How this tier list is built
Most scrap tier lists rank items by price alone. That is the wrong number. Your hands and your stamina are the real limits, so the number that matters is value per pound.
This list is ranked from the site’s own scrap table of all 70 items. Every value below comes from that data, not from memory. You can check any item in the scrap database.
Two rules decide almost every looting choice:
- High value per weight is always worth a slot.
- Heavy items are only worth it when the ship is close.
The tiers at a glance
| Tier | What it means | Typical items |
|---|---|---|
| S | Take it every time, at any distance | Toilet Paper, Zed Dog, Beehive, Egg, Hairdryer |
| A | Take it unless your hands are already full | Fancy Lamp, Gold Bar, Apparatus, Panting |
| B | Take it on the way out, drop it if chased | Shotgun, Wedding Ring, Robot Toy, Toy train |
| C | Leave it unless nothing else is left | Yield Sign, Tattered Metal Sheet, Player Body |
S tier — always worth the slot
These pay well and cost you almost nothing to carry. Grab them the moment you see them.
Toilet Paper is the single best carrier in the game. It averages 73 credits at 5 lbs, which is about 14.6 credits per pound. Nothing else comes close at that weight.
Easter Egg is the next best at 37 credits and 3 lbs. It is small, cheap to carry, and easy to miss on a shelf.
Hairdryer averages 79 credits at 7 lbs. That is a strong absolute value for a light item, so it beats most mid-weight picks.
Old Phone sits at 55 credits and 5 lbs. It is a reliable filler item that never slows you down.
Coffee Mug is 45 credits at 5 lbs. It is unremarkable alone, but four of them beat one heavy item.
Egg is the best mid-weight item in the game at 119 credits for 19 lbs. It is one of the few items worth walking back to the ship for.
24 items in our table list no meaningful weight at all (0 lbs), and many of them are excellent:
- Zed Dog — 99 credits, effectively free to carry.
- Beehive — 95 credits, also effectively free, but taking it wakes the bees.
- Teeth — 71 credits at no weight cost.
Take all three when you find them. The Beehive is the only one with a condition attached.
A tier — strong, but watch the weight
These pay well in absolute terms. The question is whether your crew can move them.
Gold Bar has the highest value of any item at 155 credits. It also weighs 77 lbs. That is a two-trip problem. Take it only when you are near the exit and nobody is being chased.
Cash Register is 119 credits at 84 lbs. It is the heaviest item in the game. Treat it as a team project, not a solo grab.
Fancy Lamp averages 93 credits at 21 lbs. That is a good ratio for a heavy-ish item, and it is worth the slot on most moons.
Panting is 91 credits at 31 lbs. Apparatus is 80 credits at 31 lbs. Both are acceptable, but they will slow you down on the run home.
Perfume Bottle is 75 credits with no weight cost. That makes it an easy yes whenever you see it.
Laser Pointer is 65 credits, also no weight cost. Pick it up on the way past.
B tier — take it on the way out
These are worth carrying when the facility is quiet. Drop them the moment something starts hunting you.
Shotgun averages 60 credits at 16 lbs, and it is also a weapon. That dual use pushes it above items with a similar ratio.
Wedding Ring is 65 credits at 16 lbs. Golden Cup is 59 at 16. Robot Toy is 71 at 21. Toy train is 67 at 21.
All four are fine when the ship is close. All four are the first thing you drop when an Eyeless Dog starts closing in.
Magnifying Glass (51 at 11 lbs) and Red Soda (53 at 7 lbs) sit here too. Red Soda is the better of the two because of the weight.
C tier — leave it behind
These are the items that end runs. They cost stamina and inventory space for little return.
Yield Sign averages 27 credits at 42 lbs. That is about 0.64 credits per pound, the worst ratio in the game. There is no situation where this is worth carrying far.
Tattered Metal Sheet is 15 credits at 26 lbs. It is worse than Yield Sign on ratio, and it is not worth a slot at all.
Player Body is 5 credits at 11 lbs. It exists mainly as a hazard marker, not as loot.
Steering Wheel (23 at 16), Gift Box (19 at 19), and Big Bolt (25 at 19) all fall here. They look like loot and carry like junk.
Small body parts are a special case. Ear, Hand, Bone, Tongue, Ribcage, and Foot are all listed with no meaningful weight. They are worth almost nothing per item, but they cost nothing to carry. Pick them up last, on your way out, only if your hands are still free.
The value-per-weight rule in practice
Here is the whole looting decision in one line: divide the value by the weight, and keep the highest numbers.
When your inventory is full and something is chasing you, drop in this order:
- Anything over 30 lbs.
- Anything under 2 credits per pound.
- Anything under 4 credits per pound if the ship is far.
Two-handed items change the maths. A two-handed item takes both hands, so you cannot carry a light source or a weapon at the same time. That hidden cost matters more than the weight number. Check the two-handed flag in the scrap database before you commit to a heavy piece.
Conductive items are the other special case. Conductive scrap attracts lightning during storms. If the moon forecast shows a storm, weigh that risk before loading up on metal.
Why this beats ranking by price
A Cash Register is worth 119 credits. A Toilet Paper roll is worth 73. A new crew will grab the register every time, because 119 looks bigger.
But the register weighs 84 lbs and the roll weighs 5. You can carry sixteen rolls for the weight of one register. Sixteen rolls is over 1,100 credits.
That gap is the difference between a crew that clears quota and a crew that dies in a corridor at midnight with a full inventory.
How many trips a heavy item costs
Weight is not only a stamina problem. It is a trip problem, and trips are what get crews killed.
One diver carrying 77 lbs moves slowly and cannot climb or detour. That diver also cannot fight or hold a light in both hands. A Gold Bar is therefore not 155 credits. It is 155 credits plus one slow, exposed crossing.
Compare two plans for the same room:
- Plan A: one diver takes the Gold Bar and walks out alone, slowly.
- Plan B: two divers take Toilet Paper, Hairdryer and Old Phone, and walk out together at normal speed.
Plan B pays less on paper. It pays more in practice, because it ends with two divers on the ship instead of one diver in a corridor.
The rule that follows from this: heavy items are a luxury for a crew that has already secured the route and the exit. They are not a plan for a crew that is still learning the facility.
Looting order inside a room
Walking into a room full of scrap and grabbing at random wastes the slot you cannot get back. Use a fixed order.
- Zero-weight items first. Zed Dog, Beehive, Perfume Bottle, Laser Pointer and Teeth cost nothing to carry. There is never a reason to leave them.
- High value-per-weight next. Toilet Paper, Easter Egg, Hairdryer, Old Phone, Coffee Mug. These fill slots without slowing you.
- Mid-weight value if hands remain. Egg, Fancy Lamp, Red Soda.
- Heavy items last, and only near the exit. Gold Bar, Cash Register, Apparatus.
- Skip C tier entirely unless the room is empty of everything else.
That order means a diver who has to run mid-room is already carrying the dense, portable value. Dropping one heavy item recovers most of the speed.
Train the crew on it once. After that it is automatic, and automatic decisions are the ones that survive a chase.
Common mistakes
- Grabbing the biggest number in the room. Price alone never tells you what to carry.
- Keeping heavy loot while being chased. Drop it. The scrap respawns; the run does not.
- Ignoring the zero-weight items. Zed Dog and Beehive are free money.
- Taking the Beehive without a plan. It pays 95 credits, and it wakes Circuit Bees the moment you lift it.
Related guides
- Scrap guide — how to loot a room and what to leave.
- Quota guide — planning a day that clears the target.
- Survival guide — stamina, exits, and getting back alive.
- Scrap database — all 70 items with value, weight and flags.