LootEngine v0.1.0 has arrived: release notes and roadmap

LootEngine v0.1.0 is out. It’s the first public build of LootEngine, the visual editor for DayZ’s loot economy, and it’s free to download for Windows and Linux today.

Thank you for your patience while we finished it, and to everyone on the waitlist and in the Discord who told us what they wanted from it. We hope it’s been worth the wait. These notes cover everything in the first build, what it can’t do yet, and what’s coming next.

v0.1.0 at a glance

• A visual loot editor for types.xml and every extra types file your mission loads, with a card and a rendered 3D icon for every item.
• Mod support: items from your Workshop mods, read straight from their PBO files.
• Smart Add for items that aren’t in your loot yet, copying the settings of their closest relative.
• Checks as you edit, against your limits files and the game data.
• Lossless saves: only what you change, changes, and every save keeps a backup.
• A start screen that remembers your recent missions.
• Updates from inside the app, on a stable or a beta channel.

The loot editor

DayZ’s Central Economy decides what spawns, how much and where from the types files in your mission folder. LootEngine opens db/types.xml and every extra types file listed in cfgeconomycore.xml together, so you edit one list of items instead of a pile of XML files. If you’re new to those files, DayZ types.xml explained covers every field.

Every spawnable item from the game is a card, with an icon rendered from its 3D model, its in-game name and class name, its nominal and min, and where it spawns. Select a card, and its loot settings open in the inspector:

• Spawning: nominal, min, lifetime and restock. Lifetime and restock are in seconds, so LootEngine shows them in friendlier units as well: 14400 reads as 4 h.
• Quantity and cost: quant min, quant max and cost.
• Flags: count in map, cargo, hoarder and player, crafted, and dynamic event loot, each a switch.
• Category, usage, value and tag, picked from the names your own cfglimitsdefinition.xml and cfglimitsdefinitionuser.xml define, so a typo can’t creep in.

Finding what you’re after

A vanilla mission has thousands of items, and mods add more. The filter panel narrows the grid down:

• Search by name or class name. Every word has to match, in any order, so m4 mag finds the M4 magazines.
• Status: in loot files, not in loot files, not in game data, or has problems.
• Kind, such as weapons, clothing, or food and drink.
• Category, usage, value and mod, from your mission’s limits files and the mods you’ve ticked.
• Sort by name, class name, nominal or mod.

Filters only change what you see, never your files.

Built for the keyboard

Move through the grid with the arrow keys, jump to the search with Ctrl+F, and nudge any number with ↑ and ↓, holding Shift to go up or down by 10. Every edit can be undone with Ctrl+Z, across all your types files, and Ctrl+S saves. The full list is in the docs, under keyboard shortcuts.

Adding items with Smart Add

An item only spawns if it has a types entry, and plenty of items don’t: new ones from a mod you’ve just installed, or ones Bohemia left out of the vanilla loot on purpose. Select Not in loot files to see every one of them, then Add to loot on the ones you want.

Smart Add starts the new entry from the item’s closest relative that’s already in your loot. A new colour of a jacket copies the colours you already spawn, lifetime and all, and LootEngine tells you which item it copied from. When there’s no relative, the entry starts with a nominal and min of 0, so nothing spawns until you choose the numbers. If your mission has more than one types file, you can pick which one the entry goes in, or let LootEngine use the file its relative is in.

Remove from loot file does the opposite, and can be undone like any other edit.

Checks as you edit

LootEngine checks every entry as you work, and catches what the server would reject or silently ignore before you restart it:

• a min greater than the nominal, or a lifetime of 0, which removes items almost as soon as they spawn
• quantities that aren’t -1 or between 0 and 100, or only one of the pair set
• a category, usage, value or tag your limits files don’t define
• a class that isn’t in the game data or your ticked mods, or a base class the economy can’t spawn
• a class defined in more than one types file, with the file the server actually uses

Problems show as a dot on the card and a message under the field, and Has problems lists them all. They never stop you saving, so you can fix things in whatever order suits you.

Mod support

Tick the Workshop mods your server runs in Settings, and LootEngine reads their items straight from the mods’ PBO files: names, descriptions, sizes and 3D models, the same way as vanilla items. Mod items show the mod’s name on their card and in the Mod filter, and their icons are rendered again when a mod updates.

LootEngine finds mods in the game’s !Workshop folder, where the DayZ Launcher keeps them. If a mod protects or obfuscates its PBOs, LootEngine skips the files it can’t read and tells you how many it skipped, instead of giving up on the whole scan.

