What happens to unused inventory items?

[rolypoly]

I noticed that when I Embark a second time, the stuff I bought the first time is not in my inventory any more. Why is it gone? Was it a waste of money to buy more supplies than I needed?

[Dr.Desty Nova]

They get refunded at much reduced price at the end of the mission.

[PalmTree]

Yes, it was a waste of money. Unless you're going into the Darkest Dungeon itself, never buy more than you'll need.

[rolypoly]

How do I know what I need?
Like I bought some of those sanity improving potions (ladulim??) and I can't even seem to use them at all anyway.

[Weaselly]

Originally posted by Lumpty Dumpty:

How do I know what I need?
Like I bought some of those sanity improving potions (ladulim??) and I can't even seem to use them at all anyway.

Laudanum is for getting rid of the Horror status effect, afaik. Not for improving sanity.

[PalmTree]

Originally posted by Lumpty Dumpty:

How do I know what I need?
Like I bought some of those sanity improving potions (ladulim??) and I can't even seem to use them at all anyway.

Generally you want to prepare for what attacks enemies will use in each area, and the amount depending on the length of the quest.

Food and Torches are always mandatory, and you should carry at least a stack and a half of each for each mission (more for long quests).

For the Cove, you want to prepare for bleed attacks, especially on higher difficulties, so you should bring bandages. Antivenom is nigh useless since there's almost no sources of blight. Medicinal herbs are also useful for certain curio interactions.

For the Warrens, you want to balance it out a bit. There's a lot of bleed attacks on all difficulties, so bandages are a must on all difficulties, but blight attacks become prominent in harder dungeons as well, so antivenoms are going to be needed later on. Once again, herbs are useful for curio interactions. using them on dining tables and food carts can score you some extra food.

For the Ruins, you want to bring holy water for curio interactions and maybe a couple bandages to deal with bleed, but none of the ruins specific enemies can inflict DoTs, so curing items are much less useful.

For the Weald (which is in my opinion the toughest of the 4 main dungeons later in the game) you're going to need a bit of everything. Blight and Bleed are plentiful, so you need both curing items, certain debuffs can be really harmful, so herbs are actually useful for something other than curios for once.

The only useless item is Laudanum. Horror is by far the rarest of the DoTs, being inflicted by only 2 universal enemies and 1 enemy exclusive to the Cove in highest dungeon difficulty. Horror rarely inflicts more than 9 stress and it really isn't worth carrying laudanum around to cure it.

[Thenais]

dont forget to bring antivenoms if the thing from the stars is roaming in the area you want to explore.

[Bandit Hadron]

Originally posted by Lumpty Dumpty:

How do I know what I need?
Like I bought some of those sanity improving potions (ladulim??) and I can't even seem to use them at all anyway.

I suggest looking up some basic food/torch/shovel requirements for various areas & dungeon sizes, then trying to remember that as best you can. Experimenting with different numbers of supply items is then much easier.