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Lou

Lou

Wanted visitorsBlack Market

Money and reputation are base values, before difficulty and starting perk adjustments.

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About

Wanted buyer and later extortionist

Lou, a Black Market buyer with a huge bounty, comes after you get the Business Permit, once you are short of money or after a while. Reporting her pays the bounty with no Black Market penalty, but she escapes, plants a fake bomb and leaves a box with you. If anything is missing from the box when she collects it, a real bomb ends the run; her later demand also ends the run unless you hand over enough goods and cash.

Priority by specialization

  • Apprentice

    Priority
    SPrepare for this customer
    Why it matters
    As Apprentice, her 1500 base bounty starts a chain with fatal box and payment checks; protect food and household goods and working cash by deciding whether you want the chain before reporting her.

  • Water Merchant

    Priority
    SPrepare for this customer
    Why it matters
    As Water Merchant, her 1500 base bounty starts a chain with fatal box and payment checks; protect bottled water and working cash by deciding whether you want the chain before reporting her.

  • Fence

    Priority
    SPrepare for this customer
    Why it matters
    As Fence, her 1500 base bounty starts a chain with fatal box and payment checks; protect stolen stock and working cash by deciding whether you want the chain before reporting her.

  • Rock Bottom

    Priority
    SPrepare for this customer
    Why it matters
    As Rock Bottom, her 1500 base bounty starts a chain with fatal box and payment checks; to protect your Dumping Ground goods and working cash, decide whether you want the chain before reporting her.

  • Hydroponic Farmer

    Priority
    SPrepare for this customer
    Why it matters
    As Hydroponic Farmer, her 1500 base bounty starts a chain with fatal box and payment checks; protect crops, coffee and wine and working cash by deciding whether you want the chain before reporting her.

  • Gunsmith

    Priority
    SPrepare for this customer
    Why it matters
    As Gunsmith, her 1500 base bounty starts a chain with fatal box and payment checks; protect firearms and gun parts and working cash by deciding whether you want the chain before reporting her.

  • Chemist

    Priority
    SPrepare for this customer
    Why it matters
    As Chemist, her 1500 base bounty starts a chain with fatal box and payment checks; protect chemicals and injectors and working cash by deciding whether you want the chain before reporting her.

  • Rat Wrangler

    Priority
    SPrepare for this customer
    Why it matters
    As Rat Wrangler, her 1500 base bounty starts a chain with fatal box and payment checks; protect meat from your rats and working cash by deciding whether you want the chain before reporting her.

  • Aquafarmer

    Priority
    SPrepare for this customer
    Why it matters
    As Aquafarmer, her 1500 base bounty starts a chain with fatal box and payment checks; protect fish and roe and working cash by deciding whether you want the chain before reporting her.
SPrepare for this customer
A seller of goods that are hard to get elsewhere, equipment, a reward or an unlock the specialization's route depends on, a deadline or branch to decide in advance, or a danger of major loss such as game over, arrest or confiscation makes advance preparation worthwhile. A high priority does not mean every purchase or report is recommended.
AUseful in the right situation
A main buyer of your goods, a seller of some of your inputs, a side income, optional input, reputation opportunity or conditional risk matters when the matching stock, branch or cash need exists. Check the condition before reserving scarce money or goods.
BOrdinary response is enough
The specialization does not normally depend on this customer's goods or outcome. Serve an appropriate incidental trade when the visitor comes without planning the business around it; a low priority does not remove legal or safety consequences.

Events

Quick summary

  • She comes after you buy the Business Permit. If you do not report her, nothing happens: she only buys melee weapons and tools.

  • Reporting pays 1500, but she then plants a fake bomb and leaves you a box

    →if anything is missing from the box when she collects it 3 days later, a real bomb ends the run. Just opening it is fine.

  • Finally she demands 1500

    →hand over 1500 worth of weapons, ammunition or medical goods; she takes the rest in cash, and far too little ends the run.

Visit 1

When
Once you have the Business Permit, she comes on the first morning when you have less than 75 credits, or when rent or a mortgage payment is due that day and you cannot pay it; if neither happens, she comes 14 days after you got the permit. If you bought the permit, counting starts the next day. She comes only if you have not met her yet and she has not been captured, and not with Known Snitch. There is no chance roll.
What happens
She buys melee weapons and tools and prefers a variety. Her large bounty is tempting, but reporting her has consequences later.

Choices

Complete a trade and let the visitor leave

  • Buy or sell the listed goods under the usual budget and price rules. What you pay or receive depends on the deal; there is no fixed story reward.
  • Every item she buys from you is remembered, and copies of them go into the box she leaves with you later.
  • If you let her leave without reporting her, the escape, bomb and box visits do not happen.

