Probably Stolen Crafting Guide: Machines and Modules

Sources checked 2026-11-03 · Independent fan guide · Single-sourced claims are marked inline

Crafting in Probably Stolen means machines that run overnight on energy cells — the Furnace turning scrap into ingots, filters and purifiers turning station water into stock, lab glass turning recipes into Lab Pure chemicals. IGN's core advice frames it: you have limited shop space, so pick a focus instead of trying to run every product line. Only prices a source actually published appear below; most item values are set inside each run.

The machine shelf

Tpose Gaming's machine rundown, with the Furnace walkthrough from Into Indie Games' week-one run:

Dr. Jackson arrives around day six of the scripted week selling the Furnace, Into Indie Games reports, and returns the next day with modules. His markup on stock was cut from 25% to 15% on the normal setting, Mark Up, in hotfix 1.0.0.2 (the patch note calls the setting "Normal").

Modules reshape every machine

Modules slot into machines for better output — efficiency, performance, quality and refinement are the lines Tpose names — and some degrade or carry downsides. Screenshot evidence from the community-run probablystolenwiki.com shows how dramatic that gets: one Moisture Farm tooltip carried Performance +515%, Efficiency -200% and Quality +170% modules, pulling 6,150 ml of Pure Water a day at 12 energy/day against a base draw of 4/day. Those are pre-launch screenshot figures (not yet verified in 1.0), but the lesson holds: the module layout, not the machine's sticker, decides your real costs.

Four machine-panel layouts the community wiki read off official screenshots: the Evaporator takes Battery, Module, Container and Distillate slots; the Chem Finisher runs from a selected recipe through Chem Module, Container, Output and Control Panel slots; the Heating Plate is a simple Off/Low/High control; the Cryptographic Desequencer arranges Power Source, Modules, Chip Slot, Input and Output.

Water: the 1.0.0.2 patch made it cheaper

Hotfix 1.0.0.2 rebalanced the whole water line after community feedback: the Water Purifier's logic was reworked, the Moisture Farm dropped from 650 to 350 credits, the Water Filter from 50 to 25, and a follow-up cut in 1.0.0.5 trimmed the Water Purifier from 300 to 250. Tpose's warning survives the price cuts: test every batch before and after treatment, and label bottles to match their actual quality — mislabeled water is the liability the store page warns of.

Chemistry and Lab Pure

Profitable chemicals "rely on closely guarded recipes", per the store page. Community guides fill in the details: the Steam chemistry guide by lpinch covers every recipe, how to reach Lab Pure quality and what sells best, and Karabiner 98k's guide explains that most acid and base you unbox isn't pure enough for Lab Pure drugs — you make high-purity stock yourself. The chemistry line's cost, per the store text, is that chemicals bring addiction. The other bill comes with the Chemist start: you open the scenario already working for the Sector 13 Cartel (IGN), with weekly quotas (Wikily). The full quota-and-bench loop is walked through in the Chemist start guide.

Items worth knowing by name

• Hemingway cigarettes — the tutorial counterfeit: check the logo, the seal and the color against the ID guide (Into Indie Games). The day-four labeler then lets you relabel fakes as genuine; Into Indie Games sold relabeled packs to tourists and upper-level customers fine, but avoided lower-level citizens and Security.
• Immunivax — serial numbers, recalled batches and authenticity checks are documented by the community-run probablystolenwiki.com; skipping injections with the Sentinel Collapse Disorder perk is a losing-ending risk covered in the endings guide.
• Ribwich, Plasma Cartridge, Cybernetic Hand — packaging-year checks, manufacturer seals, and condition/set-bonus appraisal respectively, all community-documented (probablystolenwiki.com).
• Glass Shiv — added in 1.0.0.5: drag any bandage onto a Glass Shard and the bandage isn't consumed.

Commissary prices (tokens, not credits)

The Commissary trades in its own tokens, separate from your credit balance. The community-run probablystolenwiki.com read these prices off an official screenshot — stock counts were a single moment, and restock schedules are unknown:

The same panel carries a "Redeem All Eligible Lottery" button, which is where Lottery Tickets are redeemed — the payout is still undocumented.

Selling the output is its own skill: the money guide covers demand spikes and matching customers, and IGN's appraisal advice covers the review fees that pad machine income while stock brews.