One diver, two hands, and a 70% median
Solo Lethal Company is the same game with the safety net removed. The numbers that matter simplify to three: you have two hands, the indoor median entity rating is 70%, and the best carrier in the scrap table returns 14.60 credits per pound while the worst returns 0.45. Everything else is detail.
This page reads only from src/data/lethalcompany-scrap.json (70 items) and src/data/lethalcompany-monsters.json (25 entities), both parsed from lethalcompany.wiki.gg. There are no estimates below.
What solo actually costs you
A four-player crew splits weight across eight hands. A solo diver gets two. That difference shows up in the achievable haul:
- 8 to 10 items is a realistic solo run at the table’s 47.0 average = 376 to 470 credits.
- Zero weight items are free: 24 of 70 weigh 0 lbs, and they are the solo diver’s best friend.
- 16 items are two-handed, which for a solo diver means no light, no fight, no sprint with a free hand.
- 6 of 16 indoor entities rate 70%+, and there is nobody to open the door behind you.
The solo goal is not a big haul. It is a repeatable haul: eight good items, banked, twice, beats one run with a Cash Register that never made it out.
The solo carry list
These are the eight items that a single diver can move at speed and still profit from.
| Item | Avg value | Weight | Credits per lb | Hands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toilet Paper | 73 | 5 lbs | 14.60 | Two |
| Easter Egg | 37 | 3 lbs | 12.33 | One |
| Hairdryer | 79 | 7 lbs | 11.29 | One |
| Old Phone | 55 | 5 lbs | 11.00 | One |
| Coffee Mug | 45 | 5 lbs | 9.00 | One |
| Red Soda | 53 | 7 lbs | 7.57 | One |
| Egg | 119 | 19 lbs | 6.26 | Two |
| Magnifying Glass | 51 | 11 lbs | 4.64 | One |
Six of the eight are one-handed, which matters more solo than in a crew: the free hand is your flashlight, your shovel and your second item slot all at once.
The two-handed entries need a decision. Egg at 119 credits is the best two-handed value in the file and worth the trade in a quiet facility. Toilet Paper has the best ratio in the game at 14.60, and at 5 lbs the weight penalty is almost nothing — the cost is purely the free hand.
What to leave on the floor, solo
Heavy scrap is a crew problem that a solo diver should not adopt.
| Item | Avg value | Weight | Credits per lb | Solo verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash Register | 119 | 84 lbs | 1.42 | Never |
| Gold Bar | 155 | 77 lbs | 2.01 | Only within sight of the ship |
| Yield Sign | 27 | 42 lbs | 0.64 | Never |
| Chemical Jug | 57 | 32 lbs | 1.78 | Never |
| Apparatus | 80 | 31 lbs | 2.58 | Only near the exit |
| Panting | 91 | 31 lbs | 2.94 | Only near the exit |
Seven items in the table weigh 30 lbs or more. Together they average 84 credits each — respectable numbers attached to a category of item that a solo diver cannot run with. The Cash Register alone is 84 lbs: one item, 4.2 times the weight of the entire four-item light haul (20 lbs, 244 credits).
The rule that follows is simple: if it weighs more than 20 lbs, a solo diver only picks it up on the last room. Anything heavier than 30 lbs needs the exit already in view.
The four entities that end solo runs
Crews survive high-hazard entities by having a second body. Solo, the same rows become run-enders.
| Entity | Hazard | Power | HP | Max | What it means solo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jester | 90% | 3 | Invincible | 1 | No fight exists |
| Thumper | 90% | — | — | — | No documented kill threshold |
| Coil-head | 80% | — | — | — | Retreat on sight |
| Nutcracker | N/A | 1 | 5 | 10 | Killable once, not ten times |
| Bracken | 70% | 3 | 5 | 1 | Killable, but it escalates when watched |
The Jester is the clean case. HP reads Invincible, power is 3, and its log entry says “You cant hide from it, just evacuate.” Solo, there is no version of that encounter you win. You leave.
The Nutcracker is the trap. It looks killable — 5 HP, one hitbox — and it is, once. But its max spawn is 10, the highest in the file, so “kill it” is not a strategy a solo diver can repeat in a corridor.
The Bracken is the one genuine solo fight: 5 HP across 2 hitboxes, max 1, so you will never face two. But its log warns that it “ups their hostility when cornered or simply watched for a long time”, which means the fight has to be one clean engagement, not a staredown.
The depth budget
Solo runs fail at the far end of the facility, not the near end. Set a depth budget per item and stick to it:
- First two rooms: take anything above 4 credits per lb. Magnifying Glass, Egg, Coffee Mug are all in range.
- Third room: raise the bar to 7 credits per lb. Red Soda, Old Phone, Hairdryer, Easter Egg.
- Fourth room: 10 credits per lb or nothing. Toilet Paper, Easter Egg, Hairdryer.
- Past any 70%+ confirmation: zero. The run is over; the haul is whatever is in your hands.
- Turn back at six items, not eight. Six items at 47 average is 282 credits — a banked run.
The reasoning is arithmetic rather than superstition. Each room deeper adds distance you must re-cover at your current weight, and your weight only goes up. The expected value of the next item falls faster than the risk rises, which is why the ratio threshold climbs with depth.
Dropping under pressure
When something high-band closes, you have about one decision’s worth of time. Make it mechanical:
- Drop two-handed heavies first — Cash Register (84 lbs), Chemical Jug (32), Apparatus (31), Panting (31).
- Keep one-handed light value — Hairdryer, Old Phone, Coffee Mug, Easter Egg.
- Never stop to pick something up while being chased. Nothing in the table is worth a second pass.
- Keep the weightless layer. 24 items at 0 lbs cannot be the reason you are slow.
That order means a diver who drops one heavy item recovers most of their speed without losing the dense value. It is the same principle the how to carry heavy scrap page works through in detail.
What solo changes about the bestiary
Nothing in the monster table is different when you play alone — the same 25 rows, the same 18 ratings, the same 70% indoor median. What changes is your tolerance.
Solo, the top band is 8 entities at 70%+ across the whole bestiary (6 indoor, 2 outdoor). Crews can sometimes absorb one of those. A solo diver cannot absorb any of them, because there is nobody to distract, revive or open the far door. So the practical solo rule is: treat 70% as 100%, and route accordingly.
The enemy guide has the full sorted table if you want to check a specific row, and the Bracken guide is the only fight page that matters much for a solo run.
Related guides
- Co-op guide — the same maths with eight hands instead of two.
- Scrap guide — all 70 items by ratio.
- Survival guide — exits and the walk back.
- Best solo loadout — what to carry when nobody is covering you.
- Enemy guide — the 25-row bestiary.