Stamina is the resource crews forget about until they need it, and needing it means something is chasing you.
It is also the resource that punishes the most common habit in the game: sprinting everywhere with your hands full.
What it is for
Stamina buys running. Running is what ends a chase, gets you out of a collapsing situation, and covers the last stretch to the ship with something behind you.
Everything else — walking, looting, scanning, opening doors — runs on the clock rather than on stamina. That is why stamina feels unlimited right up to the moment it is the only thing that matters.
What drains it
Sprinting, obviously. The mistake is not sprinting, it is sprinting while loaded, which spends the resource fastest exactly when you are least able to replace it.
Weight. A heavy load slows you and makes each sprint cost more. This is the hidden tax on the “one big item” strategy, and it is part of why the ratio table wins.
Difficult ground and recovery. Getting knocked around and getting back up costs time and stamina, and a fall with full hands is one of the worst things that can happen on the walk out.
The habits that keep it
Walk by default. Sprint when something is behind you or when the day is ending, not between rooms. A crew that sprints through a facility arrives at the first real threat with nothing left.
Empty your hands before you run. If you are carrying something heavy and something appears behind you, drop it and run light. Distance beats value.
Pace to the slowest player. A crew moves at the speed of its most loaded member, and the player who sprints ahead is not helping anybody, including themselves.
What it does not do
Stamina does not make you faster than everything. Some entities are simply faster in a straight line, which is why corners, doors and leaving early matter more than a full stamina bar.
The chase guide is about the situations where running is the wrong answer entirely.
The one item that helps
The TZP-Inhalant, at 120 credits, is the only store item that addresses stamina directly: the store lists it as making you move faster and use less stamina.
That is a genuine effect and a real price. It matters most to the player hauling heavy loads, because that is the player whose every sprint is expensive. For everyone else it is a comfort purchase, and the buying order puts it near the bottom.
Between trips
Stamina recovers while you stand still, and the ship is where that happens.
The crews that farm fastest are not the ones who sprint from the moment they land. They are the ones who sell, take ten seconds at the terminal while their stamina comes back, and land again with a full bar. Three short trips run that way beat three short trips run on an empty tank, because the third trip of the day is the one where you meet something.
On a quota sprint day this matters more than usual, because you are going to be running the same route several times and the last one is the one that has to succeed.
The crew version
Stamina is a crew resource in one specific sense: the group’s stamina is limited by its most loaded member.
If one player is carrying a 77-pound bar, the crew is not running anywhere. That player sets the pace, the turnaround, and the distance the group can cover before the day ends.
The fix is not to tell that player to hurry. It is to stop handing them the heavy thing.
Related guides
- How to carry heavy scrap — why weight is the real cost of a big haul.
- TZP-Inhalant guide — the one store item that reduces it.
- How to escape a chase — when running is and is not the answer.