To buy the store in Probably Stolen, pay the landlord the deed price in cash on a rent day, or take the Loan Shark's mortgage and pay it off. Here's what each costs and every ending.
Key takeaways
- Buying the store is the win. You can pay cash on a Sunday or clear a 12-week mortgage, and you can keep playing afterwards.
- On Mark Up, the normal difficulty, the deed starts at 12,000 credits and the mortgage works out at 13,160 in total.
- There are 17 endings, and only the two buyouts are wins.
How do you buy the store in Probably Stolen?
You buy it from the landlord, and only on rent day. The developers' 1.0 launch post calls this the ending: "Buy the store from the landlord and become its rightful owner." You then get your run's stats, including your most profitable sale, days survived, total worth and perks earned.
Rent day is Sunday. You can't buy earlier in the week, even if you already have the money. Day 1 is a Monday, so Day 7 is your first rent day. You can buy on any rent day, as long as you have the full price in credits.
In the demo I never got near buying the shop on Rock Bottom. I saw the option when I was checking the rent prices on the calendar. In the full game on Mark Up, the calendar on Day 1 reads "The current value of the property is 12000 Credits." So the calendar is where you check the price.
How much does the store cost?
It depends on your difficulty. These are the base deed prices:
- Price Gouge (the easiest): 12,000 credits
- Mark Up (normal): 12,000 credits
- Thin Margins (hard): 24,000 credits
- Red Ink (challenge): 36,000 credits
The base price holds from Day 1 to Day 50 and starts going up from Day 51, so a long run costs you more. Check your own calendar for the current price before you plan around it.
There's also a business permit to budget for: 500 credits on Price Gouge, 1,500 on Mark Up, 2,000 on Thin Margins and 3,000 on Red Ink. In my demo run on Rock Bottom, a business permit official came to my counter on Day 31, right as I stopped, so I never found out what they wanted.
How does the Loan Shark mortgage work?
The Loan Shark is the other way to own the store. He first turns up on Day 5, a man in a bowler hat and red tie from the Black Market, offering to lend you the money. On Mark Up he wants 2,000 down and then 930 credits every rent day for 12 weeks, at 50% yearly interest.
Turning him down for good is permanent for that run. Otherwise he comes back on Sundays once you have 5,000 credits. Here's what the mortgage costs in total on each difficulty:
- Price Gouge: 2,500 down, then 1,233 a week for 8 weeks: 12,364 in total
- Mark Up: 2,000 down, then 930 a week for 12 weeks: 13,160 in total
- Thin Margins: 3,000 down, then 1,615 a week for 16 weeks: 28,840 in total
- Red Ink: 7,000 down, then 2,370 a week for 16 weeks: 44,920 in total
So on Mark Up you pay 1,160 more than the 12,000 cash price. You're paying that for the store now instead of in a few months' time. If you can save 12,000 before Day 50, cash is cheaper. If you can't, the mortgage gets you there, as long as every payment lands.
Miss a payment and the Loan Shark takes goods worth up to that payment from your store, leaving a Repo Slip. If you don't have enough stock for him to take, he seizes the store and the run ends. That's the Repossession ending.
I'd save up. Nothing about the Loan Shark, or any of the other merchants who come through, seems to be in my favour. In the demo, selling to them was at a 15% loss and buying from them was at a 50% markup.
Can you keep playing after you buy the store?
Yes. The two buyout endings are wins that let you carry on. The run summary after a buyout has a Continue button next to Main Menu, while a loss only gives you Main Menu.
The developers' own patch notes for hotfix 1.0.0.5 back this up: "The Merchant now keeps visiting every Sunday after you buy the store." So the shop keeps running once it's yours.
If you want a run with no buyout target at all, Endless Mode is on the Difficulty screen. Its description warns that "Certain scripted events and customers will not spawn."
How many endings does Probably Stolen have?
Probably Stolen has 17 endings:
- 2 wins: both are buyouts, one paid in cash and one by clearing the mortgage.
- 15 losses: rent, the mortgage, Lou, the law, the permit, faction reputation and a few perk-specific ones.