Let the visitor leave without a deal

  • The visit ends with no deal and no bounty. Later visits listed for this person still follow their own conditions.
  • Her later visits only happen after she has been captured.

Report to Security (base bounty 1500)

Needs

  • You can report as long as you have not shot, and have not used Blackmail or Threaten on this visitor while bargaining. If your first press is met with a plea, press Report again.
  • Reporting a wanted person is always valid: you get a 1500-credit bounty and 5 Security reputation, with no change to your reputation with the visitor's faction (before perk and difficulty adjustments).
  • She can come back on the morning 3 days after her capture, if no other morning customer is there.

Recommended response

For a low-risk run, let this ordinary melee-weapon and tool buyer leave without reporting; none of the escape, bomb or box chain then starts. Reporting gives a 1500 base bounty and 5 base Security reputation with no visitor-faction penalty, but starts the later dangerous chain. Choose that bounty only if you will protect the box and can preserve the final payment resources; the advertised reward is not the whole outcome.

Notes

  • You cannot shoot her. Reporting her does not lower your Black Market reputation; the report rewards still change with the usual perks.
  • Reputation numbers are before perk and difficulty adjustments (see the reputation rules).

Visit 2

When
Once, on a morning from 3 days after her capture, when no other morning customer is there; another morning customer can delay her. There is no chance roll.
What happens
She comes back after her arrest. You cannot report her, send her away early or shoot her.

Choices

Hear her out; there is no choice

  • During the night before the morning 2 days after this visit, she hides a fake bomb (Armed Plastic Explosive) inside one of your own containers in the shop, or leaves it in the shop if none has room. The next morning she is your first visitor.
  • Her visit about the bomb always follows the planting; it is not a random visit.

Recommended response

Hear the conversation through; this return cannot be solved by reporting, shooting or early dismissal. Two days later comes the fake-bomb episode, so this visit offers no payment that cancels the chain.

Notes

  • Reputation numbers are before perk and difficulty adjustments (see the reputation rules).

Visit 3

When
Normally 2 days after her morning return: the morning after the fake bomb is planted, as the first visitor of the day. You cannot report or shoot her during this visit.
What happens
She talks about the bomb, leading to the next part of her story.

Choices

Hear the bomb discussion; there is no choice

  • From 4 days after this talk, she can come to leave a box with you.

Recommended response

This first explosive is fake: an owned armed device can be used to disarm it, and it also disarms by itself at night without ending the run. The conversation has no report or shooting option and is not the later real-bomb failure. Keep following the story and prepare to safeguard the box rather than treating this fake as a random lethal countdown.

Notes

  • Reputation numbers are before perk and difficulty adjustments (see the reputation rules).

Visit 4

When
From 4 days after the talk about the bomb, if she has not left the box yet. There are no money, item or chance conditions.
What happens
She leaves Lou's Box of Toys, unlocked, with Old Republic Orders and tools inside, and will later check that everything is still there.

Choices

Accept the box; the conversation has no choice

  • You receive the box as your own item. It holds Old Republic Orders and a copy of each item she bought from you; if she bought nothing, it holds a Wire Cutter, a Plasma Cutter, a Tazer and a Kitchen Knife instead.
  • She comes to collect the box 3 days later. Opening it or taking things out changes what happens then, not when she comes.

Keep the box closed with everything she put in itRecommended

Needs

  • This is what you do with the box between receiving it and her return, not a choice in the conversation.
  • At collection, she finds the box untouched, and there is no bomb.

Open the box but leave everything she put in it

Needs

  • This is what you do with the box between receiving it and her return, not a choice in the conversation.
  • At collection, she notices the box was opened; her disguised visit can still follow.

Take out anything she put in it, or lose the box

Needs

  • This is what you do with the box between receiving it and her return, not a choice in the conversation.
  • At collection, she finds something missing, and a real bomb ends the run.

Recommended response

Keep the received box and everything she put inside intact until collection; this recommendation is an inventory action between visits, not a dialogue branch. Opening alone is survivable if every original item remains, but losing the box or removing any original content causes the real-bomb ending at collection. The collection date does not change according to whether you opened it.

Notes

  • Only items that actually fit in the box count as its contents. If the box itself could not be placed in your shop, she does not treat it as stolen when she comes to collect it.
  • Reputation numbers are before perk and difficulty adjustments (see the reputation rules).

Visit 5

When
Once, from 3 days after she left the box. What you did with the box decides what happens, but not when she comes.
What happens
She checks whether the box is untouched, only opened, or missing anything.

