Item Priority Order

I've been doing some testing to try and figure out how storage items are prioritized (i.e. which bag an item will go into when picked up), and I have a working hypothesis of how it works:

Starting with the basic inventory as 0, each new storage item that enters the inventory is given a sequential number that I will refer to as it's queue number.

• For example, the first bag you pick up will be given a 1, the second a 2, and the third a 3.

When an item is picked up, the game will check the queue in ascending order if a duplicate (stack-able) item is already in the inventory.

• If so, it will add to the stack up to the stack limit.
• If the stack overflows, or if there is not a duplicate stack-able item, it will proceed to try and make a new stack.
  • Note that items will stack in storage items that have a started stack even if they violate the storage item's set preference.

When an item is picked up, the game will check if the item may be placed in ascending queue order, starting from 0 and going up.

• Queue numbers are skipped if that inventory is full, or if the item cannot go in that type of bag (for example, herbs into an equipment bag). If the item gets to the end of the queue without being placed, the game will state that you have insufficient inventory space and will not pick up the item.
• The queue number will also be skipped if the item does not match the storage item's tag, however this acts only as a preference, because if the item makes it to the end of the queue without being placed, it will go into the most recent storage item capable of accepting it (highest queue number), ignoring the preference tag (this does not ignore bag type restrictions of the bag being full, of course).

Now for the weird part: In general, when a storage item is removed from the inventory, it's queue number will be marked as unused. For most storage items, this means that dropping it, trading it away, placing it in the bank, etc. will cause it to be removed from the queue order.

• Note that moving the item within the inventory does not affect the queue number.

When a new storage item enters the inventory, it will sequentially check if each ascending queue number has been assigned, and it will assign itself the first unused queue number. This means that for most storage items it is possible to rearrange the order that items will enter into the inventory by placing them all in the bank and pulling them out in the preferred order.

• However, certain bags are an exception to this, such as the RM Welcome Back Bag (7x7) (received from being a 'returned' Milletian). It cannot be placed in the bank so the only option is to temporarily drop it on the ground to remove its associated queue number.

And finally, to my great annoyance, the Soul Stream Inventory is also stored within this queue. When first obtained through the potential system, it will be assigned to the first available queue number. However, since there is no way to un-equip or otherwise temporarily remove this inventory from the queue system, it is permanently assigned to the queue number that was available when it was first received. This means that the order of priority for the Soul Stream Inventory can never be altered (in my case it's permanently locked to my queue number 9 slot).

• It may be possible to artificially move it around by placing item-restricted storage items before it, (for example 8 Hillwen Engineering bags to make normal items go into the Soul Stream Inventory first), however this is not an elegant solution, so for anyone who wants to have a pure queue system, I'd highly recommend removing all bags immediately before progressing their potential to receiving this special inventory.

There are a few ways that this information may be useful. Aside from determining how your inventory gets filled, it may be useful to move your gold-storage bags (or any other item that you very frequently pick up) to a low queue number such that the game has to check fewer cells to place it in your inventory. This might make picking up items faster, if well optimized. I've very curious to hear what other people have to say about this, or if there's any other aspect about this system that may be worth testing.