Water quality matters to the shop. These tools help you check water and deal with different kinds of contamination.
Contents
- Testing water
- Treating water
- Practical tip
- Customer habits
- Using the portable purifier
- Reading test results
- Purifying water
- Water supplies
- Shop equipment
- Reading water quality
- Purity grades in the Water Trading Manual
- Connections & references
- Related articles
- Sources & verification
Testing water
| Property | Recorded value |
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| Water Testing Kit | The kit includes a small bottle of color strips for checking water quality. The Water Merchant scenario starts with a testing and purification kit, according to the official demo listing. |
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| Water Testing Strip | A strip used to determine the quality of a water sample. |
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| AquaScan | A device described as accurately checking a water sample and displaying detected impurities. |
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Treating water
| Property | Recorded value |
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| UV Lamp | The lamp can be used on a water container. Its flavor text says the ultraviolet light kills bacteria and other microorganisms. The item text does not say that it removes every kind of contamination. |
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| Water Purification Tablet | The tablet’s description says it removes a large amount of microbial contamination and partly reduces chemical contamination. It has no effect on other kinds of contaminants. |
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Practical tip
| Property | Recorded value |
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| Read the result before treating | Different tools handle different problems. A purification tablet does not remove every contaminant, so test the water and check the tool description before choosing a treatment. |
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| Check the water instead of trusting its label | The Water Trading Manual warns that station water may be mislabeled, intentionally or by mistake. It recommends verifying quality before buying or drinking. It describes a Water Testing Strip as a cheap, easy test. |
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Customer habits
| Property | Recorded value |
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| What customers tend to do | The customer guide says large water orders typically come with a Water Testing Kit; Scavengers are typically too poor to carry one; and Tourists and Upper Level Citizens are often less likely to test the water themselves. |
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Using the portable purifier
| Property | Recorded value |
|---|
| When the portable purifier refuses a container | The purifier will not run when the water quality value is 9,800 or higher on the game’s internal 0–10,000 scale. At that point, the code treats the container as already clean enough for this tool. This is an implementation detail, not a general drinking-safety rating. |
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| Portable purifier durability | The game charges purifier durability in steps based on container volume, rounding up to the next 100 ml. For example, a 101 ml container uses 2 durability. The item description states 1 durability per 100 ml; the code rounds partial 100 ml amounts up. |
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Reading test results
| Property | Recorded value |
|---|
| How the game calculates its water quality value | The game stores water quality as a number from 0 to 10,000. The calculation uses the amount of a tracked water component compared with the total amount in the container. The code returns 0 when there is no measurable total. The extracted code does not by itself identify the tracked component, so this number should not be read as a real-world safety test. |
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Purifying water
| Property | Recorded value |
|---|
| Water Purifier machine | Put a water container into the machine and provide enough energy. It processes the water overnight. Its instruction text says modules can change power consumption, the amount of contamination removed each night, and the maximum purity it can reach. |
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| What the purifier modules change | The instruction card lists three module effects: Efficiency changes power consumption, Performance changes the amount removed per night, and Quality (0.5 Ratio) changes the maximum purity. |
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| Water filters and pitcher | A Water Filter slightly improves purity when used in a filter system, but stops working above a stated threshold. A Water Pitcher holds a filter and removes some contaminants from water poured through it. |
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| Advanced Water Filter | The Advanced Water Filter recovers 50 durability at the start of each day. Its flavor text describes it as a premium pitcher filter used in the Upper Levels. |
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| HydraTech Micro Water Purifier | Use the HydraTech Micro Water Purifier on a water container to bring its contents up to Basewater purity. It spends one durability per 100 ml; partial 100 ml amounts round up. Its flavor text says discarded units wash up in the Dumping Grounds, but that text does not guarantee a fixed spawn. |
