Looting
General#
Almost everything a survivor uses comes out of the map. Loot containers are built into the maps by hand, but not all of them survive: when a map loads, the game culls them down to a cap, so the chest that saved you last round may not exist this round.
How Chests Work#
A chest rolls its contents the first time somebody opens it, and rolls only once. There is no refill: an emptied chest deletes itself a moment after the last person closes it. A chest with items still inside stays put, so you can leave things and come back for them.
Zombies cannot open any container at all. Chests, barrels, shulkers, anything. Looting is the one thing that is purely a human activity, which is also why a Parasite wearing a stolen body is such an unusual threat.
Guns pulled from a chest are minted with the opening player's weapon upgrades and skin. Two players opening the same chest would get meaningfully different weapons out of it, which is a genuine argument for being the one who goes through the door first.
The Three Tiers#
| Tier | Container | Per map | Categories rolled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common Chest | Chest | Up to 60 | 5 |
| Rare Chest | Trapped Chest | Up to 40 | 7 |
| Legendary Chest | Ender Chest | Up to 20 | 8, minimum 5 |
Each page above has the full drop table for that tier.
Higher tiers do not just have better odds, they roll more categories at once, so a Legendary chest is both better and fuller. The three largest maps carry up to 90 common chests, the mid-sized ones up to 75.
What Changes Between Tiers#
The single biggest shift is the weapon category. Ordinary chests are a melee lottery; Legendary chests are a gun shop.
| Common | Rare | Legendary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melee share of the weapon roll | About 70% | About 40% | About 12% |
| Weapon rolls per chest | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Syringe share of medical | 1.4% | 8.1% | 18.0% |
| Gas Mask share of armor | 0.4% | 2.1% | 4.8% |
Leather runs the other way. Leather armor is a common-chest item, so a player who only opens the good chests will end the round in chainmail with no infection protection at all. Ordinary chests are worth opening for that reason alone.
Gold#
Piles of gold sit in chests at every tier and are banked straight into your balance when you take them. Common chests hold up to five, Rare up to seven, Legendary up to ten. That makes opening a chest worthwhile even when you need nothing inside it.
Parts#
Parts are collected automatically as you pick them up and pay for permanent weapon upgrades. Every chest tier carries them, and better chests carry more of the rare ones.
Corpses#
Dead humans leave a lootable body where they fell, still wearing their armor. Picking over a corpse is often better than a chest, since it comes pre-sorted by somebody who was already surviving.
This is exactly what the Lurker exists to exploit. Approach bodies accordingly.