The short version
A loadout is not four identical kits. It is roles, and the most important role is the one person travelling light.
Buy Shovels and lights first. Everything expensive waits until the quota stops being a problem.
Why identical kits waste capacity
Most new crews arm everyone equally, then wonder why the haul is small.
Four people each carrying a Shovel, a flashlight and a full bag are four people who cannot run, cannot fight well and cannot carry much scrap. Capacity spent on duplicated gear is capacity not spent on the quota.
Splitting roles fixes this without spending another credit.
The four roles
Carrier. Carries a Shovel and nothing else expensive. This is the person who fills the bag and walks it back, and their whole loadout exists to protect the haul.
Fighter. Carries a Shovel and a Stun Grenade. Their job is not to kill things, it is to free a grabbed teammate or buy the corridor when something blocks the exit.
Scout. Carries a light and travels lighter than everyone else. Goes first, calls out what is ahead, and does not fill the bag.
Ship operator. Stays on the ship, reads the monitors, watches the radar boosters and calls out what the crew cannot see from inside.
The last role is the one crews skip, and it is the one that turns the ship from a distant destination into an exit you can actually reach.
What to buy with your first 100 credits
Two Shovels and two Flashlights: 90 credits.
That arms half the crew and lights the two people going inside. It leaves you change and it does not touch the quota money.
A Walkie-Talkie at 12 credits is the best value in the store and should go in the same order, because map-wide communication is what makes the ship operator role work at all.
What to buy with your next 300 credits
Once the quota is comfortable, buy in this order:
- A third Shovel (30). The point where most of the crew can free a grabbed teammate.
- Pro-Flashlights (25 each). Larger battery than the standard light, which matters as runs get longer.
- Stun Grenades (30 each). One per run as an exit button, not as a weapon.
- Radar-Boosters (60 each). They show on the ship monitors and can be pinged, which is what turns the ship operator into a real advantage.
Everything past this point is comfort. The Zap Gun at 400 and the Jetpack at 700 come after the quota problem is genuinely solved.
Light discipline
Every person going inside needs a light source. That is not optional, and it is the most common gap in beginner loadouts.
A diver without a light walks into things they cannot see and misses scrap on the floor beside them. Fifteen credits per person is cheap insurance.
Batteries are the hidden cost. A Pro-Flashlight’s larger battery is why it is worth the upgrade once runs get long enough to drain a standard one.
What nobody should carry
Two weapons. A Shovel is enough. A second weapon is capacity spent on a problem you should be avoiding.
A Yield Sign as a weapon. Forty-two pounds of load for damage you will probably never use.
TZP-Inhalant on a budget run. It is good, and it is still a comfort purchase ahead of anything that keeps you alive.
Smaller crews
The four roles compress rather than disappear, which is the part crews get wrong.
Two divers. One plays carrier and one plays fighter, and both carry a Shovel. Neither travels light, because with two people there is nobody to spare, so keep trips short instead.
Three divers. Add the scout. One person now goes first and carries less, which is the point where the crew stops walking into things it did not see.
The ship operator is the last role to appear, and only for four-person crews. Below that, having someone on the monitors costs more than it returns.
Mistakes crews make
- Giving everyone the same kit. Roles beat duplicates, and it costs nothing to split them.
- Leaving the ship empty. A ship operator is the cheapest safety upgrade in the game.
- Buying the Zap Gun before the third Shovel. Four hundred credits buys a lot of quota security.
- Forgetting lights. The cheapest item in the store prevents the most common kind of death.
- Over-equipping the carrier. The person hauling the quota should be carrying scrap, not gear.
Related guides
- Best weapons — what each weapon does and does not work on.
- Best equipment tier list — the full ranking of everything in the store.
- Best solo loadout — when you have no crew to split roles with.