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| Treatments target different contaminants | The manual explains that water can contain several kinds of contaminants and each treatment only works on certain kinds. If repeated treatment does not raise purity, the method may not affect what remains. Tablets reduce microbial contamination and some chemical contamination. A pitcher filter removes impurities, microplastics, and organic waste as water is poured through it, but its durability is limited. |
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| Combining tablets and a filter | The manual says using a Water Purification Tablet together with a Water Filter can produce Ghostwater or even Basewater, depending on the starting water quality. It recommends a dedicated Water Purifier with installed modules for higher purity. Basic methods are especially rough on filter durability when treating Gutterflow. |
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Water supplies
| Property | Recorded value |
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| Sealed water rations | The standard sealed ration pours 750 ml of Basewater into a liquid container. The small ration pours 375 ml. |
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Shop equipment
| Property | Recorded value |
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| Water Neon Sign | Placing the Water Neon Sign in the Display Case attracts customers who want to sell water. |
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Reading water quality
| Property | Recorded value |
|---|
| Water purity grades | The Water Trading Manual gives these cutoffs: Pure Water 99.9% or higher; High-Quality Water 99% to 99.9%; Basewater 98% to 99%; Ghostwater 96% to 98%; Rustwater 90% to 96%; and Gutterflow below 90%. The manual prints the last cutoff as “90%-”. |
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Purity grades in the Water Trading Manual
| Water Type | Purity Range |
|---|
| Pure Water | 99.9% or higher |
| High-Quality Water | 99% to 99.9% |
| Basewater | 98% to 99% |
| Ghostwater | 96% to 98% |
| Rustwater | 90% to 96% |
| Gutterflow | Below 90% (manual notation: “90%-”) |
Connections & references
Linked records
Referenced by
Sources & verification
Extraction status: Verified. This describes the extraction, rather than a gameplay test. Internal flags and defaults are shown as recorded.
- Reader
- Unity asset text extraction + official Steam demo listing
Field-level source references
| Property | Source pointer | Status |
|---|
| Water Testing Kit | Player-facing reference: Testing water — Water Testing Kit | verified |
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| Water Testing Strip | Player-facing reference: Testing water — Water Testing Strip | verified |
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| AquaScan | Player-facing reference: Testing water — AquaScan | verified |
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| UV Lamp | UV Lamp description and flavor text (item_uv_filter_desc and item_uv_filter_flavor) | verified |
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| Water Purification Tablet | Player-facing reference: Treating water — Water Purification Tablet | verified |
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| Read the result before treating | Player-facing reference: Practical tip — Read the result before treating | verified |
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| What customers tend to do | Player-facing reference: Customer habits — What customers tend to do | verified |
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| When the portable purifier refuses a container | GameAssembly.dll mapped with IL2CppDumper; Ghidra analysis at VA 0x180493B30 and 0x180540D60 | verified |
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| Portable purifier durability | Portable purifier description plus GameAssembly.dll method at VA 0x180493B30; internal calculation (volume + 99,999) / 100,000 | verified |
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| How the game calculates its water quality value | GameAssembly.dll method at VA 0x180540D60; mapped via IL2CppDumper metadata | verified |
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| Water Purifier machine | Water Purifier description and instruction short text (item_water_purifier_desc and item_water_purifier_instruction_short) | verified |
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| What the purifier modules change | Water Purifier Instructions (item_water_purifier_instruction_flavor) | verified |
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| Sealed water rations | Water Ration and Water Ration (Small) descriptions | verified |
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| Water filters and pitcher | Water Filter and Water Pitcher descriptions | verified |
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| Advanced Water Filter | Advanced Water Filter description and flavor text | verified |
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| HydraTech Micro Water Purifier | Portable purifier item description/flavor and GameAssembly.dll VA 0x180493B30 | verified |
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| Water Neon Sign | Water Neon Sign description (item_sign_water_desc) | verified |
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| Water purity grades | book_water_s1 grading entries in UI_en | verified |
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| Check the water instead of trusting its label | book_water_s2_body and book_water_s2_body2 in UI_en | verified |
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| Treatments target different contaminants | book_water_s3_body, body2, body3 in UI_en | verified |
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| Combining tablets and a filter | book_water_s3_note, note2, note3 in UI_en | verified |
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