Dropping

Summary

Dropping is a mechanic used to drop items in your inventory onto the floor below your player. They can be freely walked over, and if a toilet floods, the dropped item will be unaffected whatsoever. The only way to interact with dropped items is to pick them back up.

If you try to drop something over another dropped item, it will fail and your player will say "No space to put that there," or "I can't put that there," etc. You also fail to drop items onto doors and contraband detectors (dropping soil in tunnels will fail as well). When interacting with objects in the prison (i.e., hiding in a locker, sleeping in bed), you will hear the dropping sound effect but nothing will be dropped.

There is a limit on how many dropped items can exist at a time; dropping too many items results in the oldest items disappearing.

Preset dropped items (like the Lightweight Pickaxe in the Rattlesnake Springs' mine) act as rewards for the player to retrieve.

Appearance

A dropped item looks similar to their inventory sprite counterpart. However, dropped items take up one block unit while their counterpart is much bigger. There are some exceptions, of course. A sturdy shovel or a flimsy shovel that is dropped looks exactly like a lightweight shovel!

Purpose

Dropping non-contraband items on the floor can be used as storage

One purpose of dropping is to dispose of unwanted items. In multiplayer, it can be used to give items to other players. Furthermore, dropping items on floor can be used to store non-contraband items, since dropped non-contraband items will not be touched by NPCs. This system of storage can free up desk space for illegal items. Dropping items is especially useful during jobs if you want to multitask. Contraband items can be momentarily dropped to avoid gaining heat from a contraband detectors. Make sure to take back your contraband quickly before a guard takes it. In a lockdown, non-contraband items can be dropped to avoid confiscation.

In the Escapists, in order to get past contraband detectors, you could drop your illegal items under the detector, walk through the detector clean, then pick up the contraband at the other side. This cheat unfortunately was patched in the Escapists 2 - items would fail to be dropped under contraband detectors.

Walkthrough

The icon symbolizing an item dropping

To drop items on PC, hold the right mouse button over the inventory item you want to drop. An incomplete hand icon should appear above the player. If you keep holding until the hand icon is complete, the item will be dropped.

The B key on a controller can be used for Console versions.

Contraband

When non-contraband is dropped on the ground, NPCs will not care. No one will try to take it, nor move it.

A guard confiscating contraband

However, when contraband items are dropped, guards will confiscate it on sight (in Escapists they will also send you to solitary). If the contraband item shows signs of escape (i.e., a Vent Cover), then the security level will raise by one stars (Escapists 2). If security cameras spot dropped contraband, they will be red with alert, signaling guards to come and take it. Dogs are able to sniff out contraband on the ground, and if they find the contraband, they will notify a guard to confiscate it.