Probably Stolen Beginner Guide: Apprentice Opening
Follow a Probably Stolen Apprentice opening through customers, budgets, displays, inspection, storage, and rent without assuming unsupported routes or outcomes.
Why start with Apprentice?
Apprentice is the generalist scenario that the developer presents for new players. Instead of beginning with a specialist production line, it lets you learn ordinary buying, selling, inspection, and shop upgrades as the run develops. That makes it the clearest route through the supplied opening-day evidence.
Rock Bottom is the explicit high-difficulty alternative, while Water Merchant, Gunsmith, Chemist, and the other starts add their own business concerns. You can compare all nine on the main wiki page, but the sequence below stays with Apprentice.
A recorded walkthrough chooses Price Gouge as its relaxed difficulty option. That difficulty label and its exact effects are Unconfirmed community observations; choose the current in-game setting that matches the experience you want.
What should you learn before opening?
Take a moment to identify the shutter, trading counter, customer-call control, tablet, display area, documents, storage, and sleeping area. The game’s overlay is the most direct record of controls in your build.
The Mentor’s notes are part of the opening instruction, so read them instead of treating every document as immediate vendor trash. The dossier or handbook provides a place to retain reference material. Documents that become disposable later are a separate inventory decision covered in the tips guide.
Also check the calendar and decide which money is reserved for required payments. The shop cannot trade its way out of trouble if every Credit is tied up in stock. The money guide explains that reserve in more detail.
How does the first counter flow work?
The community-recorded opening walkthrough, whose exact sequence is Unconfirmed for 1.0, follows this repeatable basic flow:
- Open the shutter to begin the trading day.
- Use the green counter control to call the next visitor.
- Determine whether the visitor wants to buy, sell, or deliver a scripted interaction.
- Read the offer, budget, and Interests information before committing.
- Complete or decline the transaction, then call the next customer.
- Close the shop, handle overnight needs, and use the sleeping area to advance.
Exact queue sizes and scripted arrivals vary or belong to a particular recorded run. One walkthrough reports five initial customers and a 5-Credit overnight electricity payment; both figures are Unconfirmed and should not be treated as universal opening costs.
The important lesson is to use the information on the receipt or tablet. If a buyer wants food and has a fixed budget, assemble wanted goods within that budget rather than offering unrelated high-value stock.
What changes during the next opening days?
The recorded Apprentice run introduces wholesale offers, a bag, bandages, and trips to the Dumping Grounds after the first basic trading lesson. Wholesale can improve unit cost, but it can also fill storage with goods you do not understand. Buy selectively when a full bundle would endanger rent or leave no likely buyer.
Scavenging is presented as an optional source of additional stock with meaningful trade-offs. The walkthrough reports limited attempts, possible injuries, and a missed customer after staying out late. Those exact penalties are Unconfirmed, but they are enough to reject the idea that scavenging is free money. Check the shown risks before leaving and keep essential shop work first.
Another early lesson puts an item on display and later attracts a customer interested in that category. Use this as a targeting lesson: display what you want to trade, then read the customer information. Do not assume that any expensive object improves every kind of traffic.
How should you inspect unfamiliar merchandise?
The Mentor introduces reference documents and the Magnifying Glass through a counterfeit-cigarette example. The walkthrough compares packaging details such as the seal, logo, and color with the identification guide. This community-recorded lesson sequence is Unconfirmed for 1.0. The useful habit is to inspect before paying the authentic-item price, not to memorize one package as the answer for every product.
A broader inspection routine is:
- Decide whether the item fits your business and is worth the inspection time.
- Place it on the inspection counter and choose the relevant tool.
- Compare condition and identifying details with the matching guide.
- Adjust or reject the deal based on what you can actually verify.
The appraisal guide separates this ordinary inspection from the paid Appraisal Board estimate service. This guide does not provide instructions for passing counterfeit goods off as genuine; the safest beginner approach is accurate evaluation and pricing.
When should you change the display or storage?
Change the display when your desired customer changes, not merely because a slot is empty. A community walkthrough recommends reviewing Clientele information, and playtest reports recommend checking the expected-customer panel near the case. Exact percentage effects are Unconfirmed, but both sources make the display an active shop decision.
For storage, give incoming goods, reserved production materials, and ready-to-sell stock distinct destinations. This prevents an unprocessed item from being mistaken for finished stock and makes post-day cleanup faster. Rotation, flipping, and category examples are in the item reference.
Is the toothbrush-to-pressurizers-to-hub route valid?
TBC: the supplied material does not substantiate a progression from a toothbrush to pressurizers and then to a hub. It provides no reliable items, prices, unlock conditions, or sequence for that route. Do not treat this phrase as a recommended beginner build order.
Use the evidenced Apprentice fundamentals first: counter literacy, customer interests, inspection, relevant displays, and a protected rent reserve. If a current in-game manual establishes the toothbrush route later, it can be documented with its actual steps rather than inferred from a search phrase.