How to read this list
“Best” in Lethal Company is not about raw power. It is about what keeps a crew alive for the fewest credits.
Three things decide whether an item is good:
- Does it prevent a death, or only avenge one?
- Does one purchase help the whole crew, or only the buyer?
- Is it reliable when you are panicking?
Items that prevent deaths rank above items that win fights. You are not trying to kill monsters. You are trying to leave with scrap.
The tiers
| Tier | Items | Why |
|---|---|---|
| S | Flashlight, Walkie-Talkie, Shovel | Every crew needs all three, every run |
| A | Pro-Flashlight, Stun Grenade, Teleporter, Radar Booster | Real force multipliers once you can afford them |
| B | Zap Gun, Lockpicker, Boombox, Extension Ladder | Genuinely useful, but situational or expensive |
| C | TZP Inhalant, Jetpack | Toys. Fun, and frequently fatal |
S tier — buy these first
Flashlight. This is not optional. A diver without light is a diver who cannot see the floor or the nest ahead. He walks into Hoarding Bugs and misses the scrap beside them.
Buy one per diver before you buy anything else. The facility is dark by design, and light is the cheapest form of safety in the game.
Walkie-Talkie. Communication is the actual survival tool in a co-op game. Most crew wipes come from people not knowing where each other is.
Two walkies are better than one weapon. A crew that can call out “Bracken behind you” solves problems before they become chases.
Shovel. It is the best value weapon in the store. It kills the things that can be killed, it costs far less than the zap gun, and it never needs charging.
Give the shovel to whoever walks point. It also works as a backup when a Snare Flea drops on a teammate’s head.
A tier — the first real upgrades
Pro-Flashlight. A wider, longer beam for the diver who is willing to give up a free hand. It is a genuine upgrade, but it is a comfort buy, not a survival buy.
Buy it after the basics are covered for everyone, not before.
Stun Grenade. This is the best panic button in the game for the price. It buys the two seconds that let a crew disengage instead of dying.
The key habit is using it to escape, not to fight. Stun, then run. A crew that stands and fights after the stun wastes it.
Teleporter. It turns a bad situation into a survivable one by returning a diver to the ship. Used well, it converts a lost cause into a saved inventory.
It needs a crew member on the ship to operate it. Assign that role before you land, or the item does nothing.
Radar Booster. A cheap way to mark a route. Dropping boosters on the way in gives you a breadcrumb trail on the way out, which is exactly when you need it.
It also helps the ship player track the crew. That is worth the slot on big facilities.
B tier — useful, but not first
Zap Gun. The strongest defensive item available. It holds dangerous entities in place and can shut down a threat that a shovel cannot touch.
It is expensive, it needs charging, and it tempts crews into fights they should not take. Buy it when the crew is already surviving comfortably.
Lockpicker. It opens locked doors without the key. Useful on facilities where a locked room holds a haul, useless if your crew does not route around locks.
Boombox. It makes noise on purpose. That can pull entities away from a route, which is a real tactic, but it is a tactic that punishes sloppy timing.
Extension Ladder. It creates shortcuts and escape routes. Genuinely handy, deeply situational, and easy to forget to bring.
C tier — toys that cost runs
TZP Inhalant. It distorts your senses. Some crews enjoy it. None of them loot better on it, and none of them survive a chase better on it.
There is no competitive reason to buy this with quota money.
Jetpack. It flies, and it is the most entertaining way to lose a diver. Height, ceilings, and outdoor entities make it far more dangerous than it looks.
Buy it only when the quota is already comfortable and the crew wants something new.
The buying order for a new crew
If you have limited credits, spend them in this order. This sequence assumes a crew of three or four.
- One flashlight per diver. Nothing else competes with this.
- Two walkie-talkies. Enough to keep the ship player and the lead diver in contact.
- One shovel. A single weapon for the point diver.
- Stun grenades. Cheap insurance, and they save whole runs.
- Radar boosters. Route marking pays off on larger facilities.
