This guide is intended to explain what to do with the loot you find in the game. Most of the information was obtained from the Gamepedia[pathologic.gamepedia.com] page. Please check there if you need more information.

You should primarily be trading with children because they appreciate junk. Only trade with adults if you have the right items. Try to clear up inventory space when you make trades.

Usually Trade For These

Food is the preferred item to trade for. It's more expensive to buy with coin.




Only trade for Morphine when it costs 6. You are going to need these if you are treating patients. Immunity Boosters are necessary to get around in the game, but you may not need that many if you wear shoes and use a lantern inside infected houses.




These items are good to trade for because most of them trade up in value.

Sometimes Trade For These

A package contains 1-4 random small items from Siskin[pathologic.gamepedia.com]. This generally isn't worth it unless you have a lot of Beetles. Fingernails aren't needed that much, but they're so common that it's hard to avoid trading for them. Tweezers have good value but they're hard to trade away.




Yellow pills are the least useful because you can craft yellow antibiotics easily.

Rarely Trade For These

Never Trade For These

Combat should be avoided which makes ammo and healing useless. Trade bandages to women and take painkillers before sleeping to heal.

Below is a map of children locations, caches, and other containers.

This is a list of items that you should trade away. Fishing Hooks and Matches are the only items worth 1-2 points. All other items can be bartered for at least 3 points.

Everybody

Charms are worth about the same to everybody. Candle Stubs are best traded with Herb Brides[pathologic.gamepedia.com] but they can be traded to a large number of people.

Children

Children are the easiest to trade with due to the large number of items they accept. Each child prefers a specific set of items.

Women

Men

Tweezers are only tradable to Pochard[pathologic.gamepedia.com].

Dead Item Shop

Don't Trade These

These items usually trade for less than they're worth. Only trade these if you don't find yourself using them.

Do not buy the revolver. It's overpriced.

Buy

Buy cheap items and trade them away.

Sometimes Buy

See the Keep section for why you want these.

Avoid Buying Food

Buying food is less efficient than trading for it. If you do need to buy food then only buy the items listed below. Never buy food on Day 3 or after because the cost of food will go up 3x.

Do Not Buy

These food items are overpriced, especially Pemmican and Tan.

Sell

These items are worth a few hundred coins which makes them worth selling.

You will need to repair your equipment, so keep a few of these items around. Footwear is especially valuable. Try to repair items before they reach 33%-50% durability or it can get expensive.



You can upgrade your inventory size once you gain acces to your hideout. All of these items can be purchased from a Clothes Shop. Repellent Cloaks and Sewkits can be obtained on Day 4. Army Cloaks are available on Day 9.

You can craft Tinctures, Antibiotics, and Painkillers from your Hideout using water bottles, herbs, and human organs.


Herbs are obtainable on Day 2. You can hear them when you are near them and they are easier to find at night. Herbs grow around rock formations, marshes, cemeteries and in Shekhen.

Organs

Used to craft Painkillers from Tinctures or sold to Var for coin.
These are gathered from dead people using a Scalpel.
Blood can be used on herb beds[pathologic.fandom.com].

Infected Organs

Used to craft Antibiotics from Tinctures.