The Flashlight is the first thing most crews buy and the first thing most crews run out of.
It costs 15 credits, it uses battery, and the store itself describes its charge as low. That word is the whole guide.
What you are actually buying
Facilities are dark. Rooms you have not cleared are darker. Without a light you are navigating by memory and by the shape of the doorway in front of you, which is how crews walk into entities they would have seen.
The Flashlight buys you information. It is not a weapon and it is not protection — it is the difference between seeing a threat early and meeting it at arm’s length.
The battery is the constraint
Because the charge is low, the Flashlight is a timed resource, not a permanent one.
That changes how a run should be paced. If your light is the only one in the group, then the group’s working time inside the facility is the working time of that battery. Crews that ignore this end up doing the most dangerous part of the run — the walk back, loaded with scrap, through rooms they have already half-forgotten — in the dark.
Two habits fix it:
Buy a second light rather than one good one. Two standard Flashlights cost 30 credits and give you a spare when the first dies. One Pro-Flashlight costs 25 and gives you one battery that lasts longer.
Treat a dead light as a signal to leave. If the light is out, the trip is over. The scrap you could still get is not worth the walk back you would have to make blind.
Light versus noise
The store description is specific about this. The Flashlight is a light source. The Boombox is the item described as counting as a sound source.
That distinction is worth holding on to, because it means the thing that lets you see is not the thing that announces you. Crews sometimes avoid using lights for fear of being noticed, when the item that actually draws attention is the music player somebody brought as a joke.
When to upgrade to the Pro-Flashlight
The Pro-Flashlight costs 25 credits and its listed advantage is a larger battery than the standard one. Same job, longer working time.
Upgrade when your crew is staying out long enough to lose a standard light before the looting is done. That usually happens once the crew is confident enough to push deeper into a facility instead of grabbing the first rooms and leaving.
Do not upgrade on day one. Ten credits is a real difference when the quota is tight, and a crew that is still dying to basic threats is not limited by battery life.
Who should carry the light
The person reading the route, not the person carrying the heaviest scrap.
Your inventory has limited space, and something has to be dropped when you pick up loot. A player hauling a heavy item back to the ship has their hands full, which is why the light belongs with whoever is walking in front and choosing where the group goes next.
If only one person in the group has a light, the group moves at that person’s pace and stops when they stop. Two lights mean the group can split a hallway without one half of it going blind.
What the dark actually costs
The Flashlight is usually described as a convenience. It is not, because there are three specific things you cannot do in the dark.
You cannot see the ceiling. Snare Fleas drop from above, and the only warning is seeing one before it lands.
You cannot see the floor. Landmines are on the ground, and a chain reaction from one is run-ending.
You cannot find your way back. The walk out is the part everyone underestimates, and it is the part you make in the dark if the light died inside.
None of those are solved by knowing the map well. They are solved by seeing.
Related guides
- Pro-Flashlight guide — whether the 25-credit upgrade is worth it.
- Best equipment tier list — the full buying order.
- How to survive the night — what happens when the light runs out outside.