Six factions, reputation and the −100 line

The six that are watching

Six factions track you from −200 to +200: Lower Levels, Upper Levels, Security, Black Market, Revolution, and the Sector 13 Cartel, which only appears on the Chemist start. Reaching −100 with four of them ends the run, and the ending depends on which four: a mob, a bomb, an arrest, or a Cartel retirement.

That is a coherent design: factions are the access layer. They gate stock, prices and protection, and they charge for it in loyalty. There is no published list of exclusive deals, and this guide does not invent one; what is published is the range, the threshold and the fact that reputation buys access and protection while painting a target.

What can be said without inventing is structural. Security wants evidence. The Black Market wants discretion. Revolution wants leverage. The Upper Levels want status and can pay for it. The Lower Levels want someone who does not treat them as a rounding error. The Cartel wants whatever the Cartel wants, and you only meet them as a chemist.

The −100 line changes the maths

Reputation is not a score to maximise, it is a position with four ways to fail. Because the run ends at −100 with four factions, the correct question is never “who do I like” but “which two can I afford to lose”. A shop that tries to stay neutral with everyone drifts toward −100 with everyone, which is the only outcome that guarantees the worst ending.

The practical implication is to pick a patron early and let the others fall. A security-aligned shop reports, keeps clean stock and sells to institutions. A black-market shop hides, discounts and sells to people who cannot use the front door. Both are coherent. The incoherent version is a shop that reports on Monday and fences on Tuesday, because the second behaviour invalidates the first.

Concentration also compounds. One patron who gives you exclusive stock is worth more than three who tolerate you, because exclusive stock is a margin nobody else can undercut. The cost is that your patron’s enemies become yours, and that cost should be priced before you accept the first gift.

Licences and the legal line

Licences are progression: advanced licences unlock the underground market, and the Gunsmith start begins with a Class I weapon permit because that trade cannot operate without one. That makes a licence capital rather than a formality. It costs money and buys access, and the access is worth more once you have stock to use it on.

The legal line is therefore a business-model choice. A licensed shop can charge a premium for legitimacy and pays for it in compliance. An unlicensed shop avoids the fee and pays for it in exposure. The store page phrases this as choosing what kind of trouble you are willing to monetise.

The rule that survives patches: do not buy a licence you cannot use this week. A permit for a trade you have no supplier for is a fixed cost with no revenue, and fixed costs are what end runs.

What we do not know

We do not have a confirmed list of exclusive deals, a reputation gain table, or a faction-by-faction ending list. Official material does not publish them, and this archive does not fill the gap with invented numbers. If you need those figures, they exist inside your build and not in public documentation yet.

What we can offer is the reasoning that survives a patch: consistency is worth more than optimisation, a patron is a commitment rather than a bonus, and the only reputation that matters is the one held by the people whose stock you need next week.