Scavland Starting Loadout
Leave town light, fed, and holding one gun that fires.
The first Scavland kit is a wounded Vulture, a backpack, and whatever the scrapyard did not steal. This page is a packing list for the hours after the tutorial, before you have a bunker story or a faction rank. Pair it with Getting Started, the beginner checklist, and the weapon tier list.
The only gun that matters on day one
Keep the AK-pattern rifle if the save gives you one. Creators keep calling it an AK, Mika 47, or Kalashnikov 47. It uses rifle ammo you will actually see. Clean it before you admire it. A dirty S-tier gun is a B-tier gun with extra heartbreak.
Sell or stash homemade pistols once you have a real sidearm or once you need the slots. They exist to go bang. That bang invites friends. If it is your only ranged option, keep it until the first trader with a less insulting barrel.
Do not buy a slow five-round legend because the flavour text called you patient. You are not patient yet. You are hungry. Builds can wait.
Medical and metabolic
- One medkit minimum, two if the town is selling cheap
- Bandages for bleed from people who shoot back
- Food for a round trip, not a picnic
- Water that did not come from a glowing puddle
- Radiation treatment if your first job crosses wetlands
Survival explains why the swamp is a tax. This list is the tax form.
Tools that prevent comedy deaths
- Cleaning kit (multi-purpose, faster at workbenches and rest areas)
- Spare magazine if you already own one that fits
- Empty weight: sell red cloth, duplicate rags, and junk metal
A bigger backpack appears as a mission carrot in demo play. Until then, every bottle is a vote. How to play is the inventory lecture. Listen once.
What to buy first with scrap money
- Food and water
- Meds
- Cleaning kit if you lack one
- Ammo for the rifle you will fire, not a fantasy calibre
- Nothing else
Traders will tempt you with clothes that are “a little better rags”. Skip fashion until you can survive a jam. Ranked stock can wait for reputation. Day-one coin is calories.
What to loot on the first corpses
Take ammo that matches. Take meds. Take a better magazine. Leave heavy trophies. Mutant parts sell; they also fill the pack. If a job wants eight small rats, that is a shopping list, not a reason to become a taxidermist.
Human squads drop real guns. That does not mean you dual-wield. Swap only if the new gun is cleaner or better fed. Combat will not save a tourist with three rifles and no bread.
A first-exit kit, written as a slot story
- Primary: maintained AK-pattern rifle
- Melee: the F key, always
- Medkit + bandage
- Food + water
- Cleaning kit
- Journal in your head: one nearby job, not the far marker
Optional: a cheap pistol if slots allow and it shares ammo you already have. Optional: one quest item. Not optional: a plan to turn around.
Loadouts you should not copy from videos
Full demo backpacks after two hours are end-of-tape kits. Factory raids, Veles, and southbound hatches are not starter content. Bunkers get their own packing list. Stealth kits drop weight; they do not add a fourth gun.
If a creator bought the three-line rifle for 35 of some currency, that was their save. Your save has a town to please. Factions remember who you are when you come back with nothing to sell.
Leave light. Come back heavier. That is the only starting loadout that scales into Early Access on 4 September 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions.
What should I buy first in Scavland?
Food, water, meds, and a cleaning kit. Guns can wait unless your only firearm is scrap. See traders.
Should I keep homemade pistols?
Only until a real sidearm or spare slots appear. They are C-tier noise on the weapon tier list.
Is the starter AK good?
Yes, if you clean it and feed it. It is the default S-tier role for the first hours.
When do I start attaching parts?
After the gun is reliable. Builds starts with magazines and sights, not a full gunsmith montage.