DEA Raids Guide (Version from Feb 21, 2026, 03:10 AM)

⏳ Heat Decay Mechanics (Section 4 of 11)

Heat doesn't stay at its peak forever. The game includes a natural decay system that gradually reduces your heat over time, provided you stop engaging in illegal activities. Understanding the decay mechanics allows you to plan cool-down periods and get back to business faster.

DATAMINED Values extracted from statisticsManager.json, ExpoEventsDatabase.json, and BalanceFlags.json

The base decay rate is approximately 1-2% per in-game hour when you are not actively performing any illegal activities. However, this rate is affected by several factors that can speed up or slow down the process. The exposition system uses two parallel mechanisms that run simultaneously: a continuous flat-rate decay that ticks every 0.12 seconds, and a 3-day weighted average recalculation that evaluates your entire criminal history over the past 3 in-game days. This was confirmed by the Uptown Kings Update (Feb 2022) patch notes and verified in the game's blueprint code.

⚙️ System A: Continuous Decay (factorTimeDrop)

A background process runs every 0.12 seconds and constantly subtracts from your exposition level:

expoFactorLevel -= expoFactorDropRatePS × DeltaTime
expoFactorLevel = Clamp(expoFactorLevel, 50, 1000)

Variable	Value	Meaning
`expoFactorDropRatePS`	0.32	Points subtracted per second when idle
`expoFactorMin`	50.0	Minimum expo value (floor) — never reaches zero
`expoFactorMax`	1000.0	Maximum expo value (ceiling)
`ExpoFactorMultiplier`	1.0	Global multiplier (scales with difficulty)
`Tick Interval`	0.12s	How often the decay runs

At 0.32/sec continuous decay, standing completely idle drains ~19 points per minute. From max (1000) to DEA threshold (400) takes roughly ~31 minutes of real time if no new events occur.

📊 System B: 3-Day Weighted Average (UpdateExpositionLevel)

The game records every criminal event with a timestamp (timecode = day × multiplier + hour). Periodically, it recalculates your expo by averaging all events within a 3 in-game day window:

result = TotalValue / (TotalDivision + EXPO-BASE-INACTIVITY-MEDIANE)
// EXPO-BASE-INACTIVITY-MEDIANE = 6.0 (pushes expo down when inactive)

The system stores parallel arrays for each event: ExpoSalesDay[], ExpoSalesAmount[], ExpoSalesNight[], ExpoEventsDay[], ExpoEventName[], ExpoEventNight[]. Events older than 3 days are excluded from the calculation.

This is why expo can seem to "rise without reason" — you did heavy dealing ~3 days ago, and the clean days before that just fell out of the averaging window.

📋 Expo Event Values (from ExpoEventsDatabase)

Event	Expo Value	Mediane Weight	Severity
Police Search	400	1.2	Moderate
Police Chase	800	2.0	Moderate
Free Sample Given	500	1.0	Moderate
Client Overdose	600	1.0	Moderate
Dealer Arrested	600	1.0	Moderate
Search — Caught with Drugs	1,400	1.5	High
Caught During Police Hours	1,500	1.5	High
Police Tased	2,000	2.0	Severe
DEA Raid	3,000	2.0	Extreme
Hardcore Mode Bonus	1,100	10.0	Passive

Mediane Weight is used as the divisor in the weighted average. Higher weight = the event has more influence on "diluting" the expo calculation. Sales contribute 0.8 mediane weight per sale.

🔽 Faster Decay When:

Sleeping at your hideout (fastest method)
Staying indoors / inside buildings
Avoiding known sale areas and police routes
Not carrying any drugs or paraphernalia
In low-traffic residential areas

🌙 Night Multipliers (from BalanceFlags)

Night sales: ×0.7 expo (30% reduction)
Night events: ×0.6 expo (40% reduction)
Sale rate: every 15 grams sold = 100 expo points
Sale mediane weight: 0.8 per sale event

⚠️ The in-game tooltip says "50% reduction at night" but the actual code uses 0.7× for sales and 0.6× for events — not a flat 50%.

