30 Floors Up Scavenging

What to bring back from your first search

Scavenging in 30 Floors Up means leaving the starting apartment, searching nearby rooms and shared areas, and returning with supplies that improve your next decision. Your first target is not a cleared floor. It is a safe, useful haul: secure drinking water while taps still work, collect food for the Pantry, and bring back one tool, weapon, or medical item that makes the next trip safer.

Start by checking Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue, and Stamina. Take a weapon or tool, a Bandage if you have one, and only the containers you can carry without ruining your retreat. A Bottle is a light one-litre option. A Bucket holds 10 litres but uses both hands and cannot enter vents; a Jerry Can holds 20 litres and is even more restrictive. If you are still before the utility shutdown, water is the highest-priority search result. The available records place tap shutdown on Day 3, but do not provide a precise countdown, so use the current game state rather than waiting for a particular minute.

How a scavenging trip changes state

This is a session-based, branching process. You begin at the apartment, choose a nearby search objective, and then decide whether to continue, change routes, or return when the risk or carry load rises. A room may contain food, tools, medicine, a weapon, a key, a survivor, a zombie, or nothing useful. The result is therefore a decision point, not a fixed loot sequence.

The building offers several ways to move. Stairs, lift areas, corridors, vents, and other vertical routes connect parts of the building, but some doors are locked and some stairs or rooms are blocked. The lift should not be treated as a permanent plan after power problems. A Screwdriver can open a vent, while a Bolt Cutter can remove chains or other locked route obstacles; neither replaces the other. Keys can open particular apartments, maintenance rooms, or lift landings, but the exact location of every key and the complete escape route are not established.

Each trip has two linked outcomes. The immediate outcome is what reaches the apartment: water, food, healing, tools, batteries, or progression items. The longer-term outcome is whether you return quietly enough, with enough stamina, and through a route you can repeat. Opening doors, sprinting, fighting, and using loud tools can attract infected. Carrying a full bucket or jerry can may improve your reserve while making a chase or vent detour impossible. Plan the return before taking a heavy item; the survival guide explains how to prioritize the haul against your meters.

Water, tools, and rooms that matter

Use the following as a practical priority list rather than a promise that every location always contains the item.

Food is not interchangeable. Tinned Tomatoes, Tinned Corn, Tinned Fish, and Tinned Peas require a Can Opener; Crackers provide a quick dry option; Rice produces more portions but needs a stove, water, and fuel. Bring food back to the Pantry rather than spending the whole trip searching for a perfect meal.

Tools also have distinct jobs. The Screwdriver is the vent tool. The Bolt Cutter is for chains, padlocks, or blocked access. A Hammer is both a basic weapon and a repair or barricade tool. AA Batteries support flashlights and radios, and Bandage helps after damage. Keep keys and batteries when they may open the next branch, even if they do not immediately satisfy hunger or thirst.

Use a screwdriver and find medicine while scavenging

This moment supports the screwdriver-and-vent route and the apartment search for medicine and a bandage described in this section.

Load 8:23 · Use the screwdriver to open vents and find medicine

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Your first apartment-to-return run

1. Set a small objective at the apartment. Decide whether this trip is for water, food, a tool, or a route item. Check Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue, and Stamina, equip a weapon, and leave space for the target. The checkpoint is a loadout that still allows you to retreat; if it is already too heavy, remove a low-priority item before leaving.
2. Secure water before widening the search. If taps or the bathtub still work, fill a Bottle first, then use a Bucket or Jerry Can only if you can return without needing a vent. Store the water in the apartment as soon as practical. The state change you want is a reserve that survives the next trip; do not assume the taps will remain available until the end of the run.
3. Search the nearest safe containers. Check cabinets, refrigerators, tables, toolboxes, and other interactive containers in the closest reachable room. Move quietly when possible: crouching is listed at noise level 6, walking at 14, and sprinting at 32. The checkpoint is a clear route back and a useful item in hand. If the room is empty, do not turn an empty result into a reason to cross several floors without a new objective.

