Probably Stolen Underground Exchange: How Trash Can Trades Work

The Underground Exchange is trading with the janitors through your trash can: put the items in your store's Trash Can during the day, keep the Janitorial Service on when you end the day, and the next morning your rewards are in the Trash Can. On a normal start it unlocks on Day 25, when Sawyer comes to introduce it. The 7 permanent trades are always available, 3 promotional trades rotate every week, and each trade works once per night. The best trades are the Smuggler's Bay (Modified), worn-out Water Filters and Command keycards; the most common mistakes are forgetting the Janitorial Service and leaving things you still need in the Trash Can.

How do you unlock the Underground Exchange?

• Normal start: Day 25. Sawyer the janitor visits on Day 25, explains the Underground Exchange and unlocks it, leaving an Underground Exchange Directive on your counter. He comes only on that day, and always does as long as the exchange is still locked and he is alive.
• Fence start, or the Sawyer's Crew starting perk: Day 1. Sawyer brings the Directive on Day 1, and the exchange works from the start.
• If Sawyer dies, there is no exchange. Shooting him at any visit closes the exchange for good and unticks the Janitorial Service. He is with the Black Market, so it also costs a large amount of Black Market reputation.

The exchange runs through the Janitorial Service. On a normal start, Sawyer introduces the service on Day 10; with Skip Intro, the Fence start or Sawyer's Crew you have it from the start.

How do you use the Underground Exchange?

1. Put the items in the Trash Can during the day. Put in every item the trade lists, in the right amount: 3 Water Filters, or a Smuggler's Bay plus 8 Oxymore Injectors. Items inside a box or bag in the Trash Can count too.
2. Keep the Janitorial Service ticked when you end the day. The End of Day screen lists the nightly services; tick the Janitorial Service. You cannot end the day without enough cash for it. Once ticked, it stays on every night and is charged automatically.
3. The janitors work overnight. They make every trade whose items are all there, in order, then empty the Trash Can, then put the rewards in the Trash Can.
4. Take the rewards out the next day. Rewards stay in the Trash Can all day, but the Janitorial Service runs again that night: the janitors first try to use them in a trade and then empty the Trash Can, so anything you forgot is gone. Only the Smuggler's Bay (Modified) and what is inside it are never cleared.

The Underground Exchange Directive only shows you the list of trades; you can still trade if you lose it. It is an ordinary item, so if it goes in the Trash Can it is destroyed overnight, and there is no other way to get another one.

How much does the Janitorial Service cost?

The fee is recalculated every day from the day number and jumps while your store is vandalized. With Sawyer's Crew it is normally free; when you are Blacklisted it doubles, but by then the exchange no longer works anyway.

What are the permanent trades?

These 7 trades are always on the Directive, each once per night. "Order" is the order they are handled in on the same night, explained further down.

• Water Filters: the 3 you hand in can be at any durability; you get back a brand-new one.
• Modules: any two modules count, including expensive DNA Manipulator modules, so check before you put them in.
• Command keycard: each of the two cards you get is drawn separately, so they can be the same.
• Poison: chemical products such as Vial of "Nightmare Dust" count as half their purity, other poisons count as their current value; the two added together are the charge of the Energy Cell.
• Smuggler's Bay: any condition works. Empty the bay first; whatever is inside is taken along with it.

What do 2 Dream Dust give?

You get	Purity total 60–119	Total 120 or more
Water Filter	15%	15%
Raw Meat (Small)	12.75%	12.75%
Metal Ingot	10.84%	10.84%
Self Charging Energy Cell	—	0.61%
Scavenger's Token	—	0.61%
Electronic Parts (Common)	4.91%	4.82%（×2）
Kitchen Knife (plus a Meat Cleaver at 120 or more)	2.82%	2.77%
Medical Supplies (Common)	4.29%	4.21%（×2）
Birth Control Pill (plus a Box of REX Condoms at 120 or more)	0.99%（×2）	0.97%（×2）
Food Stamp	4.84%	4.74%
Energy Cell	—	1.71%
Blood Bag	4.36%	4.1%（×2）
Peat	39.2%	36.88%（×3）

Dream Dust you buy is 60–80% purity, so two of them always land in the middle column. To reach 120 or more you need to make your own Dream Dust averaging at least 60%; see the Chemist guide.

Which module do 2 modules give?

You get	Chance
Neural Core Module (Capped)	1%
Performance Module	24.81%
Efficiency Module	24.81%
Quality Module	24.81%
Overclock Module	8.19%
Eco Module	8.19%
Refinement Module	8.19%

How much food do 2 ammunition give?

