Probably Stolen: How to Get and Purify Water Into Pure Grade

Building a profitable water operation in Probably Stolen covers everything from connecting your first sewer waterline to refining toxic runoff into 99.9 purity stock. Understanding which tools remove microbes versus organic waste and how machine quality thresholds work lets you scale from basic faucet bottles to 2,560-credit wholesale contracts.

Installing Faucets and Sourcing Raw Water

Water trading divides liquids into six distinct grades listed in the manual: gutter flow, rust water, ghost water, base water, high-quality water, and pure water. Customers refuse to drink gutter flow or rust water because both grades are too toxic, meaning your shop must refine stock to at least base water before buyers will purchase it.

Choosing the working pipes perk at run creation provides 600 credits of value immediately by pre-installing plumbing. If you start without plumbing, call Joe Wild on the telephone to connect a waterline to the sewer. The initial faucet installation supplies infinite gutter flow, and purchasing the second faucet upgrade converts that tap into an unlimited source of rust water. Because purifying gutter flow up to rust water is difficult, unlocking the second tap upgrade early saves significant processing time.

First-Week Water Merchant Loop and Three-Purifier Target

On day 1 of a water merchant run, apply your starting HydroTech micro water purifier to the initial jug of water to convert it into base water. Split your remaining large bottle into a separate container holding 1,500 ml of liquid so the remaining HydroTech charges can raise that second batch to base water as well. Place a jug in the display case to draw water buyers, sell your initial base water, and purchase empty bottles from incoming customers before you unlock the bottle printer.

Avoid spending credits on general wholesale goods during the first 8 to 14 days so you can afford three water purifiers as soon as they appear. Visit Jackson at night after closing, where a water purifier appears in his stock roughly 20 to 25% of the time, or purchase one guaranteed when the water merchant supplier visits around day 3. Remove the battery from your starting bottle maker to power your first water purifier, load a standard bottle filled with faucet rust water before sleeping, and avoid buying batteries during power shortage events when prices spike. Running three water purifiers overnight produces three bottles of high-quality water that sell for 50 credits apiece, generating 150 credits per day of steady profit to help pay weekly rent and buy the shop.

Targeting Contaminants With UV Lamps and Water Filters

Manual pitcher purification relies on pairing tools that target specific contaminant categories rather than a single catch-all step. Scanning dirty liquid reveals four primary pollutants: microbes, organic waste, mineral, and physical contaminants. Shining a UV lamp on a bottle or inside a water pitcher destroys microbes exclusively while leaving other pollutants untouched.

Placing a water filter—also used to remove impurities in our chemist crafting guide—priced at 25 credits after patch reductions from 50, or a hydro reed filter inside a water pitcher strips out organic waste, mineral, and physical debris as you pour liquid through. Base water purchased from scavengers has a contaminant mix that turns into high-quality water as soon as you combine a UV lamp pass with a hydro reed filter or standard water filter in a pitcher. Never drop a purification pill directly into dirty water before running a purifier unless you filter the liquid first, as unfiltered pill residue ruins the resulting batch. You can also clean water biologically by stocking gutter tilapia inside a recirculating aquaculture system, where more fish clean the tank faster, or by planting hydra weed seeds in an old hydroponic system over repeated growth cycles.

Producing Pure Water With Purifiers and Moisture Farms

Reaching top-tier pure water requires upgrading machine quality on either a water purifier or a moisture farm. Unlike manual filters that only remove single pollutant types, an electric water purifier strips all contaminant categories simultaneously during its overnight cycle and lists a max purity of 99.9 on its tooltip. Installing up to two expansion kits on a machine opens additional module slots where you can rotate modules with E and Q or flip them with right click.

Slotting quality modules into a water purifier until its machine quality reaches 100% or higher allows it to refine rust water into pure water over three nights, or faster if you pre-treat the jug to base water with a HydroTech micro water purifier. Alternatively, the moisture farm, reduced in price from 650 to 350 credits, generates water passively each morning without faucet input. At its baseline 55% quality, a moisture farm outputs base water, reaching 100 quality upgrades daily output to high-quality water, and slotting a refinement module to push quality to 150 or higher yields pure water every day, such as 578 ml at 179% quality.

Testing Purity, Bulk Storage, and Attracting Wholesalers

Using a water testing kit or water testing strips checks liquid grade so you can sell tested bottles for 50% higher than standard base water. Once Jackson stocks the aqua scanner, buy it to test water purity an unlimited number of times and sell off your leftover disposable strips. Upgrade your bottle printer with electronic parts to unlock normal and large bottle printing, and transfer daily output into 24,000 ml water tanks so your purifier bottles stay free for overnight runs.

Use drag-selection to highlight multiple empty bottles at once and drop them onto the rust water faucet to refill all containers in one action. From day 14 onward, placing two high-value spring water bottles or a jug labeled pure inside your display case attracts upper-level water stockpilers and wholesalers carrying up to 2,560 credits, especially during 3-day water supply crises when rich buyers pay over 1,000 credits a day.