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Loot Categories
Loot categories control what PWAL is allowed to loot.
Destinations control where loot goes.
These are separate systems.
If a category is turned off, PWAL will ignore that category no matter where the destination is set.
If looting is disabled, PWAL will ignore everything.
Read that twice before reporting a bug.
Each loot category is a filter.
When PWAL finds something lootable, it checks what kind of item it is.
Then it checks whether that category is enabled.
If the category is enabled, PWAL can process it.
If the category is disabled, PWAL leaves it alone.
That is intentional.
PWAL organizes loot into broad groups.
These may include:
- Consumables
- Armor
- Books and Dataslates
- Miscellaneous
- Resources
- Weapons
- Containers
- Corpses
- Harvestables
- Special backend categories
Exact menus may change as the framework develops.
Consumables include items the player can eat, drink, inject, or otherwise use.
Common consumable categories include:
- Aid
- Chems
- Drinks
- Food
These categories can usually be toggled separately.
If you do not want PWAL grabbing food and drinks, leave those categories off.
If you want useful medical items but not every sandwich in the Settled Systems, configure the categories accordingly.
Armor categories cover wearable protective gear.
Common armor categories include:
- Apparel
- Backpacks
- Helmets
- Spacesuits
Armor can take up a lot of inventory space.
If you route armor to the player, expect your carry weight to notice.
If you route it to storage, check that storage before assuming the item vanished into the void.
Weapon categories cover usable weapons.
Common weapon categories include:
- Heavy Weapons
- Melee Weapons
- Pistols
- Rifles
- Shotguns
- Throwable Weapons
Weapons are often worth checking manually if you care about rolls, mods, or condition-style preference.
PWAL can collect them, but it cannot care about your personal taste.
That is your job.
Books and dataslates cover readable items.
This area may include:
- Books
- Dataslates
- Landmark books
- Skill magazines
Some of these are forced to the player.
Skill magazines and landmark books are not normal storage loot.
They go to the player because they are tied to progression or direct acquisition behavior.
Do not report that as a routing bug.
Miscellaneous covers a lot of loose item types.
Depending on the current build, misc categories may include:
- Ammo
- Crafting items
- Contraband
- Currency
- Junk
- Keycards
- Collectibles
Misc is where things can get messy because Starfield has a lot of items that live under broad item types.
That is why PWAL uses category rules instead of just grabbing every random object like a raccoon with admin rights.
Collectibles always go to the player.
This includes collectible-style items grouped under PWAL’s Collectibles handling.
Older separate misc categories may be consolidated into Collectibles.
That is intentional.
Collectibles should not disappear into storage and make players think PWAL ate them.
The panda does not hoard your collectibles.
Currency-style items are forced to the player.
This includes things like credits and similar direct-value pickups.
Currency is not normal storage loot.
It belongs to the player.
Keycards are forced to the player.
They are often tied to access, doors, quests, or progression.
PWAL should not bury them in storage.
If a keycard gets looted, it should go to the player.
Contraband is special.
Contraband defaults to PandaWorks Inventory because Starfield’s contraband scanning system can cause stupid arrest-loop problems.
PWAL does not treat contraband like normal loot.
This is intentional.
If you want to smuggle contraband, move it manually when you are ready.
Do not expect PWAL to throw contraband into your pocket and then act surprised when space cops ruin your day.
Junk covers low-value clutter and general useless loot.
Junk is one of the main reasons PWAL exists.
If you want junk cleaned up, enable the category.
If you do not want junk, leave it off.
If you enable junk and route it somewhere, PWAL will do exactly that.
Do not enable junk and then complain that junk got looted.
Resources are crafting and material items.
PWAL may separate resources into several groups.
Common resource groups include:
- Inorganic Resources
- Organic Resources
- Manufactured Resources
Resources are often best handled differently than normal loot because players may want them stored for crafting, research, outposts, or ship work.
Inorganic resources include mined or mineral-style resources.
Common rarity groups may include:
- Common
- Uncommon
- Rare
- Exotic
- Unique
Harvest versions and spell-harvest versions may exist internally, but they should follow the main inorganic resource handling instead of being treated like separate player-facing destination systems.
Players do not need fifty different knobs for rocks.
Organic resources include biological materials.
Common rarity or handling groups may include:
- Common
- Uncommon
- Rare
- Exotic
- Unique
- Legendary
- Nonlethal Harvest
Organic resources may come from flora, fauna, harvest behavior, or other game systems.
If organic resources are enabled, PWAL can process supported organic resource pickups.
Manufactured resources are crafted or industrial resource items.
They may be grouped by tier, such as:
- Tier 01
- Tier 02
- Tier 03
These are usually crafting-related and may be routed separately from raw resources depending on available settings.
Container looting covers lootable containers.
Containers are not the same thing as loose items.
PWAL may scan containers, validate them, and move allowed items based on the enabled categories and routing rules.
If container looting is disabled, PWAL will not process containers.
If container looting is enabled but item categories are disabled, the container may be scanned but those disabled item types will still be ignored.
Yes, both things matter.
Corpse looting covers dead actors.
Corpses are not handled exactly like normal containers.
Bethesda corpse inventories can involve actor data, equipment, race behavior, and other nonsense from the engine swamp.
If corpse looting is disabled, PWAL will not process corpses.
If corpse looting is enabled, item categories still control what gets taken.
Harvestables cover resource-style pickups from plants, creatures, geology, or similar systems.
Harvest behavior can differ from normal container or corpse looting.
Some harvest systems may use activators or game-specific resource behavior.
That means some harvest-related items may need special rules.
If a harvest item must go to the player because of how the game handles it, PWAL will follow that rule.
Always Loot does not mean “loot everything.”
Always Loot works with categories.
If a category is not enabled, Always Loot does not magically make the category valid.
Always Loot is a control layer, not a free-for-all button.
Some categories are controlled by the framework instead of normal player routing.
Examples include:
- Currency
- Keycards
- Skill magazines
- Landmark books
- Collectibles
- Contraband
These rules exist for safety, progression, or gameplay reasons.
Not every category should be player-configurable.
Some switches should stay behind the glass before someone presses them with their forehead.
Some old or separate categories may have been merged.
For example, several collectible-style misc categories may now be handled under Collectibles.
That does not mean the category was forgotten.
It means the framework was cleaned up so the terminal menu does not become a cursed filing cabinet.
Check this first:
- Is looting enabled?
- Is that category enabled?
- Is the item actually part of that category?
- Is the item in scan range?
- Is the location allowed?
- Is the item blocked by forced rules?
- Is the item exposed to Papyrus/CK in a way PWAL can process?
Most reports should start with category settings.
If the category is off, the item will not loot.
That is not a bug.
That is a destination issue, not a category issue.
Categories decide whether PWAL can loot an item.
Destinations decide where the item goes.
Check the destination page and your destination settings.
Loot categories decide what PWAL is allowed to loot.
Destinations decide where that loot goes.
Forced rules override normal behavior when needed.
Collectibles always go to the player.
Contraband defaults to PandaWorks Inventory.
If something is not being looted, check the category before blaming the framework.
The panda only grabs what you told it to grab.
© 2026 PandaWorks Studios / Ganja Panda. All rights reserved.
PandaWorks AutoLoot for Starfield is proprietary mod content.
Do not reupload, redistribute, modify, port, or reuse any part of this project without explicit permission.