashing legendaries instead of sending them to experts. Once you can verify them yourself, you save fees and control timing.
You can decorate with any rarity. Commons are great for filling out a kitchen, office, garage, or display room.

The largest house is especially attractive because:

It offers plenty of storage and display space
Its location is central, cutting down travel time between key places

Long term, decorating becomes its own endgame—once money stops being an issue, rare display items and themed rooms are the new “loot.”

11. Collectors: Optional Progression for Extra Rewards

Collectors are a newer system that give you long-term goals and special rewards.

There are three of them:

Archaeologist – marked with a vase icon, located in the cathedral graveyard behind East Black Elk pawn shop
Doomsday prepper – helmet icon, near the starting trailer park area
Mechanic – wrench icon, across from and slightly north of Blueberry pawn shop

How they work:

Some items show a collector icon in their tooltip.
Each week, each collector has a rotating list of items they’re interested in.
Items on this week’s list show a colored collector icon; off-list items show a greyed-out icon.
Your progress toward a collector goal does not reset weekly – you’re not punished for missing one week’s list.

Important detail:

All rarities (common → legendary) count equally toward a collector’s goal.
You do not have to hand over your rare treasures if you don’t want to.

Interaction:

Put collector items in your vehicle or storage.
Walk up to a collector, interact, choose an item from the right-hand panel, and hit Give.
Just like with experts or locksmiths, the item only needs to be within range (usually in your vehicle nearby).

Rewards include:

Display pieces
Rare items
Wardrobe/cosmetic gear

Collectors are completely optional. If you enjoy collection and decoration, they’re a great side project. If you only care about pure money, you can safely ignore them or feed them only your surplus commons.

12. Hard Mode Priority Checklist

To close it out, here’s a short priority list tailored to hard mode:

Finish the opening questline and learn the basics.
Use open-world scavenging and early auctions to avoid or minimize loans.
Learn your bidding discipline:
- Use the tier price ranges as soft caps
- Walk away when NPCs go crazy
Upgrade the fixing tool first, verification later.
Lean on experts early, then phase them out as your tools improve.
Focus renown in one district at a time to unlock trucks, houses, and high-tier auctions.
Treat blind auctions as your bulk-profit engine, especially in the evenings.
Manage your time: clear lockers before 8:00 am, plan travel, beware over-stacking.
Delay buying pawn shops until your tools are strong and your income is stable.
Use houses both as storage for future self-verification and as long-term decoration goals.
Use collectors if you want extra rewards and side goals; ignore them if you prefer a pure money run.

Follow this structure and hard mode stops feeling like a random gamble and starts feeling like a business you’re systematically building up.