Carrying weight

Everything you carry has a real weight, and your body feels it. What matters isn't how much fits in your bags. It's how much you're carrying compared with what your body carries comfortably, which is about a quarter of your own weight.

Your comfortable load

• A survivor of average height carries about 19 kg comfortably. A taller, heavier survivor carries a little more and a smaller one a little less, but never under 14 kg.
• Everything counts: your pockets, the bag, rig and belt you wear and everything in them, the secure pouch, your clothes and boots (about 2 kg), a vest while you're wearing it, and anyone you carry over your shoulder.
• A normal kit (a rifle, a pistol, spare rounds, food, water and a medkit) weighs about 12 to 13 kg and costs you nothing. It only starts to bite when you hoard.
• Levels help a little, and so do the Pack Mule, Hauler and Supply Runner perks.

The bands

• Loaded (from 85%): the load chip appears on your HUD. Nothing slows you down yet.
• Heavy (over 105%): you sprint and jog slower, your stamina burns faster, the infected and other survivors hear you from further away, and falls hurt more.
• Very heavy (over 160%): all of that, and you can't climb or vault.
• Overloaded (over 200%): you can't sprint or jump, and you walk slower.

It isn't a cliff. Everything gets worse smoothly the more you carry. At double your comfortable load, your sprint is about a quarter slower, your stamina goes nearly three times as fast, and the dead hear you almost half as far again.

Water and injuries

• Swimming with a load costs stamina. Past your comfortable load, once your stamina is gone the weight drags you under, and you'll drown unless you drop it. You get a warning when you wade in heavy.
• A broken or badly hurt leg gets worse under a load. It hurts more, heals slower, and an unsplinted break can shift. Splint it and carry less.

Open your inventory (F2) to see your total against your comfortable load and what it's made of. The Loadout bar has a mark at each band.