If you learned water trading during the September demo, most of what you know is now wrong. The 1.0 release changed three things that break every old guide: standard filters no longer remove microbes, the Water Purifier's conversion logic was rebuilt in hotfix 1.0.0.2, and the prices of half the water equipment were cut.
Watch · Official trailer
▶
Official launch trailer via Steam. Watching the counter loop once will save you an hour of guessing later.
Why this page exists: the most visible water guide online was last updated in September 2026 — before launch. Its title still says “(Sep 2026)”. Every number below is checked against patch 1.0.0.5.
01The 6 Water Grades
Quality runs on a six-step ladder. Buying cheap is easy — the profit is in pushing a batch up one rung without wasting filters, tablets, or a night of machine time.
Ladder shows relative tier only — in-game purity thresholds are 99.9% for Pure. Filters and tablets cap out at Refined Water.
| Grade | What it takes | Rough value | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rustwater | Scavengers, Rustwater on Tap | Lowest | Sell cheap, or process it |
| Gutterflow | Gutterflow on Tap, dumped water | Low | Process it |
| Ghostwater | Cheap stock, basic Moisture Farm | Low | Hydroponics, not drinking |
| Basewater | Filtered Ghostwater, mid-quality farm | ~40 cr/L | Volume sales |
| High-Quality Water | Purifier below the Pure threshold | Mid-high | Your early bread and butter |
| Pure Water | Quality ≥100 purifier / ≥150 recuperator | ~80 cr/L | Premium shelf |
02What Changed in the 1.0 Release
Microbes are now your problem
Standard Water Filters no longer remove microbial contamination. Treat the batch with a Purification Tablet or a UV Lamp before you filter. Skip this and no amount of filtering gets you past Refined Water.
The Purifier was reworked
Hotfix 1.0.0.5 changed how the machine converts quality tiers. Demo-era conversion tables are simply wrong now.
Prices dropped, twice
1.0.0.2 cut the Water Filter from 50 to 25 and the Moisture Farm from 650 to 350. 1.0.0.5 cut the Water Purifier from 300 to 250.
Screenshots © Questing Goose Studio / tinyBuild, via Steam.
03Where to Get Water
Four sources, in rough order of how much I trust them:
| Source | Cost | Grade | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scavengers | Variable | Mixed | Haggle; never buy a large container untested |
| Gutterflow on Tap | 250 Favour | Gutterflow | Cheap and reliable |
| Rustwater on Tap | 350 Favour | Rustwater | Step up, still needs processing |
| Moisture Farm | 350 cr | Ghost → Base | ~850 mL/night, ~6 energy, diminishing returns |
If you started as the Water Merchant you already have the 6 L jug, pitcher, filter, strips, tablets and Red Labeller. Keep the jug. Selling it because a customer offered a good price is one of the most common early mistakes.
04The Purification Loop
One number people miss: the tablet takes about 15 mL of container space. Fill a canister to the brim first and you have nowhere to put it.
05Machine Thresholds & Modules
| Machine | Price | Pure threshold | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water Purifier | 250 cr | Quality ≥100 | 50,000 mL, 4 kJ/night |
| Hydric Recuperator | 350 cr | Quality ≥150 | ~850 mL/night, no filtering |
| Water Machine | 1,200 cr | — | 3 slots: basic / refined / pure |
| HydraTech Micro Purifier | Story unlock | Higher tier | After Eleanor’s storyline, ~Day 28 |
| Water Tank | — | — | 20,000 → 50,000 mL |
Module maths, which almost no guide spells out: a Quality Module adds +8, a Refinement Module adds +25, and they stack. A bare purifier sitting in the 60s will never reach Pure no matter how many nights you run it.
06Mislabeled Water: Fastest Profit, Fastest Bust
Relabelling is a real mechanic. The Labeler arrives around Day 4, and there is even an achievement for changing a label — the game expects you to try it.
The game's own words
Enforcement accumulates: players report Security attention from as little as 2.5 litres, others claim closer to 100 before buyers started calling them out. Buyers with testing kits can check the label against real quality — and reporting works both ways.
07Water Profit Cheat Sheet
Same litre, two prices. This is the whole business case for owning a machine:
Credits per litre · patch 1.0.0.5
| Setup | Upfront | Per-night output | Realistic margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scavenger + pitcher + tablets | ~25–50 | Manual, batch by batch | High margin, low volume |
| Purifier + Quality Modules | 250 + modules | One 50 L batch | Reliable 40 → 80 cr/L |
| 2 Recuperators + Water Machine | 1,900 | Automated bottles | Passive, slow payback |
Don't buy the bottling machine before you can keep three slots fed — an idle Water Machine is 1,200 Credits on the floor.
08Don't Waste Your Bad Water
Ghostwater and Gutterflow are not trash. Hydroponics accepts Ghostwater or Basewater — but it kills Dream Caps, so keep the cheap water for tolerant crops. Wine is the same story: Ghostwater lowers quality, Basewater leaves it unchanged, High-Quality improves it.
