Press Tab to open your inventory in Schedule I. That single key opens your phone and your carried items on the same screen, which is where almost everything in the game is managed.
The screen itself is simple. What catches people out is the discard box sitting in the corner of it, and the fact that the game does not let you put an item back on the ground.
What Tab Actually Opens
Tab brings up your phone interface with your inventory attached to it. Your phone is the hub for messages from suppliers and customers, your map, and your product listings, so you will be pressing this key constantly rather than occasionally.
Your carried inventory is limited to eight hotbar slots. That cap is the real constraint in the early game, not money. A run to a supplier, a stop at the packaging station, and a delivery can easily need more than eight slots, so you end up planning routes around what you can physically hold.
The Discard Box Deletes, It Does Not Drop
This is the part worth reading twice. There is no drop-item function in Schedule I. The box in the bottom right of the inventory screen is labelled discard, and anything you drag into it is destroyed permanently. It does not land on the floor, it does not go into storage, and there is no confirmation prompt to save you.
That matters most with seeds and with packaged product. Dragging a stack of finished product into the discard box to free up a slot means that product is simply gone, along with whatever it cost to make.
If you need space, the answer is always storage, never discard. Put the excess into a storage container at a property you own and come back for it.
Managing Items From the Inventory Screen
A few actions are worth knowing because they save trips:
- Moving product into storage containers at any property you own, which is how you free hotbar slots safely.
- Loading dealers, which is done from their inventory rather than yours, so you need the product in hand when you meet them.
- Checking a product’s effects before you sell it, since the effect list is what determines which customers will pay a premium.
That last one connects directly to pricing. A product’s listed effects come from what you mixed into it, and knowing which effects you are carrying tells you which customers are worth visiting. Our guide to the Schizophrenic effect walks through how a specific effect gets onto a product in the first place.
Tips Most Players Miss
- Clear your hotbar before a supplier run. Arriving with seven of eight slots full is the most common reason people make two trips.
- Keep one slot permanently free. Pickups and handoffs need somewhere to land.
- Do not store product you are about to sell. Retrieving it costs more time than carrying it.
Once your operation grows past what you can personally carry, the answer stops being inventory management and becomes staffing. Employees handle the repetitive work, but they need somewhere to sleep before they will do anything, which our guide on assigning a bed covers. The rest of our Schedule 1 guides cover the supply chain from there.
Frequently Asked Questions
What key opens the inventory in Schedule 1? Tab, by default. It opens your phone and your carried inventory on the same screen.
Can you drop items in Schedule 1? No. There is no drop function. The discard box in the inventory destroys items permanently instead of placing them on the ground.
How many inventory slots do you get? Eight hotbar slots for carried items. Storage containers at properties you own hold the overflow.
Can you get discarded items back? No. Discarding is permanent and there is no confirmation step, so treat that box as a delete button.