Should you report Lou?
Only if you want her story. Reporting her pays her bounty and starts a run of visits that includes two endings; not reporting her ends her story after one visit.
Probably Stolen Lou Guide
Probably Stolen Lou only has a story if you report her the first time she comes in. Leave her alone and she buys her "fun stuff", walks out and never returns. Report her and you collect her bounty, but she breaks out and starts playing games with you, and two of those games can end your run. Her bomb is a fake and never goes off; the real danger is her box of toys and the debt she says you owe her.
What to do about Lou in Probably Stolen
For what the game is and every guide we publish, start at the Probably Stolen guide hub. Lou's place among the other story characters is on the Probably Stolen characters page.
- Box of toys: keep it in your shop and take nothing out of it. Looking inside is fine.
- The debt: when she comes to collect, hand over weapons, ammo and meds, and keep cash in the register to cover the rest.
- Reward: her bounty, paid when you report her. She pays nothing for what you give her later.
Lou at a glance
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Who she is | A Black Market figure on the Wanted List who calls you "Nutrifruit". Source: In-game text. |
| First visit | On a morning when money is tight, some time after you buy a Business Permit. Source: The game code. |
| If you don't report her | She shops once and never comes back. Source: The game code. |
| If you report her | You get her bounty; she escapes and starts a run of visits. Source: In-game text; the game code. |
| Her bomb | A fake. It never explodes. Source: In-game text; the game code. |
| Her box of toys | Take anything out of it and she blows up your shop. Source: In-game text; the game code. |
| Her debt | 1,500 Credits' worth of weapons, ammo and meds. Paying far too little also blows up your shop. Source: In-game text; the game code. |
| Can you shoot her? | No. Source: The game code. |
Should you report Lou?
Lou turns up on a morning when you are short of money, some time after you buy your Business Permit. "My name's Lou, pleased to meet ya." She needs things to help a "guest" of hers "chat" with her: a pipe, a kitchen knife or a cleaver, or tools such as a plasma cutter or a screwdriver. Then she adds, "I am sure you know better than calling Security on me."
| Your choice | What happens | Lou's story |
|---|---|---|
| Don't report her | She buys what she came for and leaves | Ends. She never comes back |
| Report her | Security takes her away and you collect her 1,500-Credit bounty | Starts. She escapes and returns |
Her first visit happens only once, and she is not one of the wanted customers the game picks at random, so if you let her go there is no second chance to report her. You report her the same way as any wanted customer; the alarm and the Wanted List are explained on the Security and Wanted List page. Reporting Lou doesn't lower your Black Market reputation.
Reporting her is the only way to see her story, and it carries two ways to lose your run. If you want neither the bounty nor the risk, let her go.
What Lou does after you report her
When Security comes for her, Lou laughs: "The brig's ain't gonna hold me for long." She is right. Her visits after that come in this order:
- The scare. A few days later she is waiting when you open: "It was not very nice of you to call Security on me last time." Instead of killing you, she wants to "play some games", and she says Security won't bother the two of you any more.
- The bomb. Soon after, she hides a "bomb" in your things overnight and tells you the next morning that it goes off at midnight.
- The box. A few days later she laughs about the "bomb" and asks you to keep her box of toys safe while she runs errands.
- The pickup. A few days after that she comes back for the box and checks what is inside.
- The inspection. Later still, a Security Inspector asks to inspect your shop. It is Lou in a stolen uniform. Whether you accept the inspection or see through her, she drops the act. Her "guest" told her where to find someone she has "a score to settle with", and since you pocketed her bounty, you owe her 1,500 Credits' worth of weapons, ammo and meds, "and we're even." She gives you a week.
- The collection. A week later she comes to collect.
Each of these is covered below.
Will Lou's bomb go off?
No. The item she hides is an Armed Plastic Explosive: "This is what Lou planted. According to the timer, it will explode at midnight. You'd better disarm it." In the game files it never explodes. Overnight it turns into a Fake Plastic Explosive, "This is the bomb Lou planted, but it looks like there's no actual payload inside." If you find it before then and use it, that only disarms it.
