The short answer
Loot only becomes progress after the crew returns.
Every room adds possible value and another chance for the run to collapse. The extraction decision is therefore a crew-level risk calculation, not a solo inventory check.
The official description states that if everyone breaks, the loot is lost. Furniture can be broken down for resources or fed to the Grinder for gold.
The retreat call
Check four signals before opening one more door.
Crew state
How many teammates still have working vessels, and how quickly could an exposed Spark find another host?
Return confidence
Can the crew still name the route back to the elevator without splitting up?
Banked value
Would losing the current haul hurt more than the next room is likely to help?
Rot pressure
Has the deeper Layer changed bodies, sound, or enemy behavior enough to make old assumptions unsafe?
Use the four signals as a communication tool. The official page confirms the systems, but it does not prescribe a numerical retreat threshold.
Crew protocol
Make the decision before panic makes it for you.
- Call the condition: say which signal changed—crew state, route, banked value, or Rot pressure.
- Set one rally point: do not create two competing return plans.
- Count Sparks, not only bodies: a broken vessel changes the rescue problem, even when the player is still present.
- Protect the conversion: the Outpost only benefits from what successfully comes back.
Evidence boundary
What this page does not claim.
We have not verified exact loot tables, gold values, floor-specific extraction timers, or a universal best route. Those details should be added only after a patch-specific source or repeatable in-game test exists.
Primary source: official GRAIN ROT Steam page ↗