Food on the Outside

Food is usually stolen from upper city shops, poorly guarded by G-Types. It's possible but harder to steal from the kitchens of system cafeterias and restaurants, and more daring still to steal directly from the robot supply lines and deliveries by flying car or truck. However, the supply lines contain the freshest raw ingredients supplied to the system. Raw fruits, vegetables and grains come from the tops of the towers. Other raw materials come from outside the city and are shipped to the factories. Many finished products from factories are shipped out the same way. Gangs also make use of a lot of goods left behind in abandoned buildings in the undercity.

Porridge/oatmeal/cream of wheat are probably available. Stuff in cans and jars and tins are also a safe bet (including condensed soup). Also lentils, beans, peas and the like last forever when they're dry, but since those are raw ingredients they would probably have to be stolen from the back of a kitchen or a robot supply chain as well. Eggs and pre-mixed scrambled egg stuff are probably easy to come by even in regular stores.

The safest way to find food in the Undercity is by foraging for naturally occurring things like mushrooms, pigeons and their eggs, squirrels, and wild vegetables where there is sunshine filtering through the cracks or enough artificial light for plants to grow. Common strategies to catch pigeons and squirrels include setting traps and working together to try to scare them into a net. While foraging, Outsiders might also come across some caches of food and supplies left behind by dead gangs or loners who had passed that way before, but these are rare finds. Unfortunately, while playing it safe there's a good chance you won't find anything at all. Gangs can also grow their own food and herbs and breed squirrels and pigeons if they have a stable enough place to keep them. Really desperate Outsiders will turn to eating rats if they have to.