Contraband

Contraband items are items the Guards do not allow you to have. Their name in game is red to help identify them. They will be confiscated if a guard finds them on you when you are knocked out, or if they see a contraband item on the ground.

These items will trigger Scanners, causing your Guard Heat to immediately jump to 99%. (30% on mobile.) Contraband detectors look like gates with a green light above them, the lights turn red if you walk through it with a contraband item.

Tips
Note that guards do not notice if you have contraband in your inventory or on your person (with the exception of the Guard Outfit, Infirmary Overalls, Medic Outfit or Civilian Outfit, which, if worn, will make your guard heat rise up quite quickly in sight of the guards).

If you keep your contraband items in a desk and your name is called at a roll call for a cell shakedown, you must remove all contraband from your desk within the next hour, otherwise they will find it, confiscate it, and put you in solitary. (In The Escapists 2, you don't go to solitary, but you still lose all your contraband.) As such, it is a bad idea to keep more than six contraband items in your desk. To hide contraband, you can do the following things:


 * Drop it on the floor in a guard-free place, such as a utility area, vent system, or tunnel. Remember that dropping excessively large amounts of items causes older ones to disappear.
 * (TE1 only) Use toilets to hide it, even if it's someone else's toilet, simply by placing items in the toilets and leaving them there. Then re-collect it an hour or so after roll call. Items inside toilets will disappear if the game is reloaded, so refrain from hiding important contraband in there if possible, such as tools, items needed for escaping, and so on.
 * (TE2 only) Place it in the hidden compartment of your desk. This compartment has six slots and can hide items from shakedowns and other players (in Multiplayer modes), but will not stop Guard Dogs from finding missing Keys or Keycards.
 * Carry it on you while the guard searches your desk, as long as you only have a small amount. In TE2, watch out for nearby dogs, as they can sniff out contraband you are carrying.
 * Contraband outfits, such as the can be safely smuggled through metal detectors by wearing them while walking through them. This strategy also works for contraband weapons in TE1, as long as they are in your designated weapon slot.

Contraband can be smuggled safely through metal detectors by keeping a Contraband Pouch or a Durable Contraband Pouch in the player's inventory. The Fake Shoe is an alternative if you are playing in the Duct Tapes Are Forever DLC prison.