How to Increase Loot on a DayZ Server (types.xml)

Loot on a DayZ server is controlled by types.xml, not by anything in serverDZ.cfg. There is no loot multiplier — you raise the numbers on the items you want more of.

This guide covers the two fields that actually change spawn rates, the flag that quietly cancels them out, and how to avoid emptying your economy with a typo.

Where the File Is

mpmissions/<mission>/db/types.xml

On a vanilla Chernarus server that is mpmissions/dayzOffline.chernarusplus/db/types.xml. Open it through the File Manager on your GSK DayZ server.

Stop the server first

DayZ writes its own state on shutdown. Editing a running server means your changes are overwritten when it stops.

One Entry, Explained

Every item in the game gets a block like this:

<type name="AKM">
    <nominal>15</nominal>
    <lifetime>14400</lifetime>
    <restock>1800</restock>
    <min>10</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"/>
</type>

The Two Fields That Matter

nominal is the ceiling. min is the trigger.

Raising nominal alone is the most common mistake. It tells the server it may have more of an item, but nothing forces the map to fill — so the change appears to do nothing for hours.

min is what actually drives respawning. When the count drops below min, the server queues more.

<nominal>60</nominal>
<min>40</min>

Raise both, and keep min at roughly two thirds of nominal. That gives a map that refills promptly without the server constantly churning spawns.

The Flag That Cancels It Out

This is the part that catches people:

<flags count_in_cargo="0" count_in_hoarder="0" count_in_map="1" count_in_player="0" .../>

Those four flags decide which existing items count toward nominal:

With all four at 1, a hundred AKMs stashed in players' bases count against your target of sixty — so the map stops spawning them entirely, and your high-loot server slowly becomes a no-loot server as players hoard.

With count_in_cargo and count_in_player at 0, hoarded gear is invisible to the economy and the world keeps refilling.

Which way you want this depends on the server

A high-loot or PvP server usually wants hoarded items not counted, so gear stays available. A survival server usually wants them counted, so scarcity is real and looting other players matters.

Lifetime and Restock

lifetime is how long an item survives on the ground before despawning. Short lifetimes keep the world tidy and the economy moving; long ones let gear accumulate where players dropped it.

restock is the delay before the server tops an item back up toward nominal. Set it to 0 and the item respawns as soon as it drops below min — which is what most high-loot servers want, and what makes a server feel arcade-like if you apply it to everything.

Do Not Edit It By Hand for Bulk Changes

One unclosed tag empties your entire economy — the server boots, reports no error you will notice, and spawns nothing anywhere. If you find yourself with no loot at all after an edit, a malformed types.xml is the first thing to check, and restoring a clean copy is the fastest fix.

For changes across many items, use a tool such as Expansion-Types rather than editing hundreds of blocks manually.

Back up before bulk edits

Take a snapshot from the Backups tab first. A broken types.xml is trivially recoverable with a backup and genuinely painful without one.

Containers Are a Separate File

types.xml controls what spawns in the world. What spawns inside containers — the loot in a crashed heli, a police car, a wardrobe — is cfgspawnabletypes.xml, in the same db/ folder.

Raising rifle counts in types.xml will not put more rifles inside military crates. That is the other file.

Applying Changes

1. Stop the server from the Console tab.
2. Edit types.xml.
3. Start the server.
4. Give it time — the economy fills gradually rather than instantly, especially with a non-zero restock.

Loot does not appear the moment the server boots. Judge a change after an hour of uptime, not five minutes.

FAQ

How do I increase loot on a DayZ server?

Raise nominal and min together in mpmissions/<mission>/db/types.xml, keeping min around two thirds of nominal. There is no loot multiplier setting.

Why did raising nominal do nothing?

Because min is the field that triggers respawns. If min stayed low, the server has no reason to fill toward the new nominal.

Why is loot disappearing on my high-loot server?

Check the count_in_cargo and count_in_player flags. If they are 1, gear hoarded by players counts against your target and suppresses new spawns.

I edited types.xml and now there is no loot anywhere.

The file is malformed — a single unclosed tag is enough. Restore a clean types.xml from a backup.

Does this affect loot inside containers?

No. That is cfgspawnabletypes.xml, in the same folder.

Do I need to wipe after changing loot?

No. Changes take effect on the next restart and apply as the economy restocks.

What to Read Next

• Getting started with your DayZ server — first boot, maps and the rest of the mission files
• Configuring your DayZ server — every serverDZ.cfg key, and why loot is not among them
• How to Install Mods on a DayZ Server: Folders and Keys — mods that add items need their own types.xml entries merged in

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