- Pro-flashlight, teleporter, then zap gun. Comfort, then escape, then defence.
Notice what is missing. No jetpack, no inhalant, no boombox. Those are purchases for a crew with spare money, not for a crew trying to hit quota.
Loadouts by crew role
A crew that buys four of everything is a crew with no plan. Split the gear by what each diver does.
The ship player. This diver stays on board, watches the monitor, and runs the teleporter. They need a walkie-talkie above all else, plus the scanner view. They carry no weapon, because they never leave the ship.
The point diver. First through every door. They get the shovel and the best light. Their job is to survive contact long enough to call it out, not to win a fight.
The looters. Everyone else carries light and hands. Extra weapons on looters cost carrying capacity, and capacity is what pays the quota.
The marker. On large facilities, one diver drops radar boosters on the way in. That breadcrumb trail is the cheapest navigation you can buy, and it is the reason crews get out after dark.
Assign roles before you land. Gear handed out mid-dive is gear that ends up in the wrong hands.
What to buy at each quota stage
Spending should follow the quota, not the shop window.
Early days, small quota. Lights for everyone, two walkies, one shovel. Nothing else. The quota is low enough that survival habits pay for themselves.
Middle days, quota climbing. Stun grenades and radar boosters. This is where runs start going long, and long runs are where crews get lost.
Late days, quota steep. Teleporter first, then the zap gun. By now a lost diver costs a day you cannot spare, and a teleporter converts that loss into a saved haul.
Comfortable, quota already met. This is the only stage where the jetpack and the inhalant make sense. Buy toys with money you do not need.
Notice that the ordering has almost nothing to do with how powerful an item feels. It tracks what kills crews at each stage.
Two-slot thinking
Every diver has limited hands, and every item you carry is an item you are not using.
A weapon in the hands of a looter is a slot that could hold scrap. A second light is a slot that could hold a stun grenade. The question to ask before each purchase is what that slot does for the crew, not what it does in isolation.
This is why one shovel beats three. One diver can answer the threats that a shovel answers. Two more shovels are two empty scrap slots on the walk back.
The same logic makes stun grenades underrated. They cost no slot until you throw them, and they turn a chase into a retreat.
Why crews run out of credits
Credits disappear in a predictable order, and it is rarely the big purchases that do it.
First comes re-buying gear lost on wipes. A crew that dies carrying three shovels has to buy three shovels again. Survival is cheaper than replacement.
Then comes buying for four divers at once. Outfitting everyone every day drains a budget that could have funded one strong diver and three cheap ones.
Last comes buying on the wrong day. Gear bought the day before a quota jump does nothing for that quota. Gear bought three days early compounds.
Track what you own before you shop. Most crews discover they already have two flashlights in the ship.
What most crews get wrong
- Buying the zap gun first. It is the best defensive item and the worst first purchase.
- One flashlight for the whole crew. Every diver needs light, or half the crew is blind.
- Buying weapons before communication. Walkies prevent more deaths than shovels do.
- Using the stun grenade to fight. It is an escape tool. Treat it as one.
Buy order by quota stage, not just rank
The tiers above answer “which item is best”. They do not answer “what do I buy this week”. Sort your purchases by the quota you are on, not by the letter:
- Quotas 1–2: every diver gets a flashlight and a walkie-talkie first; add a lockpicker and pro-flashlight next. One shovel only.
- Quotas 3–4: stun grenades, extension ladder, radar booster. Hold the jetpack — the rule is skip it until quota 3, and even then it is a comfort buy.
- Quota 5+: teleporter, then zap gun, then the Cruiser, jetpack last.
That sequence is the full version of what to buy first. Run your credits through the quota calculator before you shop so you buy to the days you have left, not to the shop window.
Related guides
- Store guide — what the store sells and how to spend between days.
- Equipment guide — slots, batteries, and what each tool earns.
- Solo guide — what changes when there is no crew to split gear with.
- Quota guide — balancing gear spending against the quota.