Understanding how to open your backpack in Dead Rails is a great way to take advantage of your extra storage space. This is completely separate from the Sack item on your hotkey bar which can store up to 10 items by default. You’ll also need to know how the backpack works to complete the Gunslinger challenge to get Bonds.
This guide also briefly covers how to rearrange your hotkey bar further down. You may need to if you have important items far out of your reach.
How to Open the Backpack in Dead Rails
For those playing on a computer, you can press the tilde key that looks like this “~” or click the backpack icon near the top left corner. Coincidentally, the tilde key is also near the top left corner of most keyboards. Pressing it again or clicking the backpack icon afterward will close it.
For those playing on a phone, you won’t have a tilde key but you can still tap the backpack icon near the top left corner. Similarly, you can tap it again to close it when you’re done.
The main advantage of using your backpack in Dead Rails is you can store a lot of items in there. This significantly increases your storage when hauling items back to the train. Here are some of the different items you can store inside it:
- Bandages
- Snake Oil
- Ranged and Melee Weapons
- Lanterns
While you can store these items inside your Sack, you shouldn’t because the backpack can hold much more. Without spending Robux to increase your Sack, it’s limited to 10 items. Whereas the backpack feels unlimited but I can’t say for certain. Plus, you can use it to grab extra healing items when you run out. I love to store a bunch of Bandages and Snake Oil in there when I have a good Dead Rails run going. While you can store throwables like Holy Water and Molotovs, you can’t store Dynamite in your backpack.
Completing the Gunslinger Challenge
As previously mentioned in the intro, you’ll need that extra storage space for the Gunslinger challenge. This is because it requires having 20 guns in your inventory at once to get 15 Bonds and 3 stars. Otherwise, you’d only have 9 on your hotkey bar and 10 inside the Sack. If you’re going for this challenge, I recommend buying Revolvers since they’re the cheapest.
However, you can also find plenty of weapons if you get to Fort Constitution or come across Outlaw Camps. It’s hard to miss the fort since you’ll see the large wooden palisade walls near the train tracks. But, you can miss the Outlaw Camps since they’re usually far away. All you need to look for are a bunch of tents and some lights nearby. Just be wary of outlaws there.
How to Rearrange Your Hotkey Bar
Looting Fort Constitution will give you a bunch of items to store.
If you want to rearrange the items on your hotkey bar you can drag them around while your backpack is open. Also, you can drag items from your backpack back and forth if your hotkey bar is full. I tend to slot items depending on how easily I need to be able to hit them. For example, having my important ranged weapons along the lower numbers. But still having medical items accessible as well.
That’s all there is to this quick guide on how to open the backpack in Dead Rails. Time to start gobbling up as much loot as you can! Make sure to check out some of our other guides below. Or even find out what the best class is in our tier list guide.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.