A trade offer
Read the category first: 16 of the 20 traders want food. Then take everything, because the shelf empties once. The biggest shelves carry 9 kinds, and 6 contacts hold one that size.
The shelf is empty
They do not restock, but the stockpile is not theirs alone: 8 stockpiles are shared among the 20 traders, so another contact may hold the same one. A trade also draws from that contact’s own pool, which is chance rather than choice.
A message you can answer
9 contacts send something you can reply to, and 11 messages in the game offer a reply. None of them is a trade, so answering is conversation. 5 contacts do send messages that open an event, which is the phone acting as a delivery channel rather than a chat.
The group chat
One thread, 30 people, 526 lines. 32 of those lines move Morale and 16 open an event, so it is not only flavour. It also empties: 8 members leave on days the tables name, the first on day 7.
Open the contacts list Every thread the phone holds: what each contact trades, which messages open an event, and when the group chat loses people.
Who has what
| Contact | What they are selling from | Things in it | Wants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex | Supermarket Promoter's Stockpile | 9 | Food |
| Cashier | Supermarket Promoter's Stockpile | 9 | Materials |
| Jackie | Furniture Store Employee's Leftover Materials | 9 | Food |
| Joey (Homeless) | Furniture Store Employee's Leftover Materials | 9 | Food |
| Lena (Pediatrician) | Supermarket Promoter's Stockpile | 9 | Food |
| Sales Assistant, Renovation Company | Furniture Store Employee's Leftover Materials | 9 | Food |
| Ada (Library) | Market Customer's Balcony Harvest | 8 | Food, Household |
| Greg | Supermarket Clerk's Home Inventory | 8 | Food |
| Middle-Aged Customer | Market Customer's Balcony Harvest | 8 | Food |
| Otto (Basement) | Supermarket Clerk's Home Inventory | 8 | Food |
| Sales Assistant, Discount Mart | Supermarket Clerk's Home Inventory | 8 | Meds |
| Martin (Car) | Market Vendor's Seed Stock | 5 | Food |
| Sales Assistant, Discount Mart | Market Vendor's Seed Stock | 5 | Food |
| Dora (Grocery Store) | Electronics Sales Home Parts | 4 | Food, Materials |
| Sales Assistant, Farmers' Market | Electronics Sales Home Parts | 4 | Food |
| Sammy | Electronics Sales Home Parts | 4 | Food |
| Customer | Young Girl's Spare Parts Collection | 3 | Food |
| Dr. Cohen (32nd Floor) | Young Girl's Spare Parts Collection | 3 | Food |
| Lenny (Overpass) | Neighbor Lady's Leftover Food | 3 | Food |
| Neighbor, Discount Mart | Neighbor Lady's Leftover Food | 3 | Food |
16 of the 20 want nothing but food. That is the finding that matters, and it is the same one the stranger economy reaches from the other direction: the currency of the phone is the thing you also need to eat. There is no clever swap here, only a decision about how much of your stockpile somebody else’s goods are worth.
The stockpiles repeat
Several contacts draw on the same stockpile. There are 8 distinct ones behind the 20 people.
| Stockpile | Things in it | Contacts carrying it |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarket Promoter's Stockpile | 9 | 3 |
| Furniture Store Employee's Leftover Materials | 9 | 3 |
| Market Customer's Balcony Harvest | 8 | 2 |
| Supermarket Clerk's Home Inventory | 8 | 3 |
| Market Vendor's Seed Stock | 5 | 2 |
| Electronics Sales Home Parts | 4 | 3 |
| Young Girl's Spare Parts Collection | 3 | 2 |
| Neighbor Lady's Leftover Food | 3 | 2 |
So a run does not get 20 different inventories; it gets 8, handed out among the people who message you. If one contact has run dry, another with the same stockpile is the same offer again, which is the only redundancy the system has.
What actually turns up
| Item | Contacts carrying it |
|---|---|
| Disinfectant Spray | 6 |
| All-Purpose Strengthener | 5 |
| Broken Glass | 5 |
| Waste Plastic | 5 |
| Adrenaline | 3 |
| Bandage | 3 |
| Beef Noodles | 3 |
| Beef Slices | 3 |
| Cardboard | 3 |
| Chicken Feet | 3 |
| Cold Cuts | 3 |
| Container | 3 |
45 distinct things are reachable by phone in total. That is the shelf a message names, and it is only half of what a contact has: each of the same 20 people also draws from a pool of their own when the trade happens, which is chance rather than choice. What a trade is worth has the draw.
Replies, and what they are for
11 of the 441 messages in the game offer you something to say back. None of them is a trade message, none leads to an event, and nothing arrives because of one, so a reply is conversation, and it is safe to read the phone for its stock and answer or not as you like.
The other 5 threads never trade at all: they are the run’s story arriving one message at a time, and every one of them carries a message that opens an event. The sender table lists 32 further names that never open a thread: 28 speak inside the group chat, 2 are the group conversations themselves, and the last 2 carry no message in this build at all.
The other thing the phone does
Contacts are not the only use for it. Quick Loan is an app on the same phone, and it lends money: 3 amounts up to $500, paid immediately, during the only part of a run when money buys anything that matters.
It brings a caller on the night of day 9 or 10, and the game’s own talent text says the more you borrow the more attention you attract. The prep window guide has the amounts, the app’s own terms and what to say when he knocks.
How this fits the ending
The named survivors on that list are the same people the Stranger ending counts. It needs 6 of them alive at the check. So the phone is both where you buy from them and where you keep them alive, out of the same stockpile, at 24 Satiety a day each.
Trading with someone is not the same as supporting them, and the game keeps those apart: a gift is worth 30 towards the relationship and a trade is worth 8.
What to do
- Read what a contact wants before you read what they have. 16 of 20 want food, and that is your own food.
- Take the whole stockpile when you take any of it, because they do not restock. The supplies list has what the contents are worth against a trip.
- Check for a duplicate before writing a stockpile off. 8 stockpiles are shared among 20 people.
- Judge the shelf, not the draw. What a message names is what you can count on; the pool the same contact draws from when the trade happens is chance.
- Keep gifts and trades separate in your head. They build the relationship at very different rates.
Quick reference
- 20 trading contacts out of 57 in the phone.
- 8 distinct stockpiles between them.
- 16 want only food.
- 45 different goods reachable by phone.
- Nobody restocks. A stockpile is emptied once.