What to do
- Start where you last held the weapon. Check the ground and boat before leaving the area. Make a short note of whether it vanished during play or was first missing after loading; that distinction will help you describe the problem.
- Use orange dots to guide the weapon search. Patch 1.0.11 changed weapon dots to orange and dead-player dots to turquoise. Do not look for the old death-position X: Patch 1.0.10 removed it.
- Before ending a session, collect equipment you intend to keep instead of treating the ground as permanent storage. Patch 1.0.10 saves up to 64 dropped ground items across sessions, prioritizing weapons, tools, quest items and creatures. The notes do not specify how ties within that priority are resolved.
- If gear flew away during an explosion, search the surrounding area too. Patches 1.0.10 and 1.0.12 limited item velocity to reduce losses; this is not a promise that every thrown item remains reachable.
- If the item is still missing, close the game normally and make a dated backup before experimenting with saves. Record the build, item, island, host or guest role, and last moment it was present. Compare those details with the official announcements when reporting the issue.
Before you leave this page
This is a source-based search checklist, not a reproduced recovery exploit. Keep your original save while investigating. If a missing object was needed for progression, use the protected-item list and route assistant to identify the affected hand-in; do not assume a backup contains it or overwrite your current campaign without checking.
Use the live tools and records
- Back up the current campaign
- Identify protected quest items
- Check the blocked quest step
- Separate navigation problems from missing equipment
Evidence and limits
Game facts are drawn from the sources below and are not presented as first-party telemetry. Patch-sensitive routes should be checked against the current game build.