Probably Stolen water guide: grades, filters and purification

The six water grades

Pure Water99.9%+

Expensive water for hospitals and laboratories.

High-Quality99%–99.9%

Suitable for drinking, cooking and household use.

Basewater98%–99%

Lower Levels standard. Avoid prolonged use.

Ghostwater96%–98%

Used in farming and industry. Filter before drinking.

Rustwater90%–96%

Dangerous to drink and unsuitable for irrigation.

Gutterflow90% or below

Toxic, heavily contaminated and hard on filters.

Clear water can still be Ghostwater. It looks like High-Quality water, and selling it with a Basewater label is a common scam in the Lower Levels. Test the batch before you buy it.

Which tool should you use to test water?

Water Testing Strip: check the grade

A cheap, convenient way to check water before buying it or after treatment. Use the result to judge the batch instead of relying on its label.

AquaScan: see what's in the water

Measures water quality and displays detected impurities. When treatment stops helping, check what remains before choosing your next tool.

Tablets or a pitcher filter?

They remove different contaminants. Using both can usually produce Ghostwater or even Basewater, depending on the starting water.

Purification tablets: treat microbial contamination

Remove large amounts of microbial contamination and reduce some chemical contamination. Other contaminant types need a different treatment.

Filter + pitcher: filter as you pour

Fit the filter inside the pitcher before pouring water through it. It removes impurities, microplastics and organic waste, using up durability. Gutterflow wears filters rapidly, so test it first.

For your first batch:

1. Test the water and note its quality.
2. Choose tablets, a filter or both to suit the contamination.
3. Test again after treatment. If purity stops improving, change methods.

The beginner guide covers the buying, sorting and selling routine around this work.

Why does purification stop working?

Your current tool cannot remove the remaining contaminants. More of the same tablet or another pass through the same filter will leave them behind.

For higher purity, the manual recommends a dedicated purifier with suitable modules. Compare what these upgrades actually do before buying one.

HydraTech Micro Water Purifier

Use it on a water container to bring its contents up to Basewater purity. It uses 1 durability per 100 ml, so check the volume before treating a large batch.

Advanced Water Filter

Recovers 50 durability at the start of each day. Its self-cleaning ability helps reduce filter replacements when you use a pitcher regularly.

Dedicated Water Purifier

Fit suitable modules to reach higher purity. This is the manual’s recommended next step when tablets and pitcher filters have reached their limit.

Compare equipment values in the item and price reference. To build a run around water trading, read about the Water Merchant’s starting equipment and traits.

Is purer water always better?

Wine is an exception. The winemaking manual recommends High-Quality water or Basewater. Pure Water lacks the minerals needed for fermentation, while anything below Basewater greatly reduces wine quality. Aim for the right grade for the job. The BloomBerry wine guide covers choosing fruit, preparing yeast and starting fermentation.

For growing crops, watch the pollutants. The farming manual recommends low-pollutant water for most plants and explicitly excludes minerals from that category.

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Images and information from Demo 049-Rev5-L, Steam build 25382790: the Water Trading Manual, item descriptions, winemaking manual and farming manual.