Probably Stolen Supply Crates and Keycards: How to Open Locked Crates and Evidence Lockers, and When to Buy Them

Locked crates open only with a Disposable Keycard of the same department, and the card is used up. A Security card opens both Security crates, a Command card opens everything, and nothing else works, not even a crowbar. Crates are worth chasing from your second week: a Thief sells one for about 150, the contents average 750 to 1,400 in base value, and most crates hand you a card for the next one. The calculator above shows what each crate holds at your luck and what you stand to make after paying for the crate and the card.

What are supply crates and the Evidence Locker?

There are five locked crates, all sealed with a department's lock. While a crate is locked you cannot see inside, put anything in or sell what it holds, and its price is only the crate itself, 200 (175 for the Service crate), whatever is inside.

Crate	Opened by	Thief's price	Expected contents	Card back
Engineering Foundry Supply Crate	Disposable Keycard (Engineering)	150	1,382	75%
Medical Bay Supply Crate	Disposable Keycard (Medical)	150	1,171	75%
Security Department Supply CrateHigh	Disposable Keycard (Security)	150	886	75%
Service Department Supply Crate	Disposable Keycard (Service)	131	852	77%
Security Department Evidence LockerMid	Disposable Keycard (Security)	150	746	24%

Two of them are contraband: the Security Department Evidence Locker (Mid) and the Security Department Supply Crate (High). An inspector confiscates either one, and the Supply Crate also costs you a fine of 200. What is inside a locked crate is never searched. The other three crates are legal.

How do you open a locked crate?

1. Get the right card. The crate's description names its department. The Disposable Keycard (Security) opens Security Department Supply Crate and Security Department Evidence Locker; Engineering, Medical and Service cards open their own crate; Disposable Keycard (Command) opens all five.
2. Use the card on the crate. Pick up the card and use it on the crate, which must be yours. A wrong card just beeps and stays in your inventory. The right one clicks, disappears, and the crate opens.
3. Empty it. The opened crate becomes a 7 × 5 storage box worth 15. It loses its Sealed tag and its Heat and contraband status, and you can store your own items in it, except bags, other containers and storage bays.

Disposable Keycard (Research) and Disposable Keycard (Supply) open nothing, because no crate uses their locks. Disposable Keycard (Blank) opens nothing until the Desequencer writes it.

Where do you get keycards?

• From crates. Every crate except the Evidence Locker has two chances at its own card, so you find at least one about 75% of the time (77% for the Service crate). The Evidence Locker is the odd one: it holds Security, Medical, Engineering and Command cards at 10 to 20% each, so a Security or Command card comes out only about one time in four.
• From the Thief. Each visit he may bring cards: Service 20%, Engineering and Medical 15%, Security 10%, Command 5%. These grow with your Black Market reputation, up to 2.5 times at 100.
• From the Underground Exchange. Leave a Command card in your trash can and it is swapped overnight for two random Security, Engineering or Medical cards.
• From your start. The Fence starts with one Medical, one Engineering and one Security card, and with the Underground Exchange already open.
• From the Cryptographic Desequencer, which turns any card into the one you need.

How does the Cryptographic Desequencer work?

The Cryptographic Desequencer is a machine that rewrites keycards. Put a battery, a Cryptographic Desequencer Chip, a card and nothing in the output slot. Each night it makes progress; when it finishes, the card you put in is replaced by the chip's card. The input can be a Blank card or any other card, so a spare Research card becomes a Security card. It never fails, and the chip stays in the machine.

The in-game description says it works overnight, but only a fully upgraded machine comes close. If it stops advancing, the output slot is occupied or the battery is flat. An Advanced Turbo Booster runs it for an extra night.

Dr. Jackson stocks the machine at random, but there is a guarantee: if you own a locked crate and no card that opens it, his next stock always includes the Desequencer (if you don't have one), the chip for that lock (if you don't have it), and enough Blank cards for those crates. On Mark Up that is about 402 for the machine, 230 to 402 for a chip and 17 for a Blank card. The Desequencer is Mid contraband, so keep it out of an inspector's way. Chips for Supply cards exist but nobody sells them.

Where do you get locked crates?

