Lethal Company Mistakes That Cost Runs — Five, Quantified

Five mistakes, five numbers

Most “common mistakes” lists are vibes. This one is arithmetic. Every mistake below costs a measurable amount, and every measurement comes from src/data/lethalcompany-scrap.json (70 items) and src/data/lethalcompany-monsters.json (25 entities), both parsed from lethalcompany.wiki.gg.

The headline: the worst carrier in the scrap table returns 0.45 credits per pound and the best returns 14.60. That is a 32-fold gap, and almost every doomed run sits somewhere inside it.

Mistake 1: buying the biggest number on the floor

The two highest average values in the file are also two of the worst carries:

Ranks are taken across the 46 items in the table that weigh more than nothing; the 24 weightless rows win the ratio column by default.

A crew that grabs the Gold Bar and the Cash Register is carrying 161 lbs for 274 credits. A crew that grabs Toilet Paper, Easter Egg, Hairdryer and Old Phone is carrying 20 lbs for 244 credits.

The second crew is 141 lbs lighter for 30 credits less. That is not a trade-off. That is the whole game.

The correction: rank by credits per pound, not by the number printed on the item. Anything below 2 credits per pound should only be picked up within sight of the ship.

Mistake 2: reading N/A as harmless

Seven of 25 bestiary rows have no usable hazard number. Crews treat those as free passes, which is the second most expensive habit in the game.

The Nutcracker is the proof that blank is not safe. It has no danger rating and the highest spawn cap in the entire file at 10. It also has the cleanest kill profile — 5 HP, one hitbox — which is exactly why crews underestimate it and then meet three.

The correction: a blank row gets treated as at least as dangerous as the 70% band. You lose nothing by retreating from an N/A entity. You lose the run by walking past one.

Mistake 3: filling both hands without counting the cost

Sixteen of 70 items are two-handed. On its own that is a stat. In a facility whose indoor median hazard is 70%, it is a death sentence with a receipt.

The two-handed list, with weights: Apparatus 31, Beehive 0, Bottles 19, Cash Register 84, Chemical Jug 32, Control Pad 16, Egg 19, Fancy Lamp 21, Garbage Lid 0, Large Axle 16, Panting 31, Player Body 11, Ribcage 0, Soccer Ball 19, Toilet Paper 5, V-type Engine 16.

Most of those are fine. Two are not:

• Cash Register — 84 lbs, two-handed, 1.42 per lb. You cannot fight, you cannot light the corridor, and you cannot run. That is three losses for 119 credits.
• Player Body — 11 lbs, two-handed, 5 credits. Do not pick up a corpse.

And two are genuinely worth the hands: Egg (119 at 19 lbs) and Toilet Paper (73 at 5 lbs). Both are high enough on the ratio column to justify losing your flashlight for one trip.

The correction: before lifting a two-handed item, ask what it costs you in speed and in tools. If the answer is “both hands and 84 lbs”, the item is not loot, it is a trap.

Mistake 4: leaving the 24 weightless items

Twenty-four of 70 items weigh 0 lbs. They total 929 credits at average values — 28% of the table’s entire 3,290-credit sum, available at zero carry cost. Crews walk past them because they look like junk.

The seven worth knowing:

Zed Dog at 99 credits for zero weight and one hand is the best economic item in the game by that measure. Perfume Bottle and Teeth are 146 credits between them and cost nothing to carry.

Beehive is the one with a string attached: 95 credits, 0 lbs, but two-handed and it brings Circuit Bees at 90% — the joint-highest serious rating in the bestiary. Take it near the ship, skip it far from it.

The correction: check the weight column before the value column. If an item weighs nothing, the only question left is whether it costs you a hand.

Mistake 5: planning the haul to the average

Scrap has a minimum, an average and a maximum, and the gap is huge:

A crew that counts ten items and assumes 47 credits each is planning for 470. If those ten roll low, the same haul is closer to 300. That is how a run “should have cleared” and did not.

The correction: plan at the minimum, or plan at the average and add 25%. Ten worst-case Eggs are 400 credits, not 1,190.

The corrections in one table

Five rules, all derivable from two JSON files, and together they cover most of what actually ends runs. The scrap guide has the full table if you want to check any item yourself, and the survival guide covers the exit side of the same problem.

Where the data is silent

Two of the mistakes people talk about most are not measurable from these files: getting lost, and splitting the crew. Neither the scrap table nor the bestiary records layout or player position, so any percentage attached to “most deaths are navigation” is invented. This page does not offer one.

What the data does support is the mechanism: a lost diver is a slow diver, and 16 of 70 items are two-handed while the indoor median threat is 70%. Being lost with a Cash Register is a specific, calculable kind of doomed. Being lost empty-handed is survivable. That is as far as the numbers go, and it is enough.

Related guides

• Scrap guide — all 70 items by ratio.
• Enemy guide — the 25-row bestiary table.
• Enemy guide: indoor — the 70% median explained.
• Quota guide — planning to the minimum instead of the average.
• Tips and tricks — the habits that replace these five.