Items & Equipment
Items split into things a worker wears (ongoing effects while equipped) and things that get used up (one-shot effects). This page covers the wearable side and the automatic behaviours around it. For consumables that keep your roster on its feet each week, see Tiredness, Health & Inventory.
Two places items live
Section titled “Two places items live”- Your stash - the shared pool everything you buy or loot lands in. It holds up to 300 items and is available everywhere; there is no per-building stock.
- A worker’s own bag - each worker carries up to 40 items of her own. Equipping happens here: move an item from the stash to the worker, then wear it.
Equipment slots
Section titled “Equipment slots”Each worker can wear a limited number of items per type:
| Type | Worn at once |
|---|---|
| Ring | 8 |
| Dress | 1 |
| Shoes | 1 |
| Necklace | 1 |
| Weapon | 2 |
| Small weapon | 1 |
| Armour | 1 |
| Armband | 2 |
Equipped items keep their full effect for as long as they stay on, and the effect is removed cleanly when you take them off, so gear can be passed around the roster freely as needs change.
The remaining types are Food and Makeup (one-shot consumables, used up on application) and Misc (oddballs; some are quest or script material). Misc items do nothing just sitting in a bag; an effect always needs the item equipped or used.
Statuses and control items
Section titled “Statuses and control items”Some items do not adjust a number, they switch a status on or off: an on/off condition on the worker such as Poisoned, Pregnant, Slave, or Controlled. A status either is or is not there; there are no degrees.
The one with the biggest gameplay impact is Controlled, the mind-control status (1.18.1 and later). A Controlled worker does not refuse work: control overrides her own objections, including fear, hate of you, and dignity. It does not override everything, though. Your own conduct policy still applies, a customer can still walk away, and a job’s hard requirements still have to be met. Control makes her willing, not qualified.
How you get it, and how long it lasts, follows the item:
- Jewelry (the Necklace of Control, the Disguised Slave Band) controls her only while worn. Take it off and she is her own person again, with all the resentment that implies.
- Consumables (the brainwashing oils and rituals) are permanent. There is nothing to take off, so there is no undoing it. The cheaper ritual also leaves lasting mental scars; the greater one is cleaner.
- Counters exist. The Epic Necklace and the Epic Bracer of Babeosity suppress Controlled while worn, so control can be fought with the right gear. Removing the counter brings control back only if a control item is still worn underneath it. Worn over a permanent brainwash, the counter breaks it for good: once removed, there is no item left to reassert the control, so the cure sticks.
The game checks a worker’s other worn items when something comes off, so wearing two control items and removing one keeps her controlled, and putting a counter on a worker who was never controlled does nothing when it comes off. The one thing it cannot see is history: a status that came from a consumable has no item behind it, which is exactly why a counter can cure it permanently.
Control changes what she will do, not how she feels. A controlled worker who hates you keeps hating you, keeps being unhappy, and if her happiness sinks low enough she will still run away. Obedience is not contentment.
What workers do on their own
Section titled “What workers do on their own”You do not micromanage most of this:
- They snack. Every week a worker uses one to three Food or Makeup items from her bag if the effects would help her.
- They shop. In free time a worker spends her own money on a few random affordable items from the shop. Weapons only tempt workers with real combat ability, and addicts buy their fix first.
- They upgrade and sell. A worker who buys something better than what she is wearing swaps to it and sells the cheaper piece. Surplus wearables beyond the slot limits get sold off too, so bags do not silt up with junk.
Where items come from
Section titled “Where items come from”The town shop stocks common gear, with rarer pieces rotating in less often. The best items do not reach the shelves at all: they come out of the catacombs, or from events and quest rewards.