Two of the losses are easy to miss. One is Assassinated, when your Upper Levels reputation hits -100. The other is No Permit, when you still don't have a business permit once enforcement starts. The developers haven't published an official count.
What are all the endings in Probably Stolen?
Here's every ending and what triggers it.
- Buyout (store bought): pay the deed price to the landlord on a rent day. A win.
- Buyout (mortgage paid): make the last mortgage payment to the Loan Shark. A win.
- You Defaulted On Your Rent: miss rent with no Rent Grace left. Price Gouge and Mark Up start you with one grace, and Thin Margins and Red Ink start you with none.
- Repossession: miss a mortgage payment without enough stock for the Loan Shark to take.
- Bombed (Lou's debt): fall short on Lou's final demand of 1,500 credits. Have the full amount ready when she comes to collect.
- Bombed (Lou's toys): a toy is missing, or the box is gone, when Lou collects her toy box.
- Arrested: a case of 300 to 1,499 credits, or an unpaid fine.
- Executed: a case of 1,500 credits or more.
- Framed: Security reputation at -100.
- Lynched: Lower Levels reputation at -100. A mob storms the store.
- Bombed (Revolution): Revolution reputation at -100.
- Assassinated: Upper Levels reputation at -100.
- Retired: Cartel reputation at -100, or crossing the Cartel.
- No Permit: no business permit when enforcement starts.
- Sentinel Collapse: too many nights without an Immunivax injection, with the Sentinel Collapse Disorder perk.
- Augmented: Aug presence reaches 100 at the start of a day. It can come up on Thin Margins, Red Ink or with the Aug Menace perk.
- Meltdown: the Makeshift Reactor's integrity reaches zero, with the Makeshift Reactor perk.
Most of these you'll only see if you go looking. The three to watch on a normal run are rent, the mortgage and the business permit, because they're all about cash on a deadline. For Lou, who's behind two of the bombs, see the Probably Stolen wanted list.
The developers flagged one of the perk endings themselves before launch: "do not play with Sentinel Collapse Disorder on your first run. Seriously, don't."
How do you avoid losing before you can buy the store?
Keep the rent paid first. I hecked up my rent in the demo. I missed the first one on Day 7, the missed week stacked on top of the next, and on Day 14 I owed 420. In the full game, missing rent with no grace left ends the run, and Mark Up only starts you with one grace. The shop economy guide covers how Rent Grace moves a missed payment into the next week.
After that, it's the permit and staying above -100 with every faction that has an ending. Black Market is the one faction with no -100 ending. Your choice of start changes which of these you'll run into, and the best starting specialization guide covers how each start draws inspections or raids.
Which achievements come from buying the store?
Two are just for owning the deed: Keys to the Kingdom ("Own the deed to the store.") and Prodigious ("Own the store deed before day 50."). On Steam's global achievement stats, 24.0% of players have Keys to the Kingdom and 5.5% have Prodigious. Since the deed price starts rising on Day 51, going for Prodigious also gets you the store at its cheapest.
Three more need a win on top. Clean Hands is winning without selling a stolen or contraband item (2.1%). From Nothing is winning from Rock Bottom (2.6%), and From Nothing, the Hard Way is the same on hard mode (2.0%). I played Rock Bottom twice in the demo and got to Day 31 on the longer run, nowhere near the deed.
From Nothing on Rock Bottom is the one I'd likely go for. Rock Bottom was way interesting, because you got to use the perks straight away, and I liked the picking of the perks. It made me think of Project Zomboid.
FAQ
How do you buy the store in Probably Stolen?
Pay the landlord the deed price on a rent day (Sunday), or take the Loan Shark's mortgage and make every weekly payment.
How much is the store in Probably Stolen?
12,000 credits on Price Gouge and Mark Up, 24,000 on Thin Margins and 36,000 on Red Ink, rising from Day 51. Check the calendar in game for your current price.
How many endings does Probably Stolen have?
- Only the two buyouts are wins; the other 15 end your run.
Does Probably Stolen end when you buy the store?
No. Both buyout endings give you a Continue button, and the Merchant keeps visiting on Sundays after you own the store.
