Survival Log Trading and Neighbors

Trading and neighbors are how Survival Log stays a city after the shops die. You are still single-player. You still cannot invite a friend into the safehouse. You can, however, unlock trading points, send a drone, take a neighbor gift, and rescue a warehouse manager whose home has two warehouse rooms and a truck full of story items. Launch-week notes on August 13–15 repaired the unlocks that made those sentences fail in first-week saves. This page is the social-logistics desk: when to open a stall, what to give, what to refuse, and how community group chat is not a second stockpile.

Start from How to Drone Trade for keep-versus-trade ethics and How to Rescue a Neighbor for rope-and-basket pacing. This systems page owns trading-point unlocks, neighbor gift tables, drone Planning Cards, and the warehouse-manager clue trail.

Trading points that said Completed but stayed locked

August 15 fixed a nasty first-week bug: you could meet every active trading-point condition, watch the interface say Completed, and still fail to unlock. Old saves update automatically on load. If you abandoned a stall in shame during launch week, load the save once, then walk the point again before you restart the run. Pair the visit with City Locations so the stall is on a circuit that still returns before the crisis bar goes red (Launch Week Patches).

Right-click transfer works in the Trading interface (August 13). Use it. Standing in a stall clicking one can at a time is how you miss a horde warning.

Drone cards: Scavenging versus Endurance

August 14 added a Scavenging planning card on the drone path: more daily scavenging dispatch attempts. The same note corrected Endurance Drone: it increases daily trading quotas, not a vague stamina fantasy. Those are different theses. Scavenging is “send the drone out more often for loot.” Endurance is “the stall will take more deals today.” Neither card is permission to liquidate Tier 0 water. Time Loop and Planning Points still wants one thesis per day.

Bulk food trade value increased on August 14. That makes surplus calories a better stall good than they were on launch day — still worse than selling your last diesel. Neighbor return quantities no longer have an extra cap, so gifts can come back heavier. Budget shelf space in Floor Layout before you celebrate.

Neighbor gifts, group chat, and moldy leftovers

August 13 increased neighbor gift quantity and variety. Books, Sundries, and Tools can now appear in gift returns. That is useful clutter and dangerous clutter. Books do not board a window. Tools might. Sundries will fill the Tool Cabinet if you let them (Crafting and Workbench). Gift from surplus only. If a neighbor dies, later interactions and events should stop — that death-state bug was patched the same day.

Community group chat opening messages on day one were rewritten to carry more information (August 15). Chat is a rumor board, not a delivery app. Players who want to “help the neighborhood chat” with a million food items should still run mouth-count math from Food and Water first. A kind dump that empties your fridge is how quiet runs become screenshots of empty shelves.

Mold is a neighbor problem when you store their returns in the same container as clean food. August 13 slowed mold spread inside one container, widened disinfectant spray, and let spray clean moldy food directly. Keep returns in a labeled crate, not in the fridge row you need tonight.

Warehouse manager: clues, crowbar, truck, home

The warehouse manager is a playable role and a rescue storyline. August 14 added narrative missions from crafting a Crowbar to retrieving special items from the truck so you stop missing the clue chain. August 15 added another way to discover later clues if you already lost the trail, and it fixed movement between the two warehouse areas plus the entrance. Lighting in that scene was improved on August 14. If you could not walk from one warehouse room to the other, reload after the patch before you assume the role is broken.

August 13 already loosened rescue: outgoing supply types are no longer restricted, and the drone can bring a thank-you gift back. That gift is still surplus math. Warehouse Clerk is the role page; New Game Plus is how later cycles move floor and trap unlocks earlier so you can stage a rescue room sooner.

Thug encounters were rewritten on August 13 to match post-disaster reality, and counterattacks can now make them face consequences. Treat thugs as a map risk on Exploration Risk, not as a trading partner.

Furniture returns and seed purchases

Salespeople now check whether supplies that came with furniture are still intact before they process a return (August 13). Do not gut a cabinet and expect a full refund. August 14 stopped seed purchases when you cannot afford them — balances should not go negative. If a vendor still looks wrong, it is a bug to send to the official form, not a wiki exploit.

A trading day that stays honest

1. Load the save so Completed stalls can unlock.
2. Mark three surplus SKUs that do not touch Tier 0 rows on Stockpile Planner.
3. One stall or one drone thesis, not both plus a hospital run.
4. Store returns in a gift crate, spray if moldy, cook if meters demand it.
5. If the crisis bar is red, the stall is closed even if the NPC is still waving.

Neighbors make the apocalypse feel inhabited. They do not replace Priority Checklist. Trade the extra rice. Keep the boards.