🔼 Slower Decay When:

Carrying drugs on your person
Near police stations or government buildings
In high-traffic / downtown areas
Wandering around known drug sale zones
Near areas where you recently made sales

🚨 DEA Thresholds

DEA activates at: 400.0 expo (40% of max)
Observation interval: 1,800 seconds (30 min real-time)
DEA chance multiplier: ×0.5
Expo range: 50 (floor) to 1,000 (max)

DEA checks happen every 30 minutes. Above 400 expo, each check uses RandomBoolWithWeight scaled by your expo level and the 0.5 multiplier to decide if a surveillance van deploys.

Starting Level	Starting Heat	Time to Reach Safe (Passive)	Time to Reach Safe (Sleep)	Notes
Level 1 — Watched	~35%	8 – 12 in-game hours	1 – 2 sleep sessions	Quick recovery. Just stop selling for a while.
Level 2 — Suspected	~55%	18 – 24 in-game hours	3 – 4 sleep sessions	Noticeable wait. Consider other tasks while cooling down.
Level 3 — Wanted	~75%	30 – 40 in-game hours	5 – 7 sleep sessions	Long recovery. Prioritize getting indoors and sleeping immediately.
Level 4 — Maximum	~95%	48 – 60+ in-game hours	8 – 10 sleep sessions	Critical recovery time. Expect to spend a significant amount of gameplay laying low.

🔧 Balance Constants (from BalanceFlags)

Flag ID	Float Value	Int Value	Purpose
`EXPO-BASE-INACTIVITY-MEDIANE`	6.0	0	Base divisor added to average calculation (inactivity bias)
`EXPO-SALE-EFFECT`	0.8	15	Float = mediane weight per sale; Int = grams per 100 expo points
`EXPO-NIGHT-SALE-MULTIPLIER`	0.7	0	Night sale expo multiplier (30% reduction)
`EXPO-NIGHT-EVENT-MULTIPLIER`	0.6	0	Night event expo multiplier (40% reduction)

💡 Tip: Sleeping in your hideout is the fastest way to reduce heat. Each sleep session (6 hours in-game) reduces heat by approximately 10-15%. Stack multiple sleep sessions back-to-back for the fastest recovery from high heat levels. 💡 How to reduce expo fastest: Stop all criminal activity and let the continuous decay (0.32/sec) drain your level. Meanwhile, the 3-day average window will gradually drop old events. Sleeping fast-forwards game time, which means old events fall out of the 3-day window faster. Dealing exclusively at night gives a 30% reduction on sale expo and 40% on event expo.

Note that decay rate is not linear. Heat decays faster at higher levels and slows down as you approach zero. This means the first 20% of heat is the hardest to shed, so don't expect to hit perfectly clean (0%) quickly. In practice, getting below 20% (Level 0) is sufficient to resume normal operations safely.

⚠️ Known quirk: Some players report expo rising while idle near workstations (mixing for 3-4 in-game days). This may be because mixing advances game time, causing old "clean" days to fall off the 3-day window while the high-activity period remains in the calculation. It is NOT a bug — it's how the rolling average works.

@ -355,7 +399,7 @@

DEA raids are the most devastating consequence of high heat in DDS1. When your heat reaches Level 4 (80%+) and remains there for an extended period, the DEA will eventually launch a coordinated raid on your active hideout. This section covers everything you need to know about raids — what triggers them, what happens during one, and how to survive. DEA raids are the most devastating consequence of high heat in DDS1. When your exposition exceeds 400 points (40% of max 1000), the DEA begins observation checks every 30 minutes using a weighted random chance (deaChanceMultiplier = 0.5). Higher expo = higher probability of a surveillance van deploying, eventually leading to a full raid on your most-visited hideout. This section covers everything you need to know about raids — what triggers them, what happens during one, and how to survive.