The amount of food depends on the contraband tier of the two ammunition: each tier adds one item, so AP rounds give the most food. The table shows two of the same ammunition; for a mix, add the two tiers and then add 2.

Each food item is: Galaxy Blend 40.96%、Cat Chocolate Bar 20%、Peat 16%、Soda 12.8%、Pilk 10.24%

What are the weekly promotional trades?

There are 7 promotional trades. Every 7 days, 3 of them are picked at random (the Directive says they reset on Monday). The Nightly Report tells you when new offers are in.

The three keycard-to-crate trades pair well with the permanent Command keycard trade; see Supply Crates and Keycards for what the crates hold. Any seed counts, even the cheapest Fillerweed Seed, but a Packet of Nutrifruit Seeds counts as a seed itself and is taken together with the seeds inside it.

What do 4 Dream Dust give?

The trade looks at the average purity of the 4 vials and draws one set from that band. The higher the purity, the better your chance of a Synaprest Injector, a Bag of "Blue Blood" or a genuine Immunivax; Street Standard Dream Dust bought from others (60–80%) most often gives 3 Oxymore Injector.

Which trade goes first when items overlap?

Lower order numbers go first. Each trade takes the items it needs from the Trash Can, and a later trade that can no longer find its items does not happen. Trades with the same number have no fixed order.

1. 1Smuggler's Bay
2. 2Medical keycards
3. 34 Dream Dust
4. 42 Dream Dust、Security keycards、Engineering keycards、Seeds、Scavenger's Token
5. 5Water Filters、Modules、Command keycard、Poison、Ammunition、Oxymore Injectors

Trades that compete for the same items:

• Smuggler's Bay and 2 Oxymore Injectors: the Smuggler's Bay trade goes first and uses 8 injectors; the Immunivax promotion only happens if at least 2 more are left.
• 4 and 2 Dream Dust: the 4-vial promotion goes first. To do both in one night, put in 6 vials.
• Modules: any module will be taken, so keep modules you are not trading out of the Trash Can.

When there are several of the same item, the game does not pick the best one: mix high and low purity Dream Dust and either vial may be taken. Only put in the items you mean to hand over.

Which trades are worth it?

• Smuggler's Bay (Modified): hand in a regular Smuggler's Bay and 8 Oxymore Injectors for the Smuggler's Bay (Modified), which holds 8 × 8 inside; the regular one holds 5 × 5. This is the only way to get it, and the janitors never clear it or what it holds.
• Water Filters: three nearly used-up filters for one brand-new one turns leftover durability into a full filter. Do not trade filters that are still fresh.
• Command keycard: one card for two, worth more in base value together, and they help you fill the weekly crate promotions. A Command card opens every supply crate, so hold on to it if you have a crate to open.
• 2 ammunition: cheap Non-Lethal rounds give only 2 items, AP rounds give 6. A good way to get rid of contraband ammo you cannot sell.
• Scavenger's Token (promotion): one token for +25 Black Market reputation, far more than an ordinary trade.
• 2 Dream Dust: on average the rewards are worth about as much as the two vials' base value; the gain is turning contraband Dream Dust into legal goods, so use it for leftovers you cannot sell. The 4-vial promotion depends on purity and pays off when you make high-purity Dream Dust yourself.

How much Black Market reputation does the exchange give?

Each completed trade adds +0.19 Black Market reputation, about 5.3 trades per point. This is multiplied by the difficulty's reputation rate and halved by the Blabbermouth starting perk. The Scavenger's Token promotion adds another +25.

At -40 Black Market reputation or lower you are Blacklisted: no trades happen overnight, but the Trash Can is still emptied, and the Janitorial Service costs double.

Why didn't my trade work?

Check in this order:

1. The Janitorial Service was not ticked that night, or you could not afford it.
2. Items missing: not enough of them, or the wrong item. Trades that name an item need exactly that item; only "any module" and "any poison" style trades go by type.
3. The promotion has rotated: a new set comes every 7 days, and items for an old offer are not taken.
4. An earlier trade took the items first: see the order above.
5. Each trade works once per night: a second set of items is treated as trash and cleared.
6. You are Blacklisted, or Sawyer is dead.
7. The Trash Can had no room for the rewards: whatever does not fit is destroyed. For trades that give a lot of items, such as ammunition for food or 4 Dream Dust, take out the previous night's rewards first.