Wiki / DDS2 / Game Mechanics & Systems

Bills, Debt & Running Costs

Running a hideout costs money: production uses electricity and water, and the properties you own accrue a bill that is paid periodically. All costs of using a hideout are paid automatically from the wealth vault, so keep money in it. Falling into debt costs you reputation in the region of the indebted hideout. See Cash, Wealth & Carrying Money.

Contents: Unit costs · Hideout debt · Influencer balances and reputation bleed · Employee wages · Scaling the costs

Unit costs

CostRate
ElectricityB200 per kilowatt
Running waterB80 per litre
Waste removalB2 per gram of waste, minimum B1,000
Phone boothB15 per minute

A hideout bill includes electricity, water, waste removal and the daily cost of the hideout itself. The hideout table stores a base daily cost, a daily rent and a total buy cost (BaseCostDaily, RentCostDaily and BuyCostTotal, filled on 71 of 79 hideouts). The buy cost divided by the daily rent ranges from about 7 to about 420 days, so there is no single payoff period. A developer hint says hideouts can be leased (a daily fee until the price is repaid) or bought outright, but lease-to-own is unconfirmed. The same hint also says bills are paid at special spots in the village or by phone with a bank account, but no row of the hint table references its text, so the only payment method confirmed here is the automatic one from the wealth vault. Hideout details are on Hideouts & Properties and Pedro Alvarez Real Estate Agency guide.

Hideout debt

FlagMeaningValue
HIDEOUT-DEBT-LEVELDebt at which a hideout is marked as indebted.B5,000
HIDEOUT-DEBT-PENALTY-LEVELDebt per town from which daily reputation penalties start.B15,000
HIDEOUT-DEBT-EXECUTION-LEVELDebt per town from which enforcement ("executions") begins.B30,000
HIDEOUT-DEBT-REPUTATION-PENALTYDaily reputation penalty for debt (the developer note says "above 4k", while the indebted-hideout level above is 5,000).100 reputation per day

The debt note in the files says the daily reputation penalty applies to debt "above 4k", while the indebted level is B5,000, so the exact trigger is unclear.

Influencer balances and reputation bleed

Influencers who sell for you keep a running balance with you. These flags set when you get reminders and penalties.

FlagMeaningValue
DEBT-POSITIVE-LEVELPositive balance from which collection reminders start.27,000
DEBT-WARNING-LEVELDebt level below which the player gets debt warnings.-13,500
DEBT-PENALTY-LEVELDebt level from which a daily penalty applies.-54,000
DEBT-REPUTATION-PENALTYDaily penalty for a large debt to an influencer.135
DEBT-NOTIFICATION-INTERVALMaximum frequency of debt warnings.320
REP-BLEED-PER-DEBT-10KReputation lost per minute for every B10,000 of debt.0.45
REP-BLEED-RATE-MAXMaximum possible reputation bleed per minute.80

Employee wages

RoleDaily wage
Lab technicianB30,000 per day
Bodyguard (flag CREW-DAILY-FEE-MUSCLE)B65,000 per day
Bodyguard (flag CREW-DAILY-FEE-BODYGUARD, probably unused)B45,000 per day

Two flags carry a bodyguard wage. MUSCLE is the role token the rest of the game uses for the Bodyguard, and the BODYGUARD flag name appears in no other table, so B65,000 is almost certainly the live wage. Dealer and distributor pay is a share of sales, not a wage; see Balance Flags (Developer Values).

Scaling the costs

The Loss multiplier cartel setting multiplies maintenance costs (power, water, employee fees and so on) and fines. It does not change shop prices. Chillout uses 0.75, Economic 1.2 and Default 1.0. See Cartel Settings & Difficulty Presets.

Source: game DataTables (BalanceFlagsDatabase, CartelConfigPresetDatabase, GameHintDatabase strings). Values are as stored in the current Steam build; bolivars are written with a leading B.

by xDqwg

Was this article helpful?
🖨 Print
Created by DDS2 Wiki Batch (xdqwg, reviewed) 2 revisions Published September 21, 2026

💬 Discussion