Mods that ship their own types file need it listed in cfgeconomycore.xml, just as your server does. Adding 50+ DayZ Workshop mods walks through that, step by step.

Lossless saves and backups

LootEngine edits your files as text, and changes only the characters you edited. Comments, commented-out entries, indentation, line endings and the order of everything stay exactly as they were, so comparing a saved file with the original shows only your edits. If your mission folder is in Git, your diffs stay clean.

Every save is careful with your work:

• It checks the file first. If something else changed it on disk since LootEngine opened it, saving stops instead of overwriting it.
• It keeps a backup. The previous version of each file goes into a timestamped folder in .loot-editor-backups, inside the mission folder. The newest 20 saves are kept.
• It writes safely. Each file is written to a temporary file, then swapped into place, so a full disk can’t leave you with half a types.xml.

Undo history survives saving, too. Closing LootEngine with unsaved changes asks first, and it won’t switch missions or install an update until you’ve saved or undone them.

Recent missions

LootEngine opens on a start screen. Open recent mission takes you straight back to whatever you were last editing, and the last eight missions you opened are listed underneath, so there’s no browsing for the same folder every time. If DayZ Server is installed next to the game in Steam, its missions are listed too.

The first time you run it, LootEngine looks for DayZ in Steam’s usual place, and asks you to point it at the game if it’s somewhere else. Any map with a types.xml works: Chernarus, Livonia, Sakhal and community maps alike.

Updates and release channels

LootEngine checks for a new version every time it starts. When there is one, it shows you what’s new, and Install and restart updates it in place. On Windows, LootEngine comes as a code-signed installer, and on Linux, as a single AppImage.

There are two update channels, and you can switch between them in Settings, under Updates:

There are no beta releases yet. The first ones are on the roadmap below.

Known limitations

It’s Early Access, so a few things aren’t there yet:

• LootEngine edits types files only. It reads your limits files, but editing them, along with cfgspawnabletypes.xml and the map’s loot spawn points, is on the roadmap below.
• Backups are restored by hand. Close LootEngine and copy the file back from .loot-editor-backups. The backups guide shows how.
• A types file with broken XML opens read-only. LootEngine tells you the file and line, so you can fix it in a text editor and restart.
• Changes to cfgeconomycore.xml need a restart. If you list a new types file while the mission is open, restart LootEngine to load it.
• Windows SmartScreen may warn you about the installer. Choose More info, then Run anyway. The installer is signed, but a new release takes a while to build up a reputation with SmartScreen.

What’s next

v0.1.0 is the foundation. This is what we’re working on next, from the roadmap. Timings may change, and what you tell us will shape the order.

The rest of Q4 2026

• Weapon loadouts (cfgspawnabletypes.xml). A loadout editor for what weapons spawn with: optics, magazines, suppressors and other attachments, each slot with its own spawn chance, plus the range of condition the weapon spawns in. It shows the weapon’s 3D model with its attachment slots marked, and it’s already in development.
• Zombie loadouts (cfgspawnabletypes.xml). What zombies carry, in the same loadout editor.
• Limits definitions (cfglimitsdefinition.xml). Add and edit categories, tags, usage and value flags without leaving LootEngine.

Q1 2027

• Stable release. LootEngine leaves Early Access.
• Loot spawn points (mapgroupproto.xml). Place loot spawn points inside buildings, in a 3D editor.
• Beta builds. Opt in to test new features before they reach the stable channel.
• AI assistant. The first version of our AI assistant, built into LootEngine.

Get LootEngine

Download LootEngine for Windows or Linux. It’s free and works offline. All it needs is DayZ installed and the mission folder you want to edit, and the game and server don’t need to be running. The documentation covers setup and every feature in these notes.

Try it on a copy of your mission first. Then, when something breaks, or there’s something you’d like next, tell us on Discord. Every bug report and request there shapes the next build.

Questions

Is LootEngine free?

Yes. LootEngine is free to download and use, on 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 and on 64-bit Linux.

Does v0.1.0 mean LootEngine has left Early Access?

No. v0.1.0 is the first release on the stable update channel, but LootEngine is still in Early Access. We're aiming to leave Early Access in Q1 2027.

Do I need DayZ or a server running to use LootEngine?

You need DayZ installed, since LootEngine reads item data from the game's files, and the mission folder you want to edit. It works offline, and the game and the server don't need to be running.