Water: Hydration and proper attire are covered in my last apoc guide.
Darts: The main thread for Apoc is pretty explicit about what kind of darts you can bring, but how many? My advice: start making darts now and don't stop until August 3rd. Here is a map of the park where we hold Apoc. Each of those highlighted areas is 1-4x the size of the area of Babbage park where we have NJWs. You will nerf in more than one area. If you conserve your ammo and do some quick dart sweeping between rounds (schedule permitting) you can get by with about twice as many darts as you ordinarily use at a war. Every year, people end up milling around doing sustained dart sweeps while other people are nerfing because they didn't bring enough ammo.
Blasters: Bring your primary and a backup at minimum. It doesn't hurt to bring a pistol or two. Bring a spare hopper, and an extra barrel. It's also nice to have barrels in other sizes in case you buy or borrow darts that don't fit. It's also good to have if the incredible heat and humidity have unexpected effects on dart fit. Adhere to the blaster ban list. Play it safe, and don't bring a new blaster to Apoc if you have something else that you've used at other wars. Don't bring anything that looks like a real gun, a paintball gun, or an airsoft gun. If your blaster doesn't look like a kids toy, we will cover it in orange duct tape.
Edit: having seen some questions about this, it's important to note that most people are going to have something that can fire slugs out of a hopper in the 100' range. I have seen people bring stock blasters to apoc, and more old school stuff, but I wouldn't personally. It's harder to pull off at this field than most, because it is so open.
Tools/Supplies: Bring only what you need to fix your gun in two minutes. My kit contains super glue, a couple of zip ties, duct tape, a few extra screws and rubber washers for my SNAP, and a screwdriver. You don't need to bring your entire workshop with you, if your gun breaks that is why you bring a backup. Ultimately someone will ignore this advice and lug in 30 lbs of tools including a dremel and a tap and die set. When your backup breaks and you've got nothing left, you can borrow from that guy if you have to.
Clothes: This was covered to some degree in my last apoc guide[/url], but that focused on keeping cool. At some point during Apoc, it will probably rain. If it doesn't, you will wish it had. Bring lightweight quick-drying footwear. Waterproof boots will only keep the water in. Bring an extra t-shirt. If you've got a long drive home, or are planning on doing anything after the war, bring a change of clothes even if you don't typically. Don't wear camo, or dark clothing.
Food: We will be officially breaking for lunch this year, although it won't be long enough to go off-site. Bring a decent sized packed lunch, preferably in a small cooler or insulated bag. Less heat sensitive more on-the-go type foods are also good to have on hand as a backup. Eat breakfast before you arrive. You're going to be burning calories like.......a calorimeter, I guess.
Other stuff
- Eyewear - I recommend impact rated protective eyewear. They have plenty of cheap stuff at habor freight, lowes, and home depot. And as dorky as they may seem, the nerf brand glasses aren't bad either. It's going to be bright, with little shade, so bring something tinted at least as an option.
- Backpack - The staging area is far from the parking lot and some of the fields where we'll be playing. You're going to want to bring everything you need with you out to the field. We're not going to wait for you to run to the staging area and back before we start a round.
- Totes full of stock guns, wagons, radio flyers, chairs, tents, canopies etc. - See 'backpack' above. If you want to spend a lot of time hanging out in the staging area and not nerfing, this is all great stuff to have. If you came to apoc to hunt teenagers like the rest of us, leave that crap at home. Also note that tents (anything with walls) are discouraged, and we will ask you to pack up your canopies if they get out of hand and attract unwanted attention.
That having been said, if anyone wants to bring a wagon/radio flyer and is planning to show up early, please contact me. I'll be bringing a ton of gear for general use, and I need help hauling it from the parking lot.
