DayZ Loot Economy Explained: types.xml
How DayZ's Central Economy spawns loot, what every field in a types.xml entry means, how to raise or lower loot safely, and how to edit the file on GameGrid without breaking it.
What the Central Economy Is
DayZ does not place loot by hand. The Central Economy (CE) keeps a target count for every item class on the map, spawns items in suitable buildings until the map holds that many, removes items nobody picks up after their lifetime runs out, and then tops the map up again.
Its rules live in your mission folder, mpmissions/<mission>/db/, and are read when the server starts:
| File | Controls |
|---|---|
types.xml | Every item: how many, where, how long it lasts |
events.xml | Vehicles, heli crashes, animals and other dynamic events |
globals.xml | Global limits and timers: infected and animal counts, cleanup, base decay |
economy.xml | Which parts of the economy load and save. Rarely edited |
types.xml is the file server owners edit most, and this article covers it. The other two have their own guides: events.xml and globals.xml.
Anatomy of a types.xml Entry
Each item class has one <type> block. A typical one looks like this:
<type name="AKM">
<nominal>10</nominal>
<lifetime>28800</lifetime>
<restock>0</restock>
<min>5</min>
<quantmin>-1</quantmin>
<quantmax>-1</quantmax>
<cost>100</cost>
<flags count_in_cargo="0" count_in_hoarder="0" count_in_map="1" count_in_player="0" crafted="0" deloot="0"/>
<category name="weapons"/>
<usage name="Military"/>
<value name="Tier3"/>
<value name="Tier4"/>
</type>(The numbers above are illustrative. Check the real values in your own file.)
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
nominal | The target: how many the economy tries to keep on the map |
min | When the count falls below this, the economy starts respawning the item |
lifetime | Seconds an untouched item stays in the world before cleanup. For base items, how long they last without being refreshed |
restock | Seconds to wait before respawning. 0 means as soon as the count is below min |
quantmin, quantmax | Fill percentage for items with a quantity (ammo in a magazine, water in a bottle). -1 means not applicable |
cost | Spawn priority. Most items use 100 |
flags | Where existing copies are counted: on the map, in cargo, in stashes, on players. crafted marks craft-only items; deloot marks dynamic-event loot such as heli crashes |
category | The kind of item: weapons, clothes, food, tools and so on |
usage | Where it spawns: Military, Police, Medic, Farm, Town and more |
value | Map tiers, from Tier1 (coast) to Tier4 (the most dangerous inland areas) |
An item with nominal 0 does not spawn from the loot economy at all. That is how weapons and gear that only come from heli crashes or crafting are set up.
Raising Loot Sensibly
The tempting fix for "not enough loot" is multiplying every nominal by 5. Resist it:
- More items means more objects for the server to track. Inflated nominals are one of the most common causes of low server FPS and long restarts.
- Players on a loot-flooded server hoard, and bases fill with items that never despawn.
Instead:
1. Pick the categories your players actually miss, for example food on a hardcore map, or a specific weapon family.
2. Raise nominal and min for those types by 1.5 to 2 times.
3. Keep min at about half of nominal, so the economy starts respawning before an item runs out.
4. Restart, give it a few hours, and adjust.
To make an item spawn in more places, add a usage or value tag rather than raising its count, so it is found by more players instead of piling up in one town.
Lowering Loot, and Why It Seems Not to Work
Lowering a nominal stops new copies spawning, but copies already on the map and in persistence stay until their lifetime runs out or a player picks them up. Items stored in tents and bases are not cleaned up at all.
So after lowering loot you can either wait (for most loose items a few hours to a day), or do a world wipe if you need the change immediately. See Wiping Your DayZ Server.
Items from Mods
Mods are installed from the Mods tab. See Mods on Your DayZ Server. Take a manual backup before merging a mod's entries into your mission files.
On DayZ, a mod's new items only spawn as loot if the economy knows about them. Mods that add items usually ship their own types.xml entries. Two ways to add them:
- Separate file (recommended): put the mod's types in their own file in a folder inside the mission, and reference that folder in
cfgeconomycore.xmlwith a<ce folder="...">block listing the file as typetypes. Your vanillatypes.xmlstays untouched, so game updates are easier to merge. - Paste into types.xml: copy the mod's
<type>blocks inside the root<types>element. Simple, but makes the file larger and harder to compare with Bohemia's updates.
If a mod's item uses a category, usage or value name that is not defined in cfglimitsdefinition.xml (or your own cfglimitsdefinitionuser.xml), the economy cannot place it.
Editing types.xml on GameGrid
1. Take a manual backup on the Backups tab.
2. Open Files and go to mpmissions/<mission>/db/. Make sure you are in the mission your server actually loads: each map has its own folder.
3. Open types.xml in the built-in editor and make your changes.
4. Save, then Restart from the status bar.
The built-in editor opens text files up to 1 MB. Vanilla Chernarus
types.xmlis about 880 KB, so it fits, but a file with many mod items added can pass 1 MB. Then download it, edit it locally and upload it over SFTP (credentials are on the Overview tab).
For big edits, a local editor with XML highlighting (VS Code, Notepad++) makes mistakes much easier to see.
Keep the XML Valid
One missing closing tag or quote can make the economy skip entries or the whole file, and the symptom is a loot drought rather than an error on screen.
- Run the file through an XML validator before restarting.
- Check that every
<type>has a matching</type>and every attribute value is quoted. - After the restart, search the newest
.RPTfile inprofiles/fortypes.xmlorCEerrors. - If loot disappears after an edit, restore the backup first and investigate second.
When Changes Show Up
Changes apply at the next restart, but the map does not refill instantly. The economy spawns loot gradually after a start, and items already in the world keep their old lifetimes. Give a big change a few hours before judging it.
If you want the whole map re-rolled with your new rules at the next start, see RestartSpawn in globals.xml.