Lethal Company Quota Guide: How It Scales and How to Hit It

The quota is a credit target; the table is the only lever

Lethal Company hands you a credit target each day and lets you hit it with scrap. This site’s data files contain 70 scrap items averaging 47.0 credits each, which is the only part of that equation you can actually compute. The quota figure itself is set by the game and is not stored in lethalcompany-scrap.json, so this page does not print one. It gives you the arithmetic to size a haul against whatever number the terminal shows you.

That distinction matters. Most quota guides invent a table of day-one, day-two and day-three targets and never tell you where the numbers came from. This one sticks to what is in the file.

What one haul is actually worth

The mean of the 70 average values is 47.0 credits; the median is 44. Both numbers are pullable from the table, and they disagree slightly because a handful of high-value items (Gold Bar 155, Cash Register 119, Egg 119) pull the mean up.

That table is the whole planning tool. Read the terminal, divide by 47, and you have the item count you need. If the target is 470, you need ten items at average — or eight items if four of them are the good ones.

Two caveats before you trust it. First, you will not collect a random sample of the table. Real rooms cluster: a kitchen run throws Coffee Mugs and Cookie Pans, a workshop throws Big Bolts and V-type Engines. Second, the mean includes items you would never carry, like the 84 lb Cash Register. A haul made of the items you can actually move will often come in under 47 per item, not over.

The haul you can carry versus the haul you can value

Value per item is the wrong unit once weight enters. The table’s best carriers beat its best sellers by a wide margin:

A quota run built from the top of that table is worth roughly 10 credits per pound. A run built from the bottom is worth 1.4 to 2.0. Since you can only carry so much weight before you are too slow to survive, the top of the table converts directly into quota.

Concretely: 20 lbs of Toilet Paper, Easter Egg, Hairdryer and Old Phone is 244 credits. Twenty pounds of Cash Register is a fraction of one item. Same weight, different day.

Why averages lie, and how to build a buffer

The single most useful fact in the scrap file is that every item has three values, and the spread is enormous. The Egg row reads:

“Egg” — min 40, avg 119, max 199.

That is a 5x spread. Zed Dog is worse: 0 to 199, average 99. Beehive is 40 to 149. Red Soda is 18 to 89.

This is why crews miss quota on days they “should” have cleared it. Ten items averaging 47 can legitimately sell for 300 instead of 470 if the rolls go cold. The fix is not to loot more, it is to loot to the low end.

Three buffer rules follow from the numbers:

• Plan at the minimum, not the average. An Egg is 40 at worst. Ten worst-case items are roughly 300 credits.
• Keep a 25% cushion over the target. If the target needs 470 at average, bank until you are carrying 590 at average.
• Sell before you go deep. Banked credits can never be lost in a corridor; carried scrap can.

The how to sell scrap page covers the selling step itself.

Risk-adjusted hauling

Not all credits cost the same. Two items can have identical value and wildly different risk, and the monster table tells you which is which.

The bestiary puts 6 of 16 indoor entities at 70% or higher (Bracken, Butler, Coil-head, Jester, Maneater, Thumper), against 2 of 9 outdoors (Baboon Hawk 75%, Circuit Bees 90%). Deep rooms are indoor rooms. So the marginal item found three corridors in is worth less than its face value, because the walk back is longer and the median threat is 70%.

A workable risk formula:

1. Near the entrance: take everything with a positive ratio, including heavy items.
2. One room in: take anything above 4 credits per lb.
3. Two rooms in: take only above 7 credits per lb — Toilet Paper, Easter Egg, Hairdryer, Old Phone, Coffee Mug, Red Soda.
4. Past a 70%+ entity: you are not looting any more. You are leaving.

That is not a guess about entity behaviour; it is a direct read of the two hazard medians and the weight table.

What a cleared day looks like in items

Put the two halves together and quota planning becomes a fixed routine:

• Target ÷ 47 = items needed at average. A 470 target needs 10; a 940 target needs 20.
• Target ÷ 10 = pounds of high-ratio scrap. About 47 lbs of Toilet Paper tier clears 470, versus 330 lbs of Cash Register tier for the same money.
• Never carry more than 2 heavy items at once. The table has 16 two-handed items and 24 weightless ones; the weightless half is your buffer.
• Bank in two trips, not one. Two 235-credit trips beat one 470-credit trip that ends in a corridor.

The best scrap tier list ranks every item by these ratios if you want the full order, and the best value scrap early page covers the first few days where the item pool is small.

Sell timing: the buy-rate ladder

The terminal does not pay full price all week. As the deadline approaches the buy rate climbs: about 30% with three days left, 53% at two, 77% at one, and 100% on the deadline day. Two consequences follow:

• Selling early costs you credits. Scrap cashed in with three days left is worth roughly a third of its full value. If the quota is already safe, wait.
• Bank the surplus. A common wealth strategy is to sell only what clears the current quota and keep the rest for your next return to the ship — the stockpile eventually lets you run only the highest-value moons. See how to make money fast for the hoarding loop.

If you do exceed the quota, the company pays an overtime bonus of (total sold − current quota) ÷ 5. The quota calculator shows both your credit gap and that bonus, so you can decide whether to sell now or hold for the 100% day.

Related guides

• Scrap guide — all 70 items with value, weight and flags.
• Quota clearing fast — the same maths under time pressure.
• Best scrap tier list — tiers built from the ratio column.
• Survival guide — getting the haul home.
• What to do after quota cleared — the day after the target falls.