Loot sources
Where gear comes from
Gear drops from cells, Killer T cells, chests, bosses and more. Walk over a drop to pick it up: it floats with a 'GEAR LV' tag in its rarity colour, and anything you leave behind is still there when you come back to the room. Pieces go straight into your bag, so you keep them even if the run ends in death. Rarity odds below are before the organ cap.
Any immune cell you kill has a small chance to drop a piece.
A large white blood cell that eats pathogens and dead cells by phagocytosis, then shows pieces of them to other immune cells.
Fun fact: The name comes from Greek for "big eater".
Macrophage in the Codex
Tiered elite cells drop gear far more often. Orange elites usually drop a piece and red elites always do.
Immune cells exist in resting and activated states. Activated cells are bigger, multiply, produce more weapons and live longer; trained memory cells respond faster on a second encounter.
Fun fact: An activated T cell can divide every 4 to 6 hours, turning one cell into thousands within days.
Immune Cell Activation in the Codex
About 1 in 5 Killer T cells drops a piece, at much better odds.
A "killer" T cell that hunts down infected cells and destroys them by punching holes with perforin and injecting granzymes.
Fun fact: Each killer T cell is trained to recognise one specific antigen, then multiplies into an army once it finds a match.
Cytotoxic T Cell in the Codex
Walk into a vesicle chest to burst it open. 40% of them hold a gear piece.
Tiny membrane bubbles cells release to ship proteins and genetic material to other cells.
Fun fact: Some viruses hijack vesicles to travel hidden inside them, invisible to antibodies.
Extracellular Vesicles in the Codex
Every organ boss drops one named piece of its set, every time (in Pandemic Game Mode, an ordinary piece of the same tier instead).
The giant immune cell guarding the way to the next organ.
Fun fact: From the third organ on, every boss also has a signature skill on its own random clock, aimed at you.
Bosses in the Codex
The guardians that hold each organ's gene have a 35% chance to drop a piece.
Each organ seals one door until you carry the right gene.
Fun fact: Genes also give a passive bonus, like mucus or clots no longer slowing you.
Genes, Sealed Doors & Key Guardians in the Codex
Eliminating a rival virus always drops gear. The rival's tier and how many generations it has survived decide how good the piece is.
Other viruses competing for the same host.
Fun fact: Rivals don't lock the doors, so running is always an option.
Rival Viruses in the Codex
Clearing an Endless set always pays a gear piece, with more on every third set and on boss sets.
One huge arena, set after set, until you fall.
Fun fact: Endless Game Mode runs don't count toward your lineage or the Codex.
Endless Game Mode in the Codex
Hard, Elite and Legendary challenges each pay a random gear piece for the virus you're playing.
Goals that pay rewards.
Fun fact: Collect finished challenges from the menu; during a run you can only view them.
Challenges in the Codex
Taking cities, continents and the world pays gear you can't get anywhere else.
How the world fights back in Pandemic Game Mode: every city, its continent and the world answer your spread with responses that change every run you play there.
Fun fact: Every response card on the world map says exactly what it changes; tap a diamond on a city's timeline to jump to that card. The breaking-news ticker lists every response in force, newest first.
Pandemic Game Mode Responses in the CodexNothing drops above the best tier the current organ allows. A piece that would is rerolled at the cap.
Every piece has an item level (shown as Lv). It's higher the deeper and more dangerous the place it dropped.
