How to play Probably Stolen
If you have twenty minutes and no patience for a video, this is the loop in the order it actually happens.
Before the first customer
The opening choice is a specialization, and it is a choice about which problem you want first. Apprentice gives you cash, storage and sellable stock; the launch reviews describe it as the tutorial line. Rock Bottom gives you the store and nothing else. Everything in between is a trade with its own paperwork.
Do not spend the first session trying to find the best start. Spend it learning three things: where the rent number lives, which inspection verb belongs to which item, and how the counter reacts when you refuse a sale. Those three answers carry you through every specialization.
- Choose a start you can afford to lose
Nine scenarios are playable, and Apprentice is the one tagged for new players: 550 credits on Normal against a 200-credit first rent, plus a storage bay and sellable stock. Rock Bottom gives you the store and nothing else. Take the cushion first; the rent cycle is easier to learn with one.
- Read the customer before the stock
Security, revolutionaries, fallen elites and Augs want different things from the same shelf. The counter gives you four moves — approve, refuse, report or look away — and the game is explicit that someone is always taking notes.
- Inspect, then price
Cigarettes need a visual check, water needs testing and filtering, weapons need permits and mods, chemicals need recipes, rare items need appraisal. Buying without the matching check is how a cheap lot becomes an expensive week.
- Pay rent before you reinvest
Rent rises over time regardless of how the week went, and one bad purchase or one illegal bust can end the business. Set the next payment aside before you spend on stock.
- Pick the trouble you can manage
Weapons bring inspections, chemicals bring addiction, water brings liability, contraband brings raids. The store page frames specialization as choosing which kind of trouble you are willing to monetise, which is the most useful sentence in it.
Counter actions
The binds are documented in the developer’s patch notes and carried into 1.0: mouse for the counter and the inspection panel, 1–9 for toolbox slots, Shift + drag to multi-select, right-click to sort, the wheel to rotate or flip an item, Delete to discard and Esc to close. There is no controller support, and Steam Deck is rated Playable rather than Verified — expect a community layout or the touchscreen.
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Mouse | Serve the customer, open the inspection panel, set a price |
| 1–9 | Toolbox slots — the hotbar for tools and consumables |
| Shift + drag | Multi-select items in the inventory grid |
| Right-click | Sort the inventory |
| Mouse wheel | Rotate or flip an item while placing it |
| Delete / Esc | Discard the held item / close the panel or leave equip mode |
What usually goes wrong
- Buying a lot you cannot test, because it was cheap. The discount is the seller’s estimate of the risk, not yours.
- Treating rent as a cost you pay from what is left. Rent comes first; everything else is optional.
- Reporting one week and fencing the next. Consistency is what makes a faction trust you, and trust is the only protection that does not expire.
- Shooting on a hunch. The Aug policy is unanimous, irreversible, and officially publishes no tells.
- Expanding before the current line turns over without you. Capacity is a fixed cost before it is an income.
Difficulty, in one paragraph
Four settings, chosen separately from the scenario: Price Gouge (Cozy), Mark Up (Normal, the default), Thin Margins (Hard) and Red Ink (Challenge, which sits on the second page of the difficulty screen). The launch build reports a small display inconsistency where a card says 2% while the applied rent rise is 2.5%; assume the number that moves your balance is the real one.
Learn the loop on Mark Up. Cozy hides the rent spiral that the game is about, and Hard is a test of a strategy you have not built yet. If you want the pressure without the punishment, take Cozy and a start with a higher rent line — Fence or Hydroponic Farmer — so the lesson stays.
When you are ready for more
The archive goes deeper on each system: the nine starts, the rent cycle, the counter conversation, appraisal, contraband, factions and the Aug policy. Read the specialization page before a second run; it is the page that changes the most decisions.
If you want to feel the loop without buying the game, the browser remake is a fan project with its own code and art. It is clearly not the official build, and it is labelled that way everywhere on this site.
- Appraisal, with the tables
- Skip Intro vs the tutorial
- Specializations, explained
- Appraisal, with the tables
- Skip Intro vs the tutorial
- The archive index
- Strategy notes
Difficulty and the Deck
Four settings, chosen separately from the scenario: Price Gouge (Cozy), Mark Up (Normal, the default), Thin Margins (Hard) and Red Ink (Challenge, on the second page of the difficulty screen). Learn the loop on Mark Up; Cozy hides the rent spiral the game is about, and Hard tests a strategy you have not built yet.
There is no controller support flag, and Steam Deck status is Playable rather than Verified. Deck play needs a community layout or the touchscreen, and the inspection panels are the awkward part. If you are buying for a handheld, assume mouse-like input.
Trying before buying
Want to try the loop before buying? A fan-made browser remake of Probably Stolen is playable at probably-stolen.online — unofficial, original code and art, not a port of the Steam build.