I’m thinking either Bic lighters or cigarettes, just to trade
Economy Wonderglue. I’ve played Fallout 4, I know what you need.
A packet of Timtams.
Water; for living
Evil Genie: “Granted.” It starts to rain. It never stops.
Like that time it rained for two million years
Ugh i remember
'Twas such a drag, ʕ ͡° ʖ̯ ͡°ʔ
“I’ve seen drier days on Ferenginar. And we have a hundred seventy-eight different words for rain. Right now it’s glebbening out there. And that’s bad.”
- Quark
clean water
Came here to say just that.
We can clean up the entire Capital Wasteland!
If you are going that route: Rule of 3
3 minutes without oxygen. 3 days without water. 3 weeks without food (I think it is also “3 hours without shelter” but that is a much more environmental factor and feels shoehorned in). And, depending on the apocalypse, clean air can be hard to come by.
Yeah, obviously need the first that that will kill you. We take breathable air for granted. But if you need an infinite supply of clean air, you are probably dead anyway. An infinite supply of water has many uses beyond drinking and hygine – irrigation, power, and cooling come to mind as very useful post-apocalypse.
I’ve heard it phrased “3 hours without shelter in inclement weather”.
This really is it. Sure, a high water ratio soup would provide both nourishment and fluids for living, but basic clean water allows for cleaning and the ability to grow food or trade for other stuff.
Plus truly unlimited means you can start your own river to help society recover!
We’re putting Gatorade on the crops and they don’t grow. Ground is broken!
I would never have imagined I would witness this becoming our reality but it looks more and more like it.
But it’s got what plants crave!
No silly that’s brawndo! Gatorade just isn’t there yet you see.
Easy answers first. Potable water! You need it every day, helps with sanitation, growing food, etc.
If you wanted more like discrete consumable objects, keflex.
Edit: Or salt!
Ooh, salt is a good one!
All you big brains saying water.
My first thought was soybeans, since they’re so versatile. Or corn for the same reason. Granted, I don’t have any way to process them so I didn’t think it through.
But a food source that also provides water would be a good idea. Watermelon is too sweet to be your primary food though.
Potatoes are the best. Easy to grow in marginal soil, varied ways to cook them, and they store easily long term in a simple root cellar.
Add in some squash like pumpkins which have the same advantages and you should be good to go.
Ive heard if you need to survive, potato, radishes, and beans do really well.
Personally ive had more luck with radishes and beans. They grow quick in just about anything.
You can make pretty nice savoury dishes with watermelon.
Haven’t seen that one yet. I can vouch for a watermelon feta salad, or grilled watermelon with chili flakes, though.
Okay, and this is why we burn heretics
Food sources don’t provide water unless there is water to grow them, and if the water is contaminated that will just end up in the food.
Fresh, hot pizza from Ray’s.
Not fresh at the time of the apocalypse. Fresh at the time I seek it.
Of course that would mean I would also get a steady supply of clean water and of all the ingredients required to make the pizza. But that is simply a secondary side effect of having made my choice for the one, single thing.
For all you know it would be a drone coming to you to deliver the hot pie directly, not a delivery of all raw ingredients. Then again, you know the old saying, to make a pizza from scratch you first need to create the universe.
What flavor of apocalypse matters a lot. If it’s zombies, ammo becomes critical. If it’s nuclear, ammo is less important and water filtration probably becomes critical. If it’s a gigantic asteroid that blots out the sun, water is easy to find but food is critical.
For an unknown apocalypse, I think I’ll go with gasoline. Not critical in and of itself, but helps a lot more generally with a lot of stuff, being able to power a generator and move camp more easily.
What if it’s like impact winter? Asteroid, forever blocked out sun, winter, and vampires.
Vampires…? Uh, garlic. lol
Enough gasoline could blow the asteroid up, preventing the whole thing. Forever blocked sun means no food but with gasoline you can power lamps for the plants. Burn gasoline to keep warm against the winter and burn vampires using gasoline. It is a christian invention after all /s
Gasoline doesn’t seem like a bad choice tbh. Also good for trading if, for example, water is scarce.
Ah, but the question is “post-apocalypse” so avoiding it isn’t really an option. If it were just “slightly pre-apocalypse” you might have a chance to avoid it.
In the zombie variation, might want to cheat the system and ask for loaded guns. Because guns wear out and get jammed sometimes.
Smart move
If it’s a gigantic asteroid that blots out the sun, water is easy to find but food is critical.
Well, no, (liquid) water would be quite scarce :P
And still, only a small amount of water on Earth is actually drinkable.
Fuel cans probably.
Post-apocalyptic enough for that item not to be 7.62x51?
Lighter is a good choice, but I’m thinking toilet paper rolls for bartering.
Toilet paper. During apocalyptic scenarios, it’s worth is apparently uncountable, so I will be able to trade it and live a life of opulence.
Got that covered … I’m still going through my excess toilet paper supply I bought during the start of the 2020 pandemic. When people started clearing the shelves of toilet paper, we panicked and bought several whole cases of the stuff. It was completely insane.
I haven’t bought toilet paper in five years.
You where the problem lol
Just use water.
You expect the guy who bought cases of toilet paper to worry about wasting it?
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far to finally see the first item to disappear in every real apocalypse I’ve been through. Plus it’s man’s greatest invention. Just ahead of the Hubble space telescope.
Paracord. You can weave it into just about anything. Can probably also weave a water filter.
Bottle caps.
Iodized salt. I live in iowa, we have planty of water (i can figure out how to filter it), and a great climate for growing food. However our soilis naturaly low iodine and there is no salt around so those are critical nutriants I don’t think I could get here.
second would be iron - we don’t have any and It is usefur for a lot.
You guys were smart to say water, first thing I thought of when I read the question though was peanut butter.
