Equipment and Loadouts
Before or between engagements the player selects a limited set of items, weapons, or abilities from a larger pool into fixed slots or under a budget, and that selection defines what the character can do until it is changed.
Also known as: loadouts, equipment slots, gear, wargear, kit selection
Definition
Equipment and loadout mechanics let the player choose, from a pool they own or have unlocked, the limited set of items and abilities that will be active for the coming engagement. The choice is about capability, not capacity: a loadout defines what the character can do, whereas inventory and encumbrance limit how much they can hold. Skill trees accrue permanently where loadouts are reversible between engagements, and variable player powers are assigned by the game rather than selected by the player.
How it works
The game defines slots (primary weapon, armour, three perks) or a budget (points, money), and a pool of eligible options. At a defined moment (before a match, between rounds, in town) the player fills the slots or spends the budget, subject to restrictions such as class or mutual exclusion, and the configuration is locked until the next window. The decisions are combinatorial: the value of one slot depends on the others, and competitive forms add a guess about what opponents will bring.
Variations
- Points-cost wargear (Warhammer 40,000, Battletech): per-model options inside an army budget; list-building becomes a game before the game.
- Per-round buy menus (Counter-Strike, Valorant): the budget resets each round from performance, tying loadouts to an economy.
- Slot classes (Call of Duty 4, Destiny): fixed slot types filled from an unlocked pool, often with several saved presets.
- Slots under two budgets (EVE Online): slot classes, weapon hardpoints and the ship’s CPU and power output bind at once, so a module that fits by slot can still fail on CPU or power, pushing complexity toward high.
- Scenario loadouts (Gloomhaven, XCOM): items and cards chosen per mission from a shared campaign stash.
Design considerations
The parameters are slot count, pool size, and how options interact. Few slots over a large pool concentrate the decision; many slots over few options spread it thin. Mutual exclusions and counter-relationships keep any one configuration from dominating. The main failure mode is a solved meta, where the choice becomes nominal; the second is overload, where new players face dozens of equivalent options. Loadouts pair with loot tables and experience levels, which supply the pool, and with inventory limits when the pool must be carried.
Analysis notes
Planning is tagged because the configuration is built in advance of the situation it will meet. Ownership follows from a build that is visibly the player’s. Mastery is recorded because learning which combinations work, and against what, transfers across sessions. Analysis paralysis follows from many interacting options with calculable trade-offs. Replayability is tagged because a different loadout changes how the same content plays.
History and provenance
Chosen equipment defining a character’s capability is documented in the 1974 Dungeons & Dragons equipment list, with unit-level antecedents in wargaming orders of battle. Miniatures rules of the 1980s turned wargear into a points-costed build. Counter-Strike (1999) made the per-round buy a competitive rhythm, and Call of Duty 4 (2007) popularised the slot-and-perk form and is often credited with spreading “loadout” as a general term. Board games adopted item slots in the dungeon crawlers and campaign games of the 2000s and 2010s. Provenance is medium because unit-level antecedents predate the character-level form.
Notable examples
| Game | Year | Medium | How the mechanic manifests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR) | 1974 | Tabletop RPG | Characters buy arms and armour from a priced list with starting gold, class rules restrict what each may use, and the armour worn sets armour class, so equipment is the first capability choice made. |
| Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Rick Priestley (Games Workshop) | 1987 | Board & card | Each model's wargear is chosen from options with points costs inside an army budget, so list-building is a loadout decision made before the game begins. |
| Counter-Strike Minh Le and Jess Cliffe | 1999 | Video | Released as a Half-Life modification in 1999. A buy menu opens for a few seconds at the start of each round; money earned from previous rounds is spent on a weapon, armour, and grenades, so the loadout is rebuilt every round under a budget. |
| EVE Online CCP Games | 2003 | Video | In a station the pilot fits modules into a ship's high, medium and low slots; turret and launcher hardpoints cap the weapons among the high slots, and every module draws on the ship's CPU and power, so a fitting must satisfy slots and two budgets at once. |
| Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Infinity Ward | 2007 | Video | Create-a-Class assigns a primary weapon, sidearm, grenade, and three perks to slots from an unlocked pool; the game is often credited with spreading "loadout" as a general term, though the word was in game use earlier. |
| Dead by Daylight Behaviour Interactive | 2016 | Video | Each killer and survivor takes a loadout of up to four perks, up to two add-ons and one offering into a trial, and a survivor also one item; the killer's power is fixed by the character chosen, so the loadout varies only around it. |
| Gloomhaven Isaac Childres | 2017 | Board & card | Before a scenario each character equips items into head, body, legs, hand, and small-item slots and chooses which ability cards to bring, both fixed for the scenario. |
| Helldivers 2 Latest Arrowhead Game Studios (Sony Interactive Entertainment) | 2024 | Video | Before each drop the player fills four stratagem slots, such as airstrikes, support weapons or sentries, from a larger unlocked pool and picks one team-wide booster, and that selection fixes what can be called in until the mission ends. |
Provenance
Earliest documented use: Dungeons & Dragons (1974), tabletop rpg. Confidence: medium. The 1974 equipment list with prices and class restrictions is the earliest documented form of chosen equipment defining an individual character's capability, though orders of battle in wargames and wargear in miniatures rules are antecedents for units. Counter-Strike (1999) popularised the per-round buy menu and Call of Duty 4 (2007) the slot-based form; it is often credited with spreading the term.
Established form: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), video. 33 years after the earliest documented use. Confidence: medium. Call of Duty 4's Create-a-Class, with a primary weapon, sidearm, grenade, and three perks filled from an unlocked pool, popularised the slot-and-perk form and is often credited with spreading loadout as a general term.
Sources
- Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. (1974). Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 1, Men & Magic. Rulebook Equipment list and costs; armour and weapon restrictions by class. Equipment-as-capability rules in the 1974 text.
- Infinity Ward. (2007). Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare manual. Rulebook Multiplayer; Create-a-Class. Canonical slot form used for the property coding.
- Isaac Childres. (2017). Gloomhaven rulebook. Rulebook Items and item slots. Board-game slot loadout.
- Jon Peterson. (2012). Playing at the World. Unreason Press. Book Wargame origins of the 1974 equipment lists. (bibliography)
- CCP Games. (2005). EVE Online Player Guide: Ship Fitting (Wayback capture). Website 8: Ship Fitting, Hi-Slots, Hardpoints, Turrets and Launchers; Mid-Slots and Lo-Slots. Accessed 2026-10-28. Turret and launcher numbers capping the weapons in the high slots, and every slot limited by skills, power and CPU, so that no ship can fit one of everything.
- Mike Futter (Game Informer). (2016). Review: Dead by Daylight. Article Accessed 2026-10-30. Each survivor and killer having a procedurally generated upgrade path, the bloodweb, whose nodes are unlocked to level up, and perks such as a killer's audio cue when survivors are near.
- Dead by Daylight Wiki (wiki.gg). Dead by Daylight Wiki, Loadout. Wiki Zero to four perks, zero to two add-ons and zero to one offering for either side, zero to one item for survivors, and one fixed power for killers.
Cite this entry
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West, James, Jr. (2026). "Equipment and Loadouts." Game Mechanic Compendium, updated 2026-10-30. http://localhost:4321/mechanics/equipment-loadouts
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