Item Types, Weight & Condition

Every run in this survival game lives or dies by what is in your pack. Casualties: Unknown items are the loose objects dropped by breakable structures, enemies, and traders, and each one carries hidden costs in weight, condition, and space. Understanding how those systems interact is what turns chaotic scavenging into a loadout you can actually execute.

Items can be carried, thrown, used from the inventory or health panel, or swung as a tool. With 432 entries in the current Itch.io build — inaccessible ones included — the full item catalog is too deep to memorize. What you can master is the rule set underneath, and that is what separates a prepared survivor from someone hauling scrap they will never use.

Weight: The Stat That Decides What You Keep

Weight is the first filter on every pickup decision. It caps how much you can haul, decides which containers an item physically fits into, and increases recoil when you throw something heavy. A 3u big flesh chunk and a 0.1u pile of wood scraps are not equals, even if both are technically loot.

Many items also use scale weight: they start at full weight at 100% condition and shed mass linearly down to 0.1u at 0% condition. A nearly ruined heavy item is easier to drag home than a pristine one, which makes decayed gear a legitimate hauling strategy rather than pure trash.

The practical rule is to weigh trade value against burden before you commit pack space. Bananas return 8 value for 1u; big flesh chunks return 15 for 3u and cost you mood. Wood scraps are free to carry and worthless to sell. Blood crystal shards eat 1.5u for 10 value and rot in 20 minutes, so grab them only when a trader is close.

Condition: Uses, Decay, and Durability Transfer

Condition tells you how much time or how many uses an item has left. Most items are destroyed at 0%. The tooltip percentage shifts color as it falls — green at 100%, yellow through the middle, red near 1%, gray at zero — so a glance tells you whether to use something now or save it.

The most useful trick is durability transfer. Drag one item onto an identical item and their condition combines: a dressing at 60% dropped onto a dressing at 20% yields a single dressing at 80%. That consolidates two nearly dead consumables into one reliable one and frees a slot in the process. The same condition transfer and item categories logic applies across most duplicate gear.

Some items ignore condition entirely when consumed. A neural booster at 1% and another at 15% deliver identical effects, so there is no reason to save a nearly broken booster for a special occasion. Liquids are the exception — their effects scale to the actual volume you drink, meaning a half-empty bottle gives roughly half the benefit.

• Merge identical dressings and wraps to reclaim space.
• Use low-condition boosters immediately; their payoff does not shrink.
• Respect condition on fluids, because volume drives the effect.
• Track decay timers on perishables: geofruit lasts 12 minutes, pemmican lasts 600, bread lasts 300.

Wet Items, Malfunctions, and Fire Hazards

Contact with liquids makes wettable items wet, and wet items lose condition six times faster than dry ones. The status lasts 120 seconds, so a quick river crossing can quietly shave minutes off everything in your pack.

Fire sources are harsher. Torches and campfires jump immediately to 0% condition and go out the moment they get wet, which can strand you in the dark with no light. Weapons have their own failure mode: the shotgun, pistol, makeshift rifle, and rifle each pick up a flat +4.5% malfunction chance while wet, and the jetpack suffers the same penalty.

Plan crossings before you need to fight. Wait out the 120-second wet window before a serious engagement, keep torches away from splash zones, and never trust a soaked firearm in a tight corridor. If you must travel wet, prioritize tasks that do not depend on a gun or a light source.

Item Categories and Priority Picks

Items are grouped by function, and each category comes from a different loot source. Knowing what drops where tells you which crates are worth opening and which you can skip when your pack is full.

Medical and Drugs

Medical items recover limb health and treat physical injuries with minimal consequence when used correctly. Drugs work on the body as a whole — pain recovery, blood viscosity, radiation, sickness, and mood. Antibiotics cut infection by 8 in every limb for 0.5 mood and 10% condition. Amiodarone raises sickness by 5 if swallowed and needs to be injected instead, a misstep that burns half the item at once.

Food, Water, and Plant Drops

Food fills hunger and shifts permanent mood; water fills thirst and adds mood, with some options granting energized or caffeine. Comparing raw stats matters more than category. Alcohol restores 8 thirst but adds 17.5 sickness and drops temperature by 0.2 °C — a poor trade when you are already ill. Apple juice gives 9 thirst, 1.5 mood, and 0.035 kg of body weight, which makes it the safer morale drink.

Plant drops are cheap and short-lived. Blobflesh lasts two hours, Browncap lasts one, and both occupy weight you could spend on canned goods.

Tools, Weapons, and Utility

Tools generally work from your main hand and help with digging. The claw pack deals about 20 damage across a long duration, while a crude cleaver hits around 25 and also serves in the medical panel. Utility covers everything from a drill repair kit to advanced scuba diving gear that runs four hours in a back slot. Ammunition splits into 12-gauge buckshot, 5.56 rounds, and 9mm rounds, each with its own magazine or box.

Materials and Crafting

Materials are rarely useful alone but combine in your inventory into better gear. Recipes care about qualities rather than names: hammering, cutting, flammable, foliage, nails, firestarter, heat source, and dressing. A sledgehammer carries 1000 hammering, a titanium multitool brings 300 cutting and 300 hammering, and a lighter supplies 100 firestarter. Stockpile by quality, not by item name.

Recognition and Trade Value

Intelligence gates identification. Below an item's INT requirement, the name and description are hidden — food becomes "Some kind of food..." with a magenta warning that you are too dull to recognize it. Trade value is handled per survivor, so the same rifle magazine may be worth more to one trader than another. Hold unidentified gear until you can read it, then sell duplicates.

Containers, Slots, and Storage Strategy

Containers store items limited by two numbers: total capacity and maximum item weight. That second number matters more than most players expect. A belt holds 4.00u total and accepts nothing heavier than 4.00u, so a 5u heavy drill will never fit no matter how empty the belt is.

Strategy notes:

• The belt reduces encumbrance by 60% and lasts far longer, making it the efficient slot for ammo and medical supplies.
• The backpack offers more raw capacity and 7% insulation but competes with scuba gear and the jetpack for the back slot.
• Containers other than the Grav-Bag decay while holding at least one item, so an emptied bag stops wearing down.
• Match the max item weight to your haul. If you plan to carry drills or heavy tools, the belt is the wrong home for them.

FAQ

How many Casualties: Unknown items exist?

The current Itch.io build lists 432 items, including ones that cannot be accessed normally. That count shifts as builds update, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a fixed number.

Do Casualties: Unknown items lose weight as they decay?

Many do. Scale weight drops linearly from full weight at 100% condition to 0.1u at 0%, so damaged heavy gear becomes easier to carry home.

Can I combine two damaged Casualties: Unknown items?

Yes, if they are identical. Dragging one onto the other adds their condition together, turning a 60% and a 20% into a single 80% item.

What happens when a Casualties: Unknown items gets wet?

Wettable items lose condition six times faster for 120 seconds. Torches and campfires extinguish instantly, and firearms plus the jetpack gain a flat +4.5% malfunction chance until they dry.