Alone Gear
The 10 items that actually win seasons.
A field-tested guide to the History Channel Alone 10-item list — what packs earn their weight in the boreal, and what looks smart on paper and fails on day 40.
Reader challenge
Are you an ALONE contender?
20 questions on gear, fire, water, and cold-weather strategy.
Every Alone contestant carries the same 10-item budget. What separates a season winner from a day-three medical is not the gear catalog — it is the ruthless discipline behind each pick. Ferro rod or bow drill. Pot or gill net. Sleeping bag or trapping wire. The list is a negotiation with the country you are dropped into.
Start with the country, not the catalog
The Great Slave shoreline eats different gear than Vancouver Island's rain coast. Before you touch the list, walk through the season and location coverage on our Alone hub and study the location breakdowns. A saw that wins in the Yukon is dead weight in Patagonia.
Plan your 10 in the builder
Our Build Your 10 (Alone rules) enforces the actual show constraints — no fishing lures counted as two, no smuggled multi-tools. Pair it with the Alone Clothing Builder for the seven allowed clothing items, which do not count against the 10.
The three items every winner respects
- A large pot. Boiling water, rendering fat, and processing calories. Browse candidates in Cookware.
- A real saw. Firewood at scale, shelter framing, game processing. See Saws.
- Trapping wire and gill net. Passive calories while you sleep. Cross-reference in the gear directory.
Learn from the people who did it
The deepest breakdown lives on our Alone winners' gear analysis — every modern champion's 10 items, side by side. You can also read the strategies of past winners on the contestants index, or study finished kits shared by our community in Field Builds. Every kit tells you what the builder was afraid of.
When you are ready, open the Alone builder and start negotiating.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Alone 10-item list?
- Alone contestants each pick 10 survival items from a fixed, producer-approved list — cutting tools, cookware, cordage, fishing gear, a sleeping bag, and so on. Clothing, footwear, filming gear, and safety equipment are separate and do not count against the 10.
- What gear do most Alone winners bring?
- Nearly every winner brings a large pot, a real saw (typically a folding bow or bucksaw), a ferro rod, a fixed-blade knife, a gill net, trapping wire, paracord or bank line, and a heavy sleeping bag. The remaining slots usually go to a bow, an axe, or extra fishing tackle depending on location.
- Is a bow better than an axe on Alone?
- It depends on the country. In big-game boreal locations like Great Slave Lake, a bow has ended seasons in a single kill. In coastal or wet forests where firewood processing and shelter framing matter more, an axe or a large saw often outproduces a bow that never gets a shot.
- Do contestants really get to pick any 10 items?
- No. Every item must come from the show's allowed list, which is updated each season. Multi-tools, firearms, freeze-dried food, and modern communication devices are banned. The Wild10Basecamp Alone builder mirrors the current allowed list.
- How do I plan my own 10-item kit?
- Start with the country you would be dropped into, then build around calories, warmth, and water. Use the Build Your 10 (Alone rules) tool to enforce the real constraints and pair it with the Alone Clothing Builder for the seven-item clothing list.