Dagger Directive Gear and Pouches

Operators argue about rails. Missions are decided by pouches. This page ranks the equipment that sits beside the Weapon ranks — the stuff you forget until a dark compound or a door you already cleared comes back with friends.

Use it with Role builds and the loadout planner. If you are still unlocking the idea of walk, go to Controls first. Gear will not save a sprint.

S-tier pouches

NVGs. Night is a briefing option, not a filter. The store copy tells you to pack goggles. People still do not. If the mission planner says night, this pouch is not optional. Day kits can skip them and take ammo.

Recon drone. The cheapest life you will spend. Mark, laser, leave. Drones has the 500/200 limits. Overwatch and ghost kits look unfinished without one.

Smoke. A door you can throw. Also the AI’s favourite hiding trick. Take at least two on any brief that might go loud, and one on a ghost kit for the moment it does.

A-tier pouches

Claymores / SLAMs / tripwires. These are for the route you already walked, not for a doorway you have not seen. Face them at the hunt, not at your Co-op teammate. Challenge threads that fill every slot with mines are comedy; two well-placed mines are a build.

Explosive drone. A panic door or a planned demolition. Not a stealth opener. Detonate bind must be distinct from the recon marker — confirm on Controls.

Frags. Honest, heavy, and rude to your own shins. Ballistics applies. Take them when you have a courtyard, not a closet.

B-tier pouches

Extra magazines you will not reload. Weight that could have been smoke.

A second novelty launcher. If the M32 is already the primary, another launcher is a dare.

Binoculars when you already have a drone and a scope. Still useful if you refuse to fly. Redundant if you do both well.

C-tier habits pretending to be gear

A light left on. Interior friend, stealth leak.

A suppressor on a planned SAW rampage. Optional flavour, not a plan.

Empty pouch “for loot.” You can scavenge in the field. You cannot scavenge NVGs you left on the ship after a night brief.

Mines without becoming Landmine Larry

Community challenge names are funny. The useful version is smaller: two claymores on the alley you crawled, one SLAM on the door you breached if you must hold. If you need six mines to feel safe, your Walkthrough plan is too big. Shrink the door, do not grow the pouch.

Alerted AI will walk into a mine if you gave them a reason to search that lane. They will not politely tour a ring of explosives you planted in a fantasy. Place for the hunt you expect after the first shot. Stealth explains that hunt.

Drones versus mines versus smokes

If you can only take two tools besides ammo:

• Ghost: recon drone + smoke (NVGs if night — that becomes three, and ammo loses).
• Assault: smoke + frags (claymore if you will hold a door).
• Overwatch: recon drone + smoke (mines only if you have a single hillside path).
• Grenadier: smoke + rifle ammo (the launcher is already the loud tool).

That list is how you stop standing in the armory rewriting your personality. Getting Started wants you out of that room.

1.0 did not replace pouches with cosmetics

The finished launch added weapons and a campaign branch. It also added cosmetics and achievements. None of those replace a goggle pouch. If a future patch adds another gadget, park it in S only if it saves a life you currently spend on recon or night vision. Everything else is a toy until it isn’t.

When you know the pouches, pick a rail on Weapon ranks and a theater on the Walkthrough. The gear was the hard part. The gun is the easy argument.