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Starting Scenarios and Perks
October 20, 2026 at 07:58 PM
Created page: Starting Scenarios and Perks (2026-10-20)
A new game of Probably Stolen begins with a choice of starting scenario, which sets your first trade and the kit you open the shop with. Starting perks, bought with points, then adjust how the run plays. This page covers the scenarios and perks confirmed in the store text and official patch notes before the October 28, 2026 launch.
The store page says you can start as a gunsmith, chemist, water merchant, fence or farmer, or from absolute rock bottom. Playtest patch notes also name the Rat Wrangler. As of October 20, 2026, the full list of starting scenarios in the 1.0 release has not been published.
Scenario | What Is Confirmed |
|---|---|
Gunsmith | Listed on the store page. Weapons require permits and modifications, and they bring inspections. |
Chemist | Listed on the store page. Profitable chemicals rely on closely guarded recipes, and chemicals bring addiction. See Machines and Crafting. |
Water Merchant | Listed among the starts in the August 3, 2026 announcement and added as a playable scenario with the demo on September 14, 2026. The water testing and purification kit is available from the start. See Water Trading. |
Fence | Listed on the store page, which describes fencing discounted stolen goods as a bet that Security will not reach you. |
Farmer | Listed on the store page. See Animal Farming. |
Rock Bottom | Added in Playtest Patch 48.3.10 on August 6, 2026. A hardcore mode in which you start with nothing. |
Rat Wrangler | Hidden in the playtest build from the start and made visible in Playtest Patch 48.3.12 on August 7, 2026. |
Rock Bottom is the hard mode scenario: you open the shop with nothing. In the Playtest Ledger post of September 9, 2026, the developers said Rock Bottom had been a big hit with playtesters.
Hard Mode also changes how augs are handled. Since Patch 48.3.10, the Augmented ending, a loss for missing too many augs, only applies on Hard Mode. Hard Mode tracks this on an Aug game over meter. Patch 48.3.12 fixed a bug where shooting an aug in Hard Mode still pushed that meter forward. More on augs is on Augs and the Rogue AI.
The August 6 patch notes ended by asking whether players had found the secret scenario, which had been in the playtest build from the beginning, and hinted that it was on the starting professions selection screen. The next day, Patch 48.3.12 unhid the Rat Wrangler so it appears with the other scenarios. As of October 20, 2026, official notes have not detailed what the Rat Wrangler starts with.
The demo store page lists its content as three starting scenarios plus hardcore mode, and it confirms that the Water Merchant is one of them. Saves could be carried over from the playtest to the demo. See Demo and Playtest for the full build history.
Starting perks are picked at the start of a run and cost points. Players asked for more of them during the playtest, and Update 049 added two new starting perks designed for challenge runs; the patch notes do not name them. The perks named in official notes, with their values as of Update 049, are below.
Perk | Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Model Citizen | Raises the credit bonus for reporting criminal customers to 50% | Buffed from 20% in Update 049 |
Intimidating | Reduces evidence generation by 33% | Buffed from 25%; point cost lowered from 3 to 2 |
Diplomatic | Affects reputation | Update 049 fixed a bug where it also amplified reputation losses |
Addiction perks | Trading penalty of 8% (up from 5%) | You start with one item related to the addiction, and withdrawal begins immediately |
Gambling Addiction | Scratch tickets are bought automatically, including a stack when possible | Changed in Update 049 |
Sawyer's Crew | Tied to Sawyer, who hands over the Underground Exchange Directive | A bug that stopped Sawyer giving the Directive when this perk was taken without Skip Intro mode was fixed in Update 049 |
With the addiction perks you can consume the starting item right away or save it for later. Security interactions affected by Model Citizen and Intimidating are explained on Security and Contraband.
The tutorial is optional. While it is enabled, the display case does not work on the first day so it does not interfere with the tutorial sequence. The tutorial includes an after-hours visit that gives you a topical bandage.
Skip Intro mode jumps past that opening. As of Update 049, it starts you with the Immunivax guide and grants the topical bandage you would otherwise get from the tutorial's after-hours visit.