Survivor gear can be found randomly when looting, from a secret passage crate, or in a golden bag (from a boss or a normal zombie). This equipment will appear in a special area above your backpack slots (when the backpack is open). Unlike normal items, picking these up costs not only rest, but food and water as well. You also need to have an empty genral item slot in your backpack to be able to pick up (or replace) survivor gear.
Survivor gear provides numerous effects. The first (or first three, in the case of war paintings) of them are fixed for a given type (meaning for instance that all of the gas masks give you 50% toxic resistance). Each piece has also at least one (and up to three) random effects, that have the nature of kits, and likewise conform to the piece's category slots, but with duplicate effects being available. The number and magnitude of these random effects determine the assessment of the quality of the piece. The nature of the effects mirrors that of kits (with some additional variations like shields activated on attack).
There are 4 types of survivor gear: bags, masks, gloves, belts. Taking a survivor item will automatically add it to the survivor gear bar, replacing an existing item of the type if need be (remember you need 1 free general item space too to be able to put the piece on). Clicking the icon above your backpack will toggle the item's visual on and off; this won't remove the effects however. Survivor gear now has a confirmation added to picking up survivor gear so you don't accidentally replace your well loved gear by accident. Survivor items aren't tradeable. Some of them can be dyed.
Survivor gear is different from clothing in many ways:
If you flare they disappear. They won't be found in the backpack you left when you flared (this doesn't refer to using the flare pistol),
You cannot add upgrade kits to them (they have their own built-in ones)
You can't own multiple of a type and swap between them.
While you cannot change the effects of survival gear, the additional effects pieces of gear provide mirror those of upgrade kits, and the amount and magnitude of these determine the piece's quality.
normal quality: 1 additional effect tantamount to a poor-quality kit
good quality: 2 additional effects, tantamount to poor- or normal-quality kits
high quality: 3 additional effects
exceptional quality: 3 additional effects, at least one good, up to the equivallent of high-quality kits
Each type of gear has a fixed pattern of slot categories. For example, if an item below only has B battle slots, you'd never see a support or protection type buff on it. Also if an item has 2 P protection slots but only 1 B battle slot, only at most one of the extra effects can be tantamount to a battle kit, but up to two could be protection-based.
Bags[]
Note: these bags only add effects, they do not increase your inventory size.
