When you first start out in The Headliners it’s quite the uphill battle. You’re thrown in the proverbial deep end with an entire zoo’s worth of monsters and only a finite amount of film. Which is why the shop is absolutely crucial as it’s your source of survival, better gear, and a spot where you’ll be spending all your hard earned cash.
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There’s a nice amount of items to peruse at your leisure in the store, with some being more crucial to get than others. To help you save up for the right things without blowing cash on something you don’t really need, here’s a helpful rundown of every shop item in The Headliners and what they do.
Where Is The Shop?
First things first, you need to actually find the shop and thankfully it’s super easy to get to. To order items from the shop, head to the computer located opposite of the results screen. It’s also found right by the door next to the customisation room. There’s a big captcha poster for the developers discord above it if you still can’t see it.
The collection point for items from the shop is located to the left of the exit where you head toward the mission and just outside and to the right when you leave the spawn room. It’s also got a big neon green sign above it that’s not too hard to miss.
How To Buy Items In The Shop
Buying items from the shop is something you won’t be doing too often in The Headliners, but upgrading your gear is always worth it regardless. To use the shop, go to the computer and hit your “Use Key”, you’ll be shown a series of buttons with items on them.
Select an item to see its benefits for using it, then hit the order button. The item will then appear at the collection point for you to pick up, although make sure you have space in your inventory for it. Worth noting is that you can only buy items with cash earned after completing your quota goal for photo scores, and the reward increases for each goal.
For example, at the first tier it’s $100, at the second it’s $200, and so on. Unfortunately the items in the shop are costly, so invest wisely. Also, if you die on a mission, or are fired for not hitting your goal, you’ll lose all those items and will have to start from scratch. So try to recover the gear if you can as just one death can really negatively impact your progress.
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Every Shop Item And What They Do
Now that we’ve run over how to use the shop, it’s worth going doing each little item and what they do. Not all of them are particularly groundbreaking upgrades, but there’s a few that are always worth grabbing when you have the cash.
To make sure you’re the most informed about what you’re getting for your cash, here’s a cheat sheet for what each one does.
Camera
Your bog standard beginner camera that’s given out for free, the basic camera comes with 10 shots and is a sturdy piece of kit that can carry you quite far. It’s a lovely green colour, has a decent zoom, and considering it’s free you’ll never have to worry about being soft-locked.
It’s worth using this piece of kit for the first and second quota goal, but once you and your press crew start getting into those higher difficulties you’ll need something a bit sturdier. The capacity of 10 shots also gets blown through faster than you realize, especially in zones with a lot of monsters running around and events popping off at once.
Pro Camera
The next step up from the basic camera, the Pro Camera comes with only seven shot capacity. So you’re not getting a lot of photographs for its $100 asking price.
The only real benefit is that it provides a 30 percent score bonus to any images captured. Though in all honesty it’s worth skipping this one and saving your cash for the SD Camera as that has a higher capacity.
SD Camera
Arguably one of the best cameras in the game so far, the SD Camera is a must-have piece of kit for getting through those high difficulty zones with a pocketful of quota points. It’s similar to the basic camera, but for one difference, its capacity.
This little light blue beauty comes with a chunky 15 shot capacity, the most of any camera in the game so far. So it’s highly recommended for either those that are a little trigger happy with their camera button, or for absolutely stacking the deck with high ranking photos in this higher difficulty sections. If you’re not running this camera by the time you get to the late game, you’re going to run into problems.
Zoom Camera
If the item description wasn’t enough of a hint, then we’ll just straight up tell you. The Zoom Camera is for cowards. It may have the highest zoom of all the proffessional looking cameras in the game, and a miniscule little bump in reward percentage of five percent for shots, but if you’re using the zoom for photos, you’re doing it wrong.
The best shots you can get are usually up close and personal with something horrible, plus with how often you’re crammed inside corridors, tight alleyways, claustrophobic cinemas and malls, the extra zoom is pretty pointless. For example, with how fast some monsters move, by the time you’ve zoomed and refocused the lens, they’re gone. So avoid this one if you can. Plus, the capacity is a piddly seven shots.
Flashy Camera
This is a camera that falls into an odd half-and-half split, it’s useful to an extent in single player, but an expensive waste of cash in multiplayer. To elaborate, the Flashy Camera sets itself apart from the others by having a built in flash, a 10 percent bonus on photos, and a slightly underwhelming capacity of just 10.
Now most cameras have a light by default which does an ok job, but in singleplayer that bright flash can improve your photos for some extra points by a small margin. But if you’re playing with other people, you can just have someone shine a torch onto a monster instead of using a flash and it does the same job. It’s a pricey expenditure at $100, but if you’ve got the spare cash then go for it, otherwise just leave this one sitting on the storefront.
Flashlight
A basic little flashlight that in the real world would cost a few bucks, but in The Headliners it’s a teeth-suckingly tight $50. The flashlight is your main source of light outside of using the one attached to your camera, but it comes with a catch, the battery life.
There’s two flashlights in the game, the basic one has about three minutes of life before it cuts out whilst the other one known as the Pro can go for a little bit longer. In general this is something you don’t really have to worry about too much as you can often just default to the dim light given off by your camera when you look down the lens.