Choices

There is no choice here; what you did with the box decides the result

  • If the box is unopened and nothing is missing, she takes it back and nothing bad happens. A box that could not be placed in your shop also counts as untouched.
  • If you opened the box but left everything in it, she warns you, but there is no bomb. Her later disguised visit can still happen.
  • If the box is gone or anything she put in it is missing, she plants a real bomb and the run ends after a countdown. Only opening the box does not lead to this.
  • 4 days after the collection, if the run continues, she can come back in disguise.

Recommended response

There is no new choice that repairs missing contents: an untouched box is collected safely, and an opened but complete box gets a warning without a bomb. A missing box or any missing original item causes a real bomb and ends the run. If play continues, the disguised visit can still follow four days later, so opening alone is not the same as removing contents.

Notes

  • She counts everything she put in the box, including the Old Republic Orders, not only the weapons. Anything else you put in the box is returned to your counter when she takes it.
  • Reputation numbers are before perk and difficulty adjustments (see the reputation rules).

Visit 6

Lou

Name shown in the shop: Security Inspector

When
From 4 days after the collection, if the run continues and she has not made this visit yet. Whether you accept her inspection or try to send her away, she reveals that she is Lou and makes the same 1500-credit demand.
What happens
Lou poses as a Security Inspector, then reveals herself and demands a payment later.

Choices

Agree to the inspection

  • Instead of inspecting, she reveals that she is Lou and moves on to her demand; no real inspection happens.
  • She will come to collect goods and cash 7 days after this demand. You pay nothing during this visit.

Try to send the inspector away

  • She does not leave: she reveals that she is Lou and makes the same demand. You cannot avoid the later collection this way.
  • She will come to collect goods and cash 7 days after this demand. You pay nothing during this visit.

Recommended response

Agreeing to inspection and trying to dismiss the apparent inspector both reveal Lou and produce the same 1500 demand. Neither reply performs a real inspection or takes cash immediately. Prepare accepted goods and cash for the collection seven days later; refusing this conversation does not avoid it.

Notes

  • Once she reveals herself, you cannot send her away until she finishes her demand. In these later visits she is not a wanted visitor.
  • Reputation numbers are before perk and difficulty adjustments (see the reputation rules).

Visit 7

When
Once, from 7 days after her demand, even with no money or goods. Have goods she accepts worth 1500, or goods plus cash reaching her minimum, well below that. Otherwise the settlement ends with a real bomb.
What happens
She accepts weapons, ammunition, medical items and cash toward the demand. Trying to send her away also leads to the settlement.

Choices

Hand over accepted goods toward the demand

  • Each item you hand over counts toward the 1500-credit demand at its agreed value without the "Donation" mark. The cash you receive for it is its agreed price while it still has that mark. You gain no trade reputation. Real firearms (not Makeshift or Low-Tech ones) only change what she says, not the amount.
  • If she accepts your payment (in full or in part), the next day brings the news "High-Ranking Visiting Admiral Assassinated!". This news has no other effect.
  • Once the goods you have handed over are worth 1500 or more in total, she accepts that as full payment and takes no cash.

Say "[That's All I Have]" and settle the rest with your cash

Needs

  • This is for when your goods do not yet cover the demand; once they do, she settles in full on her own.
  • If the goods you handed over and your cash together are below her minimum, she plants a real bomb and the run ends after a countdown. In that case no cash is taken.
  • If the goods you handed over plus your cash reach her minimum, she takes the rest of the demand in cash, or all your cash if you have less (none if your cash is below zero). Once that minimum is met, she accepts falling short of 1500. With no goods, your cash alone must reach it.
  • If she accepts your payment (in full or in part), the next day brings the news "High-Ranking Visiting Admiral Assassinated!". This news has no other effect.
  • Once she accepts the settlement, her collection is over and she does not ask for more.

Try to dismiss Lou during collection

  • She does not leave. If your goods already cover the demand, she settles safely; otherwise the same cash payment and minimum apply, including the real bomb if the total is below it.

Recommended response

Have accepted weapons, ammunition or medical goods worth the full 1500, or keep handed-over goods plus available cash from falling far short; goods count at the agreed value before the Donation price cut. Handing over 1500 in goods settles with no cash taken; below that, finishing or trying to dismiss takes the remaining demand from your cash up to what you have, and a total that falls far short ends the run with a real bomb. Otherwise even a short total settles, but no dialogue option lets you pay just the minimum while keeping extra cash. Qualifying firearms only alter dialogue, donated goods grant no trade reputation, and the next day's assassination news has no further mechanical effect.

Notes

  • You cannot report or shoot her at this stage, so reporting cannot cancel the demand. The fake bomb from earlier and the real bombs that end the run are separate.
  • Reputation numbers are before perk and difficulty adjustments (see the reputation rules).

Reporting

Base bounty
1500
Black Market reputation
0

Every correct report of a wanted visitor also gives +5 Security reputation.