Stage the display case before you raise the shutter, keep food on the grocery shelf, and clear the outside counter before you sleep — those three habits decide whether your first week survives the first rent invoice. Everything else in the opening week is a variation on them.
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Probably Stolen getting started: the four tutorial beats
The Mentor scripts four beats that repeat on every run:
Keep food in stock.
Empty shelves mean fewer walk-ins, because attractiveness acts as foot traffic rather than as a decorative rating.
Empty the outside counter before you sleep.
Anything left there is gone by morning unless Joe Wild's insurance covers it.
Use the display case as a filter.
It sits on your left and biases which buyers walk in, rather than decorating the room.
Inspect the dock shipment.
A container of counterfeit Hemingway cigarettes arrives, and the Mentor hands you a magnifying glass and a handbook to test them with.
Reread the controls screen if anything feels unfamiliar — equip mode and the toolbox added in UPDATE 049 both change how much you can do in one click.
Stage the display case before you open
Stock the case first, then raise the shutter. What you put in it biases which buyers arrive that day: food pulls food sellers, household goods pull household traffic, and some items attract sellers instead of buyers, which is how you restock. Anything you add after opening does not count until the next day, so redo the arrangement every morning.
With the tutorial enabled the case is disabled on day one so it cannot desync the Mentor sequence. Normal use starts on day two, and the display case guide covers what each kind of bait pulls in and why contraband never belongs in the case.
Catch the first counterfeit pack
Put the magnifying glass on the pack and check it against the handbook. For Hemingway packs the identifiers are colors, logos and security seals, and the tutorial tells are an opened seal, wrong logo geometry and a colour-checker mismatch. One real discrepancy is enough to confront the seller: a correct accusation drops the price, a wrong one costs you reputation.
Counterfeits arrive from the docks whether you asked for them or not, and reselling a fake you failed to catch still hurts your name. The fake detection page has the full check order and what to do with a lot that fails it.
Count the rent before you count the till
Rent falls due on a short cycle — the opening-day dialogue frames it as six days out — and it rises over time even after perfect weeks. Falling behind starts a spiral: attractiveness drops, fewer people enter, and the hole gets wider. The money and rent cycle covers the weekly order and why a single missed week costs more than the rent itself.
After the first rent clears, pick one growth project rather than three, and do not burn the cash reserve you need for the lease buyout. A trading permit, around 1,500 credits in some playtest builds, unlocks underground listings; a furnace, a water purifier and Joe Wild's insurance are the other early choices.
Choose what the night is for
When the day ends you pick one of three activities, and only one of them costs you tomorrow morning:
| Night choice | What it gives you | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
Sleep | Nothing, but you open on time | A day of income |
Craft | Scrap and grapes converted to margin | Power, and nothing else |
Scavenge at the dumping grounds | Modules, scrap and tools | Wounds and a late-open penalty |
Power bills drain quietly every night, and some Wilds upgrades hook illegal grid power that skips the bill but leaves a faction debt behind.
First-week priorities
Pay rent on time.
Do it even if it means selling dependable stock rather than holding a lot you cannot hide.
Prefer dependable flips.
Wine, water and household flips beat a single contraband jackpot you have no way to cover.
Inspect every claim.
Check every cigarette, seal and "genuine" claim before it costs you.
Run one overnight chain.
One chain you can feed, rather than three you cannot.
Park the surplus toward the buyout.
The buyout first, then insurance, then a permit — in that order.
Once the shutter is up you can approve, refuse, report or look away on each visitor. Reporting a wanted face pays a bounty and raises your standing with Security, and can also earn you a threat from the person you snitched on. Haggling is not free money: sellers overstate value, buyers push, and stolen lots carry heat.
The demo offers three scenarios plus a hardcore Rock Bottom run, with Water Merchant as the featured route and a testing and purification kit included.