The most repeated holdout is the high industrial shelving in the upper-left of the sales floor. Ground patrols rarely walk that corner, and managers only pass occasionally. You reach the second tier from the small blue side shelves. A warehouse rack toward the back storage bays is the other high option: wide beams, room for a bed, and a view of the floor. The garden barns are the fast ground fallback. They already have walls, but wood breaks when night staff hit it.
Build order for the first two days
- Find the upper-left rack and mark both blue-shelf climbs. Those are the only easy ways up, so both have to be blocked.
- Carry two beds or wooden pallets onto the beams and lay them flat. Dropped food falls through an open grate.
- Haul storage boxes or corrugated metal up. Rotate a held prop with R or Ctrl until the boxes sit flush across each climb. Leave a crouch gap you can still use.
- Put a floor lamp or table lamp on the platform if you find one. A handheld flashlight left on will draw staff from across the showroom.
- Keep a crafting table in the back corner only after the climbs are sealed. An open-aisle bench gets broken.
What actually holds
| Material | Use | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Storage boxes | Plug the elevated climbs | Break under sustained melee |
| Sheet metal and barn walls | Ground perimeters | Heavy, awkward to rotate in tight gaps |
| Beds and pallets | Floors and short climbs | Staff jump short barriers if a gap remains |
| Spike barrier | Crafted choke, 4 wood and 1 cloth | Needs a Tier One crafting table |
Thin planks split. Metal holds across repeated hits better than wood. If a buff employee throws a crate, step back from the outer wall so the hit does not land on you. When a box is shoved aside, shoot or cut the climber and reset the block before the next one arrives.
Managers scan with a red cone. If one spots you, an alarm pulls more workers. Crouch behind the stack. Keep at least a stack of food and one medkit on the platform. A shotgun or rifle on the floor of the fort lets you fire down without standing in the climb. A katana reaches through a small gap without the noise of a gunshot.
This layout is an editorial recommendation from repeated route descriptions, not an official ranked base. If a later patch changes pathing, re-check whether staff can still reach the blue shelves before you trust the corner for a long endless run.