Heat, RICO & Getting Caught

Heat is the law's attention meter. It's a shared, cumulative reading of everything you've been doing lately — crimes, PvP, contested territory, hot gear — and the higher it climbs, the more exposed you are.

The RICO seizure roll

Above 70 Heat, every further heat-generating action rolls a small chance of a federal seizure: starting at a 2% chance / 10%-of-holdings seizure right at the threshold, ramping up as Heat climbs, until it flattens out at a flat 10% chance / 40%-of-holdings seizure once you're at or above 90 Heat. A triggered seizure takes that percentage of your Dirty Cash and drug stash (never Clean Cash — see the Economy page), resets your Heat to 0, and lands you in jail for a flat 2 hours. It's a hard ceiling on how reckless you can be at scale — the bigger and louder you play, the more you're gambling on every subsequent action.

Cooling off

Heat decays on its own over time, or you can pay it down at the Bank: a bribe costs $120 Clean Cash per point of Heat removed. There's no other shortcut — laying low and paying are the only two levers.

Hot goods make it worse

Gear bought from the Fence (rather than the legit Dealer) is provenance-flagged as hot: it raises the Heat you generate by 5% on top of normal, and a triggered RICO seizure has a real chance (25%) of confiscating an equipped hot item along with your cash. Legit Dealer gear is never touched by a seizure and never adds to your Heat gain — the entire reason hot goods are cheaper is that they carry this risk.