clean water
post
Water; for living
Evil Genie: "Granted." It starts to rain. It never stops.
Like that time it rained for two million years
"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
Milk, given an unlimited supply i won't have to worry about it spoiling. Gives a decent amount of nutrients and water and can use it to make cheese or butter eventually, And is a life without cheese and butter really worth living?
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
I recommend you consider baby wipes and invest in an apocalyptic marketing campaign that praises the variety of usages in face, neck, armpit, crotch and butt wiping.
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.
And a bad problem. If you are panic buying anything for the apocalypse, you're not prepared for the apocalypse. I have a "minimum" amount of TP I'll let the house get down to before buying more. My partner is a teacher and so during the winter months when we're both not home we go through it at a glacial pace. We had plenty to last even when we were wfh. Never worried.
Just use water.
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.
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.
You can make pretty nice savoury dishes with watermelon.
drinkable water
Sorry to be pedantic, but potable water, but yes, that is the correct choice.
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.
Army MREs, the modern ones.
Assuming I'm not teleported elsewhere, the place I live has plenty of drinkable fresh water and other supplies, so the only real concern is having consistent high-quality food available, and MREs are engineered to support people in the wild for several months, if not years. In case of a major war breaking out, so it would contain everything I would need to stay alive, or to trade to other people.
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!
Hugs from a nice person. The apocalypse is going to be really depressing I'll need the love
thank you for being on this platform and being so positive. I enjoy seeing your posts and they somehow give me motivation to keep my chin up and be more outgoing with someone I recently met at the dog park who's acting curiously shy and different from most people.
That's a lovely thing to say Fiivemacs thanks so much
I second the sentiment. You and other frequent posters of delightful posts help this place to feel more like a community. It's also nice because you make me reflect on my own online presence in a manner that provides a positive pressure to be the kind of person I value in my community; I see usernames like yours crop up again and again, and when I find myself noticing that organically, it makes me wonder what kinds of patterns people notice across my own comments — it's introspective, but in a good way
Electricity would be tempting. If you have access to water, you can boil it to make it safe. Run a refrigerator to store food. A convenient source of heat for cooking. Stay warm in the winter, stay cool in the summer. Lights for when it's dark. Use power tools to build things. Listen to music, watch movies, play those old Nintendo games.
Even after some time when your electronics break down and scavenging working ones gets tough, it's not difficult to build things like simple resistive heaters. Making crude incandescent light bulbs wouldn't be impossible either.
Goats. Food, friends and defense.
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.
nobody has said rice or potatoes or anything like that. you're all completely fucked
also cum
Beans. Not only about the most important food source, legumes are also natural nitrogen fixers for soil health.
Gin, I don't plan on surviving in an apocalypse
Not a single mention of bullets? Seriously?
In an apocalypse, ammunition will be worth more than gold.
Maybe in a zombie apocalypse, but what are you gonna do with bullets in a regular apocalypse?
You may be the only person you'll ever see for years at a time. You can't drink them, you can't plant them, you can't build with them.
You could probably use them on yourself if you've got a gun that they work in, though, especially if that's the only one item you decided to choose for long-term survival. 😮
The bullets aren't for the zombies...
They wouldn't be much of an issue after a year anyway, but ammo will still be extremely valuable, especially if you're trying to rebuild society. Gonna need something to defend yourself with against invasions from rival gangs.
Gonna need something to defend yourself with against invasions from rival gangs.
Bullets won't protect you against an intentionally set fire to your home or base. Without laws, it won't be gun vs gun situation.
That said, it would really depend on the type of apocalypse we're talking about.
Massive natural disaster? Nuclear? Pandemic? "Zombies"? Global drought? A breakdown of society?
Bullets might be fine depending on the situation. You might not even survive long enough to use them.
You guys were smart to say water, first thing I thought of when I read the question though was peanut butter.
Heroin. Either build an army of addicts who're completely loyal to me or I can just off myself depending on how things are going.



top 100 comments