-
Armed Plastic Explosive
You can search your storage if you like, but you don't have to. On her next visit she only asks how you liked the "bomb".
Lou's box of toys: what not to do
On the box visit she hands you Lou's Box of Toys, "a repurposed evidence locker from the Security Department. Better not touch anything inside." Her warning is plainer: "You'd better not touch anything inside, or else."
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Lou's Box of Toys -
Old Republic Orders
Inside are tools and blades, the kind she shopped for on her first visit, and a paper called Old Republic Orders. They are addressed to "Emergency Response Team Leader Lou" and tell her to start the self-destruct sequence of the research ship Icarus and to let no survivor escape. When she comes back for the box, what she finds decides what happens:
| What you did | What Lou says | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Left it closed | "You didn't even take a peek?" | Nothing. She praises you |
| Opened it and looked | "Somebody took a little peek inside my box, didn't they?" | Nothing. She lets it go |
| Took something out, or the box is no longer in your shop | "I told you not to touch my toys, Nutrifruit." | She leaves a real bomb and your run ends |
So the rule is simple: keep the box in your shop and put back anything you take out before she returns. Don't sell the box or its contents.
Paying Lou's debt and the two Bombed endings
When Lou comes to collect, she asks for her "new toys", 1,500 Credits' worth of weapons, ammo and meds, and warns, "I borrowed every scanner Security owns." Put items on the counter one at a time; she takes weapons, firearms, melee weapons, ammunition and medical items at their agreed value. In the game files those items are marked "Donation", so she doesn't pay you for them. When you have nothing more to give, pick [That's All I Have].
- You gave her the full amount: "That's everything I asked for. Good Nutrifruit!"
- You are short, but not by much: she takes the rest from your register ("I'll take the rest in cash, then."). If the register doesn't hold enough, she takes everything in it.
- You are far short, counting your cash: "That's not even half of what you owe me, Nutrifruit." She leaves a real bomb and your run ends.
Two of the game's endings belong to Lou, and both are called Bombed:
- Her toys: "Lou told you not to touch her toys. She left another little present on your counter, and this one was real. The explosion destroyed the store and killed you."
- Her debt: "You couldn't pay what you owed Lou, so she settled the score her own way: a little present on your counter, and this one was real. The explosion destroyed the store and killed you."
The rest of the game's endings are in our guide to Probably Stolen's losing endings.
To be safe at collection, start stocking weapons, ammo and meds after the inspection visit, and keep cash in the register on the day she returns. Once you settle up, she says goodbye: "Well, it was fun playing with you. See you again someday, maybe." Soon after, the paper runs "High-Ranking Visiting Admiral Assassinated!": a blonde woman in a stolen Security uniform shot a visiting Republic admiral near the docking bays and escaped.
Can you kill Lou?
No. In the public build none of Lou's visits can be shot, so the only ways out of her story are not reporting her in the first place or seeing it through to the end.
Version notes and limits
This page doesn't show the amount the shop screen displays when you hand Lou a "Donation". On the open beta branch, patch notes of November 1, 4 and 5, 2026 make the debt depend on difficulty (500 Credits on Cozy up to 1,500 on Challenge), have Lou collect her box the day after she leaves it, add a Republic agent who asks you to deal with her, let you shoot most story characters and further adjust Lou's encounters. None of those are in the public build this page describes. We will update this page when they reach the public build.
Probably Stolen Lou FAQ
Will Lou's bomb go off?
No. The Armed Plastic Explosive she hides turns into a Fake Plastic Explosive overnight and never explodes.
Can you open Lou's box of toys?
Yes, looking inside is safe. Taking anything out, or not having the box in your shop when she returns, makes her leave a real bomb and ends your run.
Why did Lou blow up my store?
Either something was missing from her box of toys, or you paid far too little of the debt when she came to collect. Each is a Bombed ending.
Why did Lou never come back?
You didn't report her on her first visit. Her story only continues after Security arrests her, and that first visit doesn't repeat.
Can you kill Lou?
No. In the public build Lou can't be shot on any of her visits.
Sources and version history for this guide: Probably Stolen sources and versions.
Spot an error or a post-patch change? See how we label evidence and handle corrections in the Editorial Policy.