Hell Let Loose Vietnam replaces the fixed preset loadouts of the original game with a weight-based system. You choose what to carry, within the limits of your role. It is one of the biggest mechanical changes in the game, and understanding it early will make every life more productive.
How the Weight System Works
Every soldier has 9 weight slots. Before you deploy, you fill those slots by selecting from whatever equipment your role has available. Nothing is locked into a preset — you decide what to carry based on how you want to play that life.
Different items cost different numbers of slots. A spare magazine is cheap. A specialist tool like the AA gun wrench costs three slots on its own. Every loadout is a decision about what you are willing to give up to carry something else.
What Each Item Costs
Equipment weights from pre-release footage:
| Equipment | Approx. Slots |
|---|---|
| Extra magazine | 1 |
| Frag grenade | 1 |
| AP mine | 1 |
| AA gun wrench | 3 |
Exact values for every item across every role will be confirmed and added here as the community maps them out. The principle holds across all roles: specialised utility tools are expensive in slots, extra ammo is cheap.
The Core Tradeoff
A lighter primary weapon frees up slots for more magazines, grenades, or utility items. A heavier weapon or specialist tool squeezes everything else out. Neither approach is universally correct — both are situational.
Two examples from NVA pre-release footage illustrate this clearly:
NVA Squad Leader — Swapping the standard AK for a lighter SMG opens up enough slots to carry extra magazines and a grenade, with room to spare. The AK is stronger at range, but in close-quarters fighting around objectives, the SMG kit carries more into the fight.
NVA Machine Gunner — Dropping some magazines to carry the AA gun wrench (3 slots) and an AP mine means arriving with less sustained firepower but more situational tools. If enemy helicopters are active and your rear needs covering, that trade pays off. If you are fighting infantry in the open, you will wish you had the ammo.
Unlocks and Progression
Your initial options will be limited. As you earn XP playing each role, you level up and unlock more equipment choices for that role. Early on the weight system will not feel like much of a system at all — the real depth opens up as your options expand.
Because each role has its own progression track, spreading playtime across too many roles early will slow your unlock rate on all of them. New players are better served picking one or two roles and sticking with them.
Faction Asymmetry and Loadout Decisions
The two factions play differently at a fundamental level, which shapes how to think about your kit.
US forces have fully operational helicopters for fire support and supply drops. NVA forces can build extensive tunnel networks for surprise attacks and rapid repositioning. Both sides operate armed patrol boats on river maps.
If you are playing NVA, your squad leader can connect tunnel entrances and exits across the map, giving your team faster movement between points. That style of play — ambushing and repositioning rather than holding ground — often favours utility and flexibility over maximum ammo. Carrying an AP mine to cover a tunnel entrance, or a grenade for clearing a contact point, frequently beats an extra magazine you may not fire.
If you are playing US forces, your loadout decisions are often shaped by the need to support or coordinate with helicopters, and to deal with NVA tunnel exits when you find them. Listen for audio cues indicating a nearby tunnel entrance, and make sure your kit matches the job.
Adjusting Your Loadout Mid-Match
Do not lock in a loadout and forget it. The system is designed to be revisited. If the enemy is running armour and your squad needs a wrench, drop some ammo. If you died twice before firing half a magazine, you brought too much ammunition.
Matches in Hell Let Loose Vietnam can run up to 90 minutes on large maps. The situation on the ground at minute 15 is often completely different from minute 60. A loadout that made sense at the start of the match may be actively wrong later.
Quick Reference
| Decision | Result |
|---|---|
| Lighter primary weapon | More slots for magazines and utility |
| Heavy utility tool (e.g. AA wrench) | Costs 3 slots — something else must go |
| Extra magazines | Cheap per slot, only useful if you survive to fire them |
| Grenades / AP mines | 1 slot each — high situational value |
| Going light overall | No speed benefit — purely about what you carry |
Where to Go Next
- New Player Guide — the essentials if you haven’t read them yet
- Officer Guide — how forward spawns and map control work
- Classes — role-by-role breakdown of what each unit can carry
- Tunnel Warfare — how NVA tunnels change the shape of a match