• The Thief, from Day 14 (Day 2 if you skipped the tutorial). Each Thief has a 30% chance to bring one crate, more with Black Market reputation, and once you reach 40 Black Market reputation (Safe Hands), every Thief brings one, and one visits you every week. Which crate is random: Service 25%, Evidence Locker 21%, Medical and Engineering 20%, Security Supply Crate 15%. If your Black Market reputation is at −40 or lower, Thieves stop offering contraband, so you will not see the two Security crates.
• Day 7, Evidence Locker Break-In (tutorial only). A thief sells an Evidence Locker, and two requests open for it, both needing it still sealed within 3 days: the Head of Security for Lower Levels pays 400 and 10 Security reputation, an unknown buyer pays 700 and 5 Black Market reputation.
• Day 11 (tutorial only). A lucky scavenger gives you a sealed Engineering Foundry Supply Crate for free.
• Georgio on Day 37 sells an Evidence Locker, and James Bailey, on his visits every 14 days, may sell a Security crate or an Evidence Locker at a third off.
• The Underground Exchange, which Sawyer opens on Day 25. Each week it promotes 3 of its 7 special trades; three of them turn 3 Security cards into a Security Department Supply Crate, 4 Medical cards into a Medical Bay Supply Crate, or 4 Engineering cards into an Engineering Foundry Supply Crate, once a night each.

Should you buy a crate from the Thief?

Yes, as long as you can get a card for it. His asking price is the crate's value minus the 25% discount for its 100 Heat, so 150, or 131 for the Service crate, before you haggle. The table above puts the expected contents at five to nine times that. The Evidence Locker is the weakest: it is full of cheap pills and knives, and it rarely gives back the card it needs.

The Heat matters less than it looks. Opening the crate removes its stolen status, and nothing inside is stolen, so open it the day you buy it instead of waiting six nights for the Heat to fade. Until you open them, the two Security crates are contraband, so do not leave them out for an inspector.

Skip the crate only when you have no card, no Desequencer and no money for one, or when the Thief offers a Security crate and an inspection is due before you can open it.

When should you start opening crates?

1. Week 1: sell the Evidence Locker sealed. If the Day 7 thief offers one, buy it and hand it to a request: 700 from the unknown buyer, or 400 and Security reputation from the Head of Security. That beats opening it, since you have no Security card yet.
2. Day 11: keep the free Engineering crate. Owning it without an Engineering card is what makes Dr. Jackson put the Desequencer and Engineering chip on sale.
3. Weeks 2–3: buy the Desequencer once rent is safe. With about 700 to spare on Mark Up you have the machine, one chip and a Blank card. Four nights later you open your first crate, and the cards inside keep the chain going.
4. From Black Market 40: buy every crate. Safe Hands brings a crate with every Thief. Add the chips for the departments you meet most; Service and Medical crates return their card most reliably.
5. Day 27 onward: save Liquid Luck for crates. Georgio gives you one on Day 27 and sells three on Day 32. Drink one before a session of opening crates.

How does luck change what's inside?

A crate's contents are a list of separate checks, such as "Current Converter, 20%" or "Medical keycard, 50%", so most crates come out with a dozen or more items. Your luck multiplies every chance: chance × (1 + luck ÷ 100). Luck comes from four places:

• Lucky starting perk +5, Unlucky −5.
• Gambler's Coin carried on you: +5. You get it after scratching 10 Scratcher Tickets, or from the Gambling Addiction perk.
• Liquid Luck: +75 while it lasts. Each bottle adds 3 days; drinking more adds days, not luck.

The crate is filled when it appears, using your luck at that moment. When you open it, the game checks once more: if your luck is now higher, it empties the crate and fills it again with your current luck. So a crate bought at normal luck and opened under Liquid Luck gets the full +75%: about 1,800 expected in a Medical crate instead of 1,170, and its own card back almost every time. A crate holds 7 × 5, so at very high luck the last items may not fit (verify in game).

Should you sell a crate sealed or open it?

Open it, unless a request wants it sealed. Buyers of sealed crates pay only for the crate: the Case Enjoyer (who visits twice if you own two or more cards or crates, with 1,000 to spend the second time), Odin Haraldsson and, for the two contraband crates, the Shady Merchant. Even with the contraband markup, that is a few hundred credits against an average of 750 or more inside. Opened crates are not supply crates any more, so none of them will buy an empty one.

What do you do with what's inside?

• Keep the matching cards for the next crate, and the Command cards for the Evidence Locker or the Underground Exchange.
• Sell spare cards to the Shady Merchant, Odin Haraldsson or the Case Enjoyer. Every card except the Blank is contraband, so sell or hide them before an inspection.
• Check the Immunivax. The Medical crate always holds a genuine Immunivax Injector; the Evidence Locker may hold a counterfeit. The fake-spotting guide explains how to tell them apart.
• Watch the contraband. Evidence Lockers hold Dream Dust, Phanta Pills and handmade pistols, and Security crates hold the Sentinel Mk. III. and Flashbang Grenades. See the contraband guide before you sell them, and the money-making guide for who pays the most.