If you die on a mission, lose your flashlight and don’t have the cash, you’ll be going for a long walk in the dark on your next adventure out.
Pro Flashlight
The bigger brother of the basic flashlight, the Pro Flashlight is an expensive piece of kit that sits around $100. It’s something you don’t really need until the later difficulties and even then it’s mostly a quality of life improvement over the basic flashlight.
The Pro comes with a battery life of five minutes, so two minutes of extra time on a mission that’s only ten minutes long by default. This means you can leave your torch on for half the run without worry, but generally most players rarely run out of battery power on a mission. If you want a wider beam for more clarity in your multiplayer shots, then go for it. Otherwise it’s just a pricey lamp.
Trap
An item you may overlook at first, the Trap is an item you don’t need to have but it’s worth picking up if you have the space. This nasty little bear trap can be a lifesaver at times as it pins monsters below a certain size in place.
So you can use it to escape during a chase, eliminate the threat completely, or lock a monster in place so you can take a nice photo of it or next to it. The Trap is another of those items that you don’t need to succeed, but it can help in a pinch. In the early game it’s worth avoiding, but definitely grab one after you get a backpack for that extra inventory space.
Walkie Talkie
The ingame chat in The Headliners is a little funky at times, but it’s worth messing around with instead of sitting in a private chat or a discord channel. The Walkie Talkie can help you lean more into that as it’s basically just a portable radio.
With the press of a button you can chat to other players with a Walkie Talkie and all for the price of $50 per radio. It’s not a must-have item, because if you team wipe on a mission it’s going to be expensive to replace all those walkie talkies. But it’s overall a fun little gadget if you have the spare cash in multiplayer.
You can just avoid the walkie talkie completely if you’re playing in single player since it’ll connect to nobody.
Backpack
By default in The Headliners your inventory space is not the best, but this can be improved for a small price. If you buy the Backpack from the store you’ll be given two extra spots. Whilst that’s not a high priority in the early game, once you get to those higher difficulties you’ll need the extra space.
The Backpack will set you back about $50, and rather annoyingly it takes up an inventory slot, is held in your hand as an item, and can be accidently thrown if you’re panicking. It’s a small issue that plagues the wearable items, so just be careful when you’re scrolling through your slots.
Big Backpack
The beefier upgrade of the basic Backpack, the Big Backpack does what it says on the proverbial tin, it’s a larger bag. For the slightly painful price of $100, this wearable bit of gear will provide you with three inventory slots.
It’s a solid investment for those higher difficulty missions, or if you’re playing in multiplayer and have someone as the dedicated ‘Pack Horse’ for the run. Also, just like the other wearables, it takes up a slot and can be seen in your hand.
Helmet
An item that will make you look like a frontline foreign news correspondent, the Helmet protects your bonce from getting broken whilst you’re being tossed around. For the price of 100, you’ll get a helmet and the bonus of an extra 25 health points.
Whilst that may not seem like much, it does make a difference when you’re playing as you feel that little less squishy. Also, you’ll be wearing the helmet by default when you pick it up, just don’t scroll to it in your inventory as that will remove it from your avatars head. Plus, it takes up an inventory slot like the other wearables.
Sport Shoes
Your movement speed in The Headliners is a little sluggish. It does help ramp up the tension, and you can sprint a little for short bursts, but in general you can outrun most monsters. Especially if you break their line of sight with a quickly closed door or a corner turn at the right moment.
The sport shoes can boost your escape skills a little for the cost of a cool $200 for a tasty 10 percent speed boost to your run. There’s also a helpful 25 percent buff on your stamina, which lets you run just that little bit longer.
Ranger Boots
Last on our little list are the Ranger Boots. These are a sturdier form of the Sport Shoes and they’re a pretty good pick for those entering into the high difficulty late game missions.
Mainly because they boost your health by an extra 25 percent. Which considering how hard some monsters can hit, tanking a little extra damage is always helpful. Especially if you’ve got a camera full of valuable shots worth cashing in.
Recommended Item Loadout
In general there’s no real right or wrong way to load up your journalist before running off into that hotzone for a Pulitzer Prize picture. But after a bit of trial and error you can generally figure out what’s worth bringing and what you should leave on the browsing page of the storefront.
For those struggling to find an item that works, or if you’re blowing all your cash on the wrong kind of stuff, here’s what you should grab.
- Helmet
- Flashlight
- SD Camera
- Backpack
- Ranger Boots
- Trap
This basic little setup will cost you in total around $425 and will cover most of your bases for the first few score targets. It adds some extra health, gives you maximum capacity for shots, extra inventory room, a chunky health boost, and finally a trap to deal with anything that gets too close. So if you’re struggling, try that loadout as it should carry you pretty far.
- Released
-
January 30, 2025
- Developer(s)
-
KAFI
- Publisher(s)
-
KAFI
- Multiplayer
-
Online Co-Op
- Engine
-
Unreal
- How Long To Beat
-
3 Hours
- PC Release Date
-
January 30, 2025
- Steam Deck Compatibility
-
Verified
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