Collect water and food for the apartment

This moment demonstrates the water and food collection loop behind filling containers, storing water, and bringing apartment food back to the pantry.

Load 0:50 · Fill and store water, then gather food

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4. React to the room result before opening another door. A zombie changes the task to survival; a survivor or empty room changes it to route choice; food, medicine, a tool, or a key may justify one more search. Close or manage doors when that helps contain noise, and do not sprint simply because a container has not opened yet. If fighting is unavoidable, preserve stamina for the retreat instead of treating every room as a mandatory clear.
5. Use the correct tool for the next access point. Carry the Screwdriver to an accessible vent when a corridor is blocked and you are light enough to crouch through it. Use the Bolt Cutter for a chained or padlocked route. Check keys against the relevant apartment, maintenance room, or lift landing. The checkpoint is confirmed access, not merely holding a tool; if the route stays blocked, mark it as a later objective and return rather than guessing the key or destination.
6. Choose the haul that matches the exit. Take food, a medical item, or a small tool when the return is uncertain. Take a Bucket or Jerry Can only when the route is short and no vent transition is required. Large water containers improve storage but reduce mobility, so a smaller partial haul can be the safer completion state.
7. Return by the route you already verified. Watch Stamina, noise, doors, and the position of infected. Do not depend on the lift if the building has lost power; use stairs or an established alternate route where available. The completion checkpoint is reaching the starting apartment with the item still in your inventory and without spending the supplies needed for the next outing.
8. Process the result before repeating the trip. Put food in the Pantry, pour or store water, and retain Bandage, weapons, batteries, keys, and progression tools. Then choose the next objective from what changed: water after a successful food trip, a Can Opener after finding cans, or a route tool after finding a blocked access point. This creates a controlled sequence of short decisions instead of an unsupported promise that every floor must be searched.

Priorities when a run goes wrong

Use these recovery pairs instead of trying to rescue every haul.

• You carry a full bucket and discover a vent. Leave the bucket in a safe, known location or return with it; do not force the vent route. Switch to a bottle or a lighter scouting trip on the next attempt.
• The tap shuts off before you fill enough containers. Treat stored water as the immediate reserve, then look for rain collection or another processable source. Do not assume untreated rain or cistern water is safe without the required treatment.
• A door or corridor draws infected. Stop opening adjacent rooms, close distance quietly, and retreat through the route you confirmed earlier. If you are already hurt, use a Bandage and abandon low-value items before trying to outrun the problem.
• You find cans but no Can Opener. Store the cans and search for the opener on a later, safer trip. Count only food you can currently prepare when deciding whether to risk another room.
• A blocked stair or locked landing stops progress. Record the obstacle and return rather than spending stamina on repeated attempts. Bring the relevant Bolt Cutter, screwdriver, or key when the next trip has a concrete access goal.
• You search several rooms and find almost nothing. Return with the best small item, reorganize the Pantry, and change the next objective. Resource locations and refresh behavior are not reliable enough to justify a blind deep run.
• You lose the planned exit after taking a progression item. Stop collecting and prioritize a verified return. Triangular Key, Roof Key, and batteries may support later progress, but the complete relationship between those items and every floor entrance is not confirmed; surviving with the item is more valuable than guessing.

First-time 30 Floors Up scavenging questions

Can you carry a Bucket through a vent in 30 Floors Up?

No. The Bucket needs both hands and cannot be taken into vents, so leave it for a direct return route and use a Bottle for light vent scouting.

What should you do with untreated rain or cistern water?

Treat it before drinking. Treatment Tablets are used to make untreated rain or cistern water safe, so do not count those sources as ready-to-drink water.

Why should you keep a Can Opener while scavenging?

Tinned Tomatoes, Tinned Corn, Tinned Fish, and Tinned Peas require a Can Opener. Without one, the cans occupy inventory but do not immediately become usable food.