Item

**Items** can be found by exploring zones and appear in your backpack.

If you die, all items in your backpack will be dropped. Your backpack can be retrieved, and does not disappear over time or if you log out. **However** you can only have 1 dropped backpack at a time, so if you die a 2nd time before retrieving it, your original backpack will be lost. So if you go to retrieve your backpack you should **always** make sure to at least have enough food/water values to revive once, and if possible have a friend help you retrieve it (if necessary).

Almost all items can be salvaged into resources in your camp, regardless of item type, although they must be at least average quality or higher (not poor / expired). Legendary quality items are the most notable exceptions.

While not items and not obtainable through exploring zones, clothing also offers stats and can be used to change how your character looks.

When selected, all items will be shown in the players hand, even if it's not a weapon.

* Weapons
* Food and beverages
* Miscellaneous items
* Quest items

* Basic weapons
* Guns
* Misc ranged weapons
* Books
* Legendary items
 [edit tab] [view tab]**Weapons** are **items** the player can find, craft, buy, or otherwise obtain. All weapons wear out as you use them, and will eventually fall apart. Most weapons are also salvageable.
There are many different types of weapons, they all have a damage type (one out of physical, electric, fire, toxic, cold and piercing) and a base damage value, range, attack speed and durability. They also can have traits present or activated in the following ways:

* Attack: any time the weapon is used to attack an infected. The character has to wield the weapon, then stand close enough to an infected and wait for the attack to hit automatically.
* Combo: wielding the weapon, and when enough stamina is charged up, **clicking** to perform an attack on a nearby infected (and that attack hitting target). Stamina is measured by the bar beneath the health bar, orange color indicates there's enough for the current weapon type, which for most of them is close to full.
* Passive: works all the time when the weapon is wielded, it doesn't have to be attacking nor hitting anything.
* Parry: when a successfull parry (right-clicking in time to thwart an infected's attack) is performed with the weapon.
* Hit taken: when the character gets hit by the infected while wielding the weapon.

there can be a percentage of these situations specified for which the effect will trigger.

The indication of how much a weapon is worn (used up) is the background of its icon - green is fresh, yellow is moderate wear, red is heavy wear, and gray means there's just the breaking hit left (but it's rare and usually weapons will break directly from red). It may be prudent to salvage heavily worn weapons for resources, but there's also the alternative mentioned by the note below.

You can also place a weapon modifier on weapons to give it additional properties. The effect lasts as long as the weapon does, and can't be overwritten nor deactivated, and only one is allowed per weapon. The Dirty Harry's gun is the only one from among the ranged weapons with which modifiers work, so don't put modifiers on other guns.

You can also merge weapons together using a  forge and  blueprints.

**Note**: weapons cannot be repaired. The only exception is that weapons merged using a forge will get reworked to newness, but just that one time.
## Damage type

Weapons can have various default damage types. The following icon represent these types in-game. Other than physical and piercing, most other damage types are various elements, and these can interact as shown in the linked article.

## List

If "recipe" is marked true, then after you salvage it for the first time **to the home stock**, the item will become craftable in the Assembling table or Crafting table (or stove if it's a comestible, which aren't listed here, but the principle is the same). Salvaging to your pocket won't yield recipes.

### Basic weapons

 [edit tab] [view tab]**Guns** are a type of ranged weapon that have no melee capabilities, but can be used by activating a skill while wielding them. Some of them offer a single target marker, the others mark a sector in which they will hit a random target. They have a set amount of ammo, which once depleted will destroy the weapon. The ammo only gets used up if the gun hits, which happens in around 30% cases. Guns are unobstructed by walls or other obstacles. Guns inflict  piercing damage (which bypasses resistance). If you need to prevent your character from attacking the infected, wield a gun. If you want to put a weapon modifier on a gun, choose Dirty Harry's gun, because it won't work with any of the others. Wielding a Dirty Harry's gun with a useful passive trait is a very powerful technique.
Guns can most easily be found in gun bags, although they can also somewhat commonly be found in safes / secret passages and are an important source of precious ore and scrap metal.

### List

While not strictly a gun, the bow is included in this list as it provides piercing damage just like guns do, and can be found in gun bags.

 [edit tab] [view tab]**Ranged weapons** operate by having a unique skill the player can activate while holding the item.
 [edit tab] [view tab]**Books** can be used to activate a skill you don't have. They wear out over time.
 [edit tab] [view tab]**Legendary items** are a special quality type of weapons that are distinguishable by their orange name and unique names. All legendary items have a normal counterpart (with the exception of Dirty Harry's gun), and often share some stats/bonuses with it; however, legendary items often have an additional bonus. While unlike normal items they don't specify a quality, they do have an orange tab on the icon's top-left to specify it's quality like normal. Just like normal items they have a durability and break apart after enough usage.
While legendary weapons are generally weaker than an exceptional version of their counterpart, their primary strength is in their additional bonus, as it is generally powerful or a useful combination of bonuses.

Having the "Collectioner" option selected on the strategy table appears to increase the odds of finding legendary items.

Legendary items **can** be traded, but they **cannot** be salvaged or used on the forge.

Another important detail is that using a legendary item **does not** count toward the completion of quests requiring to kill 50 infected with the normal version of the weapon.

 [edit tab] [view tab]Food and beverageTemplate:TabberLinks

 [edit tab] [view tab]**Quest items** are **items** only used in quests, and otherwise have no purpose. It is not uncommon for quest items to reuse art from other items.

## Side quest items

These are only used in a side quest, and otherwise have no purpose.